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PAUL. After reading the first few conversations in Graduation last night, I went to bed and got up this morning with my attention with you . . . asking if you were there, together with other questions which established connection in an ongoing way. While we were out in the car, I was “constantly” making the statement I use before each Gathering and Study Group . . .
“I allow only for
that which expresses
the Christ consciousness,
and only that
which is in harmony with
the Purpose of Being
—the Father’s Will”. . .
. . . reminding myself that I could be present with everything about the outing from that centered place of being Joined.
Although I would slip and engage in reaction to Susan, I relatively quickly recognized it and placed my attention once again with you and what your response would be to anything else she might say as we continued on.
I have not spent a day so devoted, I don’t think, ever before. And yet, it seems to have been a more miserable day than any other in a very long time.
RAJ. Indeed. Persisting in Listening does not insure that there will be no challenges. Do you think that what I have to say is welcomed by everyone? And do you think that when you or anyone slips and abandons Love for fear and self defense that my feelings are hurt?
Love requires patience when learning is slow and defense is abandoned with reluctance . . . patience with yourself, as well as patience with others who seek my words through you through their smokescreens of doubt and fear.
It is not your prerogative to be perturbed. You have no position in which such a response is meaningful. A call for Love is not a call for leverage. It is a call for Love! It is a call for that which sees the Truth beyond the artificial boundaries which seem to call for fear and self defense. These Love illuminates . . . without accentuating fear and self defense by means of . . . what? Retaliation.
You see?
This doesn’t really call for greater self-determination or self-discipline. It’s not about superior control, but comprehension . . . the recognition of the “territory” You are in. A Territory in which opposites do not exist, in which embrace instead of push-and-pull means peace and not polarity . . . and patience is the infinite depth of Love which nourishes the Soul into its fulness, and heals without a hint of judgment, blame or guilt.
Such is the Gift called the Atonement. And it begins with, “Today, I will make no decisions by myself.” “Thy will, not mine be done.”
Today you have learned through your reactions that habits tend to persist . . . that emotion has been more important than the Love which justifies forgiveness . . . and forgives!
Today you’ve learned that “who” blames “who,” means nothing! And “being blamed” means nothing, too, because there is no “me” and “thee” that wasn’t “us” before it could be seen as otherwise, and therefore isn’t now!
This is more than just a play on words. It is the Truth. The very word “autonomous” requires the existence of “another,” from which to BE autonomous! There cannot be and therefore is no state of independence. And independence must be nothing more than an interminable ACT of “me” not being “you” and “you” not being “me,” while leaving the “Us” that We divinely Are untouched and unaffected by the irrelevant and meaningless pretense of exclusivity!
You see?
The imagination that one is an independent agent . . . free . . . is by definition “free from” something which must be as absolutely, constantly present as one’s imagined “self.” It must necessarily persistently defend itself, in order for its nonexistence to be totally obscured from sight!
So, you are learning to persist, as well. Persist in what? Not in better self-control! Not in better thinking! Not in better declarations of Truth! No! You are faced with having to learn to persist in silencing your thinking. Again: Not by means of better mind control, but by NEGLECTING to think. Becoming still while remaining attentive and asking, “What is the Truth here?” And then letting the words form.
And here is the incredible simplicity . . . the practice of which is called the Atonement:
“In defenselessness
my safety lies.”
Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only those thoughts which you would have manifest bodily, you will govern yourself harmoniously.”
Since you began this conversation, Paul, you have been standing porter at the door of thought, right where reaction seemed to take away your joy today.
You have been admitting those thoughts which I have been sharing, while abandoning the disappointment, self-judgment, and self-punishment which seem to have been righteously and appropriately deserved . . . but were incapable of revealing the Love with which you are loved, the Love which Susan deserves, and the revealing of needs met which you both so obviously stand at the threshold of as it relates to this work we are doing together.
While Listening, you have been governing yourself harmoniously . . . consonant with the Purpose of Being, and not at odds with It in any ACT of independence. And this is what it’s all about . . . Awakening, that is . . . remembering to neglect to react and then standing porter at the door of thought . . . the threshold called the holy instant!
In conclusion I will share with everyone that there have been eleven contributions received since Monday, and $2,775 is still needed by this coming Monday. You can add your support to the meeting of this need by clicking on the link below.
My gratitude for everyone’s attention is beyond what you can imagine because it arises from my recognition of what you truly Are . . . our Father’s expression of Us, indivisibly united while infinitely individualized. We are His Love, completing Him by acknowledging Him as all there is to Us . . . as an EXPERIENCE, not as a definition.
I love you.
Rajpur
Kingston, Washington
May 9, 2024
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