Good evening. And welcome to everyone on the Internet as well.
And for those of you who might have just logged in, nothing is wrong with your computer. The chat page is not functioning tonight. And the picture is not functioning tonight, just the sound. So you won’t be able to distract yourselves with chatter. That is not the reason, the reason is that Chris is not with us this evening, and he ordinarily takes care of that.
Now, before we begin in the Text, I want to ask everyone a question.
How many of you think that you are comfortable tonight, and that you feel safe tonight, and you feel strong tonight because at this very moment you are engaged in participation in mutually-agreed-upon definitions? And this doesn’t apply to those of you who are sitting here in this room, but to everyone who’s listening in their own homes. How many of you realize that you are feeling comfortable, safe, and actually strong because at this very moment you’re engaged in mutually-agreed-upon definitions?
It’s not a question I’m going to ask you to respond to. But for the most part, you go through your days, and perhaps you don’t even engage with others particularly, and you have a happy day. And nothing in particular has happened that you could designate as a practice of being involved in mutually-agreed-upon definitions.
Now this time I am going to ask you to give a show of hands. How many of you have gone to another country where the people in that country were not hostile, but they were not particularly friendly toward Americans, and you felt in the minority? How many have had that experience? And was it a comfortable experience? Right. No, it wasn’t. And why wasn’t it comfortable? Because, with those people, you didn’t have any mutually-agreed-upon definitions.
Now let’s say … how many of you have had occasion to drive through a neighborhood in a city, where the people living in that neighborhood were not of the same race, or were living their life in a style that was rough, where argumentativeness and just rough living, as a general rule, were the style, and did you feel comfortable?
Again, it was because you didn’t have any mutually-agreed-upon definitions with those people. So you can see that when you’re feeling comfortable, and when you’re feeling personally strong and not vulnerable, it is for the most part because you are, you know unconsciously without even thinking about it that you are with those who are of like mind. And that really means they are those who are employing the same definitions that you are. And so you are engaged in mutually-agreed-upon definitions, even though until last June when we started going through the Course, you probably never gave much thought to the phrase, “mutually-agreed-upon definitions,” at all.
Now, how many of you have had the experience of having a circle of friends, and for one reason or another, the friends began to see things differently from you, and you find that the mutually-agreed-upon definitions that made the relationship (the friendship) work, were absent? How many of you have had that experience and found that your sense of your worth was challenged? Or, your inclination to doubt yourself came into play where you felt vulnerable, again where you were in the minority and the majority’s opinion was different, or even at odds with yours?
In a situation like this, you find that your sense of your integrity had been derived from something that wasn’t solid, something that wasn’t stable, because it could be challenged by the whim or the instability of those around you, and their inability to stay consistently with the agreed-upon definitions that made the relationships work. You see?
It’s important to realize the degree to which you are unconsciously governed by mutually-agreed-upon definitions. And it’s important for you to realize how much your sense of your own integrity is derived from those mutually-agreed-upon definitions, even though you think that your integrity is being felt by you because it is something absolute, that has nothing to do with anyone else. When this happens, you find that your sense of integrity does have something to do with everyone else. As long as they’re in agreement with your having integrity, you feel good. And if the majority think you lack integrity, your feeling of inner stability and strength suffers. And you’re even willing to say, “Well, maybe they’re all right. They can’t all be wrong. Therefore, maybe I need to take another look and see where I have fallen short.” You see?
As long your experience of your integrity is being derived from others’ agreements about your having integrity, you are not experiencing your integrity. Because you do have Integrity that is derived from the Source of your Being, which isn’t everyone else’s current ego-perception of you.
And part of Waking up is getting in touch with that Integrity. And I won’t say that part of your getting in touch with that Integrity is involved in turning around to the Altar. All of your getting in touch with your experience of your Integrity has to do with turning again within to the Altar within you, where the flame of your essential Being is burning, because God has lit it and keeps it lit at every moment. And that’s why your Integrity is unchangeable. And that’s where you will find it not changing. And that’s where you will find yourself able to feel it without it being blown about, disturbed, by everyone else’s opinions, thoughts, comments, gossip to the contrary. You see?
The hard part of Awakening is, and the hard part of facing the Truth is, in realizing that you’re getting your sense of your well-being from the wrong places. But if you don’t find out that you are getting it from the wrong places, you will go along blindly and unconscious of the Integrity of your Being that’s unwavering and that is constantly available to you to experience. You see?
You’re not here, none of you are here, to please anyone else. You could say you are here to please God, but it’s more than that. You are here to glorify God. You are here to represent God, because that’s your Function. You don’t have a function to represent yourself, because you don’t have a self that isn’t God-derived. And as long as you think you do, you will constantly be in a process of negotiating agreed-upon definitions, or new agreed-upon definitions, with all of the other egos around you who are tending to their own integrity that is self-derived, rather than God-derived.
Again, for clarity, self-derived integrity is other-derived integrity. Understand that clearly, because without acknowledged agreement of everyone else as to your integrity, you will find yourself at a loss, without any sense of integrity. And you will scramble mightily to change the minds of the others who express that you lack integrity. Or if you don’t choose to change their mind, you will choose to acquiesce to them. Just for peace. Just for the sake of not being in the middle of turmoil. And there’s still no integrity there. It’s misery. Self-derived integrity is really other-derived integrity. And you’re the puppet of the mutual agreement of the majority. And you’re lucky if the majority thinks well of you. At least, humanly speaking, you are lucky if the majority agree with you. You’re still up shit creek if the majority agree with you and that’s why you feel your integrity, because you’re not in touch with the essential substance and divinity of your Being that’s unvarying and unyielding.
Okay. Section Five:
The Function of the Miracle Worker1
Well, do you suppose that the miracle worker is, or can possibly be, one who is preoccupied with mutually-agreed-upon definitions of his integrity, or her integrity? I just want to throw that in there as we enter into a consideration of the miracle worker. So let’s start here…
May I ask a question?2
You are the official “question-asker.” [audience laughter]
Is that which is referred to as the Altar in the Course in Miracles, that which is referred to as the thought-adjuster in The Urantia Book?
No, indeed. The Altar is the living, active Presence of God being all there is of You. And God is not a thought-adjuster. If there is any thought-adjuster, it’s the Holy Spirit.
Or maybe my Guide?
Well, your Guide and the Holy Spirit have the same function. And everyone who is Awake who works with you has that function–to help you give permission to have a new idea that is a closer approximation of the Truth.
A thought-adjuster cannot actually make an adjustment, like a chiropractor. A thought-adjuster or the Holy Spirit, can make it inviting to you, can make it desirable to you to make a shift, to allow a shift, to abandon a bad definition, or to abandon your commitment to a definition that doesn’t embody Truth. But that’s all a thought-adjuster can do. It’s like grease the way so that you might even slip, but you can’t be pushed. You can’t be coerced. You can’t be forced. You can be finessed. Okay.
The Function of the Miracle Worker
Before miracle workers are ready to undertake their function in this world, it is essential that they fully understand the fear of release. Otherwise …
… Oh, I wonder what that would be the release from? Might it be the release from the mutually-agreed-upon definitions that gave you such a sense of wonderful security and well-being? And why would you fear that? Why would you fear the release from that?
I’m used to it. I’m familiar with it.
Yes … but might you not also find yourself standing all alone? With everybody else not understanding you?
Just me, the Altar, and my thought-adjuster?
That’s a pretty scary thing when you have gathered your sense of your well-being from everyone else’s good thoughts about you, because that’s where your sense of strength had come from.
None of you are used to the experience of strength that is derived from being perfectly in sync with the way things work, perfectly in sync with the Father, perfectly in sync with that which is fundamentally divine about you, in sync with your function.
So, it is a fearful thing to be released from everyone’s well wishes for you, everyone else’s positive assessment of you–positive because you weren’t challenging their point of view by functioning in any way unique, or in any way at odds with their assessment of the behavior that makes them feel safe and strong. You see?
You’re afraid because you end up on the outside of the group–ostracized–not included, in other words. In the minority. And again, anyone who has been in the middle of a group and you are in the minority, and that group does not think particularly kindly of the group you are from, you feel alone, tiny, vulnerable. And if, on top of this, they all speak a language you can’t understand, and they’re all speaking that language around you, it’s easy to become paranoid and suspicious. “What are they saying about me?” Because … because your sense of your security, safety, and inner strength and integrity, has been, in the past derived from mutually-agreed-upon definitions that you were not out of sync with.
Continue …
Can I ask one question first?
Yes.
I just, the idea of being out of the group, out of sync, if that’s all you know, and you’ve never experienced your Brothers being one with you, and you with one with God, it’s such a huge leap to go from … even being afraid can be safer than making that leap, because I don’t know what that feels like. It’s something that I want. It’s something I think about. But it’s such an incredible mindset different, that the fear almost looks good. Or you can kind of cope with it.
Indeed, or in addition to abiding in the fear, ultimately deciding to crawl back into the crab barrel and not even attempt the shift at all… yes.
To be in sync with yourself is inseparable from an incredible, awesome experience of Peace, invulnerability and joy. That’s the fact. And so, what do I do? I finesse all of you by letting you know that over and over and over again, so that you might begin to consider the possibility that what I’m saying is true. And that therefore, there just might be justification for letting go and doing this fearful thing.
That’s why it says here:
Before miracle workers are ready to undertake their function in this world, it is essential that they fully understand the fear of release.
And I think most everyone reads that and says, “That’s interesting. What does it mean?” And now you have a clearer idea of what it can mean from your very own experience of being in the minority, and having to, if you cannot leave that setting, having to arrive at a point where regardless of what others are thinking, regardless of whether they like you, you are valid and you are valuable. You have to hang in there and shift, one way or another, to a level of comfort within you that isn’t derived from others whose minds you can’t change, because you don’t speak their language, and they don’t want to converse with you in yours. You see?
Yes?
Raj, you’ve said this in a very gentle way. But what I’ve discovered is what the fear is about goes even deeper than that. And that’s the surface, or the underlying, hostility that we’re afraid of facing when we don’t agree with everyone’s mutual definitions. Because when the boat is rocked a little bit, out comes the hostility. I mean, it ripples forth. And I think there is a … that has to learn to be dealt with also.
Yes. That fear has to be dealt with.
Of what’s underneath that. [laughs]
Of course, that’s part of the already-established, mutually-agreed-upon definitions. The first rule is don’t rock the boat. Don’t push my limits. And underneath that is a sub-rule that says, if you do rock my boat, you’re going to pay for it.
You’re going to have hell to pay.
Exactly. And so that is a fear that has been trained into you by the structure of the mutually-agreed-upon definitions. But we’re not talking about being so unique that you utterly don’t fit in.
To be in touch with your Integrity, to have turned around to the Altar to gather the facts of your Being from the flame in the middle of the Altar that is the energy and Spirit of God being all there is of you right now, you end up not so much going against the grain of the mutually-agreed-upon definitions, you end up being in a way that doesn’t provide challenge, but does provide illumination of new potentialities and new possibilities that can engage the attention of those who are themselves bound by and miserable in the middle of the mutually-agreed-upon definitions.
You will really only run into attack, let us say, retaliation, from those who feel that they have some God-given right to exercise control over you. But the majority of the people in your daily life do not feel that they have that right, and so they look more with curiosity, than anything else. It’s those who, well, are family … who think they are living in agreed-upon definitions of what a family is, and what rights family members have, et cetera, who will perhaps attempt to exert authority against you. Or it could be an employer.
But truly, the only place you’re going to run into retaliation is from those who feel they have a right to tell you how to be. And that’s not the majority of the world. And for the majority of the world, your being in sync with your divine function will be more a presence of interesting potentials than threat to those you engage with. In the first place, you will be being in a more benign way, because you aren’t trying to cram your particular new point of view down their throats. Because that’s not what you do when you’re in touch with your function.
Continue … start at the beginning of the first sentence.
Before miracle workers are ready to undertake their function in this world, it is essential that they fully understand the fear of release. Otherwise they may unwittingly foster the belief that release is imprisonment, a belief that is already very prevalent.
And let me just say that when you are ostracized and standing alone, that is like being imprisoned.
I remember you using the phrase, “in the aloneness of your Being.” Now it’s more clear what you were talking about.
And in the aloneness of your Being–of your Being with a capital “B”–you are … you experience the All-Oneness of It, the Wholeness of It, when you don’t resist It.
Hunger for appreciation and acknowledgement from others, keeps you small, because feeling appreciated is something you cannot have without everyone else giving it to you. To feel loved is something you can’t have without everyone else giving it to you. And yet, you are the expression at this moment and every moment, the ongoing, uninterrupted, brand-new expression of God, which is an expression of Love. Your very Being is Love. Your very Being is imbued with the Love the Father is imbuing it with. And literally, the only real experience you have available to you is the experience of being Loved and of Being Love. Of being Loved as well as Being Love.
Continue …
This misperception arises in turn from the belief that harm can be limited to the body. That is because of the underlying fear that the mind can hurt itself. None of these errors is meaningful, because the miscreations of the mind do not really exist. This recognition …
… are not the mutually-agreed-upon definitions, miscreations of the mind?
Yes.
Yes. Continue …
This recognition is a far better protective device than any form of level confusion, because it introduces correction at the level of the error.
Indeed.
It is essential to remember that only the mind …
… where it introduces correction at the level of the error.
What I have said to you tonight brings your attention to your inclination to address the problem of your divinity by either not embracing and embodying it and thus breaking the trust of the mutually-agreed-upon definitions, or trying to change everyone else’s mind so that they can recognize, let us say, your divinity. That is not where you address the problem. You see? That doesn’t introduce correction where the problem lies.
You introduce correction at that point where you are seeking your comfort, and security, and safety, and integrity from everyone else. That’s where the mistake is made. And that’s where the correction must be made. And so the correction involves not giving a damn what everyone else thinks. Not as an opposition to them, but as a relinquishment of faith in their perspective. A relinquishment of your faith in their ability to give you peace, safety, security, and integrity… and turning around to the Altar.
Go on …
It is essential to remember that only the mind can create, and that correction belongs at the thought level.
At the thought level and the result of thought–which is a determination, a decision, and then a commitment to the decision. But again, the correction has to be introduced where the mistake is made. And the mistake is made at the level of thought.
Continue …
To amplify an earlier statement, spirit is already perfect and therefore does not require correction.
The flame in the Altar is already perfect. And the flame in the Altar is You. The flame in the Altar is God being You there. The flame in the Altar is God being God there.
Continue …
If I may … then I’m seeing that the Altar is more of what’s referred to as survival in The Urantia Book.
No. Survival … survival means nothing without its opposite. And the Altar is Life Itself–immutable, unalterable Life without an opposite.
Continue …
The body does not exist except as a learning device for the mind. This learning device is not subject to errors of its own, because it cannot create. It is obvious, then, that inducing the mind to give up its miscreations is the only application of creative ability that is truly meaningful.
Wow … yes!
It is obvious then that finessing the mind to give up its miscreations is the only application of creative ability that is truly meaningful. It’s the only one that will work. Inducing the mind is to present an idea so attractive, that the mind it is addressed to, finds it almost impossible not to explore.
But the impulse to explore it, the intent to explore it, has to come to you for your reasons. Else it’s not you taking the step, it’s not you making the shift. It’s someone else coming up behind you and picking you up and moving you to a new spot. And if you didn’t end up at that new spot willingly, you will get back to the old spot as quickly as you can with great, self-righteous indignation!
Can you make those shifts of correction within the context of the ego? Or do you have to go face the Altar, as you say, and do it from the Holy Spirit?
Let me put it this way: When you are induced by an utterly brilliant idea that gets your attention, and you give your attention to it, you are turning toward the Altar. When you turn, when you give your attention with intrigue toward a new idea that is at odds with the status quo, the mutually-agreed-upon definitions, you are turning away from them and turning toward the Altar.
Is that my agenda, or the Holy Spirit’s agenda?
It’s the Holy Spirit’s agenda to make turning around inviting.
It’s your agenda to turn around and explore/fulfill your curiosity.
And you must realize that no matter how much you might identify yourself as your ego, you are not the ego-sense of yourself that you have so strongly identified with. You’ve never stopped being the Presence of God, the Christ. And so That which finds Itself curious to give Its attention to the Truth and fulfill Its curiosity is the divine one that you Are, already in the process of coming Home by having been successfully enticed into looking at things a different way, having been finessed into abandoning your commitment to the way you’ve always seen things. You see?
Yeah. And what I’m learning now is when you … to really change your perceptions of someone is actually to see them without error. I mean, no penalty, no foul. It’s not like I see them doing something wrong, and then forgiving them. It’s like you just don’t see it.
That’s correct.
It looks like here’s the first place where you introduced the idea, “the body does not exist.” Would you insert the phrase, “as you perceive it,” after that?
Actually it has been in the previous couple of sections.
Oh, I missed that. But it’s standing out right here.
But …
The body does not exist except as a learning device for the mind.
I brought out that the body is like the effulgence, or glow, around the Altar.
I missed that.
And when one turns one’s back on the Altar, and one does not see that the glow is from the Altar, and one denies Its divinity, that very thing becomes a learning-device.
Whatever of the infinite Presence of God you are denying becomes a learning-device. Because it becomes the specific opportunity to remember God. And once you have remembered God and seen it for what It truly Is, it ceases to be a learning-device, because you aren’t suffering from ignorance needing to be corrected.
Continue …
Magic is the mindless or the miscreative use of mind. Physical medications are forms of “spells,” but if you are afraid to use the mind to heal, you should not attempt to do so. The very fact that you are afraid makes your mind vulnerable to miscreation. You are therefore likely to misunderstand any healing that might occur, and because egocentricity and fear usually occur together, you may be unable to accept the real Source of the healing. Under these conditions, it is safer for you to rely temporarily on physical healing devices, because you cannot misperceive them as your own creations. As long as your sense of vulnerability persists, you should not attempt to perform miracles.
Whew! The scariest part of a miracle is that it proves there is a God–something none of you really wants to find out for sure. It’s much easier to believe that there is a God, and hope there is a God, and give lip-service to this God that you believe in and have hope about, than it is to have the actual Experience of God … for any of a number of reasons, but the most significant reason you don’t want to know that there really is a God is because you will know unequivocally that you’re not in charge: That you have no authority of your own… that you therefore, do not have any of the characteristics of strength and integrity that have been defined by the mutually-agreed-upon definitions, and to which you have brought full commitment.
You are afraid that if there really is a God, and you are incapable of defending yourself because you have no authority, that you will die, because survival requires you to be able to defend yourself.
And the problem here is that you are looking at the approach to God as though you really are the mortal you believe you are. And as the one who participated in “The Fall” by saying, “My will be done, not Thine,” and therefore, there will be punishment.
But all of this conflicted, penalty-ridden fear of facing God arises out of the fact that when you are not experiencing God, all that God Is will appear to be polarized, therefore, capable of providing you with some good, but also with a lot of bad–omnipotent bad.
When the fact is that when you yield to God, and you dare to let God to be glorified in you by not presenting any other presence than what God is Being there, there will be no experience of vulnerability, no experience of judgment, no experience of penalty having to be paid.
The only reason the approach to God appears to be fraught with distress is because you are still looking through your distress glasses. Because you’re still identified with your commitment to the mutually-agreed-upon definitions, and you’re still committed to the value that everyone around you that you are joined in these mutually-agreed-upon definitions with, are what provide you with your strength and integrity. You have more trust in everyone else’s opinions, than you do risking the chance that maybe there really is a God. And this God is Love. And you are His Offspring. You are Him. You are God Expressed and therefore, incapable of experiencing polarity. And therefore, safe. And therefore, Pure. And therefore, the Presence of Integrity. And therefore, invulnerable, because there is no other presence.
Continue …
I have already said that miracles are expressions of miracle-mindedness, and miracle-mindedness means right-mindedness. The right-minded neither exalt nor …
… and right-mindedness is the opposite of illness/sickness, because sickness is nothing more than wrong-mindedness.
Continue …
The right-minded neither exalt nor depreciate the mind of the miracle worker or the miracle receiver. However, as a correction, the miracle need not await the right-mindedness of the receiver. In fact, its purpose is to restore him to his right mind. It is essential, however, that the miracle worker be in his right mind, however briefly, or he will be unable to re-establish right-mindedness in someone else.
So, the miracle worker is not an authorizer of the miracle. Where did I see that?
It is essential, however, that the miracle worker be in his right mind, however briefly, …
[repeats] … In his right Mind, however briefly …
… or he will be unable to re-establish right-mindedness in someone else.
What I mean to say is, that the only one who would like to be able to say to this disease or that disease, “Get thee hence,” and have it be gone, is an ego. Only an ego wants the power to banish disease. Wanting to be a miracle worker and to be able to banish disease is not an expression of right-mindedness. It’s an expression of willfulness for excellent reasons. And of course, the meaning of the word “excellent reason” is arrived at through mutually-agreed-upon definitions.
The miracle happens when the miracle worker, who happens to just be a guy like you, or a gal like you, happens to get out of the way for a moment. Happens to be in a place where he, or she, isn’t reaffirming the mutually-agreed-upon definitions, and there is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to connect. And then, if you bring your attention to it, to the connection, and allow the connection to occur, that’s the meaning of turning toward the Altar. And then, God’s Love, through the Holy Spirit, and through you, blesses someone else, and healing occurs.
And then if that moment of right-mindedness suddenly abruptly stops, and you’re just like you, and you, and you, again, you say, “My God! What happened? It’s a miracle!” And what you mean is that something has happened that you don’t understand the happening of. And you stand as much in awe of it as everyone else. Do you see what I’m saying?
The miracle worker is what you end up Being when you’ve allowed yourself to be out of the way, not trying to be anything in particular. And in that moment of the absence of assertive self-will, the Father can be glorified in you, because you’re not interfering with your real function, which is to glorify God, to let God be all that is there, where you see and experience yourself.
So for that one moment you see that person as Perfect and Whole as God created him.
Indeed.
And in that moment in your right-mindedness, he gets that message, he connects with that, and he sees himself as Perfect and Whole. And because that happens, you can only receive what you give, you see yourself as Perfect and Whole.
Indeed … indeed … exactly.
The healer who relies on his own readiness is endangering his understanding.
Let that sink in.
With what measuring stick are you going to assess your readiness? It isn’t about you being ready to be a healer. It’s more about you letting God use you, or the Holy Spirit to use you. Your readiness is epitomized in the phrase, “Thy Will be done.” Readiness is when there is enough humility to get out of the way as a healer. You see?
Your willfulness is the opaqueness that doesn’t let God through. The more humility infuses itself into you, and the more allowing you are of it, the less opaque your mind becomes and the more Light that can shine through.
Continue …
You are perfectly safe as long as you are completely unconcerned about your readiness, …
… not mostly unconcerned. Not unconcerned a little bit. Completely unconcerned. It’s irrelevant.
Start the sentence again.
You are perfectly safe as long as you are completely unconcerned about your readiness, but maintain a consistent trust in mine.
Now this is what Paul does every time he sits down for a Gathering like this. Sometimes we can’t start for quite a while because he’s concerned about his readiness. He has himself on his mind. He knows that he must get past that, and that is what he attends to by giving his attention more fully to me and entrusting himself to me.
Continue …
If your miracle working inclinations are not functioning properly, it is always because fear has intruded on your right-mindedness and has turned it upside down. All forms of not-right-mindedness are the result of refusal to accept the Atonement for yourself.
And what is the Atonement?
An Act of Love.
Yes … the Act of Love.
And as we’ve said, the only way an act of Love can occur is when you desire to have the Father’s Love come through you. Not through you as you, but through you as the Father’s Love still … and extending it. Especially extending it to one who seems to you (your ego-sense) to be unworthy of it. And in that willingness, that one is blessed, and you are blessed.
Continue …
If you do accept it, you are in a position to recognize that those who need healing are simply those who have not realized that right-mindedness is healing.
[repeats] …is healing.
Yes. Continue …
The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself.
Now this can be a little tricky, because the only way you can accept the Atonement for yourself is to extend it to your Brother. You cannot sit in a room all by yourself and be bathed in the Light of God so that you, and you alone, can soak up the rays and be blessed and tanned beautifully.
The way you receive the Atonement is by finding an object of your affection, because it’s your function to be the Presence of Love, and then say, “Father, show this one to me … let me see Your Vision. Infill me with the True perception of him or her, so that I might always behave in a way that honors his divinity. And so that I might never again behave toward him, or her, on the basis of mutually-agreed-upon definitions, or the avoidance of penalties for breaking those definitions.”
Continue …
Our official questioner has a question. [audience laughter]
Why did you spend a lot of time alone in the wilderness and up on the mountains and in Gethsemane? Why did you spend so much time alone when you were here?
If you want to look at it in terms of time, out of thirty-three years, those accounted for a very small part of my life.
But you know what? You do have to go on fasts. You have to be willing to fast from the mutually-agreed-upon definitions. And is that not a withdrawal from the group that you have chosen to be identified with who has those mutually-agreed-upon definitions? Does not Paul, when he sits down at the beginning of each Gathering, in effect, withdraw from you?
What that actually means is that he withdraws from being concerned about what you might think about him if he turns toward the Altar.
We have to go through the aloneness of our Being to get to that place where we join with.
Where you’re already One with everything.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah. Thank you.
[in the background] Even you had to do that.
That is correct.
This means you recognize that mind is the only creative level, and that its errors are healed by the Atonement. Once you accept this, your mind can only heal. By denying your mind any destructive potential and reinstating its purely constructive powers, you place yourself in a position to undo the level confusion of others. The message you then give to them is the truth that their minds are similarly constructive, and their miscreations cannot hurt them. By affirming this you release the mind from over evaluating its own learning device, and restore the mind to its true position as the learner.
If you travel a lot and take a lot of vacations, and in the process of doing this, you find a hideaway that is exquisite and something that no one should miss, you do not hesitate to tell your friends about it. And they cannot help but see the light in you of your enthusiasm, and feel the invitation–not your invitation–but the invitation of the beauty and the exquisiteness and the wonderfulness of this place.
When you abandon the mutually-agreed-upon definitions because you have become curious to look in a new direction that you have been finessed into checking out, and you abandon the mutually-agreed-upon definitions, and have a new experience, as I’ve said before, you can’t help but share it. But more than anything, you realize that you’ve experienced a bit of the Kingdom of Heaven without having done anything to deserve it. Discovery does not happen as the result of personal effort. It only happens because you are paying attention, and you are willing to look where you haven’t looked before.
So, if you have a taste of the Kingdom of Heaven and it causes you to have a whole new perspective, and you didn’t deserve it, and the experience has shown you that it takes no skill to have the experience, only a certain undefendedness, no matter what a terrible person you were before it happened, it becomes obvious to you that your friend, your neighbor, your sister, your mother, your son, whoever, can have the same experience, too. Because it doesn’t have to be deserved. Absolutely everyone is susceptible to this kind of experience without qualifications.
Wow! Now, all of a sudden you’re seeing them in a new way. You’re seeing that they don’t have to measure up to some standard in order to have insight. And that, because you had the experience, and therefore were evidently deserving of having the experience, then, in spite of the way you’ve been looking at your neighbor, and how negatively you’ve been judging him or her to be, they deserve it, too. And in that clarification, you find that you’ve abandoned your “just” judgment. Because suddenly, you realize that your judgment meant nothing. And now you can stand with them on their behalf without even saying a word, you can stand with them on behalf of their having the very same wonderful revelation, because you had it without deserving it, and they deserve to have it without deserving it also. And there is Love in you that you embrace them with. You see?
The message you then give to them is the truth that their minds are similarly constructive. You know, the bitch or bastard that you saw a few minutes ago, now you’re saying, “Their mind is similarly constructive, like mine is!” You see? And there’s joy!
And I’ll tell you, your presence is inspiring to everyone, because you are more benign yourself. You can’t help but embrace them with the Love that you found yourself embraced by. You have a vision about them that they might not be having about themselves.
So this section is called:
The Function of the Miracle Worker
And we’ve all found out that the miracle worker isn’t you. But that it’s who you end up Being when you don’t have yourself on your mind as a something at all. And who you turn out to be, the miracle worker, is that because you have dared, with help to abandon your fear of facing God, abandoning your fear of no longer committing to the mutually-agreed-upon definitions. You have abandoned your allegiance to everyone else’s opinion of you, so that you might stand alone in the void. Because in the void, you can be curious to know what everything Is separate and apart from the mess of existence in the middle of mutually-agreed-upon definitions.
Now, this is not something other-worldly. And it’s not something impossible. It’s not something difficult. Every time any of you ask me a question, Paul turns toward me–not his own best judgments–and listens, and hears, and shares the answer. That’s all the more other-worldly it is.
And every time any one of you simply chooses to become still within yourself and say, “Father, help me to see the truth,” you are turning toward the Altar. You are relinquishing your allegiance to all of the agreed-upon definitions that have been given to everything, so that another way of seeing this might be presented to you–not be figured out by you. And the answer … the answers come. They come every day. Most of the time you don’t hear them, but sometimes you do. And that’s all the more other-worldly it is. That’s all the more difficult it is.
And the point is, to do this and do it, and do it, and do it more frequently, more frequently, more frequently, until you’re not doing anything else. So that you might always experience being in perfect harmony with It. Ultimately, the experience of being perfectly in harmony with It will, for lack of better words, go through a blur. The distinction between you cooperating with It as something different from you that you’re cooperating with, will blur, and you will experience yourself as It–not as an observer of It.
So, it’s a wonderful adventure. And it’s not complicated. And it only has to do with your bringing your willingness to invite a new Perspective that you haven’t created, and that others around you who are still dreaming dreams haven’t created for you either.
It can come as easily as your saying throughout the day, “What should I do now that will be in harmony with the Father’s Will for me?”
[gives example]
It’s time to eat. What’s the most appropriate thing for me to do regarding eating?
Oh, I’m to go out to dinner tonight?
Okay. What place best expresses fulfillment of God’s Purpose?
A French restaurant?
But that’s not reasonable. My wallet says no.
Mmm. You say do it anyway?
Is this really my Guide, or is this my ego?
Oh. You’re my Guide, and I am hearing you clearly.
But it doesn’t make sense …
Oh, it’s because Sense, what fulfills the Father’s Purpose, goes beyond my definition of what makes sense. And so you’re encouraging me to risk the chance that being unwise, as far as I’m concerned, and going to a restaurant that costs more than I can afford might actually be appropriate? You are … You are saying that.
You see? You keep inquiring. And you must always know that you can refuse, if what you’re told stretches you too much. You can refuse. You can be stubborn and say, “Explain more.” But the point is to be constantly turned toward the Altar, constantly wanting to know what fulfills the Father’s Purpose here?
Oh, you say I am worth even more than the French restaurant. But it fulfills the Father’s Purpose for it to just be the French restaurant tonight. You say this isn’t going to put me into a financial jeopardy?
Oh.
You say that I am hearing you perfectly clearly, and it fulfills Purpose for me to go out to eat tonight to the French restaurant, and enjoy myself?
Okay.
Now, I’m not going to go on, and on, because, of course, now one has to get ready, and get into the car, and say:
Okay. Shall I take the freeway? Or shall I … which way shall I go?
So that you are staying in touch the whole way.
Now it takes trust. And the blessing is greater than anything you can imagine. And I will tell you this: When you listen deeply and in effect turn toward the Altar, your coming into harmony with the Father’s Will, will not bring any of you to any kind of ruin, financial or otherwise. And by God, be glad that Guidance is given you that doesn’t hold you to your poor, teeny thought-models of what is acceptable and appropriate for someone of your station, or status, or financial makeup.
Next Thursday is the day after Christmas, and we will not have a Gathering next Thursday evening. We will resume the follow Thursday; the first Thursday of what you call a “new year.” Same old Eternity. [audience laughter]
And I really encourage all of you, during the next two weeks, to try to find some delight in being open to that which hasn’t been included in the mutually-agreed-upon definitions that you’ve been binding yourselves by, by withdrawing your allegiance to them enough to have some curiosity to say, “Father, I really would like to experience the truth.” And it doesn’t have to be ultimate truth. It can be, “What’s the truth here? How can I be utterly on the beam about which blouse to wear?” You see? Ultimacy can be found in simplicity. Don’t make it complicated for yourselves.
Over the next two weeks, dare to enjoy all of the opportunities you will be provided with in order for you to be miracle-ready. Because I will tell you, that those are the things that are being prepared for you every moment, of every day, of every year. And to be miracle-ready means to be willing in the most unexpected places to extend Love.
Miracles, the revelation of what is Real, are constantly being presented to you by the experience of Being Itself, because Being is God in Action. But with the allegiances you have to your mutually-agreed-upon definitions, you usually only leave a little crack for the miracle to come through.
So, this Christmas, don’t just let a baby through. Don’t just let a little miracle through. You see? Be willing to let big miracles happen, because big miracles are being given. Don’t be stingy this Christmas. Don’t be teeny this Christmas. Don’t let through just a little bit of Love. Ask for Love in Its fullness to find an avenue through you.
I love you.
Okay.
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