[The speaker is Harvey Wood. The questioner is Robert McKinnon.]

Questioner: Time for graduation can be difficult for any young person. There are many considerations about the best path to a successful future, what job to take, just how one is going to lead the rest of his life. There's the consideration, too, of military service. To many, these things can be frustrating. It can be a difficult time in one's life.
Speaker: The thing that's been the most helpful to me in overcoming such frustration and confusion is a willingness to look beyond immediate pressures to find myself spiritually. I think that the choice the graduate you speak of has to make is really a choice between viewing himself as a victim or a master of circumstances. That choice is in terms of how we view ourselves. If we view ourselves as material, then we're bound by the frustrations, fears, doubts, and limitations of material existence. But if we view man as spiritual, we have a basis for overcoming frustrations and doubts and finding the peace and direction that come from viewing man as spiritual. Knowing ourselves spiritually is what it amounts to.
Questioner: I'm not sure just how a person would know himself spiritually, and what effect it would have on his life.

Speaker: Maybe it sounds a little far out but it begins with a willingness to see that there is another view. Paul referred to this view in his message to the Romans where he wrote (Rom. 8:9), "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." There's an interesting translation of this in The New English Bible that reads: "But that is not how you live. You are on the spiritual level, if only God's Spirit dwells within you." Another term for God is divine Mind. To the extent that we let that Mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus, we gain this freedom from frustration, confusion, the limitations of materiality.
Questioner: I'm still curious about what it means to know oneself spiritually. We're all familiar with books that deal with knowing oneself. But I don't think this is what you're talking about. I'm honestly not quite sure I understand how one knows himself spiritually.
Speaker: As we yield our thoughts to God, infinite Spirit, divine Mind, and let the divine creator and His creations dwell within our thoughts, we begin to glimpse something of the spiritual nature of man and the universe and to discover a whole new selfhood. The challenge is to look beyond what the physical senses are presenting. Young people, for example, may feel they're victims of heredity, that they face limitations that are overwhelming. As long as our basis for thought is that man is material, we may feel helpless, frustrated, limited. But willingness to begin to see that man is spiritual, made in the likeness of God infinite Spirit, divine Mind, gives us a basis for overcoming limitations, whether they be in terms of heredity or something else.
Questioner: What is the effect of this realization? Let us say that one is able to accept this and starts to seek this kind of understanding. Speaker: The effect on the individual is that he discovers abilities that were latent. He now has a basis for giving expression to qualities he didn't know he had such as resourcefulness, decisiveness.
Questioner: Some young people just naturally seem to be more resourceful and better able to make decisions than others. They're happier and more adjusted in their lives. And we sometimes feel there's an inequality here. Some are not as able as others to deal with problems.
Speaker: But is that how it really is? I can't agree with the concept that we're somehow just pawns or victims of circumstances. We have a choice to make between viewing ourselves as victims or masters of circumstances. When we choose the latter, then we have a basis for meeting challenges that come up daily, including the decisions about our careers and how we're going to meet our military obligations.
Questioner: So often when a young person is uncertain or "up tight," as the expression goes, no matter what decision he makes, whether it's right or wrong, it's made out of fear.
Speaker: As the individual chooses to begin to view himself spiritually and not be fooled by what he sees humanly, he'll begin to overcome fear and frustration. This is what he's really after, to get rid of that. Then he can see the way and know what his next step is.