Teachings of Christ Mind

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

Tonight we’re not going to be reading from the Course. Tonight is a night for gratitude. And for a change, I’m not going to say anything for a few minutes because Paul wants to say something and it’s something only Paul can say and it’s something Paul needs to say.

PAUL: Okay. This is me, Paul. As many of you know, just a little bit over a month ago, Raj announced that he had told us that it was necessary for the Foundation to move to a new location. He said it during the Study Group and invited everyone’s support.

Since that time, up until this morning, a total of a hundred and three thousand dollars has been contributed—an amazing amount, an awesome amount.

And then today, someone offered five hundred thousand dollars towards the purchase of the new house. That’s six hundred and three thousand dollars in just a little over thirty days.

Now, that does something to someone. It certainly gives me pause … it certainly causes me to … well … feel very humble. That’s a lot of appreciation expressed … that’s a lot of love extended … I mean, an almost incomprehensible amount.

Now, you may have all thought that, uh … um … “Paul’s been listening to Raj for twenty some years.” But you know what? I’ve never listened in those twenty some years as diligently as I have in the last month.

When so much love is expressed, and when, as the saying goes, “everyone has put their money where their mouth is,” it causes me to make absolutely sure that I’m listening and hearing correctly because I don’t want to mis-use or disrespect the Gift that everyone is giving. And so in many ways, the last month has been hard work—diligent work.

But you know what? It has brought me to a clearer point in my relationship to Raj and relative to what he’s been teaching about the holy instant, about the fact that when we go into that place and abandon our privacy and ask for help and yield to the Father, that although this seems to be a strange activity or a not-so-normal activity, it’s really a matter of coming back into an absolutely normal activity.

For me to be listening as diligently as I have had to listen for the last month, has, as I’m beginning to grasp in a deeper way, been me coming back into a more natural way of being. It’s certainly a way of being more consciously than I was used to—more conscientiously conscious than I used to.

I can’t say that it feels natural yet. But I appreciate more than you can imagine the meaning that your Gifts have had for me. I still need to yield more. I still need to listen more attentively, you know, because although it seems like work, I am beginning to grasp feelingly, that I really don’t want to be living in any way unconscious. To be listening in all respects is to put one’s self in the position of hearing in all respects—Knowing in all respects.

When I’ve been thinking for myself, I’ve been being lazy and I’ve also been inattentive—inattentive to the Meaning of Reality because I’ve been preoccupied with the fun of my own thinking.

Now at this point, I am in awe of the love that everyone has expressed and extended. And I’m also in awe of the emerging practical awareness of what it’s meant when Raj has said that when you go into the holy instant, when you practice the holy instant, you go into a place where God’s laws prevail.

You know, no one can drum up six hundred and three thousand dollars. No one can drum up or generate contributions, at least not with the few words that have been said with respect to the need for contributions.

And so the miraculous has happened—that which I know I’m not responsible for has happened. And all of those who have contributed have been reflecting God’s laws prevailing, allowing for the unreasonable to manifest.

You know, to have five hundred thousand dollars show up, to have a hundred and three thousand dollars show up, would ordinarily have caused me to be greatly excited. And mind you, I am amazed, but you may not hear joy in my voice tonight, at least not giddy excitement. You’re hearing sober appreciation—deep love extended back to all of those who have extended love.

And so, I have to say thank you. I have to express my gratitude back.

Sure, Raj could have conveyed to you what I meant to say, or what I was really feeling, but the gratitude had to be my expression.

Thank you.

RAJ: Good evening once again.

So, brass tacks: Six hundred and three thousand out of seven hundred, nineteen thousand which is the cost of the new property. Yes, I’m quite capable of talking numbers and of not speaking in utterly spiritual terms. But you know what? If you don’t know what the need is, you don’t know what to listen for.

I’ve talked a lot over the years about the fact that “need given attention” is the way you deal with need. You don’t ignore it, you don’t rise above it, you don’t put it out of sight and out of mind. You pay attention to need because need is where fulfillment is emerging.

Most of everything you experience is not being experienced by you as the Kingdom of Heaven, so there is more there to be experienced. But you know what? Where you’re having a difficulty, or where you’re having a need, is that part of the Kingdom of Heaven where the fulfillment is emerging, where the Kingdom of Heaven that it actually is, is becoming visible.

And so, instead of saying, “Oh-h, I have a need, I’m in lack … poor me … I’m going to worry about it. I’m going to fret about it. Boy it sure makes me look like a schmuck to have the need …” and blah…blah…blah…blah…blah.

You can do that, or you can say, “I’m going to look squarely at the need. I’m going to acknowledge it. There seems to be a lack here,” … and I’m pointing out to you that there’s lack everywhere where you’re not seeing the Kingdom of Heaven… “but there’s lack here,” and because it is uncomfortable it’s worthy of your attention because that’s where your limits are being stretched to the breaking point so that there’s no more bondage and so that the fullness that your limits were imposing on the Kingdom of Heaven can register with you as the Kingdom of Heaven—as fulfillment.

So, shall we all give attention to the need so as to watch for the miracle. And in the watching for the miracle become aware of what part we might or might not play. Because in paying attention to the need, it involves engaging in the two-step, so that you’re saying, “Father” … you’re stepping back from the need, from the uncomfortableness and you’re saying, “Father, what is the truth here? Father, show me what needs to be known.” And perhaps you listen to it. Perhaps you listen for the answer with more diligence than you have in the past, just as Paul has been listening for the Guidance more diligently than in the past. And in that more diligent practice of listening you find yourself coming into a newer appreciation of your capacity to be conscious as the holy Son of God instead of the poor little orphan, you know, with all the lack and all the problems.

So we still have what? … a hundred and sixteen thousand, which on the one hand can seem to be a great deal of money, but by comparison with the six hundred and three thousand that’s already present, we’re almost there. It’s a pittance. It’s a small portion. And you can just as easily look at it from that perspective and not overwhelm yourself with the sense of impossibility. You see?

Now, why do you do that? So that you can envision a lot of money as though it’s not a lot of money? So that you can try to embrace it because it’s not quite so much to embrace as you thought it was? No. You listen so that you might come into clearer communion with the Holy Spirit or your Guide or the Father—the Father’s perspective. You do it not to overcome anything, but to be so in harmony with everything, as everything divinely is, that its divinity shows up, registers with you and looks like abundance or looks like dollars or looks like needs met … or looks like injury vanishing, illness disappearing. You see?

So, I’m inviting everyone to bring their attention to the need, not with any personal sense of responsibility, but with a desire to see God’s perspective manifesting, and wondering if there’s any tangible way you can play a part in it.

Now, you know what? This could be interpreted as my trying to generate an attitude in you of wanting to give. That’s not what I’m talking about.

What I’m talking about is you—everyone—daring to become less impartial, daring to become less of an observer of things without being effected by them, without being (and here’s the word) involved in them, because involvement is another word for unity. It’s the opposite of independence. And involvement with your Brother, with the desire to see the evidence of Love and to be the evidence of Love, constitutes a breaking of the isolation, which brings you on your way Home. And that’s the point!

And you know what? The other one hundred and sixteen thousand dollars plus the expenses of moving and so on, that will come into play, are excellent focuses for your abandoning your isolation and so that you might feel your wholeness, your togetherness—so that you might feel Family.

Wholeness doesn’t just mean that all of you is present, like the bowl became big enough to hold all of you. No, wholeness is you being big enough to hold everyone and everything in conscious involvement, where no one of your Brothers or Sisters is lost to your attention, has not disappeared out of your range of vision because you’re not paying as much attention as you could be.

Wholeness is you in total involvement with all of the Brotherhood and all of Creation.

You know what? Every single one who has made contributions, has expressed Love and has felt his or her Love in the act of giving, whether it was two dollars, whether it was fifty cents or whether it was two thousand five hundred dollars.

You know what we’re teaching? We’re teaching how to stop being strangers to each other. We’re learning how to look into each other’s eyes, instead of elsewhere, and remembering God. Thank you.

You do not realize how extensive is your gift of attention and Love. The Brotherhood—universally speaking, those who are Awake—feel the Love that you are expressing. Not because you gave it to the Northwest Foundation, not because you gave it because you value Paul, not that you gave it because Jesus said to do it, but because in the lowered defensiveness, in the greater defenselessness of you in the act of giving, the divine one that you Are is uncovered… more uncovered and therefore felt more greatly, no matter where you give, no matter how much. The Love that identifies union to some degree or other illuminates Creation—re-illuminates It—by your Light, which you have kept hidden. And we all rejoice.

I will be instructing Paul to make another offer on this house to secure it. And I know he will listen perhaps too intensely to make sure that he is hearing me correctly and so that he is in no way abusing or disrespecting the Love and the gift that everyone has made and is making.

And I am grateful that this situation is putting him in that position because I get to enjoy his company so much more than before. And he is beginning to feel the enjoyment of it himself. And the more he does, the more willingly he will join further. And that’s the point.

I love you all, every one of you. Thank you … thank you … thank you.