Teachings of Christ Mind

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

Last week we considered some important things, all of which stemmed from the statement we began with, which was:

Now, there’s something that wasn’t brought out. And that is, that when you see a situation in which you are uncertain, when you see a situation which causes you to feel vulnerable, potentially unstable and so on, you are to do this thing of [snaps fingers] stopping right there and asking, “What do I want to come of this? What is it for? What is its purpose? What is its meaning?” And that’s the beginning of the resolution of the problem.

Now you generally tend to think that it’s normal to be faced with situations which make you uncertain. It’s normal … it’s life. And that’s why it’s a new thing to you, to ask initially when it first confronts you, “What do I want to come of this?”

What you need to know is, that what is causing you to see a situation that causes you to be uncertain, is the fact that you’ve already asked that question. Before you were confronted by a situation of this sort, you had asked the question: “What do I want to come of this? What is it for?” The only thing is, that you didn’t ask this question of the Holy Spirit. You didn’t ask this question of your Guide. You did not ask this question of your Father. You asked it of your own best reasoning, your own best judgments—your puny little orphan mind. That’s the only reason you ever see a situation in which you are uncertain … because you’ve already asked the question.

It’s not because that’s the way the world is and therefore, you’re certainly and naturally confronted with situations that make you uncertain … no.

Again, you’re in the middle of the Kingdom of Heaven looking through squinted eyes, saying, “I cannot see the perfection.” You’re looking through your own eyes, the ones you believe you have and the vision you have made up. That’s all.

So, you’re not overcoming some big infinite bogeyman called, “the world and universe” that came from a big bang and is full of conflict naturally and therefore, you are constantly going to be confronted by that which is conflicted. No. But that’s the way the Kingdom of Heaven looks through mortal eyes. That’s the way it looks through your own private mind.

That which is the problem … that which is, you could say, the source of the problem, is the source of the answer. You see? And you make it difficult for yourselves to see miracles because you think there is actually a material world in a forever-state of conflict.

If there is no material world, if there is no devil, if there is no bogeyman “out there” somewhere separate from you, which would indeed make it very difficult to Wake up, then you’re in a position of being able to Wake up easily.

Why? Because the problem is the answer. The answer is “What is the problem?” The problem is … you said, “What do I want of this?” You see? It’s all you, not a big bogeyman, not a conflicted polarized universe, not a physical world. It’s just a choice you made: “What do I want to come of this?”

You see the situation? “What do I want to come of this?” And you’re asking of the voice for fear.

But if you ask that question of the Voice for truth, your vision will be changed because you’re abandoning the voice that made up the situation. Do you see?

There is no more difficulty to it than that because you’re the problem and you’re the answer … nothing more profound than that! Do you see?

This is important and it’s good.

You’re just going to do the same thing but you’re going to ask of a different Teacher. You’re going to bring the same amount of faith and commitment that you did but to a different Teacher. You’ve already been successful—totally successful—in creating a situation in which you are uncertain and where these questions need to be asked. Therefore, you know that you can be equally successful in asking the question—bringing the same amount of commitment and intent—that you brought to the other teacher. You see?

Simplicity … it’s simple. But you create arguments against the simplicity when you choose to look at the uncertainty with your own puny little mind and your own puny little capacity, which you’re working ever so hard to increase and to embellish and to make greater. So keep this in mind.

We also talked about the fact that you love … the ego loves separation. The ego loves fragmentation. If you need to accomplish something, the more points of influence that exist make it easier for you to cause change to happen. If you have a large group of people, the larger the group, the more infinite you might say, are the points upon which you can bring to bear, convincing manipulation. And the more you have, the better your chances are that you can succeed.

The smaller the number, especially when you get down to just one other, the more difficult it is to convince and change that one’s mind and bring about unity. You see?

That’s one reason, if you are faced with one difficult situation—meaning one difficult person—you will try to increase the size of the group. You will say to someone else who knows this person, “Hey Joe, come over here. I’d like your opinion …” “Hey Mary, come over here, will you, for a moment? We’ve got an issue going here that we need more perspective on …” See?

And so you increase the size of the group. You fragment it further. And the moment you do that, you really do make it more impossible to resolve the problem because you’re not letting yourself be fully present with the situation which is causing uncertainty. And ultimately you’re being unwilling to be present with the situation itself that is causing uncertainty and asking, “Father, what, as Your Son or Daughter, do I want to come of this?” You see? “What is it for?”

This is important because these little habits you have keep you from experiencing sudden shifts of perception that constitute miracles. And keep you from actually being an agent for change because your behavior relative to the one who is causing uncertainty for you is such that his mind can be illuminated with the possibility of unity. And your lack of divisiveness and your complete benignness, because of who you’re letting yourself be guided by, significantly creates the circumstance in which this other one can experience a sudden shift of perception. And it’s that simple. And because it works, it’s that important.

And so, going into the book:

… you, remaining independent, you, not saying, “Father what is the purpose here? Father, what is this for?”

“Hey Mary, will you come over here please?” “Hey Joe, will you come over here please?” And unsaid, you are acting out, “We are not going to deal with this, where the problem is, which is my choice of who to ask the question of whether it’s me or whether it’s the Holy Spirit. We’re going to deal with it as though it’s ‘out there’ completely separate and apart from my mind. And not only that, we’re gonna say that it’s so-and-so that’s the problem. And we’re going to get confirmation and support for that from others until we manipulate this one into obedience and get him to agree to the obvious. And together, we’re bound to find a way to convince him, against his will, in such a way that he will decide that this was a better choice than being the problem.” You see? And you magnify the problem.

You see? This situation is the one you’re already in. It’s not really new. This aspect comes up … that aspect comes up … tomorrow morning another aspect will come up. Of course it will, because at no point are you, generally speaking, doing the two-step. You forget and you act on your own—using your best judgments, using what truly is your ignorance.

“Ah-h yes, we finally got him to see it our way and I can let out a sigh of relief. It was a long hard day’s work. But I can go home tonight and sit down and watch TV and be at peace.” Bullshit! The very idea, “I can go home and watch the television and be at peace” was a decision and an explanation of a situation that was arrived at without ever saying, “Father what is the purpose of my going home tonight?” You see? Going home was not something that was going to be done with That which is nothing more than your right Mind. You see?

It’s something that you’re already in the middle of. But what you’re in the middle of is a choice you’ve already made and you are acting out. And it was a choice to say, “What do I want to come of this? What is it for?” and asking it of your own imagination. And the solution is for you to ask the very same questions … but not of yourself. Do you see?

Do you see what I’m saying? I’m saying you don’t have to learn one new thing at all. All you have to do is do the same thing you’ve been doing but giving your attention elsewhere than where you have been giving it when you’re listening for the answer.

So you already have it under the belt. You already know what you need to know in terms of behavior and decision and purpose and intent. Ask, “Father what do I want to come of this? Father, what is it for?” You see?

Again, in both cases, whether you’re asking truly of the Father or whether you’re asking of your imagination, the thing, the situation, the circumstance is always part of the Kingdom of Heaven, is always part of Reality: “What is this for?” You see?

If you ask that question about what is real of the wrong teacher, you get the wrong answer. You see?

You think you just get up in the morning. And you open your eyes up and you sit up on the edge of the bed and you, like a robot, think you know what everything in your room is for, and what the day is for, and what’s most likely and what you hope for, and all of this … all of these definitions have not been given to you, you’ve made them up! All the meanings, you have made up! And you don’t have to do that.

You can sit up and you can say, “Father, what does that dresser mean? Father, what does that blanket mean? Father, what does the window mean? Father, what does the cloudy mean? Father, what is the sunny day for?”

You start asking the very same questions that you’ve given answers to yourself and ask them of the Father and I promise you, you will Wake up. I promise you that it is the way out of the dream.

Now, when you insist upon leaning unto your own understanding, leaning unto your imagination, peace will not be experienced except in fantasy. It will be a false peace.

Faith in what? Faith in something outside of your own thinking … faith in the Holy Spirit—that which is nothing more than your right Mind … faith in your Father/Mother/God. Faith that causes you to shut up and move into the silence and inquire of a Source that’s not you—at least not what you recognize as you at this moment. And you bring faith into that silence and into that request, just like you brought faith into that question when it was presented to your imagination. And oh boy, do you think your imagination is great! And you bring faith in it with gusto! Unless of course, you have been abused and brought to a place where you have no confidence in yourself at all.

But most of what are called “healthy human beings” have a healthy imagination and have a great faith in it. So great that it feels no need whatsoever to say, “Father,” to anything except its own superior greatness.

You must stop denying faith. You could say you must deny faith in your own puny little imagination. But if you want to experience the truth that will constitute an Awakened Mind—which is inspired to see truly and to see the Kingdom of Heaven and all of Its perfection where its opposite had seemed to be before—then you must practice this, you must decide to ask a different teacher. That’s where faith rightfully belongs.

Thus you have lost …

… because you did rely upon your imagination. And you find yourself in a world that you’re able to define as conflicted and against you. Bottom line: meaning, that you must get up every morning and anticipate challenge, conflict, and maybe failure.

They’re witnesses of the fact that you did not shut up and say, (express faith) “Father, what is the truth here? Father, what is this for? Father, what does this mean?” You see? You did not bring faith into practice. You didn’t bring it into the picture.

… things you bring into the picture or the arena of your attention that constitute distractions from practicing faith, that constitute justifications for utilizing manipulation of things in a world made up of things that are all fundamentally independent from each other and jockeying for position, each of them against the other, including you—you against them and them against you. You see?

You understand what that means now: The situation and the problem are in the same place. They’re in the place in your mind where you are determining who you are going to seek the answers from. On the other hand, if you are willing to practice the two-step, then what is demonstrated is, that you realize that the situation and the problem are in the same place, they’re actually the same thing. And the simple solution is: Ask the question of the other Teacher. Do what calls upon your faith.

Relying upon your own imagination doesn’t really call for a lot of faith. It calls for a lot of persistence and it calls for a lot of unending confidence, which for some reason everyone feels they have an abundance of.

… the situation that was disconcerting …

The problem was the direct experience of your lack of expressing faith, of your consciously refraining from joining with Something beyond your best judgments, best thinking, best imagination. You see? This is the simplicity of it.

You see? You take this part of the Kingdom of Heaven or this little aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven and you refuse to look at it with your Father’s Eyes—with the Eyes that were given to you as a Birthright—and you’ve chosen to look at it through your own imagination and your own wish to make what you want it to be real. You see?

So you’ve removed this little bit of the Kingdom of Heaven and you’ve moved it from the perspective that the Father is engaged in, in causing it to exist. And you take this little bit of Reality and place it elsewhere, where in the barrenness of your disconnection, your lack of electricity, we’ll say, because you’ve unplugged the cord, you’ve unplugged the plug. And from there you look at it. From there you consider it.

But as we’ve also mentioned, the minute you’ve made that separation of yourself you found yourself faced with fear and guilt simultaneously. And so that’s part of the characteristic of the imagination that you’re drawing from to create something on your own. That’s why it’s disconcerting, that’s why it’s called a problem.

Having taken it away …

Now is that word, “problem” applied to the situation that’s disconcerting to you or is it addressing the real problem?

When you, from your independence, engage in an act for a specific result, meaning that when you are functioning as an orphan having disowned your Father, you do not see that the disconcerting situation that you’re faced with is not the problem. You do not see that the problem is: That you have insisted upon looking at a little bit of the Kingdom of Heaven while denying the Father’s perspective Who is Being that little bit of the Kingdom of Heaven and Who is providing the true experience of it for you His Son or Daughter to have. That’s the problem and that’s what you’re not seeing.

And as long as you keep addressing that problem out there, as long as you keep trying to manipulate your definition of the world or a part of it, you’re going to reinforce and keep in place your ignorance and the suffering that accompanies it. It’s that absolute. It’s that simple. And the simple solution is to do exactly the opposite or I’m going to say, do exactly the same thing giving your attention to the answer to your Father, to the Voice for truth.

I’m being very repetitious. I’m doing it for a reason, because I’m presenting something utterly simple and it’s very hard for egos to see something very simple. But the divinity of each one of you listening is hearing what I’m saying and is hearing the Meaning of what I’m saying and a sudden shift of perception is in motion. So let it be monotonous, let me be monotonous tonight.

In some really quiet moments, if you will contemplate this, you will realize that from an ego standpoint, you don’t really want problems to be solved, because you’re a “problem solving machine!” Your function is to solve problems. And you don’t really want to find out that the Father has already made everything whole and perfect, including you, and there’s nothing for you to solve. There’s only the Kingdom of Heaven to experience—the fullness of and the joy of and the love that is innately natural to you and naturally flows into expression as the recognition of what is Real the way the Father is making It and not the way you have been imagining it.

It’s meaningfulness is lost to you when you are listening to the voice for fear, when you are listening to and committing to your faulty imagination.

And what’s the interference that’s in the way of understanding? It’s your decision not to inquire where the answer is awaiting you and insisting upon inquiring where the answer does not exist. You see?

“But Father, I’d rather do it myself.” You see? You remove yourself from it with great pride and enthusiasm and anticipation.

Now during this coming week I invite all of you to reread and reconsider this section on Practical Forgiveness. It’s marvelous. It’s a turning point. It’s a pivot point. An easy one, that I want you all to enjoy it and let it move you.

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