Teachings of Christ Mind

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

You know, for all of the time we’ve been together, and all of the subjects being discussed, it could seem that this is all very complicated. But as we found out last week, it’s really very simple. It’s the difference between seeing clearly or out of focus. It’s a matter of seeing the same thing in each case: There’s only Reality and ultimately, there’s only you—there’s only what you Are, not what you Are, and what you think you are. And to shift from what you think you are to what you Are, amounts to the abandoning of a belief—a set of ideas. Nothing complicated.

At the bottom line, we’re undoing an illusion. An illusion is a nebulous sort of specific collection of ideas which, if you put your mind to it, you can believe is very specific, and very true, and very real and is what you are or is what something else is, and on and on and on. But it’s really a very wavery, a very insubstantial thing, gone like a wisp of smoke if you withdraw your investment of faith in it.

You are, and you always have been the holy Daughter, the holy Son of God. You have always and only been what God is really Being right there where you are. Anything else you have believed that you are has been only a belief. And to come back Home into your right Mind and the experience of the Kingdom of Heaven is a matter of simply abandoning your valuing of your beliefs. And that which is insubstantial will vanish.

So the question is, “How do you keep the illusion going?” If you didn’t wake up between last week and this week, you’ve kept the illusion going. You are master illusionists seeming to do something that you’re not doing at all.

The problem is, that an illusionist on a stage knows that he’s doing nothing at all and let’s everyone else participate in the illusion that he’s really doing—what he appears to be doing. That’s what the illusionist on the stage does, but you are believing your illusion.

Now, you keep your illusion going by virtue of thinking. It doesn’t get any more simple than that.

The breaking of the illusion comes when you take the time and the effort, backed up with commitment or resolve, to stop thinking, to become still and to listen, to pay attention. Pay attention to what? Pay attention to what’s happening. What’s happening right now for Paul is the sensation of a chair holding his bottom up, the sensation of the floor being a place for his feet to rest at the moment. At another time, the floor could be a sensation and the chair could be a sensation of that which allows his bottom and his feet to slip through them right on down to the floor down below.

That doesn’t happen right now because that’s not his belief about the floor and about the chair, or about his bottom. He doesn’t think his bottom can move through anything. And only shit can move through his bottom, not a chair, not a floor, not the beams between the floors, but that’s all a matter of his belief.

Now he has these beliefs for a reason, just as every one of you have your beliefs for reasons. And these reasons all are built around the need you feel to establish security and safety for yourself, because you have a primary false belief that you are in danger—that you are vulnerable. That’s a belief. And you have built all of your other beliefs and thought systems on that.

Now the simple fact is, that if Paul wants to be able to sink through the chair and the floor until he’s downstairs where he wants the floor to support him, until he wants that, he will not allow it to happen. And he won’t allow it to happen until he doesn’t need or see the floor as having to hold him up for his security and safety. You see what I mean?

You’re not going to abandon your beliefs until the reason you’re holding them becomes weakened by choice, where you’re willing to invalidate them.

Now, we ended up last week talking about that the wish to see the truth and the commitment to staying focused on discerning what truth is, is the way you protect truth—not by establishing defenses around it, but by disallowing for anything else to occur in your mind except for your desire to know the truth.

During this past week you’ve all had the opportunity with the experiences that you encountered every day, to either respond to everything from your current belief systems based upon self protection, or to respond to them by asking, “What is the truth here? I want to know God’s truth about paying the ‘cashier,’ I want to know God’s truth about being out, taking care of errands.” You see.

You all love to have options, variables. You all love indefiniteness, because then you can weigh and evaluate the differences. You can haggle. You can argue. You can have fun trying to get the best price, even though the exchange is vigorous. You have learned how to have fun in the lack of absoluteness.

One of the reasons is, that if you can become really good at haggling, if you can become really good at argument like an attorney, if you can become really good at influencing others to a point of view that you want to enforce, you can become important. You can become well-known. You can become a recognized person of some stature and some respectability. You see. And this plays into your need to establish security for yourself, and safety.

But you know it has its drawbacks too. You can go to Disneyland, you can take your kids and you can say, “Where do you want to go next?” and all of the kids will say, “I want to go here, I want to go there, I want to go to the other place. No, no, I want to go here, I want to go there!” “Okay. Decide amongst yourselves which one to go to next.” And they stand and they squabble, except they’re not enjoying bartering because they don’t feel expert at what they’re doing yet.

And so it ends up just being a time-consuming argument where no-one comes to a satisfactory conclusion. And in the time it took to argue about what the advantages were of this ride over that ride, all three rides could have been ridden and experienced. And which one was better than the other would have been irrelevant, because the direct experience of the ride is the experience of what the ride is. And there’s no confusion anymore about the actuality of the ride. It is what it is, just like truth is. It’s not debatable, it’s not discoverable, you can’t lose it. It is.

Ah-h, so maybe if you want to have the experience of passing through floors or walls, or levitating, you’ve got to be willing to let go of becoming someone important. You’ve got to let go of doing those things which provide you with a sense of safety. Why? Because they distract you. They actually distract you just as the arguments among the kids distract them from having the experience of the ride, they distract you from the experience of what truth is. They distract you from the experience of safety that simply is yours, an experience which shows you that you never again ever have to engage in establishing your security and doing it in a way that makes you recognizably valid, important, and respectable. All of that has been a farce—a total side trip.

So, do you see what I’m saying? In order to be willing to want to know what truth is with conviction and determination, we’ll say commitment, you’re going to have to be willing to abandon some of your very fundamental beliefs, such as, “If you do that, you’re going to lose your importance, you’re going to lose your validity, and you’re going to lose your security and safety.”

Many of you who did this practice during this past week, had a lot of upheaval. Now, a majority of that upheaval came into play because one of your habits—one of your mindsets—that is part of your false foundation of beliefs is that you are not valid. We’ve talked about it before. And you are attempting to gain validity, but you haven’t gained it yet, and therefore, you are guilty. You are not up to par. You are a failure to one degree or another and you feel bad about this. The habit of guilt and fear is strong in you.

Now, if you want to know what truth is, if you really dare to say, “Father, what is the truth here? What are You Being right here where this fingernail is? What are You Being right here where this glass is? What are You Being right here where Paul is, or Jerry is or Jimmy or Abigail, what are You Being right there? I want to have the direct experience of what You’re Being right there, instead of the definitions I’ve arrived at and the conclusions I’ve come to about what You’re Being right there.” You see?

When you do that, and you’re getting very close to abandoning this orphan sense of self—this false sense of self—this habit of guilt rises up because it is so deeply engrained that you are sure that if you escape it or if you try to escape it, the penalty for your guilt will fall on you. And so, fear rises up and you become uneasy, and you become frightened, and then it causes you to call into play all of your well-established habits that you use to reinforce your safety. Like, oh you got to appease God … “No … no … I’m not really trying to escape my guilt, I’m not really trying to be happy, I’m not really trying to find out that maybe I’m guiltless, I’m not really trying to find out if I’m utterly safe and that it’s been a total illusion that I’ve been in a state of vulnerability and subject to threat. No, I’m really not trying to do that! Please!!” You see?

And so, you cower in front of your opportunity to wake up. And in the cowering, you practice your old habits of reasserting your guilt and of re-establishing your proper place in the structure of orphans and orphanages, and the state of having no Birthright. You see?

Just because you may have had a rough week is no reason to stop wanting to know the truth, and it is no reason to abandon your intent to push through the fear.

You see, one of the things that can happen is, that this feeling of guilt comes up in you in your relationships with others, and suddenly everything they are doing seems to be uncovering your guilt: They say something, “Why are you doing that?”

“Oh, why you think I’m doing something wrong? I’m not doing anything wrong, but you know, why do you want to know?”

“Well, I wanted to know because I thought maybe I could help you with what you were going to do.”

You see. And you can end up with everything in your day, in one way or another, seeming to reflect back to you your guilt, when that isn’t what’s happening at all.

Why am I saying this? I’m saying this because no matter how uncomfortable the experiences are that you might have as you determine to know the truth, they still amount to one of two things: Either truth or illusion. And that brings us back to the simplicity that last week’s session began with which lay in the question, “What do you want?”

You see, you don’t want to say, “What do you want?”—do you want the threat to go away? “What do you want?”—do you want so-and-so to stop wanting to know what you’re doing because it makes you uncomfortable? “What do you want?”—do you want circumstances to change or do you want to be able to recognize that you only have two things confronting you: Truth or illusion, and you have the option as to which you want. And if you stop choosing for illusion, your circumstances won’t seem to call into play the suggestion that you’re guilty and that a penalty awaits you.

So, let’s go into the Book. And let me reiterate: If you find crap coming up in your experience as you opt for wanting the truth, remember all it is, is a deep-seated mental habit of interpreting what is happening based on beliefs that are false which your desire to know the truth will lead you beyond and get you past. So persist and do not be discouraged.

Now, I’m going to back up one sentence from where we ended last week.

You made the use of defense against truth.

… the Holy Spirit’s …

You’ve used truth to attack truth and defend yourself against it. The Holy Spirit uses the defense of giving focused, undistracted attention to what truth is as a defense for, on behalf of truth. You see?

That’s the whole point. Preservation and release: The uncovering of your eternality, the uncovering of your unchangeableness, the uncovering of your permanence, and your release from the beliefs that you hold onto so tightly because you think that it is keeping you safe.

… the Holy Spirit’s …

Now …

You know more than anything what that sentence means? It says don’t waste your time doing any thinking of any kind about it. Accept it as the truth.

Don’t think about it!

… the orphan that you think you are at the moment …

… the Holy Spirit, that which is nothing more than your right Mind …

Oh yeah, well, there it is …

… a difficult thing for a vulnerable one to practice. But …

Well, what does the Holy Spirit ask you? The Holy Spirit asks you, “What do you want?” Not a complicated question. He didn’t ask, “Are you bright enough to do it?” He didn’t ask, “Do you deserve to accomplish it?” No, He just asks, “What do you want?”

So …

… like, “What do you want?”

What do you want? Light or darkness, clarity or confusion? What do you want? A simple thing.

And I ask you again this week: Approach everything to the best of your ability with a conscious desire to know, “What is God’s truth here?” “I know it just looks like a freeway … I just know it looks like a back road … I just know that I saw a squirrel that got run over … I just know that I’m in a rickety old car … I just know this and I just know that … but God what is Your truth here? Because it can’t all be the way I’m seeing it. And I’m pretty darn sure that my definition of it isn’t as all inclusive or accurate as it might be—as it could be. So God, what is the truth here?” Keep asking that. Keep wanting to know what of the Kingdom of Heaven you’re looking at now. “And will you, Father, please cause me to be able to have the experience of what it truly is?”

Now …

Well, first of all, who’s the “Him?” The Holy Spirit is nothing more than your right Mind. So what have you locked away from Him? You have locked away from that which is nothing more than your right Mind, every single thought you have come up with. Every single thought you have, every single definition you have made up, covers up what that thing really is, or covers up your capacity to know because you are busy making the static of thoughts—of thinking.

… lighten the darkness away. Now we talked last week about bringing the illusion to truth, which is you saying, “Father …” and by that very word, abandoning your confidence in your orphanhood, saying, “Father, show me this …” or “Father, what is the truth here” and abandoning your isolation, your separation.

But tonight we’re talking about letting the Holy Spirit enter the darkness and lighten it away. You have a friend. The Holy Spirit is your friend. It’s not only your real Self, it’s your friend when you are thinking you are something else and needing to believe that you are something else because you are confused.

Well, what does that mean—that’s figuratively speaking? It means take your thoughts that you’re so sure of and say, “Holy Spirit, talk to me about this thought—talk to me about this meaning that I’m so convinced of. Talk to me of what the reality of this or that or the other thing is that I am believing.”

Don’t get airy-fairy and talk about irrelevant things. Talk about … ask questions about … invite the Holy Spirit into your secrets—into your definitions. Because remember, your definitions are covering up something. Your definitions of things are covering up what those things truly are, causing those things to be secret—secreted away, unavailable.

So this Friend, He enters gladly.

The Vision of Christ. Do you remember some time ago, Paul turned a statement into a prayer from the Course? And the prayer said: I wish to see everything through your Vision, which is your Gift to me from God. It’s a prayer to me. Because I’m the One who has the Vision, which is my gift to him and to every one of you from God.

So …

… this vision …

… the Holy Spirit …

… in tandem, in union, in brotherhood, in togetherness, in love.

Now see, there’s the rub, as it says. [chuckling] You may be willing to bring your deepest, darkest thoughts to Him, but you may well not be willing to look at them with Him, because you would rather bring your deepest, darkest thoughts to Him as a complaint, and sit there with the complaint registered and think that you’re going to watch the Holy Spirit squirm under your demand for Him to recognize your self-righteous objection.

Now you also may not want to look on it with Him, because if he actually shows you that this deep dark secret has no meaning whatsoever, you may see that as affecting your credibility, because after all, it was your idea and you thought it was a pretty good idea. And in fact, a lot of other people thought it was a pretty good idea. And if you actually let this idea be shown up for what it is, illusory, well, it’s just going to make a fool out of you to yourself, and most certainly if you are honest with others about it, it’s going to make you look like a fool to them.

So …

Isn’t the Course wonderful? Full of love and sweetness. It is, but the orphan isn’t full of love and sweetness, it’s uptight, it’s severe, it radically employs mean-spiritedness. It thinks for its safety, to keep itself safe. And it finds no value in abandoning the capacity to be that way.

Here’s where it helps to remember there’s only two things confronting you: Truth or illusion. You see, it doesn’t matter how well you thought up the thought. It doesn’t matter how well you conveyed the thought to others. It doesn’t matter how many others agreed with you and patted you on the back and voted you into office, or whatever. It doesn’t matter. That isn’t real complication. The only complication there is, is that you have a choice between reality or truth, truth or illusion. And if you make the choice for truth, all of the thoughtful imaginations that you came up with about how you’re going to be affected by recognizing the falsity, the illusory nature of your thought and all that you thought might happen with all of those who respected you because of your thought, all of that, for lack of better words, will fade out because they are illusions. The people will still be there, they won’t behave the way you’re expecting from your orphan mentality.

You will have the marvelous opportunity of finding out that people really do like other people who are genuine, totally, honestly genuine, even if they’re sharing a flaw of their own. Although all of you behave as though you really value a good act, the fact is that you really feel uncomfortable no matter how good the act is. And when you do come across someone genuine—where there is no act—you are very, very grateful, and you value that experience, and you value the relationship.

Again …

… see, thoughts, the culprits …

Look upon them WITH Him and don’t you teach Him what they mean. Let Him teach you what they mean, or let Him uncover they’re meaninglessness so that you might become free of the bondage of confusion that had to be in place for you to value that which was meaningless.

And it’s okay. You didn’t think it was darkness, else you wouldn’t have held on to it. And if you have half a chance of discovering that it isn’t what you thought it was, and that it doesn’t have the value that you think it does, then it’s worth exploring, it’s worth looking upon it with the Holy Spirit. It’s worth saying, “Holy Spirit—that which is nothing more than my right Mind—what is the truth here?” And then listen as though your life depended upon it, not out of fear, but out of genuine commitment. Don’t be casual, “What’s the meaning here, Holy Spirit? Okay, well, I’ve got to get on to other things, I’ll check with you a little bit later. Okay, thank you very much.”

You and this Friend of yours.

You see, you’re still going to use perception in the process of awakening, even though you are ultimately going to abandon it. Because perception is what you are familiar with. And perception, like defense, can be used on behalf of truth.

… or knowing.

… you really do, all of you really do want a new perception, you want a new vision that doesn’t seem to be full of threat or suffering or deterioration, or death.

Orphans think they can. You have for a long time thought you could, but …

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

Again, here’s the simplicity of it: You’re sitting there right now (standing, or whatever) listening, and your eyes are open and you’re seeing things. What you’re seeing is the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s the only thing there is, but you’re not recognizing it, that’s all. [snaps fingers] Recognition is a shift of perception, like focusing the lens on the camera, that’s all.

“Oh-h, everyone is dependent upon me to be the strong one. Everyone is dependent upon me to know what to do. I can’t let them down. I can’t tell them that I don’t know what to do. I don’t always know what to do, and I don’t always have the right answer. I don’t want to dash their hopes into the ground.” You see, that’s an intellectual or perceptual complication, it’s a twisted mass of spaghetti thoughts and you’re going to try to say, “I’m not going to desire to know the truth because the spaghetti will know what to do with itself. It will see that it’s all in a tangle. I can’t do that to it.”

Yes you can, and please do, because you’re keeping yourselves bound by threads of thought that you have woven together in a way that looks like you have created an object, a real thing, something that means something. No. All of the people are real, but the perception of them that you have woven together in your mind, that you’re governing yourself by is an illusion! And it’s these threads of thoughts that aren’t the people at all, aren’t the circumstances at all, that will dissolve and fade and you will be left with seeing the people and seeing the circumstances and saying, “My God, it’s the Kingdom of Heaven.” You will recognize what you are seeing instead of believing what you’ve imagined, instead of seeing what you’re believing.

I’m going to read this again.

That’s what the orphan does. The orphan looks at the Kingdom of Heaven alone saying, “I have no connections.” And that fundamental belief that he has no connections colors every perception he has of the Kingdom of Heaven, causing him not to recognize it for what it is.

What do you want, truth or illusion? The question promotes bringing multiplicity into singularity. Which one do you want? You cannot have both at the same time. So you must bring determination, singleness of purpose into play. There must be a devotion. And devotion means unscattered attention, doesn’t it.

Well, I’m going to tell you something. The One Purpose that God has is a Movement, it is a moving, living Purpose, and Infinite Creation is that Purpose recognized, experienced. So that the fact that God has One Purpose doesn’t mean there’s anything boring about Him, “Because He’s only capable of one single little thought, you know, one little single purpose, boy …” No, God has One Purpose, it is embodied in all of Creation.

… what?

… in other words, unblurred …

See, here comes the singleness, here comes the unity. Why? Because of the way you answered the question, “What do you want?” “I want to know truth, and I’m going to defend truth by not letting my desire to know truth be siphoned off by distractions, worries, fears, small mindedness, testiness, by not letting it be siphoned off by anything.” As you do that and you let the experience of truth in, these words apply:

… behold the truth about you …

This is referring to the Holy Spirit, which is nothing more than your right Mind.

… that’s what happens when you wish to know the truth, and you wish to know the truth from the Holy Spirit.

… because the Holy Spirit is nothing more than your right Mind, the Holy Spirit’s Presence in you, illuminates you in all of your holiness, to you, so that it’s no longer obscured from you.

It brings the whole Family together.

… what’s the darkness?

… of your incessant thinking.

… or static of your incessant thought processes …

Oh, is he talking about Jesus? No, the guiltless Son they refer to here is you.

… what?

“But, Father, I’d rather do it my way.” Slam! “But, Father, I need to protect myself because I’m in a conflicted world where “good and evil” rein and where danger lurks at every turn. And therefore, I must be hard-nosed, mean-spirited and ready even to kill if necessary.” Slam! And [chuckling] you stand on the side of the door away from God. And so you’ve hidden yourself from God. And you’ve hidden who you are truly, from yourself. And so, no such critter as that exists. The one standing behind the door, that slammed the door on God doesn’t exist, except imaginatively.

So, behind the dark doors which you have closed, including the you that’s behind the dark door that you’ve closed, lies nothing. You see? But you exist. You just don’t exist as that which slams the door in the Father’s face, effectively denying your conscious awareness of who you truly are. You think you’ve done it and you fight for the right to keep doing it, but it hasn’t been done. And that’s the shift of perception, that’s the turning of the lens that needs to occur, that causes the blur to be replaced with sharp, crystal, clear clarity.

… whose recognition? Yours.

… what?

That’s what your Friend does. Oh, the little vestiges of orphanhood say, “Oh, if I take it and show it, it will be brought to the judgment of the Holy Spirit and I will be banished to hell.” Well, that’s not a friend, is it? And the Holy Spirit is your Friend. And so you do it and it’s undone.

Can you understand, that if the Holy Spirit is nothing more than your right Mind, your sane Mind, your letting it in, your inviting it into you is going to have only one effect and that is to illuminate you as you truly are, which is the return of Sanity. It’s something that a real friend does. And it’s something to be reached for by you, with less reluctance than you bring into play.

You know, you say, “What is the truth here, Father? … Well, times passing … What’s the truth here, Father?” … [humming] “Oh well, okay, I’ll try again later.”

If you realize that while you’re looking at the grocery clerk, or the tree, that your desire to know the truth there is going to be an incredible experience of Reality, in which there’s no mistaking what it is as the Presence of God, then that innocuous little moment of looking into the grocery clerk’s eyes or watching as she gets the change from the till, is a moment to be truly curious about. Dare to bring your curiosity, dare to bring great curiosity to circumstance and moments that seem innocuous, meaningless, simple, and as though they couldn’t possibly hold the promise of Eternal Life—the resurrecting of your conscious awareness of yourself as the Christ.

Every moment is precious. Every moment is a moment to ask, “What do I want?” Knowing, [chuckling] for lack of better words, that the true answer to the question will constitute hitting the jackpot.

… the Holy Spirit …

Again, that which is nothing more than your right Mind, your sane Mind, having been invited in by you, with genuine sincerity and very little defense, very little reluctance, is going to have only one possible effect: Magnifying you. Magnifying what you truly are to you, so that there is no doubt whatsoever in your mind. Dare to do it.

Again, this week, dare to say, “What do I want, truth or illusion, light or darkness, clarity or confusion?” And then make the choice. And defend your choice by not letting yourself become distracted from its arrival. And again, insist upon its arrival.

Don’t be wishy-washy about standing in receipt of your Sanity.

I love you all. And I look forward to being with you next week. And if the going gets rough, realize you’re getting caught up in the details of the illusion that seem so real and meaningful to you. Realize that, so you can say, “Wait a minute, what do I want, truth or illusion?” No matter what the details are of the illusion. “Do I want truth or illusion?” no matter how complicated things seem to be and what the disastrous effects will be of the illusion. “What do I want, truth or illusion?” And make your choice.

“Well, I really don’t want to hear that the illusion isn’t real, because I’m not ready to let go of it yet. It’s too frightening to me.” Well, it’s just more of the bullshit of the illusion. You’ve got to say, “What do I want, truth or illusion?” And then choose for truth, whether you think you want to learn what it’s going to teach you or not, because even to the smallest degree that you are willing to let it in, it will immediately begin to ease your mind and soften the sense of threat and restore a feeling of security so that you have even more willingness to let it in further.

This is what the Course is about. It isn’t about wonderful ideas. It’s about changing your mind. It’s about having a new goal and letting go of your authority and your control, so that you might learn how you fit in to the Movement of Creation as co-creator, no less.

I’ll stop. Again, I look forward to being with you next week.