Teachings of Christ Mind

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

Learning about guilt [chuckling] and the fact that everyone is guilty of employing it, has not been an easy thing to allow to be the fact, and thereby, to be in a position of learning from. But it has been essential. And it would be well for everyone to continue to give your use of it your clearest, most practical attention, so that you might see the seriousness of it in your life. Why?So that you can feel guilty? No. So that you can, without a sense of guilt, choose not to employ it any longer, because it is not serving you at all.

Now, we ended up last week with this …

… Why? Because you know not of it. You don’t know what it is yet. So you don’t have enough information to have an intelligent opinion, or to draw an intelligent conclusion about it.

No matter how much more you read in this book, what I just read is the ultimate answer. The fact is, that the rest of the book simply helps you understand the means you use to avoid this simple answer. And you do not have to read all the rest of the book in order to accept the answer and incorporate it—embody it, implement it.

As I said last week, it’s simple, simple, simple. It truly is.

Continuing. And speaking of the Holy Spirit, which of course, is nothing more than your right Mind …

For those of you who like to know that there’s a plan, for those of you who have valued having a plan—a two-year plan, a five-year plan, a plan for this event, a plan for that child, etc., etc. For those of you who know the value of a plan, it’s now time for you to find a way to fit into someone else’s plan, the Father’s Plan.

And, glory hallelujah, the teacher, the one who knows the plan of God, is no stranger to you. It’s your Self. It’s you in your entirety, which you have blocked from view in your fantastic effort to be something all by yourself.

And so, as you relinquish second gear, as you abandon the orphanage, you can dare to entrust yourself to what will come when you know that what you’re yielding into is no stranger to you. It is your Self.

Now …

Why? Because His wisdom, that which is nothing more than your right Mind, knows exactly how you abandoned your infinite, conscious experience of Being. And so, It can guide you back so that you retrace your actual every step and reincorporate yourself in a manner that is recognizable to you.

And because it will be recognizable to you, it will not actually overwhelm you. It will feel good. It will feel integrating. Not just because it is integrating but because the integration is the exact reverse of the disintegration process you put yourself through. So, it will be recognizable to you. And the reintegration will not be something you can turn to the Holy Spirit and say, “Why what you’re telling me there has nothing to do with me! Might have something to do with Joe Blow down the street. It doesn’t apply to me! [chuckle] Don’t try to pull that over on me!” You won’t be able to do that because it will be the bit of disintegration you enacted that you will recognize and that you will feel good in the reintegration of it.

Now, because you have been in a long-standing state of Self denial there is what you feel is a natural reluctance, even though it is absolutely unnatural to be reluctant to reintegrate, to become whole again. And so, because you have not the means of embracing it with confidence, you need help, you need support, you need encouragement. And you need the capacity that the Holy Spirit has to approach you in a way that is recognizably friendly to you, recognizably wholesome on your behalf.

And so, you do have the Course and you do have me sharing the truth, providing encouragement, saying things over and over and over again, that at one time were totally strange to you. But by virtue of my sharing them over and over, are no longer strange and which you not only can embrace, but which you find yourselves spontaneously employing from time to time as though it were your very own understanding. You see? Which it is.

So, pay attention as we read tonight, keeping in mind that we’re talking about a reintegration of that which never actually became divided, and that the process is one that is fortified on your behalf, to help give you the strength you need to move past your deeply ingrained doubts and even confidences, to the contrary of what Awakening is about.

I’m going to begin again.

… all by your lonesome. All by yourself in your special position as orphan.

[Chuckling] “Oh yeah, I need to be saved from the bastard I work for. Yeah, I need to be saved from the IRS. Yeah, I need to be saved from cancer. Yes, I need to be saved from this person who hates me and stalks me and pesters me.” You think you know what you need to be saved from. You need to be saved from the Church you were raised in. But listen to this.

… no stranger to you, that which is nothing more than your right Mind.

… what? Only one thing. Not all those things I just listed. Only one thing.

Now watch. No matter how many times you read this for a while. And no matter how many times I say this for a while, you are going to come off the top of your head with a pat answer that says, “I don’t understand why you keep saying that I’m operating on the basis of guilt. I don’t know why you say I value guilt. Man, I do everything I can to prove people’s innocence. I go out of my way to save bugs. I’m a good person. I just don’t function in the realm of guilt.” You see. You’ll come off with that. And if you fool yourselves with this pat answer, what really is a guarded response, a response that guards you against having to accept the role that guilt plays, you will stay stuck for a while longer.

So let’s back up, briefly. You are at this moment and every moment, the Living, direct Presence of God Being all there Is right where you are. Do you believe that? No! It isn’t that you authoritatively deny that, it’s rather that you either never heard that before and didn’t know it, or you have heard it as a religious concept, which you think you can embrace or reject. And therefore, it’s not as though you’re actually being disobedient in any way, it’s just that you’re just not embracing a certain thought system. And it’s like, “So what! Big deal.”

But the problem is, that it isn’t just part of a thought system that you did not create yourself. It’s also not just part of a thought system that your Creation was the result of evolution of a material universe. The truth is that God, being All infinitely now, is what constitutes the Presence of what you Are recognizable as—the Presence of what is recognizable as You.

If that fact is not part of the grounded, under-pinning of your self-awareness, then you think that you somehow exist independently on your own. And because you don’t, and that supposition is a denial of the fact, it causes you to have a dissonant experience, because no matter what you think or believe, you in your divinity are unalterably Sane, and your Sanity knows that you’re engaged in an attack on your Self—in a process of undermining your Self—which because you are divine and eternal and unalterable, you can’t actually succeed at.

And so, this act of Self-denial creates a dissonance as it comes up against the Sanity of your Being. And as I’ve said before, you have chosen to take on that dissonance and overcome it. That decision, that pseudo-decision, I’m going to say, because there’s not really a you that can make an actual decision such as that—you can imagine it, but you can’t actually do the impossible—that decision seems to create a position for you to be in on your own. I’ve described it as being an orphan. I’ve also described it as second gear. Moving out of your right Mind is moving out of first gear into second gear.

Second gear is sort of like a sidecar on a motorcycle, which might even have a steering wheel for a child to play with. But of course, being a sidecar on the motorcycle, it’s going to go where the motorcycle goes no matter how much the child turns the wheel. And no matter how much the child imagines that he’s independent, he’s always going to be where the motorcycle is going. Likewise, you are always going to be where your Sanity is, no matter how much you ignore it, no matter how much you try to imagine that you’re on your own.

Now, the dissonance that is setup when you make that decision to imagine that there is such a thing as a sidecar and you can use that as your place from which to be, the dissonance accompanies it and we’ve called that third gear—it’s the voice for fear. First gear is the Voice for Truth. Second gear is what you think is your voice, which is pure nonsense. So we have first gear, that which is Real, second gear, that which is pure nonsense and third gear, the voice for fear, which is a tag along to second gear and has no actual existence either.

The voice for fear, which is your awareness of your powerlessness, which you do not want to look at, causes you to try to take control of your life and of others. Because you feel out of control and you’re trying to overcome it, you feel incapable, you feel a sense of failure and you feel guilty because of it. Third gear brings guilt into play and fear into play.

Now, it’s only when there’s fear and guilt in play that you attempt to take personal control over your life and over your brother’s and sister’s and over your world. And so, it is in this very real and practical sense that you value fear, that you value guilt, because it gives you the impetus to cope with life and fight to establish yourself in your own independent right. It’s that simple.

What’s the saying: “Truth or Consequences.” “Do well or fail.” In the schools, “Competition brings out the best in students.” Competition: Oh, that’s doing well or failing, isn’t it? Try and try and try to be the best. And so there’s the best and then there are those who are not the best. And those who are not the best don’t do as well in life as those who are the best, right? So, is that not the use of guilt and the valuing of guilt? Oh, but you say, it makes people work harder and it brings out, as I said, the best in them. And it suggests that there’s no other way to bring out the best in someone, except to create this dichotomy of “good and bad,” of “truth and consequences,” of “success or failure.” And failure is just a nice way of saying punishment, isn’t it?

Guilt is employed constantly wherever competition is employed, wherever grade scores are exhibited and used as the basis for how well those with the grades are treated, and what benefits are given to them based upon where they fall in the scale from best to failures.

So you see, don’t be too quick to override and overlook the fact that guilt, what guilt really means and the way it’s really employed, is played out in your life. And how much you agree with it. And how often you unconsciously bring it into play without realizing it. Now its important to discover how often you’re bringing it into play without realizing it, because if you’re bringing it into play you are securing yourself with a good tight seatbelt in second gear, in that little sidecar on the motorcycle which is going where God is taking the motorcycle, or which is going where your very Being, the Holy Spirit, as long as you are saying you’re in second gear, where the Holy Spirit is taking you—that which is nothing more than your right Mind.

It’s very important, because until you dare to look at it, you will not be able to put it down and loosen your seatbelt and become free of second gear, so that you might spontaneously and naturally come back into your right Mind. That is the whole point.

So, I’m not saying this as a threat in any way. I’m saying it as a very grounded, practical outlook for you to embrace. Look for the places where you, out of ingrained habit, spontaneously utilize guilt, even though you say you are doing it for positive reasons like, “bringing out the best in my students, bringing out the best in my children,” Ho-ho, how about bringing out the best in your husband or your wife.

“A little bit of competition doesn’t hurt anyone. A little bit of threat of security doesn’t hurt anyone. It makes them try a little harder. It makes them look at what is really of value to them. Yeah, a little bit of guilt, like a spice of life, sprinkle it here and there, it will bring out the flavor.” But you know what it won’t do? It won’t save the cook from small-minded-meanness. It won’t get the cook out of the sidecar, out of second gear.

So again …

… the only answer there is …

… the only enemy you have is your decision to be in second gear, in that puny little sidecar with the play steering wheel that makes you feel like you’re really in charge and you’re not.

It’s like the mother of the kitten is the only one for that kitten to snuggle up with and feel safe with. It’s a sweet thing. It’s love embodied and it’s simple.

… than guilt …

… that which is nothing more than your right Mind …

Now as we read this, let these words be more than words. Think about what friend means. And let the fullness of friend and friendship apply and have meaning as you read this.

… the Holy Spirit …

Your innocence sets you free, not the release from something by others and not even a divine pardon bestowed upon you by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit …

Aren’t you glad that somebody has an infinitely better sense of you and experience of you than you yourself do, or any of those around you? What a Friend! What a wonderful Friend! A Friend that you can anchor yourself in. A friend that you can learn from how to be in a way that at the moment you don’t remember ever being before, but which you have.

… key word, Let!

“Oh, gee-whiz, I really wasn’t considering having any other Guide. I never thought about having a Guide to salvation.” No, that’s right, you were going to rely upon yourself. Well, this says here to stop that.

… and isn’t it wonderful to know that He Who knows the way is nothing more than your right Mind? And that His uncovering to you of what your right Mind is, is a movement of reintegration of that which never actually could have been split up? Now that’s real friendship, that’s truly valuable.

You never really had the option to have a will of your own. If you have a will, it’s God’s will and it’s only capable of willing that which God is willing. And when you’re not claiming this private, separate personhood, then experiencing God’s Will in the act of willing, because you’ve let it fill you up completely, then that’s called the Atonement. That’s called waking up. That’s called you coming back into your right Mind. And that’s you feeling the Wholeness of your Being.

Now, it’s quite possible that when we’ve talked about you returning or coming back into your right Mind, that you have sort of envisioned yourself in your right Mind walking down the street and seeing other people in their right Mind walking down the street, and all of you in these multiple right Minds, Glorifying God, or whatever. But there’s a flaw in there. And the flaw is this: your right Mind isn’t private. Your right Mind isn’t private.

The most direct path to your brother is right through the center of your Being. It’s right in the center of your Being that you’re One with your brother. Being Awake means being infinitely Conscious—infinitely Conscious—not just having an experiential Oneness with every brother you might see on the street, or every bird flying in the sky, but every creature and every living thing throughout the Universe. It’s an inclusive experience, an infinitely inclusive experience. And it’s important for you to carry this fact forward with you, so that you don’t imagine and proceed forward on the basis that you will still have a private mind but it will be your right Mind. You see? The privacy will be lost. And that means that you will never be alone again. You’ll be incapable of being lonely.

… the Holy Spirit’s …

And I’m going to add that, “salvation was for you to figure out all by yourself—alone.” And what we’re saying is that the experience of salvation will only be gained by abandoning the imaginary state of aloneness, which is fundamental to orphan-mindedness, isn’t it?

You see, it’s unequivocal if you are in second gear, if you are attempting to operate alone, if you are insisting upon deciding for yourself and by yourself … What? You …

It is black and white, unequivocal and unalterable. That means that there must be extreme value in every effort you put forth, every attempt you make to break the isolation and ask for help, ask the Holy Spirit to help you undo the bill of divorcement that you put into place, the act of willfulness that caused you to seem to experience yourself as separate, isolated, alone, fearful and guilt-ridden.

Listen …

This part we’re reading tonight is really wonderfully simple and beautiful and encouraging. It’s also filled with what could be called, “iron-clad” Law, not with which to convict you but with which to free you.

Again …

And what is that which God gave It to, for you? The Holy Spirit. And what is the Holy Spirit? That which is nothing more than your right Mind, which means that what God gave It for you, was already yours and is simply awaiting being returned to you, as soon as you get tired of playing with that damn fake steering wheel in the sidecar on the motorcycle.

Now, I put it strongly but please take it lightly. It is funny. And if you can see the ridiculousness of it, it will make it that much easier for you to say, “Gee, it might be a lot more fun to be riding on the motorcycle.”

So since …

Turn to that One, rely on that One, commit to that One, bond with that One.

The Salvation that God gave to Him for you.

… what?

And, at least intellectually, you can see that indeed, that which is nothing more than your right Mind, reconnecting with you and joining with you would have exactly that effect.

… re-embrace Him …

That’s just inevitably what will happen when reintegration of that which is and always has been One occurs—that One being you.

Now …

This goes for yourself as well as your brothers and sisters. You’re not here to appraise the worth of anyone. You’re not here to evaluate. “Oh, evaluate, oh yeah, that has something to do with ‘better and worse,’ ‘success and failure?’ Are not these the elements of fear and guilt? Are not these really mean-spirited means of promoting growth and bringing out the best in everyone?”

… what?

… Oh yes! You see, as long as you think you’re an orphan, there’s no Father to consider. And you can call that poor bastard anything you want and you can evaluate him anyway you want to, especially if it will help put you in a better position. And if you’re very magnanimous, you can set it up in a way so that when he does something that puts you in a better position, it helps him too but just a little bit, just enough to wet his appetite, so that he’ll try to do something for you in the future. See? It’s in this way that you value guilt and employ it and hold on to it.

Do it and by-damn-it third gear will come into play.

You will feel guilty for nothing. You will feel guilty for pure imagination. Not only that, guilt has no motivational value. Guilt has no push to make you be better than you are if there isn’t some pain. And so if you’re going to apply guilt to yourself you are also going to apply pain, just as you do with others and just as others do with you. Because without pain you wouldn’t naturally go for the carrot. You wouldn’t naturally go for a carrot that it’s impossible to get.

Wow, very magnanimous of God.

For you to imagine that you are God, that you have created yourself and that you can control your life and your world, is to replace God on the throne with yourself. But God says that …

Now your ego is likely to say, “Big deal! So what? I hear the words and that’s nice.” But I’m here to tell you that those are probably the most powerful words that you could read, because they embody the justification for spontaneous change, spontaneous “shift of perception,” which is of course, the definition of a miracle.

If trying to be God and imagining that you have the power that is God’s, is not a source of guilt, then there is absolutely no reason for this dream to continue one moment longer. It is the belief that you can be guilty and punishable for presuming to be God that you are afraid and feel guilty, and it’s the reason you go after the carrot. It’s the fundamental motivation in your life—in your present frame of mind.

… meaning the so-called sin …

If there are no effects to fear from your attempt to take over the throne, then there is no penalty awaiting you when you abandon it and decide to go Home—back into your right Mind. And you can go at any moment, if you will allow the truth of this to register deeply with you.

… the Holy Spirit …

… by returning that part of you which is the Holy Spirit to you, because you are becoming defenseless against it and letting it in, or letting yourself into it. However you want to look at it.

All of this is beautiful. All of these things are beautiful statements about you and embody the necessary elements to your release—the unbuckling of your seatbelt in the sidecar.

… the Son’s …

… gee, you struggle to figure things out for yourself based on a false premise that you’re an orphan, that you’re alone, that you exist in a universe of polarization, opposites, conflict, but through the intelligent use of your mind you can survive it and overcome it and maybe even iron things out. But …

When you’re trying to do things all by yourself, you are trying to walk down a busy street with your eyes closed and negotiate the traffic successfully. Your eyes are closed because you’re not availing yourself of your naturally all-inclusive divine vision. But when you let the Holy Spirit in and let the Holy Spirit decide everything for you, it’s like opening up your eyes. And …

… and it become yours. I’m adding that—and it becomes yours.

… and I’m going to insert here: and don’t be afraid to do it because He isn’t something foreign to you. It’s your Self.

You remember there are no private thoughts [snaps fingers]. You’re not separate from your brothers.

Now, because the Holy Spirit is really not a stranger to you, that statement isn’t foreign to you either.

… that which is nothing more than your right Mind …

That’s the way you operate in your right Mind. That’s the way you are in your right Mind.

… [whispering] everything …

… the Holy Spirit, that which is nothing more than your right Mind. I am not going to apologize for throwing that phrase up over and over and over again, that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than your right Mind. You need to hear it as often as possible just to become familiar with the truth of it, the idea of it, so that it might become easier and easier for you to believe. And in the greater ease with which you believe it, it will become you, because you will not oppose it.

… in everything be led by that which is nothing more than your right Mind, but which is infinite and is not separate in any way from the Mind of the Father, the movement of which is the Movement of Creation and is therefore… there are not words incredible enough to describe it.

… by the decision you have let Him make for you.

Well, on your good days you might. But it’s not equally good to everyone. It’s most good to you and maybe a lot of good to everyone else, and you would’ve enjoyed the process in which you went through that brought about such equity for everyone, even though it’s unequal equity. [Chuckling]

… trust that which is nothing more than your right Mind…

… And the real message is, don’t …

Not as long as your seatbelt is on tight in the sidecar and you’re spinning that steering wheel madly with glee. No. Nope you wouldn’t know this.

“But Father, I’d rather see it my way. But, Father, I’d rather do it my way. But, Father, I’d rather decide what everything is for.”

The unity of Being has always been absolutely unaffected by your imaginations. What you truly are has always remained absolutely unaffected by your imaginations. But you seem to have been affected by your imaginations, in that you have experienced fear and guilt and used it as the motivation to better yourself. Because …

… the Father …

You can give up the dream instantaneously, especially since there is no guilt possible for doing a little switch-a-roo—self-replacement of you on the throne of God—just absolutely no reason for you not to experience radical and instantaneous shift of perceptions.

With all this side trip of folderol and nonsense you accomplished absolutely nothing and therefore, did not violate God nor yourself, accrued no penalty and can resume your rightful place whenever you want.

And this is with reference to the Holy Spirit.

… again, that which is nothing more than my right Mind …

Again …

… What?

Because it never went anywhere and it was never altered by imaginations.

Now, the big question is: “What if I do that, and I do that, and I do that, and I do that some more, and the Holy Spirit doesn’t answer me quickly or surely? When that happens it makes me feel like I’ve been led my merry way down a road of nonsense, and that I was better off when I was able to be confident that I lived in a material world and a material universe, and that everything was the result of evolution because it can be demonstrated historically, physically, etc.”

The answer is: Persist. As I said, at the moment, because you’re having so much fun with that play steering wheel, your perception of how everything works is out of kilter. And when I say you have to be on the motorcycle to change directions, you’re inclined to say, “That’s nothing but fanciful ideas. I have no evidence of it. And in fact, you know what, the universe works with this giant safety belt around my lap that is absolutely tight and it’s my security. It’s supposed to be there. It’s there for a reason. It’s the way things work. And you’re trying to tell me that there’s a way to be without that security, that there’s a way for this seatbelt to come off? Hey, it’s always been there. The history books say it’s always been there. Back thousands and thousands of years it’s been there. Nobody ever got it off except maybe Jesus, you know, and of course he was special. So you’re just messing with my mind.”

You see, that’s the mentality I’m having to work with. It’s the mentality you’re having to learn how to move through and let go of, so that you might experience the integrity of your Being, that you’ve been missing out on.

Now, here’s the thing. What if you have done it, and done it, and done it, and done it, and you haven’t gotten an answer? Or once or twice you got an answer, but it’s not reliable. And of course, anything that was truly divine would be reliable. So this must not be reliable. You see, the arguments can go on and on.

But the simple fact is: how much of your life are you going to require yourself to live in a just barely comfortable mediocrity before you’re willing to say, “I’ve had enough of this. I’m drawing the line here! I’ve lived this life on the basis that it’s a material world and universe, it operates according to laws of physics and evolution is the means by which it promotes itself. I’ve lived with that and I’m not happy. I am not feeling a joy that I know it’s my Birthright to be feeling. Don’t tell me where I heard about this Birthright.”

How much of barely tolerable mediocrity is it going to take for you to say, “I quit this mindset, and I am going to persist through all of my ingrained resistance and all of the traps I have laid out for myself to make it difficult for me to go back, because I came away from Home with such definiteness.”

Sooner or later you’re going to come to that point. It doesn’t have to be later. And I don’t care if you seem to fail at hearing the Holy Spirit. In the establishment of the commitment to persist within you, will come a peace. It’s when there’s lack of commitment to it that you draw upon force to persist. And that’s jagged, that’s chaotic energy. But when you make a commitment, there’s a peace that comes with it, and the jagged energy subsides, evenness replaces it. And in that evenness there’s a quiet that allows you to hear. And you will hear.

You were created Whole. That you took an imaginary side trip through the realm of imagination to believe that you could be other than Whole, did not make it a fact. And the fact that you are believing and being bound by a lie will inevitably, inevitably, inevitably be uncovered because of what you really Are and never could stop being. And what you divinely Are will ultimately supercede the willfulness you’ve been willing to employ to be out of your Mind.

So, even though you will find yourself feeling justified in abandoning listening for the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will not abandon you. Your Friend will not abandon you. And the integrity of what you really are will insist on reintegrating that which never could have disintegrated.

So don’t give up. Even if you do, the time will come when you will finally arrive at the point of saying, “I’ve had it with this mindset.” And you will make commitment. And in making commitment from the tips of your toes, with firmness and definiteness, you will begin to hear. And then this Friend who has been your every-present companion, ready to stand for you on behalf of what you truly Are, will embrace you and bring you Home. Now this is the truth. This is the answer.

I love you all.