Teachings of Christ Mind

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

A long time ago I said, “As I have loved you, love one another.”¹ Love one another. I’m staying with this again this week, especially as we enter into this New Year.

You may have noticed that I have been speaking less intellectually, less in terms of intellectual principles and behaviors, and more in terms of Brotherhood – relationship, which is of course what A Course in Miracles is truly about. But it can become very easy to get wrapped up in the intellectual concepts and ideas expressed in the Course as if the ideas were what is important rather than your changing behavior.

The Course is not about A Course in Miracles. The Course is about you. Its function is to promote change, growth, emancipation from what? From the intellect … emancipation from the intellect into your Soul – Soul – your divine capacity to feel the Meaning of everything. Your capacity to feel … to feel, not think about, not intellectually grasp … but feel the divinity of all Creation.

If you don’t move into Love, you will remain trapped in the human condition which all of you dearly wish to emancipate yourselves from.

But you know what? You’re not used to paying attention with your Soul. It takes quietness. It takes the silencing of the intellect – the human mind, the thinking – so that in the emptiness of thought, in the thoughtlessness achieved, we’ll say, in the Silence, divine Meaning can become illuminated in you as your awareness of the truth of something.

This is what the two-step is all about … becoming still and then enquiring, “What is the truth here?” the truth beyond your intellect, the truth beyond your best reasonings, your best concepts and your best defenses.

In a way listening seems not to be easy. Because what are you listening for? You’re listening for what you don’t know yet.

So many of you try as diligently and as honestly as you can to become still and listen. But as Paul did in the very beginning, you forget that what will come will be simpler than anything you’re expecting. And one of the reasons it is simpler than anything you’re expecting is because it’s the experience of Love. And Love is utterly simple. It is an experience of Knowing the truth but not in the intellect … in the Soul.

This is very important.

You think that the situations you are in – the circumstances – call for you to deal with everything from your intellect. When you are upset with a situation, you think it calls for you to use your best reasoning. It seems to call for you to do everything but move into Silence. And yet, Salvation is arrived at only through the Silence … through the inner quietness in which the experience of Soul and Love and Truth can register with you and renew you and cause you to see afresh; which will cause everything you see to seem to be transformed, even though it’s simply returning to its original perfect status which had escaped your attention.

Now, in order to Love one another, it is absolutely essential to become still and ask of God, “What is the Truth here?” and then remain silent. Why? Because the Truth will be revealed to you. The Father and the Holy Spirit – which is nothing more than your right Mind – will disclose to you the Truth, which is a miraculous experience, a wonder-filled experience, a divine experience. And in that experience, there is only one behavior that can follow it. And that is the expression of it.

Whatever the clarity is – of the Truth – will constitute your new Perspective and it will be a wonder to you and it will be wonderful to you. And your Vision will bless, it will seem, everything that you were misperceiving before, because the illusion will have fallen away.

Now the most significant thing that can get in the way of your loving one another is your tendency to define each other according to your poor thought models. And you project guilt and judgment and negative interpretations upon your Brothers and Sisters. Love cannot be felt in that frame of mind.

Love is the abandoning of the projection of guilt and blame and judgment. The silence you go into is the absence of guilt, blame and judgment. And without that being abandoned, your mind can’t be transformed making available to you the God’s honest truth about your Brother and about everything.

As I have loved you, love one another. Pay attention to how I have treated you … how I do treat you … how I teach you … how I explain things. Does it leave you guiltless? Does it inspire you to let go of your own poor assessment of yourself because you haven’t been condemned and you feel safe? Of course.

I’m going to suggest that maybe other than the precepts and the ideas and the explanations of the meanings in the Course, that other than those things, the truly transforming part of our relationship has lain in the way I treat you. The way I have treated you is more important than what I have taught you.

You are loved because of what you divinely Are. That is perfectly clear to me. And because it is perfectly clear to me I cannot treat you otherwise. It’s impossible. Give it some attention to how you have felt treated, whether it’s in public Gatherings where we have been together face to face or whether it’s over the internet, where it’s been a visual image and a voice, or whether it’s been the printed word – how I have loved you … feeling. These are the things I need you and you need yourself to embrace and find room for expression in this coming year, because it’s through the expression of Love that you will find your way into the Kingdom of Heaven.

All of the words we’ve been using, all of the words we’ve read from the Course have been geared to your being motivated to dare to trust into the holy instant. It has invited you to believe that there is a part of you that have not been in touch with, that wants to be in touch with you because its Wholeness and your Wholeness are inseparable from that reunion. It’s the Holy Spirit.

You allowing What you have been unaware of to come into you and abide in you and renew you is the way the holy instant works. That is the, we will say, mechanism of it.

And so, if guilt … if the projection of guilt and judgment and blame are the key things that stand between you and your Brother and the experience of the communion of love, then do practice abandoning the use of guilt … for anything.

Forgive … forgive … forgive. What does that mean? It means go into the holy instant … go into the holy instant … go into the holy instant. It means, go where your right use of your mind can bless you with the experience of Truth that causes you to be unable to do anything other than love your Brother. And if you lose it, if you become frustrated again, if you lay a guilt trip on your Brother for whatever reason, STOP and move back into the holy instant. Choose again. Over and over and over and over. And there can never be too many times to do it. Do it until the inclination to do otherwise ceases!

Now why am I stressing this at the beginning of this year? Well, it’s not because things are going to get so bad that it’s going to be needed. I’m stressing it because as a matter of fact, more of you – more of those on the face of your globe – are at a point of being able to hear and feel and grasp the importance of loving one another. We’ll say that a level of maturity has been arrived at which will allow for transformation as a result of Love to occur and spread much more rapidly.

But you know what? That’s a fact, but you will need to behave as though it’s not the fact. You can’t say, “Oh, it’s going to be easier now,” and then rest back on your laurels and not put yourself in that uncomfortable position of the unknown, where for the thirtieth or the fortieth or the two hundredth time you have given the benefit of the doubt to your Brother or Sister.

Do it as though it’s the most important thing in the world. Because your Sanity is the most important thing in the world. And the blessing that the world will experience as a result of your Sanity is the most important thing in the world.

Be alert. Monitor your thoughts. Watch what goes on in your mind. If you are not, in every encounter with your Brother or Sister, insisting upon finding His guiltlessness, you are missing out! You will stay stuck and it is unnecessary.

Again, remember this: to forgive is to engage in an act and it’s not an act that extends from your mean-spiritedness directly to your Brother, where you think friendly thoughts. It’s not where you, in direct connection with your Brother, try to change things. It is an act of going into the Silence – the first part of the holy instant, the first part of the two-step.

Forgiveness is the silencing of the projection of guilt, judgment and blame. That’s an inner act within you. And that inner act practiced, with the intent to learn of your Brother’s divinity and holiness and your genuinely listening, will result in insight, in clarity arising, in Revelation. And that’s what it’s all about.

So forgiveness isn’t just refraining from projecting guilt. It’s you engaging in a conscious act of going into the Silence within you, you could say, moving into the altar in the very center of your Being, where you bring your innocent attention with inquisitiveness and then abiding in the genuineness of your desire by listening until you hear. That is forgiveness. And that is what heals. That is, we will say, the stepping-stone to your Salvation.

I may seem to be speaking seriously, not bubbling over with joy here, even though we’re talking about loving one another and the importance of it. And the reason is, that I do want to convey that commitment needs to be brought into play, simply because every single one of you engages in the projection of guilt and blame and judgment all day long, every day, even if you think you are doing it for positive reasons, for positive outcomes. So it’s a habit. And it’s a habit that has to be replaced by loving one another. And so it will seem to take effort… consistency. That’s all.

Is it because you’re bad? No. If you want to learn how to play a piece on the piano, you must sit down and practice it. Why, because there’s something wrong with you and so you have to bring diligence into play and rehearse and rehearse and rehearse? No. It’s because that’s the way it works when you are overcoming ignorance. You see? Simple.

So I am encouraging you to purposely – I almost said seriously – to purposely enter into this year practicing the willingness to love one another, and bringing it into play more than ever before. Certainly we have not reached the end of A Course In Miracles, but there is no reason not to begin now to practice what you’ve learned – what is clear to you – so that you might not have to get to the end of the book before you’re Awake!

Love one another. Love yourself. As I have loved you, love yourself. As I have loved you, love one another. Every single one of you are worth it. And it is the practice of love that transforms everything. Why? Because the greatest gift you can bring to anyone or anything is the recognition of its divinity, of its holiness.

Like when you see someone that you haven’t seen for years and you’re not quite sure if it’s them, and then they turn toward you and you recognize them. That’s not an intellectual process. It’s a knowing. A friend is there. You know him, you know her. Recognition occurs. Loving one another is what happens when you turn to the Holy Spirit – that which is nothing more than your right Mind – or the Father, desiring to know the truth and having the truth revealed to you so that you know what to look for, to recognize the divinity and holiness of your Brother or Sister. You see?

And so you can make that gift, which is what it’s all about. It’s that simple. It’s that humble. And to those practicing a great deal of arrogance, it is that humiliating. But it is a healing humiliation.

I do love you all. And my desire is for you to feel it and share it, extend it, embody it, project it on your world, if you will, which will automatically happen. And guilt, judgment and blame will disappear forever. And that is the point. You changing, you being changed by the Revelation of Truth in your mind is what it’s all about because you’re connected with your Soul again.

I look forward to being with you next time.