If we are mindful of words, how they are used in our own experience, we ultimately must arrive at that enlightened place or consciousness that the masters speak about. The second agreement, don't take anything personally, is one we really have to consider very powerfully in our lives because that is one of the, what I would say, one of the most problematic things that human beings do to one another.
[00:14:47]
No one really escapes the misuse or the inconsiderate use of words. Let's also clear up another problem that we are heirs to here in the human experience. We see through the mind, not the eyes. Thus, each person perceives the world through his or her collection of beliefs. That is the beliefs he, she took in from early childhood on through life.
[00:16:13]
A sin is anything that you do which goes against yourself. Everything you feel or believe or say that goes against yourself and your well-being is a sin. I had to add your well-being because we are involved in transcending an illusionary state of consciousness that we are born and raised in. And that illusionary state of consciousness has at its foundation the illusion of separation from God, from the conditions and circumstances of the world, and from all other people.
[00:19:26]
We are born in a limited consciousness propagated by people who have accepted it and continue to live in it, but that limited consciousness is defined by the illusion of separation. You see, the outer-directed thinking in the world has everything to do with separation, separation from God.
[00:20:39]
As long as you're thinking that, what you're doing is you're reacting as though these circumstances arose or arise separate and apart from your own awareness. So whatever they appear to be and however they come across, it's how you respond to them. So you say, yeah, well, they made me feel like this or I don't feel good or I feel great today or whatever. But the circumstances then are defining who you are because you think they're separate from you, that they arose separate from you, but they arose in concert with your own consciousness.
[00:21:54]
That belief of separation holds you apart from making the changes we all have to make at some point to be congruent with the will of life. And then finally, the illusion of separation allows us to think loveless thoughts and conduct loveless acts with impunity. We have the concept that it will never happen to do with me. If I feel this way about somebody, they deserve to get what I put out on them and whatever.
[00:22:54]
I don't see it as helpful. It's more helpful to understand that the divine intelligence of which we are all a part, which gives us life and is life expressing ongoing, is a better way to understand how to live effectively, beautifully, harmoniously.
[00:24:36]
I think this idea that life is a school and that school is always in and that teaching comes as is needed. So, there's some people that need to hear hellfire and brimstone pierce their limited thinking and at that point it's necessary for them and then they may move on from there, so on and so forth, until we arrive at the place where we're beginning to understand how our thinking is complicit in how we feel.
[00:29:13]
When we don't feel good, even though we're ignorant for a long period of time, when we don't feel good, we're blaming conditions, circumstances, other people. That all begins to, you know, disappear as you're on this journey and realize your consciousness is complicit.
[00:29:55]
Can you imagine that the whole object of this book and the teachings of the Masters is that we should come to that place and the whole object of this book where we feel good regardless of circumstances. That's what unity is about, by the way. Entering the kingdom of heaven where Jesus said it was, right here in the here and now, and being able to feel good regardless of the conditions and circumstances that seem to be occurring in the world or even around us.
[00:30:15]
If your brothers and sisters are part of you and you blame them for your deprivation, you are blaming yourself. And you cannot blame yourself without blaming them. That is why blame must be undone. You see, the inference in this is that we are really all one. If there was no illusion of separation, we would have a different feeling about everyone we commingle with in the world. It would be a completely different feeling.
[00:31:52]
Whenever you're holding some type of limited thought or opinion about someone else, if you're holding a grievance about someone or yourself, if you live in the idea, if you're operating still in the illusionary separation that circumstances arise separate and apart from you and so you have to deal with them and they're going to define who you are and how you respond and if they're nice according to your expectations, you're going to be just fine, forgiving, I guess, okay. But if they're not, they go against what your personal desires are. You're going to be a pain in everybody's rear end throughout that day or the rest of time that you still operate in the illusion.
[00:34:28]
If you want out of the illusion, what you're receiving today is take time to become more mindful of the possibility reality that everyone you see is also God. Only the ego blames it all. Self-blame is therefore ego identification. And as much an ego defense is blaming others, you cannot feel good about yourself or others at all or ever as long as you're holding an illusionary idea that propagates the illusion of blame.
[00:35:16]
You cannot enter God's joy and love and presence as long as you're holding some type of negative opinion, some grievance against others or yourself. self-blame.
[00:36:00]
Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind. They are in a completely different world from the one we live in. When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world and they will impose their world on us if we let them. What they say, what they do, and the opinions they give are according to the agreements they have in their own minds.
[00:36:57]
No belief a person takes in and harbors can be taken in or harbored unless the person at some point agrees to it. So children don't have the option of knowing that some of the things they're being taught are not conducive toward harmony, peace, loving oneself and one's fellow people. They're not. That's the dreaming of the world, the collective illusion of this world that we find ourselves in.
[00:38:55]
It's demonic, in a sense, when we receive from other people negative report or, you know, mean, you know, inconsiderate commentary on our consciousness or our lives or the way we live our lives. But that movie actually is saying that. You have to accept it, of course, that's what the Four Agreements is saying. Unless you agree with it, you don't have to receive it. So you shouldn't be taking it personally at all.
[00:41:30]
If we are awake in the process of living, we will come clearly to the enlightened state of awareness, because being awake in the process of living reveals you really want to be so mindful mindful of what you take in and what you put out. You want to be so mindful of that, because the statement from the Bible is absolute and unequivocal. And so, get to this statement and living it, and you will be able to live forever. be free. Only do unto others what you would have others do unto you.
[00:42:52]
If you can make this second agreement a habit, you will find that nothing can put you back into hell. There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally. You become immune to evil magicians, and no spell can affect you, regardless of how strong it may be. The whole world can gossip about you, and if you don't take it personally, you are immune.
[00:44:16]
Just in these few moments decide to be okay, because we are all always okay in the consciousness divine. So give yourself permission to be okay. Just breathing. Take a couple of deep breaths, and with each breath, just if you don't already feel okay, imagine what it would be like to, in this moment start to just feel good. For no apparent reason, none is necessary. You're good.
[00:45:53]
These are the life-transforming truths that one day the world will embrace.
[00:58:24]
