Teachings of Christ Mind

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

I hope all of you managed to have at least some wonderful moments of intimacy with things in your experience. And I would encourage you to continue this practice indefinitely.

The desire to look at a thing, abandoning your preconceptions about it, with a desire to see the more of What Is There than what you’re seeing is what? It’s an invitation to God to reveal Himself to you as What He Is Being right there. There can be nothing else right there but the Current, Living, Active, Movement of God called Creation. And so no matter what you’re looking at, there is ultimate Meaning, with a capital “M”, there to be experienced.

It would be meaningless for a thing to have Meaning that you were unconscious of. The point is for the Meaning to be experienced. It is the Purpose of Being—a verb—it is the Purpose of Being to be experienced. And so, whatever it is you are looking at is there for the purpose of your experiencing What It Means. There is nothing happenstance about it being there. It is never meaningless for you. And it’s the fulfillment of your Being for you to be experiencing its Meaning.

So, continue this practice, knowing that at the bottom line the purpose of the practice is a conscious opening up to the Presence of God and an Experience of God right there. It is an easy way to let God in. And I’ll tell you this. The practice you get from looking at a salt shaker, or a piece of paper, or whatever it might be, gives you practice in an uncharged situation at seeing God there so that it can become familiar to you and somewhat natural to you, thereby allowing you when you are in a charged situation, or a difficult situation with a Brother or a Sister to shift gears, not go into automatic and run by your mind all the definitions you have created about that Brother or Sister, and successfully desire to see the more of What Is There than what your Brother is seeing of himself and beyond what your current definitions are about that Brother, inviting in the Experience of God right there so that receiving the experience makes it possible for you to extend the experience, instead of extending reactions based on your definition of their behavior, your definition of them, and your current definition of yourself, which says, “I can’t be tolerant of so-and-so’s behavior”—which keeps you both locked in to the box. So this is a valuable practice—one that will provide you with the experience necessary to be with your Brothers and Sisters from a new place and in a new way, whether you do it well in the beginning or not.

We’re going to be reading about idols tonight. We were talking about it a bit last week. And I would like to visit one of the commandments. [Exodus 20] “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images or”—and this “or” is the big thing—“or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.” What does that mean, “make unto thee a likeness of anything”? Well, it’s very simple. The minute you give a definition to anything, you have created a likeness. You have taken something actual of the Kingdom of Heaven and you have created a likeness.

It is as though you have, in computer language, copied something. You have made a copy, and you haven’t done anything with it yet. It’s in the RAM memory. It’s there but it’s not on the screen yet. And so you look at a thing and you make a copy of it, and then you say, “Okay, this definition that I am making up about this copy is what that is.” In computer language, you would give it a new file name and then you work with the file from then on—you work with the copy.

You’ve made an image, a likeness of something Real, and then given it a definition, and then given it preference to the Real Thing. Now you have an idol. And all of your idols are parts of the Kingdom of Heaven which you have given new file names to, new definitions to. There’s nothing else for you to work with.

And then, what do you do? By virtue of giving your attention and commitment to them, you have begun to serve them. They are the new “presence of god,” and to hell with the Real Presence of God. And so now you are bowing down to and serving the idols you have made.

You don’t just do it with objects out there. You do it with yourself, too. And you did the very first step thereof when you said, “Father, I’d rather see it my way. I’d rather see things on my own.” Well, there is no such thing as “on my own.” That’s just an imaginative idea. But you said, with all seriousness, “I’d rather see it on my own,” and then you proceeded to think you did it. Now you had a definition of yourself as something different from What You Are. You had a definition of yourself that said, “I am capable of doing something on my own. I am an independent entity, a causative presence. I can make things on my own, independent of anything else.” And so you became your first idol. Your definition of yourself, your act of independence, became your first idol. And then you created everything that you saw to serve your will, to serve you.

But the interesting thing is that once you did that, you then had to begin to serve the definitions you gave, because those are the only things that can seem to give you support for this imaginary, independent position that you now have conceived that you occupy and are. And so you’re dependent upon your creations to define you, and you end up serving them. And you must protect them because they protect you in this imaginary, false position.

So, what are we doing when we’re taking a few moments during the day, having intimacy with anything in your presence? We’re in the act of undoing the idolization of the definitions you’ve given, and thereby you are weakening your so-called “authority,” your so-called “capacity” to create something by yourself. And you’re undoing the isolation that you found yourself in, but that you were surprised to find yourself in when you said, “I want a divorce, Father.”

So, do this. It’s a pleasure to do it. You can do it lightly. And it is one very practical way to use your will to let your Source back in, to use your will to join with the Father, who by virtue of His Fatherhood, gives you the clear experience of your Identity as His Offspring, as His Presence rendered visible, tangible and experienceable.

Let’s go to the book.

Just reviewing for a moment.

… meaning one of your Brothers …

… all likenesses of anything in the heavens above, the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.

… what?

… itself …

Okay, continuing.

You see?

You say, “Well, I don’t think of myself that way.” Of course you do. You try very hard to be self-sufficient. You think you are self-created. You think that your world is your definition of reality; what you have determined. “Each person has his own experience of reality.”

Of course, you don’t say that you’re very vicious, but you’re not kind, because when you believe that you are vulnerable, you attempt to protect yourself and your protection is always some form of defense. What? Against someone, against whatever would undermine your security. It’s not Love. And so, to one degree or another, it is a form of viciousness. It is a form of attack.

And of course, you do see yourselves as very vulnerable. That’s the reason that you attack. That is the reason you engage in self-defense. That’s the reason you try to be a success, so you won’t have to put up with being vulnerable. You try to be a success because you have forgotten that you are the Fullness of God already, right now, right there where you are.

Continuing.

… what? The likeness …

Again, what does it offer you? It offers you the idea that you are self-created, self-sufficient, very vicious, and very vulnerable. That’s the only thing it can offer you. And the only reason it can seem to successfully offer it to you is because you have forgotten Who You Are.

You see? You get to keep what you give. It’s just the Way It Works. If you attack the Divinity of your Brothers, that’s what you get to keep, and thus you lose sight of yours [your Divinity].

You see, to have a moment of intimacy with a fingernail file, or a rock, is actually an invitation to an experience of What A Thing Is so that you can acknowledge it for What It Is and be able to keep it as yours, because it’s a part of learning about What You Are. Just a simple little practice, but it will have monumental results, totally transforming results. You will not be able to experience What That Thing Is without having a brand-new experience of yourself, an enlightened experience of yourself.

Again.

You are willing to keep the Truth about you and the Truth about everything hidden in order to protect the definition you have made about everything. And you think that by keeping the Truth hidden, it will save you from the dangers which the idol itself stands for. Your idols stand for a defense against the punishment you are afraid you will be met with if you let the Truth that you’ve been denying register with you, because after all, you have been denying God—when all you’ve been denying, momentarily, is your Capacity to experience Who and What You Are. The idol apparently protects you from the truth that will punish you. But there is no such truth there. Knowing the Truth will set you free.

Now:

Well, what on earth can that mean? It can only mean that, although you can easily identify yourself as an idolater, you can’t possibly be an idolater because there are no idolaters in the Kingdom.

What there is …

God.

That’s what you know. You do know it. The Knowing is there in you.

You do know the Father.

You don’t know any idols because the idols are purely fictitious. At the moment, you don’t think they’re fictitious. You think they’re valid, you think they’re real, and you also think that they are essential to your maintaining a sense of sanity and stability.

So-and-so is behaving very badly, in very destructive and unpleasant ways, and you say, “Because so-and-so is behaving this way, I need to be very careful around him or her. I recognize the kind of person he or she is, and I recognize that he or she is caught in his or her own misperceptions. It’s very clear to me. And as long as they are, they are caught. And they are going to behave this way—in an undependable way, in a critical way, in an unpleasant way, and even possibly in ways that are dangerous to my well-being.” Well, there is your idol. There is your definition. There is the likeness you have created in your mind in place of What That One Really Is. And if there’s nothing to jog your memory, you will commit to that. And you will engage in an endless conflict, an endless attempt to overcome how you are seeing them, except that you say, “That’s the way they are.” And that does not promote healing. That does not promote correction.

Somebody has to jog your memory enough to cause you to stop, to hesitate, right in the circumstance and remember that what is called for is, at the least, a moment of intimacy with the more of What Is There than the definition you have made-up, and the more that is there than the definition your Brother or Sister has made-up about himself or herself. That is the only thing that will allow a response to come forth that will heal, that will transform, that will not call forth more and more vicious defense.

And that’s how you become the Presence of Love that really is an extension. An extension—a gift that you get to keep but which also blesses—breaks down the density of the box that you’re caught in, that they’re caught in. And that’s the only thing that will do it.

So the fact is that in spite of what you might think, there are no idolaters in the Kingdom. And therefore, you are not an idolater, even though you have made-up idols, and even though you think you’ve made commitment to them. It was an act of emptiness in which nothing happened. And therefore, you are still not idolaters. You might be confused, but you haven’t become the ungodlike thing that you think you have become.

See, you will begin to get a glimpse of What Is True about your Brother, and the fact that he or she is part of Him, when you are willing to hesitate and have a moment of intimacy where you’re willing to see the more of What Is There than what you believe is there.

You see, it’s the likeness that you have created, the likeness of heavenly things that you have created that you value. And you value them with extreme commitment because you believe they are essential to your maintaining your identity. You call it, “maintaining your feeling of security.” You can’t feel secure when you do not know yourself truly.

I’ll tell you, sometimes you are so caught up in your self-definitions and your concepts that when someone does extend Peace, or extend value to you, you’ll say, “I didn’t ask for you to talk about that. I don’t want to hear about that. If you want to honor me, you’ll ask me what I want to talk about. And you’ll talk about what I want to talk about. And we’ll deal with things that are meaningful to me.” This is when you’re really in a pissed-off state of mind and you are wanting another’s respect—meaning that [laughing] you want them not to pay any attention to any truth they might know and any rational mental processes that reflect God, so that they can devote their attention to you and your irrational point of view and validate it in order to make you feel safe. You see? Because “safe” means “not having to change.”

Now, I want you to take this sentence and let it apply to you, instead of me. Let it apply to you in your extension of your real attention to your Brother.

Saying this as though to your Brother:

In other words, not broken up into parts; not dished out in different quantities. It’s One. It’s Singular.

You see, what I do with you, the way I treat you, is what you are to learn about “how to be with your Brothers and Sisters”—with commitment and persistence, even if your Brother is resistant against the Truth that would heal him or her, because he or she sees it as undermining the infrastructure of beliefs that he or she has made-up to provide a sense of security and safety while being unconnected from their Source.

I’m going to change the words here a little bit for you to apply to yourself, relative to your Brothers: Peace comes from God through me to you. It is for you, although you did not ask.

Don’t wait to be asked to extend the acknowledgement of God in your Brother. Don’t wait to be asked to have that moment of intimacy in which you’re willing to see the more of What’s There than either you are currently seeing, or your Brother is currently seeing about himself. Don’t wait to be asked. Be willing to be intimate. It doesn’t require words. It doesn’t require them to do anything to cooperate with you before you can do it. It just requires you to actively express curiosity to see the more of God that is there than you’re seeing and than they are seeing.

That’s what I do with you. And I am the Wayshower.

Now:

… when you are sick, it is because you’re not asking for peace. When you’re sick, you’re not at peace. And before you were sick, you were not at peace, and you did not monitor or pay attention to the use you were putting your mind to. And you valued it, and so you, through your conflict, ate away, undermined the experience of Harmony—the experience of the Harmony of your body, which it is your body’s Intent to be perfectly because that is what identifies you perfectly. You undermined the experience of it.

… when you are sick …

… and you are …

And so is the “you” that thinks it can successfully create definitions for Aspects of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Well.

… in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth.

Anywhere in the Kingdom of Heaven where you’ve created a likeness; a copy with a new file name that you made-up.

Now, is it my valuing of you that I know for you? No. It’s the Value Of You that is inherent in you; that is inviolable, unchangeable, because it’s the Presence of God right there where you are, which is the only thing presencing Itself right there where you are. That’s your Value. And that’s the Value I know about you. That’s the Value I know for you while you’re intent on dallying with a likeness you have made-up in your mind about yourself, and which you’re giving preference to, thinking that you’re doing something when nothing at all is happening.

You see, it didn’t say, “It is this valuing of mine that makes you Whole.”

It’s this Value that is your Value that makes you Whole. And my recognizing it for you while you’re ignoring it, and my confronting you with it in the most helpful ways, is what helps you remember to value yourself, and to no longer value the likeness you have made of yourself in your mind that’s called “a concept of yourself.”

Continuing.

You see, I have only one message.

Right now you have another message. It’s called “a likeness” that you’ve made-up. And so there’s the Real You giving your attention to a likeness that the Real You has made-up. And you are believing the details of the likeness that you have made-up. And all along you are the Christ, the Ultimate One, having this limited experience, because you’ve made a likeness of yourself and you’re believing it and valuing it.

So you’ve got two messages going on. Really, you see, you are actively being the Christ behaving in an un-Christlike way and believing your behavior. It’s really simple. You have never become the likeness that you made-up out of pure imagination.

You know what? When you look at a rock, or a flower, or a salt shaker, and have a moment of intimacy, and you are defenseless enough with it to have an influx of Awareness of What It Really Is, you will find that it will look different to you, because you did have definitions of it that didn’t let you see it with total clarity. And you might be inclined to say, “I healed. Wow! And what it’s like when it’s healed! I am so glad I did that, because it was a shame for it to look the other way. I am so glad I was able to heal it.” Well, it wasn’t healed. It was revealed to you as What It Really Was, and so the distortions vanished.

You didn’t heal it. You let it be What It Is, and you let What It Really Is register with you. You became defenseless with it. You became innocent of projecting upon it what you wanted it to be, because you thought that wanting it to be something and being able to make it be what you want it to be, made you real as a creator on your own.

You see? But can I actually change you? No.

I can be the agent for the Impulse of Revelation of revealing to you What Is True About You. And then you will see What Is True About You. And you will no longer be fooled. And your vision will not be distorted. And indeed, you might say, [finger snap] “I have been healed!” But you will know that the truer statement would be, “I have been revealed. I, Who I Really Am, have been uncovered.” And the uncovering can happen because I Know You. And the uncovering can happen with others because you Know them, if you’re willing to have that moment of intimacy with them in which you desire to see the more of What Is Really There than what either of you is currently seeing.

But you see, your Brother isn’t the one who is going to be opening up for that. You will open up to it for your Brother. And that’s the Gift you make. You initiate the process by being willing to abandon your definitions—the likeness you have made-up of them in your own mind and by which you are determining how you should behave with them, or against them. You are abandoning that, with a willingness to see the more that is really there.

You see? [laughing] That sounds nice if it’s said slowly.

“Oh, I can see that as a possibility. I certainly would be willing. I’m willing to accept Peace.”

But here’s the rest of the sentence.

“Well, now you messed it up. Now you really made it complicated.”

You see? You would love to be able to do this alone. You would love to be able to do it in the privacy of your own [small laugh] so-called, imagined, boundaried or bordered, mind.

But you don’t get to keep what you don’t give. And so, if you want Peace, you’ve got to give Peace to everyone you meet.

Because you let the revelation in.

… God …

You see? Your likenesses that you have created are the gods that you have put in place, in place of God Himself.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

“Thou shalt not … ”—here’s, you see, now here’s the explanation in the second commandment—“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images or any likeness of any thing … ”—because you would have to make a likeness of something—“ … that is in the heavens above, the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.”

In other words, no matter where you could go to find a thing to make a likeness of, don’t make a likeness of it. Because you make a likeness of it and you make it a substitute for God. You make it a substitute for your Source. And in doing that, you caused yourself to lose Conscious Awareness of What You Are. And that is too great a cost.

That is an unreasonable cost. And it is also a cost that is impossible to extract from you. The Christ cannot pay that cost. You cannot pay that cost. You cannot lose your Identity. It is an impossibility.

Continuing.

You should all be smiling. It is amusing that God might be jealous of the “gods” you make, the likenesses that you have created.

Oh, you protect them. You protect them at the cost of all sane behavior.

“Well, you know, I had four years of college. I have three doctorates. I have practiced my profession for twenty years. I have written fourteen books that are well-received. I received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998. And all of these things demonstrate that I am somebody to be recognized. You see, all of these things have made me. All of these things have rendered visible the fact that I’m valuable. But without them, I would be nothing.”

They’re just likenesses, copies. They are not the original.

The fear is a farce. The fear is an illusion.

… you will hear God in the orchid when you wish to see and experience What God Is Being there and seen as an orchid. Or you will see whatever you have determined it is, if you think that you are seeing that the only thing there is the likeness you have created. You will see whatever God/god you are looking for.

This god of sickness.

It’s a likeness. It’s not the real thing.

Well, in a way, that’s what you’re doing when you are willing to have a moment of intimacy with whatever your eyes fall upon in front of you at any given moment. Because the more of what’s there that you’re not seeing is the Eternal, and as I said last week, is awesome.

You hear that?

… that is the Way It Is. You might be ignoring it at the moment, but you can’t get away from the fact that:

… likenesses. Different file names …

Let’s see, so you honor what you idolize, or you honor What Is Real.

Continuing.

But I’ll tell you an easy way to find out how much you do. Pick a difficult situation, or somebody you don’t like, and see how much difficulty you have allowing yourself an intimate moment with them, with the desire to see the more of them, the God that is there.

… the likeness of God which is you. [laughing]

All of the idols you have made to prove that you are valuable didn’t make you, haven’t made you, and never will be able to make you valid and real in your own right.

And the key here really is to dare to look at the likenesses you have made, the definitions you have made, the concepts you have originated, and dare to say: “These can’t possibly be valid or real, because they did not arise out of a Connectedness with the Father that I was experiencing. And therefore, although I may not be able to release them all instantaneously, I am willing to acknowledge that they might all be flawed. And therefore, I am going to turn to a Source that can reveal to me What Is Real so that my experience of What Is Real can easily replace what will obviously be unreal. And I’m going to do this daily by attempting to have moments of intimacy with the strangest and most unusual and random objects that are confronting me at any moment when it occurs to me to let down and have a moment of undefended intimacy. And then, maybe once or twice a week, I will consciously practice this intimacy with somebody I don’t like, or a circumstance that I can’t stand. I will not overwhelm myself with attempting to do that all the time.”

The first two commandments pretty well cover the whole thing. Now if you don’t think that you have made-up any likenesses, if you think that everything you’re seeing and the way you’re determining what they are does not involve any definitions you have come up with, and that you are purely seeing the Presence of God in this horrible circumstance and that unpleasant person, and so on and so forth—and a flower that can die, or a child that can become ill, or a friend who can become permanently maimed—if you think that you are seeing these things and you are seeing God’s Truth, you have a most wonderful surprise awaiting you. There is another way to see it all—a way that uncovers the Loveliness of Divine Love that moves and by Its Movement constitutes Creation. There is more for you to see. And it is awesome. And it’s utterly natural to you to be experiencing it and nothing else.

Judy, Chris, I love you. I love you. And I look forward to being with you through the week and with you next Sunday.

Yes. My smile is joy. And there is reason for it. And what is the reason? It is you, right now. And I acknowledge that in you which is joy producing. I encourage you to be willing to look at those you know, and feel for the Capacity to experience Joy and a Capacity to feel Love for them, without their having arrived yet at total Awakening.

I am now through.