319A Practicing the Presence Continued 1960 Good evening, In these two evenings that we have, let us take up as far as we can, the subject of Infinite Way healing principles. Spiritual living itself is universal in its truth, and truth itself is universal in its teaching of spiritual living. You would find, whether your background be that of Christian Science or Unity or even some of the New Thought teachings, that all would agree on the need for living close to God. As a matter of fact, even closer than that; living in constant communion with God. And living in accord with spiritual law and principle; more especially as outlined in the Sermon on the Mount. You would find all of our teachings in agreement as to the need for living lives of charity, benevolence, kindness, love, and forgiveness. You d find that we would all agree that spiritual living has only one law and that law is love. In whatever way love may be expressed, still love is the major part of all spiritual living. If love could be brought to individual experience in sufficient degree, there would be no need for healing principles; there would be no need for specific rules of practice, because it isn't really the letter of truth that heals, it is the Spirit of truth or the consciousness of God's presence. The healing agency always is spiritual consciousness and this is true regardless of whether you have been studying Christian Science, Unity or New Thought. They all agree on this: that it is spiritual consciousness that performs the healing works and not the letter of truth. We all disagree as to the specific principles and not because one is right and another is wrong, but because each has had their own revelation on this subject of healing work. But always remember this: The basis of spiritual living must always be the same; whether it is presented by Christianity, by Judaism, by Buddhism: the basis of spiritual living is the same in every case and love is the foundation of it. Now in our particular work, first of all, I have received enfoldments on how to develop this spiritual consciousness: how we may specifically develop it and how we may help others to develop it and that part of our work is embraced under the subject of practicing the Presence and meditation. Along with our work tonight and tomorrow night I want to give you a blueprint; an outline of the specific studies that are aimed at specific purposes. And so I will start by telling you that the development of spiritual consciousness; that is, of healing consciousness, can be brought about by starting with an actual practice of the Presence of God, leading to the actual practice of meditation. Now I will explain this: Ordinarily, we as humans have been brought up to live our own lives and to think of life from the standpoint of being a success on our own efforts; by our education, training, knowledge, wisdom, and strength. More especially on this continent, we are gogetters and we are that, because we have so much knowledge, wisdom and skill. But from the most ancient of days, it has been known that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain
that build it. And that a life lived without God as a conscious partner, is a life lived in vain; even if it does end with leaving a fortune or attaining fame. There is no ultimate satisfaction in a life lived separate and apart from God and there is not too much success to be attained in life without an active partnership with God. And so it is that through an actual practice of the Presence of God, we are able to bring God into partnership in our life. I will tell you right from the start that our goal is the one voiced by Paul: I live, yet not I, Christ liveth my life. Our goal is attaining a state of consciousness in which the actual Presence of God takes over in our experience and then we do not merely quote or affirm; we do not merely indulge in clichés about Christ is all. We attain an actual experience in which never again are we alone, never again do we live a life by ourselves. But always, forever and forever, there is another Presence within us of which we are conscious at all times. And it is this Presence that performs our work; whether our work is religious, artistic, whether it is scientific, skillful; whether it is of art, literature or music, business; regardless of its nature, our lives are lived actually by this Presence and we follow its guidance, its leading and we do the outward things that it gives us to do. However, under no circumstance do we inaugurate an act, a deed, a thought. Under no circumstance do we undertake a work of any nature, except that this work be given to us and that we be the entrusted servant of this work. And again, this is true in the religious work or out in the business or artistic or professional world. Now then, the question that inevitably arises, is: Is it possible for the ordinary, average human being to attain this conscious awareness of the Presence: this actual demonstration of the Presence, and permit It to live our lives? And the answer is: No, it is not possible for the ordinary, average human being. Scripture reveals that you have not chosen me, I have chosen you and therefore it is only those who are actually led to seek and find the spiritual way of life, who can attain this. It is folly to try to proselyte: it is folly to try to sell this idea to the man in the street: it is folly to advertise to have people come to our work, to tell them about this. The only wisdom lies in keeping the finger on the lips and live our lives with this Christ, this Divine Presence and then as an individual here or there, or a group here or there are led to us, and then, of course, we share and we share to the fullest extent of which we are capable. Once an individual is led to us for instruction, for introduction to the Spiritual Life, we are not permitted to neglect them; we are not permitted to in any way shirk our duty to them, because this work that we are engaged in, is not my work or yours: this is the work of God and we have been called as instruments or servants. The Master rightly said that we are not Masters, we are servants. All who are engaged in this work must feel that the call that comes to them, from an individual or a group, is sacred and they must give to it all that they have. Now then, granting this, that you have been called to the spiritual way of life; that you have been called to one or another of the metaphysical, spiritual approaches to life; you may safely assume that it is possible for you to attain the realization and demonstration of the Christ. The way will not be easy. There are no shortcuts; no one has ever discovered a short-cut to the Kingdom of God. When the Master said: The way is straight and narrow and few there be that
enter, He was stating something that was true then and is equally true now. There are no shortcuts; not only that, those who believe that entering this way of life means quickly disposing of all of their problems or as some have written me after a year or two of study, I have studied for a year or two and I still have some problems, what's wrong with me? Meaning of course what's wrong with the message, because they know it isn t wrong with them, they spent a halfhour every day with it. It must be wrong with the message. It isn't that easy, probably it is right to say that from the moment that you enter this path seriously, your problems are on their way out, but this is the secret: they can't go out any faster than your consciousness can develop spiritually, because it is the development of your spiritual consciousness that lessens and finally ousts the problem. In other words, your developed spiritual consciousness is the substance, essence and law of the harmonies in your life. And therefore answering some letters also as to why some practitioners and teachers who are far along on the path still have some problems, the answer is: Whatever degree of human hood is left in us must externalize itself in a human state of consciousness; sometimes good and sometimes evil. Therefore, as long as there is human hood left in us, that degree of human hood will manifest itself outwardly. And usually in the form of a problem. Actually this is our blessing; this is truly our blessing, because without problems we would very quickly settle back into a state of satisfaction. In other words, let a student lose their physical diseases and discords and their moral and financial ones; there is no reason why they shouldn't settle back with a good health and a good supply and really believe they have attained the Kingdom of God. They have only attained the first step of spiritual living, which is greater human harmonies. But oh, that is only a way station on the way to the Spiritual Kingdom. Actually, before you are through with your Spiritual journey, you will be called upon to overcome your health and your wealth and your happiness, because human health and human wealth and human happiness are also no part of the Spiritual Kingdom. They are still of the earth; earthy. There is a Kingdom, which the Master called: My Kingdom, which is not of this world and he said so: My Kingdom is not of this world, not even when this world is good. He said: My peace, give I unto thee, but not as the world giveth, give I unto thee. And of course, the peace that the world can give is a healthy physical body or a sufficient dollar supply and a moderately, happy family. This is the peace the world can give, but it has no relationship at all to the Spiritual Kingdom. And so it is, that the Master says: Few there be that enter, because a vast majority even of metaphysical and spiritual students are so very happy to rest; when they have a measure of health, a measure of supply, a measure of happy family. But they are the very ones, ten or twenty years later, who wonder why they re beginning to show signs of age. Wonder, why their families are not quite turning out the way they had hoped for them to. And then they learn that they have not gone the full distance of the spiritual path. They had only gone the first ten percent. So it is, do not believe, the physical harmony or your sufficient dollar supply or your moderately happy family life is your spiritual demonstration. It is only a sign that you are on the right path and that if you continue, you will ultimately make the Kingdom of God and attain the peace which passeth understanding.
Now, the attainment of all of this comes through the ability to commune with God. Communion with God is the absolute necessity for every individual. Communing with God is not a statement in a book: it is not an affirmation, it is not a cliché; it is an actual experience and it is one which every spiritual student must achieve. There is a God, in spite of the fact that the world does not see much evidence of it: there is a God. God Is. And next to this we know that the Kingdom of God is within you. In other words, there is no need to go to some far-off place, there is no need to think that you must achieve Tibet or India or Rome or Boston or Kansas City. Going there is very, very nice, but do not believe for a moment that your spiritual wealth depends upon it: your spiritual wealth depends on your attaining conscious communion with God within you; this is a necessity. Many people have gone to Tibet and to India; many people have studied with Zen Masters and swamis; many people have made the trek to Mecca and Rome and Boston and Kansas City. And have not yet attained that which they were seeking and the reason is this: I think its best described in a poem of one of the Middle Age mystics. A woman, she had already attained the conscious awareness of God, but because it was considered necessary for everyone to make the trip to Mecca, she too, felt she must make this trip to Mecca. And so when a pilgrimage began one year, she joined it and they traveled over mountains and they traveled through valleys, in the cold and in the heat. With and without sufficient food, they suffered great privation, but ultimately they came to the outskirts of Mecca and there, of course, everyone became so excited they couldn t wait and they rushed headlong on into the city; to reach Mecca. But, this one girl more fortunate than the others, all of a sudden paused and asked herself: what am I doing and what have I been doing, fighting and struggling and slaving to reach God, the God who already found me? You see, when we have found God, it is not because we have found God, it is because God has been enabled to break through the barriers we have set up and has found us. And so it is that going to places, to holy mountains or the holy Temple in Jerusalem, is not the way to find God. The way to find God, is to realize that the Kingdom of God is neither lo here nor lo there, but within you. Then when you have found the Kingdom of God and when God has found you, then go to your Mecca and carry the good news of Omnipresence; carry the good news of the great truth and share it with those in Mecca. In the early years of my work of course I wanted to share my own experience with my patients: in those days I had no students, I had only patients. But they too wanted something more than physical healing and I found it impossible to give them the one thing that to me was more valuable than all of the healings in the world. And that was the attainment of the realization of the Presence of God. I seemed to find no way to bring the experience of God to them; the experience of healing: this was simple. Anyone can bring the experience of healing to another who has attained conscious communion with God, because it is that conscious communion with God that results in healing, whether for oneself or another. But to bring to the other the actual God experience, I found difficult.
And so it was that through many, many enfoldments; heartaches, pondering, praying; the secret of meditation opened to me and then after that, the practice that led to the possibility of meditation. At first I thought that meditation itself was the secret, until I found that in our Western world, people can't meditate. They do not have the, on the whole I mean, the ability to meditate: they don't have the faculty that makes it possible. And therefore, some way has to be found to develop this faculty, this ability to meditate and it was through the practice of the Presence that this way was discovered. Now, let us begin with this: there is, of course the Presence of God with all of us: Immanuel is the truth about all of us; God with us. God is with us, but as you know, this is of no avail to us. We can sin, in spite of the fact that God is with us. We can have accidents, we can become sick. We can age, we can die: we can be very poor, in spite of the fact that God is with us and as a matter of fact, whole nations are in poverty and yet God is with them. All of the wars through which we have gone and the rest of the world, is due not to any absence of God, for God is with us; saint and sinner, God is with us but the reason for the world s discords is the lack of conscious awareness of the Presence of God. There is no sin, disease, accident or death in the experience of those who live and move and have their being in the actual consciousness of God. Therefore, there never will be peace on earth until the Kingdom of God has been consciously realized. Now remember, the Kingdom of God is already established. It is already present within you and within me and with all of the dictators of the world too. But until the Kingdom of God; the actual experience of God is realized, we may just as well be without God as the way we are. Then we start off with the basic realization that the Kingdom of God is within me, God is Omnipresence where I am, the place whereon I stand is holy ground, if I mount up to Heaven, God is there with me. If for any reason I make my bed in hell, God is there with me. If I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I need not fear, for the presence of God is with me also. With that as a basic premise, we have to bring the presence of God into conscious, tangible expression. And that we do by this practice. In other words, by starting from the moment we awaken in the morning, with the realization that this is God s day, and that we surrender our life to God today, and that we will make no move without the realization of God s presence. That as we go to the breakfast table and acknowledge, There but for the Grace of God, there could be no food, but as for the grace of God there would grow no crops. It is the grace of God that places cattle on a thousand hills. It is the grace of God that makes it possible for us to enjoy this meal. As we leave home, again the conscious realization: the presence of God goes before me, the presence of God goes to make the crooked places straight; to prepare mansions for me, to be the cement of all of my human relationships. Throughout the day, throughout the night, we find opportunity for remembering that except the Lord built the house, they labor in vain that build it. Without God's grace, today will not be spiritual and perfect and harmonious. Now, I have enlarged upon this in the entire book Practicing the Presence, so that those who will devote three, four, five or six months; in some cases seven, eight or nine months, to this actual, conscious Presence, practice of the Presence, throughout the day and the evening, and
even on the awakening in the middle of the night, they will soon find a change takes place in their lives. In other words, occasionally there will come moments of inner quiet, moments of inner peace, moments of inner relaxing and above all, there gradually grows a confidence and assurance that since God is with me, all will go well or since He perfecteth that which concerneth me, He performeth that which is given me to do, I have more confidence with any undertaking that I may have had. Whether it is healing work or whether it is selling merchandise or designing bridges, it makes no difference, as long as I am developing this assurance that there is something greater than I, within me, watching over with me; inspiring me, feeding me, clothing me, housing me. Then, this inner Self, which has been like a boiler factory; this inner Self, which has been full of doubts as to success and harmony: this begins to settle into an inner peace and gradually there comes to me the assurance that this that is within me is greater than any problem in the world. Now, when this inner quieting begins, when these moments of inner peace or assurance come, one is then ready for meditation. Because, now to settle down to a period of meditation, the mind doesn t race around; the boiler factory in the head doesn't operate. And it becomes more simple to contemplate. The first stage of meditation is the contemplative meditation. It is one in which you close your eyes, get comfortable and there begin to contemplate God; the nature of God, the activity of God. And when you do this, you will very quickly discover that you have never known God nor have you ever known the nature of God. You will find that God is a stranger to you; that you have only entertained concepts of God and mostly erroneous concepts of God. Because, as you enter the contemplative stage of meditation one of the first things you will learn is that I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And so you will learn that not even your sin has separated you from God. You will learn that you are not under punishment for any sin. You will learn that God is not a God of punishment. You will learn that God is not a God of reward. You will learn that God does not do something for one that God does not do for another. You will learn that the only reason for your discords is your sense of separation from God, your lack of God awareness. And so you will learn why it is said that a thousand may fall at your left hand, and ten thousand at your right. Not because God is letting them fall, not because God is bringing any evil to their doorway, but because this sense of separation from God, this lack of God awareness, has taken from them God government. You will learn in this contemplative meditation, why the Master said abide in the word and let the word abide in you. Abide in me and let me abide in you, you will bear fruit richly. If you do not abide in me or let me abide in you, you will be as a branch of a tree that is cut off and withereth. And then you will find out why you have that discord. It is a very strange thing to read some of the religious literature of the world and find that it is claimed we do not know where error comes from. Or why sin, disease and death come to some people. We do not know why the evils exist in the world. And there isn t a word of truth in all that. We do know, because we have learned it in both the Old and New Testament; from those who are wise enough to tell us. The reason is, we do not abide in God and do not let God abide in us, consciously!
We do not acknowledge him in all our ways. We do not keep our mind stayed on God. That's the reason for our discords. We are living our own lives, instead of letting Christ live our life. That is, letting the presence of God live our lives for us and it cannot do this unless we consciously admit God into our consciousness and keep God there. You must abide in me; God, and you must let me; God, abide in you. Then you will bear fruit richly. You must dwell in the Secret Place of the most High. And none of these evils of this world will come nigh thy dwelling place. It is as clear as it can be, it has been written and declared as clearly as it can be stated that our discords have to do only with the fact that we do not live and move and have our being consciously in God. So then, as you contemplate this, and you will learn in this contemplative stage of meditation that passages of scripture which you have known in the intellect for years and years and years, now come alive within you. Now have meaning for you and they live: they live like glowing coal. They live like electric lights within you. They illumine your entire being and you learn also, why it is said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And you will find, there never will be a lack of any form; any name or any nature in your experience, if you are living not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so in your contemplative meditation, all of the scriptural passages which you can undoubtedly recite by the mile, will now come alive and you find that these passages are not quotations and they are not affirmations and they are not clichés: they are the living Presence of God. And you live by them, not by dollars. You live by them and not by your influence. You live by them and not by your business. You will find that even your business will live by them. You will find that your art and your profession will live by them. And so you will determine eventually that the word of God maintained and sustained in your consciousness, is the Bread of Life. This is the Bread and the Wine and the Water; the Word of God which you maintain in your consciousness. Now then, first the practice of the Presence of God leads to this inner assurance which brings quiet and peace. And this leads then to the actual contemplation of God; of the nature of God, of the word of God. And this brings a deeper quiet, a deeper peace, and eventually it brings you to the place where neither words nor thoughts will come to you. But you will settle down into a listening attitude: speak Lord, thy servant heareth. You have now contemplated God and the word of God. You have brought to your conscious remembrance these many passages of scripture which become your bread, meat, wine and water. And now that these are all a part of your very being, now you can settle down to listen for that still small voice: The still small voice that sometimes thunders. He uttereth His voice, and the earth melteth. That s a thundering voice and it does do that whereunto it is sent and so as you enter the second stage of meditation you are in communion with God. Now this is where God becomes real; this is where the very Presence and power of God is felt, realized and sometimes heard. And in your listening attitude, you may receive a message; you may hear the still small voice, but if not, you will at least receive something that will give you the assurance that God is present with you.
It may be in a feeling of release; it may be in a feeling that all is well; it may be in some sense that reveals to you the healing has taken place. To each it comes differently and to every individual it comes in a hundred different ways, at different times in their lives. There is no set way for God to announce itself, but in the second stage of meditation, which is the communion stage, you are now not merely contemplating God, you are communing with God. There is a flow from you to God and from God back to you. It is as a rhythm; it is almost the rhythm of life expressing itself in you. It is a flow; a flow back and forth between you and God. Sometimes accompanied by words, sometimes messages, sometimes just a feeling, an awareness. Always remember that there must be an alertness and an awakeness when you're meditating. It cannot be a dropping off to sleep. Although on that point too, there are times when a meditation is completing itself and one does fall into a sleep and whatever the name or nature of the demonstration may be that is needed can take place. But don't count on going to sleep with your meditation. Count more on staying awake and being receptive, because God is very important. And it would be kind of foolish to go to sleep and find that He had been there and you hadn't made your contact. Stay awake, be alert! It's a wonderful experience to come face-to-face with the presence of God. This stage of communion is one that usually is the final stage for most of mankind. There is a further stage but very few have the fortune to experience it and that is conscious union with God. That is the third and final mystical state, in which the Self is merged into God without losing individual identity. There is always the knowledge of one's own identity and yet, not separate and apart from the one infinite eternal, universal Being that is called God. But relatively few achieve that and of those who achieve it, very few achieve it more than once or twice in a lifetime. For some reason or other, only a few can return to it over and over and over again and sometimes at will. But for most of the world the contemplative meditation; well, the contemplative meditation is as far as most people get and communion is about as far as most metaphysicians and spiritual students get. And out of these then, there will be the exception; one here or there, who will attain conscious union with God. A point I would like you to remember is this: that having attained the contemplative state of meditation and the communion state, do not believe for a moment that you are going to live on cloud seven, eight or nine continuously. There will occasionally be a drop to cloud two or one. And I have also known where one drops into hell. There is a need for this or it would not be. And the need is this, that the ego doesn't get too great, because sometimes there comes with these experiences the belief that one has become Spiritual or Holy, and something has to come along to teach them that no one ever is Holy or Spiritual. No one is ever good and no one ever attains goodness. And no one ever attains holiness or spirituality. And sometimes it takes a hard knock to reveal that to people that even Jesus Christ could announce: Why callest thou me good! In other words, only God is good, only God is spirit; only God, only God is real and therefore the very moment that a temptation comes that might make us feel that we're getting important, we have to be dropped right back again, so that humility comes to us.
And we remember that it is the grace of God that is operating through us; not our goodness, not our importance, not our Spirituality. And when healings begin to take place, we hear really of miracles that take place among our students, it becomes oh, so necessary to remember that we had nothing to do with it, except being the transparency through which the grace of God could operate. So it is, when it comes to teaching, you will find that as individuals come to you for healing and later for teaching, that unless you're very careful you really begin to believe that you know truths and then your teaching will become worthless. It will just become a handing out of yesterday's manna and heaven help your students when you get to depending on yesterday s manna or the truth that you learned last year, or last week, or the class you gave some time ago and want to repeat it, because you will be feeding them stones when they came for bread. In spiritual healing it is necessary that no treatment be given today that was given yesterday. Every treatment must be spontaneous; every treatment must come from God, not from your stored up memory. Every passage of scripture that you give to a patient or every passage in a book to read, must not be one that you remembered from yesterday, but a spontaneous one that God wants you to give specifically today. The treatment that raised somebody from the dead yesterday, may not heal a cold today. The passage of truth that caused a cancer to disappear yesterday, may not cause a pimple to disappear today. Why? It isn t the words that heal anybody. It isn t the quotation, it isn t the words one after another; it is the spontaneous state of consciousness of the practitioner and this always results in a spontaneous statement of truth. Therefore, what you knew yesterday is of relatively little importance to you. And what you treated with yesterday is of no importance: it may be a barrier. Each day you go to God for fresh manna; you do not store up today even the most wonderful truth in the world for tomorrow. Each day you go to God as if God were infinite and as if God had infinite capacity to give you a new and fresh truth. Every day you go to God for fresh manna. And then you impart this fresh manna to your patient and when your patient wants instruction and it makes of you a teacher, don't teach what you knew yesterday; don't teach what made a successful class for you last year. But remember the infinite nature of God's being and remember that as the child of God you have infinite capacity to receive the infinite truths from the throne of God. And therefore go each day for fresh manna; fresh instruction in healing, fresh instruction in teaching. There are certain principles which are the same today and tomorrow and forever. But even these must be clothed in fresh language; even these must be presented in a different way than they were presented yesterday or last year. In other words, don't give your patients or students memorized truths; give them spontaneous truths. Give them that which comes from the throne of God. Your consciousness is as infinite as God and your power and receptivity are as infinite as God's capacity to express. And therefore, realize the infinite nature of your being and go to the throne of God for infinity, for eternality, for immortality and let it always come in a fresh way.