Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Lesson 75 The Light has come.

The light has come.


The light has come. You are healed and you can heal. The light has come. You are saved and you can save. You are at peace, and you bring peace with you wherever you go. Darkness and turmoil and death have disappeared. The light has come.


Today we celebrate the happy ending to your long dream of disaster. There are no dark dreams now. The light has come. Today the time of light begins for you and everyone. It is a new era, in which a new world is born. The old one has left no trace upon it in its passing. Today we see a different world, because the light has come.


Our exercises for today will be happy ones, in which we offer thanks for the passing of the old and the beginning of the new. No shadows from the past remain to darken our sight and hide the world forgiveness offers us. Today we will accept the new world as what we want to see. We will be given what we desire. We will to see the light; the light has come.


Our longer practice periods will be devoted to looking at the world that our forgiveness shows us. This is what we want to see, and only this. Our single purpose makes our goal inevitable. Today the real world rises before us in gladness, to be seen at last. Sight is given us, now that the light has come.


We do not want to see the ego's shadow on the world today. We see the light, and in it we see Heaven's reflection lie across the world. Begin the longer practice periods by telling yourself the glad tidings of your release:


The light has come. I have forgiven the world.


Dwell not upon the past today. Keep a completely open mind, washed of all past ideas and clean of every concept you have made. You have forgiven the world today. You can look upon it now as if you never saw it before. You do not know yet what it looks like. You merely wait to have it shown to you. While you wait, repeat several times, slowly and in complete patience:


The light has come. I have forgiven the world.


Realize that your forgiveness entitles you to vision. Understand that the Holy Spirit never fails to give the gift of sight to the forgiving. Believe He will not fail you now. You have forgiven the world. He will be with you as you watch and wait. He will show you what true vision sees. It is His Will, and you have joined with Him. Wait patiently for Him. He will be there. The light has come. You have forgiven the world.


Tell Him you know you cannot fail because you trust in Him. And tell yourself you wait in certainty to look upon the world He promised you. From this time forth you will see differently. Today the light has come. And you will see the world that has been promised you since time began, and in which is the end of time ensured.


The shorter practice periods, too, will be joyful reminders of your release. Remind yourself every quarter of an hour or so that today is a time for special celebration. Give thanks for mercy and the Love of God. Rejoice in the power of forgiveness to heal your sight completely. Be confident that on this day there is a new beginning. Without the darkness of the past upon your eyes, you cannot fail to see today. And what you see will be so welcome that you will gladly extend today forever.


Say, then:


The light has come. I have forgiven the world.


Should you be tempted, say to anyone who seems to pull you back into darkness:


The light has come. I have forgiven you.


We dedicate this day to the serenity in which God would have you be. Keep it in your awareness of yourself and see it everywhere today, as we celebrate the beginning of your vision and the sight of the real world, which has come to replace the unforgiven world you thought was real.


The Way of the Heart – Tape 2, Lesson 2 of 35 FEBRUARY 1995



The Way of the Heart – Tape 2, Lesson 2 of 35
FEBRUARY 1995

Now, we begin.

1           And indeed greetings unto you, beloved and holy friends. 2. Again, it is with great joy that I come forth to abide with you in this hour. 3. Indeed, it is with great joy that we come forth to abide with you in this hour. 4. For in Truth I come not alone to join in communion with this, my beloved friend, in order to commune-i-cate with you through a medium that you understand, and that you accept.

            00:46
2          For, it is a great Truth that I come often unto many. 2. But often, because of what you have learned in your world, you have believed me to be but a figment of your imagination. 3. And the voice that steals quietly through the space between your own thoughts, you would think to be but an illusion. 4. Yet, I say, I come often unto many. 5. And yet,  when I come forth to abide with this, my beloved brother, to speak with you, I come not alone, for there is, in Truth, a host of friends that come to create a vortex, a circumference if you will, of energy. 6. We have come even in this hour into this space, and we have set that tone. 7. If you would well receive it, there are many friends, unseen by physical eyes, that are gently encircling those that have come forth to contribute, to support, to abide in the creation of this work. 8. And what is this work, but to create a medium of communication?

            02:13
3          And why is that important? 2. Because always, in each and every moment of your experience, what, in Truth, is occurring is that you, as a soul, as a divine spark of consciousness, are deliberately choosing to create mediums of communication. 3. You do it with the raiment that you place upon the body. 4. You do it with your gestures, the sound of your voice. 5. You do it with the very culture and time frame in which you incarnate. 6. You are constantly and only creating mediums through which you communicate. 7. And is communication anything but the attempt to rest in communion with Creation? 8, That through you, what you are choosing to perceive, and believe, and accept as true will be radiated through your communication devices (which, of course, includes the body), that you might transfer your perceptions to another, that they might therefore know who you are and which Voice you are committed to.

            03.48
4          I have said often that the body is a teaching and learning device, and all forms of communication affect the process of teaching and learning. 2. When you arise in the morning, the first thought that makes a home in your mind, you will act on. 3. You may stretch the body; you may smile; you may frown; you might be filled with peace, or you might feel the weight of the world. 4. Theses things come, not because you have perceived them outside, but because you have allowed them inside the depth of your consciousness, that remains pure and undefiled and radiant beyond all boundaries forever. 5. And as that thought makes a home in your mind, you literally begin to transform the communication device called the body into that which carries, expresses, and reflects what has come to make a home within your mind. 6. Remember, please, that the mind is not where the body is. 7. It does not abide within the body, but the body does abide within the field of your mind.

            05:15
5          Communication is creation. 2. These two are one and the same. 3. Therefore, if you would create well, ask only, “What am I committed to communicating? What will my creations express? What will my creations convey to others? For what I seek to convey reveals the Truth of my Self to the world.”

            06:05
6          Therefore, indeed, beloved friends, as we begin this year to focus on, to refine, to deepen, to mature in what we have chosen to call The Way of the Heart, it is wise to begin at the beginning, 2. And the beginning of this pathway is simply this: You are as God has created you to be. 3. You are an infinite focus of consciousness. 4. Your  very sense of existence is nothing more than a feedback loop, or a feedback mechanism, so that you can witness the effects of the choices you are making in the very deep, deep depth of your mind that rests right along the Mind of God.

            07:06
7          Therefore, in each moment of your existence, which includes this bodily incarnation, you are literally allowing, through deliberate choice (though perhaps unconscious), to bring forth vibration of thought, vibration of creation, and to commune-i-cate   it to the world in an attempt to experience communion with all of Life – with a friend, with a parent, with a child, with a beloved, with the clouds that pass through the sky, with the earth itself. 2. Each gesture, each thought, the way that the body breathes, all of these things are going on constantly, and they are communicating, or revealing, the effect of what you have allowed to make a home in your mind.

            08:08
8          Understand well, then, The Way of the Heart requires that you allow yourself to rest into the simplicity of this Truth: "I am pure Spirit, undefiled and unaffected by anything or anyone. I am given full power to choose and, therefore, to create my experience as I would have it be." 2. Not quite the “I” that is the egoic part of the mind, for that is just one of your creations that came along somewhere down the line. 3. It is a very small part of the mind. 4. We are speaking of the “I” of you that is Pure Spirit that knows it exists, even though it does not know the time of its own creation.

            09:13
9          You are Pure Spirit. 2. Therefore to know: “I am only this, and in each moment, regardless of what I believe I see, regardless of the feelings that arise within my awareness, I, and I alone, am wholly one hundred percent responsible for them. No one has caused them, no great force in the universe has made this perception well up within my consciousness. I have selected it.”

            09:49
10         Just as you would go to a grocery store and say “Well, what will I have for dinner?”
2. And you own a perception, you lodge it in the mind, and then it expresses itself through the body,  through the environment that you create around yourself, through the friends that you would call into your awareness. 3. Every aspect of the life you live is the symbol of what you have chosen to experience and, therefore, to convey throughout Creation.

            10:28
11         The Way of the Heart begins with the acceptance of the simple Truth that,

    “I am as God created me to be. Made in His image; I am a creator always.”

2. What, then would you ask your creations to communicate? 3. Why do you make the choices you are making? 4. You all know perfectly well that sometimes you seem to be compelled, and the mind wants you to believe – now we are speaking of the egoic part of the mind- the ego wants you to believe that you are compelled to certain actions, certain feelings, certain choices, certain perceptions, certain statements, by something that surely exists outside yourself. 5. This is never true. 6. In no circumstance is there anything of Creation that has the power to dictate to you the choice you will make.

            12:03
12         Therefore, the pathway of awakening, The Way of the Heart, must begin with the decision to embrace the Truth that is true always: "I am a creator of all that I think and see and experience. I am free always.  Nothing impinges upon me but the thoughts I have chosen to hold within.  Nothing imprisons me but my own perception of imprisonment.  Nothing limits me at any level or dimension of experience save that which I have chosen."

            12:62
13         The Way of the Heart, then, embraces all things, trusts all things and, eventually, transcends all things. 2. But why? 3. Because it begins by assuming complete and total responsibility for what is being channeled through it. 4. And so you see, it is not just this, my beloved brother, who serves as a channel. 5. That is, in Truth, all that you do, from the moment you arise until the moment you arise. 6. For even during your sleep you are yet choosing that which flows through your consciousness.

            13:17
14         The goal that we seek has never changed. 2. It is, in Truth, a journey without distance. 3. It is merely the return to where you are always, that you might begin anew to create deliberately, clearly, and with the perfect knowledge that if you are experiencing something, it is because you are the source of it – no other reason.

            14:17
15         The Way of the Heart then, is not a way of gaining power. 2. The Way of the Heart is not a way in which you will finally be able to make the world be what you want it to be. 3. but rather, The Way of the Heart is that pathway in which you learn to transcend and to dissolve from your consciousness every perception, every thought, that is out of alignment with what is true. 4. The thought of death is out of alignment. 5. The thought of fear is out of alignment. 6. The thought of guilt is out of alignment.

             15:09
16         The thought of eternal Life is in alignment.2. The thought of perfect fearlessness is in alignment. 3. The thought of peace is in alignment. 4. The realization of innocence is in alignment. 5. The thought of joy and forgiveness, these things are in alignment and reflect the Truth that is true always.

            15:44
17         For, you see, although you are given complete free will to create as you chose to, the soul begins to learn that that which brings it the highest joy, that that which brings it the highest peace, that that which brings it the highest bliss imaginable, is that which flows from the mind of God through the mind of the channel, the soul, and expresses itself in the field of experience. 2. It is for this reason that your Father’s Will is that you be happy. 3. And your happiness is found in choosing to restore your perfect alignment with only the Voice for God.

            16:43
18         The Way of the Heart, then, is that pathway that begins with a commitment to healing and awakening, and is founded on the premise, the axiom, that we have given unto you, that you are perfectly free at all times. 2. And everything that is experienced has been by your choice. 3. And at no time has there been any other cause.

            17:18
19         It seems simple, doesn't it? "Well, of course, O.K.  I'm creating my own experience." 2. And yet, what soul has not known a resistance to this idea? 3. If you bake a cake and it turns out well, you will say, "I did that." 4. But if you bake a cake and it turns out very bad, "It must have been the flour. It must have been the temperature of the oven.  Surely there was something that caused this creation to not be what I would truly desire."

            18:01
20        It takes great courage, great faith, to look upon all of your creations - your thoughts, your feelings, your manifestations - with Love, and with the innocence of a child. 2. To plant a garden and to have all things wither and die, and yet to smile and say, "I planted this garden. I, and I alone, have done this.  Well, I'll get a little hungry here, so I might as well go to the store."

            18:43
21         Why is this important? 2. Because the soul, a long time ago, began to create the perception that it was something other than it was created to be. 3. And the voice for ego emerged within the garden of consciousness. 4. And as the soul, as the deep mind that you have all known and, in fact, are - that deep mind began to identify with a voice that was other than the Voice of God. 5. That voice has led you to believe that your creations determine your worthiness. Do you know that feeling?

            19:40
22        And therefore, if what you create is not up to - what is this word, "snuff" - hmm, is not up to snuff, that it means you, in the core of your beingness, is some kind of a failure. 2. But I say unto you, in reality, failure is not even remotely possible. 3. And why? 4. If you plant a garden and the seed does not turn into the beautiful flower, it withers and dies, that experience is a creation, and you have done it. 5. And because all events in space and time - everything you experience - because these things are perfectly neutral, there is, in reality, never failure.

            20:48
23        The only failure occurs only within your own consciousness when you believe that it is not acceptable to receive and own and embrace your creation - with love and with innocence. 2. To look upon it, to experience it, to recognize your perfect safety in doing so - from where you can decide whether to continue in that form of creation, or whether to think differently, to approach things differently. 3. That is where the catch is - is that that part of the mind has begun to teach you a long, long time ago what to accept as acceptable creations and what not, what to take responsibility for, and what to deny responsibility for. 4. And that conflict creates the illusion of separation. 5. And when taken to its extreme, one discovers what you call your hospitals full of those in deep depression, paranoia, the feeling within the beingness, within the human mind, of feeling alienated and alone.

            22:18
24        Helplessness, hopelessness, despair, anger, hatred - all of these are symptoms of a fundamental delusion that has occurred within the depth of the mind. 2. It has occurred because there has been a long history of having cultivated the skill of listening to the wrong voice. 3. The wrong voice is the voice of ego. 4. It has taught you to judge, to pick, to select what you will be responsible for. 5. The more you move into that consciousness, the harder it seems to ever hope for a chance of transcending the sense of separation, and conflict, and lack of peace.

            23:12
25        For, how many of you have not known the feeling of resting your head upon the pillow at night and not being able to sleep because  it's just not going the way you expected? 2. The reason you cannot sleep is because you are in judgment of your creation. 3. But it is possible to cultivate just the opposite, in which you learn to look with perfect innocence upon all things that arise in that field that is your experience - to look with innocence and what is called, "wonder," at every feeling, from the place of curiosity, as you would look upon a cloud that passes through the sky. 4. Look at it and marvel at it, its shape, its color. "Well where did that one come from? Hmm." 5. And to embrace it, knowing that it does not affect the purity of the sky through which it temporarily floats by.

            24:20
26        And each of your creations is exactly like this. 2. It arises in the field of time and space, you experience it, and then it fades away. 3. Every hurt that you have ever known is like a cloud that began to pass into the field of your awareness because you were perceiving things in a certain way. 4. And if that hurt is still lodged within you, it is because you latched on to it. 5. You followed the voice of ego, which caused you to believe that you are identified with that feeling, with that perception. 6. And because that's you, if you let go of it, what's going to happen? 7. You might disappear! 8. You might die!

            25:13
27        And the human mind, then, is that field within Creation, within Consciousness, that has learned to become so identified with perceptions, and experiences, and feelings that are not necessarily comfortable, it believes that if it lets go of them, it will die. 2. And so, from our perspective, as we would look upon your energy fields, those of you who are still identified with this dimension, it looks as though you are gripping, causing to condense energy. 3. And your knuckles are white, trying to hold on to limitations and guilt, to unworthiness and doubt.

            26:04
28        You would, indeed, seek innocence and peace. 2. You would seek abundance, and prosperity, and joy. 3. But often, when you touch these things, it frightens you. 3a. And why? 3b. Because the Truth of the Kingdom requires openness, trust, expansiveness, spaciousness. 4. It involves allowing, trusting, witnessing, letting things come and go, learning to cultivate a deep enjoyment of whatever arises, seeing that all things are just modifications of Consciousness Itself, and then letting them go when it's time for them to do so. 5. And rest assured, there is no one, not a single soul, that has ever discovered something that was birthed in time, that did not also end in time.

            27:16
29        And how much of your suffering comes because you are clinging to a lifeless past and insisting that you carry it with you still? 2. And you are doing that because, in that past, you became identified with the clouds that were passing by - claimed that as your own identity. 3. And therefore, if you release it, it will mean that you must change, you must go on.

            27:58
30        And creation, itself, that flows from the Mind of God is an ongoingness - forever!
2. You will never cease to be. 3. You will go on forever and forever and forever and forever and forever. 4. You will go on forever exactly as you are now, or you can allow the Mind of God to flow through you, carrying you to an ever greater expansiveness, deepening your awareness of the infinite loveliness of the power of the Mind of God.

            28:43
31         This year, then, we do, indeed, embark on The Way of the Heart. And though many clues have been given, we will come this year to refine those clues, to create what you might think of as a system or a pathway upon which you can walk - to deliberately cultivate the quality of awareness in consciousness necessary to stabilize that awareness, so that you can bring it to each and every moment of your experience.

            29:24
32        Imagine, then, being able to experience whatever arises without losing the sense of spaciousness, and innocence, and ease that you now experience in fleeting moments. 2. For instance, know you the experience when things are going well - hmm - outside, around you, and you're singing a happy tune, and life seems to be moving ahead? 3. Imagine that same quality of trust, and of faith, and of certainty of purpose, even when the buildings are crumbling around you, and the bank account has gone dry - being able to look at those events with the same sense of innocence and wonder with which you would look into the eyes of your beloved.

            30:22
33        For, you see, such a quality of awareness is perfect mastery. 2. Within it is discovered perfect peace and perfect freedom, perfect joy, and uninterrupted communion with all of Creation.  3. And if you would well receive it, that quality of feeling intimately one with all of Creation is what you have been seeking as a soul since first the identification with a creation, called ego, began. 4. For that creation, again, created conflict and separation. 5. And everything you have ever attempted to do since has been an attempt to overcome separation, to gain back what you felt you had lost. 6. It's just that the ways you have sought to do it don't work.

            31:46
34        The eye of the needle that separates you in your consciousness from the world of conflict and fear and guilt and unworthiness - that world and the world of the Truth of the Kingdom lie side by side, within your own mind. 2. And the eye of the needle that one must pass through is the recultivation of the innocence of a child. 3. And it is for this reason that I often taught.  "Become again as a little child, to enter the Kingdom." 4. And the cultivation of The Way of the Heart is that pathway whereby you deliberately, consciously, choose to become again as an innocent child, as you were in the beginning, before you ever created, and then incarnated into, this dimension of experience that seems to be so permeated by a sense of conflict and separation.

            33:16
35        So, it begins there. 2. And I would ask you now to begin to put this into practice. 3. So wherever you happen to be - whether you are viewing this with your eyes on what you would call here your video, or whether you are listening to the words - stop for just a moment and truly become aware of where you are. 4. And where are you? 5. Are you not having the experience of seemingly being within a body? 6. Don't you seem to be abiding in a room somewhere? 7. Aren't you within an environment in which there are certain weather patterns going on around you? 8. Perhaps there are other sounds coming into your ears. 9. Can you truly be aware of where you are now? 10. Can you feel the weight of the body as you stand upon your feet or sit within your chairs? 11. Do you notice the tension in the neck? 12. Do you notice the racing of the mind if that's going on? 6. Can you begin to bring awareness to exactly what is - from a place of innocence and non-judgment?

            34:52
36        You have a saying in your world, "It is what it is." 2. And that is the beginning of wisdom. 3. You will, of course, discover that what is, is what you have chosen to make of it. 4. Be, therefore, where you are now, and deliberately decide - deliberately decide - to accept wholly that what you are experiencing in this very moment has no cause whatsoever, except your choice to experience it. 5. Rest assured, whatever the mind may try to say, if you did not wholly want to be right where you are, you wouldn't be there. 6. And if you are in a body in the field of space and time, rest assured - you desired it, you chose it, and it's here.

            36:24
37        Begin here. 2. There is no need to judge it, no need to ask it to be different. 3. Just truly be aware of what is. 4. If you are feeling the body sitting in a chair, can you allow the thought to come into the mind. " I have literally created this experience. Something within me is so grand, so powerful, so vast, so beyond anything that scientists have ever come up with, that I have literally crystallized, in the field of experience, awareness of being a body in space and time! It has come forth from the Field of my Consciousness, the gift to me of God. Who asks only that I learn to create as God creates."

             37:40
38        I've said many times that the Father looks upon you and says. "This is My only creation and it is very good." 2. For the Father marvels at what you are, knowing perfectly well that what you are emerged from out of Her Holy Mind.

38:03
39        Likewise look upon your creations and marvel. 2. How is it that you could abide in this time frame on this planet? 3. How could it be that you can place yourself behind the wheel of an automobile and actually get it from point A to point B? 4. That is a mystery and a marvel, and no one knows how it's done! 5. And yet it is done. 6. The reason it's done is that all power has been given onto you and what you decree is. 7. For a man or a woman shall decree a thing and it shall be so. 8. You have decreed this moment. 9. Own it! 10. For by owning it, right now, you can begin to sense the incredible and awesome power that flows through you in each moment. 11. It is the power to create! Hmm.

            39:36
40        So, begin there, by choosing each day, now, to cultivate the practice in this manner. 2. Set the intention so that in each hour of your day, for three to five minutes, you practice bringing this quality of awareness to exactly whatever you are experiencing, when the thought arises to do the practice. 3. You see, where does that thought come from? 4. Imagine you're going through the day and you've been hustling and bustling about. 5. You've gone to your office or your work. 6. You've talked to friends. 7. You've bought groceries. 8. You've done all of these things, and suddenly the thought appears. 8a. Oh! Focus on being aware that I am literally the creator of what I experience. 8b. Do you think it just happened by accident? 8c No! 8d. The thought is penetrating what you call your conscious awareness from the depth of your mind that rests right next to the Mind of God.

            40:57
41         Therefore, the power to generate that very thought is the effect of God's Will entering into your field of being and penetrating the veils of distraction and shining forth as the thought [snaps fingers]. "Oh! That's right, five minutes every hour." 2. Can you feel the awesomeness of that? 3. For you are linked to the Mind of God, and God knows how to bring you back to complete freedom and perfect peace, and mastery of this entire realm.

            41:41
42        Therefore, those who truly love God, those that would truly awaken, will feel something compelling them to master this simple practice for five minutes of each hour. 2. They will learn to delight and they will look forward to it. 3. And pretty soon those five minutes will stretch into six, and then ten, and fifteen, and fifty, until finally, there is established in their awareness - like a background, if you will - the awareness that everything that arises, they have decreed it, and so it is so. 4. Five minutes every hour is not much to ask. 5. For five minutes, every hour, be you, therefore, as you are created to be - a creator decreeing that which brings forth experience. 6. And never again allow yourself to tell yourself: "Well I'm really here because I have to be. I'm really just doing this because, well, you know, it's what I have to do."

             43:06
43        Take the words "ought" and "should" and "must" and "have-to" - write them on a piece of paper. 2. Look at them. 3. And then light a match, and light the corner of the paper, and let the paper burn and dissolve to dust. 4. For it is a symbol of allowing the energy you've given those words to become again as the dust or the ash of the ground. 5. Clear from your consciousness all identification with such words. 6. For all of them are denials of reality.

            43:54
44        Many times I have shared with you that you need do nothing. 2. Listen to those words, and take them into yourself as though they are your own voice, because they are. “I need do nothing.” 3. You don't have to survive. 4. Whoever told you you had to? 5. You don’t have to make everybody happy. 6. Whoever told you you had to. 7. Whoever told you that you could make anybody happy? 8. You don't have to abide as a body in space and time. 9. Whoever told you you had to? 10. You don't have to pay your bills. "How irresponsible." 11. Who told you that? 12. You literally need do nothing.

            44:54
45        It's quite different than wanting or choosing to do something. 2. You don't need to love your parents, you don't need to honor your father and your mother. 3. You don't need to worship me or love me. 4. You don't need to love yourself. 5. You literally need do nothing, for "need" is an expression of the perception that there is something you lack. 6. And because you are One with God, there is never a moment that you lack anything at all. "I need do nothing."

            45:48
46        Can you allow the thought to emerge in the mind when you arise in the morning, “I don't have to get out of this bed. I don't have to go to an office. I don't need to fulfill that order. I don't need to say, 'Good morning' to my mate. I literally need do nothing.” 2. For how can there be the power of freedom to choose and to create when you are being governed by the belief of the world that you must be a certain way? 3. That you need to be acceptable to others. 4. That you need to conform and fit in. 5. That you need to dress the way others dress. 6. That you need to be committed to surviving an extra day upon this plane. 7. There can be no freedom where there is need.

            46:50
47        So, those are the first two axioms of The Way of the Heart - to be built on, to be remembered, to be cultivated daily. “I am created as my Father created me to be. I am free. And nothing sources my experience but me, in each moment. Nothing has an effect upon me, whatsoever, save that which I choose to allow to affect me.” 2. "I need do nothing."

            47:31
48        Again we would ask you, at least twice in each of your days - and in the beginning we would suggest here that, in the morning and in the evening, as you are arising and as you are retiring - to cultivate for five minutes the repetition of that thought so that you feel it in your bones. “I need do nothing.”  2. It will come as quite a shock to your consciousness, and the mind will say. “But I have all these things I have to ...Oh!
What about this and what about that? Oh, my goodness! Well, will the world stop spinning if I stop needing?” 3. That's up to the world, not up to you. "I need do nothing."

            48:24
49        The power of these first two axioms will be what everything that follows is built on, and yet everything that follows is merely a way of watering those two axioms and making them the anchor of your awareness. 2. For when the anchor is firmly in place, you will literally create whatever you so desire, from perfect freedom, from perfect deliberateness. 3. You will even transcend miracle mindedness. 4. For miracles, you see...as you begin to open to miracle mindedness, you marvel. "Wow! That was a miracle - how great!"5. Miracle mindedness is still a stage of perception just short of mastery. 6. For mastery comes when you  know that you are literally and deliberately creating. 7. And there is nothing miraculous about it. 8. You will decree a thing and it shall be so!

            49:34
50        That is to create as God creates. 2. For while He marvels at you, He knows perfectly well that your creation was not a miracle. 3. It was very deliberate, born from the Pure Radiance of Love. 4. God does not sit on His throne and say: “I wonder if I'm worthy to create My Children? I wonder if I'm worthy to express Myself through the Divine Spark of Consciousness that they are?” 5. Never does it enter into the Holy Mind of God. “I wonder if it's O.K. if I create a solar system?” 6.God receives a thought, or a thought emanates within His Holy Mind, He decrees it and it is so! 7. And He looks upon all things and says. “It is very good!”

            50:36
51         The third and last exercise that we would give you in this hour is this: choose something that you do every day, that you are convinced is so utterly ordinary that it certainly doesn't hold any power or any spiritual meaning whatsoever. 2. It could be something as simple as having a glass of water, brushing your teeth, yawning. 3. Pick something that you know you do every day and decide to make that the focus of your worship, so that when you do it, you stop and you go. “'tis very good.” 4. Even if it's something as simple as raising your head from the pillow. 5. Become aware of it, own it as self-created, and then say, within yourself, as you contemplate that action. “It is very good. I have done this, and it is good. I have created.”

            51:52
52        And again, those that are truly committed will find that they begin to enjoy that process, and they begin to apply it more and more to other events in their lives. 2. They begin to reawaken the childlike joy of building a castle in the sandbox. 3. For in Truth, that's all you're doing here. 4. Consciousness is your sandbox and you are creating castles. 5. You've simply forgotten to enjoy them. 6. And when you want to be rid of them, you now lament. “Oh, but if I give this up and change my mind and move on, what will happen to my creations? What will others think of me if I act like a child and just take my little plastic shovel and knock the castle down and go in and have a sandwich for lunch? What will people think of me? Will I fit in? Will I be accepted? Will I be judged? Will I be persecuted?” 7. Who cares? 8. For the opinions of others mean nothing, unless of course, you want them to mean something.

            53:10
53        And now we come to what concludes this hour. 2. What blocks you in your mind? 3. For, even as you're listening to this, many of you are recognizing a resistance. 4. That resistance is the energy of fear. “What will happen if I follow this path?” 5. That part of your mind, called the ego, will rise up to tell you that if you listen to the "crazy one" (that some have called the Savior of the world), it will take you to a path of destruction. 6. That's because  the voice of ego knows that it will be destroyed if this path is followed. 7. You cannot be destroyed - the reality of who you are.

            54:12
54        That resistance, then, is fear. 2. And fear is one of the energies out of alignment with the Truth of the Kingdom. 3. Therefore, indeed, fear not, but continue in faith. 4. For I say unto you, what you will discover at the end of this pathway is the perfect freedom, the perfect power, the perfect spaciousness, the perfect joy, the perfect peace of living - literally - in the Kingdom of Heaven.

            55:01
55        So, the choice is yours. 2. And for those of you that will feel this resistance come up so strongly, for those of you that will yet call out unto me in your dreams and your prayers, "Help me through this," I say unto you that you walk not alone. 3. For I cannot be further from you than the width of a thought. 4. And yes, you are the creator of that thought.

            55:49
56        I would share with you that I, too, embarked upon just such a path. 2. And each, what you might call axiom, that I will share with you and refine for you - many of the exercises that we would give unto you in this coming year - are specifically exercises and truths that were given unto me from the time I was initiated by certain Essene teachers in The Way of the Heart.

            56:26
57        And when my teachers said, "It is time for you to go spend forty days and forty nights in the desert," do you not believe that resistance came up within me, too? 2. That I, too, had to notice that I was creating a thought of fear and separating myself from the great protection and Love of God? 3. That I had to physically move the body into the wilderness to move through my own rings of fear, to discover what was on the other side?

            57:01
58        The pathway, then, that I have walked is the pathway that you are walking. 2. And if our pathway is the same, then we walk together - to God - and away from illusion, and pain, and weakness, and unworthiness, and guilt, and death.

            57:32
59        So, engage in your exercises with great zeal, with great joy, and, above all, with great outrageous playfulness! 2. Learn to look with innocence upon all that arises. 3. And if you put these little exercises to work, much, indeed, will arise. 4. Practice, then, well. 5. And practice with joy. 6. Know that you are loved, loving, and lovable, and that, in Truth, the only thing that's occurring is that an old dream is being released, that a new dream might replace it - the dream of worthiness, and of peace, and of wakefulness, and of union with all of Creation.

            58:27
60        And during this coming year, again, there will be others who will have specific guidance to give to you through this, my beloved brother. 2. For again, I say, I come not alone in this specific work, but I come with many who support your healing and your awakening.

           
61         Therefore, indeed, be at peace this day, beloved friends. 2. Abide ... lovingly ... with your creations. Amen

* * * * * * * * * * * *
Questions and Answers
* * * * * * * * * * * *
            59:17
62        Q:        We have questions from the Shanti Christo members. 2. This is a question from Michael from Georgia. 3. What did you experience when you went to the desert for forty days and forty nights? 4. And what was the purpose of doing a fast?

            59:39
63        A:        Beloved friend, first, the purpose of the fasting was two-fold. 2. The body is, indeed, a communication device. 3. It receives and transmits what you might think of as signals. 4. And we would emphasize here, for your benefit, that the body receives signals as well as it transmits them from your mind.

            01:00:26
64        As you go through your normal day, you are abiding in a certain vibrational field. 2. That vibrational field requires that you, within some boundary, live in such a way that you can effectively communicate and relate within that vibrational field.  3. Therefore, the body learns to adapt to where you are placing it, and what you have decided to use the body for. 4. When the soul is desirous of shifting vibrational frequencies, so that it might receive new signals, it is very valuable to prepare the body by shifting it out of its normal patterns.

            01:01:33
65        For instance, each time that you eat a certain food, and you eat it daily, daily, daily, daily, month and year on end, the body adapts to that vibrational frequency. 2. It learns how to receive the energy of that substance, to conform to that substance, to abide with that substance, and then utilize the energy of that substance. 3. When you shift away from that substance, there is a space that is created. 4. There is a time frame, if you will, in which the body now is no longer receiving the signals that substance brings. 5. And it creates, shall we say, a pause. 6. The very intelligence in the cellular structure of the body pauses. 7. And as it pauses, you can begin to send new signals to the cells to be open, to be receptive, to attune themselves to new frequencies which can then be received.

            01:02:43
66        Therefore, it is a very common practice amongst spiritual paths, that when the soul is desirous of deepening its sense of self-awareness, deepening its connection with God, however you wish to view this,  that which is called fasting has always been known to help facilitate such a shift, because it puts the body at rest. 2. It takes it out of its normal range of vibrational experience so that it can be open, it can become attuned to new frequencies. 3. So the fasting has that purpose, by way of preparation.

            01:03:35
67        But secondly, this also affects the nature of the mind itself, the thinking mind that is linked to the body and to the vibrational field of physicality. 2. Through the process of fasting, the mind also slows down. 3. It becomes more open. 4. Spaciousness is created within it. 5. And why is that valuable? 6. Because the soul wants to begin sending new signals down through the levels or depths of Mind, through the thinking mind, down into the cells of the body. 7. It's seeking to recreate its perceptions, its structure that your lower self, your egoic mind, the mind that carries you through the day, has been operating from. 8. It's seeking to change this. 9. So fasting is not just a matter of the body, alone. 10. But it affects the thinking mechanism of the brain, as well, allowing new electrical signals to pulse through the brain and down through the body. 11. And likewise, it creates a spaciousness so that new frequencies can be received.

            01:04:51
68        It is not unlike living in a house in which you have a certain music playing at a certain volume all of the time, and then, suddenly, decide that perhaps you would like to hear the sound of the birds outside the window. 2. So you reach over to the dial (do you not?) and you turn the volume of the music down. 3. You change the field in which you are having experience. 4. And then as the volume decreases, you begin to hear the background - it has always been there - of the singing birds outside the window. 5. And your attention begins to turn from the vibrational field of the music you've been listening to, to the vibrational field of the song of the bird. 6. New images come, new thoughts come, new feelings come through the body.

            01:05:43
69        So fasting serves that purpose. 2. At a deeper level, view fasting as a deliberate decision that really has nothing to do - levels of meaning - with just food. 3. It is the decision to interrupt patterns that have become habitual. 4. So you fast from sound, you fast from negative thinking. 5. You fast from being busy. 6. You fast from going to bed at the same time every day. 7. You fast from arising at the same time every day, for a day, for two days, for a week, for a month, for forty days and forty nights.

            01:06:29
70        You totally change certain patterns. 2. And just as the effect of releasing the body from habitual use of a certain substance creates a space in which something new can take place, fasting from the simple time frame that you're used to arising in the morning, will create a spaciousness in the mind. 3. And you'll become aware of things that you didn't know were going on. 4. You'll receive signals that you hadn't received before.
  
            01:07:02
71         When I first came to this, my beloved brother, in order to begin to recultivate our communication ability, I often came to him, and then, later, suggested to him, that he take up the practice of arising at 3 o'clock in the morning. 2. That was not his customary time. 3. And yet, by so doing, he fasted from his normal habit, which heightened  his sense of awareness and created, or cultivated, the ability within the brain structure and within the nervous system, to become attuned to the rarefied frequencies that are always there, but are often drowned out, because you're still asleep. 4. And the rest of the world around you has not yet awakened to fill the vibrational field with all the noise of millions of minds actively running about.

            01:08:04
72        So that is the deeper meaning of fasting. 2. It is doing things in a new way, fasting from old habits, which heightens your sense of awareness, your vigilance to what is present. 3. Fasting is something that is extremely valuable and should be done by everyone, from time to time. 4. We speak here not just of an occasional fasting of the body, but to begin to look at all of the habits you have, even the ones that are positive. 5. If you go into your meditation room at the same time every day, the body and the mind begins to anticipate what ought to happen through learned experience. 6. So go at a different time. 7. If you are used to certain prayers, use different ones, from time to time. 8. If you are used to abiding with certain friends on a regular basis, shift from time to time. 9. If you are used to talking a lot, spend a day in silence.

            01:09:10
73        Begin, then, to look at the habits you have cultivated that are almost continual - so much so that you never think about them. 2. And then, set aside a time deliberately to fast from that habit. 3. If one has the habit of reading the Sunday paper, go for a month in which no paper is read, and observe how this creates space for you to begin to not only perceive things differently, but to receive different impulses. 4. You'll find new thoughts will come about how to utilize that time differently. 5. Fasting is an art, and one well worth cultivating within yourself.

            01:10:05
74        Now, what did I experience in the desert for forty days and forty nights? 2. Fear, cold, heat, boredom, mental busyness, hunger, joy, ecstasy, delight, freedom, out-of-body experiences, clairvoyance, clairaudience, visitation by angels, visitation by creatures that should have struck fear in me. 3. You would call them snakes, spiders. Hmm.

            01:10:50
75        Beloved friend, such a journey puts you in a position where you can no longer be distracted from all of the "stuff" that is going on in your daily consciousness. 2. It is a time of purification ... purification by having no opportunity to escape from truly observing everything that is going on within the field of one's consciousness. 3. There arose within me thoughts of hating God. 4. There arose thoughts within me of deciding to serve Satan instead of God. 5. There arose thoughts within me of wanting to abandon my roots and become a very wealthy merchant surrounded by, what you call, the "dancing ladies" ... hmm? 6. If you can imagine any thought, positive or negative, rest assured that within that forty-day period, some symbol of that thought also arose within me to be experienced - even cellularly in the body. 7. Self-doubt arose, anger arose. 8 It all arose. 9. The whole field of human consciousness arose within me within those forty days and forty nights.

             01:12:22
76        So that whole time period was a fast. 2. And that was the purpose of removing myself from all communication with anyone, from all comforts that I had become accustomed to. 3. There was only me with myself. 4. And by abiding with myself, I learned that I was never alone. 5. The negative things, as you might describe them, tended to come up after about the fifth day and through approximately the twentieth day. 6. Then it began to shift as I began to notice that I could dis-identify with those things. 7. I didn't have to judge them. 8. I could notice being cold and just accept it. “The body's cold. So what? The body's hungry. So what? I'm desirous of seeing my friends and dancing and singing. So what?” 9. I observed things arise. 10. And finally, it was like they knew they had no place to make a home in my mind. 11. And so, they subsided.

            01:13:33
77        And just as when you physically fast, finally the body is empty. 2. And the cellular structures of the body can begin to repair and heal at a deeper level. 3. The nervous system can rest deeply. 4. Likewise, my mind began to rest. 5. And a spaciousness was created. 6. And during the twentieth to about the twenty-fifth day, I could feel a transition occurring, as my consciousness began to let go of the world I had known. 6. And everything and everyone became as a distant memory.

            01:14:12
78        And more and more, I noticed that a Light was being birthed or turned on within me. 2. A spaciousness was being created. 3. And out of that spaciousness, I began to tap into levels of consciousness that I had, in fact, experienced before. 4. But now, I had time to really cultivate being with those frequencies in which I could receive communication from other teachers in nonphysical realms.

            01:14:42
79        I began to feel the great Love of God as I'd never felt it before. 2. It came, not just as a thought or an inspiration or a fleeting feeling, but it came to seep down, if you will - and here I speak metaphorically - but a seeping down through my Mind and through the cells of the body and through the nervous system of the body. 3. It came to be grounded, if you will, throughout my whole being. 4. The deep peace, the perfect trust, the recognition that I was not alone, that I had everything I ever needed, because I was One with God.

            01:15:23
80        So there were many states of bliss and of ecstasy, many states of transcending identification with the body and suddenly being transported to other realms and other worlds. 2. Pictures of the rest of my life's path began to emerge, as though coming up out of the soil of the busyness of my mind and all the things - just like you - that I had to do just to take care of daily affairs. 3. None of it was there to disturb me. 4. And the deeper purpose began to reveal itself.
  
            01:15:59
81         And I heard the Voice of my Father speak to me on what you would know as about the thirty-seventh day. 2. And the Voice came clearly from around me and within me, saying unto me. “You are My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And suddenly, I realized the Truth that is true always: "God loves me. I need do nothing. I am as my Father created me to be."  3. And the opinions of the world dissolved out of my field of awareness, my energy field, if you will. 4. And I began to be fully stabilized in what you might call an enlightened state of mind. 5. I no longer identified myself as the son of Joseph. 6. I identified myself as the Son of God.

            01:23:27
82        So that is a synopsis of what I experienced during my pilgrimage and my fasting.
2. The forty days and forty nights, by the way, was a numerological representation that was very important in the schools of thought in which I was reared. 3. It represented a time of birthing, experience, and disillusion. 4. It's like a cycle - forty days and forty nights - to be taken more metaphorically than literally. 5. And when I returned, all things had been made new and different. 6. Jeshua ben Joseph had, indeed, journeyed to the desert, but the Son of God is who returned. 7. Therefore, beloved friend, occasionally, give yourself permission to fast from the habits you have created.

            01:18:11
83        Q:        The next question is from Pam and George from Washington. 2. Please comment on Mary and the messages that are being published recently as coming from her.

            01:18:25
84        A:        Indeed, beloved friend, do you have volumes for me to fill? 2. Do you have hours to listen to me speak? 3. For in Truth, I could utilize the whole of time to speak with Love of the One that was known as my mother, who remains always an intimate part of myself. 4. For we remain, of course, in perfect communication. 5. This One, as a soul, chose to allow, to agree to enter into, the drama of my own incarnation into the world. 6. This One was therefore put into a position to bring up within Her everything unlike Love, to look at the very habits of being a mother and to transcend those habits, in order to serve a bigger picture. 7. That incarnation was the one in which She perfected Her own awakening. 8. Her own commitment  to what is far beyond each individual's consciousness. 9. That One lives even as I live. 10. And That One has never ceased to follow The Way of the Heart - that Way which is perfected when the consciousness knows. “I live, yet not I, but That which is the Creation of my Father: The Christed Consciousness, alone, lives through me.”

            01:20:12
85        She is extremely active in what you call your current time frame. 2. She is speaking unto many. 3. The appearances that have been recorded by what you call the grand authority of the Church, these appearances are not anyone's imagination. 4. And they will, indeed, increase.  5. The messages She is giving, we should say those to whom She is seeking to communicate, require that Her message be given in such a way that is somewhat different than the way in which I'm formulating the message that I'm giving to you through this channel. 6. And why? 7. Because the wise teacher learns the language of the student, the temperament, the space of consciousness in which they are, and then speaks in terms that can be understood.

            01:21:13
86        And so, She speaks of Earth changes. 2. She speaks of the Love of God. 3. She speaks a language to many that you may not prefer, but others do. 4. And yet, there is an art and a skill and a purpose. 5. And Her entire purpose is the same as mine: to cultivate within anyone who will listen the realigning of their perceptions  so that they can heal their sense of separation  from God and return to the Truth of Love, and worthiness and power, and Grace. 6. To awaken, in other words.

            01:21:59
87        There are many who claim to channel Her who do not. 2. And if you pay attention to the vibration you feel, in the books you might read or the tapes you may listen to or what have you, you'll always know Her presence because there will be a softness, there will be a gentleness, there will be a quality of perfect mothering, if you will, in which you feel like you just want to lay your head upon Her breast and dissolve away into the bliss of Love.

            01:22:41
88        Those that are not communicating Her, but would love you to believe they are, you'll always detect some kind of constriction that comes up, some sense of egoic energy, some sense of fear over the future: "You better do this. This is going to happen. There's no way to get around it." 2. Those kinds of statements do not come from Her at all.

89        And, indeed, as I did then, This One I love deeply, and look upon as a radiant example of what consciousness can be.

        © Copyright 1996 & 2002 Shanti Christo Foundation.



Monday, March 15, 2010

ACIM Lesson 74 There is no will but God's.

There is no will but God's.


The idea for today can be regarded as the central thought toward which all our exercises are directed. God's is the only Will. When you have recognized this, you have recognized that your will is His. The belief that conflict is possible has gone. Peace has replaced the strange idea that you are torn by conflicting goals. As an expression of the Will of God, you have no goal but His.


There is great peace in today's idea, and the exercises for today are directed towards finding it. The idea itself is wholly true. Therefore it cannot give rise to illusions. Without illusions conflict is impossible. Let us try to recognize this today, and experience the peace this recognition brings.


Begin the longer practice periods by repeating these thoughts several times, slowly and with firm determination to understand what they mean, and to hold them in mind:


There is no will but God's. I cannot be in conflict.


Then spend several minutes in adding some related thoughts, such as:


I am at peace.


Nothing can disturb me. My will is God's.


My will and God's are one.


God wills peace for His Son.


During this introductory phase, be sure to deal quickly with any conflict thoughts that may cross your mind. Tell yourself immediately:


There is no will but God's. These conflict thoughts are meaningless.


If there is one conflict area that seems particularly difficult to resolve, single it out for special consideration. Think about it briefly but very specifically, identify the particular person or persons and the situation or situations involved, and tell yourself:


There is no will but God's. I share it with Him. My conflicts about ______ cannot be real.


After you have cleared your mind in this way, close your eyes and try to experience the peace to which your reality entitles you. Sink into it and feel it closing around you. There may be some temptation to mistake these attempts for withdrawal, but the difference is easily detected. If you are succeeding, you will feel a deep sense of joy and an increased alertness, rather than a feeling of drowsiness and enervation.


Joy characterizes peace. By this experience will you recognize that you have reached it. If you feel yourself slipping off into withdrawal, quickly repeat the idea for today and try again. Do this as often as necessary. There is definite gain in refusing to allow retreat into withdrawal, even if you do not experience the peace you seek.


In the shorter periods, which should be undertaken at regular and predetermined intervals today, say to yourself:


There is no will but God's. I seek His peace today.


Then try to find what you are seeking. A minute or two every half an hour, with eyes closed if possible, would be well spent on this today.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Raj; Death is abnormal

RAJ:  Good Morning. 
QUESTION:  Specifically one of the things that you had mentioned briefly on a few tapes has been the idea that we could possibly live to be 500 or 1,000 years old.   And I have been involved and studied such subjects as physical immortality.   And we talk about Awakening… I still get the feeling that people think of what happens when we Awaken would be that we would go through the traditional idea of what death looks like.   In other words, that this body would be left behind to where it would be buried by those who are looking at that body, as opposed to the possibility that we do not leave that discarded form.   And I think we would all like some clarity on those ideas.
ANSWER:   Well, let me begin by saying that death is abnormal.   The focus of attention shouldn’t really be on living 500 years or 1,000 years, or 10,000 years.   The focus really should be on living fully now. However, if you will all begin to consider what I am telling you is a fact—that death is abnormal—then that becomes something just like disease, which needs to be healed, the belief in the necessity of dying needs to be healed. And the way healing occurs is always a matter of a shift of consciousness.
So, instead of seeking immortality—because you are already all immortal—I encourage you to seek the fullness of the experience of Life now. If death isn’t inevitable, and if it isn’t the stepping-stone to enlightenment, then that will change how you exist in the moment, because you won’t be able to say, "Well, when I die, I’ll go to heaven, so, if I dally a little bit longer in ignorance, big deal!"
If death isn’t the stepping-stone to anything, and if it is unnatural, then that really puts the focus of your Awakening—the focus of any fullness of life that you would look to in the hereafter—in the now, which is where it has needed to be all along. You need to approach today as though today is the day to wake up!
If there’s no single event in the future which is going to thrust you into enlightenment, then there’s nothing to wait for in the future. Therefore, if you want to experience improvement, you’re going to have to give your attention to improvement in the moment you’re living. And that’s what we’ve been talking about all weekend—how to improve the moment in which you are living. And the way to improve the moment in which you are living is through love.
You can’t say, "Well, in the sweet bye and bye my difficult husband will wake up, and so if I delay loving him until then, I’ll be able to love him then." If, in the sweet bye and bye, he is not going to be enlightened because of the fact that the "bye and bye" has arrived, then your delay in loving him, or in loving each other, is a complete waste of time—time that should have been spent having an object of your affection, and caring enough about him or your fellow man to hang in there with him with the intent to look at him with innocent eyes, nondefensively. Why? So that you might be the presence of Love which is transformational and which makes it easier for your brother to realize he doesn’t need to maintain his defenses any longer and can allow for a shift in him.
So, forever you have been.   Forever you have existed—your life didn’t start a certain number of years ago, here. And forever you will be. So, you are already as eternal as you will ever be.   You are at this instant Eternal Beings.
Remind yourself of that every morning when you wake up.   Remind yourself of it because you have forgotten, and you believe that you aren’t. You need that little jog of your memory: "I am already eternal."
Well, if you’re already eternal, then eternality isn’t something for you to achieve, it’s something for you to start embodying, by being now in a new way.
So, here’s another apple cart that’s overturned. And the apple cart that’s overturned is that you will somehow automatically, through an event called death, be transformed. You won’t be. You won’t be transformed. You won’t experience transformation until, right now; you begin to behave like what you Are, instead of delaying it by saying, "Well, this is all an illusion." Or, "My soul is inhabiting a material body, and this body is a real impediment to my experience of my spirituality. All I can do is make the best of it until I drop this body. And thank God that I have spiritual truths to make this strenuous journey more pleasant!"
Can you see that all that means is that Eternal Beings are imagining that they are not eternal? That Christs, whose visibility and tangibility identifies the presence of God, are saying, "I have a soul that is different from my body, and my body keeps my Christ-hood from showing, and I’m stuck with that.   But, you know what? I’ll think loving thoughts, and I’ll smile loving smiles, and I will behave as though I am the Christ, even though we all know I’m not. The best I can do in this lifetime is be Christ-like—use good manners, not be unpleasant with my neighbor…"
But you are the Christ, and what you’re experiencing is the Kingdom of Heaven, and you already are eternal. So, at the bottom line, if you’re experiencing anything different from that right now, all you’re experiencing is a bunch of ideas which are contrary to the Truth, which you are believing and holding yourself to. And you’re all just being a bunch of actors! You’re being the Christ, acting like a "mortal."
Now, if death is unnatural, and if it is an illusion—and I tell you that it is an illusion—and if it isn’t the stepping-stone to enlightenment, then you’re stuck with the obligation to stop being Christ-like, and start being the Christ that you Are. (Applauds from a guy I remember who always introduced himself as Christ Jim and would acknowledge me as Christ Pam. He did this with everyone.)
As I’ve been saying since the beginning of this Gathering, that isn’t always easy, because you’re so committed to your imaginative sense of who you are, and you all have created little rules of the "game of being mortal." It’s like the old game, "Let’s Pretend", except now you believe your pretensions. And you have all agreed to bind each other to those pretensions, because the game is so stimulating, even though it scares you to death. Scares you to death? (Raj was making a fun and had to repeat it in a question to get the audience to laugh.)
What is Love? It’s you, remembering that you’re the Christ, and reminding your brother and sister that he and she are the Christ, and neglecting to play the game of mortal humanhood any longer. And when you remember that you’re the Christ, the manner in which you will remind your brothers and sisters that they are the Christ will not be in the old way that you, as an ego, tried to teach each other something. It will be through an expression of tenderness, compassion, patience, and love. When you say, "no," it will not be a judgment, but a simple statement of fact, stating your position, and it will not be heard as a put-down or as a judgment. You will not lose your integrity in the process. And this is the way you uncover the eternal life which you are incapable of having an experience different from.
You are incapable of successfully having an experience different from eternal life. That means that you are experiencing your eternality at this very moment, even though you’ve imagined that it is a moment in a span of years that began at birth and will end at death.
The way the illusion of birth and death will be undone is when you begin to acknowledge your eternality now, and begin to behave on the basis of what that really means—that it isn’t an achievement which is going to occur in the future, and it’s not a gift which will be bestowed upon you by God when you have finally earned it.
If the gift has already been given to you and you’re not experiencing it, it means you haven’t opened the gift. Does that state it clearly? So, what are you faced with? Nothing but opening the gift and receiving it. But, if you imagine that it’s a gift which will be given next Christmas, or next lifetime—even though it has been given—you won’t touch it. And so, that’s why I’m telling you, the gift is in your face! It is already the fact about you. Contemplate what that means, and see what changes that brings to the way in which you live the moment you’re in.
If there’s not a prize at the end of the road, and if you were going for a prize at the end of the road, now what you do in the road, right where you are will change. If being where you are on the road isn’t a part of getting to the prize, then either life at this point in the road is totally meaningless or the fact is that it’s totally Meaningful, and it needs to be taken hold of in its fullness today—here at Asilomar, in those chairs or wherever you are when you get home. The fullness needs to be taken hold of now because it’s not ever going to come in the future.
Again, if you get up on Christmas morning and you don’t look under the Christmas tree, you’re not going to see anything to open, and you’ll wait for next Christmas. And if you always think it’s going to be coming next Christmas, the gifts will go unopened that are already there.
Now, if there isn’t any "next" Christmas, what does that say about today? Well, it isn’t leading toward anything particularly good, is it? Again, that can be very discouraging…or one can say, "Well, I’m going to open my eyes and look under the Christmas tree that’s right in front of me."
You’ve got to start looking for the fullness of Being now! The ultimate is happening now! But everyone is so locked into the definitions of everything that you’ve given, and that you’re so sure of, that it doesn’t even occur to you that there is more of Reality to be experienced now. And that doesn’t just mean Reality "out-there," it means the Reality of each one of you right now.
You are the Christ right now. You are the full, unlimited expression of God at this very instant. You are the ultimate of What You Are right now, even though you are insisting on imaginations about yourself, and claiming that those imaginations are what are really true. And part of those imaginations is that you will grow old and die, and immortality will be gained next Christmas…next lifetime.
And so you are like the Christ who got up here last night and pretended he was the ego. (At entertainment night there was a professional comedian who did a skit called "Miraj the ego." It was hilarious.)
I think you get the picture.
~excerpt from Gathering with Raj, Asilomar, 1996


Edited by Trish 2010-03-14 7:24 PM