Joel S. Goldsmith (1892–1964)

Joel Goldsmith is one of the truly great spiritual authors.

At first I found this book to be slightly less impressive than others I’ve read by this author. But on re-reading it for purposes of this review I realized that I couldn’t give it less than 5 stars, and particularly when Goldsmith was writing about divine love, the most important thing in the Universe, that which we all contain, that which we all are, this book could not be of lesser value than others dealing with a lesser show more subject.

Goldsmith tells us that we must begin to see the Christ in everyone we meet, and “the world will begin to present a different picture to us”. People will act in a different way.

We are all “the holy one of Israel”. “Every saint and every devil is that holy one”.

We do not claim that a person’s human form and characteristics are the Christ. But we disregard the appearance of his humanhood and “behold the Christ looking out of his eyes silently, sacredly, secretly”.

“Love is not a sentimental attachment to mankind: love is a law; love is a mode of conduct, an attitude”. “Love is within ourselves … love is something that we let flow out from us”.

When I look at a person “I must look through him and realize that in the midst of him God is, and that God is living his life. I see in him the image and likeness of God, the presence of God, the glory of God”.

We are told that no matter how evil the person appears to be, we should look through that to the divinity which is at the centre of his being and say to ourselves “I love you as I love my Self, because my Self is your Self. God’s Self is my Self and God’s Self is your Self. There is only one spiritual Self”.

As we go about our day we should carry this message silently and secretly, “My peace I give unto you”, the Christ-peace. And in a few days people will begin to change their attitude to us.

The most sacred experience we can ever know is “the love of God flowing without limit or hindrance, the love we feel for God, which is God’s love flowing through us”.

“Love is the ability of the Christ in me to speak to the Christ in you.”

There is a chapter about spiritual marriage, how to express love to your family and upholding your loved ones spiritually.

We should take a five-minute period every day in which we meditate for a different member of our family. Go through the entire family. “Peace comes only when every member of your household is recognized as the son of God.”

“Divine love is that outpouring that asks no return, and seeks no reward.”

The author informs us that his entire aim has been to remove sin, disease and death from the earth.

Most of the things people hate and fear have no real power so the first thing to do is to stop hating and fearing what the world calls evil things.

Love will remove troubles from the world, not the kind of love that seeks a personal return, but the kind of love “that seeks to express its own integrity”.

We must learn to forgive injustice quickly and to forget offenses, realizing that God neither judges nor condemns, and that neither must we.

“Through my consciousness of love, God enters my home, my business, my nation, and this whole Universe”.

We should repeat the following prayer two or three times a day:

“In the name of the Father, peace; be still.
I bring no condemnation into this world. Because of my love for God and for my neighbour, may love flow through my consciousness and bless and forgive and uplift and free mankind – my enemy and my friend, that they may be free of lust and greed and hate and fear and doubt. May God’s love touch their consciousness and awaken their souls.”

As you will see, this book is divinely inspiring and reading it will raise our consciousness. show less

This book is on a par with Goldsmith's other books, i.e. of an equally high quality. He is now my favourite spiritual author, though I also highly appreciate Neville. After reading only a few pages of any of Goldsmith's books, I can feel a tangible elevation of consciousness, impossible for me to describe. I always read at least a chapter from one of his books before retiring.

This particular book differs from the author's other books in that the subject-matter is more specific - he explains show more to us in detail his system of meditation.

Firstly, it must be made clear that though many of us may think of meditation merely as a practice to enable us to find calm and harmony in our lives together with obtaining possible improvement in both our mental and physical health, Goldsmith's viewpoint was another. To his mind meditation was an absolutely essential practice (he spent 9 or 10 hours out of 24 in meditation) leading finally to "illumination, communion, and union" with God: he devoted his life to obtaining this union and to communicating his experiences and teachings.

The first third of the book deals with the "practice". The author states that anyone with "sufficient perseverance, application and fidelity" can "cultivate a Christ awareness". I found this first section to be extremely useful.

The second section dealing with "the experience" seemed a bit diffuse to me. But this remark has probably more to do with my own limitations as regards consciousness than anything else.

I found the third section, "the fruits", extremely inspiring. He describes union with God as a state where there no longer is any "I" - "There is no you; there is no I; there is only God being."

There are many wonderful writers on spiritual matters, but I know of no others whose teachings are at so high a level as those of Joel Goldsmith.

I would like to point out that in my opinion you do not have to be a Christian to appreciate this book - I am not. You just have to be able to look beyond the author's terminology.

I strongly recommend this work to all spiritually interested readers, particularly those with the ultimate spiritual goal - union with God. show less

This book, published in 1947, is generally regarded as the basic work presenting Goldsmith's spiritual system, The Infinite Way. I'm a great admirer of Goldsmith's other works, all the ones I've read so far, but I personally do not feel that this book has the same quality as his later works. I venture to say this though all the reviews of this book on the US Amazon site, at any rate, are rave reviews. I beg to differ.

One of the reasons for my lack of total appreciation for this book is that show more I like to have things spelt out for me. I don't comprehend vague, abstract sentences. In his later books I found Goldsmith's teachings crystal clear or practically so, though he does tend to contradict himself.

I particularly found the first chapters of the book insubstantial, incomprehensible, confusing or rambling IN PART. This was frustrating, as I like to understand things clearly. If I hadn't previously read a few of his later works, I might not have appreciated this book at all.

All this said, I did find his good, basic teachings to be contained in the book, of course: 1) "There is but one Consciousness, God." "As a wave is one with the ocean, so you are one with God." 2) "Meditation is the door to the realm of the soul." 3) Meditation is prayer, and the true prayer is the "contemplation of God and God-activities." 4) "'What is God?' ---- 'I AM'". 5) There is no evil, so we should cease our resistence to the inharmony of human existence. 6) When faced with a problem seek the solution within. 7) "The peace within becomes the harmony without." - a lovely concept (not just a concept, of course.)8) As regards "supply" - "the inner supply appears as the necessary outer things."

Chapter 10 summarizes the wisdom of the Infinite Way. This is a useful chapter, though it also contains unclear things. For example, he talks about "the dream" without defining what this is. I presume he means our earthly life that we regard as reality.

One statement I particularly appreciated was to the effect that if we consciously maintain our relationship with God, this will take care of everything else. (This is identical to the message of Esther & Jerry Hicks' Abraham - that the important thing is to maintain our connection with Source, in which case our lives will automatically run smoothly.)

If you already appreciate Goldsmith's works you'll want to read this one too, but if not, in direct opposition to all other reviewers,I would recommend that you begin with one of the later ones. show less

This review is from: "The Altitude of Prayer" (Collector's Edition Set of Books) (Hardcover):

Joel S. Goldsmith was originally associated with Christian Science, then abandoned it and struck out on his own. In the process of seeking more of God's presence, he became a true mystic, and his books, transcriptions of lectures given across the globe. Now you have a rare opportunity to experience the "pure gold" of his teaching on prayer, one of his favorite topics. This book will leave you show more breathless as it raises your spiritual consciousness to great heights. In his thoroughly logical style, Goldsmith addresses the age old question, How are we to speak that God may hear? Find out for yourself in this magnificant thesis on prayer. You won't be disappointed. show less