Teachings of Christ Mind

Good evening. And welcome to everyone who’s joining us on the Internet.

Well, how many of you are working on yourselves in the prospect of waking up? And how many of you are not working on yourselves and feeling guilty about it? And in light of those two questions, how many of you are having fun?

The Course speaks—and I know some of you will disagree—with great clarity. [some audience laughter] In fact, it speaks quite starkly. This is true. This is not true.

It could suggest that all of you should be applying yourself with great diligence, because the ego is not your best friend, the ego doesn’t have your interests at heart, and it’s constantly working on you to keep you from experiencing your Birthright. One could think that you exist in the middle of a war, and that the call is for you to win the war. And so, many of you neglect to play.

Everything that we’ve been reading about since the beginning of the study group should be, or has the potential for, causing exhilaration and enlivenment in your mind—greater curiosity than you’ve had before to recognize What Is True in whatever confronts you during your day. It should be causing you to feel as though you are a participant in an adventure, rather than a work ethic.

And I want to remind you of this. Some of you get so diligent that you become unkind with each other. “Well, I’m working very diligently, and you’re goofing off. You say you’re working, but your actions and your words don’t show it.” And what you’re saying is, “I can’t be happy with you having fun when I’m having to apply myself so diligently. It’s not fair. You’re not being as serious about all of this as you should be, which means you’re not treating all of this with the diligence that I am requiring of myself.” What you’re not saying is, “I can’t let myself off the hook. I insist upon being at the ready, diligent, on guard, watching for the slightest ego activity in myself and in others so that I can correct it.”

You’ve got to ask yourself (some of you do): Am I having fun? Am I experiencing enjoyment of any kind in this process of awakening? In the pursuit of the Truth that I’m engaged in, am I being able to enjoy my fellowman more? Am I able to be present with my fellowman without constantly seeing everything that needs to be corrected in him or her? And if I were to be a little bit laid back, and be with others, be present with others without being engaged in this work ethic, am I being just sucked into the dream? Am I not attending to, or neglecting, something that I should be? Am I becoming too loose, too un-attentive?

I’ll tell you something. Enjoyment in your daily lives is part of life. When you reach for your Peace and find it, you’re in a place where you can notice what is delightful, and acknowledge it, embrace it, participate with it. To not always have your nose to the grindstone working on hard issues is not a sin. Instead of having your nose to the grindstone, so to speak, [laughing] let your nose notice the smell of the roses. And realize that the experience, because there are no real illusions, the experience has Reality to it, whether you know the full significance of the Reality of it or not. So be present with enjoyment with the same curiosity to see the more of What’s Really There as you’re trying so hard to do with the ugly things. You see?

Let’s go to the book.

Or, “The Two Evaluations,” depending upon the book you’re reading.

[laughing] We could say it’s your will that’s your downfall—the will you think you have all by yourself.

Well, not only would He not have given you the means to find it, He did give it to you. It’s already yours. It’s already in your possession.

You’re neither behind the Point of Perfection, nor advancing toward it. You’re at that point, so the gift has been made. He has given you the means to find it.

What’s salvation? God’s Will. God’s Will is your salvation. You do not have to seek far for it.

Well, what does that mean? Well, if the flower here is the evidence of God’s Will, if it’s the Movement of Creation that God Is Being, then every time you look at that flower, you’re presented with the opportunity to see God. You’re presented with the opportunity to see the more that you’re not seeing yet and be in your Sanity again. Every single thing that confronts you is nothing less than the Kingdom of Heaven seen clearly or through a glass darkly.

So:

… and every thing that you experience …

You see, the delay of joy is needless. Fun should be an ongoing experience, because not having fun is needless. It’s not something nice to have.

It’s your Birthright to be experiencing because Reality is so wonderful. There is wonder to everything that confronts you. And this is why you can dare to be curious every morning, every moment of your day. This is why you can dare to anticipate insight/revelation, rather than [laughing] the things you actually expect.

Well, is it a special gift to you poor sinners? [laughing] No! It’s your Birthright. It’s your innate nature because you’re not what you think you are. You are the Presence of God. You are the Presence of the Ultimate. You are the Christ.

What? Without your having to stretch taller? What? Without your having to work harder to wake up? God sees not a struggling sinner working to lift himself up. God sees His Self-Expression and recognizes Himself in you.

And the act of recognizing Himself in you constitutes the Extension of the Gift of Joy, and the acknowledgement that it has been received already by you, whether you’re choosing to look at it or not. The Acts of God are already accomplished in you right now, whether you’re letting it in or not, whether you’re arguing against it or not, whether you’re sure that it couldn’t possibly be true about you because after all look at yourself. You see?

Oh, you have an inkling of it, because you—whether you have it or not, whether you’re experiencing it or not—do desire to experience perfect happiness. Every single one of you have that desire.

Continuing.

You see, I’m sitting here talking to my Brothers and Sisters. And I’m saying to you, your will is to experience perfect happiness. And you’re miserable when you’re not experiencing it. And you recognize that something is wrong because you’re not experiencing it. Why? Because, at the bottom line, you know that perfect happiness is your Birthright that can’t be taken away from you, and you can’t be happy not experiencing it. So I’m talking to my Brothers right now, and I’m saying to you, face it! Pay attention to the obvious in you. You do desire to experience perfect happiness.

Now, what about your Brothers and Sisters? Are you looking at them, and at least in your mind, acknowledging that they too desire perfect happiness? Are you extending that recognition to them as well?

Or are you just riding along on whatever habit of perception you’ve developed about them? “Oh, that bitch, that bastard, they’re never gonna change. They’re not worth my attention. They’re a pain in the ass.” Well, wait a minute. What happened to the opportunity you have to say, “They desire to experience perfect peace, too”? Well, you can’t get too close to that acknowledgement as long as you’re going for justice, and as long as you enjoy indulging in judgment.

But, your Brothers and Sisters are all around you all day long, every day, and they, by being there, continually provide you with the opportunity to abandon your favorite perception of them, or your favorite unfavorite perception of them, and say, “Wait a minute. They desire to experience perfect happiness now, too.”

And now we can go a little step further. And why do they? For the same reason you do! Because it’s the Father’s Will for them to have it. And they’re nothing less than the Direct Expression of the Father in whom the Father recognizes Himself. You see?

So, do you want to see transformation, or do you just want to repeat your old habits of perception over and over again? Do you want to just have the effects of your ego over and over, or do you want to reach beyond it? Do you want to see something new, or do you just want to reinforce what’s always been?

Now, if the Father has placed within you joy, and if the Father has placed within you perfect happiness, then it’s your Function to be allowing it to blossom in you. It is not your function to be denying it, or squelching it, or covering it up.

You see, we’re getting your head on straight at the moment. We’re getting your intent and your choice of what to be conscious of in alignment so that it expresses a Singularity, rather than a confusion that can only elicit a confused or conflicted experience.

Continuing.

… meaning yours, and the Father’s, and your Brother’s …

So you can magnify all the differences you see between yourself and your Brothers, if you wish, or you can find out where you are in harmony, even if it’s only in one thing.

It would be pretty difficult for you to walk up to anybody and say, “Do you desire perfect happiness? Whether you think it’s available to it or not, to you or not, do you desire it?”—it would be almost impossible to go up to anybody and have them say, “No.”

All of you have this basic ground of mutuality and agreement. And this is where there is an open door for communication to develop. Magnifying differences will not do that. It keeps separation alive, reinforcing it constantly.

Continuing.

Well, it isn’t like you can say, “Okay, I have decided to abide in Peace.” The decision to abide in Peace, like a song that isn’t a song until it’s sung, is nothing until it’s embodied. Your decision to abide in Peace is going to be demonstrated by how you’re using your mind.

Your choice to be in your Peace will be demonstrated in your willingness to abandon your preconceptions about your Brother, and your practice of acknowledging that your Brother desires to experience perfect happiness because … [you fill in the blank yourself]. You see, you continue to embellish and reinforce the truth of this by explaining it further. Because the Father has placed the experience of perfect happiness in your Brother just as he has in you. Because your Brother isn’t what he thinks he is, or what you have thought he is.

Your Brother is at this moment now nothing less than God manifesting the Presence of God right there. Your insistence upon recognizing the Truth in your Brother and in every thing is the practice that gets you off the wheel of history. It’s the practice that constitutes the hesitation in reinforcing your preexisting concepts that blind you to the Truth.

Again.

It’s up to you—when you so decide.

When you don’t so decide, you won’t experience your Peace yet. Not because it’s not available, but because you haven’t chosen for it yet. You’d rather stay in your conflicted perceptions and reinforce them, inflicting them on yourself and on your Brothers and Sisters.

What is the Atonement? You could say that the Atonement is the movement back into your right Mind. The Atonement is you coming back Home.

In other words, in an overview, the Atonement is you no longer insisting upon turning your back on Home and carving out for yourself, by your own will, a life that is of such significance—no matter what you had to do to your Brothers and Sisters—that you can finally say you have arrived, and you have done it by your will, and it is your accomplishment, and you have made yourself worthwhile entirely by yourself. In other words, you have created a finalized ultimate entity that has nothing to do with God. That’s the opposite of the Atonement.

The Atonement is what happens when you abandon that and start moving back Home, start moving back into your Sanity. It’s a choice for Love. In other words, it’s a choice for being Love. Love that is not so arrogant that it can proffer it out, or withhold it at will from different things. Love that humbly blesses everything it looks upon because it looks upon everything with Love, and therefore blesses everything and you, who has extended it. Atonement is the way to Peace.

I’ll tell you, the Kingdom of Heaven that confronts you is obviously the Kingdom of Heaven. It really is obviously the Kingdom of Heaven.

… the essential characteristic of Reality …

When you are so sure of the nature and character of your boss, or your child, or your parent, or anybody else, you are not looking. You’re closing your eyes, in so many words, and projecting your picture out there upon them. If you were looking with Love, if you were looking undefendedly, if you were looking without interposing anything between yourself and what you’re seeing, the God-ness of what you’re seeing would be so obvious to you that your mind would be transformed, and your behavior would change. All this is describing is the willingness to look and hesitate before you interpose your preexisting definition about what you’re looking at.

And just remember for a moment, that one desires to experience perfect Peace because perfect Peace is the Father’s Will for them. And it’s the Father’s Will for them because the Father has placed it in them. The Father placed it in them because they are the Son or Daughter of the Father, and He recognizes Himself in them. And His recognition of Himself in them declares the completed fact of their Divinity, just as it does with you.

When you allow that shift to occur in you, you have succeeded in hesitating before applying your definition. And you’ve laid the groundwork for the experience of that Truth to infill you.

Listen to this.

Not what you think you are, but What You Really Are.

Now that’s what the Holy Spirit does with you. That’s what “that which is nothing more than your right Mind” does with you. That’s what your right Mind does with you. Your right Mind loves you. It doesn’t tell you how awful you are. It feeds back to you your worth; not the worthlessness you think is the characteristic of you.

Now, if the Holy Spirit, or any Awakened Brother, or the Father, does that with you, your task is to do that with each other, because that’s the only thing that will heal or transform.

… the Holy Spirit’s …

And He is in your Mind, because He is your right Mind.

Well, I’ll say that you not only have accepted it there, you made it up there. You created the ego, which is nothing but a collection of definitions and beliefs about yourself that you made-up when you said, “Father, I’d rather see things my way.”

So:

… unlike the Holy Spirit who knows exactly What You Are Really, the ego does not know What You Are. Why? Well, the ego is a denial of What You Are. The ego is you using your mind to say, “I am divorced from my Father and I do not have a source other than myself. I am claiming myself as my source and I am going to be God now. And I am going to define everything now.” You see?

The ego …

The ego is instability itself. It, therefore, knows nothing trustworthy. And its existence seems to arise out of the goal to bring everything into order.

I’m going to stop here for a second.

This is a favorite, or has become a favorite quotable quote from the Course.

And someone sees somebody behaving badly and he says, “Yeah, well, what can you expect? ‘The ego is therefore capable of suspiciousness at best and viciousness at worst.’” And nothing else is said. So it seems to validate the existence of the ego, and its character, and its nature, and its method of operation. And it just leaves it hanging there as though it’s a declaration of something important.

But—see, we’re going to continue the sentence—but the ego isn’t real. The ego is a sense of self made-up out of imagination, and so its suspiciousness and its viciousness, having no real source, can have no real effect. And so I do not need to be afraid of it, whether it’s in its suspicious mode or in its vicious mode. Or you can finish the sentence by saying, “The ego is, therefore, capable of suspiciousness at best and viciousness at worst, but my Mind is part of God and I am very holy.” Or, “So-and-so has acted viciously. Well, what can you expect? The ego is suspicious at the least and vicious at the worst, but that individual’s Mind is part of God and he is very holy, she is very holy.”

You see, you don’t leave it dangling in the air unchallenged or uncorrected. You don’t leave it there without bringing the Truth into the picture that says, “This one who appears to be behaving suspiciously or viciously, his behavior doesn’t reflect What They are. That one’s Mind is part of God and he or she is very holy.”

You see what I’m saying here? By correcting a statement about error, by correcting a statement about that which isn’t true, you take away its sting, you take away its seeming capacity to cause you harm, and you also take away its capacity to be successfully applied to the person who seems to be behaving badly, because you lift them out of that definition of the ego. You’re not an ego. And you’re not your ego—the one you’ve made-up. And your Brother isn’t an ego, and isn’t whatever definitions he or she has made-up about herself. Not only that—they aren’t that. But their Mind is part of God and they are very holy. You see?

What if everyone got up tomorrow morning, went through their day going to work, driving the freeway, buying lunch, doing whatever their activities were during the day, what if all day long everyone, just in their mind, was looking at someone else and saying no matter what their behavior, “But that one’s Mind is part of God and he or she is very holy.” What if that was the active acknowledgement that everyone was giving to everyone else throughout the day tomorrow? Do you think it wouldn’t be transformational? Do you think that it wouldn’t become embodied as a visible change in the world? Do you think that without everyone pointing out each other’s flaws and judging them for it and trying to make them feel guilty for it, that that wouldn’t cause everyone to start behaving in a new way?

The absence of what everyone does do would be a demonstration of hesitation. And instead of bouncing off of your predetermined, loved perceptions and definitions of everything, you wished to see God there. You wished to see the Evidence of Love there.

You know, I gave you the two prayers: I wish to see the Evidence of Love. And I wish to be the Evidence of Love.

Now, “I wish to see the Evidence of Love” doesn’t mean looking at somebody who’s behaving badly and say, “Man, I wish to see the Evidence of Love there. I wish they would change. I would like to see them behaving nicely.” That isn’t what it means (that I wish to see the Evidence of Love). What it means is, I wish to see them without looking through a preexisting definition I am holding about them. I wish to see there, not I wish to get from there. I wish to see there what I know is the Truth about them. I wish not to see my misperception of them. I wish to see what revelation, insight, has uncovered to me about them which I am seeing there, in spite of the way I used to interpret their behavior, and in spite of the way they see themselves.

You see what I’m saying? When you say, “I wish to see the Evidence of Love,” it’s you engaged in an act of projecting the True Consciousness of them there, instead of getting hung up on your perceptions of what’s going on based on your own tiny, fearful frame of mind, coupled with their behavior that is based on their tiny, troubled frame of mind. To say, “I wish to see the Evidence of Love there,” doesn’t mean, “I wish they would change.” It means I wish to see them in a new way. I wish to extend to them whatever Consciousness of Truth God will reveal to me. You see? It’s far different from saying, “Gee, it would really be nice if they were a little more pleasant to be around.” That’s not wishing to see the Evidence of Love. There’s no gift in it.

“I wish to see the Evidence of Love” means you are going to take the proactive step, we’ll say, of insisting upon asking for the Vision that will let you see or grasp the meaning of the fact that if there’s anything there at all where your Brother or Sister is, it has to be God. The moment you do that, the lens through which you’re looking shifts and you are looking for something different. You are looking to see the Evidence of Love there. You’re looking to see the more of What’s Really There than what you had seen, or even what your Brother thinks is there and calls himself or herself. Are you getting what I’m saying?

To wish to see the Evidence of Love is not a wish to stand in receipt of something. It’s a wish to make a gift of a new way of seeing that is gathered not from your memory, but a willingness and an expressed desire to have the Holy Spirit reveal to you What Is Truly There, just as the Holy Spirit, your right Mind, looks at you and sees What’s Truly There and extends it to you, and does not believe what you think you are and all the feelings you have associated with what you think you are. And that’s why your communion with the Holy Spirit is always healing. And that’s why the Holy Spirit can turn everything, every situation to your advantage. You have the opportunity with your Brothers and Sisters to be that which turns whatever is happening in their life to their advantage.

So:

Not a great capacity in terms of capabilities, is it?

[laughing] That’s all.

And it’s incapable of achieving certainty.

… it says here …

Well, what does all of that mean, you know, viciousness and suspiciousness, and blah, blah, blah? It means that if you’re engaging in the practice of memory, if you’re engaging in the constant rehearsal of an imagination, you are being nothing, doing nothing, accomplishing nothing. Even when it can be called suspicious or malicious, it’s accomplishing nothing. Because why? Because it doesn’t express the Father’s Will. And the Father’s Will is what constitutes your will really. Anything else you engage in is a bunch of nothing, no matter how seriously you take it, and no matter how hard you are working on yourself to wake up. [small laugh] So no matter how many dynamic words you might be able to apply to the ego—suspicious, malicious, greedy, blah, blah, blah—you’re talking about nothing but a bunch of hot air. You’re talking about nothing.

The choice is between nothing and something. The Holy Spirit which is nothing more than your right Mind, and nothing. The ego—nothing.

… what? . .

It’s another way of saying how lofty that which is nothing more that your right Mind is.

… the Holy Spirit, your right Mind …

Well, I’ll tell you, you go through your day and constantly forget Who You Are, and constantly forget Who Your Brother Is. And you believe what’s left, which is whatever you’ve made-up, and whatever they’ve invited you to make-up.

Continuing.

[small laugh] When you talk to the Holy Spirit, when you have communion with the Holy Spirit, the ego really gets confused. You see? The confusion increases. Why? Because it’s losing your attention, it’s losing your devotion, and it doesn’t know what to do about it.

As I’ve said before, the only thing the ego—talking as though it were something real—the only thing the ego can’t defend itself against is disregard. And when it can’t defend itself, it’s in a great state of confusion.

Now, it’s very easy to read that and interpret it as though it’s talking about [whispered] someone else’s ego.

… someone else’s ego …

But your very own ego does this to you.

How on earth do you think you could be distracted from coming back Home if it weren’t for the fact that this sense of self that you have made-up, which has no real existence, must keep you in a state of confusion and an experience of vulnerability that it can convince you, you must attack and bring into order.

Continuing.

Just try to be the Presence of Love, just try to engage in trust, and see how quickly the ego presents itself to you and tries to convince you that you’re out of your mind, that you are unworthy, that you are worthless, and that what you think means nothing significant, and undermines any semblance of a sense of integrity that might have begun to feel. That’s the way it works. So don’t always be looking at someone else’s ego and saying, “Yeah, of course, it’s going to attack me.”

This sense of an independent selfhood that you embrace as being you is itself a denial of What You Really Are. And so it can’t see Who You Really Are. And when something in you begins to have a glimmer of What You Really Are, and your attention shifts to that and away from the ego, the ego does not like that. It feels threatened. And so it calls your worth into question and tries to engage you in becoming defensive.

Again.

Or you could say being ill at ease or experiencing an undercurrent of uncomfortableness.

… attacking in return.

… or unworthy …

Now I want to remind you that even if you indulge in regarding yourself as inadequate, the Holy Spirit, that which is nothing more than your right Mind, does not agree with you. Your right Mind still sees Who You Really Are.

And you know what? In those moments where you have forgotten and you have began to regard yourself as inadequate, you need to say about yourself, “But, my Mind is part of God’s and I am very holy.” You see, you need to remind yourself of the Truth About Yourself, and not just say, “Yeah. I am inadequate. And what a pisser it is. I mean I feel really awful about myself.” You see, you don’t just walk on down that path. You hesitate and change tracks and you say, “But my Mind is part of God’s and I am very holy.” And you remind yourself so that, in so many words, you can reconnect on that track—the track of What’s True About You. That simple recognition, even if it’s just words you’re saying in your head, have broken the habit of perception and has put you in a place where the Holy Spirit can connect with you feelingly, insightfully, not intellectually, but in your very Being, in your heart.

So:

The only thing that will release you from it, is hesitating to continue moving down that track and shift gears, as it were.

A psychiatrist might be able to evaluate a patient’s insanity because the psychiatrist isn’t insane and has the larger perspective. The one who’s insane cannot evaluate the insanity, and therefore cannot facilitate the departure from the insanity.

You see, you cannot say, “I am a sinner. I must repent. I am a sinner. I must repent. I acknowledge I am a sinner and I must repent in order to get out of my sinfulness. I am a sinner.” You see, you keep saying, “I am sinner and I want to get out of my sinfulness. I am a sinner and I want to get out of my sinfulness.” So, you have to stop saying that, and you have to say, “I am neither behind the Point of Perfection, nor advancing toward it. I am at that point and I must understand myself therefrom. I cannot understand What Is True about me from a mindset of being a sinner.”

And you also can’t get past whatever blinders you have on regarding your Brother as long as you don’t lift them out of that definition of being a sinner and replace it with an acknowledgement that neither are they behind the Point of Perfection or advancing toward it. They are at that point and they must understand themselves therefrom.

But if you’re the one whose face they’re in, you must hold to that as well, because only there will you be standing beyond whatever insane belief system they’re employing, or whatever insane belief system you had been employing about them. And only from there, can you look back from a point where Sanity exists and see the contrast. And until you see the contrast, you have no means to say to them, “If you’ll turn to the left here and walk three steps, and turn to the right and walk five steps, and now stand there for thirty seconds before moving. Don’t move.” You can lead them out by knowing, in so many words, exactly what to say, and when to say it, and when not to say anything. But you will be speaking from a clarity of, or you could say, seeing the infrastructure of their accumulated beliefs that they have assembled in a crazy manner.

Again. This is important.

You know. “Oh, you know, I am so unworthy.” Well, so many of you just take that feeling for granted.

Continuing.

And that’s all the ego is, is a thought system. A collection of ideas, beliefs, concepts that have been put together in some semi-logical order, and then accepted and believed and acted upon. But the question, “Who granted what you’re taking for granted?”, calls that whole structure into question.

When you hesitate and say, “But, Father, what’s the Truth here?”, it calls that whole thought system into question, and opens up the door for you to find yourself experiencing the Perspective of Reality that it’s your Birthright to be experiencing. Because in the absence of keeping your ego in office, like a elected official, you’ve withdrawn your vote of confidence in it and placed it elsewhere—in the Holy Spirit, or an Awakened Brother, or the Father. One who speaks on your behalf, knowing Who You Really Are, so that your investment of attention to that Source has one effect, and that is to restore your Mind to its Wholeness, so that you are no longer governed by a tiny sense of yourself that was the best thing you could come up with through the use of your imagination once you were quote “unplugged from God” unquote.

The Holy Spirit sees you as You Really Are. And your Function here with your Brother and Sister is to see them as They Truly Are.

Well, what are the means? Your Brothers.

But as I also said, you don’t have to make a work ethic out of this. The pleasant people around you, you still aren’t seeing all of What Is Really There. You see what I’m saying? So the opportunity to be open to the fuller experience of What Is God Is Being right there, is available to you with someone who’s being pleasant. Remember that. And remember when you smell the roses—and they’ll be blooming very shortly—that it’s a Divine Experience for you to have the fuller experience of than you’ve been having. So let the experience of pleasure, of fun, of joy, be your opportunities for seeing the more of what’s there than your current beliefs and definitions are allowing you to see. Pleasant relationships can be the occasion for awakening just as unpleasant relationships can be. So don’t make things hard for yourself by devoting yourself to the unpleasant situations to such a degree that you hesitate to engage in a little bit of joy and pleasure and fun, as though they constitute playing hooky from what counts. Because those experiences offer you just as much opportunity for insight and revelation and for the Holy Spirit to disclose to you your Function of recognizing God in those experiences as well.

Okay.

I look forward to being with you next week.