Teachings of Christ Mind

Top
Library of Christ Mind Teachings
The Way of Mastery

Hang on a sec…

Now, we begin.

And indeed, once again, greetings unto you, beloved and holy friends. We would trust, then, that this moment finds you well. We would trust, then, that this moment finds you willing to be wholly where you are. We would trust, then, that in this moment, we would find you willing to assume responsibility for the choices you have made, that have literally created the environment that you are experiencing in this moment: the chair in which you sit, the walls around you, the things that hang upon the walls, the individuals with whom you find yourself in close proximity, the individuals with whom you find yourself in relationship, the individuals with whom you work, those with whom you play, those with whom you share. We would trust that this moment finds you, the Holy Child of God, at play in the Kingdom of Christ.

And if not…if, as you listen to that greeting, you are aware within yourself that,

Well, that’s not quite the perspective from which I was beginning my listening of this tape. I thought I was going to sit down and listen to Christ.

If there be some element, some touch, some trace within you of that perspective, then pause the tape right now. And, as you do so, abide by yourself, and take several deep breaths, if you wish. Go back to the five minute exercise of simply being the presence of Christ. For well do we perceive that many of you have already forgotten that the exercise exists.

At the end of the five minutes, simply remind yourself that what is true always, is always true: Only Love is Real. And what is Real cannot be threatened by what does not truly exist. And in each moment in which your perceptions are less than flowing from the remembrance of who you are, you have been in unreality. When you notice this, take the time and use it constructively, by returning to the Truth. So, pause the tape if you must–we’ll be going nowhere–and return in five minutes.

Now, The Way of Transformation is simple, for the way of efforting one’s way into the Kingdom cannot flow from the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For where there is effort, there is a separate will, called the ego, that believes itself to be (and would love to convince you of this), believes itself to be small, powerless, and knows that it is pervaded by fear. Love requires no effort, only the little willingness necessary to allow it to flow from the depth of your being, through you, that it might be extended throughout Creation.

Beloved friends, The Way of Transformation, again, requires only that you extend to yourself the willingness necessary to put into practice using time differently. No, it doesn’t mean that you have to quit your job and go live in a little hut on top of a mountain somewhere. You would not necessarily use time differently by doing so. It does require that you begin with the simple recognition that there can be no set of perceived circumstances that truly have the power to separate you from your God. No set of circumstances, no set of relationships–not the weather, not the amount of money that you are allowing yourself to receive for the expenditure of your time–there is nothing in the world that has the power to separate you from your God.

You are the one who holds dominion over all things. And what does this idea of dominion mean? It means that you are the one who is the source of the power which can choose how you will see what is around you, how you will perceive it, what you will believe most about it. You are the one with the power to penetrate the illusory veil of the world and see the Heart, or the Essence, or the Truth, or the Christ Child in everything–a blade of grass, the cry of a child, the barking of a dog, the coming of the mail with the bills. Hmm.

Therefore, The Way of Transformation does not require you to change your circumstances. It merely requires that you change your attitude toward them, by recognizing that they are harmless, by recognizing that you have called all things to yourself.

There are many that would teach that you must sit around and ponder why you did this, and why you did that, and…oh, my goodness gracious! I say unto you, all that is required to begin is the willingness to accept that in the great mystery of consciousness, you are the power and the source for all that you think, all that you see, all that you feel, and all that you would be and do. You abide in that freedom constantly.

The Way of Transformation, then, rests simply on that:

How will I decide to use my time? Finding myself here in this moment, can I remember that I am free to see things differently? I am free to look lovingly upon the world. I do not need to wait for something outside of myself to create a stimulus that elicits a loving response.

You don’t need to wait for your mate to come and give you the hug that you want so much. You don’t need to wait until your mother calls you on the phone and begs for your forgiveness for how cruelly she treated you when you were growing up. You don’t need to wait until President Clinton is no longer in the White House. You don’t need to wait for the great contest that comes in the mail that brings you millions of dollars. You don’t need to wait for that to happen. Right now, you are the one that is free.

But perhaps you have imprisoned yourself, by waiting for Love to show up outside of you to trigger a response within you, when you feel it or recognize it, so that finally you feel loving. Those that know aloneness are not limited in extending Love. And those that know loneliness yet retain the power to make the decision to love. It can never be taken from you.

So, here is a simple exercise that we would wish to give you. When next you find yourself alone and perhaps feeling just a little lonely, and you notice that the mind is spinning with thoughts, and you are feeling perhaps just a little weak and out of sorts–pick up what you call your telephone book. Take three deep breaths, and with each breath say to yourself,

In Reality, I remain as I am created to be. I am the Holy Child of God.

Then merely open the phone book. Place your hand on one of the pages with the many names and numbers and just feel your way to a specific name and number (and you’ll know the feeling). And then, for the fun of it, call that person. And when they answer the phone, merely say,

I’m not here to sell you anything, I just need about fifteen seconds of your time. I know you’ve never met me, but I was just sitting in my chair remembering that the Truth is true always. And I’m calling to remind you that you are loved by God! You’ve never failed. You’ve never done anything wrong. You remain pure and innocent, even now. And I just wanted to give my blessings to you. Have a nice day. Good-bye.

For you see, the world in which you live has but one purpose. It is the same purpose that all dimensions of Creation have: to be the extension of the Father’s Love. For that is what Creation is. And then, to extend that Love from that world, from that dimension. Each and every one of you has but one treasure, only one treasure. It is not your child. It is not your spouse. It is not the new car in the garage. Your treasure is your Reality as the unlimited, holy and only begotten Child of God. You are a field of consciousness through which the Father would extend Himself.

This means that if this is your only treasure, your greatest joy will be discovered as you cultivate within yourself the habits of mind, the habits of body, the habits of choice, that begin to align what you think, what you see, and what you do with the Truth that is true always. For your joy will be found as you recognize that you exist to extend your treasure. And as you do so, you immediately add to your Father’s treasure, Whose only will is to extend That Which He Is, forever — unbounded, unlimited. And God is but Love.

Now, the grand thing about Love is this: It does not require any set of conditions to exist before It does. Now, how is this different than some of the things you experience in life? Rest assured that, as a body, there are certain conditions that must exist before the body can be satiated with food or water. There must be certain conditions that are met before the body stops shivering against the cold. Your world is based on the topsy-turvy perception (that is an interesting word, by the way, topsy-turvy, hmm), is based on the perception that conditions must be met before there can be a choice for peace instead of war, for forgiveness instead of judgment, for Love instead of fear.

And when the conditions outside of me change, then I’ll make the choice for Love.

I have often said that the world is merely the reflection of the insane choice to deny Love and to be devoted to fear. The world is diametrically opposed to the Truth of the Kingdom. The world is the opposite of Reality. The Way of Transformation, then, rests on the complete reversal of the thought system you have learned in the world. But that thought system is not merely the practice of new ideas, repeated ad nauseum in the mind. That reversal of thought must permeate the entire field of the body-mind (which is nothing more than the field of your consciousness), so that you know that change has occurred.

So that when you are in any set of circumstances that once seemed to elicit judgment, or fear, or anger, or hurt, or sadness, that you recognize,

My goodness, my whole body feels different. I just feel like being loving. I feel totally safe. What’s the big deal here? Oh, I remember when these kinds of circumstances would have elicited sadness, or hurt, or fear, or anger–and now, I just think it’s a beautiful place to be. Because, here, I can extend the Love of Christ. Wow, what a joy! What a treasure! Thank God, I have this moment in which I can be the blessing that blesses this world!

And what is the world, if not each moment of relationship in which you find yourself?

So, beloved friends, the use of time is pivotal. The use of time determines, at all levels, what you will experience in your tomorrows. And long after the body ceases to be the teaching and learning device that you are most attached to, long after the body dies, you will, indeed, be continually stepping into your tomorrows. For you are that sunbeam sent forth from the sun, from the Mind of God. And that Light never stops traveling–let’s put it that way, to use a spatial term. You will never cease to create. You will never cease to experience.

The only choice you ever have is this:

Will I assume responsibility for doing whatever I must do to eradicate every misperception, every obstacle to the presence of Love, every limited belief I have ever learned about anyone or anything–especially about myself? When will I choose to assume responsibility for cultivating that perfect remembrance that I and my Father are One–that I can perceive the real world?

…the reality that shines through everything…that is present in the very material that makes up the chair in which you are sitting…that literally pervades the thing that you call the body that you think is so dense and hard. Or perhaps, if you have not been exercising, it is also a little soft.

The point is, there is nothing that you see that is not pervaded by the Perfect Radiance of God’s Holy Presence–nothing. The stone, a leaf, a piece of paper blown by the wind, even the shoutings of fear and anger from anyone yet contains within it–if you would receive it–the Perfect Love of God. For your Father does not ever recoil or withdraw from the unlimited and perfect Extension of Himself. And God is but Love. And if you did not abide wholly in that Love in this moment, you would immediately cease to exist. I don’t just mean die; I mean, literally, cease to exist. There would be no trace of thought, or memory in any mind, of you. It is only because Love Is that You Are.

This is why I once said,

Of myself I can do nothing, but my Father, through me, does these things.

I did not say,

I learned these of my Father, and now I will be the maker and doer.

I acknowledged my complete helplessness, my complete dependency. I eradicated any perception that I was a self separate from God. I stopped giving authority to the tiny, little gnat shouting at the vastness of space,

My will be done!

As you sit in your chair, then, in this moment–hopefully with your Transformation Journal in your lap, and the pen that you have purchased for only this purpose remember this: You are wholly dependent at all times on the pervasive Reality of Love, which has given you existence out of Its desire to extend Its treasure–joy. This is the reality of who you are in this moment. You are as the wave that has arisen from the Ocean of God’s perfect and holy Love. You could not for a moment be cut off from it. And yes, tomorrow things will change. Yes, there will be a point when the body breaks down and dies. Yes, there will be a moment in which all that you see before you will be there no longer, for all things that arise in time, end in time. That’s the way it is. And yet, you are free to cultivate the ability to perceive the real world–to see, to know, to feel, to taste, to be, to extend That which is Real. And only Love meets that definition.

Therefore, again, by way of another exercise, take just a moment. And if the eyes are closed, open them and look around you. What is the first thing that your eyes see? Be with it. Don’t be so fast to judge it as a candle, or a flower, or a picture. Simply be with it. Let the body relax. Stop thinking so much. What is this thing? Do you truly know what it is, or what it’s for? You describe it, you name it, as Adam once did the animals in the story of the Garden of Eden. And the human mind believes that once it has named or defined a thing, it therefore knows it. It is called the smugness of egoic knowledge.

But do you truly know what that thing is? Do you recognize what has come about to even bring it into existence? How many minds had to have been involved in bringing forth that creation? What are the materials it is made out of? Where did the materials come from? What plant, what rock, what metal has been discovered and extracted from the body of the Earth to become that shape? How on earth did that happen? Where did the very molecules and atoms come from? What is that thing that I am looking at?

Can you find a place in which you merely rest in awe, and recognize your complete ignorance? You did not make that thing. You cannot find the moment in which that thing first began to arise as a thought in someone’s mind. You are completely unaware of the moment of the birthing of the substance from which that object has been created. Look at it, then, with awe, and recognize that it has come forth from the same place as you-–mystery; utter, sheer mystery. Do you not then feel an affinity with it? Are you not in relationship with it? Can you not, then, begin to sense the sacredness in which that relationship abides? For mystery is sacred, and it transcends even the greatest of minds. The greatest of philosophers can not comprehend the field of mystery in which all relationships arise.

And now, looking upon that object, whatever it is, recognize that you have called it into relationship with yourself. Ponder for a moment, and consider,

Out of what vibration of consciousness did I first call this object to myself?

You might remember purchasing it in a store. See if you can discover the very first moment in your memory, in your consciousness, in which this object came into the field of your awareness. What was going on? What were you thinking, or were you thinking at all? What motivated you to bring it into the field of your home? If you are at a friend’s house, the question remains the same. What motivated you to be where you are right now? What choices were you making with consciousness?

Now, again, we would suggest that you pause the tape and spend about five minutes repeating this exercise with several objects or things that you see in the room around you. Don’t forget that that might even include your kneecap, or your hand, a ring upon your finger, the socks upon the feet. Enjoy this exercise. But remember, don’t press the brain; that is, don’t think so hard. Relax the body. Sit in the chair as though you were Christ and just look, and go through the kinds of questions we’ve given unto you. And then we will continue …

So, how did that go? Beloved friends, this exercise is very, very similar to one that I was also given by my Essene teachers when I was fairly young. And I would spend hours–hours–not just five minutes, but literally hours doing this exercise. I would do it in my father’s house. I would do it in the synagogues. I would do it in the streets of the villages. My favorite time and place to do it was just at dusk, as the sun would begin to set. And as it did so, and I observed the colors, and felt the changes in the temperature of the air upon my skin, as I looked at the breezes dancing across the grasses, as I heard the song of the bird, I would be with these things, just as I just asked you to be with the objects in your room. And hours would go by, as I would sit and try to look at each and every star in the sky, asking myself the same questions:

Can I discover the source of this that I am seeing? Where did it come from? How could it be? What has brought this forth?

And as I began to sense that I was calling these things into my experience, I began to discern what brought me true joy–not just a moment of pleasure, or satisfaction, or sense of security, but that which elicited true joy. And I discovered that what always brought joy was when I was willing to surrender into the awe of mystery, to penetrate the thoughts, and perceptions, and attitudes, and definitions that the world had taught me. To look at a plate, and not just see a plate, but to see mystery unfolding before me. To sit and look at a star. To sit and look at a sacred text. To sit and look at one diseased, who sits at the side of the road covered with dust, and to see no difference–to see them pervaded by the same Mystery–the presence of my Father’s Love. I began to sense that that Love pervaded me, that the very body-mind that I thought had been me, Jeshua ben Joseph, was arising out of Mystery…out of Mystery…out of Mystery…that I did not create myself! And I finally came to realize that even I, Jeshua ben Joseph, was a Mystery with which I was in relationship.

And I decided to be in relationship with my own self, what we refer to as the body-mind, that peculiar sense of awareness in which you say, ‘I am.’ I decided to be in relationship with the totality of my Self — mind, spirit, soul, emotion, body–with the same sense of awe and mystery that I felt when I looked upon the farthest of stars deep into the night on a quiet hillside. And that changed everything. I gave up my self-definitions. I did not see myself as a carpenter’s son. I did not see myself as a Jew. I no longer saw myself as a student of the Essenes.

I came to see my Self as the mysterious extension of something beyond my comprehension. I saw my Self as a sunbeam to the sun. I saw my Self as the very mystery of God’s presence being unfolded in the realm of manifestation. I saw that all that I thought, even down to the body, was temporary; that it was an ongoing foreverness; that whatever it was that was birthing me was eternal, and that if I could just rest in That, if I could abide with That, if I could return to That–even prior to every breath–that I could tap into the very Power of Creation Itself. And get out of the way, and get out of the way, and get out of the way. And keep diving deeper into Mystery upon Mystery upon Mystery.

I never let my mind rest from that day. I never once decided I was done. I never defended a single perception that I held about anyone or anything. And I cultivated over time, by using time wisely–I cultivated the willingness and the ability to seek first the Kingdom, even to the point where I was doing it prior to every word spoken, every gesture made with the body:

Father, I rest in You. What would You live through me in this moment? Let me witness it! Let me feel it! Let me taste it! Take me ever deeper into Your mystery. I want all of You!

And if I might make a confession, that has never ended. I am still saying,

Father, I want all of You!

The Way of Transformation–the willingness to use time differently. There must come a point in the journey of each individual in which the head bows, and the thought emerges,

I want only God, and I no longer care what it takes, what is required. I submit to the Mysterious Force that is Life, asking only that I be transformed into the perfect Field of Awareness through which that Love flows without obstruction.

Now, what you will discover, in the end, is that the only obstruction is fear, and some expression of it. And each time you begin to set aside fear, and choose to bless the world from the perfect holiness of your union with God–each time you dare to be so arrogant in the eyes of the world as to be the presence of Christ, each time you relax the mind and the body and recognize,

Of myself I do nothing. Something is living me, and it is to That which I surrender,

you will cultivate a way of being in the world that is not here. That is, it is not within the perceptual mode that makes up the world.

You will be different. You will look the same, but you will not be the you that the world has known. You will speak as you’ve always spoken. You’ll know your social security number. However, there will be a definite sense that you live, yet not you, but That One is living you. And somehow, inextricably, unexplainably, you are being allowed to be the Field of Awareness that gets to witness Life living as you. And you will know that it is sacred. You will know that it is beautiful–that right now, wherever you are in this moment, you are the embodiment and the expression of Mystery: Love forever extending Itself. You are the very Joy of God!

And you will continue to be so throughout all of existence. There will never be a time when you will cease to be. But by choosing to surrender defense of the perceptions you have come to identify as you, by choosing to release the grip on the fears you believe are justified, the judgments that you believe are true, as you surrender your grip on the world you have made, Creation will flow through you:

Of myself, I do nothing. I merely witness the flow of Love through me. And I have used time wisely to cultivate perfect remembrance of the real world. Time and space do not imprison me. This body is not me. I use it as a tool to fashion and shape that which, in this world, can extend Love into any moment.

And so, we have come, now, to a good ending point for this, our second adventure into The Way of Transformation. Again, notice what thoughts, what pictures, what items you have chosen to write into your journal. Notice the feelings that are occurring in the body, even now. Notice the thoughts, the pictures, the images that you may hear echoing through the field of the mind. You abide nowhere but in the infinitude of God’s presence. And mastery comes when finally you choose to release all attachment to fear. And in perfect surrender you release the dream of the dreamer itself, and allow the Mystery of Life to live you–without obstruction, without fear, in perfect knowledge that,

I and my Father are One. There is nothing I have to do to get God. There are only some things to be released, so that God can get me.

And so, beloved friends, heed well what was shared, at times in a very subtle way, in this hour. We would highly suggest that you listen to this tape several times, in different environments, at different times — perhaps at three in the morning, perhaps at midnight. As your spring comes to warm the Earth, again, take this tape and find a small hill where you can gaze at the stars, and perhaps, abide with them differently.

Listen to this tape when you’re feeling harried or stressed. Look at all of the different sets of circumstances that you have believed have the power to limit your choice or distract your energy. And listen to this tape in those circumstances–when you’re sad, when you’re lonely, when you’re harried, when the room is filled with fifty thousand friends (well, okay, perhaps ten or fifteen will do). Take it and listen to it sitting on a park bench, on what you call the benches in the great malls where the many beings in your country come to worship their god of ‘stuff,’ and exchange their golden coins for it–you call it the ‘shopping.’ And shop instead for a new quality of awareness, a new way of being–that which penetrates what you believe you’re seeing, and reveals to you the perfect harmony of the Kingdom, the presence of the Love of God.

No one will ever make this journey for you. No one you see, no one with whom you live, will ever make the journey to God for you. So get clear about your priorities, and seek first the Kingdom. And above all, know that you are not alone. We are, indeed, with you always. And I close, then, by saying,

I love you.

Peace, then, be unto you always.

Amen.



Select recipients from the dropdown list and/or enter email addresses in the field below.