Teachings of Christ Mind

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

I know many of you had a very interesting week following our get-together last week. And what may have escaped people’s attention is, that we were talking about Love. We were taking about the fact that it’s everyone’s function to be the Presence of Love—moving. And, of course, Love moving means involvement, as we talked at some length about last week.

Now, the issue that started the subject was need that had been expressed by Paul the week before. Need for what? Involvement. Need for conscious involvement. Since it revolved around financial support, there was a spontaneous feeling among most everyone: “Well, I hope we can finally get this problem resolved! I hope we can get this taken care of once and for all!” Why? “Well, so that I won’t have to be confronted with it again.” Not “I Paul,” but all of you.

You know, when you have a child, in the beginning you stand a little bit in awe of the experience of the appearing of this child, and then, of finding your capacity to love this child. And as the years go by, the thought sometimes will occur to you: “Boy, I can’t wait till they get to be eighteen or twenty and move away from home. And then I will be through raising them and then I can get on to other things!” Like: “Oh, the excruciating task of expressing endless love will be over! Can’t wait for the time when everything falls into order, and attention doesn’t have to be given to it again!” And finally you’re free. What? Free to [small laugh] not have to love is what you’re saying. Free not to have to be as attentive. Free to not be as conscious.

You know, it’s very easy for you to enjoy the concept of God’s Eternal Love. The fact that it’s eternal means that you have a guarantee of always being embraced without fluctuation and therefore, if you’re willing to reach for It and receive It and accept It, you feel secure.

But, oh dear, the minute I or anyone suggests that because you are God’s Self-Expression; thereby embodying everything about God, obviously your function—the Movement of Being—is one of Eternal Love. You see? Oh dear, eternal involvement? And then it doesn’t sound so wonderful. And it sounds like work. And the orphan says: “Well okay, I’ll tell you what: If we are to attend to our brother’s need, let’s find a way to organize the attending to our brother’s needs. Our city, like other cities, has what’s called a tent-city; A city of tents put up by the homeless, wherever they can find enough space. Well, let’s form a committee. Let’s form a committee to find out what the needs are of these people as well as what the needs are of the city so that we can get rid of this scourge, this ugliness that doesn’t reflect well on the city. Let’s find out whether we need to raise funds or establish a fund to help these people get their needs met, so that they won’t be messing up our city anymore.” You see?

Do you see that if you try to organize the expression of Love, Love goes out of the window? To form a committee means that only a small number of people actually have to be involved with “them” who live in this tent city. And everyone else can say: “Well, you know what? We’re paying our taxes. And hopefully our taxes will go into a fund that will clean up this problem. And I don’t have to be involved at all. I don’t have to be conscious enough to look into one of my brother’s eyes in tent city and actually care enough to let myself be present enough with him, as well as present with the Father or the Holy Spirit, so that I may be led to know what needs to be done, and what will constitute an extension of Love that will bless my brother and allow me to fulfill my function.” You see?

“I hope Paul gets his problem worked out so that I won’t have to think about this anymore. Oh, you know what? Why doesn’t Paul just start charging for everything? Everyone else does and I wouldn’t have any problem with receiving a bill for a copy of a newsletter, or a CD, or to download something from the Internet. I wouldn’t mind at all.”

These are all means of distancing yourself from Paul or from the need. Sort of take care of the need by remote control. You know, and then “out of sight, out of mind.” Well, you know what? The need isn’t for money. The need is for Love. And the need isn’t for any of you to give money. The need is for you to take to heart what this book teaches, and what I’ve been teaching and actually begin to shift within yourself, so that you are being in a new way more consciously.

Now, because what I’m talking about is not one of the habits that an orphan engages in, it’s going to require effort. It’s going to require conscious persistence—conscientiousness. Being in a new way is far different from thinking in a new way, because being means action, and action takes place in your world. And action means involvement: being in a new way in the world.

You get up in the morning, perhaps you and your wife get up in the morning. You both get dressed. You get ready for work. You each take your own car and you go to your job. And you go through your day unconscious of each other. And you come home at the end of the day and you’re tired. And so, one of you goes to the computer, the other one goes into the television. And you sit down and have a quiet evening together at home, you say. [chuckling] Together? You’re not even conscious of each other.

Now, I’ve drawn a stark, negative picture there. Many of you are much more involved with each other than that. But, I’m encouraging all of you to become more conscious of each other than that.

Sometimes you run into people whose constant activity is one of caring. They’ll give you the shirt off their back. And they’ll know when a shirt is needed. And that’s the key point: They’ll know when a shirt is needed. Why? Because they’re paying attention—and they know that they’re there to care. This is part of what is natural and normal to each one of you. You each have an Infinite capacitybuilt in. It’s your Nature. It’s the Essence of your Being. You have an Infinite capacity to Be Love Moving. And if you didn’t know that, now you know.

I’m telling you this so that when it looks that I’m suggesting that you begin to engage in something that’s going to be work because it doesn’t come naturally to you in your role as an orphan, you need to know that I’m not asking you to do something you don’t have the capacity to do. The Love in you is Infinite. The Love in you moves from an Eternal Source—Eternal. You have the capacity to be so involved with those in your world and the things in the world that you notice when the plants need to be watered. You notice when your husband or your wife or your partner or your children are needing guidance or direction or a hug. And you notice all of these things simultaneously because you have the capacity to do it.

Don’t want for needs to go away. Or I’ll put it this way: Don’t want calls for love to go away. Don’t want for opportunities to be the Presence of Love to go away. Don’t want to get to a point where you won’t have to do it any more.

Some parents don’t wait until their kids are eighteen, they get a nanny when the kids are two weeks old. And the nanny changes the diapers. And the nanny burps them. And the nanny holds them when they’re fretful. And the nanny massages them when they’ve got some gas that isn’t coming out easily. The nanny is the Presence of Love extended–extending. And the new proud parents sleep comfortably in their bed, undisturbed by the opportunity to be the Presence of Love moving.

“Well I justdon’t want to have to keep thinking about this. I’d rather get on to happier things.” Well there you are, the Pharisee. Mmm, “Well I just don’t want to think about or be conscious of such things as this guy that’s been beaten and mistreated. I’d rather give my thought to more holy, more pleasant things.” You see? In your unwillingness to be the Presence of Love, you secure your orphanhood because, after all, orphanhood is a state of isolation, of aloneness. Isn’t it?

If you want to wake up, if you want to come Home into your right Mind, you have to be willing to abandon the isolation that you treasure so much. And in order to do it, it’s going to take effort, because you treasure it so much. It’s going to take effort to override the way in which you treasure your isolation. But, remember that you have the Infinite capacity to Be Love moving because you’re not an orphan, because you are God Presencing Himself, right there where you are! And it’s God’s capacity to Be Eternal Love that constitutes your capacity. That’s why, when you dare to embrace your capacity to be Eternal Love and you do It and you extend It, you get to keep It. And you remember God. Because what? You’ve engaged with God, haven’t you? You’ve had to stand in receipt of this flow of Eternal Love that is yours because God is Being It right there where you are, where He Is Being You.

Now you know, the Foundation is a non-profit corporation. Oh, boy, start thinking in those terms and we’ve got an organization, a wonderful place for committees and a wonderful setup for organizing the inflow ofmoney. Being a non-profit, it can apply for grants–free money, so to speak. And then no one would have to be conscious at all. You see? And yet Love is what waking up is all about—discovering It, letting It flow through you instead of all of the other crap that you willingly let flow through you … and letting It transform you and transform others, because all of you do know, at the bottom line, that Love does transform, that Love does heal.

This Work simply cannot be transactional.

“Oh, yeah. There Raj is talking aboutthe Work. Raj is talking about the Foundation. Raj is talking about money. Raj is talking about contributions.” No. I am not talking about any of that. I’m talking about the fact that those things do stand as a trigger for each and every one of you to take a look at the degree to which, as I said last week, you choose consciously to be the Pharisee, and not look at need and not bring into play your capacity to Be Love Eternally. And it serves as a trigger for you to change your mind about just how much Love you’re going to give … but not quite give … hopefully just a little, just enough, because you think you’re an orphan. And because you think you don’t have much and because you think that it’s not in the cards for you to have much unless you become a really good orphan and a really good manipulator, where you can make things happen without employing Love.

How thoughtful are you of your wife? How thoughtful are you of your husband? How thoughtful are you of your lovers? How thoughtful are you of your children? How much of your conscious awareness is allowed to rest upon and be present with not just yourself, but yourself and your family, yourself and your neighbors, yourself and your friends? You have an Infinite capacity to do this. Thoughtfulness–involvement—it’s a big word. And I hope that what I’ve been talking about is making you take a closer look at just how much or how little involvement you are allowing to occur in your daily lives.

Oh! But you have a holy work to do. I’m tattling on Paul a little bit here. “I have a Gathering to master because people are waiting for it. Sue can wait. She’s strong. Basic needs are taken care of. She doesn’t need my attention. And my not giving her my attention” … is not giving her his attention is not because he doesn’t love her, but because he has partitioned off this part of his capacity to Love from this capacity to Love and he’s saying it’s justified not to be thoughtful and sensitive fully in this area, because over in this area a truly holy work is being done. It isn’t like he’s sitting over there drinking a beer, watching the fights on the TV. You see? And so there’s a justification that really, in terms of actual life experience, is no different from the guy drinking the beer, watching the fights, not giving a thought to his wife. The actual experience is one of no involvement.

If what we’re reading about, and if whatI’m teaching isn’t trickling down, let’s say, a little bit lower than your mind into your life and your behaviors, it’s not worth shit! No matter how spiritually precocious and advanced you might think you are, if you’re going to bring the Truth home, it’s going to mean something more than having a realization in your mind. It’s going to mean a realization in your mind that causes your way of behaving in the world to change.

The last time we were reading from the book, I read this:

Well, likewise, God has placed in you an Infinite Eternal capacity to Be Love, moving. And …

Now this is the part I actually want to read:

That’s very important. A simple sentence. You can read it and run right by it, and not realize that there’s depth to it. You see, it’s not enough to have an answer intellectually. That’s not all that was given to you. You weren’t just given a Voice, the Voice for Truth that would give you answers. You were also given Vision that you might perceive differently. Vision means, that which is capable of paying attention.

Vision: When the Truth that the Voice shares with you becomes embodied in the clear perception that Vision gives you, your behavior changes quote, “in the world,” unquote. And now Love has moved. The Voice may say something that will cause you to recognize Love, but the Vision is what will translate it into movement, so that miracles happen in the world. And this is really what I’ve been talking about for the last two weeks—last week and this week. This is really what I’m talking about.

Now the simple fact is, that no-one will implement what I’m talking about until they’re ready. And so, I’m not gonna get up on a soapbox and try to force you to do anything, because no matter what I would do, you will still only do it when you decide to do it—when it’s important to you. But, I’ve made it a little more difficult for you now, because now you know the Truth. You’re not ignorant of it, even if you opt for not implementing it yet.

It’s important for you to know when you’re not implementing Reality—when you’re not implementing Truth. If you don’t know that you’re not implementing Truth because you don’t know there is a Truth to implement, that’s one thing—that’s ignorance governing you. When you don’t choose to implement the Truth, but you know what the Truth is, you’re in a far better place, because now you know you have a choice. And you’re just opting for the lazy choice. But you know there’s a choice, and you know you’re not stuck.

Now I’m going to use a word I used last week that many of you didn’t like. You didn’t like the way I used it. But if you know what the Truth is and you’re opting to not implement it, you are guilty of not implementing Truth. Ohh, I know… the Course says that you are the guiltless Son of God. Absolutely you are. But if you are the guiltless Son of God, choosing not to embody the Truth of His Being, you are the guiltless Son of God, being guilty of notfulfilling your Purpose! You are the guiltless Son of God behaving in a manner that doesn’t work. You are the guiltless Son of God behaving in a manner that does not embody His Heritage, His Real Nature, His True Character, the very Substance of His Being. Because you’re saying: “I’m going to opt for being an orphan a little bit longer. (Thanks for telling me I’m not an orphan.) But I’m going to opt for being an orphan a little longer, and I’m going to opt for believing—continuing to try to believe—I am an orphan even though ya got me. And now I know that I’m not an orphan. But you know what? I’m not going to validate that yet. And as an orphan, I have the right to not validate the Truth!” You see?

And so, you are the Christ, behaving as though you are not the Christ. And trying to believe your behavior. And so you are guilty of denying your Christhood.

What does that mean, when someone is guilty? Are you guilty of denying your Christhood? What does that mean? Are you willing to take responsibility, to own the responsibility for your not behaving as though you’re the Christ? Are you willing to own the responsibility? That’s all. And if you say: “Yes, I’m willing to own the fact that I’m choosing not to behave as though I’m the Christ,” it is the same as saying: “I am guilty of choosing not to behave as though I’m the Christ.”

Accepting your guilt can be looked at as shameful. But the fact is that when you truly own your guilt, when you truly say: “I recognize that I’m opting not to behave in harmony with what I truly am,” you are expressing an honesty that does not cause those who are Awake to feel that you are behaving shamefully. It causes Us to rejoice, because your willingness to take responsibility for behaving in a dysfunctional way constitutes a far greater degree of honesty and truth in you. And in your doing it, you are laying a foundation—you’re providing a foundation—for a different choice to be made. And so you are stronger, you are the stronger for it and this is good.

My task is to simply encourage you not to delay implementing the Truth about you, not delay in discovering your capacity to be the Eternal Presence of Love moving. And it’s My task to share with you that in your willingness to do that, sin, sickness and death will begin to disappear. Transformation will begin to appear–occur–in you, in your world.

Now, let’s say that you’ve done this, and all sin, disease and death in the world, and the materiality of the world has faded, and you’re left with Reality. Now do you get a rest from consciously being the Presence of Love, the sensitivity, the thoughtfulness, the glad involvement with each and every thing Infinitely? No!

You know what? Love moving is Creation.

Love moving, moves Eternally … moves Eternally. Creation is a forever Movement of Love eliciting that which is new. And all that is being brought forth by the Movement of Love infinitely needs you. And you need It because It’s part of the infinitude of you. And so, there will forever be that to which you will have the opportunity to be sensitive and embrace and be present with and acknowledge yourself in It and It in you and that together, it’s all God. So that every aspect of your Being is actively glorifying God by not denying God anywhere, and finding no desire for a respite from being the Presence of Love that acknowledges God everywhere. It’s your Birthright, and it’s not work. It’s the sustainer of you. It’s the nourisher of you. And It is the essence of you moving—moving infinitely.

Now, you look around you at the things that confront you in your day. And you are sure that there are things there which don’t deserve your Love. Well you’re wrong. And when that thought comes to you, what it very often means is that what you see that doesn’t deserve your Love is something that you feel will require more love than you have to give. Using that orphan mentality: Not enough, not enough, not enough! But the fact is, that you have an infinite capacity to love. And you’re going to have to start taking hold of It. You’re going to have to start embracing It.

It’s sort of like a delicious hunk of meat on a turkey leg, you know. You’re going to have to sink your teeth into it and pull it away from the bone, you know! It’s not like pabulum, where you get it in the spoon and [slurping noise] slurp it into your mouth. No. You’re just going to have to take hold of your capacity to be the Presence of Love by wanting nothing else–by not opting for walking by on the other side of the road.

Hey, if I told you that the experience of waking up was like constantly being able to eat filet mignon or the chocolatiest, chocolate ice cream that you could imagine, you might be willing to put forth a little bit of effort to take a bite. What you’re having to take a look at … what I am illuminating here so that it’s easier for you to take a look at is, just how much you make judgments and withhold your Love. And when you withhold your Love, you don’t realize that you’re short-changing yourself. You don’t realize that you are squelching your fundamental capacity. You don’t realize that you’re squelching the movement of your Being. And so you say: “That’s no big deal.” But it is! It’s the difference between dreaming a dream and being Awake. It’s experiencing the human condition or the Kingdom of Heaven. It really does constitute that much of a difference.

Let’s go to the book. Referring to you as the orphan, it says …

Everything you made up. All the definitions you’ve given to, you know, the people who live in Tent City and the double-amputee on the sidewalk or the drunk asleep in the gutter who’s not even begging for anything. The Holy Spirit does not see that. And what is the Holy Spirit? Not the big eye in the sky. That which is nothing more than your right Mind–your right Mind. Your right Mind does not see it.

… your confused mind has made …

… that which is your right Mind …

More than that, you can’t imagine yourselfas a separate entity and actually succeed at becoming a separate entity that has a power to create anything, or make anything. And so, there is nothing to see, because there is nothing there. And there isn’t anything that ever made it. It’s a misperception entertained by a mind that is Real, but which is in a state of self-denial.

… the Holy Spirit–that which is your right Mind …

Another way of saying this is:

… make-believe

Now listen:

You have created the delusion of something there.

In your ignorance of yourself and your brother as the Christ, you look at the Christs that confront you every day and you identify them as something less. And you are committed to the definition you’ve given them. But they are not there. The ones you see are not there! What is there is an overlay of a definition you have applied to Something that is Real. And all you’re allowing yourself to see of that one is the little, awful definition that you have made up!

Again …

… the definition you’ve applied …

… valuing nothing itself…

No matter what you’re calling or defining your brother or sister as, what is there, right here, right here, in each of these seats, is the Christ—the full-blown Christ! The Presence of God. That is What is here, right now. And anything less than that that you are seeing is not there. But …

You’re all seeing something right now, but you’re not seeing what’s really here. You’re seeing what you’re sure is here. What is really here is Really here, and what you’re seeing is not here. And Christ is invisible to you because of what you have made visible to yourselves!

The Ultimate is the only Thing going on. You are neither behind the Point of Perfection, nor advancing toward It. Each of you is at that Point, and you must understand yourself therefrom, which means you have to abandon your commitment to your best perception at the moment and dare to assume that the full-blown Christ is right there, across from you, and then want to see It more than you want to see what you have been educated to believe is there, and what you have fooled yourself into thinking is there.

And that’s the way you free the Christ that is there, up. That’s the way you free up the Christ that is there from the bondage of your definitions that you have applied to them, and hold them to. That is the Gift of Love.

That’s the wonder of it.

Another very important sentence.

There are no private thoughts. There are no private minds. Only the orphan doesn’t share vision. Only the orphan doesn’t share the conscious awareness of Mind being infinite and all-inclusive of all Creation. But the Christs that each of you are, sitting here, sitting in your homes, knows it is not an orphan–it is not an orphan. And therefore, at this moment, while each of you thinks you are separated off from every other thing, you are not. The vision of reality is shared because that’s the nature of Being. It’s the nature of orphans not to be in a state of sharing. And that’s the problem! It is the lot of orphans to be unable to feel their oneness with anything.

Now, because God’s Son’s vision is shared,and that cannot ever change, then, I’m going to put it this way, the whole Brotherhood eternally knows you. And because that shared knowing cannot be altered even if you’re choosing to temporarily ignore It, It still is the dominant and Eternal fact. And that is what predetermines the inevitability of your waking up and not forever being caught in this dream of suffering.

You cannot be forever caught in your current perceptions of reality that are so unsatisfying. The truth about you remains the truth about you in spite of the use you’re putting your mind to. Very important. Why is it important? Because it gives you reason for hope! And it is the reason that healing can occur. There is something eternally actual about you, whether you’re experiencing It or not. And It constitutes the guarantee of your ability to experience a miracle—a sudden shift of perception—that puts you in a place, in a way of Being that you did not anticipate!

… you, who each of you truly are …

… God’s Son’s

Hey, if it could be private and not shared, you could take it off. You could take it to some far place, you might think, and cause it to be never, ever found. But because that’s impossible, you can’t be lost. And you’re not lost, right now.

Talking about God’s Son …

Gotta bring this back home a little bit closer again: The Holy Spirit is nothing more than your right Mind. So your right Mind …

… who you truly Are …

… your right Mind …

You can pretend to be Fatherless, but you can’t be Fatherless. And you can’t ever really forget that you have a Father even if you torque your perception with all of your might, so that for a time, it seems as though your Father disappeared.

… what you made up …

When you’retrying to find and then you think you find something that doesn’t exist, it has to be a hollow experience—an empty experience. And because this empty experience has to be going right-on, right in the middle of reality of the Kingdom of Heaven, it’s what’s really going on there where you are with all your might, ignoring what’s really going on there. The experience is a strenuous experience and an unpleasant experience because you are going right against the grain of your Self—of your Being.

There can’t ever really be an unreal world, even though your great commitment and highly-focused attention has seemed to createa mirage of unreality that seems very evident to you, and very real.

Because it remains irresistible, the effort you bring to maintaining your illusion is very strenuous, is very difficult to maintain, because you’re having to do it in the face of their resistible attraction of love.

Are you resisting love? No! You don’t think you’re resisting love, but just suggest that you have a greater capacity to express love than you’re expressing and that every indication of need that you’re confronted withis an opportunity for embodying and expressing it. Just see how much you really find love irresistible. Just pay attention to how willing you are to let love flow.

… for the world you made up …

You see, these are words. There’s only the Kingdom of Heaven, but the minute you decided to apply different definitions to the Kingdom of Heaven and you lost view of the Kingdom of Heaven, then immediately new words had to be used in order to facilitate your coming back into your right Mind. And the real world and the unreal world are such examples.

We have to talk about a real world because Reality is different from what you’re seeing. And the best way for you to understand the difference is to identify what you’re seeing as an illusion—as an imperfect perception of Reality. And then we can speak of the perfect perception of Reality as the real world. The ego doesn’t like the words, “unreal world,” and it loves the words, “real world.” And so you have a natural attraction to the real world, even though, initially, you don’t know what it’s referring to.

And so, by using the terms you can be–the orphan can be—enticed or gently nurtured into a willingness to look beyond the definitions that it’s currently using, which is the way the isolation is broken and allows you then to begin to have clearer perceptions of Reality that you identify as healing and beneficial transformation, which further spurs you onto make greater investments of love with more consistency and more conscientiousness.

That’s like saying, just …

That’s all you have to do. Let It in. Invite It. Let It be handed to you. Take It. Receive the Gift that’s being given to you at every moment. Reality–the Kingdom of Heaven–is presenting Itself to you, right here, right now, every moment. The Gift is being extended and you’re not accepting It because you’re so sure of your definitions.

Meaning what? Meaning all the things that had been visible to you, which were your own imaginations, made real by you, for you, even though they did not exist.

… the real world’s …

… everything you made up …

… the Real World …

And what you believed was so will never interfere with your vision again.

And you know that I prefer the word Knowing. It’s a verb, rather than a noun. It’s an ongoing Conscious Awareness of Truth.

So …

… it says here, or Knowing,

It’s part of what will become invisible.

… or the experience of Knowing …

Now this sentence …

… is very important in light of what we’re going to be reading about for the next few weeks.

The fact that at this present moment, no matter how you are perceiving yourselves or each other, you are the full-blown Christ. If anything is here at this moment, it’s the fullness of God as God is manifesting Himself. And anything less than that is just a faulty perception you’re having, which you cannot successfully, forever be blinded by.

The Ultimate is the governing and present factor at every moment. And that is your salvation. That is what allows you to experience the miracle of suddenly being lifted out of your misperception and having it replaced by the true perception.

But there are steps that have to occur in order for you to get free of the limitations that you’re experiencing, and that you’re committed to and that you value so greatly. You cannot say, “I am the full-blown Christ, right now, because all there is here, right now, is God Presencing Himself without limit.” That’s the Truth. But that’s not enough. Because if you, sitting here, are still insensitive to your wife or your husband or your partner, if you still are not letting in love and allowing it to be a movement that causes your behavior to change, you’re still the Christ believing you’re something else and committing yourself to that belief.

Something has to happen that causes behavior to change, so that behavior embodies the truth of you. And if the behavior doesn’t change and you do not begin to embody the truth of you, you can sit there until you’re blue in the face, saying the absolute truth: “I am the Christ, because the only thing going on here, right now, is what God is Presencing Himself as without limit.” It’s a useless acknowledgement if you are still practicing not Being the Christ.

Enough said.

And you’re well-prepared for what’s to come. And I encourage all of you before next week, to read the next two pages. You don’t have to go any further than that because we won’t even get that far. But you might even read to the end of the section to get a sense of an overview.

I love you. I love all of you. I love you in spite of what you think about yourself. I love you in spite of what you believe you are. I love you because of what you actually are at this very moment. And I will continue in whatever ways you can hear, to uncover, to illuminate what’s really here where each of you are, [chuckling] so that you might dare to change.

And remember, one of the most effective, if not the most effective promoters of change is your engaging in involvement with the intent to extend love. I have to make that proviso, because many of you think involvement is a good fight, or a really great argument. And that is not involvement. That is the means you use to keep yourselves separate, to maintain it with vigor.

So this week, on your little sticky sheet that you put on your refrigerator, put the word “involvement.” And I look forward to being with you next week.