"NO ONE CAN SEE THEIR REFLECTION IN RUNNING WATER. IT IS ONLY IN STILL WATER THAT WE CAN SEE." - Taoist Proverb |
| THE CHICAGO GOLDSMITH GROUP www.infinite-invisible.net
(Mezzanine Level) (Second Tuesday*) UNITY ON THE NORTH SHORE 3434 Central Ave., Evanston, IL (Fourth Tuesday*) 259 Skyline Dr., Carpentersville, IL Conducted by Bob Harper (* Of the Month) Meditation Starts 15 min. Before Meeting Time Conducted by Bob Harper MAIL AND TEL: Bob Harper, P.O. Box 337, Carpentersville, IL 60110 (847)428-4759, (847)710-4759 (cel.), (847)428-4835 (fax) bob_harper@sbcglobal.net |
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| February '08 Study Guide Photo From An Email Greeting Card |
| STUDY GUIDE AND SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES FEBRUARY 2008
JOEL S. GOLDSMITH: THE 1958 FIRST ADELAIDE CLOSED CLASS "How To Heal" Tape 2 Side 2 (Side 1, Continued) 12:30 P.M. VIRGINIA STEPHENSON: THE 1987 ASILOMAR RETREAT "Let Christ Build the House," Tape 2, Side 1 (No. 8723) ************************************************ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12- at UNITY ON THE NORTH SHORE - 7:30 P.M. VIRGINIA STEPHENSON: THE MONTHLY LESSONS OF 1995 February, 1995 Lesson: "Dwelling In the Atmosphere of Prayer" ************************************************ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17- at THE INN OF CHICAGO - 11:00 A.M. JOEL S. GOLDSMITH: THE 1955 JOHANNESBURG/ PRETORIA LECTURES "Introduction To the Infinite Way," Tape 1, Side 2 12:30 P.M. JOHN STEPHENSON: THE 2007 DALLAS CLASS "The Battle Is Not Yours," Tape 1, Side 2 (No. 0714) ************************************************ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26 - at 259 SKYLINE DR., CARPENTERSVILLE - 7:30 P.M. Class, and Tape: LUELLA OVEREEM: THE 1980 PHILADELPHIA CLASS "This Is A Spiritual Universe," Tape 2, Side 1 Listen at: Listen To This Tape ************************************************************************************************************************** STUDY CHAPTERS FOR FEBRUARY THE WORLD IS NEW, Chapter 3: "Essentials of Healing"; VIRGINIA STEPHENSON: THE MONTHLY LESSONS OF 1995, Feb.: "Dwelling In the Atmosphere of Prayer"; GOD FORMED US FOR HIS GLORY (‘78 Letters), Chapter 2, "The Meaning of Living Spiritually"; DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS Vol. II, by Luella Overeem: February, 1978 Lesson. ************************************************************************************************************************** ANNOUNCEMENTS JOHN STEPHENSON CLASS, FEBRUARY 15-19, HONOLULU, HAWAII SHERATON PRINCESS KAIULANI HOTEL, Reservations: 800-782-9488 Mention the John Stephenson Seminar for special rate. CONTACT: Kehaulani Coleman; at kehau_coleman@yahoo.com LUELLA OVEREEM TAPE AVAILABLE ON-LINE: You are invited to join us on 2-26 at 7:30 PM (or at your convenience) by listening to Luella’s tape, which is now available as an audio file on infinite-invisible.net. Just click on this link: Listen To This Tape! ****************************************************************************************************************************** EXCERPTS FROM TAPES FOR STUDY, PRACTICE, AND MEDITATION
JOEL S. GOLDSMITH: THE 1958 FIRST ADELAIDE CLOSED CLASS "How To Heal" Tape 2 Side 2 (Side 1, Continued) Our Scripture tells us that "God is a fortress." Now, the question is, would you like to take issue with God, with the Bible? Would you like to make the statement that that is not true, that God is our fortress, [that] "In Him we place reliance"? Is it not true that "God is a high tower"? Is it not true that, "we live and move and have our being in God"? We need God and matter, too? Do we need God and cement, too? Haven’t we proven, over and over again, that we don’t need God and medicine? … that we don’t need God and stone fortresses? "God is our fortress." That must be taken literally! God is a spirit, and God is infinite, and "nothing can enter God that defileth or maketh a lie;" and our life is "hid with Christ in God." Now, you see that without the practice of these truths, the Bible is nothing more nor less than a book on a table. It is not a living, demonstrable Word. Actually, it is true that "I and the Father are one," and therefore, I live in God and God in me, "I in thee, and Thou in me," for we are one. But just as you have to see that supply is invisible, health is invisible, so you have to see that safety and security are invisible properties of God, and you are in them. You "dwell in the secret place of the Most High," you don’t go there Sunday, exclusively. You are there morning, noon, and night. You dwell, you live in the secret place of the Most High. You live and move and have your being in God, if you realize that you, yourself, are invisible. You must remember that, "I am invisible. You do not see me, you are just looking up here at my body, and I am looking at yours. I can’t see you, unless, with my eyes closed, I can reach back inside of your eyes, and back there I’ll find you, and I can begin to tabernacle with you, and know you as you really are. I’ll never get to know you by looking outwardly at your form, and neither will you get to know me; for the form is but the visible evidence of me, just like the dollars are only the visible evidence of my supply. My supply is invisible, and I carry it wherever I go … . … If you destroy this form, I will still be here. ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’. … I is God, and I is the life of you, so I am the life of you." Do you see that? The whole secret of spiritual living has to do with the invisible; it has to do with your recognition of the fact that your life is invisible, it is "hid with Christ in God." For Meditation: "Sword cannot pierce It (Self), fire cannot burn It, water cannot wet It and air cannot dry It.It cannot be pierced, nor burned, nor wet, nor dried. It is eternal, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable, everlasting. This (Self) is said to be unmanifested, unthinkable, unchangeable; therefore knowing this to be so, thou shouldst not grieve." – Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita For Study: THE WORLD IS NEW, Chapter 3. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3- 12:30 P.M. VIRGINIA STEPHENSON: THE 1987 ASILOMAR RETREAT "Let Christ Build the House," Tape 2, Side 1 (No. 8723) How many times we have to repent. We find ourselves wandering outside in the world of effect, putting our faith and trust in "man whose breath is in his nostrils," or in jobs, or in the stock market, or in bonds, or in jobs, and yet, your good isn’t dependent on person, place thing or condition. It isn’t dependent on the stock market, it isn’t dependent on bonds or investments: your good is embodied in your relationship of oneness. Your health, your wealth, your success, fulfillment, is embodied in this relationship of oneness. So, "why seek the living among the dead?" Certainly dollars, stocks and bonds, investments, all those things are "dead". There has to be the consciousness to move them, and you are the Consciousness; and the movement is a spiritual movement, not a physical one or a mental one. It is a spiritual one, it is an impulse of divine love. Divine love requires no object. This is what makes it divine. It is impartial and universal. Divine love is like the sun: its function is to shine. This I of your being is the Son of God, and its purpose is to shine in love and as love. When you awaken, and turn within and seek satisfaction within, then you will have this love. It will flow through you and as you to bless everyone you meet. So, if you are seeking love, turn within to the I of your being, the living God, the living Son: God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, this One, this I. Whatever you are seeking, remember if you turn within, it is already is, in its essence and substance, within you. Don’t seek, though, person, place, or thing. Seek the reality, seek the source, recognize the source. God isn’t withholding from you, and God doesn’t give: God IS. This I AM that I am is omnipresent where you are. For Study: Virginia's Monthly Lesson For February, 2008; Subscriptions for Virginia’s Monthly Lessons: Leslie Lewis, 240 Makee Rd, #10A, Honolulu, HI 96815 (808)779-9817 llewis002@hawaii.rr.com *********************************************************************************************************************************** TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12 - at UNITY ON THE NORTH SHORE - 7:30 P.M.
"Dwelling In the Atmosphere of Prayer," February, 1995 Monthly Lesson Spiritual power is always an activity of inner silence, inner stillness. It is reflected in our character as stability and poise, the ability not to be ruffled by circumstances or appearances. It isn't something that is easily understood, but when we are confronted with appearances that need an intelligent solution, one perhaps that at the moment we might not be able to determine, the inner stillness and peace bring the necessary help into manifestation. Spiritual power coordinates the action without our doing anything. If it is necessary for us to have a proper understanding, we have it. If we need thoughts and words of comfort, they come. If there is something we must do, the idea comes into our awareness. Spiritual power works through the silence, through our receptivity, and its basis is the realization of who we really are. Jesus revealed our true identity as Spirit: "I and my Father are one."1 ... You must be born again of the spirit."2 This I in the midst of us is Spirit. It cannot be touched or seen. It is neither male nor female, although It can form Itself and express Itself as male or female. Paul said. "Ye are the temple of the living God."3 Let us take this first giant step out of physicality into spiritual identity now by realizing: I am aware of my body, which is Gods temple. God has built this temple of my being, of my body, out of spiritual substance, not out of matter, but out of Spirit. My body is the temple of Love. In the beginning, even before the world was, I had this identity with the Father. I was the expression then of His love, and I am the expression now of His love, and the substance of this expression is Spirit. I and the Father are one. I am that invisible reality. I am born again of the Spirit. I recognize that in my true identity I am Spirit, the image and likeness of Love. I recognize that my mind is an instrument of Love, all avenue of awareness through which Love expresses Itself as an understanding heart, as compassion. This Love is a universal dispensation. Did not Jesus say "your Father and my Father?"4 This is the innate goodness of God expressing Itself as the Son, or the Christ, of individual being. This is our true identity, this expression of God's goodness, God's love, and all by divine grace. It is the love of God expressed as the love of His creation. God so loved the world that He put His beloved Self, His beloved Child, in the world, that through this emanation or expression of Love the world could be freed of all condemnation.5 Contemplate the reality of not being a dweller in the body. Search yourself; take a few minutes to detect whether you can find yourself any place in your body, whether you are aware of being in the legs or in the torso or in the head. No one who seriously searches the body can find himself there: rather, each and everyone of us will realize: This is my body: it belongs to me. It is in my consciousness, and the consciousness that I am is one with God, the divine Consciousness. Now you are out of the body, "absent from the body and present with the Lord."6 I It is true that you have an awareness of your body. You will never lose your awareness of body, because it is God's temple, but you will no longer say that you are in your body, because you live and move and have your being in God, divine Consciousness. When we pray, we rise in consciousness; we rise in our awareness above the temple into that which built the temple, into the Consciousness that maintains the temple. As we ascend above the temple, it is like the incense that ascends in the physical temple called a church or mosque. As the incense rises to the highest point of the temple, so we rise Godward when we pray. We lift our vision up. It says in Scripture, "Look unto me, and be ye saved."7 This is thc prayer of ascension. We are ascending out of the frame of reference of physical sense. We are ascending above words and thoughts. We ascend into the secret place of the Most High, which is our true dwelling place. As we dwell "in the secret place of the Most High,"8 we dwell in the atmosphere of God. Its atmosphere is prayer, an atmosphere of peace, of poise, of love. While this is always all I individual experience, we all are dwelling in the same consciousness, the consciousness that God is one. One infinite Consciousness embraces each of us, and each of us is sheltered, protected, safe and secure in this Consciousness. "I and my Father are one."9 Jesus says, "I lay down my life, that I might take it again."10 We have laid down the physical sense of body, the physical appearance of life dwelling in the body, and we have ascended in the temple of our being to that secret place in which divine Love communicates Its peace, Its joy, and Its transforming power that awakens us to the realization of being created in His image and likeness. This power dissolves in us all animosity bigotry, jealousy, envy, lust-everything that would keep us yoked to physical sense -and fills us with a love that is pure and all- encompassing. This is answered prayer when, day by day through the renewing of the mind, we lift up the I out of the tomb of material sense and ascend into the secret place of the most High. Then all the earthly characteristics of the natural man fall away. We are unclothed and then clothed upon with the robe of peace and purity, gentleness and kindness. This transformation is accomplished "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord."11 For Meditation: "I do not have to fear for my body. The body is not physical, even though the senses interpret it as physical. That is a misconception that I must correct by realizing that Spirit can only create spiritual substance. Spirit can only manifest as love, as truth." V.S. For Study: THE FEBRUARY, 1995 MONTHLY LESSON, by Virginia Stephenson 1 John 10:30 – 2 See John 3:3-6 – 3 2 Corinthians 6:16 - 4 See John 20:17 – 5 See John 3:16 – 6 See 2 Corinthians 5:8 – 7 Isaiah 45:22 – 8 Psalm 91:1 – 9 John 10:30 – 10 John 10:17 – 11 Zechariah 4:6 *********************************************************************************************************************************** SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17- at THE INN OF CHICAGO- 11:00 A.M. JOEL S. GOLDSMITH: THE 1955 JOHANNESBURG/ PRETORIA LECTURES "Introduction to the Infinite Way," Tape 1, Side 2 Without battling sin or sinful desires, without battling disease or laws of disease, without battling for our livelihood, if we can begin in any given moment of the day or night, it could be this moment, to relax in the realization, "God is ONE. Beside Him, there is no other power, so I have nothing to fear what mortal man can do to me. I have nothing to fear what a mortal condition can do to me. No weapon that is formed against me can prosper. Why? In Him I live and move and have my being; and in Him is eternality of life, immortality of being, perfection, harmony, completeness, wholeness." Well, duality means twoness. The duality that perpetuates our discords is the belief in good and evil. If you believe in God and devil, if you believe in a power of God and a power of evil which God can do something to, or if you believe in the immortal and the mortal, or if you believe in the philosophical terms "good" and "evil," there you have the source of every discord that is in your experience. … Even if you accept it intellectually, even if you only agree with your mind that, "it makes sense that God is one, and God is all, and God is infinite, therefore, I do not have to fear what mortal man or mortal mind or mortal condition can do to me," if only you can accept that as an intellectual premise, and hold to it consistently for a week or a month or six weeks or nine weeks, you would find that the hard shell of the errors in your experience are beginning to crumble. You would find that by a persistent holding to this truth in your consciousness, "God is one, and beside Him there is no other. God is the only power, therefore, I do not have to fight the power of man, the power of beast, the power of condition, the power of circumstance. I accept God as infinite Being," and you watch what a few weeks of a consistent holding to that truth will do for whatever hard crust of error is disturbing the harmony of your existence. It has been, with us in our Work over these years, a demonstrable fact that GOD IS; and IF GOD IS, WHAT ELSE MATTERS? Do you really care for anything else on earth, if you could be assured within yourself – I don’t mean by me or by anybody else – I mean, if you can receive an assurance within your own being that God is, would you ever again fear, would you ever again doubt, would you ever again feel that it was of any concern to you whether temporarily you were "making your bed in hell," or whether temporarily you were "walking in the valley of the shadow of death?" Why, no! "Whither shall I flee from Thy spirit?" … "If I make my bed in hell, Thou art there." I will fear no evil. Why? Because Thou art there. Now, to be very truthful, everyone must face this, the great doubt in our hearts and souls is, "Is there really a God? Is there? I’d like to believe it. I’d love to believe it, but I haven’t seen too much evidence of it. Sometimes, I’ve even trusted it, and it didn’t come through." Most of the world, really and truly, while owning to a belief in God, actually don’t believe it, because if they did, they would lay down their armor, they would lay down the locks on their doors, they would lay down their protective medicines. They would say, "If God IS, isn’t that enough?" And that would be the answer to all life: God IS, and that is enough. For Meditation: "Prayer is the inner vision of harmony. This vision is attained by giving up the desire to change or improve anyone or anything." – Joel, Wisdom #7 For Study: GOD FORMED US FOR HIS GLORY (1978 LETTERS), Chapter 2. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 12:30 P.M. JOHN STEPHENSON: THE 2007 DALLAS CLASS "The Battle Is Not Yours," Tape 1, Side 2 (No. 0714) So, because that is our instruction, it is the instruction that Jesus gave his Disciples, to "be in the world but not of it." That is a little more the definition of what living the mystical life is. We are in this world, but we are not of this world, because this is a dimensional perception. Now, we can see three dimensions. We can experience, in our human sense, four dimensions, because scientists have defined time and space as the fourth dimension. That defines where we are in this mix as matter. But we can "feel" the fifth dimension, or whatever dimension spirit is. I don’t know, scientists have been coming up with so many dimensions for so many things! But to keep it simple, this fifth dimension is a dimension that is experienced beyond the sensory perception, and it is experienced beyond time and space. So what is time and space? The only thing that can be beyond that is NOW, because NOW is in this moment. Anything else is linear. A line begins with a point, so we can say that "nowness" is that point before a line begins, or it is that moment in which we experience eternity, being at once the center and circumference of this creation, when we have experience that mystical unity, that oneness. What this does, when we start thinking non-linear, it takes that conditioning of material cause and effect out of our awareness, or out of our acceptance as power or reality. Our conditioning is a result of the universal acceptance of material effect and putting a material cause to it. All of that conditioning, all of the scientific explorations that have in the past made our world better, and they are still trying to make our world better from a material perspective, but they all rely on cause and effect. Most of the time, a scientist observes an effect, and then they try to figure out what causes it. If they stay within the material realm, they examine and dissect and try to go into the tiniest atoms and particles of what constitutes "this world." The scientists who are really bridging the gap to mysticism are those scientists who have examined matter into its minutest area and found that there is no matter there, that it’s mind, that it is consciousness, really, that consciousness is interpreted through the mind. For Study: LIVING THE ILLUMINED LIFE, Chapter 1. *********************************************************************************************************************************** TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, at 259 SKYLINE DR., CARPENTERSVILLE - 7:30 P.M. Class and Tape: LUELLA OVEREEM: THE 1980 PHILADELPHIA CLOSED CLASS "This Is A Spiritual Universe," Tape 2 Side 1 Listen To This Tape at: Listen To This Tape! Question: "You said that one has no right to want to have a human relationship improved, and Joel said, ‘Our only desire should be to know God aright.’ How does this work?" Answer: "Well, there is nothing wrong with wanting to have good human relationships, it’s just that it’s not spiritual, it’s human! I’m sure that ever since the world began, people have wanted to have better relationships, and the churches, psychiatrists, all sorts of ways the world has used to try to improve relationships through helping people to be humanly good, and there’s nothing wrong with people being good. They will be when they have God realized; but to want to have a good relationship is wanting something separate and apart from God. You have to want the whole thing, you can’t want the little bits and pieces; you can’t want the ‘added things,’ the effects. You have to want nothing less than ALL of it, all of infinity, God. We can’t settle for anything less. Our only desire should be to know God aright, because when you know God aright, you have everything there is. There is nothing left outside of it, nothing but mirage, which is nothing. It’s all on the human level, when you are trying to be good or wanting a good relationship, or wanting health, or wanting peace on earth. You see, there is nothing wrong with having these things. What’s wrong is wanting them. Because when you want something that’s admitting that you don’t have it, and we have God. All we have to do is become aware of God. That’s the principle, the healing principle, the principle of supply: I HAVE. If you say ‘I don’t have,’ or ‘I need,’ that’s what you demonstrate: ‘don’t have.’ You demonstrate lack if that’s what you are acknowledging. You demonstrate exactly what you have the consciousness of, and if you believe that you need a better relationship with a person, that’s the same as say you don’t have a very good one, and that’s what you demonstrate. We have to drop all this, drop it, meaning to turn away from it, let go, and get our attention on God. God is the only presence. Everything you see, hear, feel, think, everything you can be aware of, it isn’t what it appears to be, it’s God. There is nobody but God. There’s no power but God, there’s no presence; and this is the truth of being. We don’t know it, fully, but we can acknowledge it, and acknowledge that what we want is more awareness, and since God constitutes individual being, there isn’t any person separate and apart from God. "Call no man on earth your father, for one is your father." There is only God: God is individualized as man. So, if you’re trying to have a relationship with another person, without having your oneness with God, you are dealing with a ‘branch’ that you’ve cut off the tree! The only desire we have a right to have is to know God aright. That’s a spiritual desire: we can desire anything spiritual." … [In regards to a person who has wronged us, or we have wronged them …] "Well, that, of course, isn’t true, either. There is no person that has done any evil, so there is no person who has ever wronged you, and you have never wronged any person. It appears that way. It appears as though we do things continually that are all wrong; but that’s an appearance, because we are believing that we’re a human being. It’s a concept of us. We don’t know our spiritual identity. We don’t know their spiritual identity. It’s an appearance that anyone has done anything evil. So, what we have to work with is the principle that God constitutes individual being. "I and my Father are one." It always comes back to that. There’s nobody but God. But you have to work with that, you have to keep studying the books. They’re all saying the same thing in every chapter, really: there’s just God. … Anything that you can be conscious of with your senses is not God, it’s just an effect. Same with activity: the only activity is God, so who is there to do any evil? What is it that appears as an evil act? It’s a misconception of God-activity, a misperception which is ‘seeing amiss,’ seeing a person that wasn’t God, seeing an action that wasn’t God. It’s all in the realm of the senses. But if we feel that we have wronged somebody, I’m sure that we would meditate, and if we made that contact within, I’m sure that we would see what needed to be done or said that would heal the situation. When you see the Christ of someone, when God is on the scene, the apparent evil is dissolved, just as much as a fever or a lump. Any hurt that we seem to receive or give, it’s all healed when we can go within and realize the Christ. I don’t mean that we ignore it. It’s only because of a lack of awareness that it’s happened, and as we become aware, it’s healed." [In regards to asking someone for forgiveness …] "Well, you have to receive that guidance within. You have to get that answer within yourself. But the point is that it all takes place within our own consciousness. There’s nobody out there, there’s only ONE. For Study: DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, Vol. II: February, 1978 Lesson. SIGNPOSTS "Matter" doesn’t matter. "You are the living light in every respect. From You all light shines." – Hildegard of Bingen "When you turn within you think you see a light. What you think is the light that you see in the inner world is the light that sees, not the light that can be seen. This is a different kind of light, not the kind of light that can be radiated from a source. This is the all-pervading light. Think of yourself as that light, then your aura will burn more brightly." – Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan |
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| by Luella Overeem: DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, Vol. II: February, 1978 Lesson |
