Location: New York | with grateful thanks to Christine (DoG) for Her proofreading.
September 22, 2007 ©NWWFACIM
PAUL. Okay. Before we have our quiet time, let’s all get on the same page. If you’re in the Sparkly Book, it’s page 304, the second full paragraph. If you’re in the Second Edition, it’s page 259, paragraph 8. And if you’re in the First Edition, it’s page 242, second full paragraph.
… … (repeats pages)
Okay. … Let’s take a few moments to be quiet together.
QUIET TIME
RAJ. Okay. Good evening. … And welcome to everyone who’s joining us on the Internet.
… Well, have We opened a can of worms … with the simple two-step? … … During this past week, … have you had the opportunity to … hesitate before blurting out … your best judgments … or what your vast experience has taught you that undoubtedly would be of value to … the one you’re confronted with? … …
And if you have … managed to hesitate ... ask what needs to be known here, and if you actually have heard what needs to be known, and You’ve shared it, … have you had the experience of it not being well received? … … And like Moses did you get mad and throw down the tablets and forget about listening and forget about doing the two-step, and … forget about caring about your brother enough to want to know what the answer – the resolving answer – would be here?
And unlike Moses, did you perhaps … not go back up on the mountain and do the two-step again because (small laugh) your brother wasn’t worth it? Uh uh. … … …
If so, … you have been confronted with … the incredible importance of … the two-step, … and … you have had a glimpse of what kind of commitment … or persistence may need to be brought into play … … …
Truth – Reality … – capital M Meaning – have nothing to do with sweet, flowery spiritual platitudes … that you sort of caress your mind with or caress your fellowman with … to make yourself feel good … when things are still bad. … …
And … I cannot support … your … reading this Course and … not getting your hands dirty. … I can’t support your … finding wonderful things to think about, … while you abandon your brother … because he’s been obtuse … and it has offended you.
… In boot camp … one of the practices … to help teamwork develop … is to take a very long telephone pole, and twenty … or twenty-five men, and they lift it up on their shoulder. And they have to learn to jog while carrying it.
If someone is out of step, he is going up … when the telephone pole is coming down on his shoulder, and it is very uncomfortable. And, his absence … from the teamwork that’s needed, to have all twenty-five men running smoothly, with co-ordination, is lost.
Now, you say: ‘Okay. I understand that. But, you know what? We’re not all … carrying a telephone pole together. I … I don’t have a telephone pole. Michael doesn’t have a telephone that he and I are carrying, … so if I don’t feel like … coordinating with others – if I don’t feel like cooperating – if I don’t feel like being involved, big deal. … But here’s … here’s the good news … that you don’t want to hear: You’re all in this together. And you all need each other, … so that you might have objects of affection … to give your attention to.
Because, until you have an object … of your affection, and you … persistently express that affection – that intent to be involved – … until … that dynamic exists, is brought into play, … that which is essential to your waking up is absent from your experience.
Earlier this evening someone here in the group … expressed a quotation that goes: A mind that’s changed against its will is of the same opinion still. … Now, this person wasn’t suggesting that that’s a reason to stop … being affectionate. It’s not a reason for throwing down the tablets and storming off – and abandoning the two-step. …
But, it … it … it suggests … a dilemma: A mind that’s changed against its will is of the same opinion still. … It’s like: dead end, dead end. … No use in doing the two-step.
But wait a minute. Are you doing the two-step to change someone’s mind? No. What you’re doing is- What you’re doing the two-step for is so that you might be undefended enough in your own mind, that you’re able to be completely relaxed with poise; so that you’re able to Be, with grace, and … spontaneous, balanced responses, and … listen for the place where the willingness is … in your brother. … … …
If you say: ‘He’s not willing, and he’s a very willful person. I am faced with a real challenge here, and it’s going to be hard work, (in a strong, determined voice), you’re going to approach your brother (small laugh) as though he’s unyielding, unyieldable, unmalleable, unchangeable, and … your behavior will be a form of … rough attack, … that won’t get you anywhere. …
But, … you want his mind to change in accordance with his will, so you need to find out where his willingness lies. You need to be willing to stand with your brother … with interest – not fake interest – not manipulative interest – but real interest, because until you’re willing to stand there with your brother – in an undefended manner – in other words, with Love, you’re not going to be able to recognize where his willingness lies. He doesn’t know where it is, at the moment, himself; or he would have changed his mind, and it wouldn’t have been against His Will. … … …
Now, … you could say that you all could be at odds with each other … for … another millennium. And you could say: ‘Well, you don’t have a whole millennium left, in which to do this.’ … – and sort of pressure you into it by scaring you, with a time limit. No. Neither one of these optons- options is valid.
But, the simple fact is … that this is what you’re all faced with. … You’re all faced with the need to bring yourself – within yourself – to a point of caring enough about your brother – that you will take the time it takes to find your brother’s willingness … to see the Truth … or to see the answer … that will resolve his dilemma. … …
It’s going to take conscious, conscientious persistence. … …
Your willingness to be the Presence of Love is going to take conscious, conscientious persistence.
And, … you are going to have to be willing to abandon your willingness … to abandon your brother. … You’re going to have to abandon your willingness to … self-righteously judge your brother and say he’s not worth the time and the effort. He’s not worth … my using my mind well.’ Even though your using your mind poorly is going to cost you your peace – and your opportunity to wake up. …
Your brother – you will have to remember – is worth every bit of conscious effort you bring into play on his behalf – or on your sister’s behalf. Each one of you … is worth every bit of effort I bring … to helping you … arrive at … the point of discovering your willingness … to embrace the Truth about yourselves, and abandon … what’s causing you pain.
And every single one of you knows that you balk, and you argue, and you withdraw, and you get angry … when the help is offered. …
Delay, delay, delay. ‘Let me- let- the suffering isn’t so bad! … I can put it up- put up with it a little bit longer. … Don’t push me Jesus!’ …
Well, I can’t push you. … I cannot change your mind. But, you’re worth my persisting in … expressing Love … and sharing the ideas that help you uncover – deep within you – your willingness – a built-in, already-existing willingness – to consciously embrace the Truth about yourselves – and abandon the illusions about yourselves, which you have been suffering from. … …
Again, as you go through this coming week, and you’re confronted by anyone – in any situation – I want you to remind yourself: This one – this individual – is worth my best thoughts. This individual is worth my … taking the time … … to remember – even if it’s only intellectually – that they, like me, are the Christ – the Son or Daughter of God: the direct Expression of God – embodying All that is True about God, and is, therefore, worthy of my utter respect. …
And so, I’m willing, in this moment, not to discount them because of how they look, or how they’re behaving. … …
Remember, I said last week, that … you’re never in neutral. You always have some sort of assessment or evaluation, or thought or concept about, anyone that you … confront, or run into.
And whatever that is, your lifting up to Me, … to pass on to the Father. … … …
I’m … stressing this because – as many of you found out during this past week – ... you can easily and quickly feel as though it’s not worth it to do the two-step. And the wish – and even perhaps the willingness to abandon it has presented itself. … And I need to remind you – and confirm to you – that this is exactly the time not to withdraw.
And like Moses, go back up to the mountain, … and desire to Know of the Father.
‘What needs to be known here? … How can I use my mind in the presence of this One, in a manner that will contribute to our mutual benefit – our mutual … sudden shift of perception … about ourselves, even if we’re strangers? … … …
Let’s go to the book. … …
… “When you have seen your brothers as yourself, you will be … released to Knowledge.” … …
“When you have seen your brothers as yourself, you will be … released to Knowledge.” … You will be free. You will be in a state of freedom to let Knowledge in – to let … your intent to be the authorizer – the interpreter – the determiner – to let that be replaced by … the infilling … of the Holy Spirit – the infilling of your Right Mind – the infilling of the Father’s Perspective. …
“When you have seen your brothers as yourself,” – What does that mean? See “your brothers as yourself”? … Well, let’s get back to basics here. … … You don’t see your brother as yourself because you think you’re an independent entity, born of a sperm and an egg, having grown up in an environment, and … that all of this is part of an evolutionary process that may or may not have anything to do with God. It certainly isn’t Divine. It certainly is physical. …
And then, if you are … a physical entity, in a process of evolution, who has … had a God experience, you may … think that you are … an expression of God, that has been … created and set on its own – given … tools and faculties by this God, to apply it to life, and make something of yourselves … as an independent entity – what we’ve … spoken of as the orphan mentality. … (long sigh)
Fundamental to this orphan mentality is … the premise that you are unique – that you are unlike … anything and everything else. You even have … fingerprints that no-one else has. That’s how unique you are. That’s how different you are from your brother.
… Your very mindset says that it is impossible … to see your brothers as yourself, because you’re not alike. … And if you were to see your brothers as yourself, you would lose your individuality … – that you would cease to be different – that … that which can … think well of itself … – and convince others to think well of it – and become something important, that that whole regime of … … arrogance … … and egotism – all of that … must be abandoned in order to see your brothers as yourself. But by its nature and character, it disallows for that. …
And so it takes someone like Me to say to you over and over and over again, ‘You’re not an orphan. And you are not unique and different from each other, by virtue of separation. … … You are all the Presence of Love – embodied. Embodied by a First Cause, which is, Itself, Love.
And the Movement of Love that Embodies Itself is Creation. … And … the Movement of Love that you are when you allow It to move … constitutes … part of Creation.
And so, you and your Father are One. And you and your brother are One, … … and you are all … individuals. But differentness is not the bottom line – is not the determiner of your Individuality. God Infinitely Expresses Himself. Love Infinitely finds Expression. …
And every Expression is Love Itself Expressed. …
It’s All One. It is All One. But how It can All be One … without the Infinitude of Creation being lost is Something that you will not have the experience of until you’re willing to abandon the orphanage – until you’re willing to abandon orphanhood – and the pride you get from being an orphan, and making a success out of yourself.
So … “When you have seen your brothers as yourself,” – when you allow that to happen: No, can’t go any further than that – “When you have seen your brothers as yourself,” – when you have allowed that to happen – what have you done? You’ve done the only thing that will allow you to have that experience; you’ve done the two-step. You have … backed off from your … habitual responses, … your educated responses, your mutually-agreed-upon responses … to a situation or an individual. And you have said: ‘Father … Father what do I need to know here? What is the Truth here?’ … And then you have been silent. And you have been an inviting emptiness, if I may put it that way. You’ve been the Presence of Curiosity, which is an inviting emptiness, isn’t it?
You desire to be filled … with Knowledge – with Knowing – with the Father’s Perspective. And when that happens, … you have … … you have … an experience of Awareness … that embraces your brother in a way that reveals to you his utter Divinity, … and his … deserving … of your respect.
In other words, what is respectable about him … is clearly … available to you; whereas, a moment before, he didn’t deserve your respect. And what causes your respect to be due to him is Something incredibly wonderful. It’s that the Source of him is God, just as the Source of you is God. And you’re having this Joint Realization – in that moment – in which he’s no better than you, or worse than you, and you’re no better or worse than him. But you are equal – in the Oneness of Your Nature and What Your Nature is derived from.
And when that kind of experience happens, both of you feel it, … and healing occurs; correction of whatever was disturbing … transpires. …
Now, this is what you should be experiencing … all the time. This is what you should be should be experiencing multiple times during the week. …
Now, you can let your ego take charge here and say: ‘Well, then, you must be doing something wrong. … What is there in you that doesn’t allow this to happen?’ Put you on the defensive, create a sense of guilt in you – just because you happen to hear some really good news. The good news was: You should be having these experiences multiple times every week.
I’m telling you that you should be having them, so that you will … begin to have an expectation … of them happening, because that’s what’s open- that’s what opens the door. … … …
If you don’t think it can happen, then it won’t happen ... … because your definiteness constitutes a willfulness, that fits the quotation: A mind that’s changed against its will is of the same opinion still. So, if you’re so sure it will not happen, your mind will not be changed, and you will not see it happen, … even though it’s sitting there waiting to happen, for you.
And so I say it should be happening multiple times every week. It should not be an uncommon occurrence for you. And I say it to pique your curiosity, because you have the capacity to hear what I’m saying, and actually let it in, and actually have the experience this coming week. And if you don’t, you still have the capacity, and I will be happy to tell you again, and again, and again – without impatience – … because there just- there simply is no justification for you to continue not to experience it. And because there is no justification for you not to experience it, there’s no reason for Me not to continue to share the Truth with you; … to share a perspective that’s different from … the mindset you’re currently employing, that keeps you … from seeing it happen.
There are people that say: ‘Oh well. The Course isn’t really about miracles … like walking on water. You know. … A miracle is a sudden shift of perception. … So, you know, if there’s not healing, don’t worry about it. If you’re having these wonderful shifts of perception, and they are- they’re giving you a great lift and a high, that’s what it’s about.’
No, it’s not! … A sudden shift of perception is one in which one that is a miracle– is one in which the Presence of God … registers with you surprisingly, when you weren’t expecting it, or when you weren’t trying to make it happen, but you were … willing to let go of control enough to let something you weren’t in charge of in. …
“When you have seen your brothers as yourself,” – from doing the two-step – “you will be released to Knowledge.” What that means is you will be released from the bondage … you were suffering from, as a result of your own self-created definitions about how everything worked.
And when you abandon your mindset … and you employ curiosity … to know more than you presently know, you’re suddenly released from the bondage of your … thought structures, and … the recognition of Truth can infill you, as I just described.
Knowing … the Truth … will suddenly be your illumined experience.
So, “When you have seen your brothers as yourself, you will be released to Knowledge,” – the Experience of Knowing – having learned to free yourself of* Him Who Knows of Freedom.” … Who’s “Him, Who Knows of Freedom” you have learned from? God. … [*Note: ‘of’ must be a book misprint, not possibly being the correct preposition.] … …
You can ask the Holy Spirit to illumine … your mind … with the Truth, but what the Holy Spirit will do, in response to that, is reveal to you the Father’s Perspective. And in the end you will have learned of the Father. …
“When you have seen your brothers as yourself, you will be released to Knowledge, having learned to free yourself of* Him Who Knows of Freedom. Unite with Me under the holy banner of His teaching” – the Father’s Teaching – “and as We grow in strength, … the Power of God's Son will move in Us,” – Why will “the Power of God’s Son move in Us”? … because We won’t be denying Who We Are – … You and I – will not be denying Who We Are. We … will be acknowledging that We are not the Source of Our Existence – that We are the Effect or Offspring of Something Else – that We have a Father, and the moment you abandon the orphan viewpoint, the Fact that you are the Son or Daughter of God – that you are the Offspring of a Source, other than yourself, your Sonship and God’s Fatherhood become Real to you. 39:59:7
“Unite with Me” … – which is what you’re doing when you say: ‘I wish to see everything through Your Vision’ – capital V Vision – ‘which is Your Gift to me, from God.’
“Unite with Me” – in that way – “under the holy banner of His Teaching” – which means: under the holy banner of how things really work – “under the holy banner of His Teaching. And as We grow in strength” – or Unity – Conscious … Joining – “the power of God’s Son will move in Us, and We will” – What? – “leave no-one untouched”.
So, when you do the two-step and you get a real … … raunchy response, you won’t run away. You will persist. “-and the Power of God’s Son will move in Us, … and We will leave no-one untouched, and no-one left alone.” … This is very important. … No-one will be left alone. It cannot be part of your mindset that as you do the two-step, you might end up leaving a few people alone, because you will do the two-step with … the easy people. … And somebody else will catch … the ones you miss.
No. Your Wholeness will not be experienced by you, until not one brother is left outside of it. …
Now, … don’t take what I’m saying to mean that … immediately you’re to go out and somehow consciously embrace everyone, every brother, every sister. That will be the end result. That will be the finale, if you will. But … you be willing to do this with the people in your experience. The people in your experience are the ones the Holy Spirit has brought to you. …
But understand that your not gonna slip by … on the fast track and just do- and just do the essential people. (small laugh) Be willing from the start here, to not let anyone slip out of your sight, without your blessing. Don’t let anyone slip by you, without your blessing. …
“Unite with Me” – break your isolation – “under the holy banner of His Teaching. And as We grow in strength” – Conscious Unity – the Power of God’s Son will move in Us, and We will leave no-one untouched, and no-one left alone.”
That means that you will have dared to take the time to find the place in each One of them where the willingness to see the Truth existed, and helped uncover it, … so that they could gladly embrace it, and easily embrace it. Because where their willingness is for embracing it, is where it’s easy to embrace it.
“And suddenly, time will be over. And We will all unite in the Eternity of God, the Father. The holy light you saw outside yourself, in every miracle you offered to your brothers, will be returned to you.”
Now, when you do this two-step – when you take the time with your brother, … to look beyond your … spontaneous judgments and opinions, to see what God is Be-ing There, you have this illumination that embraces you and your brother, and healing occurs.
It’s still as though a miracle happened with your brother. It’s still as though something happened out there. And- and the total Unity of it will not always be felt.
And: “The holy light you saw outside yourself, in every miracle … you offered to your brothers, will” – in the end – “be returned to you. And knowing that the Light is in you, your creations will be there with you, as you are in your Father.”
I’m going to say it this way: Every healing that you’re a participant in- every healing of a brother or a father or a daughter or a spouse is … an event … that fits under the heading of Creation. Every Expression of Love that is Embodied – Manifest – Consciously Experienced – is Eternal, and is present for All to Experience, forever. …
It becomes your Expression of Love, Embodied, as part of Creation forever. This is important.
So, so the willingness to persist, on behalf of your brother, … is important. … because, for lack of better words, the successful Embodiment of Love … that arose out of your willingness to persist, … becomes … an Aspect of Creation Itself. The grocery store clerk who’s blessed by you … becomes, together with you, a Movement of Love that will forever be experienceable, because it was part of the Movement of Creation. There is no place you can be and no experience you can have in your day that is mundane – or inconsequential, or not worth … embracing with your maximal … curiosity to see God. …
“As miracles in this world join you to your brothers, so do your creations establish your fatherhood in Heaven.” … … Now, fatherhood here does not have a capital F. … The Movement of Creation, called God Be-ing, is Embodied in every single One of you. And your every Expression of Love, embodied, demonstrates your fatherhood; your place, you might say, in the Movement of Creation. …
You are not a piss-ant mortal, a nothing … … an imagination that pops up, then disappears. … You are … the Sons and Daughters of God. … And What God Is Is Embodied in You. …
You are not God, but God is all there is to You. …
“You are the witnesses to the Fatherhood of God.” And that has a capital F. What does that mean? “You are the witnesses to the Fatherhood of God.” Well, (small laugh) all children are witnesses to the fatherhood of their father … … and mother.
You are the witnesses to That Which has Source to you – That Which has- That Which is Be-ing You. …
“You are the witnesses to the Fatherhood of God. And He has given you the power to create the witnesses to your fatherhood, in Heaven.”
What are the witnesses to your fatherhood? They are … the uncovering of God – the illuminating of the Presence of God … where It seemed to be covered up – as a result of your being willing to do the two-step, and even go back up on the mountain two or three, or twenty, or forty, or a thousand times, if necessary, because of the persistence of your Love, and your insistence that your brother is worth your using your mind well. … …
“The miracle, which God Created, is perfect.” … You’re … the miracle of God. You are the miracle of God. And you are the miracle of God. And you are the miracle of God. And you are the miracle of God. And you are the miracle of God. And you are the miracle of God. And your Father is the Miracle of God. And you are the miracle of God. You, and you, Christopher, are the miracle of God. … …
The Wonder – the maximal Wonder of what God is, that is What You Are; even though you’re not … consciously embracing It yet. …
“The miracle which God created is perfect,” – You All Are Perfect – “as are the miracles which you created, in His Name.” The Embodiments of Love Which You have … facilitated. “They need no healing, nor do you, when you know them.
“Yet in this world your perfection is unwitnessed.” You generally don’t witness it for yourself, … and you, for certain, do not witness it for your brothers; not as a general rule. Very few in your experience can be … assigned those qualities.
“Yet in this world your perfection is unwitnessed. God knows it” – God witnesses to It – and you are the witnesses – “God Knows it, but you do not, and so you do not share His witness to it.” See, there’s no camaraderie; there’s no Joining with God. You– since you said: ‘But Father, I’d rather do it myself.’ And you got a divorce from your Father. You- you do not employ an Us mentality. Like Father, like Son. I am My Father’s Son. I am My Father’s Daughter. I did not create Myself. I exist because Something has Created Me. And I acknowledge that I am Created. … I bear witness to My Father, by claiming to Be His Son, instead of claiming to be an orphan, who’s having a hell of a good time, overcoming the odds, and … winning over the negativities that are part and parcel of existence. … … …
Again: “God knows it” – Your Perfection – “but you do not, and so you do not share His witness to it. Nor do you witness unto Him,” – You don’t claim Him … to be your Father. You don’t claim to be nothing without Him. You don’t claim and say: ‘If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.’ No, you don’t say that. …
“God waits your witness to His Son … and to Himself.” God waits you- your witness to your Sonship, and His Fathership. “The miracles you do on earth are lifted up to Heaven and to Him. … They witness to what you do not know, … and as they reach the gates of Heaven God will open them. For never would He leave His own beloved Son outside them … and beyond Himself.” … …
Pretty grand words, … but the simplicity of it is … that you exist, and you did not create yourselves. And you have a capacity to use your mind well, or to use your mind poorly.
Right now you’re all caught in an eddy of the poor use of the mind. But it’s not your Birthright to be caught there, or to be experiencing that.
And there is a way for you to get out of that; there is a way for you to use your mind well. And the way – as We’ve been reading – to use your mind your well is to be willing to do the two-step; to stop before your knee-jerk responses, … and say: ‘Entirely separate and apart from my conditioned responses, what is the Truth here, Father.’ Use that word. Father. Because, when you do that, you’re acknowledging your Sonship, and you’re acknowledging a Joining.
‘What is the Truth here Father, … because I care enough about my fellow man … to relieve him of his suffering. And even if he is holding onto it mightily, and does not want to hear, how he can be relieved of it, help me find the willingness in him. Help me address him, in a way that touches the willingness, so that he can abandon the self-imposed incarceration that he is … binding himself with, unnecessarily. …
And, as you do that, … the dominos will begin to fall. … You will begin to see healing during the week. … You’ll be able to talk to each other about it, but you won’t be able to say how you did it. … You’ll just be able to share how amazing it was. …
And you will begin to be willing to allow things to happen in your experience, that you know you participated in, but which you were not the author of. And that will be part of the shift of perception that is called ‘Waking Up’.
Now this week, I do not want you to read ahead to the next section. I want you to reread what we’ve been reading for the last couple of weeks. And I want you to abide with what I’ve been saying.
And, as difficult as it might be for you to persist in doing the two-step when you are met with an obtuse response, please understand that that is exactly when the two-step must be employed, again. …
Moses went back up … on the mountain, and listened again; and shared, and released a people from bondage. It was … world-changing.
It’s no small thing … for each of you to listen – to do this two-step. And to do it a second and third and a fourth time, if necessary. …
I Love You … very much, All of You; and I look forward to Be-ing with You next week.
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September 2007 Gatherings
General Discussion -> ACIM Gathering Audio Transcripts
