Table of Contents
Good afternoon. And welcome to everyone who is joining us on the internet.
I would like to start with some comments. The last time we gathered, we ended with a discussion about, let us say, the rate of speed with which I was moving and the fact that there wasn’t enough time for everything to settle in, to be dealt with. And so I indicated that today we would take time for you to address portions of the book that we moved over quickly that there is lack of clarity about for you and that you wish to have clarity about.
I want to say something. We call this an ACIM Study Group and we have been for over a year discussing and moving through the Course. But you know what? I’m not really here trying to illuminate the words in a book. This isn’t about quote “a course of study” unquote. At the bottom line, the Course is all about you. It’s not about the Course.
My Function here is not to illuminate the Course but to illuminate you—Who You Divinely Are—to yourself, or shall I say, your Self, with a capital “S”, to you. You are the focal point because you are the ones having the dream, the nightmare. The book isn’t having a dream. And the purpose of the book is to cause you to experience your Self more clearly. The purpose of the book is to give you language and concepts that will undo the sense of yourself which you carry with you and reinforce and embody and actify, if I may put it that way, and undo it. The book is not the focal point. Your Real Self is and your, what you would call as an ego, your potential is the focal point. Divine potential, not ego potential.
So far, as we have read, I have been bringing the attention back to you, using it to help you see how you utilize your mind, and the starting point that you are using.
Last week, the last meeting I pointed out there are two different operating systems. One of the them is Real in You, and one is the one you have made-up. Everything that we have read up to this point has helped to provide language and concepts that will allow you to grasp this. But you know what? We’re at a point of transition here, you might say, out of the theoretical into the practical where it stops being something you’re studying about; ideas that you’re able to put together, classify, categorize, put into your memory banks, and then draw from, like legal boiler plate, phrases, statements that can be pulled out of a memory bank and put together in fresh new ways, intriguing ways, surprising ways.
It’s not about gathering anything from memory banks, and it’s not about putting anything into memory banks. It’s not about finding something new to incorporate into your mutually-agreed-upon definitions, refining them and perfecting them and making them be more spiritual while still functioning from an operating system which is purely imaginary and has nothing to do with Reality.
Your boiler plate, your definitions, and the way you have put everything together to give you a sense of what everything is about so you may feel secure, is what you are about to be willing to abandon, if indeed you want to wake up, if indeed you want to regain your Sanity. In abandoning this, it feels like abandoning your security. But you know what? Your security has always been derived from your ability to give quick responses because you can access your memory quickly and efficiently so that you have a rebuttal, you have an idea that overrides the idea that has been expressed. That’s not really security. It’s just a good defense system.
When you move into the other Operating System, you move into a place where your immediate response to anything is, “I don’t know what the answer is,” and where you abandon the attempt to have the quick answer, the quick rebuttal that supercedes whatever came before it. Switching to the other Operating System is a matter of moving into the, I’m going to say, forever unknown and letting yourself be there in your Peace with the inevitable curiosity that will accompany it. You may not know what the answer is, but you know there’s a question. You know there’s a need. And in the silence of not attempting to provide the quick rebuttal, the quick answer, you find insight, revelation occurring. You find yourself knowing in that moment what to do, what to say, how to phrase it, how to intone it. And you know what? Your behavior will always be a blessing. But you know something else? What you have found yourself expressing that constituted a blessing doesn’t become a bit of information to store in your memory banks, because that is not the way the new Operating System works. It doesn’t have any memory banks.
The new Operating System where you have gone to the Place of Excellence in You and you have said, “Thy Will be done, not mine,” means that you forever stand at unknowing attention with curiosity, openness so that your appropriateness in every given moment is fresh and original and expresses the Living Will of God in the Now.
As you make the conscious and conscientious effort to shift to the other Operating System, what I’m going to call the new Operating System, the Holy Spirit, as you make conscious and conscientious effort to do that more and more consistently and find yourself being able to be utterly appropriate in the moment, always with a blessing accompanying it, you will begin to find security in never knowing anything beforehand. A new experience of security will occur, and it will reinforce itself without your having to try to have to reinforce it. It will reinforce itself, not because you are consistently expressing a clear will, but because you are consistently being willful-less.
None of you realizes the degree to which the tone of your voice and your choice of words is governing your ignorance, is governing and securing your ignorance, your dream.
So, you have been my focus all along—not the Course. The Course is being used as a means of providing language that will allow you to somewhat gracefully shift from the current operating system to the Real Operating System in You. That’s what it’s all about.
Now, who has questions about what we’ve been discussing in the Course that you would like clarification on? And if you will give us the page numbers.
This would be on page 93.1
Of the sparkly book.
That’s correct.
Okay, this is for those who are in the first or second edition, this would be on the second page of chapter five.
Okay. Here it talks about giving; the whole idea of giving is losing and how …
Which paragraph are you looking at?
It’s the whole, it’s “Healing as Joining.” It’s in that entire paragraph. For instance, in the last sentence it says:
If you can accept the concept that the world IS one of ideas, the whole belief in the false association which the ego makes between giving and LOSING is gone.
Do you see that, that last sentence there?
Indeed.
Okay. The whole concept of this paragraph is about the whole idea of scarcity, I think, versus abundance. In other words, it makes the … it presents the concept that if you share a … if you give someone a thing … okay, it looks like you lose the thing and the other person gains it. But if you give a person an idea, it does not diminish your holding the idea but actually increases, makes it bigger. The other person has the idea and you have the idea, and the more people that believe in the idea the stronger the idea becomes.
Indeed.
Here is what the … and now I want to take this concept and put it into my everyday life. So here’s the question. Let’s talk about … and of course scarcity in the lives of myself and others is often about money. The whole question of money. So my question that immediately came up for me was if you believe in this particular concept, if you believe in the idea of this particular concept, then would it be possible for you to experience a lack in your life as far as materiality is concerned?
If you believe in this particular concept meaning?
The concept of giving is and sharing is increasing as opposed to giving as losing. You follow me?
Yes.
Okay. So the thing that immediately came up for me was that if I’m totally 100% in belief of this idea, would I experience scarcity, lack, need in my life? In other words, is what … for instance, if I do experience scarcity, lack, and lack of whatever it is I feel I need to continue, is it because I’m not fully invested in this whole idea that this paragraph puts across? Does that make sense what I’m getting at?
I am going to ask you to say it again more succinctly.
Okay. You want me to repeat the idea again? Okay. Let me see if I can find the exact sentence that … okay.
If you think about it, you will see that, while this kind of thinking is totally alien to having THINGS, …
That is, the idea of “when you give you lose.”
… even to the lower mind it is quite comprehensible in connection with IDEAS. If you share a physical possession, you DO divide its ownership. If you share an idea, however, you do NOT lessen it. ALL of it is still yours, although all of it has been given away. Further, if the person to whom you give it accepts it as HIS, he reinforces it in YOUR mind, and thus INCREASES it.
So in the world of ideas, it’s quite obvious. In the world of things, it’s hard to see. So my question is if I fully invest, if I’m 100% vested in this idea of “giving is increasing,” then could scarcity, lack of anything be experienced in my particular experience?
You would indeed find your needs being met. I’m going to ask you to become even more specific. What kind of things are you talking about giving?
Well, money is a perfect example. In my own life, I operate at a deficit. And so, instead of saying, well, the folks out there in yoga-land in this particular neighborhood aren’t just getting it, they don’t see the value of what I’m doing, I’m a bad teacher, you know, all of the ego bullshit that will come up that will condemn me or my Brother for as why this is in a deficit situation. So I’m in the process of trying to re-look at the situation, change my perspective. And this particular paragraph, you know, is that what I have to do? Do I have to change my mind in order to change what is in my experience?
You do indeed.
How would I do that?
You have to arrive at a point where you have to decide whether there is anything, anything that can justify your withholding your Gift. As long as there is anything that can justify your withholding your Gift, your Gift is not complete. There can be no joy in the sharing of It. And that will be reflected back to you as insufficiency of some sort, providing you the opportunity to solidify and unify your commitment to your Function to be that which extends what is valuable, what meets the need, whatever it is the Father’s Will that you be the expression of.
In my experience, what I’m experiencing right now is I do all that I can. It’s taken priority in my life to extend the Gift to … for people who say they can’t pay, to say, “You can have it for free. You don’t have to pay. It’s my pleasure to give it to you.” I see it as more important than the fee for the class is watching people progress in the practice. That seems to give me the most joy because I recognize that at the level that I’m at right now, I’m never going to be able to, or at least I can’t foresee getting enough from this financially to make me wealthy, or in any way well off. So, there’s that. Then the … I don’t see myself withholding anything from the people who I teach, at this point. And I don’t, I thought I was beyond the idea of making it about money.
So I keep … what I’m saying is there’s still confusion. What is it that I’m specifically not doing or feeling or seeing that continues to deny me to be able to move comfortably monetarily in the situation, or feel that I’m … In other words, what am I doing that’s not working? If it’s not them, it’s gotta be me. And that … I always look at me as being the problem. So where is the problem?
Sometimes the problem is with them. And sometimes you are there to be the one to provide the illumination, the clarification of the fact that sharing is a two-way street. Sharing is a mutual thing. And so you’re going to have to listen in the moment as to how to be with a particular individual or a particular group as to what you are going to say, and how you are going to illuminate what is still covered in their mind about the mutuality of Gift. Because, mind you, they are coming still from the place you are emerging from, perhaps even more solidly than you, and so it doesn’t make sense to them. And so education, illumination needs to happen. And you’re going to have to listen on the spot as to what it is that will need to be said.
There is also some guilt that I have in this situation because, like Paul and Susan, they don’t … there is no fee for … they give and it’s up to you, us to determine what that Gift is worth, or how much we’re moved to give, or so it’s all on a volunteer basis.
But yet I in my particular practice say well, if you come to this class, it’s this amount of money. If you come, you know, you pay twelve classes. There is a fee. It makes it easy for everyone. It’s ten dollars, or nine dollars, or whatever, twelve dollars.
It makes it easy for everyone because it doesn’t challenge the current operating system, and it doesn’t promote a shift to the other Operating System.
Right. Exactly. So my guilt comes up with I’m not doing that. So my question is, is that my next step? Is to make it a donation basis in my particular practice? I mean am I … is that my fear? My withholding my …
It is, and understand that a certain amount of education is going to have to accompany the shift.
You mean of me or of them?
Of them, of those who you are teaching. Yes.
So is it time to do that? Or is it like I have to get more comfortable with the concept?
Well, let’s put it this way. The ego is never going to get more comfortable with the concept. [Michael and scattered audience laughing] And there is no time like the present to break the habit, to break the pattern, to make an excursion into the new Operating System, the new Premise.
The last thing that comes up for me around this whole idea of abundance is the whole idea of conservation. Conservation from … on the individual level as far as recycling is concerned. In other words, saving your waste paper and taking it to the recycling center, driving an automobile that doesn’t burn a lot of gas, and limiting your trips to only those that are necessary, and on and on and on and on. How does that fit into the whole idea of abundance and not buy into the whole idea of limited resources and scarcity and pollution and et cetera?
[laughing] To be intelligent doesn’t constitute a practice of limitation or scarcity. To organize your waste so that it can be processed efficiently and recycled, not out of lack, but out of honoring the abundance that you have, the abundance that you have that you’re throwing away. This does not constitute scarcity.
To limit your trips to conserve on fuel does not make sense. To be able to increase your ability to make trips without losing is intelligent. And so the means to make as many trips as you wish and not pollute is intelligent. Conservation, thrift is the means by which you block the experience of abundance.
I’m not getting it. It’s like you just said two different things. In one sense you said conservation makes sense, and is intelligent …
In what sense?
Pardon me?
Feed back to me in what sense.
In the sense of recycling, for instance.
I didn’t say that had anything to do with thrift. I said it had to do with the intelligent use of abundance that you have that you’re throwing away.
Okay. But then for instance, to buy a gas hog and …
The aluminum, the glass, and so on, that is a resource; an already existing asset, you might say. To handle it intelligently so that it remains an asset doesn’t constitute thrift. It constitutes simple wisdom.
What about, for instance, like consumerism where you just go out and buy stuff. You buy, buy, buy. And you say, “Well, why not? Everything is abundant.” And then it just gets thrown away, or …
What is the motivation for the buying?
Well, obviously …
If it’s to fulfill a need or fulfill a purpose, a function, if you are buying to be able to do something to be able to make the Gift, but if you are buying to keep up with the Joneses, or if you are buying so as to appear to be successful when you’re not, or if you are buying to feel important, now you’re clearly in the ego, and this is not what we’re talking about.
How about the question of like luxury? For instance, you know, buying a big beautiful, comfortable car that just really, you know, gets five miles to the gallon versus having a compact economical car because you feel that it’s easier on the environment?
The question is what purpose is the vehicle going to serve?
Well, in one sense it serves the purpose of making me comfortable, and making me feel like I’m in the lap of luxury versus the whole idea of feeling …
Let’s stop right there. Quote “the lap of luxury” unquote. That is pure ego bullshit. It’s a concept. Lap of luxury.
Well, I think …
Now, to have a car so that you feel like you’re in the “lap of luxury” is way off base. To be comfortable, to be surrounded by that which is beautiful, is a divine thing. And you know what? There’s a whole area of freedom and enjoyment that is being missed out on because, for example, the Volkswagen could be designed so that it is beautiful inside with cherry wood and leather and comfortable seats so that everything about it is as enjoyable as you associate what is enjoyable about a BMW or a Rolls Royce.
What is the purpose that it serves? You may need a car that is a larger car, because part of the Gift you make involves driving other people, as well as yourself, where the room is needed. Does what you have serve the Gift you’re giving? Or does it serve a personal satisfaction? Does what you have embody and further fulfill the Gift that you have to give. You see?
Yes. I don’t want to get too far off track. I just want to ask one more question. Could you in this paragraph it talks about Soul. And I’ve looked through the material and cannot find a definition. It talks about higher mind and it talks about Soul. The higher mind follows the Soul. Could you give us a definition, a working definition of Soul?
Soul means Individuality. Individuality means indivisibility. Individuality means indivisible and therefore undivided. And I have also given you a definition of Soul and that definition is, the capacity to sense and feel what is divinely Real. It is what you would call the Divine Mind’s Capacity to Feel the capital “M” Meaning of Everything.
Therefore the word “Individuality” means you. And you are the Function of glorifying God by recognizing God in each and every thing. You’re very Being is the Function of recognizing God in everything, acknowledging God in everything, feeling What God Is Being in everything. And you witnessing to God are inseparable from God.
The most clearly I can put it in words is that you recognizing God in everything is God Himself recognizing Himself in everything. Okay.
Thank you.
You are welcome.
What page?
Thank you.
What page are you …
In the same area. Refining this more into a for me which is kind of a personal dilemma, the idea of surrendering. What’s been coming up for me is …
When I finish the sentence…
I’m sorry.
Surrendering …
Surrendering the ego into that place which seems like a void, risking letting go of everything with the promise that a greater or a complete fulfillment awaits us. And what …
Fortunately you don’t have to do that in one giant leap. Because as with the Prodigal Son, the moment you start Home the Father comes out to meet you. The moment you start Home the Holy Spirit that is your Real Mind is present to meet you right where you are to facilitate the rest of your journey Home.
Continue …
That’s nice to hear, but in my own personal experience, when I get close to that place of surrendering into that silence, in meditation, for example, my ego is scratching and clawing and insinuating stuff like, “Okay if you want to become one who is awake, then you’re no longer going to get to have any physical and emotional intimacy with anyone. And it’s already pretty sparse. And so are you sure that’s where you want to go?” And …
It tempts you.
These kinds of things, and my Higher Self is saying, “Yes, but I remember having the experience of that state of mind for a while earlier in life and I didn’t feel like I was missing anything.”
Indeed.
But now where I’m at because I’m not in a relationship, I miss being close and intimate and having a heart connection with someone, you know. So there’s this dichotomy going on in me and …
And it’s going on in everyone.
And I think most of us beings who are associating our bodies and emotions as males are wanting probably more intimacy than the female gender seems to want to have. I don’t know. It just seems to me like that’s a common perception anyway.
Well, come on. Be honest. Even when you’re getting more, it’s still not a happy life, is it?
That’s correct. There’s a price to pay.
What I mean is when you’re getting more, the fundamental problematic nature of existence still confronts you.
Yes.
The promise though is that if you shift operating systems, you will still have intimacy except that now it will be able to be infinitely intimate. But you also have the promise of losing the problematic nature of existence. The question is are you miserable enough yet to have the willingness to try something new? Or are you not adventurous enough yet because you can tolerate the misery?
That’s exactly … I’m glad you brought that up because I’ve been thinking like, you know, I’m in this lukewarm state and God make me miserable enough so that I can give up like I did before.
God can’t make you any more miserable than you are.
Because I’m not miserable enough evidently to go into complete surrender and say I’m through with trying to do this on my own and just give in into God.
At least you’re honest enough to acknowledge that. And there’s nothing…
And if I could be more miserable, maybe I would give up. I don’t know.
You have been more miserable than this and you didn’t give up.
Well, once I did.
So what’s the answer? I can’t cause misery for you to make you change your mind. I can’t do anything to get you to change your mind. All I can do is to inform you of your option, of your opportunity. So maybe it would be helpful for you to know that until you change your mind, you’re stuck. Just very simply.
And I’m not likely to go lay on a bed of nails or something just so I can be more miserable than I am.
No, because you would pick a bed of nails that would be tolerable. The nails wouldn’t be so far apart that it would be intolerable. You see, it’s all a game. It’s all a game. All of you are all playing a game. And even your misery that you create for yourself is always just as much as you can tolerate. And I’m going to tell you something. You create illness for yourself that is terminal, and you know what? Even that is tolerable to you. Even that is tolerable to you. So the threat of death is not sufficient to cause you to change your mind. Interesting, huh? So at the bottom line the reason for your changing your mind is not going to be the depth of your misery. It’s going to come from some place else. And it’s going to come from a place of conscious intelligence within you that finally says, “You know what? I’m going to abandon this foolish game and I’m going to head for Home just because.”
It’s good to hear that Awakened Ones have an even fuller experience of what we in the ego state consider pretty fulfilling.
“We in the ego state.” You’re not in an ego state! You’re acting out an ego state.
Well, okay. I guess I didn’t state it right.
No, you stated it the way everybody states it and it’s a way you keep yourself fuzzy. You’re not in an ego state and you don’t have an ego. You are the Christ behaving in a consciously selected way and then believing the choice of behavior that you’ve chosen to practice. You say, “Those who are awake blah, blah, blah.” And I’m telling you that you at this moment, which I have referred to as the Place of Excellence in you who you think you are at the moment, is fully in possession of its faculties as the Christ right now, right there where you are. At the moment because you’re in denial of it, it’s called the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is your very Being, your very Divinity. It is your Divine Perspective which is being constantly derived from the Movement of God, your Source.
Now, this section that we’re looking at is called “Healing as Joining.” If you want to wake up, if you want to finally be rid of the misery of the quote “human condition” unquote, you’re going to choose to join with One Who Is Awake. You’re going to turn to the Altar to gather the Facts of Being from the Father through the Holy Spirit, or your Guide which serves the same Function as the Holy Spirit. And you’ll persist in that until it’s more and more consistent, and more and more continuous. And that’s the way you’re going to shift operating systems. And if you decide to be fuzzy and not make up your mind quite yet, go ahead and do it. Don’t make up your mind quite yet, but be aware You Are The Ultimate right now, the Christed One, the Son of God, choosing in this moment to behave as though you are less than that and then choosing to believe what your behavior expresses, thereby apparently forgetting Who You Are.
Now, a word to everyone. Everyone incarnated, I’m going to put it that way, everyone that you might run into on the face of your planet is to one degree or another engaged in this and suffering from the engagement, just as you are. And the call is for you to witness for the excellence in your Brother instead of agreeing with him, or instead of formulating your own definition of him and agreeing with that definition which has nothing to do with that which is excellent in him.
Stop looking at others and saying, “He’s ancient. He’s old. He’s poor. He’s stubborn. She’s difficult.” Stop doing it because it blinds you to the excellence in them, and it prohibits you from behaving in a way that illuminates and uncovers the excellence in them to them. And it keeps everyone in a constant state of defense against these poor images which you are utilizing in your mind and verifying, confirming and reestablishing over and over and over again in a constant state of misery.
You’ve got to start changing your habits. Stop. Change the way you are using your minds. You must start witnessing for the excellence in your Brothers and Sisters whether they see it or not. Now, what if you are witnessing for the best or the excellent in your Brothers and Sisters, a Brother or a Sister, and that one does not catch the flavor or the vision with which you are embracing them and they behave in a manner that is hateful or harmful, well, what do you do? Do you say, “This one is not worthy of my acknowledging the excellence in them and I need to protect myself against their hateful behavior that is directed toward me”? No.
You must be willing to do two things. You must be willing not to abandon your role, your Function as the Christ which is to feel and acknowledge God in each and every thing because that is the Function of your very presence, your existence, your existing. And at the same time that you refuse to abandon the vision of What They Divinely Are, you also, in very practical terms, refuse to join them in the dance that they would try to initiate with you of negative action and reaction; negative action on their part and reaction in you. You refuse to join in reaction and you say “No” to the behavior.
It’s very important for you in your day-to-day relationships with people to respond from the Integrity you find you have in the Place of Excellence within You, and refuse to respond to the dance that you’re invited to participate in, and make a call for correction in the behavior, the hateful behavior. A call for correction.
Thank you, Raj. You’ve given me, and I think most of us, a full plate. I feel like I would like to pass the mic to whoever else has a question.
Okay.
What’s been up for me since this last meeting …
Oh, what page is this with reference to?
In that chapter switching operating systems. And my point being you once told me that when a Brother, when I see bad behavior happening, inappropriate behavior which is abusive, in order to effectively be the answer to the call for help, we have to shift into the correct operating system and we do that by asking God for help. And at the same time …
I’m going to interrupt for just a moment.
Every single one of you does basically know the difference between right and wrong, between what works and what doesn’t work, whether you are divinely inspired at the moment or not. You know what hurts and what doesn’t hurt. You know what’s beautiful and what isn’t beautiful. Who of you has any difficulty going into a jewelry store, let us say, on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and looking at the jewelry there and recognizing that it’s beautiful, as opposed to the jewelry that you might see in Penney’s in their little jewelry department? Who has any difficulty looking at royal or imperial jewelry or art and has any difficulty recognizing exquisite beauty? You all know the difference between beauty and ugliness.
You all know the difference between what hurts and what doesn’t. And so if you see something going on that is hurtful, don’t hesitate to say “No” to it on the basis of your simple innate ability to recognize the difference between what is right and what is wrong, what hurts and what doesn’t hurt.
Now, if someone pulls a gun out and points it at you and they are in a frenzy and unstable, are you going to stand there trying to get centered and trying to hear the Voice for Truth, the Holy Spirit in you, to come up with exactly the perfect answer? Not if you’re wise. Not if you’re practical. You’ll get out of the range of that gun [snap of the fingers] as quickly as you can and that will be your way of saying “No.” You will object spontaneously.
Now, if you have time to listen so that you can hear what would be the ultimately appropriate way to deal with this, do it. Not all abusive circumstances call for an instantaneously, immediate response.
But I’ll tell you something. It’s a shame to let abuse continue that you recognize as abuse because you’re waiting for the perfect answer. Do you hear what I’m saying? That is spiritual stupidity. If something is going on that is abusive, don’t hesitate to blurt out your “No,” your objection. Otherwise, your attempt to be spiritually perfect becomes nothing more than a delay in the provision of relief from abuse.
Now hopefully you are changing operating systems. Hopefully as a result of changing operating systems, you’re more consistently in touch with Guidance so that Guidance is available to you on the spot. But for God’s sake, and I mean for God’s sake, for the sake of that which is God in each and every one of you, don’t delay in objecting to abuse in order to get centered and connected with your Divine Source and feeling the movement of being on the beam so that you can hear with utter clarity how to be the Presence of Love in this situation so that there is blessing for all involved. Perhaps there’s another punch to the face that occurs while you’re doing that. Perhaps there’s another dig that someone has applied to a so-called friend.
And you know what? You know what is perhaps the ultimate insult to your Brother, the Christ, who seems to be confronted with abuse? It’s you saying, “Maybe he or she needs this experience in order to wake up. Maybe I should just bite my tongue and say and do nothing. After all this may be the part of the human condition, this may be the very experience that will turn the tide for them and cause them to shift. And so I will stand in support of hate because in this instance hate may be just the ticket for this person. The results of hate may be just the ticket for this person.” Do you see how distorted your spirituality can become?
“Well, you know what? Maybe sin, disease and death really has some divine purpose. After all, they wouldn’t be having the experience for no reason at all.” And then it’s said, “Well, remember, Raj, you said the Holy Spirit can turn everything to your advantage.” Well, thank God the Holy Spirit can, because it means there is an answer to an unjustifiable experience of suffering and limitation and lack. But don’t take what isn’t real, don’t take what is hateful, don’t take what is unloving and say, “Maybe this is just the thing it will take for the Holy Spirit to turn it to their advantage.” That in itself is hate.
But you have provide to healing and wholeness. First section, “Healing as Joining.” And the next section, “The Mind of the Atonement.” Wow! All of these have to do with integrity, integration, unification, the coming back into the Experience of Individuality which is Indivisibility. And Indivisibility is not your personal indivisibility, but it’s the Indivisibility of God’s Ideas universally joined, in other words.
Therefore whatever causes you to delay in witnessing for the excellence in your Brother, I’m going to be very bold here, is sin. It is the exact opposite of Truth. It is the exact opposite of your Function. And when you deny yourself your Function, you are caught in quote “the human condition,” your dream. And there’s no way that you can say looking at another, “Maybe he or she needs this hateful experience because it might just be the thing that will move them over the threshold.” That is not your Function. That is not you witnessing to the Place of Excellence in your Brother, witnessing to the Presence of God in your Brother. And it does nothing but delay transformation.
Now, I will let you continue.
Well, I’m aware of what you have just said. What I was concerned about was not putting the tips on the arrows when they fly and being in a place in my mind where …
You know what? When they fly from where?
Whatever direction they’re coming.
From you?
No.
Towards you?
Towards me.
Yes. What does that mean, “not putting tips on the arrows”?
It means not reacting.
What does “not reacting” mean?
Getting emotionally upset which is being in judgment. The reason I brought this up is because I have had a hard time in the past standing up for myself because I would react. So I know that there is another place I have to shift to in order to be more objective about what I’m seeing, but yet from a calm place and not from a reactive place.
Your capacity to say “No” with the Power of the Universe behind it might be a roar emerging from your throat that sounds like an insane eruption of vocal noises that one could look at and say, “Wow! She’s really in a state of reaction.” But because it came out of your mouth from the tips of your toes, because you knew with utter clarity that what was happening was inappropriate and there was a call for correction, would cause the correction to occur.
What you’re talking about will cause delay in the necessary objection.
Yeah, I know. I’ve experienced that.
I’m going to tell you something else. Many times when you stand up for yourselves, all of you, and you’re shaking and you are uneasy, you are unsettled, and you express your objection without control and without dignity, but you express it well so that it is heard, whether it’s accepted or not, it’s heard, all that’s happening is that you are speaking from an Integrity in you that you’re not used to acknowledging. And that you are used to soft pedaling or pushing down and it takes that much energy for you to speak from your Integrity and get it past your lips.
And then you say, “Boy, I have to get pretty angry in order to speak up for myself.” No. And then you say, “Wow, I was being emotional and that isn’t spiritually correct. That is ego. Emotions are ego stuff.” And you talk away what was perhaps one of the few times that you spoke from your Integrity, even though it took so much courage to do it because you don’t feel it that much that it came out awkwardly. Do you see what I’m saying? And then your ego will misinterpret it as anger and emotion. The ego will interpret it as an ego reaction. Isn’t that funny? The pot calling the kettle black. The ego will say, “That was an ego reaction, Trish. Shame on you. Now next time you get in your centered place.”
That’s so true.
“And you get your act together because until you do that you have no right and no real place of divine authority from which to express yourself.”
So, do you understand that what I’m talking about has to do with operating from the new Operating System?
Yes, I do. That’s why I’m asking this question.
Okay. I’m not just asking you. I’m saying that to everyone here and everyone who’s listening on the internet.
It seems that we have concepts … I’ll speak for myself. I may have a concept about how this Operating System is supposed to operate.
Oh, absolutely. Your egos will immediately provide you with a structure within which to consider this new Operating System. So that then you can say, “Well, step one, get calm. Step two, lean into my Guidance. Step three… ” You know, except that there will be, you know, a thousand and one steps and all the time that you’re taking those steps, abuse is occurring, objection isn’t being made. And all the time that you’re doing that, you’re feeling so good about yourself because you are doing it the right way. And because you’re doing it the right way, there will be a blessing for you. Hopefully the person’s who’s getting killed in the process will get a blessing, too.
I’ll tell you. I’ll give you all a hint. Join with your Brother first, and then reach for the Holy Spirit. Don’t reach for the Holy Spirit and wait to join with your Brother in witnessing for the excellence in him or her. And mind you, sometimes joining with your Brother or your Sister means objecting to hateful behavior that they are expressing toward you. Don’t justify hate. There is no spiritual principle that justifies justifying hate.
The argument has come up that, well, I don’t want to confront anyone.
Oh, of course.
And confrontation has always meant to me something negative.
Can’t you get a proxy?
Is there a proxy anywhere in the group that will …? Maybe somebody else will do it.
Hopefully when you have a need, somebody won’t say the same thing and not reach out a hand that could save you. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
I keep saying it. Involvement, involvement, involvement. Involvement isn’t done by a proxy. It’s not done with loving thoughts from a distance. It means standing there with your Brother or Sister, getting into the nitty-gritty where the need is and bringing correction to it because you care enough to witness for the best in your Brother or Sister.
That brings a lot of flak with it.
You don’t think I get flak? [some audience laughter] A lot of people hate me, Michael. [audience laughter]
I’ve never see it.
So we have permission then to stir up the shit.
No, you don’t.
No?
Where you gonna go to find the shit to stir?
I don’t have to go to look for it.
Your attention is on the wrong place. Don’t have your attention on stirring shit. Have your attention on being the Presence of Love that cares enough about your Brother or Sister to cast your vote publicly out there, up front, so that hurt and harm cannot continue unobjected to.
I totally appreciate your clarifying this. In principle I’m in agreement with that, of course.
No one has the right to hurt their Brother or Sister until they’re stopped. It isn’t as though there’s some innate right you all have to do anything you want until you’re corrected. You can’t say, “Well, you know, he’s just expressing himself. He’s just exploring new territory of self expression as he runs by and snatches the purse off the old ladies’ arm.”
Raj, I think to encapsule it, the whole thing here, is either people get angry and say nothing, can’t say anything, or they get hurt and can’t say nothing. And these are the two emotions …
Who are these … who is? The person objecting or the person …
I’ll speak for myself. The person objecting, or the person to whom the abuse is targeted.
Start over now.
It has been my experience in my life whenever I have perceived abuse, I couldn’t stand up for myself in the moment it was happening. I couldn’t find my voice because I was emotionally hurting.
Indeed.
And so…
How wonderful it would have been for you if there had been Brothers and Sisters standing around you who felt that it was their function to say “No” to the abuser, to witness for you. And to witness for the abuser by causing the abuser to stop doing what didn’t reflect their true nature, as well. That is a shame that that was your experience. And what I’m talking about is what will correct that experience for everyone in the future.
Right. Unfortunately …
And you know what? Maybe you had some incredible insights as a result of the whole horrible experience.
I did.
But that is not justification for not helping someone else. It’s by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit, that it was turned to your advantage.
Absolutely.
So is there anything remaining unclear in your mind at this moment? You were asking a question.
I was only concerned about being in the place where I can speak up in a way that’s helpful when I see abuse or inappropriate behavior taking place. That is joining with or being in, from the right Operating System. And you said even if you don’t think you’re coming from the right operating system, just open your mouth and do what you see that will be helpful. Because …
Raise objection.
Yeah. Because I care.
Exactly. What other intelligent choice do you have?
None.
Good.
I only brought this up because I know there are many who are like myself used to be who can’t for some reason get involved or say something.
Does anyone have any question on this subject?
This is something exactly what I’ve been struggling with since last summer when I just blew up at my boss and I did everything you just said, that I justified it until it made no sense to myself, and actually I was acting on my Integrity. So I remembered that and that was really significant to me and I’ve begun trying to stand up when I see something that I think needs to be challenged. And [I’ve] been watching myself to make sure that I’m not coming from emotion or ego. If there’s enough time I can stop and ask, “Oh, what do I say here?” And I do, it does feel exactly like you said. It’s coming from the tips of your toes, and your entire body feels the truth of what you’re saying and you can’t hold it in.
And I think if you … that’s where I don’t feel the judgment I’m that I used to feel against the person whom I saw the behavior. It seems like I’m released from judging them and all of a sudden I feel like I’m on their side. Of course, they don’t feel like that usually, but that’s okay. Finally it is okay. And I care enough about them to say, “Whoa. Hello. Wake up here. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. You’re making a big mistake.” Just try to find some way to do it. And sometimes it comes out real awkward, but with practice it starts getting easier and easier and then calmer and the most amazing, creative things come out of your mouth.
Part of it is because the more you do it, the less inertia is present. When it first comes out and feels like an explosion, most of the dynamic is the overcoming of inertia within you; your own reluctance to let your Integrity have expression just because it’s really there.
Kind of like all of the suppressed things behind it too, like a cork in a bottle. All of a sudden the cork gets released and by God, you’re going to have your say finally and somebody’s going to listen. So, and then once you do that, you don’t want to go back, put the cork back in the bottle.
That is correct.
And it’s very uncomfortable sometimes and then my ego gets a hold of it and says, “Oh, so you think you’re the corrector, huh? You can go around and tell everybody how to be. You’re not right and you’re not right.” But then that …
That’s stirring shit. But I am not talking about quote “being the corrector of people.” We’re not talking about being some sort of authority, having some sort of position that you’re carrying out. What we’re talking about is being the Presence of Love responding from your capacity to be Love that cares enough about another to speak up and object to what is unjust or what is hateful. Do you see the difference?
Oh, absolutely.
Okay.
That’s all I have to say. Thank you.
You are welcome.
A full get-together. I’m glad we have shared together today. And I look forward to being with you next Saturday and Sunday.
Thank you for letting me be the corrective Presence of Truth. Whether correction has occurred or not, you have provided me with the opportunity to be the corrective Presence of Truth. Now you be that all week.
Okay.
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