Teachings of Christ Mind

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

You’ll have to forgive Paul. He’s having to really abandon himself to me today [small laugh] because there’s something I need to speak about. It’s really not anything different from what we’ve been speaking of for the last three or four weeks, but in a way it brings the point home in the most practical of terms. We’ve talked about shifting, we’ll say, operating systems; shifting from the habit and principle of getting to that of giving, to that of the Extension of Love. It’s a wonderful idea, isn’t it? It’s pleasing to think about it, but it seems to be an entirely different thing to live it, doesn’t it?

Getting is based upon the idea that the only way to survive is for relationships to be transactional. Why? Because the rules of transactional relationships provide you with a guarantee; a guarantee that you will not end up being shortchanged. This for that. I’ll take care of you and all your needs if you will take care of me and all my needs. But you begin to fall short of meeting my needs and I’m out of here. This is [laughing] … this is really the practical bottom line of marriages, isn’t it? Or of any somewhat harmonious and ongoing relationship.

But you know what? Another part of the bottom line of transactional relationships is the premise that each of you is perfectly individual—perfectly, independently deposited into the middle of the Universe. You’re taught to grow up and learn to stand on your own two feet, aren’t you? To be respectably self-sufficient.

Living that way is hell, because it’s based upon a fundamental illusion. The Truth that counteracts and obliterates that illusion is that every single one of you is irrevocably one with every other individual, irrevocably one with the whole Brotherhood, and even more primarily than that, irrevocably one with your Source. Therefore, there’s no way for you to be independent. There’s no way for you to be successful, respectably successful in your own right. Whether you want to look at it or not, you are all dependent upon each other. Dependent upon each other not really because you’re helpless, but dependent upon each other because you’re incomplete without each other. You’re incomplete without each other.

And you know what? The only thing that is going to move you into the experience of your unity with everyone else, and therefore the experience of the Wholeness of You, is going to be when you shift from getting to giving, when you shift from behaving so as to protect yourself, into behaving because you care about another and because you care enough to extend the very best, which means relinquishing your habitual way of reacting from memory to every situation, and instead, choosing to give your attention to that Place of Excellence in You and extend yourself from there.

Now, we’ve talked about this before. I haven’t shocked you with anything new today. You might say that when we talked about it before, it’s been like class work, and now today we’re going to have a little lab work where what we’ve been talking about gets translated into practical application, if I may put it that way. And I have a specific focus, but this specific focus is easily transferable by all of you into every other area of your lives as well.

I’ve set up the work that Paul and I are doing together with all of you, I have set it up on a Gift basis, not a transactional basis. Not one of you can get what we’re giving by paying for it. And not one of you will be deprived of what we’re giving if you can’t pay for it, because it is not transactional. It is a Gift of Love.

Now, it’s easy for you to comprehend that I might be extending it because it’s Love with no strings attached, that it is an Act of Love. But I’ve got to make it very clear. If you aren’t recognizing that this extension of mine is happening because Paul is equally engaging in the Extension of Love, you’re missing something essential. Paul is not in this to get. He’s in it because he cares. He’s in it and he engages in the extension because, in this one area, he is perfectly willing to be nothing other than the Presence of Love extending. Now that’s the fact. In this respect he stands with me; not behind me, but with me. And he engages in it flawlessly.

Now, others observing him, coming from the getting place which is deeply ingrained in their psyche, you might say, because they are so completely committed to it, might look at Paul and say, “He’s got something up his sleeve.” They might look at him with distrust. “Well he has hidden motives. No one would be that stupid. No one would be that foolish.” Well he is. [single audience laugh]

And I’m encouraging every one of you to become that foolish. Foolish enough not to abandon all common sense and go off into the wild blue yonder, but to be foolish enough to abandon the deeply ingrained habit of control for the sake of self-preservation, and instead, literally, and as consistently as possible, with as much commitment as possible, go within to that Place of Excellence which is the Holy Spirit which is nothing more than your Right Mind, and be spontaneously without a plan. Plans are there to keep you safe. No.

I’m encouraging all of you to do exactly what I’m doing and exactly what Paul is doing. Dare to find that Place of Excellence in You where the Experience of Love emerges in you as you, and naturally seeks expression or extension toward an object of your affection, to someone or many ones that it’s your desire to care about, and to limit your expression of yourself to actions and words and behaviors that stand in support of everything that is excellent about everyone else that you come in contact with.

Now I am aware that when I say that the fundamental step of waking up is the abandonment of transactional relationships, is the abandonment of self-protection, is the abandonment of control, it’s very hard to hear. It’s very hard to hear. It’s very hard to let it register. And yet, it literally is the act of separate self-protection that keeps you bound in what you call the human condition, which is a suffering condition, a stressful condition full of strife, full of overcoming, full of battle.

Now, I don’t like calling it quote “the work that we do” unquote, Paul and I, but this activity, this Movement of the Extension of Love that we are engaged in is valuable. Is it arrogance for me to say that? No. It’s important for me to say it because it’s important for you to know that if you’re willing to abandon self-protection and engage in defenseless Extension of Love, that what you will be doing will be valuable as well. You see? It won’t be just a crazy thing that an eccentric person does. It will be valuable.

Now I could say that it will be valuable because you’re not standing in the way of God’s Self-Expression, and that would be true. But more than anything, it would be… it is valuable because when you engage with your Brothers and Sisters in this fashion, it changes the tone of the human experience. And it changes the tone of the human experience by bringing forth and illuminating all that is excellent in it. Period. It is valuable because it inspires a change of perception, and therefore a change in behavior, and therefore a change of what is embodied in families, in communities, in countries, in the world.

Now why am I bringing up? Where’s the lab work here? Very simply, the lab work is that we’re at a potential turning point. We, meaning myself, Paul, Susan, Chris, those involved in the extension of this work, because support for the work is decreasing. Mind you, it’s an interesting phenomenon. Support, and I mean by that financial support, is decreasing while interest in the materials is increasing. Gratitude for the materials is increasing. And it doesn’t make sense, does it?

And here’s the reason it doesn’t make sense. When a gift is given and received and valued, but gratitude isn’t expressed, the Gift of Love isn’t fully actualized. What does it say in the first chapter of Genesis, 31st verse? “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” In other words, Mind observed Its Creations and recognized Itself in It. In other words, for Creation to have been complete, there had to be Self-recognition. There had to be acknowledgement. Recognition by God of Himself in What He Was Being. And I will tell you something. That’s when Joy came into Being in the Movement of Creation.

Now, you know, it’s been suggested that if, indeed, I am the Christ, why don’t I just make a miracle so that Paul can win the lottery, or a sudden, unexpected inheritance that will make him forever self-sufficient? Well, because that’s not the miracle I’m working on.

The miracle I’m working on is that everyone recognizes the part they play so that having received the Gift, and being in an ongoing, constant receipt of ongoing Gifting, they abandon, you abandon, whoever you are, the transactional basis for relating, and let two things happen. One, recognize that if there is something that has great value to you, it probably will have great value to others as well, and you would like to support the availability and extension of what’s of value to you to them as well. And the other thing, which is almost more essential, is to not slight Paul, or Susan, or Chris, in the recognition of what they are doing, how it relates to you, and finding a way to express gratitude as a consummation of the Movement of Love that you are benefiting by, so that the Gift comes full circle.

Now, it’s very easy for your ego to say, “Well, that’s just a different form of transaction. I’m still going to have to pay for it.” No, you’re going to get it whether you pay for it or not. And it’s not going to be withheld from you if you don’t pay for it.

You know what it’s going to cost you? Here’s what it’s going to cost you. It’s going to cost you your ability to remain aloof and independent and not be an active participant in the Movement of Love and Its Extension. Oh. You’re going to have to be involved. You’re going to have to participate. But until you begin to participate in the Movement of Love by recognizing It, acknowledging It, and expressing gratitude for It, the Love doesn’t become a Singularity. It doesn’t become a Wholeness. Just as Creation would not have become a Singularity or a Wholeness if God had refused to recognize Himself in Creation. That’s where you begin to own Who You Are and that you are inseparable from your Brothers and Sisters. That’s where you begin to recognize that transactional relationships are a fraud that keep unity from happening, that keeps unity from being experienced.

Now, practical brass tacks. There are three more days in the month. The bills, which have yet to be paid and which are now late for this month, amount to approximately $1,500.00. Part of that is for the telephone lines which are responsible for carrying all this information to everyone else via the Internet. That means every one of you who are listening right now. If the bill isn’t paid, the telephone company turns off the line. Simple.

Well, some of you say, “Paul maybe ought to handle the finances better.” Well let me ask you this. Let’s be intelligent. If there aren’t enough finances to cover utilities, electricity, telephone lines, and perhaps the mortgage, and as many of them are getting paid as there is money for, where is there money left over to mismanage?

Now the fact is, you see, and it is quite possible for One Who Is Fully Awake to point your eyes and your attention in the direction of what is practical, if you value what is happening here, and if I have set it up so that the only way it can happen is on the basis of the Extension of Love, on the basis of Gift, then if you value it, you better find out what your part to play is in it, and recognize that you can’t skip over that one little point called gratitude and still have the full Meaning of the Gift of Love actualized for you.

It is also unkind for those of you who have not been supporting, to stand there as an observer and say, “Mm. It’s gonna to be interesting to see how this works out. It’s going to be interesting to see how God takes care of this. It’s gonna to be interesting to see Paul and Susan twist and squirm as things get tighter and tighter. Oh, of course, it’s none of my business. You know, it’s all a gift anyway. So I accept the gift, and I appreciate the gift, and I value the gift, and I even make copies of it and share it with others, and so I am extending the gift.” But all the while you’re letting Paul and Susan dangle and twist and squirm because they’ve made the commitment to make the Gift and follow my directions, not to try to save their ass by getting control of the situation, turning it into a transactional thing, and thereby forcing you to say, “Thank you,” which isn’t a “Thank you” at all. It’s just pure coercion and compliance.

What Paul and I are doing, and the others with us are extending, is not only the Truth, but the opportunity to find out … for everyone else to find out how they fit in, and to abandon the stance of the independent observer of an interesting phenomena. Because the Love that I am extending, which comes from the Father, has an Intent. And that Intent is to cause you to realize once again the Truth about yourselves, so that you might no longer experience quote “the human condition,” so that it might be replaced with the Divine Conscious Experience Of Being, so that suffering might be over forever, so that struggle might be over forever.

So, the need is immediate at this end. And what I want everyone to see is that the need is immediate for you as well. Are we just talking about money? No. We’re not talking about money at all. We’re talking about understanding the Nature of Love, the Way It Works, and the fact that it’s impossible for you to stand in receipt of Love and then to extend It without being involved yourself.

“Oh! I found this wonderful new material! Yeah. I am enjoying it so much. Here, let me make a copy of it for you and you pass it on.” That’s not involvement. That is not where you have come to a place within yourself where you’ve had to examine what degree you are going to participate by acknowledging the fount, if you will, the place where it’s coming forth, and seeing to it that the place where it is coming forth does not become blocked, does not become inhibited, so that not only do you stand in receipt of the Gift, you nurture the place where it’s coming forth by valuing it as much as the Gift and saying “Thank you” in the form that keeps the flow unblocked.

Now the fact is that if the recognition of the truth of what I’ve been saying does not occur, there will within the next two months have to be a change of form. The change of form is going to mean a cutting back of what is presently being done. And what is presently being done is minimal. The only extension there is at the moment is via the Internet. There is no way to provide audio tapes, or CDs, or books, or newsletters through regular mails to those who don’t have computers. The next step is to delete the one form of extension that still exists. So you see, the immediacy of the need in Kingston is the immediacy of your need, not because anyone is going to withhold it, but because the means of extending it no longer exists because it couldn’t be paid for.

But once again, if you say, “Well, I’m going to call them up and see if I can arrange to pay for it,” ask them, “If I send you ten dollars, will you send me such-and-such because then you’ll be able to go out and buy a couple of cassettes, empty blank cassettes and record them, and pay for the postage?” No. You can’t do that. You have to participate and cooperate with, you have to participate in and cooperate with the Nature of the Movement of Love which is not transactional and has as Its basis giving to an object of affection.

If this premise for this work is altered from that, I promise you that awakening will be protracted because there will be a complete missing of the point; a complete missing of the point that will trigger the “Aha!” in your mind, the realization of everything that we have been talking about as we have been going through the Course. What I’m talking about is the embodying of a Singularity, rather than embodying what divides it. “To have, give all to all.” Not, “To have, get all you can for the least you can give.” It is a simple principle.

“Oh,” I hear someone saying, “Well, Paul wouldn’t be having these problems, these situations wouldn’t be coming up if Paul were doing something better. There must be some block in his mind. There must be something hidden from his dark past [amused laugh] that he’s unwilling to release.” Well you know what? The one thing Paul can’t do for you is thank himself. And for many of you, that’s the one thing you’re not doing.

Okay. Course in Miracles 101A lab session over. Let’s go to the book.

And for those of you who may be listening for the first time, I am reading from the Course as it was finished by Bill Thetford, and so you will notice differences if you are reading from the first or second editions. The first thing you’ll notice is that the title of the chapter is not the same. The title is:

And again, just as a reminder. If you’re in the first edition, it’s page 104. If you’re in the second edition, it’s page 112. And if you’re in the Sparkly edition, it’s page 141.

Hmm. Sounds a little bit like the Singularity of the Kingdom.

Inspired. To have, give all to all. Hopefully, you are inspired to embody that because that’s the way God creates.

… ONLY …

In other words, Creation wouldn’t be the Eternal Movement of the Mind of God that never stops to repeat Itself, because it would be in a closed loop. That’s the best way I can put it.

To have, give all to all. Extend it.

And in a way, we’ve been talking about that today. You increase it by participating in a Singularity where you don’t hold yourself separate from your Brothers and Sisters, and you recognize that they are essential to your Wholeness, and you to theirs. And you let that, I’m going to say, merging occur in your mind, so that you’re no longer holding a unique definition of yourself that separates you specifically from everyone and everything else.

Continuing …

… the power to add to the Kingdom.

Once again that’s what we’ve been talking about.

… well, the moment you accept this power as yours, you’ve got to become involved with it. You can’t say, like it’s an object, “Oh! This power is mine. Isn’t it pretty? It’s not too big and it’s not too small. It fits in with everything else wonderfully. Oh, isn’t that wonderful?” No. By accepting this power as yours, you have learned what? To be What You Are. That’s involvement. That’s being in a new way. That’s being from a new premise.

What You Are, with a capital “A”, isn’t a definition. It’s what you be. It’s what you be from the inside out. It’s you putting away childish things, and doing … and being an adult. It’s you being in a new way from a new premise. It’s you being different from what you were.

Continuing …

And I am going to reverse that. To Love is to Create.

And what I’ve been saying today is that what Paul and I are engaged in as we let the Father’s Love flow through in language that can inspire and cause miracles to happen, sudden shifts of perception, is the Movement of Creation Itself. And this Movement that we are engaged in is your Function as well. And I’m inviting you constantly to find it in you, activate it in you, embody it in your activities. And let your desire be single of purpose in valuing that so much that you will do whatever it takes to abandon getting which keeps you bound in ignorance, and replacing it with giving because you care from the Place of Excellence in You.

Continuing …

Not so that it can get something. Not so that it can accomplish something. Not so that it can provide safety for itself. Not so it can control others. Love extends outward simply because being of the Nature of Joy, it cannot be contained. And it’s your Birthright to experience the Meaning of That, and being the Flow of That, and being illuminated by It yourself as you extend It to your Brothers and Sisters.

Continuing …

Like the energizer bunny [single audience chuckle], it keeps going, and going, and going, and going!

Okay. A little bit more practical spirituality. If He created you Eternal, then you are Eternal. You don’t have to do anything to become Eternal. Right now you’re Eternal. You don’t think you are. You don’t behave like you are. But you are! Right now you are Eternal.

If you would let that fact register with you that your Eternality is already a fact, then you would begin to look at why on earth you’re indulging in birthing and dying, birthing and dying, getting sick and getting well, getting sick and getting well. Why are you creating these variations in something that’s invariable? If you’re already Eternal, then setting aside death [brief laugh] is really a non-event. You get that? If you’re already Eternal, setting aside death is already a non-event. The Ultimate is already happening. The Kingdom of Heaven is the only thing going on. The Infinite, Indivisible Movement of God called Creation is what you are part of, what you are in, and what you are responsible for by virtue of the fact that your Mind is the Mind of God, because God’s Mind is what He extended right where you are.

Now what this means is, if you would, imagine going to the store and buying a puzzle where every single puzzle piece fit with every other puzzle piece—every other puzzle piece. With that kind of a puzzle, you could put all the pieces together with the square or rectangular outline, and it could be a mess but everything fit together. No recognizable picture, but all the pieces are there. They’re not recognizable because you chose to put them together without having a recognition of what the picture really was of.

And what I’m saying is that right now each one of you is the Christ, the Direct Expression of God, God embodied, experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven, the whole puzzle with every single part of the puzzle there, no missing pieces, and rather than recognizing what the picture is of, you, as the Christ, are putting the pieces together randomly, out of order, and creating a jumble. And you don’t have to do that anymore. And you don’t have to get another puzzle to have a better picture. The Ultimate is happening at this very instant, and all of the resources you have as the Presence of God embodied, you are using. You’re just using them unintelligently. Why? Because you’ve forgotten Who You Are.

Once it begins to register with you after I keep saying, “Right now you are the Christ; you are the Ultimate behaving as though you’re not and believing your behavior,” once that registers with you really, you’ll have the intellectual justification for saying, “Wow! That means I have some capabilities that I’m using but I’m using unwisely. And by damn it, I am really curious to find out how to use them wisely. And I’m delighted to find out that I don’t have to go out somewhere and purchase these capacities, or involve myself in certain obediences so as to become deserving of them. They’re already here. I’m already using them. I’m just using them unwisely. I’m as complete and whole as I need to be to wake up.”

Once it registers with you that that’s the case, you will begin to use your mind in a new way. And you won’t be engaging in waking up as though you’re the underdog, as though you’re something less than, that by certain practices is going to become more than and different from what you were before. Your behavior will be different because your premise will be different. But you know what? There aren’t any goodies you haven’t already received. There aren’t any capacities that are not already fully functional in you.

You really all are like set designers in a movie. And this particular movie is a war movie, and so you design ancient buildings that are demolished by war. You create brand-new ruins—brand-new ruins—using all of the skill and all of the capability that you would use to build a set depicting Heaven, depicting Love, depicting Beauty. You’ve all just become fascinated with creating demoralizing sets. But you’re the fully Christed Sons and Daughters of God fascinated with that activity.

Again, I’m going back …

Or: To Love is to Create.

Extends outward from where? From the Altar. Remember that? The Altar right in the middle of you, that Place of Excellence in You, that Place where your right Mind is present and active and ready to fill you with the Conscious Experience of Who You Truly Are.

… mind you, it’s not talking about your ego’s creations. The Creations, the Movements of Love that you have engaged in, in spite of your ego, …

The Ultimate is because there is nothing else. And as I’ve said before, you are neither behind the Point of Perfection, nor advancing towards it; it is at that point; you are at that point and you must understand yourself there from.

And I’ll tell you something. Leaving operating system number one—the system of getting—and abandoning it for giving, because that’s the only way you can have, is the one intent that you can engage in that will quickly bring to the focus of your awareness all of the things that keep you asleep, making it easy for you to identify them and abandon them, instead of re-energizing them. Remember that you are at this moment the Ultimate. You are at this moment exactly What God Is Being right where you are. You are the Fullness of God right now.

Less confusingly, the Fullness of What God Is right there where you are is All That Is Real about you, and it is the Wholeness of What Is Real about you. Accept that premise, and let everything follow from that premise, and you will stop wasting your time building brand-new ruins and reinforcing old, useless, mental habits and concepts. And when you stop reinforcing the old habits, the natural, spontaneous Movement of Creation, the Movement of the Presence of God will have a fair chance of registering with you. And you will begin to find your experience reflecting the phrase, “Behold, I make all things new.”

So, you want to hear the depressing news? The depressing news is there’s nowhere for you to go. The depressing news is that there’s nothing new for you to get. The depressing news is that you don’t lack anything essential for your Awakening. Why is that depressing? [small laugh] Because you no longer have an excuse for not waking up because you haven’t refined your soul enough yet, or you haven’t gotten to that point of development yet. You don’t have that excuse. It’s depressing because it means you’ve sort of got to take hold of What’s True about you and start behaving as though it’s True about you, and then believing it as you see the evidence of the Truth of it. But that’s the wonderful news! The depressing news is the wonderful news, because it means that none of the ridiculous, silly, excuses you have been using for staying stuck will be meaningful to you anymore. And when they’re not meaningful to you, you will let them go.

So, don’t let your spirituality be irrelevant to your daily life and your relationships with each other.

I love you enough not to let you be satisfied in your stupid rest. [single audience laugh] I am just loving you. There is a wonderful Singularity. I don’t want that word to become monotonous, but there is a wonderful unity this evening, a Unity of Conscious Awareness, and the Movement continues. And I look forward to being with you next week.