Teachings of Christ Mind

Okay. Tonight we will not be continuing in the Book. There are some further things I want to share about the practice and the abandonment of self-righteousness, because there is more peace that needs to come from understanding it than most of you are experiencing.

Good evening. And welcome to everyone who is joining us on the internet.

I am aware that distress has been felt by many during this past week as a result of willingness to look at the practice of self-righteousness, when one thought one was being loving or being a good citizen, or being a good neighbor.

I am aware that looking around, it is obvious that there are instances of injustice or apparent injustice that have come into play that certainly arouses self-righteousness. And at the same time, because the problem of injustice needs to be corrected and the correction is going to take time to change the laws, one feels on-goingly vulnerable and not at peace – even beyond the discomfort of practicing voluntary self-righteousness.

The situation will call for persistence for an intent to put forth the effort necessary to bring about the corrections. In other words it’s going to take work. And at the bottom line, self-righteousness tells you that you shouldn’t even be confronted with a need to attend to these things.

And so here you are feeling vulnerable for awhile until it’s corrected. And then you’re feeling put upon by having to participate by bringing about the changes that install justice into the system and into the world. And so that’s one of the disconcerting and distressing aspects of self-righteousness that you’re dealing with.

There are other situations with families where injustice is being asserted and is causing abuse to occur with such ferocity or such conviction that it seems that the correction of that will be impossible. But on top of this, because it’s family, your emotions are brought into play and you are distressed. And again, you are made to feel powerless and you have reaction to that: “It’s unfair. I shouldn’t have to be faced with this. Everybody should know better. If everybody would listen to me we wouldn’t be having these problems!” And on and on and on go the self-righteous judgments and conclusions.

Another aspect is that you’ve looked at yourself and it is clearer than ever the degree to which you attempt to control, in order to get what you want, in order to get your partner or your Brother or those you work with to serve your best interests to be thoughtful of you. And yet, they seem to be beyond your control and therefore, in your powerlessness, all you can do is gripe, be distressed and depress yourself.

Also you look and you see what I’m going to call “mortality” presenting itself to loved ones. And they are accepting the presentation hook, line and sinker and are not available to hear any healing perspective that you might be able to provide. And so again, you feel frustrated, angry, powerless. You feel abused yourself. And at the bottom line, the solution to all of this is very simple, but it’s not one you want to hear.

Now, we need to take a brief look at how the human condition, how the dream, how the illusion of existence started. And we discussed it briefly last week. It started because you and another holy Son of God decided to make a mutual agreement, an agreement as to the definition of things – the definition of Reality that is different from the Meaning the Father is Embodying in Creation, actually.

Now this mutual agreement agreed to by the two of you caused you to have a special relationship – a relationship other than the one the Father established by expressing Himself as you and your Brother or Sister – with whom you have formed this mutual agreement that is at odds with Creation itself.

Now here we are squarely looking at the practice of self-righteousness, squarely looking at the fact that, as I said a couple weeks ago, self-righteousness is the number one killer.

Now as you’ve gone through the last couple weeks and you’ve taken perhaps a more honest look at your practice of self-righteousness or the falsity of your “loving kindness” that you have been sharing with people, you have become confused by thinking that the correction of the difficulty of the distress will come from other people changing – other people changing by virtue of your exercising spiritual control, by virtue of your willing to ask of the Holy Spirit to see your Brother’s or your Sister’s innocence so that you might cover your Brother’s or your Sister’s back.

This is tricky, because that understanding will get you into trouble. It will confuse things.

You – and here’s the bottom line simplicity of it – you need to stop practicing self-righteousness because it will kill you. I do not say that threateningly or to cause you to be frightened, but to make it utterly clear that the practice of self-righteousness has an effect only on you, who practice it.

Sin, disease and death are the effect of the practice of self-righteousness and the effect is on you, who is practicing it. Self-righteousness, practiced by your Brother or Sister affects them in their practice of it, not you. And so, to think that you, through the practice of the two-step, will engage in an activity that will cause your Brother to start treating you better is a misunderstanding.

Again: The human condition – the dream of existence – was the result of a mutual agreement engaged in by two Sons or Daughters of God. And Waking up is the undoing of those mutual agreements. It is the undoing of the mutuality of a special relationship in which special definitions, imaginative definitions, have been arrived at and agreed to and committed to. You see?

It’s the undoing of the relationship, which means – and this is the part that no one really wants to hear – it means that you and you alone have the means of abandoning the practice of self-righteousness and, in the abandonment of it, having your mind be healed. You see?

In a way it is totally private. It is something you must do in the withinness of your Being, without regard to your Brothers or Sisters, so that peace replaces the frustration and the self-righteous anger of self-righteousness, causing your mind to become clear, unconfused, at peace within itself, so that it is able to let the Father’s Perspective register with it – register with you – and in that Revelation be healed yourself, so that your perspective of your Brother is changed …

… not changed because you’re trying to change your Brother’s perspective, but because you’ve attended to the only thing you can attend to, which is whether you’re going to continue to practice self-righteousness, or whether you are going to abandon it by abandoning the special relationship and letting your Brother off the hook, and letting yourself off the hook by no longer saying, “My Brother will be the death of me yet.” “My daughter or my son will be the death of me yet.” By saying “Someone else in some magical way can ruin me, ruin my life.”

You cannot die from someone else’s self-righteousness. You hear that? You cannot die from someone else’s self-righteousness! You can access eternal life by abandoning your practice of self-righteousness. And in your acceptance and receipt of eternal life, you will find yourself being transformational … but not because you’re trying to. You will be transformational because you will no longer be participating with your Brothers and Sisters in mutual agreements that all of you believe are law and have committed yourselves to. You see?

The whole reason for looking at what self-righteousness is, and the need to abandon it, and your act of abandoning it, is because that brings forth the conscious experience of God’s Perspective in you and returns you to your right Mind, which right now is called the Holy Spirit because you’ve divorced yourself from It. And that is the process of the Movement of Awakening.

You will do this because you want to Wake up not because you want to manipulate or control your Brothers and Sisters even for their best interest.

Things will remain messy and complicated if you don’t abandon the special relationship and all the habitual techniques that you have engaged in in these special relationships.

You must be willing to turn to the Father, which is what the holy instant is for, to say, “Father, what is the truth here? Father I … because I don’t want to suffer the dire effects of practicing self-righteousness, want to know the truth. I want You to share with me Your Perspective. I no longer want to be confused and I no longer want to suffer from confusion.”

Now last week we went back in the Book about one hundred pages. And tonight I’m going to refer you to something about two hundred pages ahead. It’s in Chapter Twenty-Seven and it’s a sub heading called, The Healing Example. And I’m going to share it because it helps to clarify the fact that what is called for is abandoning the special relationship, abandoning your expectations of others, abandoning the idea that others through their neglect, can cause you to suffer and have an unfulfilled life, or through their devoted attention they can make you blissfully happy, when at no point, have you bothered yet to abandon your self-righteousness and join with the Father and have His Perspective infill you and transform you. You see?

And so, it says here:

So if you think you want to heal your Brother, you’re going to have to be healed yourself.

The only way to get out from under the effects of self-righteousness is to be healed of the practice of self-righteousness yourself, regardless of what your Brother or Sister is doing.

But listen to this:

… in the healing.

You see? This isn’t just laborious. This isn’t just you looking at hard things to look at and dealing with hard things to deal with as though Waking up is a struggle. But the looking at it that we’re talking about isn’t easy and you need not to be afraid to do the work. It’s essential!

Because after all, self-righteousness is the number one killer! I keep saying that because death seems to be such a reasonable justification for changing one’s life because it’s rather ultimate.

Now, you want to abandon self-righteousness because in its absence, the holy Son or Daughter of God that you Are is revealed to you as your Whole Mindedness. That is incredible! That is worth every bit of effort you might find you need to put forth. So …

To participate in that transformation. And …

You see? The good news – God’s Love, Healing, radiates infinitely. It goes out infinitely because that’s It’s nature.

And so when you abandon trying to manipulate or change your mate or your family or your society and you give your undivided attention to monitoring the use you put your mind to and refraining completely from engaging in self-righteousness, you open the door for something marvelous!

It’s borne the minute you let it in, the moment you let yourself be changed by it.

You see? “Oh, if you would just treat me nicer, I would be happy – that would be healing to me. If you just wouldn’t be engaged in so much self-interest that you abandon me, I would be much happier.”

That’s asking somebody else to heal you.

… this is the part you don’t like.

… how unfulfilling. How much fuller my relationship would be if I didn’t have to do this all by myself. Well that’s false. Because it’s only in a special relationship – one bound by mutual agreements – that mean the two of you are holding yourselves separate from God, and therefore, your true understanding of your identity, that it could seem to be justifiable.

… listen to this …

But you see, it won’t be offered with any stigma of manipulation or control or arrogance. My God, when you are filled with Love and you look at your Brother with Love, that’s all there is to it. It isn’t done for an effect, else it isn’t Love, it isn’t a simple genuine heart feeling. But when a simple genuine heart feeling of Love is spontaneously shared, it is received — it is felt. And if it isn’t felt immediately, it remains there to be recognized.

You see? Well, I tell you that when you sit being frustrated and pissed-off at your Brothers or your mates or you family, whatever, you are bestowing upon your Brother emptiness. You are bestowing nothing transformational, because nothing in you has softened, nothing in you has melted, nothing in you has gentled-up and come forth with humility that has no designs of any sort on your Brother or Sister. You see?

Oh yeah, you deny yourself because you say, “Damn! I really have a right to be pissed-off. The situation here is so unjust that I have complete reason to be upset and not to abandon my distress.” Well, that’s the way you insure death, because that is the practice of self-righteousness that keeps you separate from the Father and your divinity because you’re bound to a mutual agreement with another holy Son of God in denial of your holiness.

Don’t do it! No matter how reasonable it seems, don’t do it!

Listen to this.

You see? Difficult to hear. But you spend a lot of your time thinking about him and her and so-and-so and what she did and what they’re doing, as though there really is a he, she or it or them or those. When at the bottom line, there is you perceiving Creation correctly or incorrectly. And if you are perceiving it incorrectly, the correction lies in abandoning the misperception, by joining again with the Father or the Holy Spirit and asking, “What is the truth here?” not because of him or her or them or they, but because you don’t want to die from self-righteousness. You don’t want to lose the conscious experience of your eternal divinity for any reason. And so you must remember that:

As far as you are concerned …

He speaks to YOU. Give your full attention to Him. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is nothing more than your right Mind. Be willing to pay attention to your right Mind and stop worrying about whether or not the Holy Spirit is talking to him or her or them or those. Because as long as you are imagining him or her or them or those, you are not listening within yourself to the Holy Spirit – that is nothing more than your right Mind. And therefore, you are doing nothing to bring about the conscious experience of the integrity of you which will involve the experience of God’s Perspective, because that is the Gift of God to you. Again …

Not what He says about someone else or what they ought to do, but you have ACCEPTED what He says that reveals to you your divine clarity and therefore, your ability to be utterly appropriate in every relationship you have. And from there, your relationships will be holy relationships and not special relationships. That’s the benefit of attending to the use you are putting your mind to.

Well, when you’re not asking to know what the truth is here and you are insisting upon interpreting everything according to the mutual definitions, then health, Reality has no witness. It’s unattested to and it remains without conviction. You see?

Without conviction there will never be manifestation, there will never be the evidence. You don’t want to be so busily engaged in self-righteousness that you don’t bring conviction into the picture, which is what will give evidence of health. Whose health? Your health! When you have your health, you have it to share with others. And it will be shared because it’s obvious, it shows up, everyone can see it, not because you’re some grand teacher. You see?

It’s done for you. The communication is carried forward because that’s the way it works. That’s the good news … the end result of what we’ve been talking about in abandoning self- righteousness.

But you don’t have to compel the belief. The demonstration, the manifestation compels the belief. It’s simply obvious.

If you wish only to be healed … if you wish only to be relieved of the suffering that accompanies the practice of self-righteousness, stop practicing self-righteousness. You see?

If you wish only to abandon self-righteousness and you abandon it… what? You will find yourself to be the unequivocal and the uncalculated Presence of Love. That’s what! That’s the marvel! That’s what’s transformational. And because it’s Love it’s broadcast, it extends because that is its nature.

You see? Black and white, but therefore, simple. If you are not afraid of healing then it can come through.

Well, we’ve talked about the fact that there’s been distress in taking a look at the practice of self-righteousness and in looking at the effects of self-righteousness expressed by others, and the fact that it causes you all to feel out of control, and therefore, vulnerable, and at the bottom line, seeking for some stronger means of control so that you might get your peace back without doing the only thing that will bring your peace back, which is to just abandon the practice of self-righteousness. You see?

Why can they not heal, because they are not healed. And as long as you are trying to manipulate and heal your Brother without your mind being healed, there will be no healing. But the moment you value your Sanity and your Peace enough to catch yourself when you are practicing self-righteousness and immediately abandon it, you will find healing entering and extending because that’s what it does. That’s the good news! That’s what this is all about.

You don’t have to manage to do it perfectly so that it’s done forever.

That is the simplicity of it.

Now:

What a relief. How wonderful to know that. Practicing the holy instant is what we’ve been talking about, especially in the last few weeks.

… each miracle …

… yours. You see?

… the holy instant …

… each miracle …

Peace is an ultimate goal, far more important than whether your mate or family loves you enough to be devoted to you and cause your life to be bliss.

Again:

… the miracles abiding place, the holy instant, each miracle …

… yours …

There is no sadness where one has abandoned the right he thinks he has to be self-righteously upset and judgmental of his Brother or Sister.

This is the whole point! Don’t get hung up on your self-righteous inclination to jump on your Brother’s ass and blame him or your Sister for causing you to be abused or sad or depressed.

That is the simplicity. And that is the Father’s Love that you are embraced by and that which is nothing more than your right Mind – the Holy Spirit – is intent upon uncovering the Reality of You to you when you’re willing to abandon the mean-spirited right that you think you have to judge and hold grievances and never wish to see your Brother’s innocence, which you will automatically see when you humble yourself and let your divine capacity to be the presence of Love fill you up and spill over and extend itself spontaneously, infinitely, because that’s what it does … and blesses everything.

I love you and I trust that this coming week will not be as nearly distressing as the past week or two have been, because the perspective is clearer about what is meaningful and what is meaningless.

I love you very much.