 For Christ, the inner Christ that is our reality, as Jesus said 2,000 years ago, the Kingdom of Heaven is within. So we're diving in. We're diving to the within. And today is the 17th day of January 2024. So we're diving into lesson 17 from the workbook of A Course in Miracles. Jesus is taking this by the hand and he is gently turning our attention inward. Because in heaven everything is pure abstract love and light and oneness. But in this perceptual world it is being generated from a sleeping mind that is dreaming of exile from God, from heaven. And this split mind has got two irreconcilable thought systems and one of love and the Holy Spirit and Jesus. That Jesus calls our right mind and then one is the home of the ego, the belief in separation from God, from source, from our Creator. And that belief system is basically called in the Course in Miracles the wrong mind. So wrong-mindedness is not making any person place thing wrong. He's just saying there's a fragmented perception of the world. It's not whole. It's not unified. It's not complete. Some of you know that computers run on a binary system. And a binary system is basically two options of one and zero. So in this metaphor we could say the one stands for the oneness of God, the unified perception and oneness in heaven with no opposite and no division. And the zero stands for nothingness which is what the ego is. It's the belief in nothingness. If you believe in the error of separation then you know it reminds me of a Billy Preston song. Nothing from nothing leads nothing. You gotta have something if you want to be with me. You know it's like the oneness of God is saying you're more than just something. You're everything in spirit. You're a perfect, beautiful, innocent, eternal creation of God that we could call the Christ idea. That's your essence. That's your reality. And then the belief in separation from God covers that all over with a veil of time and space and a veil of separation. And that fragmented world of competition and conflict and war, disease, all kinds of strange, strange things that aren't part of heaven and God knows not of. It's part of a perceptual hallucination called time and space. And the goal is to forgive the world and wake up from this dream of seeming separation just in belief. It's all just happening in the belief of the mind, of the of the perceiver. So the ego belief is the thing that has to be exposed as unreal. And then the world, the perception of the world changes immediately as the ego is seen for the nothingness that it is. So we're here day 17 and let's jump into lesson 17. I see no neutral things. This idea is another step in the direction of identifying cause and effect as it really operates in the world. You see no neutral things because you have no neutral thoughts. It is always the thought that comes first, despite the temptation to believe that it is the other way around. This is not the way the world thinks, but you must learn that it is the way you think. If it were not so, perception would have no cause and would itself be the cause of reality. In view of its highly variable nature, this is hardly likely. In applying today's idea, say to yourself, with eyes open, I see no neutral things because I have no neutral thoughts. Then look about you resting your glance on each thing that you've note along enough to say, I do not see a neutral chair, person, sky, house, because my thoughts about chairs and skies and houses are not neutral. For example, you might say I do not see a neutral wall because my thoughts about walls are not neutral. I do not see a neutral body because my thoughts about bodies are not neutral. As usual, it is essential to make no distinctions between what you believe to be animate or inanimate, pleasant or unpleasant. Regardless of what you may believe, you do not see anything that is really alive or really joyous. That is because you are unaware as yet of any thought that is really true and therefore really happy. Three or four specific practice periods are recommended and no less than three are required for maximum benefit, even if you experience resistance. However, if you do, the length of the practice period may be reduced to less than a minute or so that is otherwise recommended. Lesson 17, I see no neutral things. So this lesson is perfect practice training for the mind that believes that it is split. In other words, the mind that has two allegiances. The Bible taught us you cannot serve both God and money. God, spirit, love, light is present in our Holy Spirit inspired right mind and the projected world of anger, hatred, guilt, shame, pain, greed, competition, so on and so forth, you know, is the wrong mind. And that is a split mind. If you believe both love and fear are real, then that is the definition of a split mind. And that split mind cannot see any neutral things. That's our lesson for today. I see no neutral things. It's either going to look on a fragmented world that is dark and fragmented by definition or it's going to look on the world of everything being a reflection of love, which is the right minded way to see the world. So in the right minded way, everything sparkles, everything shines. There's no distinctions made between anything and anything else. It's just a beautiful sweeping expression of light that crisscrosses and shines and radiates across the whole universe. And that is a precious thing, but you realize the lesson for today is saying that in any moment you will see the world that you want to see, either a fragmented, disorienting, you know, just basically world of competition and pieces and parts or a unified awareness of a forgiving world and a happy dream. Now I want to say I see no neutral things. It's basically coming to an admission that what I see is what I choose to see. And my range of choices is limited to two with a split mind. I can see through the ego's filter, I can see with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And that's it. There are no other options. So this is the first step in reclaiming the power of mind and the power of decision. What do I want to see is underneath this? Because actually the Holy Spirit sees the world as neutral to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit perceives only neutral things. The body is neutral. Houses, cars, the earth, the solar system, the galaxies are all neutral. All the images of time and space are completely neutral. And that's why Jesus told us basically when we were in December, he was preparing us for this year and this year of mind training and he was saying make this year different by making it all the same. He was basically saying make this year different by perceiving with the Holy Spirit and seeing the sameness of all seemingly separate things. See the unified field that is talked about in quantum physics. See the connection. See the unified awareness. See that everything perceived is just one dream. It's just one dream. It's not even multiple dreams. There aren't good dreams and bad dreams. It's just dreaming a dream and seeing the nothingness and the falsity of the dream. And then being open to just extend and extend and radiate and radiate the happy dream of the forgiven world. That's what Jesus is calling us to do. He showed us. He showed us the way. He demonstrated that. He was defenseless. He was serene. He was transcendent. He overcame the perception of the world even with the little demonstration of the resurrection coming back as a resurrected body just to show the nothingness of dreams. That fear and darkness, shame, pain, anger, hurt have no power at all because God is the power. God is the only power. God is the power because the Creator is unopposed. If God is for us, who could be against this? It says in the Bible. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So to reinforce today's lesson today, I thought I would jump into a couple parts of the text. First, let's jump to chapter 11 and let's jump to section 7, the condition of reality because that's what we're going for when we're going for mind training and purification so that only the thoughts we hold with God are a reality and we recognize reality, then here's the condition of reality, section 7, chapter 11. The world as you perceive it cannot have been created by the Father for the world is not as you see it. God created only the eternal and everything you see is perishable. Therefore, there must be another world that you do not see. The Bible speaks of a new heaven and a new earth yet this cannot be literally true for the eternal are not recreated. To perceive anew is merely to perceive again implying that before or in the interval between you are not perceiving at all. What then is the world that awaits your perception when you see it? Every loving thought that the Son of God ever had is eternal. The loving thoughts in his mind perceives is this world are the only world's reality. They are still perceptions because he still believes that he is separate yet they are eternal because they are loving and being loving they are like the Father and therefore cannot die. The real world can actually be perceived. All that is necessary is willingness to perceive nothing else. For if you perceive both good and evil, you are accepting both the false and the true and making no distinction between them. The ego may see some good but never only good. That is why its perceptions are so variable. It does not reject goodness entirely for that you could not accept but it always adds something that is not real to the real thus confusion illusion and reality. For perceptions cannot be partly true. If you believe in truth and illusion you cannot tell which is true. To establish your personal autonomy you tried to create unlike your Father believing that what you made is capable of being unlike him yet everything true is like him. Perceiving only the real world will lead you to the real heaven because it will make you capable of understanding. The perception of goodness is not knowledge but the denial of the opposite of goodness enables you to recognize a condition in which opposites do not exist and this is the condition of knowledge or is our title of the section the condition of reality knowledge is reality in this sense knowledge being knowing knowing God is reality without this awareness you have not met its conditions and until you do you will not know it is yours already you have made many ideas that you have placed between yourself and your creator and these beliefs are the world as you perceive it truth is not absent here but it is obscure you do not know the difference between what you have made and what God created and so you do not know the difference between what you have made and what you have created to believe that you can perceive the real world is to believe that you can know yourself you can know God because it is his will to be known the real world is all that the Holy Spirit has saved for you out of what you have made and to perceive only this is salvation because it is the recognition that reality is only what is true and of course jumping on that one we can just jump to chapter 18 section 5 the happy dream prepare you now for the undoing of what never was if you already understood the difference between truth and illusion the atonement would have no meaning the holy instant the holy relationship the Holy Spirit's teaching and all the means by which salvation is accomplished would have no purpose for they are all but aspects of the plan to change your dreams of fear to happy dreams from which you awaken easily to knowledge to the kingdom of heaven within put yourself not in charge of this for you cannot distinguish between advance and retreat some of your greatest advances you have judged as failures and some of your deepest retreats you have evaluated as success never approached the holy instant after you have tried to remove all fear and hatred from your mind that is its function never attempt to overlook your guilt before you ask the Holy Spirit's help that is his function your part is only to offer him a little willingness to let him remove all fear and hatred and to be forgiven on your little faith joined with his understanding you will build your part in the atonement and make sure that you fulfill it easily and with him you will build a ladder planted in the solid rock of faith and even rising to heaven nor will you use it to ascend to heaven alone through your holy relationship reborn and blessed in every holy instant you do not arrange thousands will rise to heaven with you can you plan for this or you could you possibly prepare yourself for such a function yet it is possible because god will sit nor will he change his mind about it the means and purpose both belong to him you have accepted one the other will be provided a purpose such as this without the means is inconceivable he will provide the means to anyone who shares his purpose happy dreams come true not because they are dreams but only because they are happy and so they must be loving their messages thy will be done and not i've wanted otherwise the alignment of means and purpose is an undertaking impossible for you to understand you do not even realize you have accepted the Holy Spirit's purpose as your own and you would merely bring unholy means to its accomplishment the little faith it needed to change the purpose is all that is required to receive the means and use them it is no dream to love your brother as yourself nor is your holy relationship a dream all the remains of dreams within it is that it is still a special relationship yet it is very useful to the Holy Spirit who has a special function here it will become the happy dream through which he can spread joy to thousands on thousands who believe that fear is love not happiness let him fulfill the function that he gave to your relationship by accepting it for you and nothing will be wanting that would make of it what he would have it be when you feel the holiness of your relationship is threatened by anything stop instantly and offer the Holy Spirit your willingness in spite of fear to let him exchange this instant for the Holy One that you would rather have you will never fail in this but forget not that your relationship is one and so it must be that whatever threatens the piece of one is an equal threat to the other the power of joining its blessing lies in the fact that it is now possible for you or your brother to experience fear alone it's impossible for you or your brother to experience fear alone or to attempt to deal with it alone never believe that this is necessary or even possible yet just as this is impossible so is it equally impossible that the Holy Instant come to either of you without the other and it will come to both at the request of either whoever is the saner at the time of the threat is perceived should remember how deep his is indebtedness to the other and how much gratitude is due him and be glad that he can pay his debt by bringing happiness to both let him remember this and say I desire this Holy Instant for myself that I might share it with my brother whom I love it is not possible that I can have it without him or he without me yet it is wholly possible for us to share in it now and so I choose this instant as the one to offer to the Holy Spirit that his blessing may descend on us and keep us both in peace wow what a benediction what a blessing that is offered there that is incentive for practicing the lesson today I see no neutral things because underneath it is the prayer of the heart deep down the prayer is Holy Spirit help me perceive as you perceive help me perceive the real world a world that reflects only love and innocence in any direction that I look in any encounter that I have let me perceive the divine innocence of myself and with it all my brothers and sisters in this perspective it's a vast perspective and we're taking responsibility for our state of mind we're saying that perspective is available to me the Holy Spirit has kept this perspective for me the Holy Spirit has remembered God through the stepping stone of this broad holistic perception that sees that all things work together for good this perspective that sees that there are no accidents this perspective that that tells us and reminds us let all things be exactly as they are because in this moment right-minded seeing can see only perfection so if I am fully in my right mind you can say everything is perfect or I think at the Lego movie the Lego movie had a little theme song that that was it kind of played throughout the movie but it was everything is awesome everything is awesome when you're part of a team the team is team Jesus this team Holy Spirit team God everything is awesome yeah that's it that's it we're coming into the true awesomeness of a glorious creator with a glorious creation in everything's in harmony everything is in complete harmony and unified unified okay that's a good way to launch into the day I hope you're feeling it like I'm feeling it I I I offer this joy that that we may remember together our joyous creator and and we may accept the means that have been given for us to be happy and the means towards eternal happiness is to perceive and interpret with the Holy Spirit so we're starting off with acknowledging that I see no neutral things and we heard yesterday I see no I have no neutral thoughts but we're willing to be wrong about all of that and to spring back into the oneness that is our our birthright our natural state of being to be one to be spirit to be connected to our creator to be an idea in the mind of God that's really what this is about coming around back to that yeah and if we're willing to play the game of the world it will just seem to come around as many times as it takes until we're not willing to play the ego's game anymore and it won't be coming around again it will all is love all is one all is God that's a happy reminder and it's our happy realization so thank you wish you blessings happy day everyone