Teachings of Christ Mind

^2.1 Outward seeking is turning inward. Inward or internal discoveries are turning outward. This is a reverse, a polar reversal that is happening worldwide, externally as well as internally. It is happening. It is not predictive. I have never been and will never be predictive, for I am Christ-consciousness. Christ-consciousness is awareness of what is. Only an awareness of what is, an awareness that does not conceive of such as what was and will be can peacefully coexist with the unity that is here and now in truth.

^2.2 Again let me repeat and reemphasize my statements: where once you turned outward in your seeking and saw within what you perceived without, now you turn inward and reflect what you discover within outward. What you discover within is in a way that what you perceive without is not.

^2.3 I have always been a proponent of The Way of Christ-consciousness as The Way to Self and God.

^2.4 There was no Way or path or process back to God and Self before me. It was the time of man wandering in the wilderness. I came as a representation or demonstration of The Way. This is why I have been called “The Way, The Truth and The Life.” I came to show The Way to Christ-consciousness, which is The Way to God and Self. But I also came to provide an intermediary, for this is what was desired, a bridge between the human or forgotten self and the divine or remembered Self. Jesus the man was the intermediary who ushered in the time of the Holy Spirit by calling the Holy Spirit to possess the human or forgotten self with the spirit of the divine or remembered Self. Although God never abandoned the humans who seeded the Earth, the humans, in the state of the forgotten self, could not know God because of their fear. I revealed a God of Love and the Holy Spirit provided for indirect and less fearful means of communion or communication with God.

^2.5 The people of the Earth, as well as all that was created, have always been the beloved of God because Love was and is the means of creation. The people of the Earth, as well as all that was created, were created through union and relationship. Creation through union and relationship is still The Way and The Way has come into the time of its fullness.

^2.6 The production that has so long occupied you will now serve you as you turn your productive and reproductive instincts to the production and reproduction of relationship and union.

^2.7 But before we can proceed forward, I must return to and dispel any illusion you may have of superiority over those who came before. That those who came before did not become aware of their true nature does not mean that it did not exist; that there are others living among you in this time who will not become aware of their true nature does not mean that it does not exist within them. You are no more accomplished than anyone has been or is or will be. The truth of who you are is as accomplished as the truth of all of your brothers and sisters from the beginning of time until the end of time. Any text that tells you that you or those of your kind or time are more or better than any other is not speaking the truth. This is why we began with the chosen and will return again and again to the statement that all are chosen.

^2.8 I belabor this point because you literally cannot proceed to full awareness while ideas such as more and better remain in you. As I have said before, this is not about evolution unless you wish to speak of evolution in terms of awareness. You must realize that if you were to see into the eyes and hearts of any human from any time with true vision, you would see the accomplished Self there. There can be no judgment carried forward with you and when you continue to believe in a process of evolution that has made you better than those who came before, you are carrying judgment. While you continue to believe that being chosen means that some are not chosen, you are carrying judgment. While you continue to believe that a final judgment will separate the good from the evil, you are carrying judgment.

^2.9 I also belabor this point because those of you familiar with the Bible, upon hearing words such as the end of time or the fullness of time, think of the predictions of the biblical end of time. I speak of this because it is in your awareness and because many false interpretations of this time as a time of judgment and of separating the chosen people from all others abound. All are chosen. All are chosen with love and without judgment.

^2.10 The idea of separation is an idea that is not consistent with the idea of unity. If you proceed into this new time thinking that this new time will separate you from others, or cause you, as the chosen, to be separate, you will not become fully aware of the new time. Full awareness of the new is what this Treatise seeks to accomplish and so it is necessary to belabor these false ideas that would keep you from this awareness. If you think you can observe in judgment you do not understand the definition of observation provided in “A Treatise on the Personal Self.”

^2.11 Being first does not mean being better. That I was the first to demonstrate what you can be does not mean I am better than you. Just as in your sporting events, a “first” is applauded, and soon a new record replaces that record-setting first; just as someone had to be “first” to fly a plane or land on the moon, being first implies only that there will be a second and a third. That attention and respect is given to those who first achieve anything of merit is but a way of calling all others to know what they can achieve. One may desire to best a sporting record and another to follow the first man into space and the one who desires to best a sporting record may feel no desire to follow the first man into space and vice versa, and yet, what one achieves but opens the door for others and this is known to you. Even those who did not desire to fly in a plane when this feat was first accomplished have since flown in planes.

^2.12 Similarly, those who have achieved “first place” do so realizing that the elevated “place” they briefly hold is of a finite nature, that others will soon do the same, and that those who follow in time will do so more easily, with less effort, and with even greater success. They may consider themselves “better than” for a moment in time, but those who do will be bitterly disappointed as their moment passes. Despite the necessity for a confidence that has led them to achieve their desired end, most who so achieve and become the first to set records, discover, or invent the new, are not aware of themselves as “better than” for their goal was not to be better than anyone but themselves. Surely many desire to be “the best” as a means to glorify the ego, but few of these succeed for the ego cannot be glorified.

^2.13 Thus, you must examine your intention even now and remove from it all ideas that were of the old way. You would not be here if you were still interested in glorifying the ego, but you also are not yet completely certain of your Self and in your uncertainty, still subject to the patterns of thought of the old. Many of these patterns do not concern me for they will fall away of themselves as your awareness of the new grows. But these few that I linger on will prevent your awareness of the new from growing, and so must be consciously left behind.

^2.14 It is difficult for you, because of the patterns of the past, to believe that you are chosen to be the pioneers into a new time without believing that you are special. This is one of the many reasons we have worked to dispel your ideas of specialness. One of the best means for us to clarify the lack of specialness implied in the statement that all are chosen, is through your observation of yourself.

^2.15 The ability to observe what the Self expresses was among the original reasons for this chosen experience. Observe now the expressions of the self you are and have been. Although you are different now than you were as a child, and different now than you were a few years ago, and different now than when you began your learning of this Course, you are not other than whom you have always been. Who you are now was there when you were a child, and there in all the years since then, and there before you began your learning of this Course. Your awareness of the Self that you are now was not present in the past, but you can truly now, with the devotion of the observant, see that the Self you are now was indeed present, and the truth of who you were always.

^2.16 How, then, could you possibly observe any others without knowing that the truth of who they are is present even though it might seem not to be? This is the power of the devotion of the observant that you are called to, the power of cause and its effect. This is the power you now have within you, the power to observe the truth rather than illusion. This is the power to observe what is. This is Christ-consciousness.

^2.17 I repeat, this is the power to observe what is. It is not about observing a potential for what could be if your brother or sister would just follow in the way that has been shown to you. It is about observing what is. The power to observe what is is what will keep you unified with your brothers and sisters rather than separating you from them. There is no power without this unity. You cannot see “others” as other than who they are and know your power. You must see as I see and see that all are chosen.

^2.18 Only from this shared vision, this observation of what is, can you begin to produce unity and relationship through unity and relationship.

^2.19 This is why it has long been stated that you are not called to evangelize or convince anyone of the merits of this course of study. This is just a course of study. Those whom you would seek to evangelize or convince are as holy as your Self. This holiness need only be observed. When you think in terms of evangelizing or convincing, you think in terms of future outcome rather than in terms of what already is. This type of thinking will not serve the new or allow you full awareness of the new.

^2.20 Can you remember this, blessed sons and daughters of the most high? Your brothers and sisters are as holy as your Self. Holiness is the natural harmony of all that was created as it was created.

^2.21 Now I tell you something else and hope you will remember it and bid it true. Each day is a creation and holy too. Not one day is meant to be lived within a struggle with what it brings. The power to observe what is relates to everything that exists with you, including the days that make up your life in time and space. Observing what is unites you with the present in that it unites you with what is rather than with what you perceive to be.

^2.22 Observation of what is, is a natural effect of the cause of a heart and mind joined in unity. This first joining in unity, the joining of heart and mind, joins the physical and the spiritual world in a relationship of which you can be more and more steadily aware. It is a new relationship. Unity always existed. Oneness always existed. God always existed. But you separated yourself from direct awareness of your relationship with unity, with oneness, and with God, just as you separated yourself from relationship with the wholeness of the pattern of creation. You have believed in God and perhaps in some concept of unity or oneness, but you have also denied even the possibility of experiencing your own direct relationship with God, or the possibility that your life is a direct experience of the pattern of unity or oneness that is creation.

^2.23 Think of this denial now, for it is still evident in the pattern of your thinking. We have spoken of this within the text of A Course of Love as your inability to realize the relationship that exists with the unseen and even the seen. You have moved through life believing you have relationships with family and friends and co-workers, occasionally acknowledging brief relationships that develop with acquaintances or strangers, connections that feel real with like-minded associates for brief periods of time, but still essentially seeing yourself moving through life alone, with few sustaining connections save for special relationships, and with little purpose implied in the brief encounters you have with others. You have watched the news and developments in parts of the world far away from you and at times are aware of ecological and sociological connections, or of other occurrences that are likely to have an impact on your life or on your part of the world. But unless you believe in the ability for what happens to have an effect on you, you do not consider yourself to have a relationship with the occurrence.

^2.24 With your new understanding of observance must come a new understanding of relationship and the ability of the devotion of the observant to affect those relationships.

^2.25 Yet we have strayed here from the overriding point of what I have revealed to you. A new relationship now exists between the physical and spiritual. It is not an indirect relationship but a direct relationship. It exists and you are becoming aware of its existence. You will increasingly be unable to deny it and you will not want to. As you allow awareness of this relationship to grow in you, you will learn the lessons that are being spoken of within this Treatise.

^2.26 This new relationship is the only state in which observation of what is can occur. The separated state was nothing more than the disjoining of heart and mind, a state in which mind attempted to know without the relationship of the heart, and so merely perceived its own creations, rather than the creations birthed in unity.

^2.27 Let this idea gestate a moment within you and reveal to you the truth of which it speaks. The separated state of the mind created its own separate world. Cause and effect are one. The perceived state of separation created the perceived state of a separate world. The real state of union, returned to you through the joining of mind and heart, will now reveal to you the truth of what was created and allow you to create anew.

^2.28 This state of union is what differentiated me from my brothers and sisters at the time of my life on earth. Because my state of consciousness, a state of consciousness we are calling Christ-consciousness, allowed me to exist in union and relationship with all, I could see my brothers and sisters “in Christ” or in their true nature. I saw them in union and relationship, where they saw themselves in separation. This ability to see in union and relationship is the shared vision to which you are called.

^2.29 You have lived with the vision of the separated self for so long that you cannot imagine what shared vision will mean, and do not yet recognize it when you experience it. This is why you can still think of observance of what is as a game of make believe and feel that you will have to trick yourself into believing that you see love where there is cause for fear. You must remember that you are now called to see without judgment. To see without judgment is to see truly. You need not look for good or bad, but only need be steadily aware that you can only see in one of two ways—with love or fear.

^2.30 You expect yourself to still see with the eyes of separation rather than with the shared vision of which I speak. You expect to see bodies and events moving through your days as you have in the past. And yet your vision has already changed, although you are not aware of the extent of this change. Realize now that you have come to recognize unity. You do not any longer see each person and event as separate, with no relation to the whole. You are beginning to see the connections that exist and this is the beginning.

^2.31 Examine what you may have felt the onset of true vision would mean. Have you considered this question? Have you expected to see in the same way but more lovingly? Have you thought you might begin to recognize those who, like you, are joined with me in Christ-consciousness? Have you suspected that you might see in ways literally different? That you might see auras or halos, signs and clues previously unseen? Have you included other senses in your idea of sight? Have you thought your instincts will be sharpened and that you will know with an inner knowing that will aid the sight of your eyes?

^2.32 All of these things are possible. But true vision is seeing relationship and union. It is the opposite of seeing with the eyes and the attitude of separation. It is seeing with an expectation first and foremost of revelation. It is believing that you exist in relationship and union with all, and that each encounter is one of union and relationship, and purpose—purpose that will be revealed to you because you exist in union with the Source and Cause of revelation.

^2.33 Seeing with the vision of Christ-consciousness is already upon you. You are in the process of learning what it means. This Treatise is here to help you do so. Learning to see anew is the precursor of learning to create anew. Creating anew is the precursor of the coming of the new world. Remember, only from a shared vision of what is can you begin to produce unity and relationship through unity and relationship. This is your purpose now, and this the curriculum to guide you to the fulfillment of your purpose.