The Uncomfortable Talks by Bill Skiles Talk Number 24 Spiritual Resurrection
Good morning or maybe good afternoon.
This is Sunday August 18th, about 12:30. I was delayed in getting started today because I was drawn to a chapter in this book called Consciousness Transformed, and it is from the 1963-1964 Hawaii Hotel talks by Joel S. Goldsmith. These were the last talks that he ever gave – some of the last talks that he ever gave. There [were] a few more, but not many, because the last talk in this book took place on May 10th of 1964, and I think it was less than a month later he made his transition.
This book is – if you’ve never seen it – it was out of print for a while, and I’m happy to see that there are some versions available again, but it was out of print for a while and you couldn’t get it. It’s really thick. It is probably – well, it’s like an old family Bible it’s so thick. Let’s see just out of curiosity. It is 611 pages, so that’s pretty thick and the writing’s not real big either – 611 pages! It starts on the week of – let me find it – January 20th of 1963 and it runs to May 10th of 1964, and so this was the year as you recall that Joel said he was going through another initiation. He was taking the message out of the letter into the Spirit, or out of metaphysics into mysticism. He was lifting the message and trying to lift the students. [These are] also the talks from which came the book Beyond Words and Thoughts which was published four years after his transition.
All right, so we have the book called Consciousness Transformed, the 1963-64 Hawaii Hotel talks. He canceled all his reservations to give classes because as he said he was going through an initiation. If you look in Beyond Words and Thoughts in that chapter Truth Unveiled he says in there that he was going through an initiation the entire year and that he went through the crucifixion and the resurrection, and that was taken from this book, because I found parts of that chapter in the chapter in here. The book Beyond Words and Thoughts was edited by Lorraine Sinkler and she changed it around to how she felt best. The reason why I like Consciousness Transformed, this thick book, is because it is the talks as he gave them and pretty much they are transcribed. So anyway, this was the last year that he was on earth in a form that you could see with your material eye, and these were the last talks he gave. He didn’t travel anywhere. He stayed at home in the Hawaii Hotel. He gave these talks once a week, sometimes twice a week, sometimes twice a month.
All right, now I don’t know if we’ve done this chapter or not. I have it marked, but it’s really quite beautiful. It’s called Hidden Manna and it was August 24th. And I don’t know the place right now, but later in this book or later in his talks or in some other book he says – yeah, I’m sure it’s in this book – he says that the talks from August on are some of the deepest that were ever given, and this is August 24th. It’s on page 327, so we’re more than halfway through, and this one’s called Hidden Manna – The Real Infinite Way. And so there’s a real Infinite Way and an unreal Infinite Way. There has to be to designate the real Infinite Way. Now of course the real Infinite Way and the Hidden Manna is the Spirit and he is attempting to lift us out of the letter into the Spirit, the real Infinite Way, the Hidden Manna. So let’s look at a little bit of it, August 24, 1963, Honolulu, Hawaii:
Good afternoon. It is very noticeable that far too many students do not know what makes The Infinite Way, or why there is an Infinite Way message. If our students knew the answer, their progress would be very rapid; but, because they do not catch this major point, they struggle for years not knowing where they are going or why. That which started me on the spiritual path and which ultimately led to The Infinite Way, was the realization that there is no God in the human world or in any religious teaching as such. There is no God answering the prayers of people. For this reason, and for this reason only, there can be a world filled with all the things you can think of which constitute horrible world conditions. [Now] None of this would be [there] if there were a God in the world. In the presence of light there is no darkness. You cannot have the presence of … Christ and have … sin … death … lack or man’s inhumanity to man.
So what did he say? He said the students in The Infinite Way suffer and struggle for years and years because they do not know where they are going. He said there’s a major principle or a major point, rather, and that point is: … there is no God in the human world … [and] no God answering … prayers of people. And furthermore he says:
Eventually it was revealed to me … you cannot reach God through [your] … mind, and that is why prayers … are worthless except as one’s blind faith might make of them a little power – just as it is possible to give a little sugar pill and stop pain.
All right, that’s on the very first – well, the first and second paragraph of the very first page of this chapter. The Hidden Manna – The Real Infinite Way is something that cannot be reached with the mind. And so if you think you know what The Infinite Way is you’re already misled, aren’t you? You cannot know The Infinite Way with your mind. So he says it is a major point and if you don’t catch it you’ll struggle for years and years, and the major point is there is no God in the human world. There is no God answering prayers of people and you cannot reach God through your mind. Well, that about sums it up, doesn’t it? That’s the long, drawn-out version of Paul’s statement: “… the natural man receiveth not the things of … God: … neither can he know them, [for] … they are spiritually discerned.” And that’s Paul saying you must come up higher than the mind.
Remember when I gave those classes out in California I asked the audience how would you heal if you could not use the mind, and I sent them home to look at that. And I submit it again to you. There’s no God in the human world. Okay, if you have your eyes closed, open your eyes, look around. You see this human world, this material world. You’re sitting in a material house. You’re sitting in a material body. There’s a material wall over there, a material window perhaps, material ceiling, material floor. There’s no God in this world, and – and if you, as Mary Jones or John Smith, pray to God to bring God into this world, well – your prayers aren’t answered.
And so now what can you do? Well, you can sit down and you can think about God and all these truths that you’ve memorized over the years, but you cannot reach God through your mind. Now what? You’re kind of in a big mess here. There must be something else, something different, something you’ve never had before, something called an experience, a God experience. And so he says:
In this realization you must remember that [it] … makes any religion or any religious teaching nothing more or less than a philosophy.
Yes, it’s very nice to sit around and philosophize about The Infinite Way and its principles. Maybe you’ve had that experience after going and listening to a tape and you perhaps go out for coffee or out for tea and you’re talking with your friends about it and you discuss the principles. It’s all very intellectual, isn’t it? But with that capacity and those traits you cannot reach God, and there’s no God in that gathering.
[We must have] … something that brings the actual presence and power of God into concrete manifestation, and it is for this reason that we say The Infinite Way is not so much a teaching as an experience.
There are spiritual principles, but these do not constitute The Infinite Way.
And so if you say – well, I’ve learned that God is omnipresent and the material world is an impersonal image and has no power – those are principles, and principles we found in The Infinite Way, are they not? Yet here he states clearly these spiritual principles … do not constitute The Infinite Way. Well, what then – what?
[Well], These are [only] … stepping stones … over which you walk. You have not reached the goal of The Infinite Way until you have the actual realized presence of God or [realized] activity of the Christ.
And again, in my words: If you are outside of that intellectual mind and you’re knowing, or you’re unknowing – you’re not knowing anything. You’re just at rest like a piece of ice floating in the water, you’re just resting on a sea of Spirit. If you’re resting there and you feel Spirit moving, you feel its movement over the face of the deep, that’s an experience. That’s an inner experience, an experience in your consciousness. Or as he puts it over here in the chapter The New Horizon, he puts it this way. He says:
The first glimpse into the heaven of here and now [or the first God experience] is the beginning of the ascension … . [And the] … ascension is understood … as a rising above … conditions and experiences of “this world,” …
And so when we sit and we rest and we behold this movement, in his words he says:
… we behold the “many mansions” prepared for us in spiritual Consciousness – [or in our] … awareness of Reality.
And so as you sit there and you become consciously aware of the movement of Spirit in your consciousness, as your consciousness, in that awareness are many mansions because in the awareness are many mansions in the awareness of Reality. That’s the way he put it. So there are mansions. There are levels. There are states of consciousness. There are degrees in this awareness of Reality, and there are different ways.
For you it might come as a still small voice that says, “I am here.” For me it may come as a conscious awareness of that movement of the Isness of God is’ing, moving, flowing, the rhythm of Spirit. For someone else it may come as an intuitive feeling [which says] – go pick up that book, look at page 37. It’s just a feeling and you go do it and you see exactly what you are experiencing in your consciousness at that moment. For someone else it may be just a tingling feeling on their skin. For someone else it may be an ocean of bliss, just an ocean of bliss and you’re floating in it and there’s nothing to do and nothing to know. There’s just that ocean of bliss and I Am That, but these are all mansions in the awareness of Reality. And that’s the way Joel puts it. It’s quite beautiful I think, I feel. So he says:
[The spiritual principles that you know with the mind] … do not constitute The Infinite Way. … You have not reached the goal of The Infinite Way until you have the actual realized presence of God or activity of … Christ [or activity of the Spirit]. It is for this reason … we cannot have outlined or formalized prayers or treatments. They are of no value [unless they] … quiet you. …
But quieting you is only so you can prepare for this real experience or the hidden manna, the real Infinite Way.
Therefore, the teaching of The Infinite Way is … valueless, [just as valueless] as any other teaching if it does not result in the actual experience of the presence of God, the feel of the presence … within you. You can study the Bible and quote it and fall right into [a] … ditch, if it does not elevate you in consciousness to where the actual meeting with God takes place.
Right? See how he’s telling the students that are here and they’re recording it and they’re going to turn it into the book Beyond Words and Thoughts and perhaps some other books?
He’s leading them to that state where they become a nothing, and in the nothing they behold the everything. It’s really quite fantastic. In your nothingness, you are everything. So he says:
No human being knows how to heal.
By human being he’s meaning that one that’s taking thought, the one that’s sitting in the chair in the room with the material walls. These are all concepts. Take a look again if you haven’t lately at the chapter, and maybe we’ll do that next week or soon, the chapter in The Thunder of Silence – what’s the name of it where he talks about baggage? [This is spiritual universe] Remember he lost his baggage in the airport and then he prayed and meditated and he couldn’t find it no matter what he did and then he finally realized – wait a minute! This is spiritual universe and here I am looking for material baggage. How silly is that! And he dropped the whole idea and then the baggage showed up! So this human being that would try to pray to God to produce baggage or some sort of healing, that’s the human being that must die because he just said it over here in the first couple lines: There is no God in the human world … [and] no God answering … prayers … and God cannot be reached with that human mind.
So: No human being knows how to heal. No human being has the power to heal. No human being … knows or receives the “Things of God.” Therefore, there can be no healing or real spiritual teaching until you are spiritually endowed, until the presence announces itself.
Let’s put this another way. The human being that knows all these statements of truth and thinks he can grab a hold of one and throw it at the material problem and change it, this human being must die. In your inner temple this human being must die. And so as you go into, move into your inner temple, so that you may have, not an understanding of truth, but an experience of the movement of the Isness, the human being must die. And Joel calls that the Sabbath, when you reach that place where the human being ‘takes no thought.’ Then you’re resting as a piece of ice in the water. You’re resting and in your awareness of Reality you behold the movement of Spirit, the Isness of I. You feel it flowing. It just flows. You rest. You have nothing to tell it. You’re not there. Just its movement now. Only the movement of Spirit. That movement of Spirit is the resurrection. The human has died and the movement, the Isness of I, is revealed right here, right now. This is the resurrection. Remember?
“Oh Jesus, if you would have been here my brother Lazarus would have lived!” “ Did I not tell you he would live again in the resurrection?” “Oh, I know he will in the last day.”
And so, see, this person is seeing the resurrection as happening somewhere down there in the future on the last day somewhere. The body will come out of the grave and float up into heaven in the sky or something. This is the concept, and what does he do? Does he have pity on this person because they’re grieving their dead brother? Oh, oh – that’s okay. Oh no! No, no. He takes the opportunity to awaken them. I am the resurrection!
Wow, that person must have stumbled as they were walking along. What? Yes, I, I. When you die within and you feel this movement of Spirit and you come into the conscious awareness of I and its movement, its flowing, its rhythm, the Isness of God, the Isness of Is, I am resurrected. This is the resurrection into consciousness of I, or I consciousness, or I awareness. And this resurrection takes place here and now in your inner temple as the human dies.
Therefore, there can be no healing [says Joel] or real spiritual teaching until you are spiritually endowed, until the Presence announces itself. Then you can sit back as a beholder and watch your life change. As you watch your life change you can say: “I did not do that.” When you reach this place, you are then functioning in The Infinite Way. [And] Now The Infinite Way becomes … alive … whereas before it was just a preparation.
People keep asking [me], “Why was this innocent child murdered … why was my dog run over when they did nothing wrong?” The world does not know the answer, but as students you should know … there is no God in the human world.
That was the very first principle that sent Joel onto his spiritual path when he recognized there is no God in the human world, and then the search began. Well, how do you find one? Is there a God? Where is it and how do you experience it? And as he discovered it after years of practicing and seeing its movement over and over again which appeared as need fulfilled, then he came and he taught it. He shared what he did. And even then the students couldn’t get it! They had this intellectually. “Oh, I understand the principles. I can take a test and pass 100%.” Yes, yes, you do understand the principles, but that was supposed to be a preparation and you stayed there for years and years and years.
Now says Joel, take the next step. Take the next step and die. Die to all of that. Die to everything you thought you knew. Die to your human beliefs. Die to that form of prayer. How would you reach God if you could not use the mind or any words or any thoughts? That’s all he’s asking you to do – just die to all of that. So he says:
Anything … can and will happen until the child or the dog or the business or the profession or anything else is brought into the presence of one who is spiritually endowed.
Why? Why? Why? Because I, if I be lifted up – if you experience that inner resurrection, look out with the eyes of I – you behold I everywhere and in the presence of that conscious awareness, I is lifted up. The I that beholds is lifted up where it beholds.
Then [he says, when that happens] you can trust your child or your dog or your business or your profession because now the grace of God is operating them. It is the spirit of God itself. Until this is understood, The Infinite Way can mean nothing to you except … another teaching or … something nice to read or listen to [the tapes, but] … that is not its intent. The intent of this message is that every student shall reach that place in consciousness where the Spirit of God is upon them and they can say, “[Ah] I live; yet not I, [Christ really is living me] …, ” … “Whereas I was blind, … I see.” [And] … they can sit back and say, “I can fulfill all obligations” – not [because they’re] … doing it but [because] … they [are] … being guided, strengthened, and wisdomed from within … .
The principles of The Infinite Way, as they have been given to me, will definitely change your consciousness so that spiritual endowment can take place [or so spiritual resurrection within can take place].
So he says:
Let me explain: The moment you learn that God or Spirit is the only power and the only law, and you accept this even intellectually, you [may be able to] … meet a claim of bad weather … . Or, [when] … you are faced with the threat of an atomic bomb you can say: “If it is true that Spirit is the only power, … I do not have to worry … .” Or, in the case of a disease … such as … flu epidemic: [you can say] “What is that to me, since the spirit of God is the only power.” … However, if you persist in working with the principle of one power, eventually it will leave the mind and go down into the heart. When that takes place, then you can say, “[Ah] Now I see.”
What he’s saying here is we all started and prepared for the inner resurrection by knowing these principles intellectually, but the time comes when you must step out of that – well, it’s just like Peter stepping out of the boat and onto the water when Jesus Christ says come and stretches out his hand. And what happens to Peter? He starts to think. “Wait! This can’t – wait – my body! And he starts to sink until the Christ catches him, and now he’s walking on the water.
This water is the consciousness, the consciousness in which you rest. This boat that brought you across so far, this was the intellectual knowing. This was the mind, but now you must step out of the mind and Christ says, “Come,” and can you and will you do it? Can you really abandon all that’s on that ship? Everything on that ship that you’ve clung to all these years, was safety. Why, it kept you from drowning, didn’t it?
And yet, and yet you know you feel something within you says there’s more. There’s something deeper. There’s another Self. There’s another level, another consciousness, another I, and it’s calling, “Come,” and you see it, you feel it calling. You hear it in these messages week after week. Come, come. Let go of the mind. Step out of it. Step onto the sea of consciousness, and I will catch you. But only you can step out. Nobody could push Peter out. Nobody could help him or convince him. He had to take the step. You have to take the step. You have to die and step out on the water of Spirit. So says Joel down here:
This is the function of The Infinite Way: to bring you to the place where you live by God, [or by Spirit or] by the presence of God, not by statements of truth. The one demonstration you can make [now] in The Infinite Way is the demonstration of the presence of God – that moment when you feel [God is here] … “God is on the field.” Then you are living by grace.
Then you will realize: “Thy grace is my sufficiency in all things.” Not [the] … quotation, but the actual realized grace … [the actual felt] Presence is my sufficiency, and there is [always a] sufficient [amount of presence or] grace … to meet the needs of this moment.
[See], everyone wants God ten years from now [he says] but, just as nature provides enough air in your lungs for this second, so God is sufficient grace for this second. There is no future heaven; there is no heavenly heaven; this moment is the only heaven there is, [says Joel]. The only heaven there is, is living in this moment, because only in this moment do you have [the] … grace to provide you with … spiritual bread, [spiritual] meat, [spiritual] wine, … – even [spiritual] resurrection.
Okay? All right? Says Joel:
[Now] If you witness Infinite Way students going on year in and year out and not receiving any fruitage or grace, [not showing forth any grace], you can know … they are just reading with the mind and remaining there. That [will never reach] … God. [Yes] We are to live with a passage of truth until it becomes our own, …
But once you have the inner experience, he says:
[You can] … put away all … the books and all … the tapes …. [Yes] Through the books and the tapes we present truth and, if you could take one statement of truth and demonstrate it, then the books and the tapes would have fulfilled their purpose.
So he says:
We started out today [with] … a reminder that there is no God in the human scene [and] … there is no way to reach God with the [human] mind, and that harmony [only] begins to come [in] … your experience … as you attain the actual realized presence of … Spirit [or] … God. [Yes, it’s true] In many … metaphysical approaches you hear it said that evil is not power [and] … there is no evil or error [error] is not real or evil is not of God; but in The Infinite Way you must get out of that habit, because it is a habit which leaves you in the very error which you [are] … denying. There is error, there is evil, and that is why [we are searching] … for God. Had there been no evils in the days of the Master, there would have been no Master on earth because there would have been no need [for] … one.
That is not a true statement, all those metaphysical statements.
The true statement should be [this]: “Temporal power is not power in the [realized] presence of … Spirit,” which means that evil or error of any nature is not power in the presence of the realized presence of God.
You see the difference? Now listen to me. Please listen to me! These experiences that you have, or let’s say that you decided to take this seriously and you practiced what we are talking about this morning – stepping out of the boat onto the water and just resting, just free resting back and let the water move you wherever it will. And you witness the movement of Spirit. You feel its inner energy pulsating, flowing through your being, as your being. And you see the Isness of I and there’s nothing to think and nothing to know. And then you open your eyes and you recognize it’s ten to ten and at eleven o’clock you have an appointment with someone, perhaps at the dentist’s office. Maybe you decided to go shopping at that time. Maybe you have to take your car in for repairs. Maybe you have an appointment at the library where you’re meeting a friend. The point is that you step out of that meditation and you’re operating as a human being and you’re moving about in a human world and you’re doing that with a human mind.
Now Joel says in this very chapter or the next one – I read both of them this morning, so I’m not sure. He says this experience that you had in meditation must be repeated – are you ready – twenty to thirty times a day. (chuckles saying wow) Wow! It doesn’t leave much time for anything else, does it? And he says that it must be repeated because we lose that consciousness and we drift back down into a state of humanhood, into the mind again. It’s like resting back in that water and then opening our eyes and climbing back into the boat. And now we’re back into a boat on rocky water. And so it must be renewed he says, renewed several times a day.
Now you don’t have to sit down in a formal meditation to do this. True, if this was the very first time you had this experience you’re going to have to do that, but once you’ve had this experience dozens of times – what does he tell us? You can do it with just a blink of the eyes, and it’s true. It may not be a fast blink. It may be a slow one, but you can get to that awareness simply by closing the eyes for a moment. Or if necessary, if you’re in a fast-paced job you can disappear into the bathroom for a moment. You know, there are dozens of ways to renew this. And he says… now listen, this is the part I wanted you to know:
If you renew this dozens of times a day every day, the day comes where this spiritual resurrection has happened within you on a permanent basis and you can’t lose it. You don’t go in and out and in and out anymore, It takes over your experience; this inner Spirit, this infinite Spirit, this infinite sea of bliss. The movement of the Spirit over the face of the deep, the spiritual resurrection. This awareness of reality becomes your permanent dwelling place. This mansion is now what you move into and live in, and it lives you. And you still function. You still go to work if you have a job. You still pay your taxes. You still drive your car. You still shop for groceries. You still wash in the bathtub or shower. But you are always in this higher consciousness because you have been lifted. No, not you the person. I speak now to the I of you because the I of you has been lifted into awareness of Itself.
And so that is the Hidden Manna of The Infinite Way.
[Now] Whatever temporal power is tempting you, you must bring the actual presence of God into the situation, whether you are so close to it that blinking your eyes does it, or whether you are so far away that you have to sit for days and nights until the Spirit breaks through [or until you feel that inner movement]. If you are expecting any help until this [inner experience] happens, you are going to be sadly mistaken. Nothing happens to the errors that come into your experience until you have attained the realization of the presence of God – [but] then [when you dwell in that consciousness] temporal power is dissolved [just] as darkness is dissolved in the presence of Light.
See, if you get up in the middle of the night, perhaps you go into the bathroom, you flick on the light. That was pitch black. Here it’s pitch black. I’m not in any city. I’m in the Appalachian Mountains. There’s no light here. If you go outside you can’t see your hand in front of your face, and I like it that way. I don’t like all the lights and noise and activities, sounds that I heard growing up in Los Angeles. So you go into the bathroom, it’s pitch black, you can’t even see your hand. You turn on the light and now you have a room. You have yourself. You have a million things right there that you couldn’t see before. What power did that light use over that darkness? Was there some sort of pushing or shoving or forcing? No. When the light came on, the darkness disappeared. It was as natural as the next breath you take.
And so the Light of your inner being, the movement within you dissolves the concept or the image just as the Light dissolves the darkness. There’s no force. Not by might nor by power, but by the resurrected Spirit within you. And so you don’t direct it, you don’t pray for it. After a while you don’t even think about it. It’s just as normal as that Light dissolving the darkness. Something comes before you. You see how silly it is. You don’t even work on it. You’re in that higher state of consciousness and it goes around you. I don’t know how that works, but it does. It goes around you. It’s dissolved. In some way or another it changes. You don’t even know how. You didn’t try to do anything. You’re just observing. You’re just sitting in a state of observation. More and more, says Joel, we must become the beholder. And so you’re sitting, you’re resting in that Sabbath consciousness. You’re in that spiritual resurrection and the I is functioning and you behold as it moves itself.
This should give you such an understanding of the nature of the … The Infinite Way that you will not rest or rely on any … statements. Instead, you will know that they are to remind you to go within and bring forth the [real] Presence. You must actually experience God – then that invisible goes before you to make the crooked places straight.
You see that? So he says:
The question is asked, “What is truth?” I will tell you … no one in the history of the world has ever known what truth is because [it] … is infinite. … [so] … it would be a horrible thing to say, “ The Infinite Way is … truth.” [Because] Truth must continue revealing itself one hundred years from now, [and] … not the same truth [of ] … the Bible or [the] … Christian Science or … Infinite Way.
When you are dealing with your daily experience, you are opening yourself to an inflow of truth, but be careful [do] not … depend on yesterday’s manna. Go within for … inspiration of the moment – for this moment’s manna – and then the Spirit of God does the work. A statement of truth is not God. A statement of truth is [a] … reminder [which] … sends you back inside … [so you can die! Only he says:] sends you back inside for further impartations. [Yes, so that you can die and receive the Spirit.]
Jesus was crucified and the disciples were afraid and they were up in the inner chamber, upstairs in the inner chamber, which means they were in this meditation in the silence, and in that silence Christ appeared in their midst. It just appeared. They felt that movement, and what was its first words? “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” And this is what Joel has been saying and this is what The Infinite Way has been saying. This is what Christ, your inner Christ, the Spirit within you has been saying to your outer awareness all these years that you have studied the letter.
Oh please! Put down the letter and now “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” And it is being said to all of you right now, this moment. “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” If you will live constantly and consciously aware that there is sufficiency of grace for this moment and that I have hidden manna and then go within to feel that flow, you will be living by it.
Be sure you never [ever] forget … the function of [The Infinite Way] … is to reveal to you … you do have an inner grace, [an inner] … hidden manna, a “meat the world knows not of.” [And you must] Go within for the flow; then go about your business and, whatever your need is, the solution will appear in its own way. This [is what] has … carried me from the [very] beginning of my work. Once touched by the spirit, I knew there was something within me [and] that [it] did the work. [And] Everything necessary to my experience always appeared, even in time to correct my mistakes. You cannot avoid making a mistake [once in a while] but even if you do, this inner manna corrects it.
[Oh] It is really very sad if an Infinite Way student does not catch this point, that there is an inner grace, “a meat the world knows not of,” a hidden manna.
I imagine he was sad, or no, that’s not said correctly. I imagine he saw the – what word – ridiculousness, the pity of it – that so many people were coming to hear the message and he was repeating over and over and the Christ through him was saying: Here – “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” And they were saying, “Hey Joel, I’ve memorized the entire first chapter of The Infinite Way or I’ve memorized New Horizon. Now I imagine that was a little bit like the Christ. “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem … how often …,” I would give you this whole thing and “ye would not.” He must have felt some of that, and surely some of us feel that sometimes. And yet, and yet every knee will bend, so sooner or later everyone, everyone, will come back home within to that Spirit.
Can you not see the sin of having anyone set up as a savior, whether it is Buddha or Jesus or [whether it is Joel or Herb or whether it is Bill or whether it is Alan or whether it is Tony or Bob] …? Can you not see the sin of believing that anyone of us is different from another, except in [our] … degree of realization? [Yes] There should be spiritual leaders, because in their presence temporal power does not operate. [And] They can help in the overcoming of discords but only to a certain point, because “If I go not away, the Comforter will not come … .”
You see, even Jesus had students that wanted Jesus to do it for them and he said, “Oh, I have to go away in order that you may go within and have this inner experience of the movement of Spirit,” and they did up in that upper temple. From Christ they received within the Holy Spirit. So he was right.
… no matter how advanced we become, there are times when problems can become so hypnotic that we ourselves may not be able to bring release and so we turn to each other … . The Master was not ashamed to say, “Stay awake and pray with me,” so there should be no hesitancy in turning to each other for help. I have no hesitancy whatsoever to do this when I need it, and I receive the help.
And so Joel is saying that we are turning to that inner Spirit and when we are so hypnotized with the problem that we cannot seem to make that contact, then we reach out for that Spirit in someone else, knowing all the while it’s the same Spirit, and then when we are released from that hypnotism and it’s broken – ah – we’re back in our right mind, the mind which was in Christ Jesus which feels this inner movement – then all is well again.
The students who have been with us here all year know that this has been a difficult year for me in which I have been going through a period of inner initiation waiting for a message. [He says] We … made no tapes this year except … four teaching tapes, [which] … were made in the actual teaching of those who were here for instruction. We made no other tapes because I recognized that the message which has been coming through each week was a “leading up” message, [and] not a fulfilled message.
During the last two [or] … three weeks it all came to a head, and then it became clear that we are entering the consciousness that does not need words or thoughts. We can sit down to meditate and realize: “The kingdom of God is closer than breathing. [All I have to do is] … tune in and listen. I need no words … I need no thoughts. I need only receptivity and, when the Word of God comes, the earth of error melts.”
In The Infinite Way our dependency is on a hidden manna, a “meat the world knows not of,” a Presence you cannot define. You do not have … blind faith – you go within and bring … forth … Spirit, … . Then forever after, you can say: “I live; yet not I, but [this] Christ liveth in me.” [But] Because of the mesmerism of the world, you must go within twenty to thirty times a day. In other words you must get back inside where you [can know] …, “I have hidden manna” – and then let it out.
You don’t push it out or know it out (chuckles). You rest and behold and It flows.
[And] It will not be long [now] until someone will say to you, “What is it you have?” … “Can you help me?” No, it will not be long [now]. … Only a few are ready, because of previous incarnations, to catch this in a year or [two] … . [And so] I can be very patient because I know that human wisdom cannot be replaced by [this] spiritual [resurrection] … until onion skin after onion skin has been peeled away and they become transparencies. I can be patient with them until they have reached that place where self-preservation is no longer the first law and [their] … first need. I know it takes patience on my part and I always hope [that] they will have the courage to persist.
And I have the hope that you here listening to this have the courage to persist. I know this is not comfortable. That’s why these are called The Uncomfortable Talks. I know they are not comfortable because I am asking you to die to everything you knew or have known and step out on the water not knowing at all what will happen. I’m asking you to go within yourself in that inner temple in the upper chamber, invite the Christ, and then stand stock still until It says or It indicates or the experience happens that you receive the Holy Spirit, the Infinite Being, the Isness of God, the movement of Spirit.
Miracles do happen, some far greater than you would believe if you heard [about] … them. [But] They are not due to a “miracle man” – they are due to consciousness and receptivity. Not even Jesus could perform miracles unless he was approached with receptivity. It really makes no difference what degree of spiritual height I attain – it can only affect you by the measure of your receptivity. That is why no practitioner can ever guarantee the measure of your healing or how long it will take, because it depends on your receptivity.
All right, so, receptive to what? Receptive to the message? No-o-o! Receptive to what? Receptive to receiving the Spirit within or the movement or the conscious awareness. Receptive to spiritual resurrection. And let’s see:
We have arrived at a place in our work now where, if any of you are satisfied with anything less than the [actual] experience of God [within, then] you are satisfied with too little. [From now on] Nothing should satisfy you but the experience itself, and you can accomplish that by turning within. It will come, and, when it comes, it must be renewed. Because of the hypnotism of the world [I am telling you] it must be renewed.
And that is the chapter Hidden Manna – The Real Infinite Way. And you can see, I hope, that you’re invited to the real resurrection, the resurrection within you of this Infinite Spirit, Infinite Being, Infinite Is, Infinite I Am. But these are terms now, so throw them away. They’re part of the boat. You’re stepping out of the boat of the human mind. The human mind has no contact with God and can never, ever, ever know God, and so it must be released. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to pick it up and use it to balance your checkbook. It means to know God you’re not gonna use it! To know God aright is life eternal. To know God with the mind is another set of concepts.
All right, so let us be still for a moment.
(Silent pause…)
And Christ invites you to the inner Spiritual Resurrection. I am the resurrection, that I within you, that Spirit within you, that movement. And again, I just love this in The Infinite Way in The New Horizon:
The first glimpse [of that Holy Spirit, the first glimpse of the movement of Spirit or] … the heaven of here and now is the beginning of the ascension for us.
And what is the ascension? Ah! The ascension is above humanhood, above words, above thoughts, above the human mind. And here above that, here in the stillness, in the silent inner tomb where the human has died, right in this tomb where there’s nothing, nothingness, here in this tomb the I, the Spirit is resurrected. Right here flows the everything, the infinite everything. Out of the nothing flows the everything.
And so:
This ascension is understood now as a rising above the conditions and experiences of “this world,” [or those which are in the mind] and [now] we behold … “many mansions” prepared for us in spiritual Consciousness – in the awareness of Reality.
And so when Jesus Christ or Christ appearing as Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you,” here is the place he prepared, this mansion in which you live and move and have your being when this human has died and Spiritual Resurrection of I, of Christ, of Is, takes place. Here in your awareness of Reality is the mansion of the risen Christ. It’s the mansion of the risen Spirit, and this place is for you. It was prepared for you. It’s taken you 2,000 years to come to the place of readiness to step out of that boat and onto the water, grasping nothing, but you are ready.
I remember in 1972 Don said to me, “You will reach the place on your path where you come to the edge of a cliff and you stand there not knowing how you will continue, and the inner voice will say, ‘Walk!’ and you will step into nothingness. But (he said) be happy because the Everlasting arms will catch you.”
And now my dear friends whom I may never meet in person and yet whom I feel in consciousness, let us step off that cliff. Let us step out of the boat and onto the water. Let us enter that inner tomb and rise into the upper chamber and die completely. Stand stock still and witness something called Spirit as It moves Itself…and…
“Behold, I make all things new.”
[Silence]..
Mystical Principles 
Audio File:
https://ftp.mysticalprinciples.com/Spiritual_Talk_/?dir=The_Uncomfortable_Talks/
Blessings,
Bill