Teachings of Christ Mind

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

Last week … the last time we met we talked about intimacy. And many of you appreciated the illustration of the child—the infant being held in his Father’s or Mother’s arms and looking into their eyes and for lack of better words, connecting: An experience of intimacy.

And we talked about the fact that doing the two-step is an act of returning to intimacy after you’ve glanced away and become preoccupied with what? Your thoughts: things you might want to do, things that are irrelevant to your being held, your being in an intimate place of union—unity with That which identifies You to you, That which is your Source, That which when you look into His eyes, reminds you of who you truly Are because you recognize Who your Father truly is.

This is very important. You see, because you’re all very used to being on your own and capable, it doesn’t feel natural to you to be intimate at the expense of your autonomy. And yet that is, as we’ve been discussing, the simple act which embodies coming Home—coming back into your right Mind.

Now, many of you have engaged in the two-step and have heard the Father or your Guide or me or the Holy Spirit illumine you with Knowing. And the idea of experiencing Knowing seems very desirable—something to look forward to—and of course, it is. But since the experience of Knowing is a result of a union, which has occurred because you have abandoned autonomy—independence—it’s something that is in direct opposition to everything you’ve been engaged in prior to doing the two-step, entering into intimacy.

And so, this experience may not set well with you and you need to understand that, in many cases, because it’s going to require you to abandon a false state of independence. It is going to seem to be something that you need to bring mighty resistance to. And even if it doesn’t seem to you that you need to, your knee-jerk responses will.

The truth revealed is going to move you out of the crab-barrel. It’s going to move you out of the orphanage. It’s going to move you out of the arena of mortality. It’s going to move you out of the context of sin, disease and death. It’s going to cause your lives to be noticeably different, noticeably improved, noticeably desirable.

But if it’s going to be at the cost of your independence, you’re not likely to embrace it wholeheartedly, immediately. You need to know this so that you won’t think something has gone wrong and so that you might know that you need to persist.

Now I’m going to give you a very practical example: About five weeks ago, Paul and Susan found out that as a result of a road-widening project on the street where they live—where the Foundation is—there is going to be considerable loss of planting. A tree is going to have to be moved. A fence is going to have to be put up when they’re through. New planting is going to have to be done. And none of this will be inexpensive—and this right on the heels of a request that was sent out to everyone inviting help in paying for the property taxes.

They did the two-step. No, first they reacted. First they engaged in righteous thinking. And then, because it is their habit, they very quickly engaged in the two-step. And they were surprised as a result of the intimacy that they let themselves into, they were surprised to hear me say that it was time for them to move. It is time for the Foundation to relocate.

This was a Knowing that I was sharing. Exactly what I’ve been telling everyone they can expect to happen when they do the two-step, when they desire to know “What is the truth here?” In that act of intimacy, the truth will be revealed.

Well you can count on it, Paul began thinking immediately, “My God, we had to ask for help with the property taxes. Now, we’re going to have humungous expense just to repair the effects of the road-widening. And now you’re saying that it’s time to move?” I shared with them, “Yes, that it was time to move, that the location was no longer fulfilling its purpose. The needs were no longer able to be met by the location. And it was time.”

Well, more thinking occurred: “This is the most impractical time to ask for help—to need help—the economy is terrible, everyone is worried …”

And I said, “Yes, but fulfillment isn’t dependent upon current circumstances. Fulfillment is dependent upon doing the two-step, listening, joining in the intimacy and hearing what the next appropriate step is.”

Why? Because when you’re joined, you are inhabiting the place where God’s laws prevail. And what I am sharing and have been sharing with Paul and Susan applies to everyone else in this so-called depressed economy. Because your well-being—fulfillment of purpose—is not dependent upon the economy that is reflecting everyone’s fear and unwillingness to spend. And as a result of not spending, it increases the problem and the fear.

Now, that doesn’t mean that the answer is just to go out and spend and do the opposite. The requirement is to do the two-step so that you might enter again into intimacy. You see, you must enter into the intimacy because it’s only there that you remember who you Are … only there that you remember who you Are—that you are the holy Son or Daughter of God and that all that God is has not been withheld from you in His expression of you. And therefore, there are things for you to do. There are places for you to spend your money. There are places for you not to spend your money, and so on and so forth.

There are things to do that identify fulfillment of purpose in that place where God’s laws reign.

All of you need to be challenging the belief that you are at a disadvantage because of the world economy. No. If you are at a disadvantage, it is because you are in your Father’s Arms, not looking in His eyes, looking everywhere else and being fretful. That’s why. And all the time you’re doing it, the circumstances that negate the fear are present. The Arms are there. You’re in those Arms. All you have to do is the two-step and move into the intimacy again, remember who you Are, which will immediately bring your peace to you and help you to be able to hear the next thing to do or the explanation as to why the distressing thing you’ve already been told is a blessing, why you can dare to yield back into your Father/Mother’s Arms and trust yourselves to them.

For five weeks Paul and Susan have attended to looking for places to live at my direction. They love their home. They love where the work is being done. They don’t want to move. In many ways, despite the drawbacks, it seems to be perhaps, better than any of the places they’ve looked at. Their heart holds onto what they’re familiar with and what they hadn’t considered there might be a possibility they would have to leave.

Why am I bringing this up? A couple of good reasons. But one of them is, none of you will ever be free of this call for intimacy that might cause you to hear something you don’t want to hear because fulfillment that’s greater than you’re familiar with and that you’re totally in love with, is ready for you and it’s time for you to embrace it. It’s time for you not to labor under the idea that you must sacrifice or do with what doesn’t work quite properly anymore because of growth that has occurred.

And when this happens, you must—after reacting—engage in the two-step again. Come back to the Father—come back to the Holy Spirit—and say in so many words, “Well, if You say this is going to happen, if You say this needs to happen, You must see how it’s going to happen. I’m going to stop saying it can’t happen. I’m going to abandon the feeling that I don’t want it to happen and that I’m not going to cooperate with it and I really want to hear how this is going to work. What do we do?”

Now, when Paul asked me, I said we will write a letter to everyone on the mailing list, to everyone who accesses the website and share the need. Do you think Paul just sat there and said, “Oh-h, Okay … when can we start?” [chuckle] No. This is going to involve a lot of money, he thought, you know, he says, “I don’t like to even indicate when there’s a need for help with the property taxes because contributions are not overwhelmingly abundant.”

You know, there was a feeling of inequality that he felt such a letter would bring up in everyone. “Why should we help Paul? We have needs of our own. Why can’t they do with less?” Thinking … he was thinking, obviously … right?

And of course, what I’m bringing up this evening is going to make all of you think too … and so just be alert for it. And I would ask, what level of poverty would you rather establish than the level of abundance that you could express by sharing—by sharing more than you might think you have?

I’ve asked that question of Paul and Susan before when they bought a new car instead of a used car. And that felt overwhelmingly abundant and perhaps luxurious just to have a new car. And it wasn’t a Rolls Royce, it was just a car. And I asked them, “What level of poverty would you rather have established?”

And then a couple days later when Paul looked across the street and noticed something he hadn’t seen before. The people across the street, in an average house, in an average neighborhood where they lived, had the same kind of car that had just been purchased and right beside it in the driveway was a boat. And there was nothing outlandish about it. It was just more abundance than he was inclined to conceive as simply normal for him.

When you move into the realm where God’s laws prevail, wholeness is embodied … for everyone who is willing to move into that place where God’s laws prevail. And where is that place? In the intimacy: in the intimacy that is the result of the two-step.

Now, going into the Book:

Well, you know what? Special relationships are agreements, agreements with others to function independent of God. Special relationships are relationships which are a denial of God’s Presence. But how do you engage in those relationships? By means of thought and ideas which you put together in specific ways for specific effects to make something happen, in other words.

So, special relationships distilled down to their essence are constituted of thinking. If thinking of any kind would hinder God’s completion, can it have value to you?

Of course, God’s completion is your completion. It’s what happens in that moment of intimacy where you Know that He Knows that you Know and He Knows that you Know that He knows. Anything other than that can have no value for you and doesn’t and never has had.

Paul and Susan are having to make that decision to abide with the Knowing that occurs in the intimacy of the two-step rather than highly value their best judgments and their best conditionings that they have put into place as they have lived life and come to conclusions about how things work best when they’re not experiencing intimacy. You see?

So, right now, I’m dictating the letter that I told Paul we would be sharing with everyone. And when it is transcribed it will be mailed out to everyone.

You know, you just can’t say, “You shouldn’t have a need,” or “If you had done something else, you wouldn’t have this need.” If there was no need, there would be no Course In Miracles. If there was no need, you would already be Awake.

And as I’ve said before, the miracle is going to relate to exactly where you are and exactly the things you are encountering in your daily life. Because what you are encountering in your daily life is the Kingdom of Heaven not seen clearly at the moment—when clarity of Vision is your Birthright and calls for correction of your current poor vision.

Love is most needed, and you might say, most available where there seems to be lack of one sort or another—whether it ought to be there or not according to somebody’s judgment.

Needs are needs, and that they be met is inevitable. For them to be met, you could say, is what their purpose is. They’re not to be ignored. They’re not to be risen above. They are the place where clarity of vision, insight—the insight that is the result of intimacy with the Father—occurs and comes to bear upon the situation and shows wholeness instead of need.

So you must dare to face into them—the needs. And not deny them and not criticize yourself for having them… you know.

At one point my disciples asked, regarding a young man, “Who sinned, him or his father?” And I shared with them, it had nothing to do with sin or who sinned or who was responsible but it was for the glory of God. In other words, it was an opportunity for the experience of intimacy in which the need—the lack—would dissolve, disappear, because God is God and God is all there is to the Sons and Daughters of God.

And so everything is a miracle waiting to happen, is the truth waiting to be seen and for wholeness to be experienced because it fulfills purpose. Not because it was earned, not because it was deserved, but because God is All.

Continuing:

Well, if your thinking distracts you from looking into your Father’s eyes, it causes you to forget who you Are. It causes you to experience this illusion, this artificial sense of separateness, which isn’t true at all because you’re still secure in the arms of your Father, in His embrace… in His attention.

So what does that mean? It means when you engage in the two-step and when intimacy occurs and truth is shared, and it’s not what you expected, and it goes against everything that you have believed, you must persist in looking at your Father’s eyes and not turning your head away, not frowning and squinching up your eyes so that you forget to see your Father and become preoccupied with the stress of being upset.

Well, time could be the process of thinking—this thought leads to that thought, leads to another thought, leads to a conclusion—and none of it has been inspired by a moment of intimacy or Knowing and therefore, it’s all false, it is all unhelpful, it all distracts you from the very thing that would bring you your peace, although it will be a peace at a new level, a peace that is experienced because you’re willing to place yourself where God’s laws prevail. Where is that? In the intimacy.

the Father …

You know… wonderful, perhaps flowery words. Now, I’m going to engage you in the practicality of those words. I’m inviting everyone, because there is an actual need, to be willing to consider contributing to this move, which will be quite expensive because it will involve the purchasing of a new residence before the old residence is sold. So we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of thousands of dollars or hundreds of dollars.

Thinking occurring? Anybody suffering from thinking at this moment? … oh, personal responsibility, inequity?

But wait a minute… Paul is standing… Susan is standing at the edge of the impossible and they’re asking me, “What next?” And I’m saying, that what’s next is exactly what’s happening at this moment. Paul is giving voice to what I’m sharing. Because what I’m sharing is the practicality of these beautiful words:

What does that mean? From lack into that place where God’s laws prevail, which is where, in the intimacy that occurs when you dare to abandon your independence and yield into and partner with the Father without your having the edge in the partnership.

So what I’m saying and what you’re hearing is not calling for you to think, but it’s calling for you to do exactly what Paul and Susan are doing and what I have described.

Those with hundreds of thousands of dollars can contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those with hundreds of dollars can contribute hundreds of dollars and those with dollars can contribute dollars … not because I just said that those with hundreds of thousands of dollars can and therefore should. The point is when you get into the intimacy of the two-step and you listen, what you will hear will fit you.

Now it may call upon you to do what you call stretching, but that’s only because you have a tendency to stay small, you have a tendency to hold onto the status-quo, just as Susan and Paul do. And there’s need for expansion. There’s need for you to come not only to an intellectual realization, but a realization as a result of actual intimacy that where God’s laws prevail, you are whole. And now your Birthright involves your having—not your lack—and involves your having what meets your simplest most basic needs so that you’re not existing in a state of tension because you’re managing to do without because of your great faith that everything will be alright even though you lack.

It’s not appropriate for you to be stuck in that. And it’s not appropriate for you to read the paper or listen to the news and come to the conclusion that because everyone in the world is believing that the economy is bad that God’s laws don’t prevail anywhere and aren’t available to you as a result of the two-step and as a result of the intimacy in which even for a brief moment you realize who you Are and what your Birthright is and it doesn’t seem so unimaginable to you and you’re a little bit more at ease with it. And you’re a little less likely to insist upon more poverty than what the Father would give you.

The need to move to a new location is actual. It has nothing to do with wants. If Susan and Paul could have what they want they would stay right here. Oh, does that mean that the Father may force your good upon you? I hope so! I’m in support of that.

It’s your Birthright not to be experiencing lack. And it’s your Birthright to be experiencing your wholeness even though everyone else believes it’s impossible because it’s just a material world and it’s just human beings and it’s just egos trying to survive in a dualistic polarized environment. It’s not true! Paul at this moment, is joining me in letting that fact be voiced in the world, where the news is voicing other things. And he’s not voicing something that’s going to give him an advantage while everyone else is at a disadvantage. No! Because the point is that there is a place where God’s laws reign. And it’s in the place that all of you have available to you. It’s in the place of intimacy, when you abandon your independence and desire to know something other than your best judgments or someone else’s best judgments… “What is the truth here? What do I need to know? What do I need to do?” And if you have to ask it, “How can I engage in it without being afraid that I’m going to be sacrificing?”

Again:

the realm of thinking and thought processes …

Who gave wholeness to you, allness to you …

The problem is you think you do. And you’re confident about what you think. You’re confident about what you believe. But …

Why? Because any understanding you have hasn’t come from the experience of intimacy where you’ve looked into your Father’s eyes and He Knows that you know that He knows and you know that He knows that you know, where a Knowing has occurred that reveals and confirms to you Who the two of you Are and what the two of you aren’t.

the bridge …

the nature of the intimacy …

… Home, clarity, sanity and needs met. Don’t be ashamed of your needs. Your real needs, when they are met, convey to you in a way nothing else can that there is a God. When your wants are met it conveys nothing except you got what you wanted. And at the bottom line, you know the difference between your wants and your needs.

why? Because that’s where God’s laws prevail, that’s the Kingdom of Heaven.

You see, where God’s laws prevail all that God is, is all that is there—completeness forever, wholeness forever, the Movement of Creation forever.

What’s the veil? The curtain of thoughts, the curtain of beliefs that you hold—that you hold up between you and everything you see.

no curtain of thoughts …

See… joining, intimacy, revelation and the willingness to persist in staying there no matter how radically you are lifted out of the crab barrel in the process.

Follow it with the Holy Spirit. Follow it with the Father’s Guidance. See… with … with … with … follow it with me in the intimacy of joining, in the intimacy that occurs when you’re not holding yourself apart in any way and not wanting to.

Now, again I indicate that there is a substantial opportunity to contribute to the meeting of a need, the purpose of which is to make it easy for Paul and Susan to do exactly what’s happening tonight, to extend my words, to give voice to the truth that heals and transforms.

And I’m going to say that I require no one to do it because I’m Jesus. Do you understand? Do it as a result of joining with the Holy Spirit or the Father or me in the intimacy of your Being, so that it is a gift and not an obedience. I cannot be too clear about that. And you do not want the confusion that will follow making a gift that’s not a gift because it was an obedience.

The need is immediate. It is time. It is time for the movement to begin. The need is now.

Enjoy finding out how your love will look. I love you all and I look forward to being with you next time.