December 2021

WHAT MUST I REMEMBER
     You think that agitation of any kind is necessary to your survival. I tell you — once and for all, right now — all forms of hostility, all forms of anger, of resentment, all forms of attack against any other human being, all forms of fighting are destroying your true purpose and for being here on earth!
     Fighting has been your way of life since you were a little kid. And all the time, unknown to yourself, when you fight you are a slave!
     Now you toss out your junk! And you toss out your self-deception! And you say, “There’s only going to be one thing in my life, one thing. And that’s to find out what is authentically right for me as a human being here on earth.”
     Now, it just so happens, beautifully, that Reality, Truth is smarter than darkness. Light is smarter than darkness. It’s no game. It’s no contest. Light is 100% in power. Darkness has no power at all. Anything that disturbs you is wrong. So, if you fight, that’s a disturbance. Ahh, listen! You don’t have to fight and wreck anymore. Fighting is false fun. You don’t have to fight anything or anyone — any condition. You don’t have to fight your own mad thoughts, jumbled thoughts. You don’t have to fight yourself. You don’t have to fight other people. Fighting is unnecessary. All fighting means that there’s an entity in there, an identity, a person in there, who is shaky, who is worried.
     Now I have said you no longer have to fight anything whatever. Therefore, you never have to be agitated anymore, right? Now, since you don’t have to fight, that means that there’s an alternative to it. I’m going to tell you what that alternative is.
     Let’s take an ordinary daily situation. You have a problem which suddenly comes up in your mind. Instead of fighting, the next time you have a difficulty you will simply ask yourself this. Listen! Magic, you want magic? Instead of fighting you say to yourself very calmly, just relax like I am now, and you say to yourself, “What must I remember?”
     I must remember, for example, that every time I do get mad, that the thrill of it is a false thrill, false fun. You can remind yourself of the tens of thousands of spiritual guides that you’ve heard in this room, and you’ve read in those books and heard on those tapes. Remember any one of them. One that’s appropriate for the occasion. Remember it.
     You’re staying awake as best you can, because you know you’re asleep. You can’t wake up until you know you’re asleep. So, you work on yourself. You get a phone call or a letter, or something comes to your mind that distresses you a little bit. At that instant, instead of going along with the distress, instead of enjoying it, instead of going along with yourself, you take the alternative. You suddenly relax.
     And by this time, you have built up a right kind of a feeling that says, NO, I am not going along with you this time!
     So, you go to the alternative of saying, “What must I remember? I’m going to relax now.” You know, the hands are loose, and a little bit of a sigh and breath. And we just kind of casually sit here. We’re not rushing, are we! We’re alert, we’re awake, we’re not looking for anything in particular to think about, are we. We’re not looking for a particular emotion to come to us. We’re just sitting here calm and relaxed. And if something wants to come to us, then it can.
     But in our alertness, in our consciousness, in our awakened state, we can see what comes and that will judge whether it’s right or wrong. Now the right intellect, right ideas can come in. What must I remember? You’ve left space for it. And you will remember what to do when that anger, agitation, envy, whatever tries to take you over. And do you know what you do? You do NOTHING!
     The intelligence that is higher than your own will enters in to answer your question when you ask, “What must I remember?”
     See, you’re not asked to make a judgment. You’re not asked to select a course. You relax and you ask, “What must I remember now?”
     You have done for the first time in your life, something that you’ve heard about ever since you went to Sunday School, but you haven’t done it, which is this. Turning the problem over to something Higher than you. And you’ve never really understood what that meant. All you’ve known is the phrase.
     And when you have completely dissolved all descriptions of God, you’ll know who He is. Because then your mind is not manufacturing him according to your own neurosis and your own desires and your own frantic craving. And in that state, that means that the Spirit of Truth will live inside of you. And that will tell you what to do all along.

YOU NO LONGER NEED TO BELIEVE IN ...
     [First, Vernon told a story about a man who finally discovered he liked being afraid, furious, hateful. He wanted the shaking and vibration and the earthquake and volcanic lava. That was illustrating how we do, too. Then Vernon continued with the talk below.]

     You thought it was a necessity. You wanted that explosion. You thought you couldn’t live without it.
     This is you reflecting: “Why would I want that at all?” It’s because of your lack of insight into what is truly beautiful — the place that God has prepared for you. You think you have to be somebody. “I am someone who knows what I’m doing.” The lie.
     People do incredibly stupid things spiritually and socially speaking. One of the most stupid and self-destructive things a human being can ever do is to believe in fear, in terror, as something necessary to his survival.
     You don’t know you do that, but you do that. You believe in the necessity of sorrow, of nervous explosions, of pangs of pain. Know that you go through your day believing that you have to have them. I’m telling you, you don’t have to have them. You prove your belief in them by them clinging to you.
     How many were troubled this morning? You were troubled because you wanted to be worried over your health, or snappy toward someone who offended you. You wanted to be insulted! You wanted to be ignored and left out because then you could say, “See, I exist. I’m someone who got left out! I’m someone who’s not privileged like everyone else.”
     And out of these attitudes comes evil towards everyone. If you’re evil towards yourself, you’re evil towards everyone else.
     A student asked himself, “What if I gave up completely being jealous or competitive?” You don’t even know you’re jealous. That’s the first step. The man in the story said, “I’m going to stay awake and determine to use spiritual intelligence.” Then he saw he was only 99% scared and 1% part ‘knowing’ — pure.
     Exercise: At the moment you feel that terror within, remember there is a false part in you that wanted it and, at that moment, know there’s something wrong with your reactions. Your mistake was in wanting to get a thrill out of it. You’re not supposed to have any reaction at all. You will no longer be terrified. You’re willing to exorcise the darkness inside yourself, and Truth itself will walk with you and you will know you are safe because you are no longer you.