“And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” ~ Exodus 3:4-5.
Chapter 11 in I Stand on Holy Ground, “Self-Purification, the Way to the Mystical Consciousness,” has two source recordings from the 1959 Hawaiian Village Closed Class. Recording 267A is titled “Self-Purification,” and recording 267B is titled “Self-Purification, Side One continued.” These recordings are no longer posted on this website. If you subscribe to the Joel Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to them there. To purchase the recording or transcript for 267A, click/tap here. To purchase the recording or transcript for 267B, click/tap here.
To download or print these study suggestions, click/tap here.
In this chapter and its source recordings, Joel addresses the important practices of impersonalization and nothingization. As we work with this chapter, we have an opportunity to look at our understanding of these practices and how well we are doing with practicing them. Impersonalization is one way to practice the principles of the nature of God and the nature of individual being. Nothingization is one way to practice the principle of the nature of error.
As Joel points out, we are used to seeing each other as having a mix of good and bad, spiritual and material qualities. But this is NOT true of a person in his SPIRITUAL IDENTITY. For example, if we witness a man stealing a wallet, we recognize that a wrong is being committed, BUT we do not call that man a thief. Rather, we remember that one aspect of the nature of God is that God is manifest as individual being, and that the true nature of individual being is spiritual and divine. We recognize that anything a man has done wrong is due to his ignorance of the fact that he is being tempted by an IMPERSONAL source and acting out from that temptation. So we never condemn anyone for making a mistake, or for being ignorant of the truth that God constitutes individual being, and every discord springs from the carnal mind.
In other words, we establish within ourselves the truth of the individual’s spiritual identity, and we SEPARATE the divine Self of his being from the erroneous action or condition. In doing this, we IMPERSONALIZE the error; we take it OUT OF THE PERSON.
Remember too, that any spiritual principle must be UNIVERSALLY true, with no exceptions. So if we accept the spiritual principle of the nature of individual being, we must accept it for EVERY individual, regardless of how steeped in error they may APPEAR to be.
After we impersonalize, or separate the error from the person, we turn to the principle of the nature of error and deal with the appearance, the carnal mind, by nothingizing it. Quickly we remember, “This is the CARNAL MIND in action.” We realize that God did not create the carnal mind, so it cannot be constituted of God-qualities. And since God did not create it, it can exist only as a state of illusion, a state of belief, or a state of hypnotism. The carnal mind has no law, no activity, and no cause. It has no avenue of expression, no person through whom to operate. When we have done this, we rest in the silence.
Impersonalization and nothingization are the basis of healing work in The Infinite Way. We cannot bring about spiritual peace unless we can hold NO ONE in judgment, including political and commercial leaders or self-seeking industrial tycoons who seem to be evil. They will exist in the human scene until WE can refrain from condemning them and turn to recognize that it is impossible for man, in his true spiritual identity, to be evil, selfish or unjust. All there is to man is God made manifest, because GOD CONSTITUTES INDIVIDUAL BEING.
So healing work has nothing to do with praying to God or trying to influence God. It has to do with knowing, practicing, and realizing SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES, namely, the nature of God, the nature of individual being, and the nature of error.
The world sits in judgment, believing that there are good and evil persons, sinning men and women. The world does not know about impersonalization or the principles on which it is based, and therefore has no defense against the impositions of carnal mind in the forms of sin, disease, lack, or limitation.
But WE must have that mind that was in Christ Jesus, which does not judge, criticize, condemn, or accept two powers. Christ-consciousness is our consciousness when we acknowledge no evil to fight, and when we impersonalize and nothingize evil. Christ-consciousness is not going to come to us. It is already our present consciousness, so we do not have to seek or gain another consciousness. Rather, we must purify the consciousness that we have now. In its purified state, our consciousness IS the Christ consciousness, and we no longer personalize good or evil or give power to apparent evil. In other words, in proportion as we impersonalize and nothingize, the consciousness that we have now is the Christ consciousness. Only when we have learned to impersonalize and nothingize is our consciousness so clear and so transparent that the spiritual light of the Christ shines through.
To come to the Christ state of consciousness, we must:
We cannot say that we accept these principles and then act in a way that contradicts them. If we do, we are double-minded, and when we are double-minded, we cannot be a transparency for the Christ. We will be transparencies in proportion to our ability to impersonalize all evil. World mesmerism is so strong that it will reach through into our consciousness unless we are alert and are able to impersonalize quickly and constantly.
So we must practice impersonalization and nothingization with EVERY discord involving a person, whether it is a form of disease, sin, false appetite, or troubled relationships. No matter what discord is presented to us, we see that it is NOT in or of the person, but that it is an activity of the impersonal carnal mind, being accepted because of spiritual ignorance. Then we nothingize it and REST in the truth. This is how we handle ALL appearances of discord.
We suggest taking some time during your study of this chapter to assess how well you are practicing impersonalization and nothingization. Questions such as these can help.
If you find that there is room for improvement in your practice of impersonalization and nothingization, what can you do to improve? What will you do?
Chapter 11, “Self-Purification, the Way to the Mystical Consciousness,” has two source recordings: 267A and 267B. These recordings are no longer posted on this website. If you subscribe to the Joel Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to them there. To purchase the recording or transcript for 267A, click/tap here. To purchase the recording or transcript for 267B, click/tap here.