Teachings of Christ Mind

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

You know, at the bottom line, we’ve been talking about the simplicity of Waking up, the simplicity of coming back into your right Mind. And tonight isn’t going to be any different. In fact, it might even seem a little meaningless, what we’re going to be talking about, because at the bottom line, there really is nothing dynamic about Awakening. It really is a simple matter of choosing for your peace. It really is a simple matter of being willing to withdraw your attention from the stimulation, the stimulation not that the world provides, but the stimulation that other people provide about the world.

“Oh-h … the world’s going to hell in a hand-basket!”

[chuckle] Well, hey, the simplicity of it is, that the hand-basket that the world is going to hell in, is nothing but your careless mind. It’s nothing but your mind not being used for the purpose of peace—not being used for the purpose of expressing, extending intelligence, harmony, love, peace.

Oh, but it makes it sound very complicated … “The world out there is going to hell in a hand-basket!” [chuckles] Funny little saying, isn’t it. But if you take it at its apparent face value, it must be alarming. It must be worth getting upset about. And I’ll tell you something: If it’s worth getting upset about, then coming back into your right Mind won’t be able to happen.

So, you really have to come down to brass tacks and ask yourself how important is it to you to Wake up? Is it more or less important than the excitement of getting upset?

Remember that the Holy Spirit is only limited by the degree of attention you bring to It. And if you don’t bring your attention to the Holy Spirit, you will not hear the Holy Spirit. And because the Holy Spirit is nothing more than your right Mind, it is your right Mind that you won’t hear. And it’s your right Mind that you won’t experience, all for the cheap thrill of a little bit of excitement about, “The world going to hell in a hand-basket.”

The simple fact is and always has been, that the world will stop looking like it’s going to hell in a hand-basket if you choose to use your mind for the purpose it was intended. And the purpose for which your mind was intended was to be that place of attention or that capacity of attention being given to Creation. In other words, to see Creation and engage in glorifying God, standing in utter awe of the magnificence of perfection—a perfection that is nothing more nor less than the extension of you—because you are God Presencing Himself/Herself right where you are. And there is no fragmentation in it—in that relationship. It is absolutely One. It is absolutely indivisible.

I know. You don’t think that your function is that utterly simple, that you are the capacity to give your attention to and recognize the divinity of Creation right where you are. And that it is not your function to look at an interpretation of Creation as though the infinity of Creation is nothing but a humongous “Saturday Night Live” broadcast to be amused at, stimulated by.

It’s much more than that. And yet the means of having the experience of it is insultingly simple. And I say insultingly simple because in order to experience it, you have to be willing to abandon a capacity you think you have to act on your own, to be an independent authorizer, an independent thinker, who through the creative use of his capacity to think, can make things happen in the world.

But you know what? You don’t have to do that. You really don’t have to do that in order to have the ultimate. It’s absolutely unnecessary for any of you to exercise authority of any kind in order for you, well, for lack of better words, to sit at the right Hand of God. In other words, be a co-operator with God—to be that Presence of Mind which is perfectly capable of experiencing all of Reality, all of Creation exactly as God is experiencing it. And to be free of sin, sickness and death, free of fear, free of everything that connotes the human condition, which all of you would like to overcome.

Let’s go into the book. And let’s remember as we go through this tonight, that although it seems simple and un-stimulating, it is utterly profound. It’s the answer to the human condition.

Now, who’s God’s Teacher? The Holy Spirit, that which is nothing more than your right Mind.

… that which is nothing more than your right Mind is as like to God—Its Creator—as are you. You see? But as long as you’re choosing to have a different definition of everything, that which is nothing more than your right Mind seems to not be yours and seems not to be with you and seems to be different from you. But as I’ve said before, it’s your divinity held in trust while you dally with being a private authorizer—an ego. Nevertheless…

… the Holy Spirit …

… God’s Son—you …

Through the Holy Spirit—that which is nothing more than your right Mind—the truth about you is revealed to you. And what more whole-izing, what more integrated event could occur than for that which is nothing more than your right Mind to reveal the truth about you, to you, so that you might remember and embrace your right Mind as your only Mind and your only perspective. You see, it’s like saying God uses the fact that you and the Holy Spirit—you and your right Mind—are one as the basis for causing your Oneness to register with you. There couldn’t be a more integrated means of bringing you back into the experience of unity.

Again, because it’s important:

Him … Whom? Your Teacher. Don’t raise your voice against Him? It means, don’t employ the arrogance that it takes to say, “You’d rather see it your way,” or to say, “Here’s the way it is,” or “Here’s the definition of things.”

Do not assert yourself in place of your capacity to be out from your right Mind. Don’t assert yourself in place of being the expression of Sanity.

And when you’re speaking against Him, when you’re speaking for yourself, you’re speaking for division. Your act is an act of independence, of differentness.

You remember your right Mind, it becomes illuminated to you. And when you’re not resisting it, it fills you, it embraces you, it reminds you of what you wholly Are in such a way that you never want to let go of it again.

… the Holy Spirit …

What does that mean, “Teach like Him here”? Well, if you dare to be silent and don’t speak against Him, don’t speak over Him, you will find yourself knowing things and you will find yourself impelled to express that which harmonizes, that which pacifies, that which whole-izes.

And you, participating in the miracle of creation, by being that capacity of attentiveness to see and recognize the Movement of God and acknowledge it for what it is, in Joy.

And if your capacity to recognize the Movement of Creation for what it is, is a capacity to recognize that which is immortal, then you, that which is recognizing it, must be immortal too. And that will be part of what dawns on you in the realization of what you Are in the Awakening process.

But I’ll tell you, as long as you are enjoying believing that you have some sort of private, personal authority that you can exercise and demonstrate that you’re an authorizer, then you are not joining in willing what God wills, and you’re speaking against the Holy Spirit.

And the answer is to, “Stop!” It’s just that simple. The answer is to, “Stop!”

You see, utter simplicity. It doesn’t say anything about, “Well if you’ll think the right thoughts, and if you’ll think the right thoughts in a particular order, and if you will burn incense as you do this, and if, as you’re doing this, friends who have learned exactly the specific forms of dance that are necessary, if they will dance around you while you’re doing this, you will Wake up—or a miracle will happen.”

No, it’s far simpler than that. It’s interesting to do those kinds of complicated [dramatic voice] “spiritual productions,” but it’s unnecessary and useless and it’s a distraction.

Now, I’m going to give you a simple example here. When Sunday night rolls around and it’s time for the Gathering here, Paul suddenly becomes very devoted to listening. He knows he can’t fake it. He doesn’t want to fake it. He has to be able to hear me, and so he listens impeccably.

But when the meeting is over, he figures that he can grab a sandwich or get a cup of coffee or, you know, visit with those who are attending. And he can do that quite well by himself. And so, he abandons the devotion, the commitment to being with me, which is the equivalent of being with his right Mind. And this is his learning, not to do that. And it’s everyone else’s learning.

And the interesting thing is that as the week goes by, even though he speaks with me frequently, but not at any great length at any one time, he finds himself experiencing fear. He finds himself experiencing anxiety. It is as though he picks up on “the world going to hell in a hand-basket,” even if he’s not watching the television.

You see, if he or you choose to operate independently—disconnected from one’s right Mind—one inevitably feels fear and anxiety and sees himself in a thing called “a world” that may or may not be going to hell in a hand-basket.

Now …

Whenever Paul relies upon himself, he will not learn.

… he has …

… destroyed his motivation …

… by thinking he already knows.

The sad thing is, for Paul and for everyone else, that because it feels so normal to think for one’s self, and because the fullness of being in one’s right Mind is a vague memory, it doesn’t feel like there’s any significant loss or deficiency being experienced by virtue of continuing to do a few things by yourself—on your own, the way you know how to do them. And yet, it’s the loss of being Sane, it’s the loss of being Awake.

Let’s put it this way, it’s the loss of regaining your Sanity, of coming back into your right Mind and experiencing the awesomeness that your sort of demented mind or mentality, is minimizing to the point where it seems problematic instead of awesome.

Now, on Sunday night, as I said, Paul makes a commitment and he can hear me. And during the week when he’s not listening to me consistently and he asks me a question, there are times when he cannot hear me. And that’s a little distressing, because he does rely on our communion and the blessing that comes from it.

Now, when you destroy the motivation for your learning by thinking that you already know, you seem to make it impossible for you to actually have the experience of knowing, even though you can’t actually destroy that capacity.

What is unfortunate is that you begin to believe that you don’t have the capacity and you stop trying. And most of you who, up to this point, have never really thought in terms of listening within for that which is nothing more than your right Mind, which, surprise, surprise to you is nothing less than the Holy Spirit.

You are almost automatically caught in a great sense of the impossibility of that—which makes it difficult for you to bring any degree of commitment to the process of listening. You see. And it’s that inertia that has to be overcome.

It’s overcome by persistence, by persistence on your part in choosing for your peace, persistence no matter what is going on “in the world.” Persisting in choosing for your peace because it’s available to you always, it is never absent from you. And when you persist in your choice for your peace and you meditate or you use whatever technique works for you to get into your peace, you will find your peace right in the middle of chaos. And in that peace, that which diminishes the chaos can emerge and will emerge. But you’ve got to not give up, no matter whether the world seems to be going to “hell in a hand-basket” or not.

Understanding may seem difficult to achieve by a direct act. But peace you can achieve by a direct act of meditation—of becoming still. So, enjoy that avenue. Take advantage of it.

Why? Because, if you have the truth and no result, you don’t have the truth. If you have truth and you have the result of truth, you have truth. And if the manifestation of truth is present, it means that the understanding is present and learning can occur.

Again …

And the ones who see that can learn, because they’re bringing their attention to where the learning can occur. They are not assuming that they know and therefore have nothing to learn.

Again …

It’s getting a little monotonous isn’t it?

You see. “I know it all by myself.” Paul knows how to get a sandwich after the meeting. Paul knows how to talk with the people that are there, all by himself. But peace does depart from him, because he’s abandoned the Teacher of Peace. He’s abandoned the knowing that comes from joining with one who is Awake, whether it’s his right Mind or whether it’s me. You see.

Him being the Holy Spirit, Him being that which is nothing more than your right Mind.

You see. Don’t speak on your behalf for any reason. Don’t assert yourself for any reason.

Don’t call upon the ego. Don’t engage in independent authoritative decision making or acting. What do you do instead? You listen in the silence without speaking against the Teacher, without speaking against your right Mind, without speaking against and overriding your sanity which is there before you have a single thought, before you try to do a single thing all by yourself.

It is only THIS that you need do to wake up!

… that which is nothing more than your right Mind, will of Itself …

… will fill your mind that so makes room for Him.

Now, what do you think the word is that means you abandoning thinking … you letting your mind be a clean slate into which you as a private authorizer are introducing nothing? When your mind is allowed to become utterly still, and there is a willingness on your part to abandon self-assertion—truly, honestly abandon self-assertion—that, what happens, is called Atonement. That is the simplicity of it.

When you are not speaking against the Teacher and you are in utter silence, the Teacher fills that which used to assert itself independently with the truth of which that self is the divine one, that is constituted of the Holy Spirit, that is infilling the tiny sense of self that one was entertaining in his every attempt to be an authorizer. In the absence … in the absence of an authorizer, Atonement happens. Oneness with God occurs. You coming back into your right Mind happens. The very thing you have been looking for happens.

You know, it has been said that instead of eternity being endless time, if you take one second and snuff it out, that, what is left is eternity—that which is not confused or distorted in anyway by any concept of time at all. Likewise, if you take your mind and snuff out a thought, if you abandon thinking … Atonement happens … Oneness with God happens … you coming back into your right Mind, happens. That’s the profundity of it. That’s how profound the simplicity is.

You’re inclined to think that if you give up your capacity to be an authorizer, you lose your integrity, you lose your respectability, you lose your purpose for being. But it’s not true. You have lost your purpose and experience of what Being really is in your attempts to act independently and demonstrate a capacity you have to be an authorizer in your own right.

What’s the teacher of attack? It’s that which seems to be in you that says it has a right to assert itself and make its mark on the world—that’s making a mark against the world, it’s overriding the Teacher, it’s acting as though you’re out of your mind. And thus, it’s a state of insanity from which you deserve to be healed.

“Oh-h, I’d rather see it my way. I’d rather do it my way. I’d rather define what that means!”

… the Holy Spirit …

Your right Mind knows what is true and knows what is true about you and it is His understanding. He can’t be swayed from it no matter what you do—He can’t be swayed from it. And He will not abandon you.

… His understanding …

You see the utter consistency, the Oneness? Absolute integrity.

… the absence of confusion …

Is that you? Would you have peace and nothing else? Knowing that the President is going to speak next Thursday at 8 p.m., are you going to be devoted to being in front of that TV or are you going to be devoted to your peace, whether you end up being in front of the TV or not? Who are you serving? Who are you devoted to? What are you devoted to?

Now you don’t see the understanding yet, but it is in you. You really have to start believing that there’s more to you than the definitions you have provided yourself with about yourself.

… peace and understanding …

The Holy Spirit’s.

Not difficult to understand. You think you know the Holy Spirit not … you think you don’t know the Holy Spirit, because alone, in other words, as an independent authorizer …

You have diminished the Holy Spirit by saying, “I’m going to rely upon myself.” As long as you’re relying upon yourself, you’re not going to lean into the Holy Spirit. You may even forget that the Holy Spirit exists or is nothing more than your right Mind.

[chuckling] There is no way you’ll be able to take credit for them.

They could not be of you as the puny little orphan, the little self-authorizing entity that you’ve made up a concept of and identified yourself as.

You know, we can sit and talk about all the things you’d like to be and all the things you’d like to do, all the good you would like to do, all the crazy fun things you would like to do, like bungee jumping off of a bridge, or whatever. And it could seem as though attempting all of those crazy, wonderful things are things you really want to do and are things which will make your life meaningful.

But I ask you, you’ve already done some of them, are you happy? Are you yet experiencing inexplicable joy that just bubbles out of you? Do you want to not be experiencing inexplicable joy? Are you wanting not to experience peace that’s unchallengeable? No, you definitely want to experience those things.

So, I’m encouraging you not to use your spiritual path as a means of finding ways to do more and more stimulating crazy fun things to do, but rather to do the one thing which will bring you back into your right Mind and cause you to experience joy, invulnerability, omnipotence—not omnipotence over anything, but absolutely inviolable stability that is unchallengeable, which therefore, experiences nothing that can interfere with the constant eternal experience of the awesomeness of Creation, as a participant in the Movement of Creation, because you have decided to use your attention for no other purpose than to look at whatever is in front of you and find God there.

Again …

It’s your Birthright to be having that experience. It’s your Birthright to be having that experience and for everyone around you to experience you having that experience. It’s your Birthright to be a transformational presence without lifting your finger and doing anything as an independent authorizer. And that is the joy of being the Presence of Love.

Atonement will not cause you to have an eternal experience of being that is blah, that is dull, that is meaningless. Abandon … be willing to abandon your thoughts and be in the silence with full attention so that Atonement may occur and the dream can end, and the suffering can dissolve … never to reappear.

And do it while the world goes to hell in a hand-basket. Now, I caution you not to take that sentence strictly: Do it while the world appears to go to hell in a hand-basket. Because it’s not! And it can’t! And you don’t have to be deluded into thinking that it can and that it is. And it’s time for you to be free of that delusion. It’s your Birthright. Do it.

And I look forward to being with you next week.