Illusion

“The nature of error is purely an illusion. That was the great discovery of Gautama, the Buddha. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t the Buddha, he was Gautama until that second when, sitting under the Bodhi Tree, the still, small Voice spoke to him. Do you recall why he was sitting there? He was looking for a remedy to sin, disease, death, and poverty. The Voice said, ‘‘This is all an illusion.” From that moment, Gautama was Gautama, the Buddha or Enlightened One or Messiah or Christ.

The very moment that Gautama knew that there was no sin, disease, or death—that they were an illusion—in that moment he was the Enlightened One, the Messiah. The very moment that you perceive that there is neither good nor evil, then your function as a healer is not to remove or heal disease, or to believe that God heals disease, or that there are some formulas or affirmations that will remove disease. You will know the Truth that this whole mortal creation, whether it’s healthy or sick, wealthy or poor, is all made up of the belief in good and evil. Now, in proportion as you overcome it, you know neither health nor disease, neither wealth nor poverty. You just know the Garden of Eden—a continuous outpouring of spiritual harmony.

You may never have an extra thousand dollars in the bank, but neither will you have a need for it. If you have, it will be there, because God appears in infinite form, at any given moment—but not unless you know the Truth, not unless you know that it is only the belief in good and evil that throws you out of the Garden of Eden. You will never be a spiritual healer while you believe there are two powers, the power of God and the power of sin or disease or lack or astrology or diet.

You will never be a spiritual healer until you know that we don’t need any power. Nobody needs any power. God is maintaining His spiritual universe eternally and there is nothing wrong with it. There is something wrong with us. The belief in good and evil, in good powers and evil powers, in good conditions and evil conditions—these beliefs throw us into what we call the second chapter of Genesis, or material creation. There you find not God as the Creator but something that is called Lord God.

Lord, it is said, is synonymous with Law. In other words, you are under the law. That is the power you are under—law—when you are in the second chapter of Genesis. When you are in the first chapter of Genesis, you are under Grace. How can you get under Grace? Give up the belief in good and evil, and you find Grace permeates your entire being. Grace supports you, Grace heals you, Grace maintains you and sustains you. Grace is the power that goes before you to make the crooked places straight. Grace is all about you, and yet you have no more awareness of it than a fish has of water. The fish is swimming in it but doesn’t know it. A bird knows nothing about air, but it’s flying through it. You’ll never find one, though, that will tell you so.

So it is with us: when we are in a state of spiritual health, we not only don’t know disease, but we don’t know health. We only know that we are harmonious, normal, free—and that’s all we know. How can a healthy man describe health? He can’t do it, because he doesn’t know it. He only knows that he is in it, whatever it may be, and that it’s nice to be in it.”

~ Joel S. Goldsmith (1892-1964) was born in New York City. From early adulthood, he had many spiritual experiences. He spent many years in spiritual studies, reading original scriptures in Aramaic, Greek and Sanskrit. After serving in the Marines during World War I, Goldsmith returned to work in the garment district of New York City where he owned his own business. In 1928, Goldsmith began to have strangers approach him on the street asking for prayer and healing. He had no religious training whatsoever, but these people were healed.

To seek answers to this phenomenon, Goldsmith first entered the Christian Science Church and worked at Rikers Island prison as a First Reader. After 16 years, he left the Christian Science Church and moved to Boston, where he set up his own office. He later moved to California before World War II and maintained a successful healing practice there. In 1948 Goldsmith wrote the book, "The Infinite Way", He taught practical mysticism, which he called The Infinite Way. Goldsmith stressed contemplative meditation in short frequent periods throughout the day. Joel taught that through inner silence one would hear the still small voice and receive intuitive guidance. His teaching also stressed spiritual healing through conscious contact with God.