I have a really great challenge for you: a checklist of your ability to let go of earthbound treasures. Choose one thing – maybe popularity (or money, or status, or home, or family, or …) – and demonstrate fully, fairly and finally your willingness to let it go if you are actually called upon to do so.
How attached are you to this earthly hook? Why are you so scared to let it go?
If you can possibly get that brutally honest with yourself – deeply, over hours of soul-searching – you’ll be totally shocked, amazed, gobsmacked and changed by the experience.
A rather sad but true story: I had a dear friend who had landed the New York City penthouse apartment of his dreams. He loved it so much, took such delight in fixing it up so beautifully, boasted that it was actually part of Manhattan’s skyline.
I felt so very, very strongly that he needed to protect it with just this type of soul-searching prayer. I was shocked at his flat-out refusal to let God into the picture. He didn’t even want me to pray about it.
I hadn’t seen this friend again for quite some time, and when I did, he had relocated and was too ashamed to tell me. He couldn’t believe he could be evicted from his beautiful home just because his many cats and dog made too much noise.
Of course I never mentioned this to him, but it would have been a very simple matter for God to communicate that people’s complaints had to be taken very seriously and told him exactly how to take care of it.
What do you have that you treasure more than Spirit, Truth, Universe, God? What indeed? At least be aware of it.
S E E I N G . T H R O U G H . T H E . O B S T A C L E
“Now, the greatest obstacle, of course, is the image of the human body. It is a very difficult image to release, mostly because you are walking in one. Suppose you were to look into a TV screen and see a human form doing something on the screen. And now in your mind’s eye, just enlarge that screen to life size so that, that figure you are looking at is about 5’6” whatever it’s doing, just look at a five feet six figure but it is on a television screen. Now take away the television screen and keep looking at the figure. If there were no screen there would you know if that were just a figure on the screen or not? You might accept it as the real thing, if you couldn’t see the screen or the cabinet around it, especially if it were life-size. Now, Jesus saw every form on earth that way. All walking on an invisible television screen, all concept, all responding to stimuli they knew not of, all saying I am flesh and blood. All unaware, that they were controlled. All unaware, that they were not the Divine image and likeness of God. All unaware of their own True-self which is the Divine image and likeness of God.”
Herb Fitch
The Infinite Way Book Study
1969
Let’s try by whatever means is available to see through the belief in matter, especially material bodies, and behold ourselves in Divine Spirit with entirely spiritual bodies.
“To know that you are a prisoner of your mind, that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation is the dawn of wisdom. To want nothing of it, to be ready to abandon it entirely, is earnestness.”
~ Nisargadatta
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
~ Socrates
“The end of all wisdom is love, love, love.”
~ Ramana Maharshi
“Freedom lies not in external circumstances; freedom resides in the heart. When you have attained wisdom, who can enslave you?”
~ Anthony de Mello
“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.”
~ Buddha
“Some come to the spiritual life because of suffering, some in order to understand life; some come through a desire to achieve life’s purpose, and some come who are men and women of wisdom. Unwavering in devotion, always united with me, the man or woman of wisdom surpasses all the others.”
~ Bhagavad Gita
Here’s a tip that can jumpstart your effectiveness in healing and helping. If you catch yourself thinking “I wouldn’t deal with that issue the way that person is”, correct yourself. Don’t leave it alone until you’ve dealt with mental malpractice in yourself.
You can lovingly support another person’s work and move on without any thought about it being ineffective. In other words let’s not put negative thoughts out there at all: correcting your own judgmental mindset is bound to help everyone concerned by purifying the mental atmosphere.
A choice exists between two general approaches of ridding oneself of major errors – recognized but not yet realized – that endlessly assault one’s thinking. Let the ‘thoughts’ pass on by with no reaction on your part OR face them down – one by one – until they give up the ghost!
Actually these two approaches – if assiduously adhered to – can work in concert, proving quite compatible. The temporary – but future – goal is discernment.
You see, recurring thoughts that have had years of refinement, when finally rooted out, leave evidence of major healing – a time for great celebration! No less important is putting the ‘lesser’ errors on notice that they’re being accorded one last showcasing on the movie screen of your mind while you usher them out sans the fanfare or mental comment.
Either approach works perfectly if chosen deliberately and decisively. But the greatest approach of all is yet to come, whose function is to upstage the former two while supplanting them altogether, and here it is:
Start with the answer: focus on the Absolute and stay there. There is no material universe to begin with, to be tormented by or to give any thought to regarding the future. All is Spirit and spiritual. It’s not only possible but it’s incumbent upon you to see the infinite ever-presence of the Only Universe that exists: the Supreme Conscious Awareness in all and through all and instead of every illusion.
BY THE WAY,
if you have been “in the Work” for quite some time now and you’re getting unwanted feelings of doubt and fear – that’s a good thing. That’s right, a good thing!
The carnal mind does not like what you’ve been doing: you’re a threat to its existence! Would you want to have something hanging around that is a threat to your existence?
So hold to your guns and don’t back down. You have the mind of Christ – not religion, but love and power. You’ll soon learn to laugh at the nutty insinuations that the human mind throws at you and watch them evaporate!
Matt 6:33
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
~ ~ ~~~
“The object of The Infinite Way is to develop spiritual consciousness, not primarily to produce health out of sickness or wealth out of lack. Those are the added things, and those who catch even a grain of spiritual perception are showing forth health, prosperity, and happiness, and thus they are living more useful lives.
But this is not the goal. The goal is attaining the spiritual vision so that we can behold God’s universe and can commune with Him walk and talk with Him, live with Him, and learn to live with one another, not merely humanly because our most joyous human companionships are much more worthwhile when we have attained a measure of spiritual companionship.”
~ ~ ~~~
“The development of spiritual consciousness is the greatest attainment there is. Only in the degree of this attained consciousness are we able to see the spiritual forms of God’s creating. This has nothing to do with the development of the mind or with any intellectual powers; it is not attaining the feeling of knowing more than we knew before: it is a matter of attaining a depth of inner awareness, an awareness that expresses itself not so much in words as in feelings.”
~ ~ ~~~
“We cannot adopt new ideas while still clinging to the outworn beliefs of the past: we must be willing to relinquish our old concepts. That is where the courage comes in, and the daring. It takes courage to leave behind that which has proved to be unsatisfactory in our experience. It takes courage to look at ourselves objectively and ask: Have I sincerely worshiped God? Have I in some measure lived up to my convictions about God?”
~ ~ ~~~
“We must understand that the message of The Infinite Way is not to give the world a new teaching, but to give the world an experience. The Infinite Way is actually a God-experience, a Christ-experience. The Infinite Way is not its writings, lectures, or classes. These are the instruments leading us to The Infinite Way, but The Infinite Way itself is the God-experience.” ~Joel
~ ~ ~~~
“…the only way that the message of The Infinite Way can be kept pure is for every individual to be responsible to himself or herself in God, and to be sure that their authority reaches nowhere at all outside of their own being.”
~ ~ ~~~
“…there must never be an Infinite Way organization, because the moment there is, there is either an individual, or a board of trustees, or a board of directors, and then they become the deciding factor as to where you shall live, and when, and what you shall do.”
~ ~ ~~~
“The Infinite Way begins with the revelation that there is a transcendental consciousness, which in Christian mysticism is called Christ-consciousness and in Buddhism is called the Buddha-mind. In either case, what is meant is that there is a consciousness higher than the human mind. This is not a matter of general knowledge. True, there may be those who accept the idea that Buddha had that spiritual consciousness and that Jesus had the mind that was in Christ, but there are not many who understand that this Christ-mind, or consciousness, is universal to all men, and that it is just as much yours and mine as it was that of Jesus or Buddha. As long as you believe there is a God out there separate and apart from your being, just so long do you personalize God and set up the picture of an entity, identity, or a being outside of you. God is being, but not a being. God is being you and being me so to set up a God separate from that Being produces the sense of separation that keeps us in ignorance. That personalizing of God, personalizing I, is the ‘veil’ that brings about man’s sense of separation from God. Personalizing God by accepting Jesus as the only Christ also pulls down the “veil.” In fact, the personalization of Spirit is the ‘veil.'”
~ ~ ~~~
“The Master had great difficulty in imparting this idea to the Hebrews who had observed ceremonies, rituals, and holy days, but who had been given little or no spiritual enlightenment. All their instruction had been in the realm of the mind and in the observance of outward rites, and that is not sufficient. Spiritual teaching must enter the heart; it must be in the Soul: it must be felt rather than reasoned or thought; it must be intuitively understood. Only then can we take the word I into the sacred and secret place of the most High and dwell there with It. If we dwell in the secret place of the most High and abide with that I, let the I abide in us, let that I flood our consciousness, It will impart Itself to us and say: ‘Know ye not that I am God? ‘Be still, and know that I am God’; I in the midst of thee am mighty. I will never leave you, nor forsake you.'”
~ ~ ~~~
“Be assured that if I made any rule that would in any wise stop the progress of any one of our teachers, that teacher would go right on developing, if not inside The Infinite Way, then outside it, because no one can control consciousness. No one can make rules for consciousness. An individual will break out of any rule the moment his consciousness it prepared for it…”
~~ ~ ~~~
“There is a tremendous power in the consciousness of any individual who so attains this inner union as to receive these impartations of scriptural promises. And by bringing ourselves to those who have attained some measure of that, we partake in a measure of their Grace. ‘I if I be lifted up shall draw all men’ unto that same level of consciousness. We benefit by each other’s realized Grace. Whatever degree of Grace you and I attain, we share with each other and find it multiplied among ourselves.
‘Where two or more are gathered together’ in the same consciousness there is this power felt on even a greater degree. And that’s why it is that so much must be kept out of our consciousness of the world’s loves and hates, of the world’s fears and doubts in order that as we come together, this inflow of the Spirit can find Itself multiplied on earth. Then not only are we, individually and collectively, a blessing to all around us but to all those in far places who in some way or other have been led to reach and touch our consciousness.
Never think for a moment that these people find our consciousness by any human means. They don’t. They are spiritually directed from within, and they reach out all over the world just as we reach out all over the world to those who have illumination, and we find ourselves one with God once again. “
~~ ~ ~~~
“Now, it is for this reason that whatever of truth is revealed to us is something that we must work with within ourselves up to the point of realization; in other words, not try to share it, not try to heal somebody with it, not try to teach somebody it, except what we do silently. Rather, work with it within your own consciousness until you have achieved a measure of that light or experience, and then from there on, you will be directed how, when, and where, and under what circumstances to share, to impart, to reveal. And ultimately you will have a part in God’s unfoldment to human consciousness and you will play that part as practitioner, as healer, as teacher or lecturer or writer – in whatever way God chooses.”
~ ~ ~~~
“The answer, the solution to all problems, is the realized Christ”
~ ~ ~~~
“Prayer is our contact with God. It is the means through which God’s grace performs Its miracles in our experience. But prayer must be a listening attitude. It must be a willingness that the Spirit of God fill us and perform Its functions in us and through us.”
~ ~ ~~~
“More and more we must become the spectator or witness. We must become the beholder of Life and Its harmonies. Each morning we should awaken with eagerness to watch the new day unfolding and revealing each hour new joys and victories. Several times each day we should consciously realize that we are witnessing the revelation of Life eternal, the unfolding of Consciousness and Its infinite expression, the activity of Spirit and Its grand formations. In every situation of our daily experience, let us learn to stand back of ourselves and see God at work, witness the play of Love upon our affairs, and watch God reveal Himself in all those about us.
Every night we should realize that our rest does not bring to a close God’s activity in our experience, but that Love is the protecting influence and substance of our rest, that Consciousness is imparting Its ideas to us even in sleep, that Principle is the guiding law throughout the night. Nothing from without can enter consciousness to defile, and this truth stands guard at our mental portals to admit only reality and its harmonies.
Be a beholder, a witness. Watch the unveiling of the Christ in your consciousness.
~ ~ ~~~
“The student of spiritual wisdom cannot go through his day, satisfied that he has read some truth in the morning, or that he is going to hear some truth in the afternoon or evening. There must be a conscious activity of truth going on all the time. That does not mean that we neglect our human duties and activities; it means that we train ourselves to have some area in consciousness always active in truth. Whether we look out at forms of nature such as trees, flowers, or oceans, or whether we are meeting people, we find some measure of God in each experience. We train ourselves to behold the presence and activity of God in everything around us and to abide in the Word.”
~ ~ ~~~
“‘I have meat to eat that ye know not of. . . .’ I have bread, wine, water. . . . I am the resurrection. All the power of healing, redemption, and regeneration is within me.
This is the Master’s transcendental teaching.
As human beings, we place our reliance on persons and things in the outer world, on education, money, bonds, or investments. That man who has his being in Christ places his entire reliance on Spirit and trusts it to bring forth all that is necessary in the outer realm. Whenever faced with some need or desire, let us realize Spirit as the source of its fulfillment; let us realize Spirit as the law unto it, even the law of multiplication should that be necessary. Then let us go about our business, whatever it may be, taking such human footsteps as may be necessary at the moment. This is living a normal, natural life, but letting the Spirit, the Infinite Invisible, be the law of it, the substance of it, the cause of it, and the harmonious maintainer and sustainer of it. In short, we make no change in our present mode of living, except as the Spirit, Itself, may pick us up and direct us into new activity.”
~ ~ ~~~
“Through the use of scriptural passages, we build such a consciousness of the ever-presence of the Infinite Invisible that although we continue to enjoy and appreciate everything in the world of form, everything that exists as effect, yet never again do we have the feeling that we need or require anything. Inasmuch as God’s grace is our sufficiency, we do not live by effect alone, but by every word of truth that has been embodied in our consciousness and by every passage of truth that we have made our own. Every word of truth must be learned and made a part of our consciousness so that it becomes flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, until the past, present, and future are all bound up in the conscious realization of God’s grace as our sufficiency. In other words, our consciousness of truth is the source, substance, activity, and law of our daily experience.”
~ ~ ~~~
“We, who are practicing the Presence, are of the few who know what ultimately will save the world. It is above all things the acknowledgment that no man on earth is our father: There is one universal Father within us, and united with Him, we are united with every spiritual child of God throughout the world. Our love for God constitutes our love for the people of the world. We no longer hate; we no longer fear. We need not punish; we need not seek vengeance: We need only withdraw into ourselves and contemplate our oneness with God and with one another.”
~ ~ ~~~
“As we go into the healing work, the first calls will be for what the world calls ‘lesser claims,’ and in a short time we may begin to think, ‘Oh, I have some understanding,’ or ‘I am getting results through my understanding.’ If we do, we shall never become successful practitioners or teachers, because we can never heal through our understanding, God forbid that God’s presence and power should be dependent upon our understanding!
Healing is an activity of the Christ; it is an activity of God’s understanding. We have been thinking in terms of my life, my health, my supply, my worthiness, my understanding, and these are not involved at all: It is God’s life, God’s health, God’s supply, God’s worthiness, God’s understanding. The Master made that very clear when he said that of his own self he could do nothing; it was the Father within; therefore, it was the Father’s understanding. The moment we open our consciousness to the flow of God and stop all this nonsense about our understanding and our good or bad behavior, we can be assured of this: The flow of God will erase and purify whatever of error or deed is in our thought today and will wipe out all penalty for past infractions. We must come into the realization that it is not our understanding that does this, but God’s, and we must come out from the old Judaic ideas and beliefs of a God of punishment and reward. God is not a God of punishment and reward. God is love. God is life.”
God’s Work is never copyrighted. Freely ye have received, freely give.
John 1:17 17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
N O N – E X I S T E N C E . O F . M A T T E R
Having been raised with the below conviction of Joel S. Goldsmith, I had to “learn” about certain ‘errors’ in order to appreciate their ‘absolute’ unreality. One of those errors was reincarnation. It seemed like the strangest gosh-darned thing but at least I could see how consistent that belief was with the belief that there was life in matter!
Now I find those entire issues quite compelling as they prompt me to want to get my understanding and awareness crystal clear lest I find myself believing in the vagaries of life in matter and all its hideous complexities. After all, the belief in disease and death is not unlike the belief in reincarnation and karmic debt. Joel Goldsmith and his protegé Herb Fitch have devoted their lives to freeing us from both.
Imagine if everything you hear, especially every negative thing, caused you to correct the less-than-perfect thought and to realize that you are literally putting healing out there for anyone in the mental or physical vicinity! If that’s you, may I say on behalf of everyone on the planet, Thank you very much!!!
L O V E . Y O U R . C O M P R O M I S I N G . L I F E ?
You can get away with flipping back-and-forth supposedly between differing “approaches” ….
until you meet Herb Fitch
and then all the flipping ceases.
Truth is simple.
Truth is consistent.
Truth is Absolute.
A life of pure Spirit, all questions answered,
Petty concerns of this world evaporate,
Can you handle it yet?
H E A L I N G S !! . H E A L I N G S !! . H E A L I N G S !!
I have found so many times in my life that I’ve lost count: when I finally – I mean FINALLY – stopped torturing myself over the details of the latest crisis that I was in and declared with my whole being that I didn’t care about anything else in the whole world but the fact that GOD IS ALL, and really really meant it like never before, suddenly a tremendous sense of peace and confidence would set in.Then miracles started happening, one after another!
The most amazing thing to look back upon in every case was the fact that the extremely challenging situation I had been facing and the Truths that I employed seemed to have had nothing in common whatsoever.
