Teachings of Christ Mind

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

You know, when the automobile was first invented, it was styled, we’ll say, after the buggy, as in horse-and-buggy. And the tendency is, as unfoldment occurs, as growth occurs, as change occurs, the new is modeled after the old and as a result, what is new doesn’t change as rapidly or is not as new as it could be because you carry forward the old habits into the forming of new ones.

Now, I’m bringing this up because there’s something important. We read a short time ago:

Well, what might that mean? Well, I’m going to put it simply: You know, if you find yourself having nothing to do and you find yourself having nothing to do over a period of days or weeks—much like someone who’s retired, we’ll say—a feeling of depression can develop because there’s no feeling of purpose, right? There’s no feeling of purpose. And one could say, “Well, why don’t you find something to do. You could do this, or you could do that.”

But when you’re confronted with that, it isn’t really just about having something to do. Purpose is about having a goal in the process of which you’re bettering yourself. Purpose, in order for it to be truly Purpose—we’ll say, with a capital “P,” and I’m not really meaning divine purpose, I’m meaning ultimate human Purpose—isn’t something that’s accomplished by being … um … the best housekeeper or the best cleaning lady for twenty years, or the best mail-clerk in a corporation for thirty years. Purpose involves climbing up the ladder of success in the corporation, so that at the end of the thirty years you are more than you were in the beginning. You have made something of yourself, right?

So Purpose amounts to engaging in a process of accomplishment, and therefore, activities which don’t serve that Purpose are not seen as activities of Purpose. It’s important to understand this.

So, if you have come from a family and an upbringing in which Purpose is important and you have become Purposeful, and then A Course In Miracles or religion in general comes into your experience and you learn of things like God’s plan of salvation, it seems utterly natural to you to transfer your definition and practice of Purpose into this new arena—which really doesn’t fit in this new arena. It’s meaningless in this new arena.

And then when you read something like we just read recently:

Whoa boy! Now that gives you something to do, doesn’t it? However, if you remember, I didn’t read it that way when we were at that point. Whew!

And so, you know what? You can become as the old hymn says: “An onward Christian soldier.” A soldier for Christ … a soldier for God. And you can go out to ferret out every single error there is, and uncover it so that you can see what’s keeping you back or you can apply it to others so that you can show them what’s holding them back. Why? So that you have Purpose. And so that through the practice of this Purpose you might weed out and clear out those negatives in you that are keeping you from moving forward, or so that you can help others weed out what’s keeping them from moving forward.

Oh-h … but then we have the first sentence in the text for tonight:

Well, where does that leave you if you are supposed to be diligent and even militant in terms of routing out error and uncovering it and getting rid of it? Well, it’s very important to understand that because you don’t know what Reality is yet … you don’t really know what the illusions are yet … and so you don’t know what needs to be routed out.

Now the simple fact is that as I’ve said before, as you proceed in your Awakening, you are retracing the steps you took away from the Father. You’re undoing the creation of an illusory experience that you created for yourself.

And you know what? If you’re undoing the ten thousandth step, if that’s where you are and you try to undo the fiftieth step, it isn’t going to work. And how do you know which step it is? I’m going to tell you something really important:

… and I’m just going to stop there.

You say, “Well, I don’t have time to let the Holy Spirit tell me of the Love of God for me because I’ve got too much work to do to clean out all the crap that’s going on in my mind.”

Well, like I said, you don’t know which is the next crap to get rid of because you don’t know what the most recent one was that needs to be undone. But …

… if that’s where you would give your attention, if you would say, “Holy Spirit, I want to know about the Love of God for me,” you’re going to find out if your desire is genuine. You’re going to find out very quickly what stands in the way of that. You’ll find out very quickly what the argument is against your having that. You’re very likely to find out that you don’t think that God loves you. Maybe because you read that He is a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation. So He probably doesn’t love you. Okay … so there’s the next thing to deal with.

Or perhaps you think—the thought arises—because you’re engaging in actually, genuinely desiring to have God’s Love for you revealed to you by the Holy Spirit, you’re very likely to find out that you feel unworthy of His Love, because of course, you haven’t bettered yourself enough yet. Your Purpose of “bettering yourself” hasn’t brought you to the place yet—you say—where God would love you or where God would give you the time of day, even though He may be watching you, waiting for you to arrive at the first threshold where He can appropriately acknowledge you by letting you know of His Love for you, you see.

You know, I keep saying, ask: “What is the truth here? What is the truth about this situation?”—meaning what is God’s truth about this situation? What’s God’s truth about this place called Earth? Well, the truth about this place called Earth is that it’s Heaven. It is not the truth about this place called Earth that it’s a difficult place to live—a place where you have to be on guard all the time, it’s a place where you have to be sure that iniquities don’t get out of hand and on and on and on.

The truth is, about this place called Earth, that it’s the Kingdom of Heaven. Wow, that turns your head in a new direction. That turns your contemplations and your willingness to be aware into a far more expansive arena, doesn’t it? And the moment you let that happen, whatever means you have been using to keep yourself from experiencing it, will come to your attention. And that’s what you will deal with.

And you know what? You may not have a hell of a lot of time to be noticing what your brother is doing wrong, so that you might bring him up to speed [snaps fingers] being the warrior that you are for God. You see. [deep sigh]

What I’m trying to bring out here is, that it very often slips past you … the fact slips past you that you try to bring the buggy design into the horseless carriage design—the automobile design. It escapes you that your sense of Purpose which involves a process of bettering yourself because your not good enough yet, into what I’ll call the area of spirituality in which the real opportunity you have is to discover that you’re neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing toward it, you’re at that point and must understand ayourself therefrom.

Now, if you’re not behind and you’re not advancing toward, then what are you doing looking for faults? I’ve pointed out before, that if you go on an internal witch hunt, the ego will give you an endless list of faults to find and take care of. And in that process you’ll never withdraw your attention from the ego’s teachings. You’re going to stay bound tight, in a tight relationship with it. But turn your attention toward God and His Love, with a desire to experience It. And those things which it’s as necessary for you to let go of in order to have the experience, will present themselves to you, within you, as arguments against It, that you can take a look at and say, “Wow, I need to release that!” “Father …” um-m, see don’t try to figure out how to release it yourself … “Holy Spirit, help me release this. What is the truth that is so evidently the truth that I will recognize it as the truth and will have no difficulty letting go of what isn’t true.” You see? “Help me.” But this has to be done in the arena of Love.

… in other words, as well as …

Now, you know what?

And I’m going to add: In that experience there would be the realization that you would feel the attraction of the eternal for the eternal—meaning for you. You see, that’s realization. That’s even revelation. And it doesn’t leave you where it found you.

In that realization, the words “you are the holy Son or the holy Daughter of God” begins to mean something to you as an experience. And that makes it much easier to let go of what wasn’t true about you, that you were believing was true about you and which was binding you to an illegitimate experience of limitation and suffering.

… the Holy Spirit …

… of the Love of God for you …

But you know what? I’ll tell you something: Discover a fault in yourself or discover a fault in your brother and sister and you’re liable to get stuck there in clearing out those god damn faults … a soldier for God … and feeling a sense of purpose of engaging in an act of bettering yourself and you will be willing to linger there longer and longer and longer and longer, because you’re not engaging in the thing that will release you.

… the Holy Spirit …

… of God’s Love for you …

This is the truth about you. This is your nature. This is the natural environment of Being for you. But you will not experience it. You will not discover it as long as you’re engaged in attempting to better yourself by being a purposeful divine agent for change.

You see, it’s time for everyone to begin looking at their Brother and seeing the great rays. It’s time to begin looking at each other with an awareness that you, looking at them, are the holy Son or Daughter of God, and those who you are looking at are the holy Sons and Daughters of God, so that your curiosity is not about their flaws but your curiosity is about seeing the effulgence of the great rays, of the light of their Being more and more clearly, because it’s your nature and function to be seeing That. Why? Because when you’re seeing That you’re seeing God in them. And your seeing them, glorifies God. And the gift you give them heals them, if healing is needed. And you get to keep the gift that you’ve given to them. And this is what is supposed to be happening in your days—this week, last week, next week.

You know, believe it or not, you’re having a certain kind of evening this evening … or you’re having a certain kind of day, depending on when you might be listening to the recording of this. And you’re taking it all for granted and you’re believing it’s all Real. Now, right now … you might be having a sort of negative overtone about this evening because the meeting started so late and in your time zone it’s really inconvenient. On the other hand, there’s something good about this evening, because you really did want to hear the meeting, you really did want to hear what I have to say and you are appreciating what I’m having to say. And something else that contributes to the feeling of the evening in a positive way, might be that … well, at least tomorrow isn’t Monday, and so you can sleep in. And so that makes this evening and the circumstances a little bit lighter. You see?

So you have all of these threads of concepts that get woven together. And those are the things that are giving you an experience of this evening. And those things have absolutely nothing to do with what’s happening this evening. They are things that are being overlaid on the presence and sharing of Love that is going on in both directions—from me to you, from you to me.

This is a gathering. This is a union. This is a manifestation of infinite Oneness. It’s, in a way, a rather elegant experience of the Presence of God and what It all means. But you’re not experiencing It totally as what It is, because you’re letting It all be colored by conditioned thinking.

And what I’m trying to point out is, that you, at any time, can dare to ask yourself, “Are any of the feelings I’m having about this moment Real? Do I really need to be feeling this way at this moment?” You know … is the fact that tomorrow is Sunday and you can sleep in—so being up late tonight isn’t as bad as it could be—is that a reason for feeling good? Is the fact that it’s late and inconvenient a reason for feeling bad? Well it is, if you have your attention be in the wrong place.

If you would be willing to be in this moment as though you are a holy Son of God, in the middle of the Kingdom of Heaven, experiencing the Movement of God, then whatever reasons you were using for feeling the way you have been feeling about this moment are meaningless. They’re just not valid or valuable in any way because they are not addressing the actuality, the reality of communion that is occurring—you see—of communication.

So another way of uncovering what might need to be undone without going on a witch hunt is to ask: “If I’m the holy Son of God, and if all of this is the Kingdom of Heaven, then are any of the feelings I’m having legitimate?” Asking that question and being truly open to an unconditioned response will illuminate you in new ways or it will illuminate first, the reasons you are withholding that experience from yourself. And now you have been presented, like in the game of pickup sticks, the next stick that can be removed without toppling the whole pile, you see? You can pick up and remove the part of the pile that doesn’t need to be there any longer and is the next one to be removed. You see?

… these threads of perceptions, these threads of conditioned thinking.

And so, there is the Course and there’s me and there’s your Guides to tell you that there is loveliness that you could be seeing and it is available for you to see and you’re supposed to be seeing it. And so you could say, “Okay, I’m going to desire to see it.” And if you desire it and you don’t see any change, you don’t see anything different, you need to persist. And if you persist and you don’t see, reasons are going to pop up in your mind that say why you’re not seeing it. “Well, it’s not there. This is all a bunch of bullshit …” You see. “There is no God’s plan of salvation. And if there is, God’s plan of salvation doesn’t work.” You see?

Now those are the things that you need to take a look at with the Holy Spirit and have the Holy Spirit explain away. Because those are the sticks that can be taken up next, they’re the ones ready to be released from. And they’re the ones that are easy to get to, because they’re next.

Again …

Now, listen to this:

… God’s.

You see? Negatively put, that’s saying you’re the holy Son of God.

And I’ll tell you one of the best ways to turn away from love is to become a fault finder! …is to go on that internal witch hunt and be most unkind to yourself, or go on a witch hunt on behalf of someone else and be very unkind to your brother or sister.

Again …

… God’s …

… depressed eventually and mean spirited …

… you’ve tried to separate yourself from your Father—get your divorce, be an independent agent …

The Father’s and the Son’s, your communication with your Source and therefore, your experience of your Birthright and who you Are. And so you don’t think you’re the holy Son of God or the holy Daughter of God. And you’re quite convinced of it. And if you start to challenge that by saying, “Father, Holy Spirit, help me to see that I’m the holy Son of God, help me to see that I’m the holy Daughter of God.” Wow, if you’re convinced that you aren’t, your arguments will come up and you will close your ears.

You just can’t afford to argue against the truth about yourself. Oh, you can, but it won’t do any good. And Atonement won’t occur, and joy won’t occur, and perfection won’t occur, and the capacity to love will remain hidden in you—present because it’s always there, but hidden … hidden.

Well …

Well, if you insist upon looking at your Brothers, who are the Sons of God, as bodies, on planet Earth, in a physical universe, you’re limiting your vision of him to what interferes with his release, because he’s the holy Son of God and the great rays, the effulgent illumination of Love Itself, the Presence of the Father, that is Love. That is what is there for you to see. That is what it is your Birthright to be seeing, and without increasing a sense of purpose in you that’s improperly based, it’s your obligation, I’ll say. It’s your obligation because it is exactly the truth. And there’s just no reason to be seeing anything else. It’s your nature to be seeing it. You will be seeing it.

You don’t fulfill the obligation to see it by becoming forceful and militant, but by letting your heart soften, by letting Love in, by being willing to be the Presence of Love that wishes to see the Presence of Love.

You see, you want to be knowing what the truth is so that you can participate in the undoing of what will set your Brother free.

Just as your belief in limits has imprisoned you. And just as my being with you in a Real way, not in a process of uncovering your faults, but uncovering what the truth is about you—those limits that have imprisoned you can be released by you because you realize there is another way to look at things and you choose to look at the more intelligent way.

Now …

… in other words, when that which is not seen as the great rays, the effulgence of the Living Light of Love …

… you see, like accomplishing a goal, like bettering yourself, like making others better themselves, you see.

… that which is nothing more than your right Mind …

You see, it didn’t say: You’ll find that you have no body at all. You’ll find you’ll have no need for a body.

Um-m, you know, the militant Christian soldier, you know, not only has a body which is used to express his militancy, he put a suit of armor on to make that body even more impregnable, even more damaging, even more enduring in its act of aggression against the sinner, the enemy, the one in whom the one wearing the suit of armor could see no worth, no love, no reason to be loving. You see?

The body is very important if you’re going to be a militant soldier. And that doesn’t mean a body of great rays, a body of effulgent Light that is Living Love that is transforming. No it doesn’t mean that.

Because you’ll be through with accomplishing things with it. You will accomplish things with your Vision, with your recognition of the great rays, with the recognition of the holiness of your Brothers and Sisters and with your insistence upon disclosing the truth in ways that inspire the acceptance of truth, because the one it’s being shared with does not feel threatened by militant action.

And I’ll be very clear here: There are no bodies as paraphernalia of war. But there are still bodies, which aren’t where your attention is, because your attention is with the desire to be the Presence of Love and see the Presence of Love. In other words, your desire and focus of attention is on the Movement of God that happens to look like Creation, but the look of the Movement of God is not more important to you than the Movement Itself, which is the Movement of Mind—the infinite Mind that God Is and which you are inseparable from. And without your holding yourself apart any longer from God, you become co-Creators with God. And you are experiencing Purpose. And Purpose has nothing to do with bettering yourself. Purpose has to do with being the presence of Peace and Joy that has no goals of its own—that Joys in and expresses and acknowledges Creation in Its totality with an undistorted experience of what It Is.

All truth is in the holy instant, in which you abandon—truly abandon—your independence. And so again, the way you abandon your independence is by wanting to know the truth, by wanting to experience God’s Love for you and letting that desire bring up whatever needs to be cleared out in you, by your willingness to let the Holy Spirit declare even more fully to you what the truth is so that the resistances and reluctances that you have can be willingly and gladly and joyfully released. That’s the process.

That’s the good news.

I love you. I love you all. And I look forward to being with you next time.