Teachings of Christ Mind

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

Well, I’m not going to ask you whether you had a pleasant or unpleasant week, noticing how much of the time you spent in dialogue and how much of the time you spent engaging in monologues. But I’m going to ask a question before we begin. It’s the really big question.

What is the carrot you are chasing?

If you’re not awake, you are chasing a carrot. Find out what that carrot is and you’re on your way home. What is the carrot you are chasing?

Now, I always take the opportunity to squelch whatever opportunities any of you take to say that the Universe doesn’t exist; to say that the world isn’t real; to say that it’s all an illusion. And last week, there was an opportunity that all of you had to say, “Yes, it says right here that the world isn’t real.”

So let’s become clear. We read …

You will find nothing to value. It doesn’t mean that you will find nothing to value, that you’ll look everywhere and you won’t be able to find anything to value. It means, have faith in nothing as though it’s something and then find value in it.

Now, before I continue further, let’s understand something that we have discussed before, but it might be overlooked at the moment.

It is this: When you said, “Father, I would rather see it my way. Father, I would rather do it my way,” and you got a divorce from your Father, that in effect, was when you moved from first gear to second gear—second gear, being neutral; this place, this gear in which you can simply be you in your own right—where you can just be you on your own; not in relationship to your Father, you might say, not in relationship with your family, but you, in your own right.

We’ve talked about the fact that the moment you abdicate your place in first gear and settle into second gear, you spontaneously bring into play third gear—the voice for fear/guilt. Now, you then spend your time attempting to become free of fear and guilt while still remaining in neutral—second gear.

Now, well you can close your eyes if you want, do whatever helps you imagine. I want you to imagine that you are in the middle of Creation. You are the uncontested Son of God, Daughter of God, I mean by that, you haven’t contested your Birthright and Inheritance by claiming a position of your own yet, in neutral.

And so, all of Creation—all that the Father Is, as the Infinite Mind in which all of Creation is occurring and is embraced—you experience all of Creation as Light forms, if I may put it this way, energy patterns that look like something. They not only look like something, they feel like something because they have Meaning—Meaning that the Father has embodied in Light and in color, and in outline and in form. But the Substance of it all is Spirit. The Substance of it all is Love. And the experience of any aspect of Creation, is for lack of better words, seen, felt, heard simultaneously with far more definition you might say, than anything you’ve experienced so far.

And because the Substance of all of Creation is Love, it is an experience of Infinite Love which you’re not a small part of; it is the all-encompassing Presence of what you Are, because you are God’s Offspring. You are that which God has withheld nothing of what He is, from.

And so there is no confusion of any sort present. Injury, illness, disease, death; these are meaningless; meaningless words—meaningless concepts. Harm is an impossibility.

But now, when you, this uncontested Son or Daughter of God says, “Father, I’d rather see it my way, I’d rather decide what everything means. I am going to get a divorce from You and strike out on my own.” Good choice of words because of course, you have “struck out.” However, the goal was to strike out on your own and take on the mantle of authority to name and give meaning to all of Creation yourself.

Now, if you will, imagine that as you said this to the Father and made commitment within yourself, all of the light emanating from and which was the substance of every aspect of Creation, diminished.

And so, the object of Creation, you might say, appeared to become dark and dense—impenetrable, with no transparency through which light and color could be emitted. And all substance, which is truly Spirit and love and life and truth itself, and the embodiment of Soul and Principle, and so on; all of it became apparently lifeless, at least by comparison with its actuality—its reality.

And you began to experience it as what? As matter. It’s that simple. When you abandon first gear, where you are listening to the Voice for truth and you take a seat firmly in neutral, second gear, which brings third gear into play, all of Creation remains untouched by, unaltered by your decision to see it all by yourself. It remains unchanged, but to you it has become something new. It has become something it is not.

You are thus looking at, experiencing, [wraps knuckles on table] feeling, smelling, hearing something which isn’t there. You’re seeing matter. You’re seeing your definition. You’re seeing the meanings you have given to it or the things that you still need to give meaning to. Its eternality you have lost. Its indestructibility now escapes you. Its benign but loving, generous gifts of itself that it is constantly pouring out and blessing you with, is going unnoticed by you.

You are experiencing a distorted perception of reality. And what you are experiencing isn’t real and therefore is nothing. It is nothing!

The Somethingness of everything, being unavailable to you, everything has become not what it is and therefore, nothing.

Now, as you look around at all of this nothing, which is simply your misperception of the Kingdom of Heaven, you have what you think is an opportunity to have faith in it—to have faith in what you’ve defined everything as.

You see, it doesn’t say in here that a little piece of glass is nothing. It doesn’t say that a speck of dust is nothing. It doesn’t say that a body is nothing. And it doesn’t say that a war is nothing. It says that they are one to you.

I’m going to ask you, how many of have taken intelligence tests where they give you a multiple list of items or a list of numbers and they say to you, “Which one doesn’t belong?” And it will give you a list like: New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Washington, Los Angeles. Which one doesn’t fit? Well Los Angeles doesn’t fit because Los Angeles is a city and all of the others are states.

Well, when you read this, did you notice something strange? It says …

… okay, that’s the first thing on the list …

… second thing on the list …

… third thing on the list …

Which one doesn’t fit? Well obviously, war doesn’t fit because it’s not an object. So, did Helen make a mistake when she was listening for what to write down? Or was that on purpose?

No mistake there. Because we’re not talking about Reality where the Substance of everything is Spirit—Love. We’re talking here about matter. We’re talking here about how Creation is experienced through the lens of finiteness—of limitation; through the eyes, you might say, of one who has abandoned his infiniteness and given his allegiance to the partial; who has abandoned wholeness, so that he might see in part and value the parts and define the parts and learn how to arrange the parts for the benefit of that which is an orphan and has no inheritance, no birthright.

Your blindness to the reality of everything as Spirit constitutes a way of experiencing and seeing everything as though it is matter. And this distortion of perception gets applied to everything whether it fits or not. Behavior can be added to a list of objects and the misperception associated with the objects becomes applied to the behavior. And the misperceptions regarding behavior can be applied to objects. And this is one of the ways in which confusion becomes compounded and insanity increases.

A little piece of glass, a speck of dust, and a body are identifiable objects. Their substance is Spirit. Reality applies to them. They are Real. And when you shift back to first gear, the Light of Living Love that illuminates them truly will be seen once again by you.

Whereas war, which is not an object, and is a behavior justified and engaged in by one who sees through the lens of guilt and fear, it will be nowhere to be found because when second gear is abandoned for first, third gear simply dissolves.

Again …

… if you’ve gotten a divorce from the Father and if you have given definitions to everything and you are committed to abiding by the meanings you’ve applied to everything you’ve defined.

Now, don’t ever use that paragraph again as a justification for saying that the world isn’t real or the world doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist as what you have defined it as. It doesn’t exist as the matter that it appears to be which only appears that way because you have chosen to look at it through a lens of distortion because you have taken up residence in second gear—neutral—and have abandoned that gear in which no distortion is present in you.

Now why would you want to make something out of nothing, like, oh, a piece of glass? Well, we’ll see here … if you could take a piece of glass and in making of the glass, you could refine it so greatly that there were no impurities in it causing no interference to the refraction of light as it passes through it, you could create a relatively excellent artificial diamond that would look lovely in a ring or a necklace without having to spend the money that it would cost to have real diamonds. And so, if you could do that, you could sell it to those who couldn’t afford real diamonds. And you could make a lot of money. You could benefit from it. You could prove that there was value in a piece of glass.

But I’m going to tell you something: If you could take a piece of glass and give it to someone and help them see the Light of Living Love that is there, because there can’t be matter, there is only the Substance which is Spirit, you would have given a gift far surpassing what you currently call a diamond which you would give more value to than the most excellent piece of glass faceted like a diamond.

Now, what I’m trying to bring out here is, if you will come to a point where you will believe that nothing is of value and will value it, there has to be a reason why you would do that. Well, you might say, “Not necessarily. It’s just a mistaken act based upon the belief of being an orphan. It’s something that I’m misunderstanding because I’m being affected by third gear. Fear and guilt are taunting me. They’re trying to make me believe that I should make a profit at the expense of my brother and that I can misuse the piece of glass. And all I have to do to wake up is to learn how to handle this piece of glass in a way that doesn’t constitute usury and mistreatment of my brothers and sisters, and work with these pieces of glass in ways that are so loving that they inspire the people who buy them to likewise behave lovingly and with kindness and to be inspired to do things in their life differently so that we’re all managing to become free of guilt and fear and are doing nothing any longer that is motivated by guilt and fear.”

You see? You could disagree with me and say that. And in fact, for the most part, students of truth are doing that. To a greater degree than is acceptable, it is being done. To a greater degree than is constructive, it is being done.

Now again, there’s a reason that everyone is trying to learn how to exist in neutral—second gear—without being governed by, influenced by, affected by, or motivated by guilt and fear. And what that reason is, is illuminated in the answer to the question, “What is the carrot you are chasing? What is the carrot everyone is chasing?”

Very simply, the carrot you are all chasing is the same carrot Pinocchio was chasing. Pinocchio wanted to become a real boy. You, who have moved from home—first gear to second gear—who have disowned your Birthright, your Parentage, and who have established for yourself, a state of orphan-hood, have one goal. And that is: To overcome your orphan-hood without declaring Who your real Father/Mother is. You want to become real. You want to become valid.

The only way you can achieve validity from second gear, from neutral; is to establish mutual agreements with everyone else by virtue of your behavior, and by virtue of you influencing them so as to curry favor from them, so that they will join an ever-growing group of orphans who all agree that you are wonderful; that you are worthwhile, that you are worth the maximum respect that they can extend to you. Why? So that you, by virtue of your excellent, independent behavior, might achieve the state of truth where you are as real as God.

That is the carrot you are all chasing.

Now, Pinocchio was a puppet. But you are not. Pinocchio was not a real child upon whom a spell was cast, who suddenly was transformed into a puppet, who had an initial preexisting birthright as a real child, to regain. But you, every single one of you, are real by virtue of having been a real child of God, co-creator with God, before you decided to explore the possibilities of imaginatively being an independent creator in your own right.

Now, if you watched Pinocchio and he looked like a real child, behaving like a puppet; and behaving like a puppet that wanted to become a real child (never having been one) it would be laughable and at the same time extremely sad because the behavior would be a pure example of insanity—a real child behaving like he was a puppet trying to become a real child. All the time he would be engaged in trying to become a real child, he would be missing out on the experience of being the real child that he had never stopped being.

Now, it’s very important for you to understand that this is the carrot you are chasing. You are trying to become Real. Because you have adopted a belief which you have made commitment to, that you are less than Real. The definitions you have given to everything, or the definitions that have been passed on to you that you have embraced, say that you are a fluke of nature that comes and goes like the Springtime sprouting of grass and the Summer browning and dying of the grass in the seasons, you come and go.

And you believe that. But you don’t believe it because it makes you sad to really embrace that idea. And so you live in this constant state of reaching for life but feeling sad in the act of it because, “Ah-h, Summer will come and I’ll wither and die.” And it’s not the truth! And such beliefs and such behavior and such attitudes that you govern yourself by are little bits of nothing that you have picked up; little bits of falsity, little bits of materialism that you have picked up and stood in awe of, and wonder. And you have valued it.

But please understand, that the raw materials from which you gather these awful meanings and definitions, are always some aspect of reality. You know, in chemistry you have your atomic chart, all the elements. And they are what they are. And with them you can understand the constituent parts of everything. But if you can’t see the light emanating from the elements, if you can’t experience the living Presence of God in those elements, that chart is a description of nothing. It’s a description of something that’s causing you to miss the point if you’re not looking beyond it. You see?

… like the atomic chart …

If you weren’t already confused and not fulfilled you wouldn’t continue to look for more things to do to earn the right to be Real, to be a Real boy or a Real girl.

… oxygen, gold and so on, on the chart …

That’s it! The goal is to make the untrue true. The goal is to make the orphan that you are, real, when that which is behaving as though it’s an orphan trying to be real is the Son of God, who is Real and needs to stop trying to be real and, as I said last week, stand in the pasture in your peace long enough for the reality of you to register with you because you’re not chasing off after another carrot.

Now, isn’t that wonderful to know what the carrot is that you’re chasing after?

Now, as we read at the end last week …

What is the truth that is true? That you are the direct present expression of God—the Life Force, the Life Principle, the Life Presence—Presence-ing Itself right now, is responsible for you right now. That’s the truth that is true. And knowing that truth and embracing that truth is the way you stop chasing the carrot of trying to become worthy of respect and of value in the eyes of others and becoming something valuable, as though you hadn’t been in the first place.

You see? Can you see that? The moment you realize that you are Real, and you never were an orphan having to strive to validate himself, you will stop behaving like an orphan trying to validate itself. You will not look back at the old way you did things.

… which is what you become when you stop doing the things that are the evidence of being an unhappy learner …

In other words, simultaneous with your meeting the conditions of knowledge in the Kingdom, where everything is known and there is nothing to be learned, at the same time that begins to unfold as your conscious experience, you as the apparent happy learner, meets the conditions of learning here, as you shift from insanity to sanity.

So, you could say, that as you shift from insanity to sanity the happy learner meets the conditions of learning as he also meets the conditions of knowledge or Knowing in the Kingdom.

I give to you through the Course and I give to you through My being with you in this way. I give you the key to freedom. The key to freedom is the conscious awareness that you are not something invalid working toward validity, but that you are a holy Son of God believing that you are something valid, moving toward validity without ever truly remembering who you Are in your divine status.

I’m here giving you the keys; the understanding, the insight, the light that will cause you to invalidate what has been keeping you in bondage.

… from My hands …

You see, when you’re in second gear, you’re trying to bring the darkness to the light, you’re trying to bring your ignorant creations to a point where they gain the status of being real. And it doesn’t work that way.

Again …

You don’t realize that what you divinely are is already present. It has already come. It never left. But you left the awareness of it in favor of imagining a state of orphanhood that you believed would give you the opportunity as an autonomous presence to become an autonomous creator in your own right. You see?

Now …

… where did that come from? Well, remember, your function is to look into your brother’s eyes and remember God, right?

Look into your brother’s eyes and be willing to see God there because it is your intent while looking into your brother’s eyes to see God there; to be open to the Revelation of the Presence of God there in your brother by His, God’s revealing it to you in your mind, so that you might extend that conscious awareness, that conscious realization of the divinity of your brother to your brother.

… what?

“What do you mean, I gotta do something to give it to them before I get it? Well, you know human nature. He’s gonna get it and he’s gonna run. He’s not gonna stick around to give it to me, so why should I give it to him? This is all crap! [Chuckling] This is all based on unfairness.”

But you see you don’t realize that unfairness is the lens you’re looking through as you listen to what I’m saying. And the conclusions and judgments that you’re coming to are based on your tinyness, your small mindedness, your mean-spiritedness that you have acquired because it helps to keep you safe in the threatening world.

To not do what I’m saying becomes a carrot for you to chase after, so that you don’t make the mistake of doing what I’m suggesting and giving something good to your brother that he’ll run off with, without returning the favor. And that little carrot is not the main carrot is it? But it’s supporting the main carrot. The main carrot being, that you are going to become a real boy or a real girl, in your own right, without a father or a mother. All of the little carrots that you chase after support the one big carrot.

Now again, listen…because it’s the truth:

I know you think you know better than Me, but the fact is that …

And we could say, where everything is clear it is all spirit, there’s no matter.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, the simple truth, that if I stand in the pasture with the succulent grass, I can end up waking up without chasing another carrot. Well, I’m sorry, I’m not ready to abandon the chase. I don’t care to believe you. Thank you very much. I refuse to abandon the manipulation of third gear from second gear.”

When you say that the truth isn’t compelling enough to adopt or to explore, you’re saying, “My addiction to the chase is paramount to me.” Well, here’s the interesting thing: When you say that, you’re saying, “It’s paramount to me, little old separate me, over here, it’s paramount to me even though You, way over there, Big Brother are saying that my choice is insane. And it turns the involvement between us into a contest, this against that, me against You, You lovingly trying to change me against my will.” You see?

But here’s the thing, here’s the clincher of it, here’s what really matters: Whether I over there am trying to change you, is irrelevant. In you is a gift from God, in you irrespective of Me, whether I say anything to you or not.

Your downfall as an ego, your downfall as an insane one, the downfall of you as a successful orphan is already in you. The divinity of you is already there, and it is there with the intent to bring you back into the conscious embrace of your right Mind. Its goal is healing. Its goal is lovingly and beneficially transformational for you. And so you’re not fighting against Me, you’re fighting against yourself.

Take a look at that, because at the bottom line, that’s not really what you thought you were doing. And it isn’t really what you want to do. And if there is any truth in what I’m saying and there is the slightest chance that you are missing out on the conscious experience of Reality, then you have cause for exploring the possibility that something more awaits you; something more fulfilling, something more integrated, something more full of integrity about you is available for you to experience.

You are a Real boy. You are a Real girl. You are already absolutely Real in the fullest meaning, the most divine meaning of that word.

Nothing other than the simple truth.

… you, you, you, you, all of you…

Listen to that.

The full unobstructed, conscious, experience of the totality of Creation, in all of its actuality as Spirit, not matter; in all of its actuality as Eternal, not temporal; incapable of imperfection, where sin, disease and death are nonsensical terms.

… you, the son of God …

And I promise you, you won’t be singing a dirge of sorrow. Just remember: What’s the carrot you’re chasing? The carrot you’re chasing is the achievement of the integrity and the reality of you in your own right. “Well, I don’t believe you.” The time will come when you will. It is the simple truth. And it is the answer to the dream. It is the resolving of the human condition.

I love you. I love you. I love all of you.

Now stop chasing the carrot! It’s a waste of time.

I will see you next week.