As we read and hear the current news about “this world,” we are keenly reminded of our responsibility as spiritual seekers and spiritual lights to do what Joel called “world work.” He asked dedicated students to give three meditation periods a day solely for the purpose of opening out a way for the Spirit of God to go forth into the world to dispel material sense and open human consciousness to Truth.
Joel describes his vision for world work in the July 1959 Infinite Way Letter titled “Spiritual Freedom,” and we provide an extended excerpt from that Letter below. If you would like to print a copy of this excerpt, click here. To print a handy card that simply summarizes Joel’s instructions for the three daily world work meditations, click here.
If you are not already doing world work, we encourage you to join the many dedicated Infinite Way students who have done and continue to do this work to lift consciousness so that heaven may be revealed on earth, for “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
The vast majority of those who come to The Infinite Way come for the solution of their individual problems, but if they go far enough in this work, they become a part of the few who are engaged in the wider activity of dealing with world problems …
Even though humanly we are unimportant to the world and its governments, nevertheless we can be a greater power than those who sit in the seats of the mighty, because through our spiritual realization, we can help to settle the affairs of the world, not by might and not by power, but by the Spirit of God.
There has never been a time since the beginning of recorded history when the world has not used material force to gain its way and its will; and even today, with all the progress that has been made, the world has not yet learned that lasting victories are not won by means of material force. It has not learned that the battle may be won, but the war lost; that a particular war may be won, but far more lost than has been gained, often resulting in a repetition of the conflict on a larger and more violent scale. Very seldom does a war accomplish its purpose, except temporarily. Always the great powers have eventually gone down in defeat. It is inevitable. ‘For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.’ (Matthew 26:52)
Those who have gone one step ahead in spiritual understanding, wherever they are and of whatever persuasion, must accept responsibility not only for their own community and nation, but for world conditions. The world grows increasingly smaller. It has become our community and everyone in it our neighbor. Today, almost any place in the world can be reached in twenty hours; next year or the year after, it may be ten…
So let us not be concerned only about our own government, but let our concern embrace the whole world, that the spiritual Kingdom may be made humanly manifest. Let us realize that the government is upon His shoulders – the government of mankind, the government of the world, until we do come to that day when we realize: ‘This world is not governed by might or by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.’
If there are ten righteous men in the city, the city may be saved. In other words, there is no way to measure the degree of power which may flow through one individual consciousness, realizing the presence of God. Our faith is not in might or in power; our faith is not in the ballot, because that is merely the might of numbers or percentages: Our ultimate reliance is in the degree of our awareness of the presence of God and of our realization of the impersonal and universal nature of the Christ.
Not one of us has any idea who may be touched by the Christ through our realization and be in such a position that his influence can balance the scale on the side of spiritual power. We have no way of knowing who the individual is, or where, or when, who may be struck as Saul of Tarsus was struck with a blinding light and awakened out of his ‘Saul-ness’ into ‘Paul-ness.’
It is not a person who will save the world: It is the Christ. The person in the right place at the right time, with a degree of receptivity, will be the one through whom It will appear to come. You and I, however, do not have to wonder who he is or where. We need only dwell in the realization that salvation will come, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of God. Your function and mine is to be instruments through which the presence of God can touch and awaken humanity…
When The Infinite Way was given to me, I visioned a band of Christ-consciousness around the world, so that every individual who reached out to God, regardless of his religion or lack of religion, would automatically find God with him. Work toward this end cannot be carried on by the general public, nor can it be carried on by people who are unwilling to sacrifice something of themselves for truth and for the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. It can only be carried on by the dedicated people of the world.
Are you willing to count yourself among those dedicated and consecrated people who have risen above self-seeking and who think in terms of universality rather than personality? Are you willing to give periods of meditation every day to the dissolving of the material sense which holds the world in bondage? The Christ is hidden inside of you, but you must release that Christ into the world. Be willing to sit in the silence until you have a conscious feeling that God is on the field. Then the Christ is functioning. After you have achieved the awareness of the Christ, realize that this Christ is dissolving the errors of this world—dissolving material sense—and that that realization of the Christ is opening human consciousness to a receptivity to truth. Just to make the statement that human consciousness is being opened to truth is a waste of time, but to have realized the Christ and then to know that this realization of the Christ is operating in human consciousness to make it receptive to Truth will be effective.
In this meditation, you are not criticizing or condemning anybody; you are not judging as to whether material sense is operating in this one or in that one: You are realizing that wherever material sense raises its head, this realized Christ is dispelling it.
For your own unfoldment and that of your family, patients, and students, give as many meditation periods as possible for the purpose of renewing yourself in the Spirit of the Lord. But, in addition to that, give three periods out of every twenty-four hours to the world. This is your contribution to world freedom. Therefore, three times each day open out a way for the Spirit of the Lord God which is upon you to escape into the world.
Let your first meditation period be only for the purpose of feeling a consciousness of God’s presence. When that has been achieved, that is the end of that period of meditation for the world. In your second meditation dedicated to world freedom, again achieve a conscious awareness of God’s presence and realize that this realization of the Christ is dispelling material sense in human consciousness. Begin your third meditation once again with a realization of the Christ, and then recognize that that realization of the Christ is dispelling material sense and opening human consciousness to a receptivity to Truth.
That is your gift to the world—little enough to give for the priceless gift you have received. Through these meditations, you are admitting the Christ into human consciousness three times a day, thereby creating in humankind the desire for spirituality, a hunger and thirst for spiritual righteousness and freedom.
This realization of the Christ is already an activity of Infinite Way students all over the world. Out of the twenty-four hours of the day, there is not a single thirty-minute period when, in some place or other, this work of realizing the Christ is not going on. It has been given to me that if a band of realized Christ-consciousness is formed around the world, it will touch and awaken individual consciousness and bring lasting freedom to the world.
*The full text of this Letter can be found in The Heart of Mysticism, which is the collection of Infinite Way Letters for 1955 – 1959, or in the single volume The Infinite Way Letters 1959, which is no longer in print, but which you might already own.