An Excerpt from Chapter 12 in The Mystical I:
“Do Not Pass by on the Other Side”
In Chapter 12 of the book The Mystical I, Joel says that when we see that we have a responsibility to the entire world, our question is “How can I fulfill this obligation?” In this excerpt from that chapter, he gives his inspired and inspiring answer.
Accepting Responsibility for World Work
When this spirit of God makes Itself evident in us and we come to know that we have a responsibility toward this entire world, we begin to wonder, “How can I fulfill this obligation to the world?” And we may well ask that question, because no one on earth has enough money to provide for and educate all the children of the world. No nation on earth has enough resources to maintain and sustain all the impoverished nations. Therefore we must find a different way of serving, blessing, helping, and raising up the people of the world.
Let us not believe for a moment that by tithing our income, giving away twenty or fifty per cent, or even more, we are doing very much for the world. Even if we had such spiritual healing power as the Master had and could heal multitudes, we would not be doing too much. We never can reach all the three billions of people in the world either with our money or with our healing gift. There is only one way in which that can be accomplished, and that is through accepting the responsibility of spiritual realization. Everyone at our level of consciousness should be engaging in world work. Whether we do it in a united group, or do it individually at home alone, is not the important thing. The important thing is that it is done.
We are now going through a period that is fascinating and challenging. I would not be surprised if it is not more interesting to be alive at this particular time than at any other time in the history of the world. Certainly this is a period when the world is going through a transition of such proportions that it may be the final transition, that in which material sense is completely overcome and Christ consciousness comes upon the world as a universal gift.
To me it appears that this is what is happening. For example, there is a great deal of religious upheaval. But with it we can also note the greater sense of unity that is taking place among the religions of the world. How many religious barriers are being removed! Limitations are being broken down in the Catholic Church as never before and, of course, this is being equally matched by a breaking down of the sense of separation in Protestantism. While a good part of the world may call some of these changes “heresy” and fight them, we know that in reality, they are the breaking up of ignorance and superstition.
This is the age of the breaking up of prejudice in race relations. There is a breaking up, too, not only of the type of capitalism that did not adequately care for its workers, but also of the type of unionism that had no consideration for management and employers. It is a breaking up on all sides of the old encrusted patterns of the idea that self-preservation is the first law of human nature.
The human mind and its activities may be likened to a swamp, deep in the forest, a swamp that is cut off from sunshine and fresh air, from even the moon and the stars. It is dark and damp and miserable and abounds in all kinds of inferior creatures. You will recognize these creatures. They are those of whom Paul speaks: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God.”[1] This is the human mind, the activities and the creatures of the human mind, but it is made new when Christ has entered in, just as the swamp would be made new and fresh if the blocking trees were cut away and the sun were allowed to shine through.
So, when the mist clears from us and the Christ enters into our soul, our world becomes new. We are no longer a world full of separate persons. We have now become a part of the Circle of Christhood, each sharing with the other that which has unfolded within him from the kingdom of God. Since we are a world of individuals, I am receiving the grace of God, which I share with you, but those of you who are artists, writers, ministers, business people, or lawyers are receiving the grace of God in different forms, and you share these with one another.
When we understand this, it completes the Circle of Christhood. Let us not confine our sharing, however, to those who are already in the Circle, but let us draw into this Circle people of the entire world by our recognition and acknowledgment of the Christ in them. Lifting up the son of God in them draws them into the Circle of Light. It may take a week, a month, a year, or ten years before they consciously enter that Circle and acknowledge that they are in and of it, but that is no concern of ours. Once we have lifted up the son of God in them, they have entered our Circle of Christhood, and then it is just a matter of time, circumstance, and experience before they will open their eyes and say, “Whereas I was blind, now I see;”[2] whereas I was dead, now I am awake, alive.”
We are that swamp until we consciously let the light shine within us and learn to walk with God, talk with God, sleep with God, and awaken with Him, consciously realizing:
Thou art my day; Thou art my night; Thou art the wisdom that guides and governs me. Thou art the soul that purifies my every thought and deed. Thou art the spirit that purifies every motive and makes of me a givingness.
When we turn within to the spirit of God, it is only to receive a grace that we may share, a light and a wisdom. It devolves upon those who have received spiritual light to be transparencies through which that light reaches the world. As it comes to our individual attention that there is some form of so-called evil taking place or about to take place—evil as related to health, to weather, or to human relationships—let us remember that it is a call to us as illumined souls to leave our “nets” immediately and retire into a meditation to bring the activity of the Christ to the situation until that particular problem has been met.
[1] 1 Corinthians 2:14
[2] John 9:25