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    The Impersonal Life
    The Impersonal Life
    The Impersonal Life
    Ebook125 pages2 hours

    The Impersonal Life

    By Joseph Benner

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    About this ebook

    Originally published anonymously in 1914, “The Impersonal Life” is Joseph Benner’s classic work of Christian spiritualism which was influenced by the New Thought movement, a religious movement of the later part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. Central to the New Thought movement is the idea that God resides in all things and that through the power of positive thinking one can attract the success and contentment that one desires. It is Benner’s intent to bring to the reader’s attention “the true spirit that resides in every human being”, that the individual is essentially inseparable from God’s divinity. Benner argues that only by leading an impersonal life, a life which recognizes that God is represented in each and every one of us, one can truly experience the glory of God. The impersonal life is a life aware of the idea that one’s identity is inseparable from the light of God and that through this acknowledgment one can experience the peace that emanates from all that is God’s creation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateApr 17, 2018
    ISBN9781420957105
    The Impersonal Life

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    The Impersonal Life - Joseph Benner

    cover.jpg

    THE IMPERSONAL LIFE

    By JOSEPH BENNER

    The Impersonal Life

    By Joseph Benner

    Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-5709-9

    eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-5710-5

    This edition copyright © 2018. Digireads.com Publishing.

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

    Cover Image: a detail of Unidentified Biblical Scene, by Patrick Nicolle / Private Collection / © Look and Learn / Bridgeman Images.

    Please visit www.digireads.com

    CONTENTS

    Chapter One. I Am

    Chapter Two. Be Still! and Know I Am God

    Chapter Three. I, Life, God

    Chapter Four. Consciousness, Intelligence, Will

    Chapter Five. The Key

    Chapter Six. Thinking and Creating

    Chapter Seven. The Word

    Chapter Eight. My Idea

    Chapter Nine. The Garden of Eden

    Chapter Ten. Good and Evil

    Chapter Eleven. Use

    Chapter Twelve. Soul Mates

    Chapter Thirteen. Authority

    Chapter Fourteen. Mediums and Mediators

    Chapter Fifteen. Masters

    Chapter Sixteen. The Christ and Love

    Chapter Seventeen. Finding Me

    Chapter Eighteen. Union

    Chapter One. I Am

    To you who read, I speak.

    To you, who, through long years and much running to and fro, have been eagerly seeking, in books and teachings, in philosophy and religion, for you know not what—Truth, Happiness, Freedom, God.

    To you whose Soul is weary and discouraged and almost destitute of hope.

    To you, who many times have obtained a glimpse of that Truth only to find, when you followed and tried to reach it, that it disappeared in the beyond, and was but the mirage of the desert.

    To you, who thought you had found it in some great teacher, who was perhaps the acknowledged head of some Society, Fraternity or Religion, and who appeared to you to be a Master, so marvelous was the wisdom he taught and the works he performed;—only to awaken later to the realization that that Master was but a human personality, with faults and weaknesses, and secret sins, the same as you, even though that personality may have been a channel through which were voiced many beautiful teachings, which seemed to you the highest Truth.

    And here you are, Soul aweary and enhungered, and not knowing where to turn—

    To you, I AM come.

    And likewise to you, who have begun to feel the presence of that Truth within your Soul, and seek the confirmation of that which of late has been vaguely struggling for living expression within.

    Yes, to all you who hunger for the true Bread of Life, I AM come.

    Are you ready to partake?

    If so, then arouse yourself. Sit up. Still your human mind and follow closely My Word herein spoken. Or you will turn away disappointed once more, with the aching hunger still in your heart.

    I!

    Who am I?—

    I, Who speak with such seeming knowledge and authority?

    Listen!

    I AM You, that part of you who IS and KNOWS;

    WHO KNOWS ALL THINGS,

    And always knew, and always was.

    Yes, I AM You, Your SELF; that part of you who says I AM and is I AM;

    That transcendent, innermost part of you which quickens within as you read, which responds to this My Word, which perceives Its Truth, which recognizes all Truth and discards all error wherever found. Not that part which has been feeding on error all these years.

    For I AM your real Teacher, the only real one you will ever know, and the only MASTER;

    I, your Divine SELF.

    I, the I AM of you, bring to you this My Message, My living Word, as I have brought to you everything in life, be it book or Master to teach you that I and I alone, your own True Self, AM The Teacher for you, the only Teacher and the only God, Who is and always has been providing you not only with the Bread and Wine of Life, but with all things needed for your physical, mental and spiritual growth and sustenance.

    Therefore that which appeals to YOU, as you read, is MY Message, spoken to your outer human consciousness from within, and is but a confirmation of that which the I AM of you always knew within, but had not yet translated in definite, tangible terms to your outer consciousness.

    Likewise, all that ever appealed to You, coming from some outward expression, was but the confirmation of My Word already spoken within. The outward expression was the avenue or means I chose at the time through which to reach and impress your human or self consciousness.

    I AM not your human mind, nor its child, the intellect. They are but the expression of your Being, as you are the expression of My Being; they are but phases of your human personality, as You are a phase of My Divine Impersonality.

    Weigh and study carefully these words.

    Rise up and free yourself now and for always from the domination of your personality, with its self-inflated and self-glorifying mind and intellect, now and for always.

    For your mind henceforth must be Your servant, and the intellect Your slave, if My Word is to penetrate to your Soul consciousness.

    I AM come now to your Soul consciousness, which I have quickened expressly in preparation for the reception of My Word.

    Now, if you are strong enough to bear it;

    If you can put aside all your private personal fancies, beliefs and opinions, which are but the rubbish you have gathered from the dumping grounds of others;

    If you are strong enough to cast them all away;—

    Then My Word will be to you a source of endless Joy and Blessing.

    Be prepared to have this personality of yours doubt My Word as you read It all along the way;

    For its very life is threatened, and it knows it cannot live and thrive and longer dominate your thinking, your feelings, your going and coming, as of old,—if you take My Word into your heart and permit It there to abide.

    Yes, I AM come to you now,

    To make you conscious of My Presence;

    For I have likewise prepared your human mind so that it can, in a measure, comprehend the meaning of Me.

    I have been with you always, but you did not know it.

    I have purposely led you through the Wilderness of books and teaching, of religions and philosophies, keeping ever before your Soul’s eye the vision of the Promised Land;

    Feeding you with the manna of the Desert, that you might remember and value and long for the Bread of the Spirit.

    Now I have brought you to the river Jordan that separates you from your Divine heritage.

    Now the time has come for you consciously to know Me; the time has come for you to cross over into Canaan, the land of Milk and Honey.

    Are you ready?

    Do you want to go?

    Then follow this My Word, which is the Ark of My Covenant, and you shall go over dry shod.

    Chapter Two. Be Still! and Know I Am God

    Now, in order that you may learn to know Me, so that you can be sure it is I, you own True Self, Who speak these words, you must first learn to Be Still, to quiet your human mind and body and all their activities, so that you no longer are conscious of them.

    You may not yet be able to do this,

    But I will teach you how, if you really want to know Me, and are willing to prove it by trusting Me and obeying Me in all that I now shall call upon you to do.

    Listen!

    Try to imagine the I who speaks throughout these pages as being your Higher or Divine Self, addressing and counseling your human mind and intellect, which you will consider for the moment as being a separate personality. Your human mind is so constituted that it cannot accept anything which does not conform with what it has previously experienced or learned, and which its intellect does not consider reasonable. Therefore, in addressing it, You are using such terms and expressions as will most clearly explain to your intellect the truths it must understand before the mind can awaken to the consciousness of your meaning.

    The fact is, this I is yourself, your Real Self. Your human mind has heretofore been so engrossed with the task of supplying its intellect and body with all manner of selfish indulgences, that it has never had time to get acquainted with the Real You, its true Lord and Master. You have been so interested in and affected by the pleasures and sufferings of your body and intellect, that you have almost come to believe You are your intellect and body, and you have consequently nearly forgotten Me, your Divine Self.

    I AM not your intellect and body, and this Message is to teach that You and I are One. The words I herein speak, and the main burden of these instructions, is to awaken your consciousness to this great fact.

    You cannot awaken to this fact until you can get away from the consciousness of this body and intellect, which so long have held you enslaved. You must feel Me within, before you can know I AM there.

    Now, in order that you can become wholly oblivious of your mind and its thoughts and your body and its sensations, so that you

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