Teachings of Christ Mind

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

I’ve shared with everyone many times the statement, “You are neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing toward it. You are at that point and must understand yourself therefrom.”

It’s a simple statement. It gives you the starting point and the ending point, if you will, which are one in the same. And it makes clear what is fruitless activity like, becoming … like, getting better and better … or being worse.

But something that I haven’t brought out before is the fact that this state of being neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing toward it, is a state of perfect intimacy. And this is very important to understand. Because you might think—if you’re inclined to think—that all you have to do is be conscious of the fact that you are neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing toward it and that you’re at that point. A nice little private thought. A nice little private awareness. And obviously, a private awareness does not involve intimacy.

Now, what we’re going to be reading tonight is all about intimacy. And it’s basically very simple. But you know what? If you’re not inclined toward an intimate attitude when you’re reading this, you won’t understand a word it says. And perhaps you’ve read it before and didn’t understand it. And now you know why.

If you are actively engaged in the practice of authority, of accomplishment, of independence, there’s no room for anything else. The concept of intimacy doesn’t fit in autonomy. And so everything you do will stand at odds with your Awakening, will stand at odds with your discovering that you are the holy Son or Daughter of God in actuality.

You know what? The intimacy that is meant to be embodied in that statement, “You are neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing toward it. You are at the point and must understand yourself therefrom,” is captured in the image or the sight of an infant or a very young child who’s held in his mother’s or his father’s arms and who has fallen asleep in pure safety and security—bliss—an intimacy that comes about because he has abandoned, if indeed he had any to abandon, he has abandoned self-protection. He is not experiencing fear and he does not hold himself apart at all. He simply sinks into his mother’s or father’s arms—yields to the intimacy.

Now, the intimacy that you are being invited to engage in doesn’t involve going to sleep, and is more like a child who’s being held who isn’t sleepy but is contented and who lies there in his mother’s or father’s arms, eyes wide open, looking up into his mother’s or father’s eyes in utter peace, utter contentment, and utter union—more a fuller union than just relaxing into his parents’ arms—a contentment and intimacy through eye contact where he knows you know he knows and you know he knows you know.

Let’s read the sentence we ended up with the last time we were together and listen to it now in light of what I just said.

… um …just as that child is wholly in his father’s or mother’s presence and grasp and environment …

Any of you who have ever held a child, who in utter simplicity and peace lies in your arms and looks up into your eyes with pure contentment and love, understands these words and it brings the words alive because the subject is intimacy, the subject is union, the subject is coming Home.

Well you know, that little children are very able to do that, but you’re not. You need to be. And that’s what this is about.

And as I said, if when you read this you’re in a state of self-defense and self-protection and autonomy, this isn’t going to make sense or it’s going to make you very disturbed. Because it’s going to call for you to abandon something you feel is absolutely important to you. Nevertheless, the truth is here to be seen. And now that I’m pointing it out, you know that if at a future time you read this, or anything like it, and it makes you angry or it disturbs you, that it means that you are engaging in, with vigor, in the act of self-protection and authority. And now you know that the call is for you to abandon it—to stop valuing it and to use whatever self-discipline is necessary to accomplish that task—even though you don’t feel like doing it, even though you feel like indulging in your anger or your seemingly justifiable distress. But …

you …

It’s established there forever. There’s been no variableness to it ever, even though you have indulged in self-assertion independent from and separate from your Father’s arms, your Father’s love, and your Father’s embrace.

the completion of God and His Son …

Well, what’s the bleak world of illusion? You can read that and say, “Oh yeah, I understand, I’m not gonna seek for it in the bleak world of illusion in this world … ya know … all of this is illusion, I’m not gonna seek for it there.”

But it isn’t about this world that you’re in. The bleak world of illusion is a concept you have, a mental context that you have that says you’re capable of thinking and that your thinking is valuable. And so, there’s the error. There’s where the correction needs to occur. And that’s why we have the two-step.

Now, as I said, you could say, “Oh, yeah, of course, I’m not gonna look for it in the bleak world of illusion …” talking about this world, and you’ve already done it! Because the statement that came out of your mouth [snaps fingers] so spontaneously and so confidently, was thinking! You were indulging in the bleak world of illusion. The world of the illusion that your thinking is dependable, accurate, constructive and can succeed in making you safe, healthy, wealthy and wise. You see?

You’ve already succumbed to the bleak world of illusion: The idea—the false idea—that your thinking is valuable, that it’s the beginning and the ending.

When you understand that the bleak world of illusion is the mindset that says your thinking is valuable, then you have a way to not seek for the completion of God and His Son—you—in thinking. You know not to do it. And that the way to have the experience of your Oneness with your Father become illuminated to you, is to shut up! And thereby not indulge in the bleak world of illusion. You see?

… the completion of God and of His Son which is established forever …

See? So now it’s clear to you that you don’t want to engage in this independent act of thinking that doesn’t involve intimacy at all. And therefore does not expose you to the forever experience of your safety and wholeness that has never changed and it’s your Birthright to be experiencing.

Continuing …

in the arms of God as God’s loved offspring who loves his Father, Mother …

What? Thinking, reasoning, judgments, pet theories and the belief that their use can be creative and cause things to actually, really happen.

nothing else, and ONLY this, just like the child that accepts it and ONLY that…

Again, every mother or father or aunt or uncle or brother or sister who has held an infant, who has yielded into the one who is holding him completely, understands what these words mean in their divine aspect relative to the holy Son of God that you Are and the means by which you can arrive at the conscious experience of it.

what? The bridge …

Now, you know that I don’t generally use the word, “knowledge” as much as I use the word, “knowing” because in a way, knowledge can be conceived to be bits of information, collections of bits of information, organized bits of information that you might be able to rattle off but never really understand, never really know.

And so, when it says …

it really means that it must lead to Knowing, the sort of knowing that you experience when you’re holding that child who’s gazing innocently and intimately into your eyes. You know something, you may not even be able to put it into words, but you know something and it’s not a bit of knowledge.

So …

knowing. Something significant.

the bridge that leads you to it …

not as a thought, “Oh, I’m neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing toward it. I’m at that point and did you know what? I understand myself therefrom.” Bullshit! The words mean something but they are to lead you to an experience … an experience … an experience of what? Intimacy, undefended intimacy where you have succumbed to your Father’s love, where you have yielded to it and experienced it so that you find Awakened in you an infinite love that you have for your Father. And in that experience, which is Knowing, and which this sentence calls “knowledge,” you and God are made whole. It’s beautiful.

You know what? To study the Course, to study the truth, to want to know the truth, to want to know the truth instead of error, to want to have instantaneous healings, these things are all valid wants—valid desires—and they will be yours when you abandon the last shred of the desire to be able to act in your own right independently. Because until you’ve abandoned it, you’re seeking for the completion of God and of His Son in the bleak world of illusion, of whatever effort you’re putting into the practice of your own thinking and your own supposed authority and your own attempts to make things happen all by yourself. And you don’t want to be looking for completion in the bleak world of illusion.

And now you know. And I’m going to reiterate it. The bleak world of illusion is not the world and universe, it’s the mindset in which thinking independently, being conscious independently, is seen to be valuable and real and an actual birthright that somehow the Father gave you for you to exercise as your birthright.

Why? Because it’s like the child pulling his eyes away from the intimacy with his parent and beginning to squirm and beginning to want to do what he wants to do. You see? And so, the wholeness is disturbed and the activity becomes a seeking for satisfaction outside of the bond of intimacy where it’s not present.

what does that mean? It means every idea, every thought, every collection of thoughts which you accept into your mind by judging it to be attainable, meaning by judging those collections of thoughts to have a capacity—to have an effect—and therefore cause something to be attainable…

it puts you in the orphan mindset. Orphans aren’t complete. They lack. They lack a source. They lack a father, they lack a mother.

And just as with the child, that wholeness will not be present until what? The child settles down and happens to look up … perhaps, “Oh … oh … Father, Mother … I see you. Oh-h, sorry I got distracted. This is much better than being distracted … I love you and you love me and I know it. And we know that each other knows it.”

That’s Knowing. That’s not a thought, that’s not an idea.

meaning, every spurious wild thought or even every minimal ignorant thought.

of the experience of Knowing that is intimate …

all these thoughts and ideas that you think can accomplish something …

So there you go. When the veil is lifted, it means that the screen, the sieve, the disturbance of thoughts will dissolve because you’ve stopped energizing them. And that which obscured the truth is gone and truth becomes clear—Knowing occurs. And mind you again, Knowing is an intimate experience.

Well, here’s where the work comes into play. Because you like the work of practicing illusions and of dealing with delusions and asserting what you think is a prerogative you have to be able to think and make things happen by virtue of your thoughts.

You’ve got to arrive where you’re unwilling to settle for illusion. You’ve got to be unwilling to settle for that activity and the promise of success that you believe is involved. And persist in choosing for your silence and your peace where the veil of thinking is no longer being energized.

But you love to think. And so you constantly energize the veil. And you’re familiar with that. And you’re familiar with the consequences and you can cope fairly well with it. And the main reason it’s worth it to you is because it makes you feel like you’re still in charge, when you’re not.

We started out:

But you are afraid to do it because you’re afraid to let go of the control you think you have, and the responsibility to exercise it that you think you have.

You know, when you start to listen for guidance, your Guide or the Holy Spirit will give you things to do that are new. You will be guided to do things like, “shut up … to be still,” right when you are confident that you must assert yourself in some way. And you must be willing to take the guidance, because after all, in the process of Waking up what’s going to happen? You’re going to be helped to abandon the very things that have kept you ignorant, kept you asleep, kept you in a state of suffering, even when you didn’t know that’s what was happening.

And so all of the things you have confidences about are things which the Holy Spirit or your Guide will be helping you to abandon. And that goes against your feeling of security because all of the exercises of power that you have engaged in you believe have made you safe or will make you safe, and your abandonment of them will make you vulnerable.

You’ve got to remind yourself of the child in its father’s arms or mother’s arms and see yourself there so that you might know that if you do abandon the authority you think you have to express, you will find an experience of safety that is really an experience of invulnerability, which means unthreatenable.

So, we’re talking about a change from autonomous independence to sheer simple undefended intimacy. From a place where fear is the only experience available to you to a place where utter love is the center and circumference of Being, your Being, your conscious experience and the Father’s, because you’ve let them be joined and therefore, you have discovered that they are inseparable and never were separated.

You see, there is a point to all of this. The point is not to cope with fear and get a handle on it, but to move through it like through a veil, like through a fog into the light. And if you want to have that experience, you’ve got to abandon what’s creating the experience. And what’s creating the experience of fear is every attempt you engage in to be and do and accomplish something autonomously—on you own.

You see, the answer is simple, but it’s exactly the opposite of what you are geared to do.

… and come out on the other side of it where you’re not dealing with it? And where you arrive on the other side of it because you didn’t deal with it but you persisted in wanting to see your Father’s Love in your Father’s eyes and you didn’t want anything else.

going through Love to fear …

You know what? No matter how much the baby frets right while he’s in your arms, there comes a point where he notices you again and gives his attention back to you and settles back down and feels his security. The call for help was there in his fretfulness. But he forgot where the help was and so he looked away and chose to act on his own and tried to satisfy his needs independently. You see?

see in the distress …

You see, He’s not stupid. [chuckles] He’s not suffering from ignorance. He’s not becoming distracted from you, just like the father and mother holding the babe is not distracted from the child.

what does that mean? … wholly without having thoughts about you, good ones or bad ones, grand ones or small ones. He doesn’t have any thoughts about you. He’s involved in the experience. He’s involved in the Knowing. And so He’s there for you the moment you notice Him again, you see, and make yourself available to the experience of Knowing that completes both of you.

You know what? If you have become distracted and you’re having your own thoughts and you’re valuing your own authority and you’re experiencing fear as a result, you’ve got to notice it. You’ve got to notice it clearly enough that you can make a decision to abandon what’s creating the fear. And right in the face of the urge to do something to get control, to provide yourself with a feeling of safety, you have to shut up and look into your Father’s eyes—you have to sift your attention.

Remember, your attention is God’s treasure. Well, God’s attention is your treasure.

You and every part of Creation.

meaning, the experience of Knowing that constitutes intimacy.

… the full circle, the Oneness as the wholeness that’s utterly indivisible and always has been.

“Oh, I know. Yeah, this is all beautiful stuff … um-m … beautiful. But you know what? I have real problems. And I don’t have time for this intimacy shit! I have things to take care of. I gotta protect my ass!”

Well, okay, seek for it in the bleak world of illusion until you get tired of it or remember what we’ve talked about and make the choice to abandon the bleak world of illusion and value the “intimacy shit” so that it ceases to be shit and becomes your most valuable asset. And learn to apply yourself, I’m going to say, to that goal diligently enough that no matter how strong the urge is that comes to you to take charge and begin thinking and coming to conclusions, you don’t do it. And you sit there or stand there and say, “Father, what is the truth here,” until you hear. Stick with it until you hear—yield, relax in the Father’s Love until you feel it because you will. There’s no alternative.

although you have …

You may have forgotten it, but you can’t fail to remember it.

the one you’ll cross over—that of you which is nothing more than your right Mind, waiting for this tiny-separated little sense of yourself that you’re indulging in to let down the boundaries so that you can let It in, when It is the remembrance of God in you. You see?

To what?

to stop squirming in your Father’s or Mother’s arms and relax and yield into the embrace.

… you know what that means? It’s almost complete right now. I know, we haven’t finished the book. But you know what? The completion is as close as your willingness to abandon your insistence upon thinking and asserting yourself as an orphan, as an independent entity—which you aren’t. You have almost recognized it, that …

Join with me or join with your Guide or join with the Holy Spirit. And …

or them …

turn away from all the thinking, let there be peace in you…

whether it’s you and me or you and the Holy Spirit or you and your Guide.

Now what does this mean, “We will take the last foolish journey AWAY from truth together?”

Well, because you are presently experiencing delusion, you need help out of it. And so you ask me or you turn to the Holy Spirit and the only thing that we are capable of doing in the final analysis is to help you turn away from illusion. But because in Reality there is no such thing as illusion, we’re helping you to do the last foolish journey—that of abandoning illusion. You see?

We’re helping you do something you can’t do. And we’re helping you undo something that you never did—but we are having to engage in the undoing of it. And that is why it says: “We will take the last foolish journey AWAY from truth together.”

To the degree that you and I decide to abandon illusions we are still engaging in a journey away from truth. But I know how to help you not get caught in lengthening the last foolish journey so that when we work together it gets undone.

Another shared experience of intimacy in which you abandon your self-assertion and yield to help, yield to the love I extend to you, yield to the love the Holy Spirit extends to you.

The undoing of illusion is the reestablishment of the intimacy of Being.

Now we have one more paragraph in this section, but we’re going to end there. I want you to stay with that. I want you to let it abide with you and I want you to be willing to abide with it.

And I know that during the coming week, you will still engage in self-assertion, self-protection and feel good about it. But you have a means to notice when you’re doing it and to recognize that, what? …you’re seeking for the completion of God and of His Son, which is established forever in the bleak world of illusion. And because you know that now, you can remind yourself and abandon the activity. And that’s a step in the right direction, and it’s healthy and it’s healing.

I love you. And I look forward to being with you all through the week and next time.