Teachings of Christ Mind

Good afternoon. And welcome to everyone who’s joining us on the internet as well.

For those who are listening for the first time, you may notice differences from time to time between what I’m reading and what’s in the first and second editions of the Course, and that’s because I’m reading from the transcript as completed by Bill Thetford.

Last week we ended with the statement that the Holy Spirit’s teaching begins with the lesson: To have, give all to all. And there was a particularly significant point brought out in regard to this, and that is it doesn’t mean to give all, every thing, every little thing, every bit of the multitudinous things that you have. It means to give a Singularity. You remember? The simplest form of Singularity, of Indivisibility, that you can extend to a Brother is Peace.

And I’ll tell you that you don’t begin to have anything to share with your Brother until you have moved into your Peace. Prior to that, you’re in a constant state of self-preservation, because you’re not joined in any way with the Excellence in you, with the Altar within you, with the Holy Spirit, and therefore the Father. And so all you end up sharing from your state of independence is fear and self-protection and manipulation, all in the name of orchestrating some form of peace between yourself and your Brothers.

But that’s an orchestrated peace; one where everyone has been badgered into behaving quietly. And ultimately if you manage to get everybody to behave quietly, it’s because you’ve raised enough fear in them to cause them to recognize that it’s in their best interest for them to be still, so they’re doing it for themselves. It might look like agreement. It might look like cooperation, but it’s still a bunch of little independent egos serving their own purposes for their own reasons, and not because there’s been any communication, or any connection, or any real unity. You see? And that’s because the gift you’re giving isn’t a Singularity. It’s a gift of what the ego calls beneficent force, beneficent power, exercised on behalf of the good of everyone. But as long as there isn’t any unity, any real connection between everyone, you don’t have Peace. You have a stalemate. And it’s still a state of conflict, but one that’s kept down to a dull roar.

It’s really important to understand that the first step in establishing connection between each other is for you each individually to go within, meditate, become still through whatever means you have available to you so that you might quiet the thinking busyness of your calculating mind, and come into the Silence where in the absence of the busyness of your thinking, it becomes possible for you to become aware of and experience Peace that has been there all along because, for lack of better words, it was placed there since the beginning by God as the Ground of your Being.

In this Peace, there is not the clutter of thoughts and concepts and mutually-agreed-upon definitions. And as I said, it seems to you in that experience that your focus has been narrowed down from the multiplicity of things that you’ve given your attention to, to silence or nothing. And it seems to you to be like an infinitesimal spotlight that is excluding everything. And yet, where you are when you’re attention is given there is at the threshold of experiencing your Wholeness because Peace is Infinite. The Fundamental Ground of your Being, which is Peace, is Infinite. Nothing else is present but it. And when you access it and you allow yourself to abide in it, what are you doing? You are embodying it.

There is no private experience of Peace. It’s an all-inclusive, Infinite Presence of Pure Integrity, Pure Being. And when you choose to give your attention to it and make commitment to being with it, you are being Peace. More properly, you are allowing the Peace of your Being to be all there is to you. You are letting what God set in place be all there is to you. And because you’re always teaching whether you are awake or dreaming dreams, because you are always teaching, you are now teaching Peace.

Whether it’s for thirty seconds that it lasts, or whether it’s for thirty minutes, or a fraction of a second, you are teaching Peace. And the key is that here you are teaching by being. Not teaching by thinking. Not teaching by expressing precepts. Not teaching by in an orderly fashion expressing precept upon precept upon precept until everyone gets it. You are teaching by being. And I’m going to tell you something else. All real healing that occurs is a result of being, is a result of your being. So you teach by being and you heal by being. You teach and heal by being nothing other than the Presence of Peace that is the Ground of your Being.

Learning has half a chance of occurring when you’re teaching by being. When you’re teaching by intellectual means, precept upon precept, learning is not what occurs. What occurs is others deciding that in their best interests they had better agree with you. And so although their mind hasn’t changed, their behavior has for the sake of self-preservation. And that’s what most of you call “learning.”

You can imagine being in the presence of an enlightened being, we’ll say, one who is not fazed by anything that happens. One who it is obvious is in Perfect Peace whether he’s talking, or whether he’s moving around, or whether he’s engaged in a chore. Everything about him exudes Peace, and you feel it and you learn of Peace. And yet this one has not uttered a word about What Peace Is, or shared any concepts about What Peace Is, or expressed a koan that triggers an Awareness of Peace. His Presence teaches Peace. He teaches Peace by being. Now, this is what all of this is about.

We’ve been going through the Course for a year and a half. And we’ve talked a lot about precepts and ideas and thoughts, and so on. But what these ideas and thoughts are all about is each of you embodying something new, something different from what you have in the past. It’s about being in a new way, not thinking in a new way.

Thinking which is based upon Truth can lead you to the point of feeling safe enough to let go of your thoughts and yield into your Peace. And that is the purpose that ideas and thoughts serve. At this point, that’s their real and only use.

Now we’re beginning to get into the implementation of the ideas we’ve been talking about. We’re talking about making a shift in the way you approach life and in the way that you be quote “in the world” unquote. And obviously what I’m talking about is not at all typical of life as you have known it, or as the majority of those on your planet are aware of it. So what does that mean? It means that in a way you’re being pioneers, and you’re getting off the beaten track. You’re leaving the well-established trails.

And what will the result of that be? Well you’ll have new things to share, won’t you? Will you have new things to share that you can use to force the world to change? You’d better be careful about that. You better be careful of thinking about becoming teachers of the new point of view. But you know what? When you choose for your Peace and are willing to be from there, this won’t shock people. It may make them pay attention. But Peace isn’t offensive. Try to cram peace down somebody’s throat, they’re likely to be offended, but also you will have had to leave your Peace in order to do that. It doesn’t occur to you to do that when you’re in your Peace.

When you are experiencing something which is Singular, and therefore Whole, there is nothing else which you can practice that experience on. But like the Light, darkness will disappear in Its Presence. Conflict will disappear in the Presence of the Peace that you are being, because your presence will be a demonstration to others that there’s a different way of looking at things than the way they’re looking at it because what they’re looking at is causing them not to be in their Peace and to be defended, and here you are in your Peace unaffected by what is going on and at the same time not being rendered dysfunctional. And you’re able to be in a way that doesn’t aggravate the conflict.

Now, here’s the thing. This is not the way you’re used to being and it’s not the way anyone else is used to being, and therefore you will find yourself in a situation where you’re having to be at odds with your well-established habits, as well as being at odds with what everyone else expects of you. And so there is going to be great temptation to slip back into your old habits. But you must remember there is a reason you’re doing this. And it has nothing to do with teaching anybody anything. And it has nothing to do with transforming and changing and blessing the world, even though that will happen.

At the bottom line, it has to do with your no longer having a suffering experience of existence because you’re choosing not to … you are choosing to no longer use your minds to create a suffering experience by constantly being at odds with your very own Being. It’s about you coming back into your Sanity which is a Singularity, not an infinitely confusing hodgepodge of disconnected and inconsistent ideas and precepts and concepts and images that you try to hold together in some semblance of order.

If not one other person is doing this, in other words, if everyone else is not doing this, it is no reason or justification for you not to persist in coming into a Singular, Conscious Experience of Being which is your Birthright to be experiencing, because it was set in place quote “in the beginning” unquote by the Father as the very, for lack of better words, structural Integrity of your Being. And it was set into place that way because it is the Embodiment of What The Father Is and the Father creates nothing unlike Himself.

Let us continue in the book.

Again …

… that’s the key word.

Now …

Remember we were talking about being the Commander? This is the only command you have to express, and it’s the only one you will ever make. To make the decision to shift from getting to giving, from self-interest to Love extended, that shift, the decision to make that shift is the only decision you have available to you. It is the only expression of authority you will ever have available to you, because it is the way you shift from “my will be done” to “Thy Will be done.”

And I will add: It is necessary for you to turn in that direction for your reasons.

You must make commitment to it for your reasons, not because someone else talked you into it. Because if someone else talks you into doing it and you do it because they said it, you still haven’t taken the step. You’re just acting.

The Commander commands something, feeling full authority for making the commandment and owning fully the responsibility for making the commandment. It’s like I’ve said before, the only right use of will is to choose not to use it.

Again …

Once you’ve decided to turn in that direction, you must remain in that attitude. Attitude… in that positioning of yourself for Movement.

These are not gentle words. They’re not consoling words. They are very practical expressions of what really happens when you make this kind of decision. And it is stated clearly for you in a very nitty-gritty way so that you will not misunderstand what is happening and say, “Oh, I must be doing something wrong because I thought enlightenment was supposed to be easy. I thought it was supposed to be full of harmony.” No. You don’t abandon habits easily. Why? Because they are habits. Because you have made commitment to them over a long period of time. And you’re having to undo a habit of commitment. You’re having to undo a habit of honoring the habit. You’re having to withdraw your faith in what you’ve placed your faith. And this requires attention, persistent attention, so that you don’t slip back into the habit. You don’t reach for those comfy shoes.

Again …

“I know I’ve got to do this and I am going to do it. I am going to take the next step. But right now I can’t, I just can’t bring myself to do it. I’m not gonna go back where I was even though it’s hell where I am. I know I was less conscious before and I refuse to go back, but I refuse to go forward. And so I’m going to grit my teeth and just be with this very acute conflict. And you know, I’m going to say, Thank you, God. Thank you, God. I know that this suffering is going to bless me. I know that the Holy Spirit will turn it to my advantage. I know this suffering is only virtual. It’s present because I haven’t quite made the decision 100%. I know it isn’t real. It’s just because of where I’m choosing to stand at the moment. And the minute I choose to move off the tack, it will disappear. So I’m just going to just endure it for a while. Ooooh! [audience laughter] Yes, I’m going to endure it a while. [audience amusement] It’s too scary to do anything else.”

Again …

Now you never were alone to begin with. But once you take that first step of reaching out beyond yourself you’ve said, “I am no longer going to deny the existence of the Holy Spirit. I’m no longer going to deny the Presence of God. I am no longer going to insist that I am the center and circumference of my life and I’m only going to pay attention to what’s within the circumference of me as I’ve defined myself.” You’ve arrived at a point of saying “No.” An invitation has been made. A door has been opened, even if it was just a crack. And the Light is streaming in through the crack.

To have, give. To give means you’ve abandoned being alone. You’ve had to be willing to embrace at least one something else. You’ve abandoned your commitment to isolation.

Continuing …

“Uh oh. Smacks of involvement to me. Smacks of not being able to ignore my Brother any more. Smacks of having to deal with him without controlling him. Whew! Wow! I don’t know if I can take this.”

And what did I say? You teach by being. That’s what we’re talking about here. We’re not talking about having a whole set of new words about peace with which you can cajole and badger and nudge and influence your Brother into a new set of ideas and a new, let’s say, a new level of being peaceful together, even though it’s still peace for the purpose of self-preservation. In other words, peace as a defense.

Continuing …

… those who aren’t awake yet …

Do you ever wonder why the feeling of the potential for abandonment comes to you? It’s because the one you think you are doesn’t exist. And of course, if everyone finds out that you aren’t what you think you are, well they’re not going to pay any attention to you. They’re not going to pay any attention to nothing, hardly.

But the wonderful fact is that underneath the definition you’ve given yourself, underneath and behind any thought you’ve had about yourself, there is this Pure Awareness, this Pure Consciousness, this Pure Consciousness of Being, Awareness of Being, that’s Real, that’s You. That is the Christ. That which predates, preexisted, any thought you had about yourself, any definition, anything anybody else thought about you. Something that preexisted it, can’t change, and therefore, is, was, and always will be nothing but Eternal and God-derived.

So, again …

… well, why do you all believe in attack and rejection? Because those are the two means you use to keep everybody in line, aren’t they? Hmm.

“Well, honey, you were a real bastard today so don’t ask to make love to me tonight.” Or less words than that, “Honey, I have a headache.” But it’s because she’s pissed off at him for something that happened during the daytime. You see?

Rejection is one of the best tools you have to keep others in line. And you can imply that you have something they really want, but they can’t have it until they straighten up. Right? Whew! That’s why you believe in it, because it’s the tool you use on everyone else, even though it’s the tool they all use on you. And you think that success comes at finding better means, more subtle means of rejection and attack.

So …

Every time you use it and it seems to work, you’ve taught yourself that this is good and you reaffirm your commitment to it. And every time it doesn’t work, you say, “This was good but I just didn’t do it well enough.” And so you renew your commitment to it.

Meaning your own dissociation.

Oh, dissociation? Yes. Psychological term? No. Your bill of divorcement from the Father. That’s the dissociation. That’s the only dissociation. It’s not a psychological term. It’s not about something that goes on in your puny little mind. You see?

Continuing …

You see, you’re never just teaching everyone else. You’re always teaching yourself. And when you try to teach someone else something that doesn’t work, they learn that it doesn’t work and you learn that it doesn’t work, and you don’t try to teach that any more. You find something better to teach that works. You see? So you’re always teaching yourself. You’re always confirming what you choose to believe to yourself every time you try to hold another to what you believe.

Continuing …

This is very important because it seems to you that you’re doing nothing when you’re not strengthening a thought system. You aren’t just letting that thought system be with whatever degree of strength it had before you neglected to respond to it. You’re not responding to it constitutes a withdrawal from the mutual agreement. And when you withdraw from the mutual agreement, the mutual agreement is less strong.

Again …

How many of you have had an experience of, let’s say, a history of being abused by someone? And you have not objected. You have found ways to live with it. It’s what is called enabling. And finally you arrive at a point where you feel a call for demonstrating more self-respect. And so now you withdraw your cooperation from this enabling relationship and you don’t respond the same way. Now you aren’t doing anything to this other one, but you are no longer doing things that you used to. And that one, because he is not clear, sees your behavior as a withdrawal from the partnership, you might say, as a withdrawal from the dance that the two of you were doing together. He sees it as rejection. He sees you as being unkind. He sees you as being no longer with him, which means against him. You see? And all of you have played both partners at various times in your life.

So …

In other words, I was just not joining with them in their delusion, in their misperception.

Ah, but what happens when you move into your Peace? What happens when you move into the Singularity, without the clutter of your thought systems? Well, in the quietness, what you believed you were, what you thought you were, is no longer predominant, or even occupying your attention. And you’re standing at the threshold of finding out that at the bottom line Peace is what you are. And it’s the opportunity for you to shift what you are identifying with. It’s the opportunity to shift allegiance from your thought system and your belief about what you are to this new experience of What You Are.

Continuing …

The teachers, that is.

In the last year and a half as we’ve read through the Course, we’ve been addressing that which will alter your motivation, help you to withdraw your motivation from your past habits, and to let it become like the prow of an icebreaker moving in new directions where it seemed you couldn’t move before at all.

Continuing …

… What?

Therefore, the Holy Spirit’s first teaching is, To have, give. That’s the way the reversal begins, by addressing the crux of the issue, and the crux of the issue is getting or giving.

Continuing …

You have to have an object of your affection. “You can’t just be like on a float in the rose parade throwing your petals, throwing your petals, broadcasting them to anywhere but no place in specific, no place specific.” No, we’re talking about giving to something specific, having an object of your gift, of your gifting.

Continuing …

And that’s part of the reason I’ve been talking about teaching by being and healing by being.

… “To HAVE, GIVE all TO all”…

And so, as long as it can’t be learned consistently, learn it inconsistently by means of persistence in returning to your Peace even when you’ve lost it.

Continuing …

Now mind you, this does not mean that because the learner projects his own split that he does not perceive consistent minds in others in spite of the fact that they’re not expressing consistency themselves. In other words, it doesn’t mean that one should see consistency in the minds of their Brothers when there is still inconsistency held in their mind and being expressed.

What it means is, using myself as the example, the mind of the learner projects its own split and thus does not perceive consistent minds in me, did not perceive a consistent mind in me, making them suspicious of my motivation. And so the Jews in authority in the church did not see the Singularity of the Gift that I was giving, and therefore perceived it as an attempt to undermine their authority. They did not trust my motivations.

When you are coming from a conflicted mind and you meet someone who is expressing a lack of conflict, someone who is unconflicted and is therefore genuine and undefended, you are immediately suspicious. Not because they are conflicted, but because you are still. That’s what this means.

… when it is present in others …

The reason being that your trust level is low. You know that you’re not trustworthy and you know that you’re teaching untrustworthiness in one way or another. You’ll do what you need to do to get a good deal, even if it’s to the disadvantage of another, just as long as it’s not too flagrant. And you teach that by your behavior, and others are teaching you the same thing, so your level of trust is low.

In other words, the first lesson teaches you to react in a new way. To give in order to have, to be absent the use of control to secure your security.

And so …

… by virtue of the first lesson …

You’re being asked to believe that the way you have believed up until this point is not true. You are truly being asked to abandon your faith in what you believed was true. That is the position this first lesson puts you in.

And I’m going to add this. Not only does your ego attest to that, but everyone else’s ego will attest to it, too, and so you’re going to have to get support for accepting this first lesson from the Holy Spirit, from a brand-new place, somewhere deep inside of you. Some place where you are able to be really divinely honest, in that place where you already Know that You Are Divine, that place where you Know you already have Integrity. And you must gather your strength for this from there, that Place of Excellence in You, the Altar right in the middle of You, the Holy Spirit.

Again …

… the ego …

… why are we talking about fundamental change? Because that’s what this first lesson of the Holy Spirit addresses.

In other words, when you decide to accept the first lesson, and you reach out and you are joined, the Movement has begun. The Movement has begun and to a certain degree is already out of your hands.

Some of you get scared and you lose the connection, you think. And you think things have come to a standstill and you become depressed. But the fact is that once the Movement has started, the Movement has started. This is very important. Once the Movement has started, the Movement has started and you cannot stop it! And the Movement will persist in spite of your reluctance. And that’s one of the reasons that the conflict seems to increase, because the Movement has begun, you’re on your way Home, and if you become frightened, or reluctant, or upset, and seem to lose the connection, the Movement still continues.

Simultaneously though, the Holy Spirit, your Guide, is 100% present with you, facilitating your recognition of the Movement and present on your behalf to encourage and pacify you as you go through the apparently scary process of abandoning the exercise of control that you were never ever required to put into place in the first place.

Again …

You accept both because you haven’t learned how to be consistent yet. Just understand that that’s the way it works. So that you realize, “Oh. This is the way it works on the way Home.” I’ll tell you something. It’s not the way it works on the way away from Home. If you understand that, then you will take the increasing conflict as a good sign, because that doesn’t happen on the way away from home. And you’ll say, “Okay. This means I’m still on the right track. But I’m not going to let this dissuade me.”

Again …

Now …

… What?

Now, this is not complicated. [single audience laugh] A three-year-old can comprehend this. I’m not saying this to insult you. I’m saying this to remind you of something that you’ve forgotten. And that is that coming Home is simple. And that’s all the clarity that’s needed is to know that it’s between choosing for this and abandoning that. Choosing for giving, abandoning getting.

Continuing …

… in other words, you do identify with your thought system.

… What?

Simple. It’s just simply impossible.

Okay. So if you choose for both, and you’re experiencing conflict and you’re uncomfortable, you know you’re choosing to do something impossible. It’s not justification for abandoning the Movement that already began that you can’t stop.

… thought systems …

Keep this clear. Because the goal is not insane, the way you’re trying to teach it is, so stick with the goal and change the means. Once again, simple.

… you see? Throws a little bit more of this suggestion of personal authority at you and suggests that you have a capability as part of an expression of your integrity.

Continuing …

Note: end of missing audio section.

In other words, nothing’s up to you at all. The only thing that’s up to you is to be willing to recognize Truth for What It Is, but not to determine What It Is.

Continuing …

Just like imagining that you can get a bill of divorcement from the Father is undoing a bond that can’t be undone. It’s just a purely insane thought—senseless. That’s what insane means—senseless. Insanity has no organized structure to it. Insanity isn’t a thing. Insanity is confusion believed to be orderly. Doesn’t make it true. And it doesn’t make insanity real. But there is something Real—your Mind. And it is Sane, Singular, not divided, therefore incapable of being in conflict, incapable of being confused.

Continuing …

Waking up is you deciding for God on behalf of God Being All. The Holy Spirit’s task and commitment is to decide for God for you. The Holy Spirit is nothing more than your Right Mind. But as long as you are feeling disconnected, dissociated, from the Father, you may know that the decision for God has already been made for you. And therefore, it’s not entirely up to the you, you presently think you are.

In other words, you’ve got help, and ultimately the help is coming from your Right Mind. And so the help and the acceptance of the help, the embracing of the help and the incorporating of the help is one integrated act of reintegration of you into a Singularity. Because ultimately, it will have been You deciding for God for the confused one that you seemed to be for a while. That’s pure Integrity. It is not someone else doing something for you. It’s not someone else bringing you into the Kingdom of Heaven on their shoulders. It’s you riding into the Kingdom of Heaven on your own shoulders, you might say, because a reintegration of your Integrity has occurred, and the Singularity of your Mind has been returned to You for You as your Mind by You, with a capital “Y”.

This is where the artistic, exquisite beauty of how it works becomes recognizable, because the undoing of something that never happened is accomplished by the unalterable Integrity of You, helping the dissociated sense of yourself that you’re entertaining to come back into full appreciation of itself and back into its full capacity. So it constitutes healing that is the return to Sanity, a return that has occurred at the hand of the Divine Sanity of You Yourself. It’s Pure Integrity. It’s Pure Integration. It’s Pure Empowerment. It’s Pure Unity.

Continuing …

See, that was the whole problem. “But, Father, I’d rather define it myself. But, Father, I’d rather see it my way. I would rather look at Your Infinite Expression and see it the way I want to see it.” You wanted to decide what God’s Creations are.

And so, again …

The Movement has begun.

I love you.

I don’t want to disturb you in any way, but you will have ample opportunities during the coming week to learn peace by choosing to teach it. Nothing special has been arranged for you. [audience laughter]

And I look forward to being with you next week. Okay.