Should I give up my job so I can meditate all day?

Well nobody that’s ever worked with me has ever given up his job just to sit and meditate for himself. Those persons find themselves busier than ever, so busy that they never dreamed they could be so busy. And some of them become so busy using these spiritual principles, even in a business activity — which is also spiritual when carried on properly — that they find themselves thrust into a healing and teaching ministry. But it’s not because they sat down and spent the whole day meditating. Because there’s a lack of balance in that until a person has reached a very high state of consciousness.

And then there are some persons who have given themselves to the world by going off some place and spending all of the time in meditation. But they have first developed this spiritual consciousness, and the best way to make progress on the spiritual path is to practice these principles out in the world. If you retired to a hermitage and lived all by yourself, would you escape material sense? Would you escape the carnal mind? Only in one way. If you knew that that was not a power. If you knew these principles. Otherwise, you would find just as much of the carnal mind infringing on your consciousness as if you were out in the world. Because it’s like an unseen antenna that is constantly broadcasting suggestions to us. And as you remember, we’re going to be the broadcasters now and we’re not going to accept this.

So no, the virtue for most persons is to live this out in the world. The Infinite Way is a way of life in the world, but not of it. And that’s the hardest thing there is to do. To be in the world and not be of the world.