These are just the lecture notes I used in giving the talk, not a transcript or an essay.  It will only make sense if you use it to follow along with the talk itself.

PREFACE

Never in your life have you ever had your mind stretched as much as it’s going to be stretched in the next couple of hours.  Afterward your mind is going to forevermore feel much more fluid and free to flow with the movement of Divinity. 

T-14.IX.3.2 The Atonement is so gentle you need but whisper to it, and all its power will rush to your assistance and support.

T-5.II.7. 7 The Voice for God is always quiet, because It speaks of peace.

T-14.XI.12. Those who remember always that they know nothing, and who have become willing to learn everything, will learn it.

Most of this talk is going to be a series of invitations for you to contemplate Koans.  A Koan is a precise statement designed to confound the habit of discursive thought and shock the mind into awareness so as to give up some previous attachment

W-pI.152.3. Salvation is the recognition that the truth is true, and nothing else is true.   Truth cannot have an opposite.  This cannot be too often said and thought about.  Nothing but the truth is true, and what is false is false.

INTRODUCTION

There’s a very compelling thread of Holy Spirit Guidance in the Course in Miracles that clearly shows how to pull the rug out from under the entire dream of all illusions all at once, and it’s actually vivid enough that it could awaken someone right away if they were receptive enough.  If there’s no order of difficulty in miracles, then dissolving all our illusions all at once is no more difficult than dissolving one illusion at a time.

When you awaken, however, you would remember only the eternity of Heaven.  You wouldn’t remember the dream of illusion at all.  That’s because you will really know with certainty that God is all there is and all there possibly can ever be.  You will not only have absolutely no memory of an illusory separation, but you will know that even the illusion of such a thing is utterly impossible. 

That’s part of how the Course can awaken you right away.  By making it clear that not even an illusion of separation ever happened at all.  That may sound outrageous at first but I’ll be showing how the Course makes it clear as a bell.  The cumulative effect of the Holy Spirit’s thread on this topic is exceptionally profound and irresistible, and produces very vivid results. 

Of course, chances are you won’t actually awaken this very afternoon, but it’s very possible that you’ll never be the same.  If you’re receptive to what the Holy Spirit lays out, it’s very possible that it will be much clearer to you that your world is a lucid dream, much more aware that it’s apparent reality is only a pretense, and much more easily and fully express your Divine nature in everyday life.  Your awakening can then speed up considerably, and you can experience what’s called accelerated completion.  Not because of me, but because of what I’m going to show you is right there, plain as day, in the Course. 

But then again, in point of fact it actually is possible that you could fully awaken.  For example, we read T-15.I.14. How long is an instant? 4 As long as it takes to exchange hell for Heaven. 5 Long enough to transcend all of the ego's making, and ascend unto your Father.  So, it’s not the Holy Spirit who would be unwilling!

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE

T-15.I.2. One source of perceived discouragement from which you may suffer is your belief that this takes time, and that the results of the Holy Spirit's teaching are far in the future. 2 This is not so. 6 And all the waste that time seems to bring with it is due but to your identification with the ego

T-15.I.11. If you are tempted to be dispirited by thinking how long it would take to change your mind completely, ask yourself, "How long is an instant?" 2 Could you not give so short a time to the Holy Spirit for your salvation? 3 He asks no more, for He has no need of more. 4 It takes far longer to teach you to be willing to give Him this than for

Him to use this tiny instant to offer you the whole of Heaven. 5 In exchange for this instant He stands ready to give you the remembrance of eternity.

T-15.I.14. How long is an instant? 2 As long as it takes to re-establish perfect sanity, perfect peace and perfect love for everyone, for God and for yourself. 3 As long as it takes to remember immortality,  4 As long as it takes to exchange hell for Heaven. 5 Long enough to transcend all of the ego's making, and ascend unto your Father.

WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE

Now, do you want to learn what I’m going to teach more than anything else?  Am I going to be teaching what you most want to learn?  Wouldn’t it be of more direct benefit to you if I taught you how to surrender to God’s will, or how to experience communion with God, or how to follow the holy spirit, or how to feel and express real love, or how to really forgive properly, or how to heal, or how to act intuitively, or how to have a holy relationship, or how to deal with negative emotions when they arise, or how to really be at Peace, or how to be genuinely joyous and happy?  Aren’t all these things more important to learn?

You know what, You already know how to perfectly align your will with God’s will and how to enjoy perfect communion with God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ and how to be a clear transparency for the expression of their guidance, wisdom, inspiration, miracles and love.  You already know how to love perfectly, how to forgive perfectly, how to teach, inspire and heal perfectly, you already know exactly the right thing to do in every single situation you ever find yourself in, and exactly the right thing to say to every person you meet. You already know have to have no cares, no worries, no anxieties, but merely to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time. You already know how to be perfectly joyous, happy and peaceful all the time.  You already know how to solve any problem that could ever confront you.  That’s the Truth about you!  All that ever obscures any of this are your illusions, your beliefs that are contrary to Truth. And that’s why the course says in the workbook W-pI.152.3. Salvation is the recognition that the truth is true, and nothing else is true.  Because that will dissolve your illusions and free you to be aware of and enjoy all that you already know, and be a great blessing to your brothers and sisters as a result.

OUR PECULIAR PREDICAMENT

Just think for a moment about what a peculiar predicament we’re all in.   We all know that God is all there is and all there possibly can be, and that when we fully awaken we’ll be aware of that and that alone, and that we’re all going to fully awaken, eventually, but that at the present time we’re entranced or enthralled by a dream of illusion based on the erroneous belief that separation from God is possible and our awakening is going to be the result of realizing that separation from God is not possible which will result in our experiencing our oneness with God once again. 

Well guess what.  The only thing in that whole paragraph that’s true is that God is all there is.  Everything else in that paragraph is utter nonsense, pure baloney.

What holds us back and keeps us stuck is the idea that there is such a thing as erroneous belief, such a thing as illusion, such a thing as ego and such a thing as a dream.  We say all of that us unreality, but wrestling with it all is the essential drama of our lives.  To get free of all illusion all at once, to get free of the entire dream, to get free of all erroneous belief, to get completely free of all ego, and hence fully awaken to Heaven, All we have to do is realize that there is no such thing as erroneous belief, there is no such thing as illusion, there is no such thing as ego and there is no such thing as a dream, and therefore, we’ve never ever had an erroneous belief about anything, we’ve never ever experienced any illusion whatsoever, we’ve never experienced ego, and we’ve never been entranced or deluded by a dream. 

THE PAST

But you’re all absolutely convinced that you have most definitely experienced illusion, ego, erroneous belief and the dream.  Why are you so convinced?  Because you remember illusion, ego, belief and dream.    You remember them.  T-14.IX.1.10 The past that you remember never was, and represents only the denial of what always was.

T-14.IX.1.10 The past that you remember never was, and represents only the denial of what always was.  What do you remember?  Nothing but the Kingdom of Heaven?  No, you remember fear, guilt, suffering, pain, all of it a denial of Heaven, a denial of Truth, a denial of God, a denial of what always was because all there ever was was Truth, God and Heaven.  And that stuff you remember simply never was.

T-14.XI.3 6 Your past is what you have taught yourself. 7 <Let> it all go. 8 Do not attempt to understand any event or anything or anyone in its "light," for the darkness in which you try to see can only obscure.

THE EGO

Now what about the ego. T-4.III.The ego arose from the separation, and its continued existence depends on your continuing belief in the separation.  Well, do you believe in the separation now?  But the ego came from a belief in separation that happened in the past, But the past never was.

T-4.VI.6. 2 Your mission is very simple. 3 You are asked to live so as to demonstrate that you are not an ego, and I do not choose God's channels wrongly.

T-4.III.9. 2 <God has given you everything.> 3 This one fact means the ego does not exist, and this makes it profoundly afraid.

CONDEMNATION AND SALVATION

If you realize that you never have experienced illusion because it’s impossible, then you will be free of all illusion forever.  But if you think you have experienced illusion as an unreality, then for you, that which is not true is true because it can be experienced, and you’ve condemned yourself to experience illusion forever.  W-pI.152.3. Salvation is the recognition that the truth is true, and nothing else is true.   Truth cannot have an opposite.  This cannot be too often said and thought about.  Nothing but the truth is true, and what is false is false.

T-3.II.3. 5 If nothing but the truth exists, right-minded seeing cannot see anything but perfection.  And if nothing but the Truth exists, there can’t be anything but right-minded seeing. 

T-14.II.4. Like you, the Holy Spirit did not make truth. 2 Like God, He knows it to be true. 3 He brings the light of truth into the darkness, and lets it shine on you. 5 They will be happy learners of the lesson this light brings to them, because it teaches them release from nothing and from all the works of nothing. 6 The heavy chains that seem to bind them to despair they do not see as nothing, until you bring the light to them. 7 And then they see the chains have disappeared, and so they <must> have been nothing.

EXPERIENCING ILLUSION MEANS GOD ISN’T ALL

God isn’t all if there’s God and then erroneous belief besides.

God isn’t all if there’s God and then an illusory dream besides.

God isn’t all if there’s God and then a Son believing he’s separate from God besides.

God is all only if there’s just God and there never was, never is, and never can be anything else besides. God is all only if there’s just God happening and nothing else ever did or ever could happen.

Saying that God is all but that there can be a belief in something else that could result in the illusion of something else is saying that God is not all there is.

WHAT GOD THINKS

T-4.IV.2. 4 Think honestly what you have thought that God would not have thought, and what you have not thought that God would have you think. 5 and then change your mind to think with God's. 6 This may seem hard to do, but it is much easier than trying to think against it.

T-14.III.12. 2 Nothing can shake God's conviction of the perfect purity of everything that He created, for it <is> wholly pure. 3 Do not decide against it, for being of Him it must be true.

The fact is that God is all there is and there never can be anything else, there therefore never has been anything else, nor any belief in anything else, nor any illusion of anything else, nor any dream of anything else, nor any experience of anything else, nor any awareness of anything else, nor any appearance of anything else, nor any memory of anything else, nor any impression of anything else. 

The illusion doesn’t disappear, the illusion never ever was.  You awaken when you realize that you never, ever, were ever aware of any illusion whatsoever.  You awaken when you realize that you never, ever, were ever anything but fully awake nor ever could be anything but fully awake. 

The fact that the impression that you’ve experienced illusion can’t happen collides with and retroactively annihilates the origin of the impression that you have experienced illusion so that not only is the impression itself annihilated but the original occurrence of the impression is erased so that it never actually occurred.  The pretense of nothing pretending to be something is exposed as the nothing it always was and never ceased to be.  When we realize we’ve never experienced illusion all that happens is that we realize we’ve never experienced nothing.  To cling to our impression that we’ve experienced illusion is to cling to nothing, and though doing so would cost us everything, that never happens either because it’s impossible to cling to nothing.  

When we let go of everything that stands in the way of our realizing that God is absolutely all there is, realizing that God is all there is reveals that there never could have ever been anything that could have stood in our way, and we wake up to being God knowing we have always been awake to being God and can never be anything else. 

Because there is nothing besides God, everything we’ve imagined to be besides God has been nothing, which means we’ve imagined nothing, which means nothing’s been imagined. 

The correction that takes place is so utterly absolute that it erases the very origin of the need for the correction by exposing that need to have always been nothing in the first place.

THE COSMIC PARADOX

This is the cosmic paradox.  W-pI.152.3. Salvation is the recognition that the truth is true, and nothing else is true.  So anything other than Truth is nothing.  God is Truth, so anything other than God is nothing.  So that means that the impression there’s ever been anything other than God never happened because it’s never been anything but the impression that there’s been nothing other than God.   It can’t be understood because you can’t understand nothing.  Ultimately you give up trying to understand nothing for the understanding that God’s allness completely excludes the possibility of anything else whatsoever, and you henceforth give up nothing forever. 

GUILT

T-14.V.3 3 There is nothing in the Mind of God that does not share His shining innocence. 4 Creation is the natural extension of perfect purity. 5 Your only calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial of guilt in all its forms. 6 To accuse is <not to understand.>

T-14.V.6. Teachers of innocence, each in his own way, have joined together, taking their part in the unified curriculum of the Atonement. 2 There is no unity of learning goals apart from this. 3 There is no conflict in this curriculum, which has one aim however it is taught. 4 Each effort made on its behalf is offered for the single purpose of

release from guilt, to the eternal glory of God and His creation. 5 And every teaching that points to this points straight to Heaven, and the peace of God. 6 There is no pain, no trial, no fear that teaching this can fail to overcome. 7 The power of God Himself supports

this teaching, and guarantees its limitless results.

T-14.XI.9.7 He would establish His bright teaching so firmly in your mind, that no dark lesson of guilt can abide in what He has established as holy by His Presence. 8 Thank God that He is there and works through you. 9 And all His works are yours. 10 He offers you a miracle with every one you let Him do through you.

TRUTH IS TRUE

T-14.II.2 The Holy Spirit, begins His lesson in simplicity with the fundamental teaching that <truth> is true. 2 This is the hardest lesson you will ever learn, and in the end the only one.

T-14.II.3. 2 To those unhappy learners who would teach themselves nothing, and delude themselves into believing that it is not nothing, the Holy Spirit says, with steadfast quietness:  3 The truth is true. 4 Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there. 5 Let Me make the one distinction for you that you cannot make, but need to learn. 6 Your faith in nothing is deceiving you. 7 Offer your faith to Me, and I will place it gently in the holy place where it belongs. 8 You will find no deception there, but only the simple truth. 9 And you will love it because you will understand it.

T-14.II.6. If you would be a happy learner, you must give everything you have learned to the Holy Spirit, to be unlearned for you. 2 And then begin to learn the joyous lessons that come quickly on the firm foundation that truth is true. 3 For what is builded there <is> true, and built on truth. 4 The universe of learning will open up before you in all its gracious simplicity. 5 With truth before you, you will not look back.

T-14.II.7. 3 For truth <is> true. 4 What else could ever be, or ever was? 5 This simple lesson holds the key to the dark door that you believe is locked forever. 6 You made this door of nothing, and behind it <is> nothing. 7 The key is only the light that shines away the shapes and forms and fears of nothing. 8 Accept this key to freedom from the hands of Christ Who gives it to you, that you may join Him in the holy task of bringing light. 9 For, like your brothers, you do not realize the light has come and freed you from the sleep of darkness.

HOLY SPIRIT’S LOGIC

T-14.in.1. 4 The Holy Spirit uses logic as easily and as well as does the ego, except that His conclusions are not insane. 8 Let us now follow the simple logic by which the Holy Spirit teaches the simple conclusions that speak for truth, and only truth.

W-pI.152.3. Salvation is the recognition that the truth is true, and nothing else is true.   Truth cannot have an opposite.  This cannot be too often said and thought about.  Nothing but the truth is true, and what is false is false.

Truth is All,

All is entire,

Therefore Truth is entire

Truth is entire,

Entire is total,

Therefore Truth is total

Truth is total,

Total is complete,

Therefore Truth is complete

Truth is complete,

Complete is whole,

Therefore Truth is whole

Truth is whole,

Whole is one,

Therefore Truth is one

Truth is one,

Oneness is Love,

Therefore Truth is Love

Truth is Love,

Love is harmony,

Therefore Truth is harmony

Truth is harmony,

Harmony is perfection,

Therefore Truth is perfection

Truth is perfection,

Perfection is absoluteness,

Therefore Truth is absolute

Truth is absolute,

Absolute is infinite,

Therefore Truth is infinite

(more attributes can be included)

So therefore Truth is all, entire, total, complete, whole, one, Love, harmony, perfection, absolute and infinite.

Now, since Truth is all there is, you can’t be outside of Truth, but neither can your illusions about yourself be included in Truth.  So we must include only the Truth about you.  Everything else you believe about yourself may be illusory, but you can be absolutely certain that you exist as mind or awareness, or else you wouldn’t be aware of Truth.

So Mind must exist

And since Truth is all there is,

Mind must therefore be Truth. 

So Truth is all, entire, total, complete, whole, one, Love, harmony, perfection, absolute, infinite Mind, which is altogether what God is, is all there is, and is what you really are.

So therefore you are the Presence of God, and the embodiment of all the attributes of Truth. 

Turn absolutely and completely away from all belief that you are other than the one, perfect, All-knowing, Infinite Awareness now.

Don’t just think the Truth, feel it as well. Feel what it feels like for Truth, God, Love and Perfection to be all there is.  Feel what it feels like that God’s Allness means that all illusion, ego, erroneous belief and dreams are absolutely impossible, nonexistent, and entirely nothing.  Surrendering to Truth is actually surrendering to God because God is Truth.  Surrendering to God means surrendering everything you believe that’s contrary to Truth, to be consumed by the certain Allness of Truth, the certain Allness of God.  Let your immersion in Truth be so wholehearted that you could no more think anything else than a nettle could sprout on a glacier. 

This now is how to make Truth a thing of life, not of words, and in doing this the Holy Spirit joins you and insures your success.  See and hear perfection only, at all times, and under all circumstances.  Make this resolve every morning when you first open your eyes and renew it every hour of the day. 

See perfection in yourself, in your friends, in your so-called enemy, in your affairs and in world affairs. 

Take your radical stand for the perfection of God, seeing everything and everybody as His presence and His presence alone. 

Look upon the world with God’s eyes and see it just as He sees it, and refuse to see it in any other way.  Stop a dozen times a day and renew the resolve. 

Take your radical stand for perfection and never stray from this perfect standard. You will be seeing with God’s eyes, His perfect sight, and you will behold a perfect universe.  And you will know the joy of fulfilling your purpose.    

Your purpose is to see God everywhere, and experience God everywhere, and this is how you can do that with absolutely certain success. 

Much Love,

Ben