Attaining the Garden-of-Eden State of Consciousness – JSG

There are many persons who do not like cats and many who do not like dogs, and some who do not like animals at all. Certainly there are many who fear reptiles and wild beasts, but on the spiritual path we cannot remain in the world and of it: we must remain in it but not of it. We do not have to go out into the wilds and face reptiles or beasts physically, but right where we are, we face the part of the world that we like and the part that we do not like, and realize, “There is more to you than the eye beholds, and until I have developed the capacity of spiritual discernment, I will not know man or animal as he is in God, nor will I know the world as it is in God, and therefore I will never know what it is to live in the Garden of Eden.”
The Garden of Eden does not exist in time; the Garden of Eden does not exist in space; and it does not even exist in the future for us. There is no place where we can find it, nor even in some spots on the face of the globe where it is claimed the Garden of Eden once was. The truth is that the Garden of Eden was never in any particular place because the Garden of Eden is a state of divine consciousness. We live in It here and now in proportion as we can discern the nature and character of man as he is in the image and likeness of God and as we can discern the mountains, valleys, trees, streams, and oceans as they are as God’s creation.
God’s creation is spiritual. As the inner faculty of discernment is developed we will begin to see spiritually, hear spiritually, and know spiritually, all of which constitutes discernment. “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Phillip?” “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?…But whom say ye that I am?” Are we seeing Jesus as a man? Are we seeing our husband, our wife, or our child as man, woman, or child, or do we have eyes that really see? Do we have ears that really hear? Do we have a power of discernment that transcends the five physical senses?
On this point hinges the entire spiritual life, and on this point hinges spiritual healing. With the five physical senses, that is, with the human mind, we would be more than foolish if we stated that there is no sin, disease, or death in the world, or if we were to say there is no lack, limitation, or stupidity. Once spiritual discernment has been attained, even in a small measure, however, we begin to perceive God’s creation right where mortality appears to be, and this constitutes the healing consciousness. The difference between a student who is doing spiritual healing work and the rest of the world is that those doing healing work have attained enough of spiritual discernment to see through the appearance to the world, the man, and the law of God’s creating, whereas the world as a whole judges entirely by appearances.
~ Joel Solomon Goldsmith