Teachings of Christ Mind

Okay. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the holy instant. In fact, I imagine some of you are wondering when we will get on with things and have something new to think about—something new to stretch your imagination and your boundaries.

But the holy instant is so fundamental and so important that I want not to move on until it sinks in deeply—registers deeply—so that your behavior changes, so that you begin to be in a new way. It is this beginning to be in a new way that constitutes Atonement, that constitutes Awakening, that constitutes the fruits of everything that the Course teaches.

Now we’ve discussed the fact that Awakening is not a private affair. You cannot, no one can, in an independent fashion, learn enough to Wake up. It’s impossible because it leaves an essential element out. And the essential element that it leaves out is your Brother and your Sister. And foremost, it leaves out God.

The holy instant is to be used for a specific purpose. And that is to establish and nurture a holy relationship. It’s that simple. That’s why Awakening is not a private affair. It is a matter of relationship. It is a matter of involvement, not involvement of the sort that one engages in, in the orphanage, in the place of independence, but that which occurs in peace and in the atmosphere and substance of Love.

In the environment of the orphanage, relating is always a matter of control—of governing to the best of each one’s ability the environment that the group finds itself in. And so you might say, everyone participates in government.

But the problem is that the government is based upon a fundamental idea or misbelief called “independence.” And so government is a matter of independent factions or elements all working for and against each other in grand ways. I mean by that, huge complicated ways so as to create order and fulfillment of goals that have been set by all these independent governing agents. You see?

And so relationships are a constant argument. Relationships are a constant, we’ll say, disagreement that is being forced into agreement. It’s always tense. Because each one is simultaneously attempting to control others—govern others—while at the same time doing his best to not be controlled by the others. This is the tension, this is the polarization and it is accepted as the normal fundamental nature of existence.

And so it’s never called into question. It’s just lived.

Now that’s not what the holy instant is about. Because the holy instant is entered into for the purpose, as I said, of establishing and nurturing a holy relationship. Meaning, a relationship that is, I’m going to say, initiated by one who turns in the silence of his thinking—the absence of his thinking—to the Father and says, “Father, what is the truth here about this one I’m in relationship with?” or “What is the truth about this thing that I am in relationship with?” You see?

It’s not a question seeking positive affirmative satisfying answers about one’s self but about another. You see? And you’re well aware from all of the sharings that we’ve had together that this is the secret, you might say, it’s the surprise. The way you get to Wake up is by caring more about someone you’re in relationship with than yourself.

You know, in almost every religion there is an equivalent to the Golden Rule and the rule is set above others by being called, “Golden.” And the Golden Rule is “thou shalt do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”¹ The Golden Rule is a rule of behavior, of your behavior toward another. The Golden Rule doesn’t say, “force others to behave toward you the way you would behave toward them.” You’re not the focus of the Golden Rule. The one you’re in relationship with is.

Being in an orphanage is a result of a false position that has been taken that says, “I have no Father, I have no Mother, I have no Source.” And it’s not true. And everything that is done from that standpoint is selfish. It is independence carried to the extreme. And it never does what solves the problem that everyone through his or her independence is attempting to get away from.

The only thing that will solve the problem is to care more about another than you care about yourself.

Now that’s the new governance. That’s the uncommon governance. “I wish to see the truth. I wish to see the God’s honest truth about my Brother. And I refuse to act on any other basis than that which becomes clear to me when in the silence I ask for clarity and it is given.” You see?

I know you get the picture. But everyone needs to get the picture clearly enough to consciously put it into practice so that your behavior changes. Because until the behavior changes, you’re still in the orphanage and you’re still in the place where government arises out of a sense of inadequacy that has to be overcome at the expense of others. And of course for those others, it’s at your expense.

And so you must be wary of governance that arises in your mind or in the minds of others around you that doesn’t arise out of a clear experience of wholeness … of your wholeness that has become clear to you as an experience because you’ve shut up your independent thoughts, acts and reasonings, and you’ve said in the absence of them, “What is the God’s honest truth here that I don’t remember, that I don’t seem to yet know? What is it? I will persist in listening for that until I hear it. Because I understand from what I’m being taught that this is the way out of illusion.”

Now your globe is in a great state of upheaval. Governments are problematic because those in government believe that they are orphans and that the only way to attain order is through control based upon ideas, ideas which are based in a misunderstanding—a misunderstanding about everything you’re in relationship with—that it’s certainly not holy, that it’s certainly not trustworthy, that it is certainly flawed and that its flaws will always surface in mean-spirited, thoughtless, manipulative acts.

It’s inevitable that this is the way social being will work because of the nature of the “animal” of that which everyone is in relationship with. You see?

This is what everyone must step out of. And the stepping out of it is accomplished again, through the practice of the holy instant for the purpose of establishing and nurturing a holy relationship—a relationship which is established and nurtured according to the clarity of the Father’s Mind and the Father’s Love that He shares with you so that you might embody It and be new.

Now when there are relationships, there are naturally or there is naturally, cooperation. Cooperation is a “working together.” Cooperation is not a means of successfully controlling.

It’s important to see that difference. It’s important to see it so that you don’t inadvertently get caught up in engaging in control instead of cooperation. And it’s important because you’re not going to be able to see the truth about your Brother or relate to him constructively if you think that the absence of control will bring about chaos.

The holy instant calls upon everyone to risk the chance that no one is really an orphan. And that if one approaches his Brother or Sister as though he or she is the holy Son or Daughter of God, you will not get stabbed in the back, that there will not be a price to pay because until you bring that faith to your relationship, there will not be the elements necessary for both of you to relax and be in a new way, from a new paradigm.

Now as I said, in relationships there is cooperation … there is cooperation.

Now for cooperation to be constructive and fulfilling you must understand where those you are cooperating with are coming from. Are they coming from the orphan mentality or are they coming from a connectedness with the Father’s Perspective? Are they coming from the place where all the details of relationship are manipulative, combative, controlling, where everyone is afraid of everyone else and therefore can’t truly afford to care because caring is dangerous and makes you vulnerable because you don’t have your guard up?

You must pay attention! Because if you’re going to cooperate you’re going to have to make some choices—choices as to whom you will cooperate with.

Now the other vantage point of course, the other option for this cooperation, is one where the Golden Rule comes into play and has meaning: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” You know, that at the bottom line, when you’re not caught up in your ego-mentality, caring is important. Being cared about is important. Humanity is important. The experience of humaneness is important.

These are the fundamentals upon which the holy instant and holy relationships grow and thrive. But they start simply. They don’t start with highfalutin ideas. They don’t start with being great. They don’t start with grand ideas that everyone must conform to in order to build a huge structure of magnificent excellence of agreements and definitions and meanings that everyone must abide by and ultimately serve. No.

True government arises out of one’s ability to connect with what? Not success! Not importance! … but one’s capacity to recognize and engage with need. Do you hear that? The road to salvation … the road to salvation is the road where needs are felt, paid attention to and corrected. And so you could say that Awakening is going to be a Movement among the needy. And that really means, those who aren’t puffed up with their own importance and their own grand ideas that everyone must gather around and conform to, so that importance can be achieved and shared. But of course, not shared fully with the one who didn’t generate it, which leaves things still in a state of contest, orphan mentality, actions, activities, events. You see? That’s not what’s needed.

So, if you want to move forward in terms of Awakening, in terms of, let’s say, being on a true path, the call is for you to acknowledge your neediness and to be willing to recognize and not stand in judgment of others’ neediness so that all of you, in need, might join together in Love—the desire to see the need corrected, to see the need fulfilled—so that need is no longer experienced.

But as you can see, this is only going to happen with humble … with humbleness, with humble people, with humble participants in relationships.

Now, as you observe the things that are going on in your world today and the contentiousness and the threat and everything else, you’re going to have to make a choice as to whom you’re going to actively participate with. Those from the orphan mentality—the mentality of lack which exists to be overcome, which always involves righteousness and judgment: us and them, higher and lower and so on, you’re going to have to be willing to say, “No, I will not join with and support that, because there is no humanity in it. There is no caring about one’s Brother or Sister in it. You see?

This is important. And you’re going to need to take a look at it because choices need to be made if correction of the situation is going to occur. And what I am making very clear and what I’m explaining in a way so that you can relate what the Course has been teaching to everyday real life, I’m saying: Align yourselves with, cooperate with those who recognize the existence of need and value the individualities who are experiencing need so that answers can be brought in the simplest most direct way to the correction of the need because the result of Love is simple.

Love is simplicity. Caring is an urging, an urgency that seeks to find wholeness that gives relief from need. Whatever apparent structures are built upon the recognition of need and the listening for how the simple human need can be met will lead to the correction of the situation on your globe. I’m saying the correction of the situations on your globe.

There is much relaxing into peace. There is much letting go into natural order that needs to occur and can occur. But you must avoid governance applied to you or that you apply to others. You must avoid such that arises not out of caring and love, but the fulfilling of some concept of righteousness.

If attention and nurturance is given to that which does not support humanity, salvation will not be arrived at, correction will not be arrived at, further pain and distress will come into the picture.

Join with those who value humanity. Your Brother, on the lowest rung of some conceptual ladder is your salvation. Everyone in a state of need is your savior because he or she gives you the one to have a holy relationship with. Relationships with orphans distract you from having a holy relationship because it keeps you in a state of excitement as well as defense and it maintains a wall between everyone. It’s not what the truth is about. It’s not what the Course is about.

Be willing only to join with those who recognize and acknowledge need and see those needs to be the things to be directly expressed—simply addressed as mutual Brotherly love that provides the simple answer, because the simple answer is available.

Value your humanity. Don’t despise it and try to rise above it. Your needs need to be attended to, even though they are not real, even though they are the result of unclear thinking … of mistakes that weren’t seen as mistakes and keep getting repeated and on and on.

Demand that those whom you would be willing to cooperate with and those who want you to cooperate with them, demand of them that you want the attention to be given to humanity, humaneness, Brotherly love, because you care and because everyone needs everyone else to witness for them. That’s the simple truth.

What do you think is happening when one engages in the two-step, in the holy instant and a holy relationship emerges and is nurtured? What do you think is happening? That happens because you’ve been willing to stop thinking about yourself and wanting to know what the truth about your Brother is. Why would you want to know the truth about your Brother? Because your knowing it constitutes you being a witness for his holiness. You see?

Whew … the day of the self-made man is past. It never was valid. The time for relationships is here because the infiniteness of God’s Creation is an infiniteness of holy relationships. And God in them will only become clearly apparent, clearly manifest when everyone is insisting upon the fruits of caring, the correction of suffering, the solving of need. This is the wonderful simple truth.

But again I must say, a change in behavior needs to occur. Not just a change of a repertoire of ideas and thoughts to be mulled-over, thought about and expressed with others … actual change.

Whenever you put yourself in position of allowing others to speak for you which cannot be avoided in the process of cooperation, always be sure of the foundation from which that one works. Is he a controller, a manipulator? Is he one who sees wealth and success as the thing to be served? Or is he one who values humanity and who bases everything he does with everyone else on the meeting of needs and the increase of humanity, humanness, human kindness in the world. Don’t join with the selfish ones, else you will promote his or her goals and you will suffer from them as well.

It’s time, globally, for everyone to do the thing that seems to be the weakest thing, the most ineffective thing that you could do, certainly nothing that would move mountains. And yet, the need is simple. You engage in caring and desiring humaneness enough to shut up your own egotistic controlling efforts. And in the silence listen and ask, “What is the truth here about my Brother? What is the truth about the situations in my community, in my town, in my country that needs to be corrected with humaneness as its foundational attribute?” And give your attention to that. Let that caring supersede your inclination to be frustrated and expressing your frustration.

Start using your mind in a new way, in the simple way of Love and put your brothers and sisters on notice that that’s what you want from them as well.

Let others know it’s important to you. It’s important to everyone! But someone has to stand up and start saying it, putting it in the air to give others who are afraid, the courage to say it and put it in the air. And until you say it, those who would attempt to govern mean-spiritedly, competitively, and to your disadvantage, they need to hear that this is the kind of governance you want … that this is the kind of relationship you want. You see?

This will constitute the beginning of transformation on your globe. No one is powerless. I’m not talking about the kind of power that is expressed by those who seem to be in charge. No one is powerless when it comes to the use of their mind. And everyone has the capacity to choose what they are going to give their attention to.

You can without interference, choose to do the two-step. In other words, stop, shut up and ask, “What is the truth here?” That’s the engagement called the holy instant. And when you move into the holy instant, you are aware God’s laws prevail. You are aware the Movement of Reality that meets the human need, comes forth. And in solving the human need, demonstrates humanity. You see?

That’s where everyone is at. And everyone has the power of self-governance that without fail, will work.

I love you all.

Begin to give to your world the support it needs for transformation by valuing humanity, humaneness, the meeting of the need, and stick with it because there has arisen in you a caring brought by your desire to know the truth about your Brother so that you might be able to witness for him from the clarity that has filled you up. That’s the task now.

I look forward to being with you next time.