Joel Goldsmith ~ Christian Science Author – The Mystical I – Chpt 1

T HE M YSTICAL
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:
if any man hear my voice, and open the door,
I will come in to him,
and I will sup with him, and he with me.
Revelation 3:20
CHAPTER ONE
I STAND AT THE D OOR
CCT stand at the door, and knock.”\' Who is this /* standing
1 at the door? And at what door is this I standing? At
what door but the door of your consciousness? / stand at the
door of your consciousness and knock, but you must open
the door and admit Me, for “I am the bread of life.
2
. . . I am
the way, the truth, and the life
3
. . . . I am the resurrection,
and the life
4
. . . . I am come that you might have life, and
that you might have it more abundantly.”
5
That I that is standing at the door of your consciousness
and knocking is the I that has come that you might have the
life more abundant. When you admit that I into your consciousness, you have admitted life eternal: the bread of life,
the water of life, and the wine of life. You have admitted into
your consciousness the power of resurrection: the resurrec-
2 TH E M Y STIC A L I
tion of your body, your home, your marriage, your fortune,
and your business. Only when you admit I into your consciousness, do you admit into yourself the secret of life.
When you acknowledge that that I in the midst of you is
mighty, you are not speaking of a man or of any person: you
are speaking of the I, I.
Close your eyes and within yourself, silently, sacredly,
secretly, and gently say the word, “I, I. \"That / in the midst
of you is mighty. That I in the midst of you is greater than
any problem in the outside world. That Zin the midst of you
is come that you might have life and might have it more
abundantly. That I has been with you since “before
Abraham was,”
6 awaiting your recognition and your
acknowledgment.
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?”
7 Know ye
not that the name of God is I, or I Am, and that you are the
temple of God only when you have admitted / into your
consciousness and held It there secretly, sacredly, gently,
peaceably, so that at any moment you can close your eyes and
just remember /?
This I that is in the midst o f me is life eternal. This I that
is within me is the He that is mighty.t
W hen Jesus speaks of the Father within and when Paul
speaks of the Christ that dwells in him, they are speaking of
the I Am, the very I that you are, the / that you have just
announced, that is in the midst of you.
I STA N D AT TH E D O O R 3
THE P ERSONAL SENSE
OF I AND THE D lV IN E I
The way to avoid suffering from a dose of egotism and
to differentiate between the egotistical I— the I that believes
it has power, that it has sufficient wisdom to run the world
or even sufficient wisdom to run its own life— and this I in
the midst of every one of us, this gentle I that you are voicing, is to remember that you cannot use or influence God,
but by your yielding to that divine I, God can use you.
God can influence, guide, direct, feed, clothe, and house
you. Your heavenly Father, the / that you are, knows that you
have need of these things, and it is His good pleasure to give
you the kingdom.
8 Therefore, if the ego strikes at you so that
even for a moment you believe God is subject to your will,
remember quickly that it is not your will that is to be done,
but God’s will, and God’s will can be done only in the degree
of your yielding to this I that is within you.
THE RESURRECTING P OWER OF 1
When you hold the word / in your consciousness, no evil
can come nigh your dwelling place, and even though you are
crucified, you will be resurrected. If the temple of your body
is destroyed, in three days I will build it up again.
9
I will
build it— not the personal sense of I, but I will build it up
again. Your little “I” must be still so that / in the midst of you
4 TH E M Y STIC A L I
can perform Its mighty works.
If your business is lost, if your house or your family is
lost, in three days— probably not literally three days, but in
a short length of time—I in the midst of you will raise it up
if only you can be still, not resist the evil, not fight the danger that threatens you, and let that I that you are, that I that
is your true identity, take over. Whether the problem comes
in the form of sin or disease, lack or drought, depression or
business recession, it has only the “arm of flesh.”
Sometimes the mesmerism of the world is so strong that
almost any person may come under its influence, but as long
as he maintains his oneness with the source of Life which is
I Am, even though temporarily his “temple” be wrecked, in
three days it will be raised up again.
R ELEASING THE
SPIRITUAL G LORY
The message of the Infinite Way is wholly dedicated to
admitting the presence of the Christ into consciousness, and
letting It transform us from the human sense of life to the
spiritual, not merely changing a bad human sense of life to a
good human sense of life. Our interest is not in that direction. Our interest is in surrendering the whole of material
sense, even when it is good, and receiving in exchange our
divine sonship. The goal of the Infinite Way is to become the
son of God, not merely a healthy human being, a good
1 S TA N D AT TH E D O O R 5
human being, or a wealthy human being, but rather to show
in our daily experience our spiritual nature, that which actually was given to us in the beginning: “the glory which I had
with thee before the world was,” the spiritual glory. That is
what we are praying for.
“I stand at the door, and knock”
10 means that the presence and power of God, the Christ, stands at the door of
your consciousness seeking admittance. Your function is to
answer, “Enter, Lord. ‘Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.’
11
I am opening the door of my consciousness that the Christ,
the son of God, may enter, that the Spirit may be upon me,
and that I may be redeemed. Thy grace is my sufficiency;
therefore I am not here seeking health, wealth, harmony, or
peace. It is only Thy grace and Thy will that I seek, that Thy
Spirit may be upon me, within me, shining through me, and
then let It take whatever form It will.”
In your human experience, the presence of God may
seem to have done nothing for you, but now open your
consciousness specifically that the spirit of God may enter
and perform Its will within you. This opening of consciousness is prayer, or contemplative meditation. You are
contemplating truth, acknowledging the presence and
power of God, acknowledging that the Lord is standing at
the door awaiting your invitation to enter and to transform
your life, not as you would have it transformed, but as it
will be transformed when the spirit of God makes you over
into Its image and likeness.
6 TH E M Y STIC A L I
RESTO RIN G THE LOST YEARS
“He performeth the thing that is appointed for me.”
12
The promise does not say that God will do what you would
like to have done: the promise is that God will perform that
which He has appointed for you. Since you cannot read the
mind of God, you must turn within in this realization:
“ ‘Not my will, but thine, be done.’
13 Whatever it is that I am
ordained to do, whatever it is Thou hast for me, Thou performest for me, within me, through me.” Then take a period
for listening so that the Spirit may be upon you and continue to perform Its work through you.
It is true that, just as you can with physical force accomplish a great deal that you would like to do, so you can with
mental force also accomplish much that you would like to
do; but if you wish to be under the law of God and the grace
of God, it is necessary that you accept God as the divine
intelligence of this universe, and not seek to inform, tell, or
advise It. Rather be still, and know that I at the center of
your being am God, and then rest in confidence that His will
is being done in you.
Be still! Do not pray with words; do not pray with
thoughts; be still! Let the Christ enter and purify, redeem,
wipe clean, and restore “the years that the locust hath
eaten.”
14 Let the Christ do it: do not try to help, inform, or
instruct It. Be still!
It will gently remind you: “I stood at the door and
1 STA N D AT TH E D O O R 7
knocked, but now the door is opened, and I am within. I am
‘closer. . . [to you] than breathing, and nearer than hands and
feet.’”
15 That I is the very presence and power of God, the
very spirit of God, and It, the All-knowing, is within. Do
you know why It is there? Do you know why this Christ, the
spirit of God, is come to you?
The Master gave the reason: “I am come that they might
have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” I,
the presence of God, I, who am standing at the door and
knocking, I, whom you have admitted into your consciousness, /am come within you that you might have life and have
it more abundantly. Your function is to rest and relax in this
truth that the presence of God within you is there for that
one purpose.
It makes no difference what your past life has been, or
what your present life is, up to the moment of admitting the
Christ. Do not be concerned or worried about your past mistakes, errors, or sins; they are not being counted against you.
For each person, as the Christ enters, the past no longer
exists: past sins are forgiven and wiped out, along with the
penalty for them, and a new day begins. “Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”
16 Therefore do
not burden yourself with guilt complexes. Make whatever
form of restitution or expression of regret is possible for any
past offense, but then drop it. Drop it!
You cannot live yesterday again; you cannot live even an
hour ago, and all you do is torture yourself by bringing the
8 TH E M Y STIC A L I
memory of yesterday into today. If you do not bring it there,
it can never get there, because yesterday is gone, and it can
be revived only in memory. No one can do that but you, and
no one can drop it but you. In the moment that you admit
the Christ, yesterday is gone, and the capacity for sin, for
error, or for committing offenses of any kind has also gone.
In His presence is fulfillment; in His presence is peace; in His
presence is harmony. There cannot be the presence of God in
you and the capacity for error. That cannot be! You either
exclude Me, the spirit of God, the Christ of God, or you
admit Me: “I stand at the door, and knock.”
“Choose you this day whom ye will serve!”
17 Open your
consciousness— “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.” Let
this be repeated ten, twenty, or thirty times a day, until the
Christ has so filled you and so fills every nook and cranny of
your consciousness that there is no room even for a remembrance of yesterday. Then the Christ which you have admitted restores to you whatever it is that you have lost of peace,
harmony, health, abundance, happiness, or companionship.
All is restored, and in a more fulfilling way than before,
because heretofore you had these things only materially. Now
you will have them spiritually, and that means without limit
and without harm or destruction to another.
When you are fulfilled through the presence and power
of God and God’s grace, it is not at anyone else’s expense nor
at the cost of his loss or destruction; rather, what benefits you
benefits all who come within range of your consciousness.
1 STA N D AT TH E D O O R 9
We do not take from one another; we share, and what we
share is that presence of the Christ within us: “Son. . . all that
I have is thine.”
18
And now the Christ within says, “My peace I give unto
you.” That voice within speaks to you and says, “My
peace”
19— that is, spiritual peace— “I give unto you”— not the
peace that the world gives. If you are looking for the peace of
the world, do not go to the Christ for it, because the peace
that I, the Christ, give you is a peace that the world cannot
give. The world might flood you with money, honors, or
fame; but it will leave you hollow inside, unsatisfied, incomplete. But when you feel My peace, you will feel it abundantly, permanently, joyously, a peace that passes human
understanding. Then you will understand why “My grace is
sufficient for thee.”
20 There is no lack where Gods grace is.
“My peace I give unto you” is spoken from within you to
you, from the center of your being out to the circumference:
My wholeness I give unto thee; My immortality I give unto
thee; My infinity I give unto thee. Never do I withhold: all
this is thine. Allness is the measure of God’s gifts to individual you and me as we open ourselves to receive them.
GIV IN G N ESS A S A M EASURE OF RECEPTIVITY
When the grace of God is upon you, can you not realize
that you are a light unto all those who are in darkness? You
are safety to those who are in danger; you are healing and
io TH E M Y STICAL I
health to those who are sick; yon are prosperity to those who
are poor, not by virtue of yourself—of yourself you are nothing— but by the grace of God which is within, by the spirit
of God that is upon you. You are ordained to heal the sick,
to raise the dead, to help the poor by the spirit of God to
which you have opened yourself. Then all those who reach
out to your consciousness receive that same spiritual blessing
in proportion to their receptivity.
But how can they become more receptive to God, to the
Christ, to this spiritual influence? How can you become
more receptive? By increasing your givingness. Receptivity is
attained only through giving, through pouring out from the
center of your being, and the more you give, the more receptive you are to the grace, the presence, and the healing power
of God. W hat you have to give is an individual matter. The
question that comes to you then is, “How am I to give? Out
of what? I have so little.”
And the answer is, “That is not true. You have much to
give. You have the grace of God; you have all of God, for
God has given you all of Himself.”
The Master has told us some of the things that can be
given: forgiveness, prayer. Learn to give forgiveness over and
over and over again to your friends and to your enemies. You
can pray; you can pray for your enemies. This is another
form of giving: praying that your enemies be released from
penalties, praying that their consciousness be opened to the
light, praying that their sins be forgiven them, even as you
I S TA N D AT TH E D O O R IT
would have your sins forgiven you.
Receptivity is the key to spiritual attainment, and receptivity is attained through givingness. If you have a little
change or more than a little to give, give and share it where
you will. Remember, however, that givingness is not only the
giving of material things, but is your attitude of forgiving,
benevolence, peace, and good will toward all men. This is the
real givingness: good will toward men, setting all men free,
and holding no one in condemnation. It does not mean that
you are not aware of the sins that are going on around you; it
means that you stop holding man in condemnation to them.
In opening consciousness, a presence comes in. You may
not at first be aware of It as an actual presence, but eventually you will, because It is a presence, It is a spirit. You do not
see It, hear It, taste It, touch It, or smell It, but you experience It, and as It floods you It brings healing of mind and
body. It brings purification to a decadent moral sense; It
brings with It a greater integrity; It washes you clean of the
negative thoughts and feelings which none of us enjoy having, but which even the best of us have.
SECRECY I MPERATIVE
Those who learn that I at the center of their being stand
at the door of consciousness and knock, those who open their
consciousness and let this I in, must then close their mouths
so that It does not escape. Always keep that I sacred and secret
12 TH E M Y STIC A L I
within yourself and watch your life become transformed.
Then, as you find those who you yourself discover are truly
seeking this way of life, do not hesitate to share with them the
secret. To others give a cup of cold water, but be sure that you
are not offering them the “pearl”
21 of great price, which this
is, because by prematurely letting this secret out of your own
consciousness you can sometimes lose it. It is possible to lose
it for yourself and never regain it again in this experience.
When I impart this work to you, I am merely planting
in your consciousness the seed of truth. It is you who must
hold this seed of truth deep in your consciousness. Nurture
it by consciously remembering it; nurture it by consciously
declaring it within yourself; nurture it by keeping it sacred
and secret within you, never forgetting under any circumstances to let your last word at night be, “Thank You, Father,
for the / that dwelleth in me.”
R EPENTANCE, THE W AY OF RETURN
It is never the /, the I Am, God, that deserts you; it is
never This that abandons you. There is no sin that you could
commit deep or scarlet enough that would compel God, the
I Am, to forsake you. The sins you commit compel you to
forsake God because you cannot face Him with the sins.
Once you know this, you will face Him again with repentance because scripture reveals that the way of return to your
conscious oneness with God is through repentance.
I STA N D AT TH E D O O R 13
Look to the Master within you and say, “Forgive me.”
Acknowledge the wrong, whether in spoken words or just
through the eyes. Let the Master know that you are ready to
be taken back to heaven, and then you will find that you are
again one with the Father. Though your sins have been scarlet, they will be white as snow the moment you close your
eyes and look within to the I: “Father, forgive me, I knew not
what I was doing.” Like the Prodigal Son, you will find that
as you reach out one per cent of the way toward your Father’s
house, your Father will come out the other ninety-nine per
cent of the way to meet you, to robe you and ring you once
again with the royal robe and the royal ring.
Everyone has sinned. No one is without sin. Even those
who consider themselves the most righteous have sinned
even though they may be ignorant of how they sinned. But
they have; we have; and perhaps even now we are sinning.
This can make no separation between us and our Father,
however, because if we have sinned seventy times seven we
can still look up and say, “Father, forgive me. I knew not
what I was doing.’’And as long as we turn to the Father, to
that I, we are once more at one with our source, because I
Am is our Father.
If there should be any temptation to sin, to be sick, or to
die, any temptation to yield to any discord on earth, any
temptation to falter if you are called upon to face thieves,
burglars, or murderers, and if at that moment you hold this
I sacredly within you, I can assure you no harm will come
14 THE M Y STIC A L I
nigh your dwelling place because you are dwelling in “the
secret place of the most High.”
22
If you will live in the consciousness of this I abiding in
you, you will find that you and your Father are consciously one. This means that you are one with infinite individual power; you are one with infinite individual wisdom;
you are one with infinite guidance. You are one with all
that God is as long as you are dwelling in that “secret
place,” keeping this great truth so sacred within that no one
can tell that you know it, except that by the look on your
face he will know you have discovered the mystery of life
and found peace everlasting.
M Y PEACE
Men have tried to achieve peace: peace of mind, peace of
soul, peace of body. They have tried to find security and safety in every material way there is under the sun, and yet the
world today has less of peace than ever in its history. The
world has less of safety and security than at any time ever
before, and there is only one reason. The world is further
away today than it has ever been from acknowledging that it
is / who have been standing at the door and knocking.
I f you admit Me and abide in Me and let Me abide in you,
then I am your safety, your security, yourpeace, your meat, wine,
and water.
“My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I
1 S TA N D AT TH E D O O R 15
unto you. ” Where does this “My peace”come from exceptfrom
Me, and how would it comefrom Me i f I. were not in you? I in
thee, and thou in Me. As you abide in this conscious realization
that I abide in you, you abide in Me, and we are one. Then all
that I, God, am becomes your experience. All that I have
becomes yours. All My peace becomes your peace.
“My kingdom is not o f this world. ” “My kingdom, ” the
kingdom o fthe I that I Am, My kingdom, the Christ kingdom,
the spiritual kingdom, is not o fthis world. “My thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. ”My peace I give
unto you because I am within you, and you are within M e,for
we are one.
All this is that I speaking to you, the very I that has been
knocking at the door o f your consciousness, seeking admittance since “before Abraham was.”
23 When you have admitted that I into your consciousness, then all the I is, you are.
All the I has is yours.
For this reason, as we meet together for a spiritual purpose,
we can share with one another. Whatever of divine grace touches one consciousness is immediately a part of the consciousness
of everyone who is receptive. We are gathered in one place, in
one mind, in one spirit, all of one household. As the Holy
Ghost descends upon one of us, it touches the receptive
thought of everyone who is present, for we are one family.
That which unites us and makes of us one family is our
admitting into our consciousness the I that has stood at the
door and knocked.
16 TH E M Y STIC A L I
O PEN THE D O O R OF
THE C O N SC IO U SN E S S OF THE W ORLD
All the evil of the world has come about because of a
sense of separation from God. We have accepted man on
earth and God in heaven, and thereby have separated ourselves in belief from God, instead of being able to walk up
and down this world knowing:
I and the Father are so one that i f I stand before Pilate, I
can say, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except
it were given theefrom above. ”
Before Pilate, the greatest temporal power of the universe? Yes, even he could have no power over us unless it were
given him of God. Daniel could walk into the lion’s den, and
the lions could do nothing to him because he held aloft the
I and knew that I in the midst of him was mighty.
You, too, can face any situation that arises in your life—
anything from a family situation to a national or international situation— if you can learn to sit quietly and lift up the
I. Lift up the I, and realize that as long as you are abiding in
that I, as long as you are abiding in that Presence, no evil can
come nigh your world.
In My presence isfulfillment. In My presence isfullness o f
light, and as long as you have that Presence lifted up in you, evil
not only cannot come nigh your dwelling place, it cannot come
nigh your entire world.
We do not have to wait for three billion people to learn
I STA N D AT TH E D O O R 17
this truth in order to save the world, A little handful of us
can uphold this I, can live with this Zwithin us, and face the
world with It. Watch the evils of this world dissolve, the evils
in personal enemies, national and international enemies. But
to witness this, somebody must hold up the banner of I;
somebody must admit the I that is knocking at the door of
the consciousness of this whole world seeking entrance.
Now let us go beyond each one of us individually and let
us remember that this I that is knocking at the door of the
entire world at this minute and begging to be admitted is
God. What we must do—a little group of us— is to open this
world to the presence of I. Open the door and say, “Father,
come in, for in Thy presence there is no warfare. In Thy presence is peace. In Thy presence is fulfillment.” Open the door
of your consciousness. Open the door of this universe and
admit God, for this world is suffering from only one thing:
the absence of God.
All the while It, the presence of God, is saying to us, \"I
am standing at the door begging, begging to be admitted.”
All we have to do is open our consciousness and say, “Father,
enter. Enter this world; enter human consciousness.” Let us
acknowledge that there is an I knocking at the door of this
world. Let us open the door and admit God, and you will
soon see how rapidly the sins, the diseases, the lacks, and the
limitations of this world will disappear.
In My presence is fulfillment. My peace I give unto you,
but how can I give it to you, if you do not admit Me into
i8 | THE M YSTICAL I
your consciousness? How can / give it to you?
Open the door of your consciousness; open the door of
the consciousness of this world and let the Father in. Then
watch this silent, sacred, secret influence as It permeates all
human consciousness and eventually reveals peace. Peace will
not come through man. Peace will not come through
treaties. Peace will not come through armaments. Peace will
not come through disarmament. Peace will come only
through opening the door of consciousness and letting Me,
the Father, in.
The material in this volume first appeared in the form of letters sent to students of the Infinite Way throughout the world as an aid to the revelation and
unfoldment of the transcendental Consciousness through a deeper understanding
of scripture and the principles of the Infinite Way. —Ed.
*The word I, italicized, refers to God, as does the work Me, capitalized.
* In the spiritual literature of the world, the varying concepts of God are
indicated by the use of such words as “Father,” “Mother,” “Soul,” “Spirit,”
“Principle,” “Love,” and “Life.”The author, therefore, has used the pronouns “He”
and “It,” or “Himself” and “Itself,” interchangeably in referring to God.
t The italicized elements in this book are spontaneous meditations which
have come to the author during periods of uplifted consciousness and are not in
any sense intended to be used as affirmations, denials, or formulas. They have
been inserted here from time to time to serve as examples of the free flowing of
the Spirit. As the reader practices the Presence, he too, in his exalted moments,
will receive ever new and fresh inspiration as the outpouring of the Spirit.