By Joel S Goldsmith

From the Introduction: Awake

"As a rule, progress on the spiritual path is so gradual that the entire way is a joy. Here and there, there will be experiences that are momentarily frightening because you had perhaps expected something different. For example, you may have thought that every day would be a joyous experience, whereas those periods are few, and the periods of barrenness and emptiness and the feeling that you are separated from God are many. Actually these are more necessary to your spiritual unfoldment than sitting on Cloud Nine, because without that complete barrenness you are a vessel already full, and nothing new can enter. You have to lose your concepts of God and what you expect of God.

"I wish I could use as a title for a book Santa Claus God because that is what the majority of the concepts of God are. Be assured that no one can enter the realm of the Soul with any such God in mind. You also have to leave behind all that you have heretofore expected of companionship in the human sense of companionship. You long to tell your companions what you are thinking and what you are doing, and you want to share your joys and your successes. That cannot be done on the mystical path because those who have not been there can have no way of being able to share them. Only rarely do you find a companion with whom you can share, and even then you discover that there are some things that must remain forever hidden."

Posted on November 25, 2009

"During your spiritual study, you will find some degree of improvement taking place in your life, but I can assure you that you never will find all that you are seeking humanly, because it does not lie within the nature of a spiritual teaching to give you all the human good things you think you would like. In some avenues of your life, you will experience improved health, increased supply, or some other form of human happiness, but you will not find the completeness that you expected. About the time you actually realize that it never is going to happen, you will likewise perceive the reason, which is that you have been praying amiss. You have been trying to patch up or improve this human existence and that is not the function of any spiritual message.

"It is very clear from the message of every mystic that the object of the spiritual path is that we may "die" to the human experience and be "reborn" of the Spirit. We learn that the spiritual kingdom—the real kingdom, the mystical kingdom— is not of "this world," not even when "this world" is healthy, wealthy and wise."

Posted on November 15, 2009