Teachings of Christ Mind

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

I want to begin tonight by reminding everyone that God is Love! In the heat and turmoil of daily life presently, it seems to be easy to be distracted from the conscious awareness that we are Loved, that we are Loved by our Father, our Source, by God. Remind yourselves often. Remind yourself, by doing so, that you are not alone in the midst of a whole lot of other “alone” individuals, struggling, because one with God, as the saying goes, is a majority—because one with God is not misidentifying Himself as a separate Individuality, but rather inseparable from That which is the Source of all Individualities, That which is presencing Itself as all Individualities. A Wholeness, if you will.

The remembrance of God’s Love is the way you access the conscious experience of Brotherhood.

Now, there’s almost no quarter of your Globe from which I do not hear sadness, grief, depression, anger and almost nowhere where I don’t see some who are immobilized by these feelings, overcome with hopelessness.

Now, there’s a reason … there two reasons. One is that you have forgotten how to say, “No.” And the second reason is, you have lost sight of Truth.

Now, I want to emphasize at the outset tonight, the importance of the word “no,” and the importance of declaring it when it is called for. And I want to emphasize again, the fact that to be spiritual, to be coming Home, is not a matter of turning yourself into … oh-h-h, a permissive, unprincipled, but, oh so loving, forgiving individual—one who doesn’t say “no” because what he would say no to is an illusion, and “whatever you fight against is magnified.” This is a metaphysical misperception, and it is a gross misunderstanding of what the Course teaches.

The Course teaches about correction. The Course points out that whatever happens is either an expression of Love or a call for Love. And a call for Love is a behavior that is unloving and which, therefore, must be corrected. And the simple fact is, that correction will not happen if the meaning of the word, “no,” is unexpressed.

It’s very simple, without saying, “no,” there can’t be a call for a change of mind that will constitute a change of behavior that is called “repentance” … and repentance is not an old Biblical Christian or even Jewish term that no longer applies. A miracle is a sudden shift of perception. That would be a modern day way of describing repentance. It’s a sudden shift of perception, which means the abandonment of an old perception and the embrace of a new perception. It’s very simple.

Now, I said that the second reason was that you’ve lost sight of Truth. It is not surprising because no matter where you are on the Globe there is a campaign going on to confuse, and render the word “Truth” malleable, changeable, indefinite—one thing one minute, another thing the next minute. And it seems to be coming from people in authority, people that you would normally feel confident in. And when those who you give confidence to, who are in positions of governing, if they are not consistent, if they do not recognize Truth as unchangeable, as absolute, they will behave in a manner that calls for correction, which means that all of the loving students of Truth who are endeavoring to Wake up, have to open up their mouth or use their minds to say, “No”—to object! And it must be understood that saying “no” to what is objectionable and demanding correction is an absolute expression of Love—Love fortified with Principle.

Now mind you, I didn’t say principles, because principles are different sorts of rules created through the use of the imagination to exercise control. But Principle is the integrity of God that is present in every single aspect of Creation. And so Love, the behavior of Love embodies and expresses Principle. This is important.

Now, if you don’t see love being expressed by those who are governing, you cannot afford to sit there and say, “Well, this too shall pass. I’m not going to engage in what might be a difficult, conflicting relationship with this one.” But my friends, my Brothers, my Sisters, if that one is in a position of governing you, then you must not be silent. You must be willing to be the practical presence of Love that does not let a misguided Brother or Sister continue in his or her misguided way and, thereby, affect you against your intelligent awareness of things in a harmful way.

You know, the methodology that is being used to undermine confidence and to undermine the clarity of Truth is in attempting to divide mankind into groups, to conceptualize mankind in groups and pit them against each other through the use of competition, called business. And I am not oversimplifying anything here.

Think about it. Put the two words together, “business” and “Brotherhood.” What do the two feel like? Well, business is profiting, while Brotherhood is charity. Business is profiting—easily used to take advantage of one’s brother, easily used and primarily used to better one’s self at the expense of his brother. There is no love there.

Now, in 1st Corinthians, Chapter 13 it says:

Now, the word charity comes from a Latin word which means, generous Love. Generous Love, gifted Love, not transactional love, which is business, not love—which is manipulation and control, not love. Not Brotherhood.

Why are you uncomfortable with what is going on? Why are you uncomfortable? Because no matter where you are in the world, you wake up in the morning to see what new disturbance has occurred in the attempt to transform the Brotherhood of Man into the activities of business and competition? It’s not your Birthright. And it’s not going to stop until someone says, “Stop!” It’s not going to stop until everyone says, “No,” and let’s their voice determine what will happen. It’s called Government by the governed. It’s called democracy.

Now, you say, “But what can I do?” Well, the Course gives a very simple, wonderful answer. The Course says, “There are no private thoughts” … there are no private thoughts. So, you’re going to do the awful thing of taking a stand. And I’m not talking about taking a stand against something, I’m talking about standing firmly—firmly grounded in the experience of Truth—and being absolutely clear within yourself as to what is important, as to what Truth is. Because when that happens, one of the two reasons for your being confused and depressed and angry and immobilized is done away with—the fact that you have lost sight of Truth.

There are no private thoughts. You know, you’re not here just to observe. You do not exist just to observe. You exist to participate in the Movement of God, by reflecting the Movement of God because you’ve engaged in the holy instant and abandoned any inclination you have to continue to operate on the basis of an imagined independence. You see?

You’re going to have to participate. You’re going to have to be involved. And you’re going to have to be involved by being clear. And you be clear by abandoning your privacy—your private thoughts, your fears, your worries, all of which have been exasperated by the attempt to undermine peace that is occurring presently on your Globe.

Now, the undermining of the peace on your Globe is a manifestation of psychological warfare. That’s the best word for it.

You know, psychological warfare isn’t new [chuckling]. It came into existence the moment you and a Brother or Sister decided to get a divorce from the Father and determine what everything was yourself—naming everything and providing the meaning of everything to everything, yourselves. Including the definition of who you Are and what you Are and what your purpose is.

The moment that happened, you were using your mind in a way that destroyed your ability to experience who you divinely Are—the Son of God, the Daughter of God, the Expression of God—and operate on the basis of an imaginary self. And the activity of the mind of this imaginary self is called “the ego.” But what does it do? It engages in psychological warfare. It tells you, when you feel like being happy, that, “You better be careful because it won’t last forever. Something will happen.” And, “Don’t worry, you won’t live forever. You’ll one day get sick and die.” It argues with you. It convinces you to behave in a defensive, self-protective, manipulative way because your brothers and sisters can’t be trusted because they’re all trying to get up higher on the ladder by standing on your shoulders, just as you’re doing the same thing to them.

This isn’t the Truth about you, but the ego speaks as though it’s you. It’s in your mind, and it doesn’t say, “You are not going to be happy.” It says, “I am not happy!” And you hear it as though it’s your voice. That is psychological warfare. That is mesmerism. It’s a hypnotic suggestion. And right now hypnotic suggestions are being expressed that cause it to seem somehow reasonable to think that maybe Truth is variable. And there seems to be no one around speaking as though Truth is absolute and confirming that, so that that can be … what? Taken hold of and used to ground oneself, in one’s own mind, so that he or she is not swept along with the current of [chuckling] the abundance of “fake news.”

Now, I want to come back to 1st Corinthians because he said:

Remember, charity is generous Love.

It’s okay to desire spiritual gifts but let there be a preference for prophesying.

Now, further on he says:

… in other words, within the community.

I’m sharing this because part of generous Love—part and parcel of it—is not only saying “no” and calling for correction, it also involves edification. It involves your becoming involved through the expression of the Truth that is needed, so that those who are blind at the moment—mentally—might experience an “aha!” a realization because someone has taken the time to do something more than just say “no.”

One must say “no” but then one must Love enough to teach. And what does one teach? One teaches what one hears when one abandons his own independent sense of self to indulge or engage in the holy instant, and join with the Father or the Holy Spirit or me in expressing what is revealed. Because what is revealed will come in language that will be understood and provide the greatest opportunity for realization to replace ignorance. And this is important. This is the crux of the matter.

Now, you can’t always go out and get up on a soapbox on a street corner and preach, or even sit at a table in a coffee shop with friends and share your clear perspective—not for the purpose of overwhelming or manipulate them, but for the purpose of being one who is not confused, who, by being clear, expresses the Truth from Peace, not as a defense against evil but as a simple declaration of Truth.

Now, it is very important to pay attention to the obvious. The obvious is, and I’ve mentioned this before, the obvious is that you live on a Globe. Everyone lives on a Globe. It is one location. Everyone is part of the Brotherhood of Man. It is one group. It is already one group. When there was lack of communication, and it took a long time for messages to get from one place to another around the Globe, it was easy to think that you were separate, that it was not a single Family.

Many of you can remember the first time you watched Olympic Games on television and experienced seeing people in the dark, while you were watching television in full daylight. Before that, all you had was the intellectual concept that, “Yes, on the other side of the Earth it’s night time and on this side it’s daytime.” But there was no way to experience it. The moment each of you that had experienced that saw it, your Globe got smaller. It became unified as an experience. And as technology has increased and communication has become more instantaneous you now communicate with each other around the Globe—most of you—daily.

You are demonstrating the fact that there is one Brotherhood, there is one Family of Man. It is one World. The experience has gotten ahead of the mind recognizing that it is time to abandon the belief in separation, and the belief in the value of groups, and the value of isolation, the incredible [chuckling] egotistical idea that one can be better than another, that one country can be better than another, that one can take advantage of another and one can suffer at the hand of another, because, that’s not Brotherhood.

You are all living in a World that is already unified by means of instantaneous communication, and you are still behaving as though you are separate.

Now, that is the confusing belief which requires edification, which requires being willing to pay attention to the obvious and to recognize it and to stand in it, and to be from it—which amounts to being grounded and stable and humane with generous Love, instead of the endeavor to get the advantage.

So, you must begin to say, “No,” and then you must embellish it, enlarge upon the reason you’re saying “no,” by illuminating the “yes,” as I’ve just done. I’ve said, “No, you do not live as separate, distinct groups on your Globe. Yes, you already live in a state of unity and experience of unity every single day.” You see?

The Brotherhood of Man, the Expression of God, is singular and infinite. It always has been, and that fact needs to be more completely experienced right here on the Globe and Universally. But we’ll start here, because here is where the demand is. Here is where repentance needs to occur—which means here is where those of you who would like to just sort of put yourself in a cocoon of Love and not see anything wrong with anybody else and never call them on their abuse—must repent. You must arrive at a point where you’re willing to change, so that you and your relationships can be redeemed to their spiritual original, where all of you as Brothers, as Family, reflect the infinite Oneness of your Source, the Father.

Now, generous Love—charity—sounds like forgiveness to me. And so, I want to end tonight by reading from the Course. In the Sparkly book it’s page 420, and the Subheading is:

Many of you, have practiced the holy instant and experienced the holy instant. And so, you have had an instant here, an instant there, three last week [chuckling] and you have learned that the words “holy instant” refer to an actual experience, which is available to you. But it is one which each of you needs to nurture and extend.

Again:

… the holy instant …

And this is very important. The practice of the holy instant is not a matter of doing something new or in addition to what you’ve already done, it’s a matter of neglecting to practice faithlessness. And in the absence of expressing faithlessness …

… what?

Not as separate parts, competitive parts, but as a Whole.

“I’m in, you’re out.” “We’re in, you’re out.” “We’re better than you.” “You think you’re better than us?” The absence of faithlessness is the absence of making exclusions, the absence of building walls, the absence of sending someone home, meaning somewhere different from here where we are.

And that doesn’t mean that you look out at the World and you say, “Well, all this crap that’s going on is illusion. I’ll just let it be what it is because it’s not anything Real. And I’m going to attend to the things that have to do with Reality.” No, you look out at the World that looks like it is made up of desperate competitive groups, you look at your choice of how you’re defining it and you recognize, “Wait, a minute, every single day I get on the Internet or I get on my phone and I text somebody and they may be in England, or they may be in Alaska, or they may be in Japan.” You see?

And so, you let it be what it is … One World, One Family, not what it suggests to you that it is. And not what one’s leaders may be suggesting it is … as not whole and not unified and promoting the idea that competition will make everyone thrive, when division diminishes. There’s no way to get around it. Division diminishes. The absence of division reveals the Wholeness that already IS.

… you get it? Simple courtesy. God isn’t complicated. The obvious is always simple. The Reality is always simple. And:

To let it be what it is.

Which you do when you try to be in charge, yourself, and when you try to manipulate others, and when you defend yourself against what you see as others trying to control or manipulate you.

Truth. Let Truth …

Why? Because it’s Wholeness. Division is the absence of Peace and it always will be. And division will never be justified as a constructive element.

Simple, when you’re willing to be still and you desire to know what the Truth is, Truth reveals itself. Truth is a revelation to be had by anyone who’s willing to set aside faithlessness, whose willing to set aside the attempts to be an independent entity in his or her own right.

the Truth …

Rise not up against it by insisting upon excluding Brothers, deporting them, demeaning them, humiliating them.

Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the Truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preservers. Love never fails. Charity, generous Love never fails.3

When you see these things absent from the expression of a Brother or a Sister, whether it’s a family member or whether it’s the head of a country, recognize that it is not Love, and demand Love. And go within, into the holy instant so that the words necessary to edify or illuminate what Love is, and what needs to replace the behavior that is happening, can come forth and escape your lips because you’re sharing it.

And you’re not sharing it as an intimidated one who’s trying greatly to overcome being intimidated, but also not as an arrogant one who knows the Truth and is going to make sure that everybody knows what it is. No! Love gives expression to Truth from a place of infinite groundedness and stability and therefore Peace. And that’s why the expression of Love transforms, because in Its presence, in Its expression It does not, of itself, elicit egotistical reactions, and makes it easier for a sudden shift of perception to occur.

If you want to stop feeling depressed, angry, sad, hopeless and immobilized, then find a place in you where you can say “No” from the tips of your toes. And do it! And find the place in you where Truth can be revealed to you … that place being the holy instant. And do it!

You’re angry because you are at the mercy of an element that is engaged in confusing and covering over what Truth is without providing any recourse, which, indeed, causes everyone to feel helpless. But you know what? Truth is only ever revealed. And, therefore, it’s available to you in every moment because there is such a thing as a holy moment, a holy instant, in which your union with God is revealed and illumined to you, providing you with Peace because it’s an experience of infinite Love.

Now, being the holy Sons and Daughters of God means being involved in expressing Reality, expressing your divinity, not covering it over—not hiding it for fear of offending someone. Abuse will not stop until one is unafraid of offending an abuser. And just as bees can sense when someone is afraid of them, abusers can sense when one is afraid of them and the situation is aggravated. But just as bees can sense when someone is not afraid of them abusers can sense that, as well, and recognize that they have no ability to entice you or control you, because your mind is not available to them in the absence of fear.

What I am sharing with you tonight is very important, because an experiment in division and competition is in the process of being instituted. The attempt to start a, shall I say, “a grand experiment” in a new stimulating context of interactions with each other. It’s being promoted and it even seems to be modern and forward looking, but division has always been present. And what is being forgotten is that division has been lessening every moment, especially within the last hundred and twenty years. And so, this movement forward into business and competition and the conceptualization of countries as businesses is a backward step.

“No,” must be said. And the “Yes” that replaces what was objected to, must be felt by every single one of you. You must be willing to take the time and put forth the effort that it takes to become clear about what Truth is, so that It’s present in your mind as part of your makeup, even if you’re not expressing It verbally all the time, because there are no private thoughts.

Every single one who engages consciously in the holy instant in order to know the Truth because the Truth is more important to you than anything else, will be “the leaven that leavens the whole lump,”4 will be that which transforms. And it will be felt substantially because it is coming from a place of grounded stability, instead of emotional hype and egotistical thrills.

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