Table of Contents
Good evening. Welcome, and welcome to everyone who is joining us on the internet.
We will start right here.
The Illusion of Needs1
You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness. No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some way that he needs it.
Let’s stop there.
You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness.
So obviously something held as unforgiven in your consciousness is what deprives you of your peace. What is something that is unforgiven? You often think that it is something someone else has done that has caused you to be upset with them and you have yet to forgive them for what they did.
But I will tell you that what needs to be forgiven is that of the Presence of God which you have decided to define as something other than God. And that could be a leaf, or a rock. It could be something, anything, that you say, “Oh, [taps table] it’s just matter.” The moment you say, “Oh, it is just matter,” you have decided not to see God there.
If you’re going to see God there, you will say, “Oh, [taps table] Spirit,” and you will be curious to experience the fullness of Spirit that is embodied there. But as long as you say, “Oh, [taps table]it’s just matter,” you’ve denied What It Is, you are holding it to be something different, and you have separated yourself from the Conscious Experience of God. And so forgiveness needs to be given to whatever it is that you have defined as something other than God.
And forgiveness amounts to the abandonment of your commitment to your personal definition of the Presence of God as something other than the Presence of God. Forgiveness is the abandonment of the definitions you have given to everything. The Presence of God doesn’t need to be given a definition. It simply needs to be embraced and experienced. So whatever you have given a definition to needs to be forgiven. Not for what it did. It needs to be abandoned, the definition needs to be abandoned by you so that there is a space within you for What It Really Is to register with you.
You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness.
By being completely willing not to energize and be convinced of any definition you have made-up and applied to the Presence of God that makes the Presence of God appear to you to be something other than God. You see?
No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some way that he needs it.
Well, I’ll tell you something. You guys learn a whole lot by virtue of being very creative in the definitions you give to everything, and then memorizing your definition and making commitment to it. That’s learning.
No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some way that he needs it.
And I’ll tell you that literally, waking up, coming back into your Right Mind is not really a process of learning. It’s a process of unlearning. You don’t need to learn about Reality. The Experience of Reality is utterly natural to you. And you’ll find that it’s what’s present as your Conscious Experience of Being when you willingly abandon your cherished definitions of everything, and each other, and yourselves.
Continue …
Okay.
Could you explain the relationship of a miracle to forgiveness?2
Well, a miracle is a sudden shift of perception which occurs in an undefended moment. An undefended moment is a moment which isn’t full of your consciously defining something. However, you can experience an influx of insight voluntarily. A miracle happens involuntarily.
And you can choose to look at the Sweet Peas, or the glass on the table, and desire to experience What It Truly Is, with a willingness to invalidate any definition whatsoever you might have of it, and have the influx of clarity come. And that wouldn’t be defined as a miracle.
Right. It’s forgiveness.
Yes.
While lack does not exist in the creation of God, it is very apparent in what you have made. It is, in fact, the essential difference between them. Lack implies that you would be better off in a state somehow different from the one you are in.
Isn’t it interesting? The minute you take, let us say, the Sweet Pea and you say, “Oh, it’s part of the plant kingdom. It arrived in my experience through a process of evolution; a physical evolution through chance and natural selection. It’s part of the physical universe which originated with the big bang. And God has nothing to do with it.” Well, you know what? The moment you define anything in your experience as something other than God, you have deprived yourself of the Conscious Experience of What It Is and you’re in a state of need.
Now, although you might enjoy the Sweet Peas as what you have defined them to be, it’s like there’s a hole in you. There’s an emptiness in you, because the Experience of What It Divinely Is should be naturally and unavoidably available to you, and it’s not, because you’ve got that space filled with your definition. And so there is an emptiness that you cannot identify. You can’t identify what’s missing because you’re in an act of denying What It Is.
So this state of need impels you to improve your situation. It impels you to get out of the need. And it tells you to look for the fulfillment of that emptiness in the world of your own definitions. And that’s why you’re constantly trying to improve yourself, and that’s why you’re constantly trying to improve your world, and so on, and so forth. When the only thing that will remove the need is for you to abandon your definitions and leave … leave an empty space where your definition had been so that the Presence of God that was always there might register with you.
The dissatisfaction which accompanies lack causes you to look in the wrong place for fulfillment. It implies that you would be better off in a state somehow different from the one you are in. And this is why I keep homing in on the fact that the only thing confronting you, the only thing in your face is the Kingdom of Heaven, and right here, right now, right with the Sweet Peas, right with the glass table top, the carpeting, your fingernails, whatever. Right there is, right here is where your attention needs to be given with the curiosity to see the more of What Reality Is than your definition is allowing you to see. The answer is not a state somehow different from the one you are in, or a place different from the one you are in.
Continue …
Until the “separation,” which is the meaning of the “fall,” nothing was lacking. There were no needs at all. Needs arise only when you deprive yourself.
And the only thing, the only thing you can deprive yourself of is the Conscious Experience of God, because there isn’t anything else available for you to deny.
Continue …
You act according to the particular order of needs you establish.
You establish. Yes.
This, in turn, depends on your perception of what you are.
Yes. And if you perceive yourself to be an independent authorizer, you will have all that comes from a conscious intent to be separate and on your own, with lots to forgive–meaning lots to abandon, lots to stop investing your commitment to/in.
Continue. There it is, next sentence.
A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct. This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lacking. The idea of order of needs arose because, having made this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs. As you integrate you become one, and your needs become one accordingly. Unified needs lead to unified action, because this produces a lack of conflict.
So there’s two things here I would like clarification on. One is it says, “as you integrate.” Okay, what does it mean by “integrate”?
As you become less fragmented. As you have fewer parts of you warring with each other within yourself. You can have arguments in your mind, can’t you? Well, how many of you are there? [some mild audience amusement] Just one. But as long as you can have arguments, as long as a number of points of view can be entertained and discussed, you are experiencing fragmentation.
So, oftentimes when I’m doing things, I’ll say … I’ll feel like I’m struggling with what I’m doing and I’ll say, “Why does everything seem so difficult? Why does everything seem so difficult to do?” Is that, is that akin to being in conflict with oneself?
Indeed. You’re not here to have questions or answers. You only have questions and you only try to answer them yourself when you are experiencing an unconsciousness of Truth, an unconsciousness of Reality, an unconsciousness of the Kingdom of Heaven that’s the only thing going on.
That’s why Unity occurs when you are willing to yield to the Holy Spirit. Because when you’re willing to yield to the Holy Spirit, you are withdrawing investment of energy and faith and trust in the various parts of you that can argue with each other, and that can have various perceptions of reality. You’re one person. You’re one. Let’s just put it that way. You’re one. You are single.
And you can look at this person and say, “I love him,” and you can look at someone else and say “I can’t stand his guts.” Well, there’s conflict right there. And someone else, you’ll say, “Hmm, they’re a pretty good friend.” And another one, “They’re a friend, but I wouldn’t trust my life to them.” And you place value judgments of varying kinds on various people, or various environments, and so on. And what this is expressing is an inconsistency within you of your capacity to be Love at all times. You see? And this is called fragmentation. And depending upon the amount of love you are willing to extend and embrace another with, will govern how you experience that individual. And it will be conflicted.
Now, but the point is this. That you, as God Is Being you, are the Presence of Love, which constantly looks with Love, and consistently sees the Christ and the Truth in everything your eyes fall upon. Now how do you get from a fragmented/conflicted lover to the state of being that God is manifesting there as you? You do it by finding another Source for evaluating everything than your own fragmented mind, which is the Holy Spirit, or your Guide, or Anyone Who Is Awake. And then you lean heavily on their judgment. And you stay with it so that you might get the feel of it, so that you might remember that this state of being, this state of mind is your natural state of mind and represents you most truly, so that you never abandon it again for an evaluated love. You see?
So this is what it refers to when it says, “unified needs lead to unified action”?
Indeed.
So the unified need is we recognize that the only real need that we have is the separation from God.
Say that again.
Okay. In the first sentence, it said, “A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need to correct.”
Yes.
And so that … this unified … that is the unified … that’s when your needs are unified, then you recognize that you have … that that’s the only thing that you’re lacking.
Yes, that your only need is to be …
Joined again.
… joined with God.
Yes. And this unified action that it speaks of is when you say, like for instance in the struggle example I used of Holy Spirit, or my Guide, or God, “How do you… how should I do this? You tell me how this should be done.”
Indeed. Indeed. And then you act upon the revelation. You act upon the insight, the clarification.
Just like you would say, “Father, how would you have me see this person?”
Exactly.
Yes.
“How do I protect myself?” That’s an expression of a conflicted need. And the way you protect yourself is through defense, which is a conflicted action, which will generate conflict. You see?
A unified need, the acknowledgement that you need God’s Perspective, that you need not to be functioning anymore at odds with God because the conflict is too uncomfortable, that promotes a unified response, a unified answer, a unity in your experience. And that’s the only way it’s going to come. There are no alternatives.
The only alternative there seems to be is the one you’re employing, and it’s hell, isn’t it? It’s not that pleasant. It’s a constant struggle, whether it’s a harsh one or a gentle one. It’s still a struggle.
Okay …
The idea of orders of need, which follows from the original error that one can be separated from God, requires correction at its own level before the error of perceiving levels at all can be corrected. You cannot behave effectively while you function on different levels. However, while you do, correction must be introduced vertically from the bottom up.
Ah, yes. And here we are back in the barrel. And it works from the bottom up.
The starting place is the bottom, as we’ve discussed a couple of weeks ago. When you hit the bottom of the barrel, that is where you have the best chance of a breakthrough, because that’s where you feel the least competent.
But I’ll tell you something else. When you get to the bottom of the barrel, if you yield, the bottom will fall out, and you will find yourself not in the barrel. And there will be no need to work yourself up from the bottom to the top of the barrel. And this is important to understand.
It says:
You cannot behave effectively while you function on different levels. However, while you do, correction must be introduced vertically from the bottom up.
This was said so that you might understand that the starting point is at the bottom. That is its main purpose–this image of bottom and top, from the bottom up.
This is because you think you live in space, where concepts such as “up” and “down” are meaningful.
The problem is being in the barrel in the first place. And whether you’re at the top, or the bottom, is important to you while you value your definitions of reality more than the True Meaning of Reality. And the answer lies in escape, if you will, from the barrel. And if you get to the bottom of the barrel where you have no more energy available to you to try to succeed as an independent entity, and you truly give up, you will fall through the bottom of the barrel and be out of it.
And what I’m stating demonstrates the next sentence.
Ultimately, space is as meaningless as time. Both are merely beliefs.
Let’s continue …
The real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief.
Okay. We talked last week about learning-tools. The minute you take one small part of the Kingdom of Heaven and define it as something other than the Kingdom of Heaven, that thing becomes a learning-tool, because that thing stands there representing a requirement upon you to revisit its Real Meaning so that you might not be confused and conflicted within yourself. Whatever you take of God and give another definition to becomes a learning-tool for you, because it is something which you have to bring your attention to with a conscious desire to see it for What It Is in order to return to your Sanity. It’s always the things that you have denied the Reality of by giving your own unreal definition to, that becomes the place where correction is required. Thus, it becomes a learning-tool. And once correction has occurred, it ceases to have that function as a learning-tool, because it is no longer a place where you’re making an error of judgment. You see?
The real purpose of this world–and this world right now as far as you’re all concerned is exactly what you’re defining it as, even though it’s actually the Kingdom of Heaven–the real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief. “I don’t believe it’s God. I believe it’s a physical world that started from a big bang.” Well, that’s your belief. That’s your belief. Your belief causes you not to be able to believe What It Truly Is, and thus your belief is an unbelief. Does that make sense?
So as long as you’re looking at the Kingdom of Heaven and calling it “the world,” it becomes a learning-tool because it sits there calling for correction. The Kingdom of Heaven sits there calling for correction of your mind.
And once you let your mind be changed by abandoning your interpretation, or your definition, and you let the Kingdom of Heaven register with you, which is What It Is, then it’s no longer a learning-tool. It doesn’t serve that purpose anymore. But it doesn’t disappear. You see it for What It Is–the Kingdom of Heaven. And you rejoice. And you’re not preoccupied with it anymore, because you aren’t in a state of conflict. And you’re not in need of protection or defense, so you don’t have to watch it to see what it’s going to do to you next. And in the freedom from not having to be on guard, you might say, you can get on with enjoying Reality, enjoying communion with all of the Brotherhood simultaneously, experiencing bliss, because you’re no longer engaged in surviving the odds, in surviving from the terror that awaits you around the corner, and so on. You see?
Continue …
You can never control the effects of fear yourself, because you made fear, and you believe in what you made. In attitude, then, though not in content, you resemble your Creator, Who has perfect faith in His creations because He created them. Belief produces the acceptance of existence. That is why you can believe what no one else thinks is true. It is true for you because it was made by you.
I’m going to make a fine distinction here.
Belief produces the acceptance of existence.
Knowing produces the acceptance of Being. I am indicating thereby that the word “existence” refers to what you are experiencing in a separated state. The word “existence” has an opposite–nonexistence. The word “Being” does not have an opposite.
Now, as you invite clarity, as you invite clarification, as you are willing to say, “Not my will, but Thine be done,” and then listen for it, and then be congruent with it, your beliefs improve. And you experience the results of your improved belief, but the goal is not an “ultimate belief.” The goal is to completely abandon belief in favor of the Direct Experience of Knowing that is present as your Conscious Experience of Being when you are not thinking.
And so the void that one arrives in as a result of abandoning thinking is pregnant with Reality, is pregnant with Infinity, is pregnant with Eternity, is pregnant with the Conscious Experience of Everything from God’s Point Of View. And that is the Conscious Experience of, “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”
You can believe what no one else thinks is true and it is true for you because it was made by you, but that doesn’t mean it’s desirable.
Let’s continue …
All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative level, and therefore do not exist at all. To whatever extent you are willing to submit your beliefs to this test, to that extent are your perceptions corrected. In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along these lines:
“Perfect love casts out fear. If fear exists, Then there is not perfect love.”
But,
“Only perfect love exists. If there is fear, It produces a state that does not exist.”
Believe this and you will be free. Only God can establish this solution, and this faith is His gift.
So the answer to the dilemma of the human condition only God can establish. Whew, such simplicity. Let it sink in. It’s not up to you. You can’t do it. You never were supposed to be able to do it. And you can’t do the impossible. Accept it.
And let go of the false sense responsibility that somehow you are supposed to be able to do the impossible. That is the suggestion that the ego provides you with. It’s the taunt. It’s the tease. It’s the bait. “Of course, you can do the impossible. God gave you a mind of your own. God gave you the ability to think. God gave you the ability to reason. There must have been a reason that he gave you this.” Well, God didn’t give you a mind. God didn’t even create you separate from Himself.
You are Mind–you’re not a body with a mind. You’re a Mind in which there is the experience of body, and glass-topped table [taps table], and Sweat Peas, and trees, and fingernails, and everything–a universe. You are Mind–you don’t have a mind. You are Consciousness–you don’t have a consciousness. You are Mind. You aren’t something separate from Mind that can use Mind for purposes of your own. You are Mind.
Only God can establish the solution. So the only task you have in front of you is to yield to God. That’s the only intelligent act that you can engage in as long as you are in an illusory experience which has been caused by your decision to act on your own, or to attempt to act on your own, or to fool yourself into believing that you can. Again, this is where the utter simplicity of the answer lies.
I keep saying to Paul, “Let me respond to everything.” You might say, “Well, obviously Paul hasn’t managed to do that yet. What chance do I have?” Well, I’ll tell you something. It’s the only answer. And so whether Paul has managed to do it or not, get on with it yourselves, and maybe you will do it before Paul does. But when you do it, it will make it easier for Paul, and when Paul does it, it will make it easier for you. But there isn’t any other option. And the option is utterly simple.
Stop trying to be something. Give up! Because when you give up, the capital “S” Something that you are, That Which You Divinely Are will fill you up. Your memory will return of What You Divinely Are, and you will come into the fullness of your Being and the Joy of Being. And the only difference there will be is that you will not be able to say, “I’m a self-made, wonderful being. I’m a self-made, incredibly divine being.” But when you are an incredibly wonderful Divine Being, it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re able to claim personal responsibility for it or not, because you’re Sane once again.
Only God can establish this solution, and this faith is His gift.
Let’s continue …
May I ask a question?
You may.
These last two sentences I find are confusing to me. It says, “Believe this and you will be free.” And then it says, “Only God can establish this solution.” So, what I’m getting out of this is the solution is to believe this fact.
That only Perfect Love exists.
Yes.
If there is fear, it produces a state that does not exist.
Right. If you believe that, you will be free.
Exactly.
However, it says, “Only God can establish this solution.” So, what it’s saying is that God has already established that only Perfect Love exists?
Exactly.
Okay. And then it says, “This faith is His gift to you.” So, is what it’s saying is that if you open to God, then you take in the faith which allows you to have the belief.
That is correct.
Good. Okay. Thank you.
Because you cannot generate the faith from …
What you see.
… a stance of independence.
Right. From what you see in the world. What you see in the world conflicts constantly with what this says.
Exactly. Exactly.
So you just have to yield, and the yielding allows the faith to come in.
That is correct. Yes.
I see.
Let’s continue …
DISTORTIONS OF MIRACLE IMPULSES
Your distorted perceptions produce a dense cover over miracle impulses, making it hard for them to reach your own awareness.
Oh wow, miracle impulses. Miracle impulses. I said before that the Holy Spirit is your Divinity held in trust while you dally with the ego. In other words, the Holy Spirit is that part of your Self which you have denied in favor of a tiny definition of yourself that you wish to limit yourself to. Now, the fact that you can never be less than Whole means that the Wholeness of You that has been denied will constantly be asserting Itself against the boundary you are using to hold it back. You see? And this constant insinuation into your conscious awareness of the Wholeness of You is a miracle impulse.
And miracle impulses are constant. Because in spite of the limited area out of the Totality of your Being that you are using to define yourself with, you are Whole all the time. Your limited definition of yourself and your commitment to it, makes it hard for miracle impulses to reach your awareness. That’s why it’s so helpful to, at least occasionally, be willing to become still, and set them aside, and be curious beyond whatever the limits are of your present sense of yourself. Because that curiosity is an invitation for That Of Yourself which you have denied to come into the territory that you have roped off and said, “Only that which is inside of this rope is me.”
Continue …
The confusion of miracle impulses with physical impulses is a major perceptual distortion. Physical impulses are misdirected miracle impulses. All real pleasure comes from doing God’s Will.
Now, although it isn’t said here, we are talking about pleasurable physical impulses are misdirected miracle impulses. Whether it’s orgasm, whether it’s sexuality, whether it’s a hug, whether it’s a smile directed toward another–these are conscious attempts to bring into your awareness the unseparated Wholeness of Yourself that you have denied, that you are holding away from yourself.
Do pleasurable physical impulses help us or hinder us towards our own being in the present moment with …
It all depends on the motive. If the pleasurable impulse is for self-satisfaction, it doesn’t help you.
Could it hinder you, taken from that aspect?
Absolutely, because it’s selfish. Because although it might be extended toward another, it is not as a gift to another.
It’s narcissistic, to use, you know, a pop psychology term.
That is correct.
It also, because it lacks consideration for another, is a form of abuse, whether it’s mild or intense. An act that is pleasurable for you may be done so as to influence another, or control another. Again, a form of abuse. And it’s all aimed at you. So, absolutely, the giving of, the expressing of a pleasurable impulse can be to your disadvantage.
Maybe the opposite of that would be our inviting another one to join us with a moment of mutual joy, or pleasure. Would that be a positive use of it, or a constructive …
That would be a positive use of it, but you don’t need to go that far. It doesn’t have to be dependant on what another does. It has to do with, again, the motive–whether it’s to get, or to give. And as long as the Expression of Love physically is in the form, truly the form of a gift, where the reason you are giving it is because you love, where the reason you are giving it is because you honor the one you are giving it to, that’s all the further you have to take it in order for it to be beneficial for you in terms of your awakening and not keeping you in the dream.
And it really does amount to a matter of growing up. A child stands always ready to receive. But when the child grows up, he stands (she stands) as a servant to give.
But when …
To give genuinely as a gift with no strings, a gift that is not given in order to get. You see?
Yes.
Continue …
This is because not doing it is a …
No. I’m sorry. Start with, “All real pleasure,” the sentence before.
All real pleasure comes from doing God’s Will.
Yes. Continue …
This is because not doing it is a denial of Self.
Capital “S”.
Yes.
Denial of Self results in illusions, while correction of the error brings release from it. Do not deceive yourself into believing that you can relate in peace to God or to your brothers with anything external.
Indeed. Is anyone not clear on that?
Continue …
Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful and the holy. Do not forget this.
Oh, phew. A breath of fresh air. Something pleasant to read. This is certainly encouraging, isn’t it?
Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful and the holy. Do not forget this.
And then don’t forget how to do it.
Or let’s put it this way: don’t forget how not to do it. And how not to do it is to indulge in making definitions, committing to them, acting upon them, and then requiring everyone else to act upon them, where you are relating to everyone and everything without joining with One Who Is Awake, or with the Holy Spirit, or with the Father, with a curiosity to see things As They Are so that you might love them truly.
And again I have to bring home the point. When you succeed in being still, when you succeed in abandoning thinking, even if it’s momentary or for five minutes or ten minutes, during that period of time in the absence of the busyness of your mind, God’s Mind registers with you. Maybe not in Its Totality, maybe only as much as you will allow, which might not be very much. But the experience will be a radically different experience, especially in that it will be absent of fear entirely–which is not an insignificant difference.
Continue …
The Love of God, for a little while, must still be expressed through one body to another, because vision is still so dim.
Yes. You’re going to have to express it to each other. Why? Well, because the minute you looked at your Brother and Sister and you defined them, gave them a definition of your own, you turned them into a learning-tool. [audience laughter] So you’ve got to start where the correction is needed.
You see, you … is this making more sense?
Yes.
Yes.
Continue …
You can use your body best to help you enlarge your perception so you can achieve real vision, of which the physical eye is incapable.
Yes. There’s just no way to sidestep this. There’s just no way to somehow jump from inappropriately expressed miracle impulses to the full blown Conscious Experience of the Mind of God as your own without undoing the very things that took you away from your clear Presence as the Mind of God. And so you must make the correction where the correction is needed. It can’t be avoided. Because you can’t get back into Sanity while there are still bits of insanity present. And so where you withdrew love, because you preferred to have a slightly twisted perception of your Sister, you’ve got to slightly untwist that perception. You’ve got to undo it. And there’s no way to sidestep it.
And you say, “Well, she is such a bitch. She is not worth it.” Well, there’s your definition! You mean to tell me that there really is some place where it is worth it to you to block the Presence of Love that you are? That’s what you’re saying. Stop it.
You can use your body best to help you enlarge your perception so you can achieve real vision, of which the physical eye is incapable. Learning to do this is the body’s only true usefulness.
Just a moment.
And I will say learning to do this is the body’s only true usefulness at the moment. When you are no longer holding your Brother, or your Sister, or your whole world, hostage to the definitions you have superimposed upon them, then the body will not need to be used for any purpose relative to regaining your Sanity, because your Sanity will have been regained, and now you won’t use your body anymore than you will use any part of the Universe. You will instead stand in awe of the Glory of the Infiniteness of Creation that God Is Being, and your Whole Being will be glorifying God, rather than any single part of the Infinite Manifestation of God.
Yes.
The difficulty is getting from here to there. The way out is to express our love, which from the point where we think of ourselves as bodies we need to express through the body, but that’s also our greatest fear, because somebody who just jumps out and starts hugging strangers and going out of their way to being loving is the insane one within this world we’ve constructed.
Indeed. But hugs are not the only means–a smile, a twinkle in your eye, a wave, body language that is not defensive. There are many ways to use the body. Even the use of words is a use of the body. And when the motive is Love and the extension of It, and you were listening to know how to be Love, you will always on the spot know how to be appropriate in any given circumstance so that the one you extend Love to is not overwhelmed by sudden hugs. Whereas someone else will be given a sudden hug because it will fit perfectly.
Continue …
Yes. I understand that. But sometimes the impulse when it’s appropriate to give a hug is met within myself with resistance because of the conditioning of the environment which I think I find myself in.
Indeed.
And it seems to be getting more difficult to–well, I’m not sure that’s right–to be the Expression of Love as the environment more becomes what my Brothers want to share are their feelings of terror, and their anxieties of war, and their worries of the financial markets, and all of the anxieties coming into the world. It seems to be, I guess maybe it always has been a face off between fear and love.
Always. There are no other options.
But it’s scary to step across the line, or it appears like it should be scary.
That’s no excuse not to step across the line, however. It never has been. Either at the bottom line you’re going to block your very own Function, your very own Divine Function, and continue to be miserable, or you’re going to find a way to Be What You Are and express it in the world, and care enough about your fellowman to listen carefully for how to extend it so that it has the best chance of being received without any perception of threat being felt by the one extended to.
And if Guidance asks to do something which seems scary or impossible, we should remember Who It Is that is asking us to do this.
You must indeed. And if it is too scary, you must go back to the Source and ask, “Why must I do it? How can I do it without being frightened?” You see? But you don’t throw in the towel. And as a general rule, you don’t do something that is overwhelmingly scary to you. It is not intelligent. And it’s not generally required.
Well, it’s not the overwhelmingly scary things that are a problem. Those are, you know, we tend to keep those far away. It’s the stuff that comes right up to the line.
Indeed.
And each time maybe, you know, the line is a little further along to the side of love. But each time we approach the line, we’re dealing with the fear again.
That is correct. And each time you do it, it allows for the next time to not be quite so fearful.
Yes.
Because you’ve learned that the fear that you felt was unjustified, even though you couldn’t see it before hand. And as you begin to have multiple experiences of the invalidity of the fear that you felt controlled by, the easier it becomes to withhold a spontaneous investment of faith in fear when it presents itself. In other words, the easier it is to be fear less, because you have found that the suggestion of fear was just that–only a suggestion, as a hypnotist uses suggestion.
That sounds an awful lot like saying then moving toward our fears is the way out of our fears.
The problem there is that one could go into his head and say, “Okay, I’m going to find all my fears and move toward them,” and then you’re in charge and off beam. If you just pay attention to life, life will present you with the fear that is your next threshold to discover is not a valid boundary.
So don’t move towards anything. Just take what comes without fear, realizing that you are forever within your Father’s Loving Embrace.
Well, take what comes, and where it elicits fear, you may know you are at a threshold that you’re ready to move over, instead of be bound by. You don’t overcome fear fearlessly. You overcome fear by not validating it and persisting in spite of it. You persist without energizing it.
Well, I usually, I notice I’m usually pretty scared when I’m being fearless.
Indeed. I see what you mean. It is a fearless…
I notice the scare but I move on because I’m being, you know, for whatever inspiration moves me beyond that.
Indeed. That isn’t correctly identified as being fearless. It is correctly identified as being courageous. When you do something fearlessly, there is no experience of being scared at all, because you are truly fearless–fear is not present. So when you are not being governed by fear that is being felt, because you are inspired by a connection with Love, or a connection with Truth, to move through it, that is courageous.
And does courage lead to fearlessness?
Courage expressed, because there is Divine Inspiration for moving past fear, provides you with a real experience of the fact that the fear that you felt held back by was not valid. That experience, which is not at all intellectual, but is now a knowing, puts you in a new place relative to the next boundary that you’re going to move through that allows you to move through it with less fear, even though fear will still be present. So it doesn’t lead to fearlessness. It leads to a mental clarity, we’ll say, that recognizes fear to be not only “not your ally,” but useless. And as that begins to dawn on you through successive experiences, it helps bring you to a place where fear does not present itself to you, and you meet needs fearlessly. Not as a result of courage, but because now you are freed up to respond to needs with love and intelligence that is not diluted by, or undermined by, fear and doubt.
You see?
Because the fear is a misperception of the situation through the definitions I have given things that are not their true definition.
Exactly.
I think I got it.
Therefore, the fear is not valid and is not essential to your survival.
So any response where … any response as if the fear was valid will likely be an incorrect response.
Exactly.
And when fear is no longer seen by you to be valuable in any way, you will meet every situation, as I said, with more intelligence, more love, and the ability to be utterly appropriate will be much easier.
And I’m telling you all, right now, that this experience of not being confronted by fear is available to you without your having to wake up too much. This is not a monumental feat to arrive at this experience. It’s not way down the road in terms of your spiritual growth.
You want to know what the key is? You feel fear when you feel personally responsible. When you begin to consciously ask for help, because you refuse to take personal responsibility, and you begin to get the help, and you establish that habit of joining, and experience the quote “success of being in this fashion,” you will find fear dropping out of the picture, because you’ve found something more useful than fear–Real Help.
What will happen is that it is as though your threshold of fear will become less, and less, and less, so that it takes something humongous to get a little bit of reaction from you. And this is available to all of you in this world, in this workaday world, today.
And the key is not trying to do everything all by yourself, not jumping at the chance to take personal responsibility, but jumping at the chance, jumping at the opportunity to join with me, with the Holy Spirit, with the Father so that you might know how to be utterly appropriate. And the more you do this and the more you hear answers, the more you experience the influx of clarity that makes a difference, the more you will begin to trust your relationship with the Father, or the Holy Spirit, or me, and the less you will value the supposed benefit of being independent and responsible all by yourself. Community, communion, relationship, and commitment to them, is the beginning of the answer, is the beginning of the solution. The breaking of the isolation.
And once again Paul feels that we’ve had a somber evening [some audience laughter]–heavy duty, no fun–but there was this one high point.
Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful and the holy. Do not forget this.
The somber information, the serious information that I shared was simply an amplification of those two sentences. So I was talking about happy things and how to have happiness. And Paul will have to forgive his perception of what happened this evening.
I love you all and I look forward to next week.
Thank you.
You are welcome.
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