Teachings of Christ Mind

Good evening, or should I say good morning because here it is half past midnight, the beginning of Palm Sunday here. And before I go into anything, I want to begin by saying I love you. Whoever is hearing my voice right now, I love you.

Now, loving you is not a matter of me having highly spiritual thoughts about your divinity. It isn’t me thinking anything about you at all. It isn’t about anything I’ve learned. It’s about my nature. It’s about my Being. It’s about what God is Being right where I am. Loving is the same for you, for everyone. It’s not about the most masterful, spiritual, intellectual ideas that you can embrace another with. You know, it’s a matter of Soul. It’s a matter of soul more than a matter of Mind. This is important.

You are the direct expression of God. All of what God Is, is expressed and embodied in you. You, if you didn’t think so much, would find that you Know the Truth and that as the presence of Soul, you feel everything deeply and meaningfully. But, for the most part, you’re caught in fear and doubt, self-doubt, anxiety, the one bullied by circumstances beyond his control. And so, it’s hard to feel loved, and it’s hard to remember that you are. But I am reminding you right now that no matter how overwhelmed you might be feeling at this moment, I love you. And because I love you, I care to find the way to reveal to you that your suffering is illegitimate. I feel the need to not be at rest until you are no longer suffering from anxiety and fear and insecurity and jealousy and the constant need to be in a state of defense.

This is my Function. And, in the final analysis, it is your Function as well. But a shift must occur, a shift in which you are released from inner self-defense, self-protection, anxiety, and on and on, to the point where you feel safe enough and secure enough to let love out, which is what I am doing. It is my Function, and it is your Function.

Now, on what has become Palm Sunday, I entered Jerusalem on a donkey—no bullet-proof SUV with flags denoting my importance blowing in the wind on the bumpers of the car. Simple. Because position was not what was being expressed. Love was. Common down-to-earth intimate caring, one to another as equals—as those who equally deserve to be loved, and who equally deserve to extend love without fear.

The simplicity of it needs to be understood, because the simplicity of you in your capacity to fulfill your Function of being the Presence of Love that blesses your Brother, is your Birthright, is your Function, is your joy, is your fulfillment. Nothing complicated, nothing that requires intellectual brilliance.

Always the answer to problems comes in the simple recognition of the Truth, and it never comes from some spiritual, intellectual argument or thought that is equal to the challenge that is causing dissention and fear and doubt and turmoil and jealousy and on and on and on. You don’t have to find a truth equal to the apparent ferocity of the problem. You have to shift; you have to find your capacity to be the Presence of Love, to be the most important thing instead of defense against the enemy.

Now, during the week between Palm Sunday and what you call Easter Sunday, I spent a lot of time with my brothers and sisters, with my fellowman, you know, in the neighborhood so-to-speak. It wasn’t some formal religious event; it was camaraderie, it was sharing, it was interacting, it was me responding to concerns with the illumination of Truth. It was Family! You see?

Now, during the week, someone asked me, “Which of God’s commandments was most important?” And the Bible relates my answer this way, quite accurately, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”¹ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is just as important, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”² All the other commandments and the teachings of the prophets are based on these two … t-w-o.

Now, what I want to point out is that this is an explanation, for lack of better words, of the mechanics of the holy instant, of the practice of the two-step where you … step one: shut up. Where you silence all of your theories, all of your conclusions, all of your reasoning’s that have arisen out of fear and the best you can do based on your experience. You shut it up, and you reach beyond that to the Holy Spirit or the Father or me to ask, “What is the truth here?” Not what is the truth about the problem, but, “What is the truth that shows that the problem is not valid and that I don’t need to behave as though it is.” And then, being silent and listening for the answer from the Father or the Holy Spirit or me.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. In other words, silence human will in you, silence the chattering of your fearful mind and turn your attention to God … Love the Lord your God with all your heart. In other words, with all of your attention, you let that be more important than the reacting to things the way you are perceiving them. And you listen. And when the answer comes, it’s an answer that changes you and changes your behavior and changes your perspective so that you are with your Brothers in a new way, which is the description of the second commandment which is just as important … Love your neighbor as yourself. You see?

Now, you are faced with circumstances [chuckles] in the world today that seem to grab your attention—there is your attention! But where does your attention need to be? Not on what the world is attempting to suck you in with, if I may put it that way, not with the situation as others are perceiving it and encouraging you to perceive it. No! You, if you want your peace, are going to have to use some self-discipline and govern where you’re going to give your attention. And you must understand that until you do this, until you seek of the Father to know what the Father’s Will is, until you seek of the Father what the Father’s perspective is, until you seek of the Father to know in the world you’re looking at what He is being there in spite of what you are afraid is there, you will not be in your peace, and you will not be where the answer can register for you … register with you. It’s that simple. And that’s what, from a standpoint of reasoning, can justify your giving your attention over to the Father in spite of the circumstances.

Now, during this coming week, I want to bring your attention to Lesson 59 and Lesson 60 and Lesson 61 in the Workbook of A Course In Miracles because, believe it or not, it addresses exactly what we’re talking about. And it is a different source of information than you will get from the media. And it is a source of information which if you will embrace and embody it, will allow you to address what the media is saying with perspective and with Love for your Brothers and Sisters of the sort that will open the door for correction, for healing, for transformation to occur.

Now, Lesson 59 and 60 are reviews. And the very first Review is entitled:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. Well there it is in the acknowledgement.

Now, the fact is that in the middle of stress and distress that doesn’t seem to be the truth at all, and it seems to be pie in the sky, nonsense, hard to get into the feeling of, but continue to present yourself with this perspective because without it your perspective will not be able to change without great difficulty.

Continuing…

God

Now, love and joy don’t surround you through the media these days. Expect it … and so, indulge in it carefully, briefly and certainly do it with an unwillingness to give it your allegiance.

Well, a few of the illusions that you have about yourself is that your perceptions are accurate, your judgments are accurate, indeed things are going on that are wrong, and you have no ability to do a single thing about it because you are so inconsequential. Therefore, you are confident that you have justification to be afraid and to indulge in the fear, to give your allegiance to it. But you don’t have to.

Be willing to let go of them, be willing to shift and to ask for and to be willing to stand in receipt of the Father’s Perspective which involves no illusion.

Continuing …

You know, God doesn’t go with you as a companion, walking along side you with His arm around you as a father figure, who will protect you, who needs protection. The Father goes with you wherever you go because the Father is what is moving there wherever you’re going. You have no existence separate from God moving, from God being. And you have no mind with which to experience it that isn’t the Mind of God even though you use your imagination to demonstrate to yourself that you do, to supposedly prove to yourself that you do. But it’s not the truth.

Why is that important: I am perfect? It’s important because your fear arises out of a fundamental belief or idea or thought that you are not perfect, that you are flawed. You see? Oh, that you’re a sinner. You see?

Well, you’ll never abandon that state of mind as long as you honor it. And you will honor it until you’re willing to consider that you are perfect … that you are perfect! Because, if you exist, if you draw a breath, if you lift a finger, God is being that and nothing else. And this is the truth that counteracts and contradicts the lie, the belief that creates all the illusions that are frightening you to death. You see?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Bring your full attention and your full willingness to Him. That’s the first part of the holy instant. This is the nitty-gritty of what it means. And it means you must do it no matter what the media says, no matter what so and so is doing or not doing, no matter how poorly you think of yourself, no matter how convinced you are that there is no justification for you to have a better experience.

Now, the next Review Lesson is:

You see? We’re still on the first part of the two-step: Loving the Lord thy God with all your heart.

[Chuckles] Forget about your best judgments, forget about your pet theories, forget about whatever it is you’re convinced about at the moment. Allow yourself not to look with your own eyes to see today. How? By inviting a different perspective, by stepping outside of the structures of your beliefs, which you have cultivated or others have cultivated for you. Be willing to step out into what isn’t governed by your beliefs.

“Father, what is the more of what You’re being right here than what I’m seeing? What is the sole capacity to feel the truth of Creation that I am confronted with instead of what my fearful perspective is causing me to feel?” Listen again …

… You see? Christ’s vision is God’s gift. My vision is God’s gift. That same gift is given you and nothing less. That is His vision that He gives all of us equally.

He has given it to you. He has given it to you. The gift is made irrevocably. It’s done. But you must be willing to reach for it, to yield to it, something that happens naturally when you get rid of the rod you’ve put up your backbone to make yourself stand straight and tall and strong in your own right. When humility comes, you relax, you become quite flexible, and you are not using any part of you, or your body, as defense. And when the wall of defense breaks down, why, the Truth floods in naturally, or, you could say, you relax into it so that it registers with you. That’s the way it works because …

… you …

So that this day, and I’m going to say, this place and this encounter, and this involvement in the context of the Father’s vision helps me to understand eternity.

Continuing with the first part of the two-step, the first part of the holy instant:

Well, you know that you think you can. You know that you thought you have. And you know that that hasn’t reduced suffering—not permanently, not with stability.

Oh, oh, ooh.

That’s a mouthful when it’s coming out of your mouth. But if it doesn’t come out of your mouth, you won’t be in a position of, I’m going to say, owning your divinity.

Part of my return to Jerusalem was to clearly express who I was, the Son of God, unequivocally, clearly, humbly. And that’s what each of you is called upon to do. And so you say …

At least not actually, imaginatively perhaps. You can fool yourself with flimsy thought forms, but you cannot actually see anything else but what God wants you to see. Nothing else is seeing. Everything else is imagination.

True, isn’t it? You know that when you’re seeing these other things, you’re not connected with the Father; the Father is the furthest thing from your mind, and you are not looking in a joined, in a consciously joined state.

… illusions …

That is the initial act of the two-step, of the holy instant. Let’s be very clear about the simplicity of it but also the fact that what makes it simple is, there are no alternatives. The alternative of thinking for yourself does not fit here, does not exist.

The next Lesson is:

You see, all of these are clear arguments, clear statements sharing with you the fact that your own best thinking is not of any value to you. In fact, it must be set aside so that you can hear of God what is the Truth, and let that replace your beliefs, replace those things which are causing you to suffer.

Oh, yes. “Yes, seeing is what I experience when I reason things through and find the logical order between this and that and the other thing so that I understand the structure which makes what I’m looking at dependable and solid and real. And I will abide by the structures which I have imaginatively put in place to define what I’m looking at.”

Now, the ego will tell you that that’s justification right there for stopping the practice of the holy instant. It will tell you that that’s insulting, and God wouldn’t insult you. God wouldn’t put you in that position. But the fact is that it’s not insulting at all. It’s a simple sharing of what’s of value and what isn’t so that the valueless can simply be set down, abandoned willingly because you want to know the Truth.

… instead of resisting it, instead of preferring my vision in [chuckles] the illumination of my imagination.

See, we’re beginning to turn a corner here; we’re beginning to [big sigh] let a shift occur. And as I said, during this coming week, not just because it’s the period between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, but because circumstances in the world are calling for you to forget what we’re talking about, forget these ideas of Truth and forget the simple practice of the holy instant.

Next Review Lesson:

“Oh, no it isn’t! [Laughs] I’ve been thinking my thoughts a long time. And you know what? I’ll prove it to you. If I can sit down and ask to know what God’s thoughts are, then who is it that’s asking? Obviously it isn’t God asking God what’s true! That proves that I have a mind of my own.” No it doesn’t! It simply proves that you have been able to imagine an explanation that makes sense to you and that you believe. But the fact is that when you actually dare to practice the holy instant, when you actually dare to become still, to abandon your thinking and, in that silence, you express a simple thought, “Father, what do I need to know? Father, what is the truth here? Father, what is the correction for this problem?” When you do that and then stay in the silence with full attentiveness, the answer will come, revelation will occur and infilling will happen and that will be the demonstration of the fact that God’s Mind is different from what you imagined your mind was and is a natural state for you if you don’t abandon it.

Again:

[Chuckling] That doesn’t mean that the thoughts you have—been having unjoined —are His, and then His thoughts are yours as well. No.

Paul has practiced a little trick, you might say, when he asks me, “What is your perspective.” He noticed that the second, third, and fourth letter of the word “your” is “our.” And so, many times he says, “What is (y)our perspective,” meaning, “What is your perspective that is at the same time my true perspective?” In that sense, “yo-our perspective” is mine, which is also his, and it is different from the perspective he has when he’s choosing to think all by himself for himself. You see?

And so, continuing our Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday practice of Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind and loving your neighbor as yourself.

The next Review Lesson 60 says:

There is the communication, the communion with God, the Oneness with God that is experienced is never private. It transforms your perspective about everything. And if you are embracing the perspective, it will change your behavior attitudinally as well as physically. Where? In the world, in your relationships with your Brother and Sister—your fellowman.

You simply can’t experience being innocent all by yourself on a nice little pedestal even if it’s only a quarter of an inch high so that nobody notices it, how much better you are, how much more perfect you are.

In my forgiveness of my fellowman, I will recognize my innocence, I will experience it. Another way of saying it is I will make it my own. I won’t ever again claim an innocence separate and apart from my Brothers or Sisters. I will never let innocence make a Brother a stranger.

Do not forget this! None of what this Course is teaching is a means of escaping this earth, the place where Love is embodied when one is led by the Father. Without the act of Brotherhood, innocence is nonexistent.

… where God can reach down to you and register with you, not just in God your mind, but in your soul so that you are changed, so that you are able to embrace, so that you are able to engage in glorifying your Brother. And you know what? It may be as simple and as uncomplicated as communicating to a Brother or a Sister, “Hey, you’re not alone. Hey, I care. Don’t forget, if you have a need, give me a call.” Sometimes it’s that … oh, not glorious, not attention getting, not something that obviously is impressive of you as an ego. You see?

The next Review Lesson is:

No. [chuckles] When through your own strength you engage in forgiving, you are actually engaged in manipulation because there is no love in it. There is no you, being from your Soul, your capacity to feel the divinity of everything.

… where?

… right there in my fellowman, right there in the one whom I wanted to put a wall between the two of us because of how I determined him to be unjoined.

I mentioned in the beginning here that I love you, and that it amounts to caring because I do not want to see you hurting as a result of something that’s totally fabulous, of the nature of a fable—imaginary. And I am not capable of watching you suffer without feeling the need to correct it, to do whatever it takes to illuminate the illusory nature and, therefore, the fallacy of the fable so that you can say, “Wow! [Laughs] How did I ever think that was possible? It’s so clear that it’s not.” And you’re free.

Involvement is the nature of Brotherhood, and it evolves from or arises out of the need to be the presence of Love. And when there is suffering going on, that need is felt with great strength.

When you feel that, you will have to be wise so that you don’t begin to think that this is emotion coming from your false sense of yourself and that, therefore, it’s ego, and you had better stop, that such intense feeling cannot possibly be divine. But listen again:

That strength in you could be interpreted as a humongous “No!” to the problem or a humongous “Yes!” to the solution. Either way, it’s the same thing, and you must be willing to stay with the strength of it without embellishing it with the belief that this is just your ego and that you have somehow become confused. When that happens, when you feel the stirring of strength, His strength in you, stay attentive in the holy instant even more carefully.

The next Review Lesson is, naturally:

Now, when you are in a state of fear, when world conditions and the behaviors of people or the unexpected behavior of your body causes you to be engulfed with fear and anxiety and anger and frustration, the one thing that is most distressing is that you’re not able to simply be Yourself … you’re not able to simply be Yourself. Being Yourself means, you in a state of relaxation, where you’re not on guard, where you are not carrying with you a bunch of defenses at the ready, where in simplicity, you don’t have to be on guard, and you can just simply express the love that you are and the intelligence that you know you are. You see?

And so, as you engage in the two-step and, as you hear the Father’s Voice, and as transformation occurs, and your perception shifts, you become aware that there is nothing to fear. And you find yourself being returned to the place where, for lack of better words, you can just be You, where you can be [big sigh] oh, Real.

Meaning, when I can see it for what it truly is, Creation.

I know, you say you won’t be able to do that until the world changes, or it isn’t quite as severe as it is right now. But mind you, you’re not looking at it and seeing that joined in any way with That which has perspective that’s true. And that is what the holy instant accesses.

Well, how have you forgiven the world? You’ve forgiven it by abandoning your definitions of it—your sorry definitions of it—so that you might ask of the Father, “What is the truth here?” And then be infilled with the experience of what the truth is.

Now, the next Review Lesson is an encouragement:

God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. Of course:

It’s your Function. It’s my Function to give voice to the Father. That is called co-creation.

… where? Your actions up in your head? No. Your actions “in the world,” in your relationships with others and with your world.

“Oh, I know the way to go. I’ve been there a million times. I know the way to go.” That’s arrogance, that’s independence, and you’re bound to stub your toe on life when Life moves in a way you didn’t expect or anticipate because it’s not there to conform to your definition or what you have come to know through experience.

That’s the only Voice. A poem says:

… I will follow. Isn’t that insulting? I will follow not lead …

Why would you rejoice all the rugged way? Because when you follow the Holy Spirit, when you let God’s Voice lead you, the rugged way is not rugged. You see, that’s the holy instant in action. That’s what it’s about.

The next:

… not the media, not my own loud, fearful, angry, arrogant, selfish, bitter thoughts …

Why? Because it infills you, because you have invited it, because that’s where you have brought your attention, and your attention is like an open cup, a receptacle, that with which to receive.

Now, it doesn’t just mean you. You recognize that His Son, His Expression, that which is His Creation is sinless, fabulously perfect.

… what?

That is the message of the Passover, where the acknowledgement and embrace and the release of resistance to one’s divinity occurs. That’s the point.

And then, we have Lesson 61, which is not a Review.

Now, mind you, God is the Light with which you see. God is that which illumines everything you see, to you, as what it truly is. But:

You see, the second part of the two-step, the new behavior that occurs as a result of willingly letting go of all of your confidences, all of your theories, all of what you’ve been taught in favor of performing your Function as co-creator with God by asking of God, “What is the truth?” so that it might be revealed to you, and you can confirm it by your behavior, by your actions. That’s where the rubber hits the road. That’s where Reality is actualized, let’s put it that way.

You as the Son or Daughter of God exist for the purpose of giving voice to your Father/Mother/Your Source/That which Is/All there Is of You and, although, it doesn’t seem to satisfy an ego need for individual, separate, independent authority, and importance, when you allow that natural flow of God into Expression right where you are, you will have the experience of coming Home. And you will understand, you will feel, the meaning of the words that the Course is expressing and that I am explaining.

“I am the light of the world.”

“Glory, hallelujah!” The ego loves it. And the ego will take hold of it if it can.

You see? Oh, yeah, oh, it’s humiliating not to have any authority. It’s humiliating to be the mouth piece for something else, just the delivery boy, the messenger girl. [Laughing] But when you’re delivering the glory of God and everyone experiences the glory of God as the event that is happening, it matters not one whit whether the truth was delivered by you and not authorized by you. You see?

You see? Not opting for options.

You see? This is what needs to be remembered. This is what Passover week is geared to the revelation of, and the support of.

Denying God’s truth about you [chuckle] is arrogance and stupidity and is nothing actual. It’s all imaginary. It’s all flim-flam, farce, fake news.

… “I am the light of the world” …

And this takes faith, and this takes trust. But God supplies the trust as well when you do not argue against it.

… where?

You don’t save others by getting control of them and saving them from their poor motives by inhibiting them from carrying them out without ever transforming the thoughts and beliefs which have determined the behavior.

… “I am the light of the world” …

“I am the light of the world.”

This needs to be foremost in your mind. But you also need to remember that:

Why? So that you can give voice to His Voice. It’s your Function.

… unburdened of all of your definitions and theories and righteous arrogant attitudes … unburdened by them and certain of your purpose.

In other words, you are not here to be sitting in reaction to what the media is delivering to you. You are here to choose first to look at what is being presented with the Father through His eyes for the purpose of learning how to be that which corrects the illusion, brings about transformation and healing. Then after saying:

You see, there’s the discipline, the learning to bring your attention and hold it there—holding it there where the revelation is experienceable.

… where you make the statement.

Don’t wake up [chuckles] and check your iPhone or your cell phone to see what the latest bad news is before you even put your feet on the floor.

Begin your day …

… remembering that there is no real option. And you don’t want an option. Having an option means that your full allegiance is not being given to God, which is the first part of the holy instant, and, thus, you will lose the holiness of the instant and its blessing.

… when you waken, when you go to sleep …

Now, remember this:

That is the message of the Passover. That is the action of the holy instant.

This is the truth. As “far out” and as unreasonable it might seem to be to your present point of view, it is the truth, and it will become less objectionable, more reasonable, the more frequently you remind yourself by reviewing what we’ve just gone over.

Again, I encourage you to let today, Palm Sunday, be the beginning of a transformational week. And I look forward to being with you next time.