EIGHT LEARNINGS ~~~~ What an interesting context you all find yourselves experiencing everything in! Graduation! The end of illusions! Atonement! A time in which old things are passing away and all things are being made new! A time in which the disturbance of the status quo precipitates curiosity, facilitating the new — including the reversal of the Fall and the laws of mortal existence! The voice in your head would say to me that "the disturbance of the status quo precipitates great fear! Not curiosity!" And that may well be true . . . but only until you become exhausted by the choice you made to be self-righteously reactive, finally collapsing into pure impotence (which is another word for pure humility) and crying out, "HELP!" Even if you don't use the words, "Thy will be done," the absence of your self-reliance does . . . AND IT IS DONE! Why? Because a plea for help is the most fundamental form of curiosity. It is the deepest form of curiosity there is! It is an importunate "reaching out" for something beyond one's own supposed capacity because there is no longer any arrogance to fuel willfulness and block whatever it is the Father's good pleasure to give you. Anyone who has experienced this knows that I am not speaking of "reaching out" with intent . . . but rather with resignation, empty of self-confidence, unavailable to the suggestion that there is "power" in something called "self-reliance" and lacking the gumption to even be angry! In that miserable state of just being "the empty, powerless presence of an independent mind," that Mind which is also in me is able to register with you, IN YOU — the one that St. Paul told the Philippians to "let be in you" because it is the only Mind you really have . . . you holy Son of God! Now you can understand what I mean when I refer to the present as "a time in which the disturbance of the status quo precipitates curiosity, facilitating the new — including the reversal of the Fall and the laws of mortal existence!" Why? Because sooner or later it does! When you say, "the disturbance of the status quo precipitates great fear," I have to soberly say that suffering does lead to curiosity, as I have just done. But one can be curious by means of a simple decision to explore the potential of actually practicing the holy instant without the focusing "benefit" of suffering. The fact is that even though one may go through the habitual reaction of making one's own assessment of a situation . . . and believing it . . . it simply delays becoming free of the effects of that assessment. And so, two of the most fundamental learnings inherent in the incredible context everyone finds himself in are: ~~~~ The Narrator in your head is not you! ~~~~ There is only You being conscious or pretending. ~~~~ A Course in Miracles introduces the holy instant as the threshold between pretending and being conscious. It can be misunderstood as being the vestibule between two minds: the mind you use every day and this radical new one, which the Course says "is nothing more than your right mind"— the Holy Spirit . . . radical because you thought It was part of the Holy Trinity! How could something so "different" not be different? The same mistake can be made regarding "letting that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus"— a mind (one would think) which is different from the one you call "yours." But the revelatory truth is that "your right mind," whether it is "being conscious" or engaged in "pretending," is the only one there is. And this brings us to another fundamental learning which is inseparable from the remarkable context of transformation which is our subject. ~~~~ Education mistakenly teaches one to study what is observed instead of that which is observing. ~~~~ As a result, one's attention is not available where the action is, where the "observing" is going on — the Mind where Creation is the conscious experience of Being Conscious — and all forms are present as ideas which are perfectly tangible and real to that Mind . . . which formed them, recognized them, and confirmed them as What They Are . . . in the act of Creation! Instead of benefitting from the holy instant and being out from one's right Mind, one studies the forms as "forms," in tandem with other "independent researchers"— Imagineers. Unaware that the act of "independently observing" alters what is seen, they make up mutually agreed-upon definitions for everything, utterly missing the next fundamental learning, which is: ~~~~ Everything is meant to be experienced, not understood! ~~~~ And without that learning, they will continue their study, and everything will exhibit a lack of synchronicity, causing one's experience to appear to be conflicted. When one is misconstruing what is being experienced, one's behavior becomes incongruent with it. But when one' attention is "out-there" on forms, instead of "in-here" where perception is occurring, it is impossible to correct the problem. Which brings us to our next learning: ~~~~ Nothing has to be explained! ~~~~ Why? Because that's not the reason anything exists! That does not mean that everything is meaningless. It simply means that no one is responsible for providing an explanation . . . for the good that happens, or the bad that happens, or why there are birds, stars, universes, success, wealth, proofs of competence or self-justification, etc. Why? Because God did not create a Narrator in your head to objectify His Ideas (turn them into objects) by creating definitions, and then using those definitions as the data for understanding the Meaning of Life and being in charge of It! Which brings us to the next learning: Each and every thing is a transitory fulfillment of Meaning! Everything is Meaning forever forming forever being informed. The ultimate forever ultimating. Every rock. Every drop of water. Every blade of grass. Every star. ~~~~ Everything, just like wind or water, is forever untrapped, unstuck, fluid, even when it's solid. Is water ice? Is it water? Is it steam? Is paper tissue paper, brown paper, wallpaper, toilet paper? Is it a wrapper? A cleaning cloth? Give me explanations, definitions! Or, forget about that and experience them . . . in the moment . . . in any way they have meaning! You see? It is impossible to prove that anything exists external to the conscious experience of it. When one stops externalizing everything — which is a pure act of imagination by an imaginary Narrator (a second-generation belief . . . believed) — and allows himself to simply be present with pure attention, his capacity as Soul is exquisitely aware of the divine Intent and Nature with which everything is forever forming, and can share Its Meaning at length with no imagineering involved. With no Narrator spinning a story, and the Holy Spirit — one's right mind — not being blocked, there is no objectification. No altered experience of Mind's Ideas occurs. Harmony is uninterrupted/restored, and what is called "physics"— the laws of matter — dissolve. It's called "a miracle," when all it is, is the restoration of everything to its spiritual original which had only been obscured by "pretending." Right now, physics represents limits, finiteness . . . the attraction and repulsion or tension which holds the universe together. In other words, it reflects the conflicts inherent in objectification — the altered perceptions resulting from focusing on the observed, instead of the observing. Time and space are not facts! They become necessary when explanations of observed phenomena are attempted. But when the holy instant is practiced and observing is the focus, not only do time and space become meaningless, they no longer are experienced as limiting. What you call teleportation, walking on water, levitation as experienceable Meanings (as actual conscious experiences) become available . . . with explanations becoming irrelevant! Mind you, all of this is abiding in the amazing context everyone finds himself in when he shifts his attention to the observing he is engaged in with his right mind, rather than the observed which is grabbing for it.The most significant learning in all of this is at the tip of your mind! ~~~~ The holy instant is the threshold between pretending and being conscious. ~~~~ vv I love you! Rajpur Kingston, Washington May 6th, 2023