Teachings of Christ Mind

^6.1 The thought system of the ego-mind is a learned system and this is why it can be unlearned. The thought system of the truth is always present as the truth is always present and can be neither learned nor unlearned. It will thus be revealed to you as soon as the learned thought system ceases to block its realization.

^6.2 How is this revelation to take place? It will begin by learning the art of thought as the act of prayer. We have spoken already of memory here, and have presented the acts of reproducing and recollecting that are involved with memory as acts of creation. Prayer is but reproducing and recollecting a divine memory and divine memory cannot help but produce a divine outcome. Said in another way, prayer reproduces the truth and allows the truth to exist as it is. Prayer does this because it is the act of consciously choosing union. Choosing union moves you into the real state of “all” from the unreal state of the in-between. Only from within a state that is real can anything happen in truth.

^6.3 Thus prayer must be redefined as the act of consciously choosing union. With this definition, you can see how your life can become a prayer. This does not negate the fact that a prayer is also a constant dialogue of asking, being answered, and responding. This is the aspect of prayer that makes of it an act of creation.

^6.4 Prayer and miracles work hand-in-hand once both are seen for what they are. Do not forget what union is. Union is the mind and heart being joined in wholeheartedness. It is your union with your Self. Union with your Self is union with God. Thus your concentration must not stray back to old concepts of prayer or of reaching God through the intercession of prayer as if God were separate from you and accessible only through a specific means of communication. You can see, perhaps, how this attitude toward prayer came about, as it is, like much you have learned, close to the truth without being the truth.

^6.5 To use prayer only as a means of reaching out to a god seen as separate is to attempt to use what cannot be used. Such ideas of prayer have had credence because this reaching out does at least recognize that there is something to reach out to. Such ideas of prayer have long been opening doors for those who are ready to walk through them to a real relationship with God and Self. But this is not the concept of prayer of which we speak nor one that can reasonably be called a way of life or likened to the art of thought. Prayers such as these emanate from either heart or mind and have not the power of the wholehearted. Prayers such as these emanate from the state of fear that is the reality of the separated self.

^6.6 To pray out of fear is not to pray at all, because such prayer chooses not the union that is the prerequisite. To pray out of fear is to ask from an unreal state of lack for what is seen as missing or desired. In contrast, true prayer, formed in union, is a means of creating, recollecting, or recalling a divine memory and transforming that divine memory into a present moment experience.

^6.7 Memory is valuable to us now because it relies not on perception. If perception were all that were available to you, each experience would begin and end and have no ability to relate to anything else at all. Without memory, what you learned one day would be gone the next. A person you met one day you would not know the next. Thus memory allows relationship. Memory, or how you relate to past experiences, is what makes each individual unique. A family can share many similar experiences without relating to them in the same way. It is the way experience is related to, through memory, which shapes the different personalities, paths, and thus future experiences of each of you.

^6.8 So what happens when memories of past experiences are revisited under the all-encompassing umbrella of a new way of thought? The different personalities become one, the different paths become one path, the future experiences become one. And in this oneness is peace everlasting.

^6.9 What happens when this oneness is accomplished is that divine memories arise to replace perception. This is miracle-mindedness. The accomplishment of this state of being is the reason for which you are here. It is your return to your Self. It heralds the return of heaven through the second coming of Christ, the energy that will bridge the two worlds.