Welcome to the Sacred Book Study… Welcome to the Sacred Book Study of A Parenthesis in Eternity, an Infinite Way book by Joel Goldsmith. Access the Meeting and the Book Click Here to Buy Book on Amazon Click Here to Join Jan 27th Zoom Meeting Click Here to View Complete Jan 27th Zoom Meeting Instructions…
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7 responses to “A Parenthesis In Eternity: Part 3 Class Page”
Both Joel and ACIM say that you cannot serve two masters. In the context of physical body healing, I have heard Joel take a very strong stance against using what he calls “materia-medica” after having turned to spiritual healing (YouTube-various) . In Ch. 26 he says, “We cannot be denying the power of effect and the next minute indulge in it…” (p. 290, Kindle Edition).
The Course instructs us to go ahead with allopathic approaches if necessary to reduce our fear, all the while reminding ourselves that these treatments are magic, and not in any way causal. (John, do you know where that is?) The Course also says that we cannot serve two masters, but isn’t that what we are doing when we use allopathic medicine and denial at the same time?
How do I reconcile this in the course of doing what is in front of me to do?
In Love,
Mary
Mary, I think you’re looking for Chapter 2 section VII.
Thanks, Sandy. Just as you said, here it is exactly, in paragraph 8:
Sometimes the illness has a sufficiently great a hold over an individual’s mind to render him inaccessible to Atonement. In this case, one may be wise to utilize a compromise approach to mind and body, in which something from the outside is temporarily given healing belief. (p. 81).
I would love a review of this entire section.
• What does the “living the mystical life” mean to you?
I like the reference to “Withinness” – it reminds me that nothing outside myself is a solution to my questions, concerns, or anxieties. Nothing outside myself will resolve any of my perceived “problems”. Looking outward will only add to the confusion that I feel. So ‘living the mystical life” means always looking within for guidance, instructions, and inspiration for what to say, what to do and when. Looking within detaches me from the material world and helps me lose and loosen the ties of judgement, scarcity and fear.
• How do you interpret Joel’s statement about having “no fears, no hopes, no ambitions”?
Withiness or “living the mystical life” creates a feeling of “being cared for”. Living in the Spirit, I can rest in comfort, calmness, security and peace. Here, judgements and expectations fall away, so fear is greatly diminished. When fear fades my need for hopes and ambitions lessen. I sense a world that is friendly and my need for making my own meanings for everything slips away. I am then interpreting the material universe through Spirit, and this interpretation is gentle and kind. My fears, hopes and ambitions are replaced by quiet acceptance and re-interpretation of the material world and all its chaos. By living the mystical life – always looking within for answers – I do not need to “get anything” from the material world. Most of my fears, hopes and ambitions are tied up in wanting to “get something”. The gentleness of Spirit guides me to see the material world in a light of loving kindness and to see I need nothing from it.
• In your moments of deep reflection and contemplation, uncover where you still feel the grip of “ignorance,” which is another way of saying, the feelings and beliefs that keep you dependent on things and people in the external realm for your love, safety, and supply, rather than upon God.
I still feel the “grip of ignorance” in my judgmental nature or my default to judgement. I am learning to better feel the signal from Spirit that I have slipped into judging what is happening, who is doing it and that I’m making up my own reasons and stories of why they are doing it. I can stop it quickly most times, but it is a sure sign that I have slipped into the material world and out of the mystical life when I am judging. I mostly do one of two things – I put others on a pedestal and think of myself as less, or I think of others as less than, to make myself feel better. If someone says something profound, I put them on a pedestal and think to myself, “wow they’re really smart, why can’t I be that way”. Conversely, if I don’t agree with what someone says, I think “wow they’re really off base, I have a better idea.” This is the ‘grip of ignorance” for sure. In the material world I must find ways to feel better. But if I am “living the mystical life” I am OK just the way I am, so judgement falls away. I live in the surety and comfort that just being me is enough. Being and staying in Spirit, I will be sent on a mission to the outside world – I’ll be instructed on what to do, where to go and what my mission is – very clearly – very gently – and it will always be on a mission of love.
Thank you for that Julee. You spoke for this aspect of the mind in your answers.
I don’t live the mystical life. I ask, in the tradition of Sri Ramana, “Who am I?” (I don’t know), and in the tradition of Nisargadatta, identify bit by bit, what I am not (All that is not God–yikes, my entire “so-called” life!). And in the tradition of the Course, I know that I know nothing; all of my thoughts are meaningless, and knowing that, “I loose the world from all I thought it was” (Lesson 132), just as you described in your first paragraph.
So grateful to my dream character, John, for showing me the “One Truth, Many Paths”.
Thanks Julee
Question – how do I interpret Joel’s statement about having no fears, no hopes, no ambitions? I feel that being in the present moment is all there is.
Limiting beliefs, when I think of how I limit myself, some of the voices in my mind are old messages growing up, one is that I am lazy, I know that this is not true. I also limit myself when I feel scarcity, this shows up if I did not get enough hours at work, not enough and I have to sit still and know that I have what I need, this is true. I am now working 3 days of the week, so I have time to be still and be with God. I want to be in the world but not of it.