 Okay. Hello everybody. Thank you for joining us. Welcome to our old-day movie workshop. I'm Peter. And yeah, I can just let you know how the day is going to flow. And so we're going to start with the movie commentary with David. And then we always have a 10-minute break afterwards. That's a time when you can submit your questions and your prayers. Then we'll have a closing session. And that's when David can respond to anything you've submitted. And so I'm going to pass it straight over to David now. Thank you, Peter. Hi everyone. Welcome again to another all-day movie workshop. And really always the prayer of our heart is we're just asking Spirit, we're saying Holy Spirit, Jesus, just show us the way. Give us pointers. Give us instructions. Give us some good examples. Give us metaphors. Reach our mind, which is dreaming and desires to remember God's love, to remember the Kingdom of Heaven within. And that's really the prayer of our heart. And what's so great about the movies that we watch is that we get to see lots of beautiful teaching symbols and teaching examples that are helpful for our mind. Because if our mind was actually ready for the light, we would experience the light directly. And yet we seem to have to go through periods of becoming more and more ready, more and more attracted to the light to be willing to let go of the past, to let go of everything we think we think and we think we know. And really as Lesson 189 in the workbook of A Course in Miracles says, we have to learn how to simply be still and basically to come with open arms unto our beloved Creator, unto our God. So every week we have a series of themes that everyone votes on. And then we take those themes and we, it's just a prayer of the heart really to Jesus to show us and lead us into the direct experience that the themes are pointing to. So we've got an amazing movie today. Again, this is one of those we call them classics. It seems like we can watch this movie over and over and over and we see something new in it every single time. It's brand new and fresh. The tears that come to our eyes and well up in our eyes are fresh. Again, the tears usually burst out and roll down the cheeks because there is so much intensity with love. And even though in this world we have blocked it, we have pushed it out of awareness, that when we get little glimmers and glimpses of this love, we really cannot help but cry, because it's so touching and it's so deep and it's so tender that it's like something we've always been longing for while we're sleeping and dreaming of a world of exile from God. Even when we get little glimmers of this sweet love, we cry. We cry tears of gratitude really. So the themes that everyone voted on this week, the theme that came in first place is focus my mind on God every second of the day. And I know for many people that's like, wow, that seems difficult. As he's saying, every second of the day. And this theme is pointing us to that workbook lesson in The Course in Miracles where Jesus says, my mind holds only what I think with God. So he's pointing us towards purification. He's pointing us to a pristine state of high amnesty that is prior to time. It's not a thought of time. As long as we're thinking the thoughts of linear time that our mind is really preoccupied with the body and all of its doings. What if I got to do today? What's on my to-do list? What do I have to accomplish? What do I have to have as my goal? And when our mind is caught up in the belief in linear time and when our mind is caught up into the identification with the body, then you might say that the body and its surroundings, including people and places and things, the body's seeming community is important. And then the body's location in time and space suddenly becomes important. And whatever that body is doing or not doing becomes extremely important. And we have a beautiful teaching from Jesus that before Abraham was I am. He said to the pristine presence, the I am presence prior to time. So in one sense, while we believe in time and linear time, we're always concerned about moving forward. And Jesus at one point in the Course of Miracles, he says, actually time is like a carpet. And if you follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the carpet is going to roll up and disappear. So he says at one point time actually goes backwards. In reality in heaven, there is no such thing of time. But just imagine if you just began to open up your mind to the idea like, okay, another day of going backwards. So I always like that song from the theme song from the movie Chances Are, where Cher and Peter Cetera, they're with their amazing voices sing a line in that song. Every memory repeats. Every step I take retreats. Every journey always brings me back to you, back to you, God, back to the I am presence. So isn't it relaxing to start to think of our days as more time collapses, more, we've been driving forward thinking we're going somewhere and Jesus says, yeah, you think you're moving forward, but you're going nowhere. You're kind of believing you're moving forward in what Shakespeare called much ado about nothing. How do you move forward and much ado about nothing? The answer you don't. So it's not a matter of what we have to do to get back to heaven. It's more what we have to undo. We have to unbelieve the ego. We have to surrender our belief in the ego over to the Holy Spirit. And we really are praying show me that this death wish this belief in ego is is nothing. Show me it's nothingness so I may be happy. Show me the ego is nothingness so I can know the reality of God's love of God's eternal love. Because God created the Christ as an eternal being not as a time space creature. And as long as we're identified with the body we're identified with a misidentification and that's always painful. So this movie today will help us unwind from the self concept of linear time. I might just mention we have a great way show or today a very devoted follower of Jesus Christ. Saint Francis. Saint Francis of Assisi is going to take us on the journey today. I don't know about you but I really enjoy when Saint Francis is the tour guide. And Saint Francis is the symbol that Jesus is using to show our mind what it needs to do to let go of the ego. That is very, very strong, very, very powerful. So the first theme is focus my mind on God every second of the day. We want to be so clueless about this world and so intoxicated in God. We want to be as they say drunk on the Lord. If you're going to get drunk and you're going to get dizzy and disoriented it's good to be drunk on the Lord. And not drunk on anything else really. We say okay alcohol you served okay psychedelic drugs you served. Okay when I was on the dance floor spinning around like a dervish alright that served alright but I would rather be intoxicated on God. I would rather focus my mind on God every second of the day because my creator created me as the Christ as a perfect spiritual being. And I will only be happy knowing myself as God created me. Not in the make believe world of time and space but in my mind in the memory of God in the heart of hearts. Number two let go and surrender into the flow of divine joy. Doesn't that sound inviting? Imagine you wake up in the morning and there's a soft little voice in your mind that says whispers. Let go and surrender into the flow of divine joy. Isn't that a beautiful way to start the day? That is a very gentle but also attractive way to start the day. Let go and surrender into the flow of divine joy. Your joy becomes your only experience where sadness and depression and conflict competition striving challenge all of that is like washed away and then all the remains is a vibrant state of joy an exuberant state of joy a state of supreme happiness. That's everything. Third discern between specialness versus heart openings. The ego is sometimes pretty clever so sometimes it tries to convince us that excitement with sensations of time and space is happiness. But all the mystics and saints know that that there's something that's deep within us that is joyful happy still and it's not dependent on sensations. It's not dependent on the five senses at all. It's actually prior to the five senses. So it's no wonder that we've been disappointed when we try to follow the senses and find meaning. The senses were are part of the ego and they were made to keep us from knowing who we are. So we we soon realize it's important to be intuitive. It's important to follow inner guidance. It's important to tune in to that spirit within because our five senses, which is the great preoccupation of this world. There would be no perceptual world of linear time unless there was also a package of senses to to perceive that with. But all the five senses are part of the ego. I remember early on. There's an interesting word. He said the five senses David are in cahoots with the ego. I said in cahoots. Yeah, they work together to blind you from the Christ self that you are. So that's why it can seem like a long journey. Many of us have have seemed to be at this seemingly for a long time and we wonder, I wish truth was simple. Why, why is it so complex? And Jesus is saying, well, actually it is simple, but the ego is very complex. And the ego has made a very complex world with many temptations, many, many, many distractions. And it's almost like Mary Baker Eddy would call the world mesmerism, even the sound of that word mesmerism sounds sneaky, tricky. And then another word is hypnotism. And if I was hypnotized or mesmerized into believing I'm a body. Wow, my prayer is please show me the simple truth that love is all there is. Please, please bring into my awareness that love is all there is and there's nothing else but love that I've been completely mistaken about everything that I perceive without exception. And to do that, we're going to have to go on a journey through a development of trust to trust the Holy Spirit to guide us each stage, each step of the way. Number four, deepening on true forgiveness, would I condemn myself for doing this? This is really just saying whenever I look at the world and whenever I think about someone or I perceive someone, if I'm thinking I'm glad I'm not like that, then basically Jesus is saying, well, you're just judging because there's only one of you. If you're judging a person, it can be the person you think you are or any person on the planet, or any situation on the planet or anything, that if you judge, you will perceive yourself as something that you are not. You will perceive yourself as an ego with a body if you judge. And the instant you stop judging, you realize who you are. That's simple. That's why probably the shortest teaching from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount was judge not. That's just two words. But the practical application of judge not requires the Holy Spirit's help. So what that means is that the Holy Spirit will give you guidance and instructions to follow while you still believe in linear time. But those instructions are always designed to take you to the leaping off point where you go, aha, I am as God created me. That's the whole point is just to come to a recognition, a realization. I am as God created me. I remain as God created me. I remain as a perfect child of God as I always have been and always will be. That's the goal of self-realization. That's the goal of enlightenment. That's the goal of salvation. You know, you could call it whatever you want. That is the goal to know thyself. And finally move through the fear of dropping the mask and being transparent. As long as I'm identified with the mask of personality, then dropping the mask will seem to be a threat. Because the mind gets frightened. If I'm not this body, then what am I? If I'm not this personality, what am I? If I'm not this history and these future goals, then what am I? If I'm not this collection of stories and memories, what am I without the collection of stories and memories? Wow, that's profound. What am I without the story? If I am as God created me, then I wouldn't need any story to justify who I am. I wouldn't need the five senses to justify who I am or a story. I could simply be as I am. So Shakespeare was a very helpful way show or two like St. Francis. And Shakespeare, some of his famous lines were, you know, the world is much ado about nothing. He was a man of the theater. He was a man of literature, of writing plays and stories and sonnets. But he basically called this world much ado about nothing. But even more profound, I think, was Shakespeare's question to be or not to be. That is the question. And so I would say in course and miracles terms to be as God created me or not to be as God created me. You see, that's a that's a big question. Am I still as God created me or do I have the ability to make myself in some way that's different. In the Bible, it was Jesus was quoted as saying to Nicodemus, you must be born again. He was talking about born again in the I am presence. He also said that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So the I am presence is you might say that's the realization that everything is about. Anything you would seem to think or say or do all comes in the end to just one realization of I am still as God created me. So some of you know, some of you have worked with a course in miracles know that that Jesus has. He has an introduction, very nice, very succinct. He has a text very helpful in in terms of giving us a context for spiritual awakening. You know that he has a workbook for students, which is a mind training workbook, which is a daily practice of of one less than a day to unwind the mind from its belief in personality and linear time and come back to the pristine. I am presence. And then he has a manual for teachers and he also has a clarification of terms. Well, in the manual for teachers, Jesus talks about the one key to spiritual awakening is trust. And he's talking about trust in the Holy Spirit. So he has 10 characteristics of a teacher of God in the manual for teachers, but he says the very first one is trust and all the other nine depend on the first one. He says if the trust goes, then so do the rest. So imagine yourself with like a bowling alley and you're going to try to hit the king pin the first pin so you can knock down all the rest. And basically Jesus is saying, if if you don't go for that first pin, which is trust. Basically, you're going to throw a gutter ball. You either you either get a strike. And you get all the characteristics of a teacher of God, which are just symbols of what it means to be as God created you in relation to earth. If you hit the king pin you hit the pin then then all the rest of the characteristics, all the pins fall over and you you strike back to remembering God in heaven. And if you don't hit the pin then you you don't get that complete strike and basically Jesus is saying you either make a direct hit or you throw a gutter ball. And so most of us are used to throwing lots of gutter balls. Every day we're we're trying the gutter ball, gutter ball, gutter ball, you know, and Jesus is saying just just calm yourself down and follow the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit come through you in a way that you can realize the thing that has been so elusive. It's the thing that has been so difficult. So, as I was getting ready to open us all into the movie today. Brother son sister moon from 1972 an amazing film from Franco Zafarelli. And it's basically the early, we could say it's the before St Francis became St Francis Francis or or his, his given name Francois. His mother Pika is from Provence in France, his father is from Italy, and they live in a CC in a very nice well to do house, the very successful family, just like Sid Artha lived in a palace, just like in the last one of the they showed recently the the Rinpoche lived in a monastery where everything was taken care of Francis has kind of an idyllic childhood he gets to go horseback riding with his friends. He gets involved as as it in a teenage years the same things that most all teenagers get involved with, you know, wanting to have autonomy. Most teenagers get involved in in their own version of sex drugs and rock and roll. But this you have to remember this is the 1200s. So, they still had alcohol back then they still had all the temptations of sexuality to deal with, and they still had many, many, many distractions. I think if you talk to people of any era, even in the 1200s, the teenagers of the 1200s, if, if your parents have money, there's going to be a certain amount of exploration that goes on. And that St Francis went through that kind of an idyllic childhood where his needs are met very well, his physical needs. The Catholic Church and the family, Bernardo, the father, Pica, the mother and, and, and Francis Francois, they do, they go to church, although during the teen years, you know, the teen sometimes fall away from the church going a bit. There's so many things to explore in this world with the five senses. And so, you know, even though this story takes place back in the 1200s, we're going to be able to relate to it very easily. Another thing when you begin to get called by the spirit is, you will be called out of everything that you perceive through the five senses. So with, with Francois here, St Francis, he, this is just the early years of St Francis before he, he really becomes very, very devoted. We get to, we get to watch the development of his devotion. That's very important as a role model too, because we don't necessarily grow up with many, many roles of spiritual devotion. Sometimes we have all kinds of roles around us and we take on roles, but we don't always get a role that, that is one of extreme devotion, one of, of extreme devotion to, to God and to Christ. So what Francis will go through is what Jesus describes in the manual for teachers as the stages of development of trust. You start off with, with trust, but we'll just say you have trust in all the wrong things. Okay, it's not a matter of gaining more trust, it's just starting to realize that we've put our trust and faith in the ego, and in the things of the ego. So we need to be unwound from putting our trust and faith in that which is a death wish, in that which does not know anything, in that which does not know true happiness. It does, the ego doesn't know what true happiness is, true joy, true love. It's a death wish. So basically, Jesus is reaching our sleeping mind that believes in time and space and has forgotten eternity. It's forgotten God. It forgot the kingdom of heaven and now we have to be unwound from our trust and investment in, in death. There's one point in the Course in Miracles where he, he describes those in this world as death worshipers. Oh wow, isn't that good, you don't have to be a miserable sinner, you can just say, I'm a death worshiper, let's get this straight. I am not a miserable sinner. I'm a death worshiper. And that's where you start from, because if you believe in time and space, then that's a belief in illusions. So the stages of the development of trust, and there's six of them. Don't you like it? A way-shower who's not only going to give you instructions, not only going to give you guidance, but saying, the ego doesn't like this. We're back. Okay, I'm getting a little deep here. We got wiped out here in Mexico. To quote Jack Nicholson, I say to the ego, you can't handle the truth. That's a quote from a few good men. So we're back. So we've got a way-shower. Jesus has given us six stages for waking up. Okay, we're back. I keep getting messages. We're gone. The lights go out. We're frozen. But in the end, we're relying on Jesus to take us through these seeming stages of unwinding from the ego. And I'm very grateful for those stages. So today's movie is Brother, Son, Sister, Moon. We will follow along on basically the life of St. Francis. And what I'm going to do today with this movie is I'm going to use what Jesus is teaching in A Course in Miracles and let really Jesus use St. Francis as a great example for all of us. Because all we really need is good examples and then our mind starts to be able to grasp what's actually going on here, which is this complete forgiveness, complete total forgiveness. So I'm going to go through and I'm just going to give you first a little setup for the movie. And I've done a little bit already. There's François Francis. There's Pica, his mother from Provence in France and Bernardo, who's his father. They live in the town of Assisi. They go to the Catholic Church. They have a clothing, trading and selling of clothing and fine objects. That's kind of their business. Mostly it's trading and selling very fancy clothes or cloths, clothes, all types of things. Fabrics from around the world, maybe from different parts of Italy, from Provence in South of France and other parts of the world. And so he has his little family there. They have servants that work in the house and then they have their little community there in Assisi. That is something that everyone can relate to because there's a little family system in a little town. And this town is Assisi in Italy. And then Francis will start to undergo shifts and changes, which we could say are steps in spiritual awakening. So I think what I'll do before we start the movie is I'll just go and I'm going to read Jesus' first stage in spiritual awakening. But before I do, I'm just going to give a little context from Jesus and that's going to be from chapter 20. You may wonder how you can be at peace when while you are in time there is so much that need be done before the way to peace is open. Perhaps this seems impossible to you. But ask yourself if it is possible that God would have a plan for your salvation that does not work. Once you accept his plan as the one function that you would fulfill, there will be nothing else the Holy Spirit will not arrange for you without your effort. He will go before you making straight your path and leaving in your way no stones to trip on and no obstacles to bar your way. Nothing you need will be denied you. Not one seeming difficulty but will melt away before you reach it. You need take thought for nothing, careless of everything except the only purpose that you would fulfill. So what Jesus is teaching us is even though we've been preoccupied with the things of time, time, survival, careers, family. We're preoccupied with houses and transportation. We're preoccupied with the environment. We're preoccupied with the things of time and space. And Jesus is saying you can be carefree and careless. You need to take thought for none of these things. But imagine that this presence of love the Holy Spirit will simply orchestrate all of time and space for your mind to forgive the past and to remember God. Everything is given. You don't personally have to do anything to make it happen. That is the biggest guilt trap is when you think I personally have to figure out how to forgive. I have to figure out how to wake up from this dream. And I personally have to do something to ignite my spiritual awakening. Jesus is saying no, you actually don't have to do any of that. You need merely relax and focus on your purpose. Focus on what you truly want in your heart. And everything will automatically be orchestrated for you automatically by the Holy Spirit. So this is good news because this takes us out of the guilt of being the doer. The guilt of being the one that has to figure out the riddle. We don't have to figure out the riddle. We have to be willing to be taken beyond the riddle of time and space. So as we start this movie, I'm going to just read you the six stages. I'm just going to read one at a time and I'm just going to start with number one. Then we're going to go into the movie. So as you listen to these words, I want you to watch the movie today. And I want you to be in prayer with the higher self, with the spirit, and say to the spirit, show me what I need to see from this movie about St. Francis and how it relates to my perception of myself in this world. We're going to let Jesus use St. Francis as a way of saving time. So we don't have to go through all of the gyrations and turns and seeming choices as a human being. We want to be lifted up. We're basically saying to Jesus today, beam me up. I would rather take the direct beam. And my entire identity is available to me this instant. So it's not really a matter of time. It's just a matter of my openness and willingness to be shown, to have it revealed. So here's the first stage of the development of trust. This is the first stage that everyone must go through. First, they must go through what might be called a period of undoing. This need not be painful, but it usually is so experienced. Don't you love that? This need not be painful, but it usually is so experienced because the ego is not interested in a period of undoing. It wants bigger, better, faster, more in terms of the world. It's not interested in a period of undoing. But the very first stage that you go through in spiritual awakening is a period of undoing. It seems as if things are being taken away and it is rarely understood initially that their lack of value is merely being recognized. Isn't that lovely? It seems as if things are being taken away, but it's just understood initially that their lack of value is merely being recognized. When people seem to walk out of your life and say goodbye, the ego would say, rejected and betrayed again. You've been abandoned again, but the spirit is simply saying, ah, you're starting to recognize that certain things don't have the value that you thought that they did. So imagine that the whole world is just your mind. And as you start to go more inward and more toward the light, that certain things will disappear from the dreamscape and the ego will scream bloody murder when that happens. They'll say, you're being abandoned, rejected, you're being, you know, betrayed. But that's just its interpretation of its world losing the luster that it once had. And really, I've actually gotten to the point where when things start to dissolve and fade away and disappear, I'm actually kind of grateful. In fact, I'm just in my heart saying, take it all. Why stop there, Holy Spirit? Take the rest. Empty it all out here, you know, take it all. Don't leave anything left, because I would rather know my creator than be clinging to idle images. How can lack of value be perceived unless the perceiver is in a position where he must see things in a different light? He is not yet at the point at which he can make the shift entirely internally. And so the plan will sometimes call for changes in what seem to be external circumstances. These changes are always helpful. When the teacher of God has learned that much, he goes on to the second stage. So what we could say is in the first stage, which you perceive an external world, a world that's outside of your mind, that there will seem to be things that are taken away from that world. And Jesus is telling us to rejoice. He's like, oh, wow, you're just on the first stage of six stages that are going to lead you to supreme happiness. And in this world of idle images, when some of them start to disappear, Jesus is saying, you should be grateful. I'm helping you out here. I'm helping remove some of the obstacles. And I'm just beginning to show you the difference between what is truly valuable and what is valueless. But when the mind is asleep and dreaming of time and space, it doesn't know the difference between the valuable and the valueless. It's very confused. It's very disoriented. It's perceiving a world that's not even there. It's mesmerized. It's hallucinating. It's psychotic. It's schizophrenic. It's a mess. The sleeping mind is a mess. Let's all admit it. We've been there. We know what that feels like. It feels like hell. And it's a big mess. And the sooner we start to admit that this had been a mess in the past, then we're more ready to be freed up from it, to really come into some joy. Some real good, real honest joy, natural joy. Sit back and enjoy the movie. We're going back to the 1200s here, so it's a time travel movie. We're going way, way, way back there. But I think you're going to see that the same things that St. Francis will struggle with is what all of us have struggled with. It's the same issues. They're just as current. They're just as relevant for us today as we're going through this unwinding and undoing. So enjoy. Enjoy the movie. This is an all-time classic. St. Francis is going to help us save a lot of time today. And we need that. We need help in collapsing time. Beautiful.