Teachings of Christ Mind

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

Before we go into the Book tonight, I want to discuss something that isn’t discussed as often as it ought to be. And it’s the meaning of the word, “correction.” It’s a word found many times in the Course. Correction could, in some ways, be called the goal of the Course. It is to correct misperceptions.

And of course, the biggest and truly only misperception there is, is the idea—the imaginary idea—that each of you are independent, autonomous, self-starters who came from a sperm and a egg … a fluke of nature that happens to have become a dominant force of nature, you might say, at least on your planet.

Survival of the fittest, as we’ve discussed extensively is the underlying engine of being. And this is a misperception. This misperception must be corrected.

And that’s what all of this is about.

All of this time we’ve spent talking, considering, reading the Course, and here we are talking about the two-step: The place where you hesitate, you shut up your mind, you abandon your confidences in what you believe and you reach outside of “the box” of your mentality—your self-constructed mentality and you say of God or the Holy Spirit or the “Powers that be,”—That which is the cause of everything—“What is the truth here?” And then you remain silent and you listen. And that silence, that space of time, if you will, is the holy instant.

Now, the holy instant is the place in which God’s laws prevail. And I have said this many times over the past few months. And I’ve said it in the way that I know is reassuring to everyone. In other words, it is reassuring to know that if you practice the holy instant, if you practice the two-step and go into the Silence with genuine curiosity to know the truth beyond your present sense of the truth of everything, that you indeed move into a place where God’s laws prevail and nothing else does. It’s reassuring to know that.

But here’s something that most everyone tends to overlook. If there is a place where God’s laws prevail, in other words, govern absolutely, then there are laws, aren’t there? There are principles, if I may put it that way. This means that there are structures according to which you must be.

There are not just guidelines … “Well, it would be helpful if you did this … and it would be a good thing if you did that…” There are absolute laws: Thou cannot have sin, disease or death. You cannot be an orphan successfully. You cannot ignore the truth and be comfortable. You cannot make up your own definitions and replace the Real ones with them and feel secure.

Now, put more positively: The laws of God say obedience to truth—love of truth—heals, transforms, causes the laws of the God to become visible to you as an experience, not just an intellectual theory.

You must abide by the way things work if you would experience Heaven here and now.

So, although many love the phrase from the Course that says, “You need do nothing,” the fact is that what that means is, you must stop doing what doesn’t work. You must stop doing what amounts to nothing. You must stop doing what causes illusion—delusion—and binds you to a suffering sense of existence.

That’s what the law of God says. Those are what the laws of God say. They require something of you.

Now there are many who say that the Course is not about miracles as demonstrations of the miraculous. Well maybe it’s not. But it is about correction, isn’t it. No one will deny that. Okay.

So you plant a seed and an Amaryllis begins to come up and the leaves are well-formed and the color is beautiful and the stalk gets longer. And as it gets longer, it suddenly seems to stop. Some of the other leaves grow further, but when the stalk comes out that has the flowers, it’s bent to the left and doesn’t reach the height that it ought to have and it’s beauty is marred by its growth being stunted … we’ll call it that.

Well, is everyone spiritually magnanimous and does everyone look at it and say, “It’s still the loveliness of God and even though it’s not ultimate, I will appreciate everything about it. And I know that although the flower might not be standing tall and proud and majestic, it’s still going to be quite enjoyable and I’m going to bring my love and appreciation to it … as it is, of course, stunted.”

And that can be considered miraculous thinking. That can be considered you fulfilling your function of acknowledging God in each and every thing and glorifying God in each of every thing and not filling yourself with sadness or a little bit of remorse because it’s not quite what it could be.

But I’m going to ask you: Where is the correction? What is correction? Why it’s a miracle. It’s a sudden shift of perception, isn’t it?

But a sudden shift of perception that isn’t identified by correction is not miraculous and it is not a miracle.

Now, what if this alteration in growth appears to be happening to a child—your child, perhaps your grandchild, your niece or nephew? Do you commit yourself to helping them have the best life they can under the circumstances? Do you maybe, do the two-step and say, “Father, what is the truth here?” And if you experience an influx of clarity, an influx of the comprehension of the truth as an experience within you, and it is so clear to you that, let us say, you aren’t fooled by the appearance even though the appearance hasn’t changed, and you feel grateful and perhaps you think that is miraculous and that is a miracle—that that is all there is to a sudden shift of perception.

I’m telling you that it’s not.

There’s something called, “Follow-through.” And that’s what I want to address tonight because most everyone doesn’t really comprehend the miracles that A Course In Miracles is about.

You tell me what on earth it could possibly mean for you to take steps which constitute the Bridge to the Real World that we’re going to be talking about. You tell me what on earth Meaning there can be to practicing the holy instant and not seeing evidence of God’s laws prevailing?

If you’re not seeing the lengthening of limbs, if you’re not seeing the symmetry of a plant restoring itself, you haven’t tapped A Course In Miracles!

And you know what? You sort of glide along in a sense of hope and a sense of confidence and general uplift, not a spectacular uplift, but a general uplift that’s a little bit better than what everyone else is experiencing. And you think that’s all that it’s about. You think that’s all you deserve. You think that’s all that you can have. Because, of course, A Course In Miracles is about something else: It’s just about a head-trip—a shift of perception.

Your misperception is always a misperception of the Kingdom of Heaven. Your misperception is always a misperception of Reality—God’s Reality—the Presence of God illuminating Itself, manifesting Itself infinitely, gloriously, flawlessly, indivisibly without conflict, polarity or anything unlike Itself.

If you’re not seeing it, there’s a need for correction. The need for correction practiced, and I’m going to say, accomplished, is going to be you seeing the Kingdom of Heaven, seeing God’s Creation right here, right in front of you—the hand at the end of your arm, the limb of your granddaughter or grandson that’s shortened, you’re going to see correction of it. Why? Because you’re going to see Reality, you’re going to see what God is Being right there, flawlessly, eternally, unchangeably, beautifully.

Hey, if there isn’t a Real World to see, then there’s no need for a bridge to a Real World, is there?

And so, here’s the point: When you are observing things that call for correction and you’re sort of giving a cursory blessing to it, or even a blessing that is a little bit more diligent, with a little bit more conscious intent, if you’re not sticking with it until you have experienced the shift of perception that constitutes the miracle, you will not see the correction and you’re still going to be asleep! You’re still going to be dreaming.

“Well, you know, I’ve been studying the Course… you know. We have problems from time to time, in fact there’s a problem going on right now and I’m doing my best to live the Course relative to it. I really don’t know what to do …”

Well, we’ve been talking about what to do. What I’m bringing up tonight is, that when you do the two-step and you don’t see the correction, then there’s still a call for correction, isn’t there … a call of correction for what? Your perception!

And so it’s not time to put it down. It’s not time to abandon it. It’s not time to say, “Well, that’s going on out there, and it’s part of God’s Creation and I’ve done my best to bless it, but of course, you know there are circumstances that are contributing to it and they complicate things. And I don’t have control over all of those things. Hey, maybe the plant doesn’t want to be healed. Maybe it’s part of that child’s karma to have a shortened limb … maybe it was part of the lesson-plan for this lifetime.” BULLSHIT!

You must be alert and you must not let yourself be sucked into lackadaisical, irresponsible, lazy, slipshod patterns of behavior and think that you’re practicing A Course In Miracles or getting what it means.

“Well, Raj, you say, ‘The only right use of will is not to use it.’ I love that phrase, Raj … ‘The only right use of will is to choose not to use it … to not practice self-will … to abandon willfulness.’”

Oh, indeed, yes. But I didn’t say sit down and sog like a lump of silly putty, or bread-dough that just flattens out and becomes sluggish and useless.

No. The only right use of will—meaning human will—is to choose not to use it. When you choose not to use human will, you do find yourself moving into a place of, for lack of better words, willingness … will-ing-ness … willing to be present with, to cooperate with, to not assert yourself instead of something else and to let yourself fit in with the something else. And when that expression of intense self-will is abandoned, something spontaneously happens, like harmony is experienced and you don’t feel at odds with everything. And you begin to feel the meaning of everything and how you fit into it. And you find that in the absence of your willfulness, it becomes very clear to you how to be … how to be, not how to sog … how to be—a verb, a vital active verb: to be. To be what? To be perfect … to be perfectly appropriate. And so that means you’re going to do something.

You are going to do things. You are going to be the movement of appropriateness. And so, you will act. But the action will not come out of self-will, it will not come out of the orphan mindset. It will arise in you because the Something that you have let yourself be part of—to blend with, to fit in with—is the rest of you, which really means it’s all of God.

And so, what God is Being becomes reflected in your actions. Will is expressed. This must be understood. You will not end up doing nothing. You will be the fullness of the expression of God in all appropriateness, at every given moment. Which means that everything you engage in will be ultimately meaningful, ultimately valuable, divinely Real.

And so, you know what? Since this is what happens when you practice the holy instant and go into the silence and un-separate yourself from your Source you will come into the fullness of your Being. And your actions will, in every way, correct or allow for the correction to become visible to you. Because you’re not going to give up your attentiveness to the Father’s Perspective until every last speck of illusion is gone, until every last thing calling for correction is corrected … you know.

It’s also said that everything is Love or a call for Love.

Well, what is a call for Love?

It’s a call for correction. And the correction must be Love expressed … Right?

So you don’t put down the Love until the correction is accomplished. You persist, in other words. What does that mean? You persist in control? No, you persist in preparing your mind to have the true perception. You persist in bring your attention to that place where God’s laws prevail and where therefore, His perfection is available for you to experience and where your capacity to be utterly and perfectly appropriate—because the Father’s Will is what is finding expression in you—allows healing to be experienced by others.

This is extremely important.

The Bridge to the Real World is the natural next place to bring yourself to—the holy instant. Why? So that you might be happy in your illusions? So that you might continue to see something else right where the Kingdom of Heaven is? No! But so that you can see Reality as it is right here, right now. That’s the whole point.

Now the new section: The Bridge To The Real World, begins:

Why does it say that? Because it’s the orphan, it’s the independent authorizer who has gotten a divorce from his Father, who seeks and values the special relationship because its existence or its seeming existence as a viable entity independent from the Father can only be experienced that way when there’s a mutual agreement to that misperception. It’s the only way. And so a special relationship is essential.

To the orphan mindset.

Now:

… that’s because it’s only when it has special value that it contributes to, reinforces and seems to substantiate the actuality of an independent agent, separate and apart from God, his Father/Mother. You see?

What does that mean “unnatural”? It means it doesn’t fit in with the laws of God. It calls for correction. It calls for specific, disciplined, consistent hanging in there, desiring to know the truth, see the truth, feel the truth, have an experience of Reality right where your conditioning is blocking you from it. 


Simple, pure consistency … uncomplicated … doesn’t change as it goes down the road becoming something else a little bit different, not quite like its original. No …

No other mutual agreement that anyone comes to about it can change it from what it is. And any attempt to redefine it and agree to believe the misunderstanding will cause you not to understand what Love is. And it calls for correction, persistent intent to answer the call for Love, to answer the need for correction until you have the transformative experience of it that can be photographed and recognized by all.

And, you know what? Reality is photographable. The Kingdom of Heaven is experienceable. And the Kingdom of Heaven is everything you’re experiencing without flaws, without having any misuse assigned to it, without being capable of harm in any way. You see? Identifying fulfillment totally.

“Oh, well you know, I didn’t really know that I was supposed to look forward to an actual healing. I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to just settle for three-quarters of the fulfillment or some fulfillment that just slightly skewed—beautiful but recognizably not perfect. I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to be happy with that.” 
That’s like saying, “I didn’t know that a call for correction was really a call for correction!” 
Now I’m not making fun of anyone. I am conveying to you that a call for correction is a call for correction that takes you all the way to the conscious, tangible experience of the Kingdom of Heaven … here … in this lifetime … now. That’s what this is about. There are laws of God. There are principles. There are ways to behave.

And you know what? The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes are very helpful, but you know where I want you to go to get the laws of God? I want you to go into the holy instant. I want you to go into the silence of your Being where you have abandoned being willful, where you have abandoned determining the meaning of everything for yourself, where you have abandoned commitment to the meanings that everyone else has given you, that you have accepted without once having had a direct, inner experience of the law of God, which is Love and the laws of God that fulfill the law of Love in infinite ways.

Don’t go to the list in the book. Go within. “Oh, I think that’s called the two-step. And I think that’s the way you practice the holy instant.” And now it’s clearer than ever before why you’re practicing the holy instant. Not just so that you might experience the fact that here is where God’s laws prevail. But the fact that because here in that inner altar of your Being, God’s laws prevail, you see the evidence of the Kingdom of Heaven come to view and it looks like transformation of the world. Because all it really is, is a shift of perception in which your misperceptions yield to what everything originally was and has continued to be in spite of the fact that you’ve insisted on overlaying your own definitions upon it all and, as a result, have blinded yourself to the perfection of Being, which a sudden shift of perception, called, “a miracle” uncovers to you as your conscious experience.

Now, we’re still talking about the two-step. We’re still talking about the holy instant. We’re still talking about abandoning the special relationship. And we’re still talking about shifting from body-identification to Mind-identification. 
And I trust that I have been talking about it in a way that has crystallized even further for you how things work, so that you are less confused and so that you are able to bring willingness rather than willfulness into play with greater consistency, so that correction will occur and correction will mean something more than just a new idea in your head that makes you feel temporarily more comfortable. Uh-huh. 
You deserve an experience that will be eternally satisfying because it will be the truth experienced without there ever being an alteration of it again.

Now I may not have talked as long as usual tonight, but I have given you about three times as much as I have ever given before in longer periods of time.

I bet it’s going to be a great week for you. And I look forward to being with you next time.