Soul to Soul and Spirit to Spirit. Good Afternoon.
I thought today we might review some of the wisdoms which are in the back of the book, “The Infinite Way.” These, of course, should be meditated and pondered and contemplated until they register in consciousness and we begin to see the fruitage in our lives. In fact, each one of these may take weeks or even months before we are able to make them bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. But we will just take one or two or three and see where it leads us.
The first one says,
“Begin your spiritual life with the understanding that all conflicts must be settled within your consciousness.”
What hits us here are the very first four words, begin your spiritual life. This suggests that at the very beginning we should have the understanding that any conflict that we are confronted with, be it ours or someone else’s, be it physical or mental, emotional, financial, or relationship, we must have the understanding and really we must drill this into ourselves, all conflicts must be settled within your consciousness. So we must take any conflict that we come in contact with, that we encounter or that is presented to us by world-mind, we must know without any hesitation, this is something I need to settle within my consciousness.
The second is like unto the first.
“There is never a conflict with person or condition but rather a false concept mentally entertained about person, thing, circumstance or condition. Therefore, make the correction within yourself rather than attempting to change anyone or anything in the without.”
This is so difficult to grasp. Particularly in the beginning but even in the middle and even for advanced students who forget this because we are so conditioned to fix something or someone out here. The minute we have an interpersonal relationship with a conflict, well we are told to practice conflict resolution and go out here and discuss it and repair the relationship. Yet here is the Master of the Infinite Way principles, and he is telling us, there is never a conflict with a person. There is never a conflict with a condition. This is a false concept mentally entertained about person or a condition.
In other words, we are dealing with mental images. Not your mental image, not my mental image. These are universal mental images; here before we got here, here after we leave. Mental images, sort of like television broadcasts, the waves passing through your house, even passing through your body. Just like radio waves pass through your house and your body. If you have your set tuned into a certain radio frequency, you will pick up that particular radio wave that channel, that station which is broadcasting on that frequency. If you are on another frequency, you will pick up another station, a different station.
Those of us that are unaware of this thing called world-mind or universal hypnotism or universal world thought, those of us that do not start our day with prayer and meditation, we are tuned into the broadcasts and we pick up these mental images. So they are not your mental images and they are not mine. They are world-thoughts just floating around in space that we tune into or we become receptive to when we go out the door in the morning as a human being. So we pick up a false concept, a mental image about a person or a condition and then we fall to the belief that this is something out here. We come under the influence of the mental image and we are hypnotized by it. So we are afraid of that person or we are angry at that person or we are superior to that person or inferior to that person. All the time, there is no such person out there; none whatsoever. No such person was created by God.
You see there is no person out there. This is the mental image. We are entertaining a false mental image. What is out there is the creation of God, perfect and in the image and likeness of God. We are not tuned into that frequency; we are tuned into world thoughts and we pick one up and we entertain the mental image and now we have a conflict. But if we understand this, then we can take the second part of this:
Therefore make the correction within yourself rather than attempting to change anyone or anything in the without.
We do the same thing with conditions. Let’s take a hurricane. Recently we had Hurricane Dean. I am not sure what happened because I stopped following the reports but it is the same with a condition whether it is a hurricane or whether it is a financial downturn. You think God created these? No, no, no. You know better because what God made is forever. Anything God created is eternal and that is really your key. Ask yourself, is this eternal? And if it is not, it was not created by God. That is why we say continuously, if you can see it, hear it, taste it, touch it or smell it, it wasn’t created by God; it is a false creation or a mental image.
So a hurricane is not created by God. Financial unemployment is not created by God. Both of these are very, very temporary. So we know that they are mental images and knowing that, we won’t go out here to try to fix them. We won’t go out here to try to fix a discordant or disgruntled person. We will make the correction within ourselves rather than trying to change anyone or anything in the without.
You see these wisdoms may be only a sentence or two, a paragraph at most, and yet they contain within them all the principles you will need to practice the Infinite Way principles. So this second wisdom here, is giving us the key to spiritual healing.
Spiritual healing is not done by might nor by power but by My Spirit. So nothing you can do physically out here is going to fix the false mental image you are entertaining. I don’t care if it is a physical problem, a financial problem, a relationship problem, a weather problem, a world economic problem, a world political problem; I don’t care what the problem is that is appearing. If it is temporary, if it is not eternal, you can file it every single time under mental image, not made by God and therefore not made. If it is eternal, such as Spirit, Grace, Love, Christ, the Word, the Presence, God, then you can file it under that which is.
We must begin living in a whole new manner. No longer can we go out there and try to fix someone or something. Every time we are confronted or touched by a conflict or error of any kind, we must develop the habit of saying, “Wait a minute. You, mental image, I am not going to be fooled. I must make the correction within myself. So let me not try physically to do something out here; not by might, but also let me not try to hurl a lot of intellectual truth at it. Let me not make affirmations and denials and throw them at it, as if throwing a truth at a condition out here or a person out here is going to fix it. Let me not do anything physically, not by might, but let me take the next step and not do anything mentally; not by power. Let me find out what is meant by making the correction within myself; by My Spirit.”
Ah, Spirit. Now that is something quite different. You see he is giving you the tools to become a spiritual healer—I don’t really like those terms, I like better than that—he is giving us the tools to find out how to do what he did, which is to be a witness, a beholder of the stone cut out of the mountain without hands or by My Spirit.
The third wisdom says,
“Acknowledge God as the substance, law, cause and activity of all that is and immediately refrain from meddling physically or mentally in the without. Get back inside yourself and there resolve all appearances.”
There it is reiterated for us again. We are not to solve anything physically or mentally. We are to immediately get back inside, get back within our consciousness where we can find out what it is to have things resolved by My Spirit; the living Spirit of God. In these three wisdoms he has given us the technique to handle all error and to be a witness of Spirit flowing.
Now let me explain that a little bit. In The Infinite Way we are learning a brand new way of life. It is contrary to everything we have ever been taught, whether at home, school, organized religion, everywhere—the law, the medical field; it is completely contrary to everything human and indeed everything in you will say, “This cannot possibly work. How can this work?” That is what the human mind says and it is normal and it is natural for the human mind to say that because the human mind itself is one of these mental images. So of course it is going to say, “Oh poppycock! How can this possibly work? What do you mean? I’ve got to do something!” Yet here is someone that was an instrument for thousands upon thousands of healings and so I don’t know about you but I trust him, I trust his consciousness is telling us the truth.
So if he is telling us the truth and the human mind is objecting, the human mind must be wrong. The human mind has never healed anything. And when it thought it went out here and fixed something, the problem reappeared. When it thought it fixed something by affirmations and a lot of mental struggle, the problem may have disappeared and two new ones have taken its place. As for me and my house, we follow Christ; we follow the consciousness that revealed these truths.
Now what have we learned from these three wisdoms? The beginning of our journey should be understanding that everything must be met within. We must realize that there is no bad condition or bad person out here nor even a good person or good condition out here. These are mental images and must be resolved within our own consciousness. And so when we are touched by any form of error, we must immediately turn within and know whatever this mental image is, must be met in my consciousness and met not by might, not by doing anything physically; nor by power, not by doing anything mentally, no mental activity; but by My Spirit.
In other words, you and I, if we would practice The Infinite Way healing principles, must come to the place where when confronted or touched by any error, immediately we turn within and somehow without doing anything physically, without doing anything mentally, we are to become a witness of My Spirit doing something.
There, in a nutshell, in those three wisdoms, is the entire message of The Infinite Way.
Yet, what does it mean? How do we actually do it? What is it that we are to witness and how are we to witness it? I don’t know how it is for you but when I first started practicing, I closed my eyes and immediately I had a Grand Central Station head, all kinds of thoughts were whirling and swirling around. Everything from grudges against certain individuals to political problems to physical problems to unfinished tasks, to worries and fears and projections about next month or next year and it was rather difficult, darn near impossible to cease from anything physical or mental in order to be a witness of My Spirit. That was darn near impossible. But I had read enough of the material to know that somehow it was possible. There must be a way because hundreds of people were doing it.
First of all I had to understand that this is a drastic change in living because human beings are taught and have been taught century after century after century that we must fix things physically or mentally. So the human mind, the human being is conditioned to believe this, it is as natural as breathing. If you have ever taken the time to look, whenever something happens to you, immediately the mind jumps to, “What is the cause?” If you don’t see a cause, “Well, what did I do to earn this?” If you can’t see anything apparent, “Well, it must be my karma, perhaps God is testing me.” This is all the human mind conditioning and it has nothing to do with reality—nothing.
So we get here to The Infinite Way and we are steeped, living under this conditioned mind. How in the world are we going to get from there to that place where we can be so still that we become a beholder of My Spirit? If we are lucky, if we are fortunate, we stumble across, as I did, a technique known as contemplation. Contemplation bridges the gap, takes us from the whirling, swirling mind to a place of stillness.
So our beginning steps are rather arduous because it takes effort to sit down repeatedly with the mind full of troubles and woes and problems and projections and contemplate truth such as, “My grace is thy sufficiency.” Well we might take that into our consciousness and against our better judgment and against all of our instincts to solve this problem out here or throw truth at it, we drop it long enough to contemplate “Thy grace is my sufficiency.”
What happens is we look at that statement, we relax into it, we ask ourselves, “How would I apply that? What would it be like if I were living that principle? Thy grace is my sufficiency. That means that there is something called grace, something called God’s grace and that grace is my sufficiency. It will meet every problem. I do not know how, particularly in this first stage of contemplation, I do not know how but this is the truth and something in me intuitively knows this is true. Thy grace is my sufficiency. Why am I struggling so hard to meet my own problems? Thy grace; God’s grace is my sufficiency and if God’s grace is my sufficiency, well I can relax and I can invite that grace to function. Father, I take my hands off. Thy grace is my sufficiency. Let Thy grace flow.”
And as I ponder and go along with this truth, for a moment I have forgotten my mountain of troubles, I’ve just forgotten it because I am so focused on this truth: “Thy grace is my sufficiency. And since God is Omnipresent, thy grace is right here. Well, let me step aside. Father, thy will be done; thy grace.” And suddenly I become restful inside, quiet and still. I sit there for a moment and absolutely nothing happens, but I feel calmer. Then I get up, I go about my business. I have followed the directions, perhaps not perfectly, perhaps just stumbling along, but I have followed the directions; I have tried to meet my problem by going within and in that moment of stillness, although I felt nothing at all, I created an opening, just a pinpoint of receptivity and whether I was aware of it or not, My Spirit flowed in and I discover it, in the beginning I discover it. I go about my life and a day or two later, the particular problem that was bothering me is resolved, seemingly by itself and then I remember, “Oh, yes. I had that meditation. I just don’t see how that connected and yet look at this, the problem solved itself. I wonder if it is a coincidence. I wonder if something really happened in that meditation.”
You see we are starting our journey; we are starting to practice what he gave us in those three wisdoms. So we do it again and we do it again and we do it again. We are beginning to see that contact with My Spirit dissolves our problems. We are not sure how but we have seen it now a few times and we are beginning to believe that maybe this really does work.
We return to the writings and we read a little bit more and we contemplate a little bit more and this thing is like a snowball now; it’s gathering strength. One day we are sitting in our meditation and we finish our contemplation, we still might have a half a mountain of problems but we have learned how to contemplate quietly and leave them outside. And one day we finish our contemplative part of our meditation and we are still, we are quiet; we are just resting and there is a movement, suddenly there’s a quickening, there’s this feeling of a Presence, there’s a tingling. One way or another we feel a transcendental Presence; we become aware of It, we become aware of the is-ness, we become aware of the is.
We have just stepped across from a mental sort of contemplation to a spiritual awareness; we have had our first glimpse. We have made the very beginning of the development of spiritual discernment. We have discerned a spirit—My Spirit, My Presence. We are not sure what it was. We are not sure if it was real. A day or two later we wonder if we imagined it but we continue because something is happening, we feel it. And in the next meditation we feel it again or it could be three or four meditations later or a week or two but at some point, we have this inner shift and for a split second there it is again. “Is that it? Have I found it? Am I making contact? Wow, this is beautiful.”
We are making the change slowly from man whose breath is in his nostrils; a physical, mental being to a spiritual being, someone with spiritual awareness or someone that is able to discern spirit, omnipresent. There is a change going on in our consciousness. We are starting to discover these three wisdoms that he gives us in the beginning of this chapter. We don’t even know it but we are becoming someone that is able to go within, drop this world and tune into My Spirit. We are learning to become a witness, a beholder of My Spirit functioning.
We finally reach the point, the stage, and the state where we are almost able to make that contact at will. I’d say well over ninety percent of the time. In this stage we have become so receptive that sometimes, when we are not even meditating, not even contemplating—we could be out driving our car or grocery shopping or watching a movie at the movie theater, we could be attending a business meeting or just taking a walk, or even in the bathtub; we could be talking at a business conference—suddenly consciousness expands all by itself.
It is a very strange feeling. Spirit moves into our consciousness and we feel it. We feel its movement. We are not sure what that is all about but a little smile comes to our face and we finish our conversation or our movie, or we finish driving where we were driving or finish our grocery shopping.
Something wonderful is happening. Spiritual discernment, spiritual consciousnesses, the Spirit itself is beginning to take over and actively move our consciousness. It really is quite wonderful. And yet there is still work to be done because the demands of the world and the hypnotism still bombard us on a daily basis and sometimes we get caught up and forget totally, even in spite of all of our experiences, that these things must be met within, that they are only mental images.
By now we have learned the great secret. It has been given to us in the words, ‘when God speaks, the earth melts. He uttered his voice, the earth melted.’ If we have taken that and we’ve contemplated it, we would learn what it is that we are doing. Here is the great secret of spiritual healing. It’s nothing very deep. It doesn’t take years of study. It does take practice. It takes enough practice to get to the point where it begins living us. It takes enough practice where we can tune in, as Joel says, immediately turn within and tune in.
And here is what we learn. When I was a child I use to go camping quite a bit. I loved camping and at night in the mountains, in my tent, it was very, very dark. If you woke up in the middle of the night, you could put your hand in front of your eyes and you could not see it, so dark was it. Therefore I always kept a handy flashlight. Then if I needed to get up and go do something or if I needed to hunt around for something, perhaps a drink from my canteen, I could just flick that switch on the flashlight and immediately the tent was filled with light. All of the darkness disappeared, I could see every corner. Then of course were those sounds of crickets and frogs and streams and everything outside that I wondered about but at least I felt safe in my tent; I could see everything.
In our spiritual life, we are learning, when the light comes on the darkness disappears. I have no idea whatsoever where the darkness in my tent went when I turned on the flashlight but once the light was on, the darkness dissolved. I suppose maybe an electrical engineer or a physicist or a mathematician or somebody could tell you what happens to the darkness when the light comes on. I don’t need to understand it and I don’t think you do either. I just know that it feels nice to be in the light and the darkness is gone.
Well, in our spiritual life we are learning the exact same thing. We are learning that when God speaks, when we make contact, when we are receptive and we feel the flow of Spirit as I am this very second, the mental image dissolves. Now I know from my reading that Joel said you will never understand how this works, you’ll never understand how the mental image of unemployment dissolves or the mental image of a case of the flu dissolves, or the mental image of someone dying dissolves. You will know never know how the mental image of a hurricane is dissipated and dissolves.
But you will know again and again through this practice of meeting these things within that they do dissolve. When through this practice, I am talking about weeks and months and even years sometimes of practice; practicing this contemplation which leads you to real meditation in which you are receptive and open and open consciousness, through the practice of this, you will have the experience of Spirit flowing in and you will stand to the side and be a witness and a beholder as the mental images dissolve. You will see this repeatedly over and over again, so much so that it becomes second nature and you will be able to do exactly what Joel tells us in these wisdoms and immediately turn within in the understanding that every error that touches you is a mental image and must be met within.
Not met by you. You will never meet it. Now hear me. Nothing you know mentally will ever meet it. Nothing you do physically will ever meet it. No truth you know in your mind will meet it. No, that is not what is meant by meeting it within. What is meant is you contemplate, know the truth—not about the problem—the only thing you need to know about the problem ever is, “Oh, here’s a mental image, impersonal mental image, a nothingness.” That’s it, that’s all you ever need to know on that. There is no other truth about it. That is as simple as simple can be. Ah, mental image, impersonal nothingness.
Now, I turn within in order to become receptive. Right now I am still feeling a little agitated so I am going to contemplate to quiet down. The only purpose for contemplation is to reach that moment when you have contemplated all you can and now you are quiet and receptive and your consciousness is open. Then comes the inflow, the influx of the spirit; you feel it, you sense it, and you know it. Immediately a weight falls off your shoulder. “Ah, thank you Father.” And you sit still. It’s so peaceful; a sense of peace flows in. You know. You know. The light has shined; the darkness has disappeared. Spirit has dissolved the mental image. Who knows how? Who cares? I only know I am at peace again and I am feeling wonderful.
The Spirit feels wonderful. That is the only way I can put that. It is as if there is no place like home. You know you are home. You can feel it and it is wonderful. Walter C. Lanyon got that right. It is wonderful! He obviously knew. And so you rest for a few minutes, longer if you enjoy it, and you get up and go about your business and watch as the stone is cut out of the mountain without hands. You see what that scripture means now, don’t you? I am feeling it right now as I speak these words, that wonderful, sweet, sweet Presence. My Father, My Spirit, the is, the I, the Father within.
Through this practice over many weeks, months and years, we come to the place where we are constantly, through each and every day, practicing turning within, resting, opening consciousness, receiving that spiritual embrace, the inflow of peace, My Peace, My Spirit and watching as it dissolves the mental image. More and more we become beholders and witnesses. What a wonderful thing it is. Finally, after all this time, after all this practice, what we started with we now know to be the truth of our very own being. My grace is thy sufficiency. Only now we know it because we live it, we feel it, we breathe it and it lives us.
This would be considered the first part of what Joel called the first degree, the first part of this journey. It goes on and on from here. But how wonderful this is! And so the keys are very simple. Don’t make this so difficult you can’t understand it. Don’t read 25, 27, 37 books. Keep it simple. We had a saying, once upon a time; keep it simple silly or k-i-s-s; keep it simple.
Here are the key points again. Let’s return to the way they are written because they say them better than I can. The key points are these:
Begin your spiritual life with the understanding that all conflicts must be settled within your consciousness.
There is never a conflict with person or condition, but rather a false concept (a mental image) mentally entertained about person, thing, circumstance or condition. Therefore, make the correction within yourself, rather than attempting to change anyone or anything in the without.
Acknowledge God as the substance, law, cause and activity of all that is, and immediately refrain from meddling physically or mentally in the without. Get back inside yourself, and there resolve all appearances (or mental images).
And so we see the key points are these. Every time you are touched by error in any form—person, place, condition—immediately turn within yourself with the understanding this must be met within. But not met by any physical efforts out there and not met by any mental efforts in here, not by hurling truths at it. It must be met within by beginning with contemplation if we need to, if we are involved in the problem and need to calm down first, leading up to that moment of stillness or if we have developed the capacity, the ability, turning within and immediately becoming still so that we have an open consciousness to receive My Spirit. Because it is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, the mental image is dissolved.
My grace is thy sufficiency in this moment of resting with an open consciousness, you are receptive and you receive the Spirit of God. The light shines, the darkness disappears and in some way you will never know, harmony, peace, love, joy, fulfillment is restored because I, the Spirit of God will restore the lost years that the locusts, the mental images have eaten and all this by grace.
I had a wonderful dream, I may have told you about it before but it keeps coming back to me because it was so wonderful. In the dream I was shown clearly this spiritual principle in just a little play. And here is how it went.
I dreamt I was flying above houses and trees, not really flying, just floating; floating in the sky and as I looked down, I thought, “Oh, how wonderful that I have been able to rise above this much of the world’s consciousness.” But suddenly I started to sink—not fast, just slowly—I started to sink down and I thought, “Oh, goodness. I am going to have to fix this,” and I started to move my arms up and down in order to go higher and suddenly the still, small voice within my consciousness whispered, “Son, you do not have to work that hard.” And I relaxed my entire being. And suddenly I felt Christ lift me higher and higher, way up higher than I even was before and I woke up in bed at night and thought, “Oh, how beautiful!” And I got up and wrote it down in my journal.
This is a message. Christ never talks to one person. Christ talks to all; God speaks in the ear of Christ which is all of us and so this message was for all of us and now I am giving it to all of us. You do not have to work that hard. This is not about going within and trying to remember, what is the correct truth for supply? What is the correct truth for companionship? What is the correct truth for healing? What is the correct truth for world situations? No, no, no.
Oh my friends, you do not have to work that hard. No, the correct attitude is knowing that this must be met within and yet it is a mental image and I cannot do anything, let me relax now. Christ you take over. And really relax your body, your mind, your soul. Be receptive, be open to the loving arms of Christ and it will lift you up above the world and the world thoughts. Not by might nor by power but by My Spirit. This is the key.
And so this week we have reviewed just three of the wisdoms of The Infinite Way. And we have seen that in fact it has given us the secret to spiritual healing; the secret to being a witness, a beholder of the stone cut out of the mountain without hands; the secret to My Spirit, the living Spirit, the Spirit of God.
Please. If you have enjoyed this talk today and you feel that more talks on these wisdoms of The Infinite Way would be beneficial, drop me a note, a line or you can even give me a call. Let me know. I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve given my love. And practice this. You will only come into the awareness through the practice.
Until then, God bless and thank you. Thank you so much for being a part of this.
-- Infinite Divine Consciousness
www.mysticalprinciples.com
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