 In the parable of David it was kind of surprising to me, always a little surprising, like when back in the early 1990s people started showing up saying, I am your student, I am your student. Nothing really could have prepared me for that kind of experience except the first part of the course that spoke to me was the teacher's manual, you know, when the student's ready the teacher will appear and everything like, oh this must be that thing in the manual. That's the thing in the manual. There they are. I mean, when you're walking away after the first person that comes in says, I am your student, you know, I had no place to put that, really, because, you know, not mom and dad never talked about it, you know, someday you'll have students and my mom was a teacher but not teaching social studies, like teaching God or something like that. So it was kind of like, oh that's the manual, that's the metaphor in the manual, that's the manual. Because the whole thing is about the teacher and student are the same and in this world it seems like the teacher is more than the student but that's not the case and he's just saying in so many words in the manual that you're always teaching yourself and teaching is not the way you see it in the world. It's not actions. It's not teaching with words and actions. They're actually teaching yourself all the time. So I'm glad I had all that preparation go, okay, there's nothing freaky going on here today. And then you go through the metaphor where there was the students and da, da, da, da, and you go through these all sessions daily and all this and this and this. And then you start, you finally come to that point where you feel like the metaphor has been used. Like a lot of metaphors in the course and then you're ready to set that one down. Not to push it away when it comes because obviously it's coming for a reason. It seems to just show up and you go, okay, it's here. I guess I've got to deal with it now. And then you work with it and then you start to go, oh, okay, we can set that aside. And then once you have kind of transcended things, then you don't really have a place left in your mind for that anymore. So Jesus said that in the Bible, who do you say that I am? And they'd say a prophet or Isaiah or so and so come again and all these different things and the Messiah and this and this and this. And then, you know, as Peter said, you know, you are the Christ living Son of God and he said that was not man who spoke, you know, it was a witness that that's the Holy Spirit just identifying the Christ which is not of this world. It's literally before time so it doesn't even fit on the timeline even into the story of Jesus. That's where the whole sacrificial idea comes in. Somehow, you know, God became a man. How would you do that if you're like eternal in your little slab of flesh? You know, that doesn't happen. Even that stuff about Jesus corrects all that in the Course. In the beginning, the word capital W was made flesh. He says strictly speaking that's impossible. Wow. Kind of an important distinction there. It's like really basic in the Bible. In the beginning, the word was made flesh. Jesus is like, not really. Because I am the Word and I've never been flesh. I'm not a body. I'm with you always because I'm eternal. You're eternal. We've got to get to this basic agreement here. I'm here to teach you this and it doesn't matter if you resist it. I'll eventually get through. When I awoke, you were with me. All the kind of stuff in there, this and this. It wasn't about opening to eternity. But for me, you know, when that metaphor came, it was interesting too. It was a very strange thing that happened. I was in Australia, I think, I don't know, a couple of years ago or something, and a very, very, very prominent Course in Miracles teacher sent me an email. And it wasn't supposed to come to me. He was sending it to somebody else, but he put my address in and he sent it to me and he said, David is stealing other teacher's students. David is stealing other teacher's students. This was like a really prominent part. And it was just sent to me by mistake and I was like, look at that. Because I kind of got a good chuckle out of it because I didn't perceive myself as a teacher. But it was kind of interesting that it's just kind of one of those Freudian slips with the oops. And it was kind of cool because I was like, wow, that is amazing. Because once you transcend the concept, then you don't identify with the concept anymore. You don't identify with teachers and students. And in spirituality, that can be a long trap if you get identified as a guru or a student or a guru or a devotee or something. Those are still roles. And those are really sticky. They still have a lot of guilt with it. There's all this allegiance to the guru and da-da-da-da-da. Even though I've said all these years, guru is G, you are you. You, the Christ, are you. G, you are you. That's what guru means. It's just pointing you to the awareness that you're the one. That's all the symbol means in the most basic way. But that's the trap of teachers and students, of those that are leaders, those that are followers. Even though in the chorus Jesus says, you know, walk behind, walk beside me on the self-same road, capital self-same road. And he's giving that same metaphor of, you know, don't follow me. Don't go behind me. Don't go in front of me. You know, he's an elder brother. That symbol is just an equal brother. And even when Helen Shuckman had that vision in the church, which she went into the church with Bill, and they went up towards the altar and then they knelt down in the Catholic church. And they knelt down and both, and they looked and there, and Jesus appeared. And they're looking and Jesus is with them in this Catholic church. And Jesus comes and he kneels down beside them, all three of them kneeling together. It's such a beautiful symbol. They were like, it was Jesus, you know, and he came and he just kneeled right down almost just like a friendly, yes, let's all kneel here. You know, like the same thing he taught in the Bible. Why do you call me good? God is good. Everything was pointed at the Creator. All glory was given to the Creator. And even in the vision, he knelt down beside them. He didn't walk up and put his hands on their heads. All these things sometimes you see with gurus and all the blessings and all this and this and hugging them and this and this and this. What did he do 2,000 years ago? He washed the feet of the apostles. What a great symbol of equality. He washed their feet. The Master washed the feet of the apostles and with Helen Shuckman and Bill, he kneels down beside them. So to me, that's what this is all about. It's about kindness. It's about friendliness. It's about equality. It's about we are the same. It's about we're all in this together. Our arms are locked arm in arm and we're walking into the light together. That's a great metaphor. Nobody's ahead. Nobody's behind.