Transcript taken from video of Tim’s session on retreat at La Finca de Milagros, May 2015. (Minimally edited for readability)
Never mind what you do with it, the importance of the recognition of what is being said is the imperative, it’s crucial, isn’t it? That you at least hear what is being said, and then that’s entirely up to you what you do with it, but if you heard it once then you cannot not have been released into the process that was portrayed in the movie last night. Right? St. Francis. We watched ‘Brother Sun Sister Moon.’ It’s a beautifully powerful portrayal of an individual who says: “This is insanity and I don’t want to have anything to do with it. I want to be free, why can’t I be free like the birds? Why can’t I be free like the birds? Why can’t I? I look up into the sky and I see the stars and the universe. Why can I not travel, why can I not discover the universe? Because one thing is for sure, as a body you never can. Why can’t I be happy, why can’t I do nothing, why can’t I do nothing but to be free and to be happy like the birds, like the flowers, like the butterflies?
That’s a good question because in your heart you are free and you know that if you’re not free then you’re not happy and you’re not being yourself. God’s will for you is the will that he shares with the birds and the bees, who are happy, they don’t work, they don’t go down the mine but they’re perfectly taken care of. So why would you not want to throw your clothes off and run off into the woods and fields and go “I’m free!” I’m free to be who God created me to be. Are you free to be as God created you to be? Yes. What’s stopping you from being free, to take your clothes off and run down the field? The necessity to hear the instruction, obviously…. and then you can be free.
So that’s all. This is the instructional necessity to hear what Jesus has given to you because you asked for the help that you need in order to bring this about in yourself. Right? Within one birth-death cycle, because next week you’re going to wake up and you’re going to be dead again, you don’t really have long. How long do you have? How long is a human span? It’s a blink of an eye, it’s a blink of an eye and it’s already over in that sense. So in the time that you believe that you have, if you can hear the Course in Miracles as the word of Jesus, as what it is, you can save yourself an immeasurable amount of time. And by saving yourself time, you save yourself suffering and if you save yourself suffering and discover the freedom of being who you are in the mind of God, you will save the world suffering. You will save every sleeping mind the time, the suffering, the guilt, the pain, that is the condition in which the world exists. That’s all.
So that was a great movie because he divested himself of all his human associations. He rejected his family and his father, he gave him his clothes back and walked out of the town. Walked out of the human hierarchy of corruption and he was free. And then fixed up a little church and all his friends, one by one, they came and asked, “what the hell are you doing? We’ve heard you’ve gone mad!” Then they saw how happy he was and he was simple and had a true purpose that included everyone. Everyone was an equal in the house of God. They said “Wow, maybe he’s actually onto something here!” And as they started to participate they found the joy that they could never find in the lifestyle that they had. Then the Pope heard about it and he went to visit the Pope. It’s a beautiful story isn’t it? And the Pope – there he was in all his glory on his high throne, up the steps with all the courtiers and it’s all very political, and there’s people being killed in the name of Jesus, and wars being waged in the name of God through the Pope’s dictates, – and he comes down, he takes off his robe and what does he do? Does he kiss his feet? He bows down and kisses his feet and says: “Here we are in the so-called house of God in all our jewel encrusted glory, and you have come and you have humbled us. God be with you. You go with my blessings” And it was a lovely scene. That was a very nice scene, wasn’t it? There was a moment of humility before he put his robe back on and went back up the stairs to his throne and resumed his power-play of being a politician and an emperor and the denial of the message of Jesus Christ, which is what the Vatican represents, isn’t it? Right?
Since the Nicean creed we’ve been persecuting everyone who has had an experience of the truth. Whether you call it a gnostic or a heretic it doesn’t matter. We set up the Spanish Inquisition. If you don’t believe absolutely the catechism of the Holy Roman Apostolic Church then we’ll torture you until you confess, and if you confess then we’ll have to kill you. We’ll give you a chance to recant but if you don’t then…And thousands, tens of thousands were burnt at the stake and tortured and killed in the name of Jesus Christ, in the name of the Church. Wow! In the name of Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ is still here, waiting for you to come to your senses and ask for the help that you need, saying “Shit. I’ve been wrong. I’ve been wrong about everything. I’ve been wrong.“ And finally you recognise that the one thing you’ve been wrong about is yourself, that you’ve been wrong about yourself and that God is ready to restore to your mind the recognition of who you are as He knows you, not as you made yourself, and that’s what we call a miracle, isn’t it?
The possibility of that is contained in our association, and the reason we’re meeting here this morning is because that has become a very immediate self-discovery that you are determined to find in your own mind. Otherwise what are you doing here? You’re determined to find that, I hope. And you’ve come in here voluntarily with an energetic factor of desire to divest yourself of your own insanity, of your own mistaken beliefs about yourself; the idea that you have a past, that you have a self that can be believed and can be seen and can observe other selves, and can exchange identities and establish a space and a distance between yourself and the other guy. You’ve come in here with the willingness to say ‘no,’ that’s not true. I am the light of Heaven present here and now, with the power and the light to bring healing, forgiveness, atonement, salvation.. to myself and to my brother by a simple act; the courageously simple act of complete forgiveness. That’s the lesson, isn’t it? The only single lesson required for you to discover that you are Saint Francis.
Whoever awakens, there is a single experience that we share, there is a single Mind, and when you awaken to that, you recognise that that is the mind of the Son of God that is a singular mind that we share. When you come into that, you become the answer to the problem of the world. You are the answer to the problem of the world. But until you know that, you are the problem of the world. So the imperative is to come into that so you can bring Jesus back in a moment of glory. And save yourself, and save the world by saving yourself. And that’s a miracle. That’s the miracle that you came to give and to be. And there is no other reason for you to be here and you know that.
So the imperative is to look at yourself and to ask the only question that you ever need to ask which is “What is my Father’s will for me?” Is that the only question you need to ask? The only question you ever need to ask is “What is my Father’s will for me?” Not “what do I want?” “What is my Father’s will for me?” And if you are asking this question sincerely you will hear the answer. You cannot not because God is waiting for you to ask the question. He’s already answered it, and the answer will be some form of ‘be you perfect as my Self’, won’t it? ‘Be ye therefore perfect as I am. Because you are my Son and I have created you perfect as I am.’ You have nothing to say about that. You have absolutely nothing to say about that, and the less you have to say about it, the more you can realise that for yourself, as a direct experience of, we could say, revelation.
But it’s that experience that is contained in every miracle, in every act of healing, in every smile, in every moment of joy that you share with your brother, it’s that ‘be you therefore perfect’ experience. It is what you came to remember. And until you remember that you will be bound by your own inventions, you will be a victim of your own creation, won’t you? So that’s a miracle. The miracle is that recognition.
I promise you that I’m going home. I’m not staying here. There is nothing here. Why would you want to stay in a place where there is nothing? If there is nothing, if you realise there is nothing here, you cannot stay. In fact, you’re not even here. And I’m not here. But I appear to be here for a moment because I’ve accepted for myself that I have no other reason to be here except to perform a function given to me by my Father. To demonstrate in a moment of time the Will of God. The Will of God Who loved you with a Father’s love wants you to hear His love for you. Wants you to receive that, and wants you to hear the instructional nature of what will free you from your determination to be something that you are not. Right?
His love for you cannot change your mind for you, it can only offer you the certainty of yourself and the momentary recognition that nothing you believe, nothing that you made is true in the light of the perfection of Mind which you share with God. So I don’t have any reason to be here except to share an instant of joy in Self-recognition. We have no use for this other than to bring this Self-recognition about, and that Self-recognition is not a difficult thing, it’s just entirely different. It just has nothing to do with the learned nature of thinking that you have imbued within yourself. It’s the laying down of your own judgmental objectivity that there is actually someone out there that you can have thoughts about, and the recognition that the miracle is a change of mind, isn’t it? It’s the change of the nature of your thinking, and the change of the nature of your thinking is that you are whole and complete and you have only one need, which is to give that. That is to give Who you are. Because giving Who you are is sharing the joy of knowing that you are one with God, isn’t it?
So you came here to share your joy with me, so that I could remember that I have no reason to be here, and that I’m not here, and nor are you. That we are not in a joyless place. We can share an instant of joy and if you do that you cannot remain here – you cannot. If we share an instant of joy for no reason – that’s the crucial thing, for no reason, you can’t stay here. Everyone’s going ‘well, you must be joyful for a reason. Why are you joyful? You’re joyful because it’s going to be a nice day. Or what did you have for breakfast?’ But joy for no reason is the joy of being who you are. And if you discover the joy of being who you are you cannot be a human being. There is no such thing as a human being and if you discover the joy of your own true nature in your relationship with God, you will understand that human beingness has got nothing to do with that. And it’s just an idea that you’ve maintained in your mind as a memory because you were intent on suffering, and that you enjoyed suffering.
Your joy lay in misery, previous to this moment. Isn’t that right? If you’re not wholly joyful you’re in a condition of misery, pain and death, which is what the world is. That’s A Course In Miracles. And the miracle occurs because you’re willing to take responsibility for that in your own mind. Aren’t you? You’re willing to take responsibility for it not just a little bit but in its entirety. This whole thing has arisen in your mind as a result of a tiny mad idea. It’s a thought of judgment. It’s a condemnation of yourself. It’s an attack upon yourself, your brother and God. And because you’ve denied yourself this arose in your mind for you to see, to perceive and to evolve a mechanism in which you can perceive it and associate with all of the aspects of it and become completely occupied with it, and never to ask the question ‘What the hell is it?’ Right? But you are asking the question ‘what the hell is it?’ but you can’t find the answer because you don’t want to find the answer. Right?
All your mathematicians, your cosmologists, astronomers, physicists, biologists, quantum physicists etc. they’re all looking for the answer as long as they don’t find it. Right? As soon as you find a new particle you’re off on another quest. The truth is always outside of you. As long as the truth is outside of you there’s no end to the quest. This is the quest for the Holy Grail. It’s an endless quest. You can’t get there; you can’t get there from here. You can’t get there with the conceptual mind. You cannot get there with the belief that there’s something outside of you objectively that you can discover separate from yourself, that you can find a meaning for the universe outside of you without including yourself in. That’s ridiculous, isn’t it? That guarantees that you’ll always be looking and never finding. And that’s the maxim of the ego, isn’t it? Seek but do not find. As long as it appears as though I’m seeking, I’m satisfied. But I don’t want to find because if I find then I will begin to realise the foundation of my identity will start to crumble and that I’ll have a devastating moment and I’ll go into some re-enactment of the experience of Saint Francis. I’ll start asking some very serious questions, some very fundamental questions like ‘what the hell am I doing here?’ and ‘what is anything for? What is this for? What is my purpose?’
Purpose: So once you’ve discovered your purpose and that your purpose is healing and that every individual human being shares their absolute need to learn the simple lessons of forgiveness and to escape from the lesson that they taught themselves about themselves. Until then nothing’s going to happen but when that moment occurs then you’ll have a Saint Francis, won’t you? You’ll have your own Saint Francis. And you are in your own Saint Francis. You are in a process.
Now Assisi has become a ‘Mecca’ and we’ve got statues and Saint Francis has become an idol that we worship. Of course everything becomes an establishment in the human mind, doesn’t it? And it becomes a myth, a legend and a completely unreachable idea. But there are those guys who have followed the way of Francis. And I’ve met some and they’re beautiful actually. Monsignor Maximilliano – he was at the World Parliament of Religions in 2001 and he got up on the stage and he did the prayer of Saint Francis – “Lord make me an instrument of your peace”. And he was pure light, and he was genuine. That was an experience that was a beautiful recognition. So it’s not that it’s not happening, but the important thing is that it happens where? In you, isn’t it?
So thanks for showing up. Are we OK? Are we looking good? How do I look on tape, does it look ok? Is it presentable? Can I put it on YouTube without being attacked? Impossible! You’re going to be attacked no matter what. Because attack is what human perception is, isn’t it? You’re going to be judged and crucified so why don’t you enjoy it. Just learn to enjoy it. You can have fun with it because if a mind has entered into an association with you then you can offer an alternative, right? You can offer an alternative conceptually or energetically. It’s all forgiveness.
If you’ve forgiven yourself or you’re in the process of accepting compete forgiveness for yourself then you understand that you cannot be attacked. You become invulnerable to attack. The guy’s going to yell and scream and try to hit you or whatever it is, and you remain within the certainty of yourself that that’s a call for help, that is meaningless, that is completely insane, that is totally fearful and that you can offer him the recognition that all his raging has absolutely no effect. And if it has no effect it has no cause, and if it has no cause it’s been forgiven. Is that A Course In Miracles? That’s A Course In Miracles. It has no cause, you have forgiven it because it has no effect on you. And that’s the lesson for today, and we’ll get into that in a moment.
Yes, your job is to stand up before a human being and offer him the simple catechism of the reversal of his cause and effect association with himself and everything and everyone. In his willingness to find healing for his self-concept, for his identity of self. That’s the only thing that needs to be healed, isn’t it? The self-concept. Because it’s the self-concept that asserts the denial of your own reality. What lesson is that? -191. I thought I’d give it to you – Lesson 191. “Deny your own reality and you will not escape the consequences…” What is it? “The weird and ghostly image that mocks creation and that laughs at God.” That’s the result of denying your own identity. Is that right? Every human being is in that denial because they represent an idea within your mind that you have invested with power and belief and made it real. And it walks and it talks for a little while and then it dies, and then it’s born and then it dies. And it’s a story, isn’t it, that’s endlessly repeated and that evolves in time.
Time, linear time. Where does it go? We’ll get to Mars and we’ll go to the moon and we’ll spread our tentacles throughout the universe and as we observe it we’ll convert it to an idea that we have about ourselves. Isn’t that a great thing? You are observing now objects that are 13 thousand million years old. We keep discovering the oldest and oldest objects. The oldest object is a galaxy we’ve discovered that was formed only 750 million years after the big bang. Right? So what happens in the act of observing the universe you look out into? It’s an act of exchange of thought, isn’t it? I go back to Niels Bohr, he was quite a guy. He said “I understand that when you observe the photon it becomes a particle and not a wave. It was a wave and you observed it or attempted to measure it and it became a particle.” He said “I’m not concerned about the particle, I’m concerned about the observer.” How does it change the observer? That was his question. But as you look out into the universe, you are objectifying everything you look upon. So you are attempting to convert the universe to an idea you have about yourself. Isn’t that an amazing thing when you look at it? Yes.
So you’re hell-bent on including everything that you observe in with your idea of yourself. You cannot not. You cannot escape that equation because who you think you are is what you think everything is. That’s the subjective nature of mind. You cannot see beyond yourself. Right? Yet here stands one who says “no, I’m not what you think I am, and I’m not what you think you are. I have been changed, my mind has been changed wholly. I am very certain that there is no world.” What’s your next question? Your next question is “well if there’s no world what am I doing here?” And that’s a good question. What are you doing here? And the answer God has given you is that you have a purpose, you have a purpose to be here, and that is to leave, isn’t it? If this is not your home, this is not where God established you, this is not your kingdom, then your purpose is to leave here and come home. Yes or no? And how are you going to do that? Forgiveness. Forgiveness is the means given to you by which your mind will change. You’ll have the Saint Francis moment and you’ll come into the joy of the self-recognition that you are as God created you, and that that has never changed regardless of your dream of suffering and drama of separation that you’ve played out in time. You become extraordinarily happy and you become willing to accept the mission impossible of teaching A Course In Miracles to the world and to your brother.
