Teachings of Christ Mind

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

Before we continue, I want to expand a little bit on what we talked about last week. And I used the example of a stray animal coming to your doorstep and varying responses. It’s important to understand that there are two kinds of strays who can come to your door, and there are also two kinds of individuals to respond to the strays. And if you don’t understand this, then you can become caught in a game, a power struggle, between providing help and the request for help.

Now, the pet lover to whom the stray animal comes will, as we described last week, not base his or her behavior on the presenting behavior that the animal is showing, but will base his or her responses upon the love that he or she feels, and the insight or clarity he or she has about what this animal is capable of in terms of receiving love and being blessed by it.

Now, if you notice in my example I spoke about a stray dog coming to your door, but what about those who don’t wait for the stray to come to the door, but go out looking for them? Those who do that are commonly called dogcatchers. The motive is entirely different from the pet lover who is willing to stand in receipt of and be inclusive of this forlorn one who comes for help. And [laughing] it doesn’t take but a moment for an animal to recognize the motivation, and when a dogcatcher is in the area, they run. Why? Because it is the intent of the dogcatcher to take possession, to enforce order into the animal’s life. The dogcatcher’s motivation is getting, and the pet lover’s motivation is giving. Now last week I didn’t talk at all about going out and finding those who need help, so that you might bless them with what you have to give. And I’m not going to talk about that this week either, because that’s not what this is all about.

Now there are two kinds of strays, let’s say, forlorn, needy individuals or animals. There are those who come to you for help who are truly at the end of their rope and recognize that there must be a different way, and want to find out what it is, and are not so puffed up within themselves that they are unwilling to let something new in and change. And then there are others who come to you for help who are suffering, but the help they want is for you to help them help remove the suffering without their having to change—which is impossible. You must learn to discern the difference. Because if you don’t discern the difference, you will likely continue to put yourself in the messiness of the intimacy of an unintelligent and unclear relationship—unintelligent and unclear because one in the relationship wants the impossible. They want to be relieved of their suffering without having to change the way they’re living their lives, the way they are thinking, the way they are believing.

You say, “Well, my willingness to come from my love, because of its divine nature, has to have the capacity of reaching them, has to have the capacity of, I’m going to say, finessing change, even though they don’t want to change.” And I’m here to tell you right now that that is impossible. And if you do not recognize its impossibility, you will find yourself entangled in a power play that you won’t be able to get out of, that you will find yourself sucked into the depths of, the confusion of, and the suffering of. When you recognize that the one asking for help is asking for help that can’t be given because the impossible can’t be done, you must stop trying to help them accomplish the impossible. And you must step back. This is an instance when two people meet only to part, because intelligence governs and what does not match, what cannot match, must not attempt to match, must not attempt to engage. Because one says the engagement can only be for one purpose: to relieve suffering without changing what is causing the suffering. Until the one coming and asking for help is hungry for actual help, you must not take the bait.

Now this does not mean that you are going to use your mind poorly. It means that when you have drawn the line, as it were, and said, “thus far and no farther,” and you withdraw from the engagement, you must continue, persist in coming from the Place of Excellence in you. You must persist in coming from the love in you that you feel, so that you can continue to acknowledge What Is True about them, and do not lapse in, what we could call, your faith in them; do not lapse in your trust in What They Truly Are.

You do not engage in frustration because they won’t listen to you—because then you shift into the dogcatcher mentality. You do not feel that you are somehow incompetent, because you couldn’t reach them, and sit hard on yourself. You recognize that this one who is calling for help is indeed the Son of God not knowing it, not believing that they are, but using the power that they have to be devoted to their misperception, with such power that until they change their decision, there is nothing you can do. And so you recognize that until they are hungry, until there is desire to do whatever it takes to do the essential thing that it takes to be relieved of suffering, you don’t engage with them. And you persist in your peace, contemplating them, or whenever they come to your mind, considering them from the standpoint of what they divinely Are, and that it is the Father’s Will for them to know what they Are, and that you love what they Are, because there is nothing unlovable about what they truly Are, even though they are believing that they are something different.

And so you do not violate your function, which is to recognize the Presence of God in each and every thing, and to let in the feeling or the experience of the Truth of that. You persist in being singular, non-conflicted within yourself, extending the blessing of the recognition of their divinity to them. In other words, you continue to send out messengers of Truth. But you do not engage with them, because their conscious intent in the engagement is to be deceitful, is to be self-serving. They are in a mode of defense, seeing their world as hostile, and they are not willing to abandon that yet. And therefore, they are unable to see you as anything other than as manipulative as them, and that the simple love you are extending is a ploy to get control over them, because their means of existing is one entirely of control and manipulation, and they see what they’re looking with.

Your behavior, you cannot afford to let your behavior be based upon what they are presenting, but you also express enough wisdom not to engage with them in an impossible venture. And as long as they insist upon engaging in that venture, you say “no.” And you butt out from an involvement level, from an engagement level, but you do not butt out in your mind. You do not abandon your desire and your willingness to see the Presence of God there because that’s the only thing that can be there. And you embrace them in that love, just as you would a stray animal.

Now this is very important. A dogcatcher, in terms of what we’re talking about, is very much like a proselytizer; someone who is going to go out and change people’s minds about what the truth is, so that they might be saved. It’s also similar to a third party who comes into involvement with two partners who are married, and engages in his wiles, let’s say, and slowly gets the affections of the wife away from the husband. This is called “alienation of affection” and is punishable by law. Now, in other words, it is recognized to be unlawful, unprincipled, and something that “no” has to be said to. When you approach someone who is devoted to the voice for fear that’s governing them, and you try to forcefully change them, you’re engaging in an attempt to alienate their affections from this false teacher. Correct? But this false teacher is their god. In fact, it’s their own defense mechanism. It is what they think is keeping them safe, even though they’re miserable. And any attempt you make to alienate their affection from their god, will cause you to be the recipient of the wrath of their god. And this will always be the case until something happens within them that causes them to withdraw their devotion, until something happens that causes them to lose their faith in their mindset.

And so, what I’m saying is understand that you cannot do the impossible. It is impossible to do the impossible. Don’t let someone imploring you for help, fool you into helping because they say, “I know that you’re a very spiritual person, and I know that you have a close relationship with God, and so I’m asking you because of the great faith I know you have, to help me.” And then they’ll leave off the last words, “Help me not have to suffer, without having to stop doing what is causing my suffering.” They conveniently leave that unsaid. So be wise. Don’t deal with strays who haven’t come to your door.

And when strays do come to your door, be alert to find out whether they are committed to their lifestyle, and they only want for you to help alleviate them temporarily of their starvation or their uncleanliness, so that they might reenergize and persist in the way they choose to live, persist in doing what causes them to suffer. Be alert for that so that you don’t play into it, and then suffer the disillusionment, the discovery, that you’ve been played like a harp, because you weren’t alert and you didn’t know that some things are impossible, and that when the invitation to do the impossible is extended to you, you must, no matter how unloving the other says you are, say, “No. We cannot communicate. We cannot relate because you want me to do the impossible, and I know better than to do it. And I will not engage in argument or discussion so that you might change my mind or show me where I’m wrong. Conversation ended. Involvement ended. Period.” That is wisdom, and that is love.

And as they go on their way, you embrace them from the love in you that can and does recognize their divinity, and knows that they deserve to be experiencing better than what they’re allowing them[selves] to experience. And by doing so, you stay in your singularity, rather than becoming conflicted within yourself and losing your capacity to witness for God, and thereby voluntarily, but unintelligently, abandon your function.

Okay. I hope that is clarifying. More than that, I know that it is.

Last week we read:

And I pointed out, that all day long, you are choosing for one or the other. And for the most part, you vacillate back and forth. You’re not persistent or consistent. But you must understand that you are either joining in the Resurrection or the crucifixion, depending upon the God/god you are serving.

Now, continuing.

You see? There is no inequity. There’s no inequality. You are all Sons and Daughters of God. You are all Brothers and Sisters. You are all equal in inheritance, if you will. You are all the loveliness of capital “L” Love—the Presence of God.

And you must be willing to consider each other in that way, so as not to be introducing conflicting perceptions into the picture, and thus breaking the singularity, and separating yourself from all of your Brothers and Sisters by virtue of choosing to believe something that isn’t true.

Continuing.

No. Because everything is a singularity and a consistency, whatever you believe about yourself you will equally apply to everyone else. And believe or not, what you believe about everyone else you equally apply to yourself, but you conveniently tuck that way into a back corner of your mind. I will tell you something: what you do not believe you are capable of, you will not believe another is capable of. It’s that simple.

Again.

Whatever flaws you think you have, you also think God has.

You see? So I resurrected; you say, “Well, every Easter we celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection.” You see?

But you also believe that existence, that being is fragmented, and therefore Jesus has experienced the resurrection, but not you. You’re somebody else. You’re unrelated. You aren’t the same one. What is true of him is not true of you, because you’re unique. You are your own person. And so you, like Jesus, must demonstrate your own resurrection. But it happens that things aren’t really tough enough at the moment for you to engage in the resurrection, so [small laugh] one of these days you may tackle that. It’s easier to tackle a low bank account or, you know, an angry wife than to tackle your resurrection. So you see yourself as quite independent and autonomous, but your salvation doesn’t lie in that picture you have created about yourself of being separate and different.

If I demonstrated the resurrection, if I manifested or embodied the resurrection, it was embodied as a fact—not just a possibility, not just a wild pipe dream—but as a fact about everyone eternally, infinitely. At the moment of the resurrection, the belief in the impossibility of resurrection was broken forever in everyone. It was done for you.

… which, of course, you’ve already been doing.

You see, because it was accomplished for you, you don’t have to do it over again. You are at a point where you can move on from the Resurrection to the Ascension, if you will. You don’t have to muddle ’round in finding out how to have your own resurrection. You don’t have to muddle around in discovering and being the embodiment of the fact that there is no death. The problem doesn’t have to be solved again. You’re free to go on, letting in the experience of Eternal Life right now, right here, today. That’s the territory you’re now in.

But you’re behaving as though you’re still in the old, mortal veil, having to find a way to overcome death. It’s self-defeating to try to accomplish something that’s already been accomplished for you, as though it never was accomplished.

Such is your Nature as the Father created you.

[talking to each individual present] Not just your nature or your nature—not your nature, and your nature, and your nature, and your nature, and your nature, and your nature—and the nature of everyone listening—as though there were a whole bunch of natures. We are all one, infinite embodiment of God; of one, singular, unfragmentable Presence of Conscious Life.

What you’re all waking up to is the fact that the whole human condition never happened; the whole dream of mortality never happened; that Creation—in its absolute, eternal divinity—was never altered for a second, which means none of you was altered for a second. You’ve just become obsessed with an idea that you have turned into a perception that causes you to define everything as something other than it is, but which hasn’t accomplished changing what everything is. It’s just left you demented and deceived. But you can become free of the deception, to find out that it never was real. Again, you are neither behind the Point of Perfection nor advancing toward it; you are at that Point and you must understand yourself therefrom.

Now continuing.

This is key statement:

Whether it’s your devotion or a neighbor’s devotion, do not underestimate the power of your devotion, because you are the “God’s Son,” nor the power of the god you worship, nor the power of the god you worship over you. Do not underestimate the power the god you worship has over you. The power your god has over you is equal to the power of the devotion you bring to that god. And because you are the Christ, unconscious of the Christhood of yourself, you, your devotion is absolute; is utterly powerful.

And that’s why when a Brother comes to you and says, “Help me. I am miserable. I am on my last legs. I am suffering greatly. Help me not suffer, without making me change the behavior that’s causing my suffering,” you may know that that one is devoted to the behavior that is causing his suffering. And his behavior is … is the power of his devotion to it is absolute. And so you recognize this. You honor the fact that the one who is requesting you to do the impossible, and who is miserable at his own hand, is the Christ behaving in a way that’s causing him suffering, and is devoted to it with all the power of the Christ that there is, and therefore there is nothing you can do.

Again.

… and you all do this.

… he made up …

Listen to that again.

All of you, at one time or another, have or will need to be able to disentangle yourselves from entanglements—messy, sticky, miserable entanglements with those asking for help that cannot be given, who will expect you to try to give it anyway. And you need to understand that because their devotion to their false god is the devotion of a Christ unaware of Who He Is and that therefore the power of the devotion is absolute, means that you can do nothing to alter it until that one has arrived, for his own reasons, at a willingness to abandon that devotion. And your recognition of that is not unloving, and it is not something you can actually be faulted for, because it expresses utter intelligence.

I’m going to read this paragraph again so that it registers clearly and simply.

… which is, of course, why they’re suffering.

… the true Son of God …

… and I’m going to add: On the other hand …

You see? Control, authority exercised and domination successfully exercised.

You see? The prisoner in his cell with a gate on the cell that’s unlocked and that has never been locked, who is enjoying self-imposed incarceration, is likely to say to the one who says, “Hey, try the door. It’s not locked. Come on out. Come out in the fresh air and the sunshine and be free,” “Well, wait a minute. Why would I want to do that? I get three square meals a day in here. I’m able to stay clean. I don’t have to be responsible for anything. I’m a pretty happy camper. I get along fairly well with most of the other prisoners. Why would I give up such a good deal?” You see? Well, don’t waste your breath when someone is insisting on their incarceration. Don’t try to enforce freedom on someone who diligently avoids it. The one inside the cell is the only one who can open the gate. And he won’t open it until something in him wants to get out, is hungry for something other than the status quo that he’s become comfortable with, even though he is in prison. You see? Again, a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.

Continuing.

… another word for devotion. And of course, we’re not to, you are not to underestimate the power of the devotion of God’s Son.

Not because it’s the symbol of obedience. Not because it’s the symbol of your having been subjected to someone who has a louder voice, or more apparent power than you have.

Not what I want for you. Not what anybody else wants for you. Not what anyone else thinks you ought to have.

Listen to this.

… and likewise, you cannot thrust it upon anyone else …

… it can be offered through you …

… what?

You see? Waking up means that you’re willing to accept God without question as your Father, so that you might once again remember Who You Are—His Son, His Daughter, His Self-Expression.

Again.

In other words, for no good reason. Just because. Just because that’s the way it is. Just because.

Who are you going to accept as your own?

Are you going to accept me as your own? Or are you going to dissociate me from you, and say, “Jesus is different. Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father. Jesus is the Wayshower. He’s not like me. I’m the one being shown. I’m different. Jesus is the Teacher, and I am the student.” You see? You see how all of these words provide definitions of inequality? And you use these definitions to ensure that you will not have to remember Who You Are and embrace your Good by grace, just because it’s there for you, because it’s the Reality of you.

What about your Brother and your Sister, even the ones who are insisting upon asking you to help them accomplish the impossible? Are they your own? Or are you going to keep them separate; distinguish them from you?

You see, it’s all a Singularity. It isn’t a fragmented conglomeration of bits and pieces that maybe were once joined, but aren’t anymore and aren’t supposed to be anymore, but they all have something common in their background. No.

[Raj reads it differently] The Father has given you all that He is, and He Himself is yours WITH them.

He is yours because He is your Father. He is What gives you your Identity. He is What Is Being your existence.

Your Brothers and Sisters. Your stray dogs. The ones who want help that can’t be given.

… in other words, continue to perform your function of recognizing the Presence of God in everything you see, even if those you are seeing are claiming something different about themselves.

Remember last week I pointed out to you that you can’t really dare to acknowledge that anyone else is the Son of God until you’re able to acknowledge that you’re the Son of God. Because otherwise all you’ll be doing is giving yourself something to be jealous of and frustrated about, and you’re too intelligent to do that. So it’s easier to say, “no one is the Son of God,” than to say, “someone else is but I’m not.”

So you start by taking the thorns out of your brow and the nails from your hands that say in so many words, “You’re contemptuous. You are worthless. You’re a ne’er-do-well claiming to be something more than you are.” No one else is saying this to you; you’re saying it to yourself. And you’ve got to stop. And you have to start apprehending yourself more correctly. You are neither behind the Point of Perfection, nor advancing toward it; you are at that Point. The resurrection is already accomplished. Get on with the business of being the embodiment of the deathlessness of Life, because that’s the arena you’re in now. Undo the need for the crucifixion. Crucifixion is past; resurrection has occurred. Get on with Life!

In other words, by demonstrating that you and I are Brothers and Sisters; we are kin. We have the same Father. We have the same inheritance. The Laws of God govern both of us equally and as completely. And what I am invulnerable to, you are invulnerable to. You see? It’s called being in a new way—not according to the old historical records, not according to the old past mutual agreements. You see?

You see? And I know, the sarcasm comes in. “Yeah, I know He loved Jesus. Yeah. My older Brother. He loves Jesus better than me. Obviously He loved Jesus but, Jesus, look at me. [laughing] Jesus, look at my mom and dad who died of this or that. Look at my grandparents who suffered this or that, you know. Yeah, I know God loved Jesus, His Son, but not me.” And you use your mind in this way to push yourself further and further down into the hole.

And the only reason you’re in the hole is because of the way you’re using your mind. You’re saying, “I am behind the Point of Perfection, and I am advancing toward it, and it’s a tough row to hoe. It’s hard work to advance toward perfection.” You see? More words. More descriptions. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m on my way, but it’s really hard, and it takes a lot of fortitude.” And all the time you’re doing this, all the time you’re going through these contortions, you’re sitting on a grassy knoll in the middle of the Kingdom of Heaven, not bothering to open up your eyes to see what’s really going on, because you are obsessed with your dream.

You are obsessed with your definitions, and you confirm them over, and over, and over. You see, this is your devotion to the god you made. And you know what? There ain’t no such god. And if you abandon this god, everything will not collapse. And if you let there be the littlest bit of doubt in your mind regarding the validity of this god, and you let there be a little bit of inquisitiveness, a little bit of desire, a little bit of genuine hunger for something new, and a willingness to explore a new way of being, instead of rehearsing the old way of being over and over again, you will find the Movement of Awakening happening rapidly.

So you stop blaming His blameless Son, whether it’s you or your Brothers.

But again, at the same time that you stop judging His blameless Son who comes crying to you to help, to ask you to help him do the impossible, at the same time you recognize that you must refuse that request, understand that it doesn’t mean that you are laying blame there. It just means that you will not join with and confirm an illusion. And you will not waste your time trying to do the impossible. And you continue to love that Brother or that Sister for what that Brother and Sister truly Are. And you maintain that conscious awareness, to the best of your ability, because it constitutes you fulfilling your function of glorifying God right where your Brother says, or your Sister says, “I am not the Presence of God. I am a self-made man, or a self-made woman, and that’s my God-given right. And I expect you to help me accomplish that without my having to suffer.” In the face of that and your refusal to comply, you continue to remain singular in your mind.

… God …

… His blameless Son …

You see? You are the expression of His Will. You are the ongoing outcome of God’s Will. “Behold, I make all things new.” That is God’s Will, and that is what you are the Presence of, the embodiment of.

But, no.

… you’ve adopted this entirely different picture of yourself.

You can’t change What You Are. Even if you become so obsessively devoted to your self-concept that you think that is what you are, you can’t accomplish the death of God’s Son, and in its place the creation of an independent authorizer having successfully embodied God’s Will for you by becoming “as God” on your own.

… You …

Now obviously you can try, and obviously you can suffer from trying, but you can’t accomplish it. And the suffering can end the moment you abandon the attempt to do the impossible.

That’s the reality of it. Understand that, because if you don’t understand it, you will think that this process, quote “process” unquote, of Awakening is too difficult, or isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, or what you’re trying to do in waking up isn’t something that really leads you to waking up because there’s so much confusion accompanying it. It’s simply because:

… habits don’t die easily. Things which you are utterly familiar with are not abandoned quickly.

That statement is not a criticism, but a wonderfully supportive, loving sharing of the way it is, so that you will not become discouraged.

So, when you persist in the willingness to look at all the stray dogs, all the stray cats, all those in need of help, and recognize there what’s really true about them, else they couldn’t be having a miserable misperception of it, you are being inclusive. You are embracing, unlike the dogcatcher, and in that embrace you’re not trying to control and there is trust. You trust that they are capable of receiving the love you are extending. And you are patient, not controlling.

And as with a stray animal, it might take two or three years for that animal to finally show signs of having completely given up all fear of you. But you’re willing to persist in being the presence of that which is not frightening, and is not projecting on that animal misperceptions of it, and then behaving on the basis of those misperceptions. And so the persistence of love heals. But the forgetting of dreams sometimes happens slowly.

… and your Brothers and Sisters who call for your help to relieve them of their pain without their having to abandon what’s causing their pain, will awaken to their own call—to their own call. And only when their own call occurs, will they be able to hear your call to them for what it is, and only then will involvement that you would call constructive and healing, can begin. Only then can it begin, but not until they’ve heard their own call—the call of theirs from within them.

Now again—and many of you might not like the things I’m saying tonight—it says:

And the question is, “But what if I share it with somebody who refuses to accept it?” You stop trying to share it where it’s unwelcome. You stop trying to share it where it’s being refused. You stop sharing it and persisting in sharing it, and making an ethic out of sharing it, and turning the sharing of it with that person into a crusade—you stop that! And you withdraw. And you patiently wait for the Call to awaken to come from within them—and then you join with them, engage with them. Because until their devotion to their god is, in some form, abandoned within them, the power of the Christ that they are is absolute and you will not be let in. And so, you honor that fact.

And as I said to my disciples, when you go into a village and you’re not accepted, shake off the dust from off thy feet and leave town. Leave the town; abandon the projects that you set for yourselves to change others for their own good when they haven’t come to your door asking to know what they can change in their lives in order to stop creating the suffering they’re experiencing. I hope this is perfectly clear. And if its clarity registers with you, you will be greatly and profoundly relieved from your own obsession of trying to be a force for good, when you think you ought to be able to be, because after all so-and-so is calling for help.

… You. Everyone …

It’s already done. And as I said, it’s time to discover that you’re in the arena of embodying the deathlessness of Life, because the deathlessness of Life has already been demonstrated, and the belief that death is the conclusion of life has forever been broken. It does not have the power that it did before the Resurrection, and it can never again have it.

… to each other …

… you know, you’re just not quite my equal.

… and you’re somehow more special than me in your unique incapacity. [laughing]

To you all things are possible.

Well, everyone can rejoice because you’ve all been waiting for what we’re going to read about next week, “The Problem and the Answer.” [audience laughter] But don’t be too anxious and read ahead. Stay with what we’ve talked about this week. Let it … let it sink in. It is Sanity. And it’s your release from unnecessary obligation to do the impossible. Enjoy the release and enjoy the relief.

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