 When I was in Roscoe back in 1990, I met a woman that had rosy cheeks and she was from Great Britain and she was so happy and such a high state of mind and occasionally people would ask her who wrote the course and she would just giggle and laugh and she would go, I wrote it! And I could tell she meant it too when she was saying it. It wasn't just words. She would say I wrote it and there was this sense of presence, joy in beautiful, beautiful joy there. And so what we've talked about here on this Mastery Through Love retreat is that there is a presence of love that is orchestrating everything. It seems like the human beings are doing things or are resisting things or not doing things. It seems like all the seven billion human beings have their own decision-making capacity and they have the capacity to read and study and practice and put into practice. And it seems like there's lots and lots of decisions involved. But the more you go into what the Course is really saying, that isn't what it's saying. It's not painting that picture at all, the deeper you go with it. It's that there is one who knows your good, who has planned everything. Every single circumstance, every single thing that you experience in time and space was gently planned by one who knows your good. Everything's working together for good to wake the mind up. And the idea that the dream figures have consciousness and awareness on their own and that there's multiple people, multiple lives, multiple living things, it really is not the case at all. And I remember a very famous quote from Helen Schuchman who was the scribe of A Course in Miracles. Again, Plan B, scribe. But basically pretty late in her life she was quoted as saying about the Course, I know it's true, I just don't believe it. That's what Helen said. And actually, that doesn't help you much because you don't really know anything because knowledge is beyond this world. And if you don't believe it, then you haven't gained the freedom that the Course is offering. And so we could say that also Jesus says in the Course that this Course will be believed entirely or not at all. So you don't get any brownie points, any bonus points, and it actually doesn't do you really any good to come close to atonement without accepting it. In fact, basically from the lesson that Francis is reading, until you accept your freedom, everyone stays in chains. Until you transcend sickness and death and accept eternal life, everyone continues to seem to suffer in perception and everyone stays chained up until you accept the gift. And Jesus talks about this in the workbook where he says, accept the gift of healing and legions upon legions will arise with you as you accept this gift. So what does all this mean? How can we start to take this together? This is something practical except by saying that even though the Course is a big book with 31 chapters and 365 lessons and a manual for teachers, you have to do one thing first before you can come to forgiveness or accept the Course. So I'm going to tell you the one thing that you must do. You must do this before you're in a position to accept your divine innocence. You must do one thing. It doesn't matter if you write books on the Course or you don't. It doesn't matter whether you have Course groups or not, whether you speak or not. The Course even says, a teacher of God can heal the world without a sound. Your words, your sounds, and all the things that seem important, even in terms of the world with the Course, are not important at all. But I will tell you, you must do this one thing first before you're in position to accept what divine innocence is and what forgiveness is. And the one thing, Francis and I were talking about this morning on our call, is you have to accept that you have a perceptual problem. You have to accept that you have a perceptual problem. You cannot accept the solution. You cannot accept the correction until you accept that you have a perceptual problem. And that was in even the opening song that Zach and Lilo were singing, there was a line in there about a new way of looking at the world. A new way of looking upon the world, it's not talking about through the body's eyes. It's not talking about a different, higher vantage point with the body's eyes or a different point of view, but it's talking about a different point of view in your mind. And you have to admit, first of all, that you have a perceptual problem or you won't be able to open to this new way. You will still see yourself as a person with all of the personal problems that seem to be part of the human condition. And we talked about a lot of them already this weekend. You can't admit that you have a perceptual problem and maintain that you have health issues, economic problems, that you have relationship issues, that you have issues with the environment, with temperature or pollution, that you have issues with governments and politicians. You can't have issues with children and with parents and with neighbors. You can't have issues with different cultures or societies. You can't have issues with a mosquito and think that you have a perceptual problem because that issue with that mosquito, I'll tell you, is very arrogant. It's almost like saying the Holy Son of God can have the peace taken away by a mosquito. Something as tiny as a mosquito in this entire cosmos. And that's quite arrogant to believe that the Holy Son of God can be disturbed by a mosquito. And Francis, in her opening session, she was saying, really, all Jesus was showing us with the Course was, you are asked to not perceive attack in much less extreme situation than what I went through. And she was saying, in her own life, there's been nobody dragging her, having her drag a big cross through the streets and put a crown of thorns on her head and throw some vinegar in her mouth and then spikes driven into her arms and legs and blood coming out for hours and hours. No, it's like all of us have got a much less extreme temptation to believe in attack than that scene. He was just demonstrating in the most extreme case, you can still be meek, you can still be defenseless, you can still be the Christ because you're not a body, you can still transcend and show that you are spirit in the most extreme situation that the ego can come up with. So let's go back to that mosquito. If you actually believe that there's anything in this world that can take your piece away, no matter how tiny that thing is, what that means is that you are not acknowledging that you have a perceptual problem. You are not acknowledging that the way that you're looking at the world is the problem. Once you say that mosquito out on the screen is upsetting you, you are not accepting your responsibility of seeing that everything is mind. Everything is a thought in the mind. And you can't possibly accept the correction if you have missed the problem. Misdefined the problem, even if the correction is there and available, you will not accept that correction. You can't even use it. It's almost like you've got this divine light that's saying, I'm right here, I'm right here, and if you are mis-defining yourself and the problems of this world, you will not be able to accept the correction. And as I read through all the beautiful questions that you've all written in, and as I listen to you speak, I can feel underneath it that there's like, your heart is crying out and saying, please, what is the simple way that I slip past years of effort, that I slip past countless years, decades, centuries of effort? How can I slip past them and slide right in there to position of accepting the atonement? And that is very simple. You have to admit that you have a perceptual problem. Just like I think I saw Frank has joined us on here, and Frank's been part of the 12 Step Program, and in 12 Steps, you have to come to an admission of your problem before you can begin the healing process. There's nobody that goes through the 12 Step Program who heals by remaining in a state of denial about what's going on. If they're denying their drinking or their addiction, or if they're denying their emotions, or maybe they're just denying the thoughts, and they just say, I have no problem, then the 12 Step Program says, well, actually you're not going to heal until you first admit the problem. And in one sense it's like that they're powerless over their addiction. They're powerless over their lives as they've perceived them. Jesus is asking us the same thing with the Course. He's saying, you have to admit that you're powerless over the way that this world seems to be. What Francis was describing, a very vicious, hostile world of hatred, that is the result of the ego. You have to admit that you've been mistaken in everything about this world. You cannot come to a solution until you can come to a very deep confession of, I have a perceptual problem. And for some of you, you may say, OK, I can kind of follow that, David. Sentimentally I can follow it. But practically, if you knew my life situation, it's like, wow, that can seem like a little airy fairy, a little bit of pixie dust or something. I go to deal with all this stack of bills, or I have a long-standing health issue, or I've got current relationships grievances and everything. It's almost like you're talking about this perceptual problem, almost like it's pixie dust. And somehow I'm just to believe I'm in a fairy tale and this little pixie dust is going to tinker bell, will just sprinkle some pixie dust, and then I'm home free. And this is why I talked in depth about mind training. In other words, why do we practice the mind training? Why do we watch our minds so carefully? Why in community are we encouraging no private thoughts, no people pleasing? Are we encouraging everything to come up, everything to get exposed? Every preconception to be exposed, every belief to be exposed, every single thought, every last shred of thinking to be exposed and brought to the light. Jesus says it's important. He says to learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden, or it will jeopardize, it will delay your learning. But basically, I thought I would just do like Francis. I'm just going to read just a little bit from lesson 79, because this lesson right here, lesson 79 of the workbook is going to be our springboard to a practical experience of what Francis said today is the day. If you can go with me and you can follow what I'm saying and what Jesus is saying in this lesson, this is like a huge time saver. This takes you in the tractor beam and it just takes you so high. And if you can go with what is being shared in the beginning of this lesson, that you can literally be beamed up and lifted up. Your mind can be so lifted up by Jesus that you will be at the gates of heaven if you can follow this lesson. You will be transported, like Star Trek, the transporter room. You will be beamed and transported to the gates of heaven from wherever you seem to be in time and space in your awareness. But what Jesus is going to talk about in here is he's going to talk about what I'm mentioning about seeing that you have a perceptual problem because until you have that admission, there is no chance of accepting forgiveness exactly as it is. It's still going to be a lot of game playing, a lot of distractions, and it's going to involve a lot of time like spinning your wheels and going around and round and round in circles, really going nowhere if you are not able to join your mind with this. So let me just read through this and then we'll launch into this together. This will be our trampoline today. This will be our rocket ship today. We're taking a rocket ship and we actually are going on the rocket ship because we want to go on the rocket ship. We would have no more delay in accepting our true nature, our true identity. And that's the prayer and this will be our rocket ship. Lesson 79. Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved. The problem cannot be solved if you do not know what it is. Even if it is really solved already, you will still have the problem because you will not recognize that it has been solved. This is the situation of the world. The problem of separation, which is really the only problem, has already been solved. Yet the solution is not recognized because the problem is not recognized. Again, if I have economic issues, financial issues, I haven't recognized the problem. If I have relationship issues, grievances, hurts, pains about any relationship that comes to mind in this life or any lifetime, in past lives, in future lives, it doesn't matter. If I have relationship issues, I have not recognized the problem, that I have a perceptual problem. If I have health issues, if I have issues with the environment, I'm too hot, I'm too cold, I'm too hungry, I'm too thirsty, I don't feel comfortable, I don't feel anxious or if I feel depressed or sad or nervous or I'm worrying. Any of those things is simply one thing. I have not admitted the problem. I have not admitted that I have a perceptual problem. So he continues on, everyone in this world seems to have his own special problems. Yet they are all the same and must be recognized as one if the one solution that solves them all is to be accepted. Who can see that a problem has been solved if he thinks the problem is something else? Even if he has given the answer, he cannot see its relevance. So Jesus at one point, he basically calls this world in his workbook a hallucination. At other times in the text in the workbook, he calls it a dream. He calls it passing images. I mean, he has many different names for it. But if you are not willing to accept that you have a perceptual problem and that you are hallucinating, then you must believe that you are perceiving a real world with real issues and real things and real people and real everything. And you are not seeing this as a hallucination. You are seeing it as a reality. Again, even if you begin to start to see the power of your mind and you start to think and believe you have the power to create your own reality, to manifest your dreams, to manifest anything that you want, again I say to you, what makes you think you know what you want? What makes you believe that you actually know what it is that you could manifest that would make you happy? I know some of you have tried this. You are pretty good at this. You are smiling and nodding like, I have done a pretty good job of manifesting actually. So, if you start to realize that even the belief in manifesting still has underneath it some sense of lack in the present moment and still manifesting always still looks to the future. Just like those that meditate for many hours looking for future release, maybe in a number of years or decades, it is still looking for future release or maybe something that is attractive manifesting a house or a car or a boat or a soulmate or whatever manifesting astral travel to other dimensions, on and on and on and on. That is still a denial of the perceptual problem. That is still not confessing that there is a perceptual problem going on. Even if you can astral project to different times and different realms and go visit Cleopatra in the past and go visit different saints in the future and everything it is still not going to help you. You still got the same mosquito of a problem because it is still a time and space problem. You may think that sounds kind of cool but I will tell you, it is not cool at all. This cosmos is made by a death wish and as long as you keep playing around and trying to play around with the images, it just means that you want the death wish instead of the kingdom of heaven, instead of nirvana. So now he says, that is the position in which you find yourself now. You have the answer but you are still uncertain about what the problem is. A long series of different problems seems to confront you and as one is settled the next one and the next arise. There seems to be no end to them. There is no time in which you feel completely free of problems and at peace. The temptation to regard problems as many is the temptation to keep the problem of separation unsolved. The world seems to present you with a vast number of problems each requiring a different answer. This perception places you in a position in which your problem solving must be inadequate and failure is inevitable. Now, I don't know about you but when I read this I was just like, oh hallelujah, Jesus, thank you. Thank you for giving it to me straight. You're not trying to sugar coat this whole thing one bit. You're saying, I'm telling you right now, as long as you have thoughts and concepts in your mind and you think you can define your problems, that just means you think you can define your identity as an identity with problems. And he's basically saying that's really arrogant to think you can do that because God created you perfect and innocent and now you're trying to misdefine yourself and you're so stubborn. You just want to keep at it for hundreds of years, thousands of years. Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn won't come to that simple admission that I have a perceptual problem. That's what reincarnation is and I know these always end up on Facebook the next day as a quote from David Hofmeister, but reincarnation is the stubborn belief that you do not have a perceptual problem. That's what reincarnation comes from. It comes from the stubborn belief, I do not have a perceptual problem. And Jesus is saying, oh yes you do. And until you admit it, you're just going to keep spinning and spinning in time and space like that old TV show back in the 60s, Lost in Space. Danger, Will Robinson. Danger, Sleeping Son of God. Danger, Sleeping Son of God. Lost in space, lost in time and space. That's it. It comes down to that. Now, I know a lot of you are probably thinking, I'm glad that you're being so direct with me here and I'm glad Jesus is so direct and I'm grateful for that, but there's a but. You have the finger going up and you have a but. There's a but happening in your mind. And what the but is, it's like, oh, how? This is always the question. When Jesus gives you, it's so simple. Just accept right now that you have a perceptual problem and then you go, okay, Jesus, how? You know, you have to throw it off with the how question. It's just a single recognition and you have to turn it into some kind of a big how. You have to turn it into some kind of big time process. And you know, oh, okay, give me a technique, Jesus. Give me a good set of techniques for this to recognize it's a perceptual problem. Give me a shortcut. Give me a code. Give me some. Give me the secret. Give me the answer. Is this kind? Is this a riddle? Give it to me. And it's interesting because it's just a recognition that the way I've been looking at the world is is wrong-minded. The way I have been looking at this world is mistaken. It's a goof. It's just a goof. It's an oops. Now, what do you want? You want a process to handle the oops. You know, don't make it so complicated. You know, an admission of a mistake is very, very, very simple. And when you avoid the admission, then you start to say, hmm, maybe I'm not so ready for this admission. What it's really saying is maybe I like to dilly-dally and dingle-dangle in time a bit before I admit that I have a perceptual problem. You know, Jesus is like, you're free to do that. I'm here with you and I'll stay with you to the end of time and I won't leave you. But we're always going to come back to this point of this admission of a perceptual problem. We're always going to come right to this point. We can't go home until we get to this point together until we see that it is so. Now, if you're watching this on your screen, on your Zoom screen, again, you may be thinking, well, maybe that's what worked for you, but you may still think you've got a lot of real problems that you're dealing with, like real, real earthly time-space problems. And that if you don't deal with these problems, some of them, you could die. It could be like a really bad outcome. Like if you don't deal with the problems that you've got in your life, you could just die. And that seems like a pretty serious thing. And yet, what I'm saying is, why do you think we're doing this? Why have we joined for this weekend except to experience mastery through love, except to come as close to eternity as we can to come to the gates of heaven? And why am I talking about the Course and the passages from the Course and the books and the resources? Why do I talk about spirit? Why do I talk about retreats? Why do I talk about community devotional stays? All I'm talking about is you have to at least give it over to the Spirit and say that my personal sense of trying to personally decide my way out of this world has not succeeded. My personal perspective of trying to be in charge of my own awakening has failed. That's a good thing to start with. If I've tried personally to untangle myself from this world, I think you should start off with some honesty and say, I have not succeeded in untangling myself. I have put a lot of effort perhaps and I'm still as tangled as ever. And another thing you could say is, maybe I don't, as Francis was saying, you don't have to get so really intensely caught up into right and wrong in this world. I can't tell you how many people say, did I make a mistake in form? Did I do the right thing? Did I do the wrong thing? Just tell me what my next step is. Tell me what the guidance is. Just tell me what to do. People are right to me. Tell me what to do. Or they're so nervous and they're so anxious about making mistakes in form. There's so much intensity and guilt tied in there. And what Francis was sharing on Friday night was basically, you need to relax. You need to relax. You know, this intensity that you're feeling about right and wrong in terms of the world is just a distraction to keep you from relaxing. And you're not going to really be able to tune into the Holy Spirit if you're in a state of fear or anxiety that blocks the Holy Spirit's voice from awareness. You have to begin to relax. And how can you relax any better than by admitting you have a perceptual problem? That is going to be the key to allow you to start to relax. To stop judging yourself. Right, wrong, positive, negative. Oh my gosh, that self-judgment and self-criticism is depleting. It's depressing. It makes you tired, fatigued. It just is wearing your mind down because your mind wasn't created to be a judge. And so this judgment of the form of judgment of the behavior and judgment of the behaviors of others is very, very debilitating. And you know, also to judge is still denying that it's a perceptual problem. It's not bringing it back to your mind and saying, I am mistaken about everything I perceive. It's saying, no, I'm right about what I perceive. And I did these things right and wrong. And those people did these things right and wrong. And it's trying to be right about judgment instead of admit that I have a perceptual problem. It's so important to come to this admission of a perceptual problem. And also, Francis, maybe you can share a bit about this because when we came together down there in Australia, and I remember that first time you came to like a week, it was a week retreat up in Nusa, it just blew your heart wide open. It went from an intellectual kind of teaching of the course into a wow experience. It was like your mind expanded, your heart opened, and suddenly just somewhere in that first week that we spent together up there in Nusa, you knew that the whole direction of your life would completely change. You knew it was going in a whole different direction than what it had been. And then as you went with that, that was just a strong feeling, you have gone into years of collaboration, years of how can I serve? How can I serve the whole? Years of allowing all the skills and abilities that the ego had developed through education and jobs and so on and so forth, that you've let it all be channelized in one direction. And that's going to be the next thing I want to talk about for all of us because you want to put yourself in a position to see that you have a perceptual problem and you have to just put yourself in a position to be truly helpful, to serve the spirit and to let yourself be taken out of the status quo, out of your past learning, out of this little box that you call your personality self and this personal environment that you've wrapped around the personal self. And Francis, I always used to say that if you had it in the dictionary, a spiritual awakening in the encyclopedia or in the dictionary, it could have a picture of Francis because you have been very dedicated in going for this one experience and relinquishing seemingly letting go of everything that would seem to come in your way. You've dropped it like a hot potato no matter how important it seemed to be as soon as you recognized it as a block, as a distraction, a goal that didn't involve your own self-realization, your own self-actualization, you dropped it like a hot potato. And that's a witness for everyone here who's watching because you were so willing to give yourself over to that first experience and then dive in at that point and never look back. Absolutely never look back. No, yeah, it's very interesting because you talked about Jesus saying to the woman at the well, the woman at the well, drink of me and never be thirsty again. And that was something you said in that very retreat that I went. I remember we were like standing around just a casual chat, somehow that parable came and you said that and I can feel this. I would never want to feel thirsty again, not literally, but this lack, something is not complete. You know, there is this longing that I don't really know what it is heading, but that week gave me a glimpse of there is something else. And once I saw that glimpse, just knowing there is something else and then whatever I had just was meaningless to me from that moment on. I didn't know at the time whether I could achieve a consistent state of living in that glimpse that I had, but all that I knew was meaningless, what was not good enough anymore. And to go for that, that's why the movie Tangled was speaking to me so much and can really send me to that experience because I think the girl who was trapped in a tower and think the mother, the eagle character was loving her and everything she still somehow saw this calling from God as a symbol of the lanterns. That lanterns was the kingdom calling her to celebrate her birthday and she didn't know any of it, but she felt the calling and then if she really started to think about it specifically, okay, what is the meaning of this? It really doesn't mean anything to pursue that because I don't know where it's going to lead. Why do I risk this comfort life as I know it to pursue just to see the lantern, which means nothing in and of itself, but she couldn't hold back from this calling and she went and she saw the lantern and she thought, okay, what next? Now I achieved, but there is no next because she kept going and kept going and her perception, her remembrance just started to come back to her mind and that is what is happening and yet the result of what is at the end was so astonishing nobody is even prepared for that. That's why that experience was so touching to me because it's really beyond anything that I could even think of what this journey is about. But when I was standing on the stage talking about the experience when I first met you, David, ten years ago, I thought ten years, I really, looking back, I was so slow, you know, like why does it take ten years to have to accept what you said, perceptual problem, I have a perceptual problem because if we look at the course, it feels really clear now. Every lesson is Jesus saying the solution is this, the solution is if you think, accept this thought, this one holy thought, all your problems are gone. Here is the solution and what we're doing is looking here, thank you, thank you, I have a health problem, I have a money problem, I don't like my neighbors, they didn't give you what I wanted. Jesus, what do I do about this? Jesus is like, so he kept saying that the answer is given you and yet hasn't received, hasn't been received. So even though he was only dealing with the correction, keep sending the correction and yet we're not accepting the correction because we think something else needs to be corrected. Everything else needs to be corrected except our perception. So we want to accept correction in our health, in our body, in the way we are, in the way other peoples are. So if it's not clear enough, then I feel you David just pointed even more clearly, okay, come on, one problem. That's why Jesus sent the correction at this level because the problem is at this level, perception is a problem. That is really the whole course is saying if we can truly just look away from our own definition about the world and about ourselves, start looking around and then suddenly you realize what I see is not from a perception of love and that brings enormous pain. It's not because out of itself brings us anything, it's the thought system we choose. And Jesus actually said there are two ways to look about this world and from the perception you see, which you choose as your guidance, from the perception that sends the guidance back from whether it's right or wrong in form. What is the perception that tells you which thought system you use as your guidance? So I think this seeming timeline is really the timeline of trying to really accept that, the problem, because once the problem is accepted, once I realize all that I need to do is to change my perception, then that becomes very easy and unified. The focus becomes unified. If I don't have peace, help me see differently, Spirit. Help me see differently, help me see differently. It becomes very, very simple, but before that it was this seeming journey of sorting things out and truly be convinced, truly be convinced to reach this point. So I feel like I honestly can only say that I do not know how this has happened, the perception, how I get to accept that this is a perceptual problem, but I know this is so simple and we can all accept it. And if there is seeming difficulty along the way, if we feel there is still something that gets hold of our mind so strongly that I cannot relax, I cannot relax enough to say, just change my mind, I have to ask something else, then that's Spirit's job. That's Spirit's job and that's what we are saying, okay, while that still happens, there are tools, there are better use of our focus, how do we channel our intention and our time and our mind energy to support, to help the Spirit, to help us change our perception. And I think to keep insisting on the problems and keep insisting on a solution is not really helping the Spirit to help us. So the way like what David was mentioning was that I'm just very grateful because something that is in this tangible way was given me, very clearly, okay, why don't you give your skills and give your mind and time to serve what's helpful for the whole, what's helpful for awakening. I don't know what it is, okay, why don't we accept our collaboration and our guidance together. And it doesn't really matter in form, but the fact that I accept, I want Spirit's guidance, I really do, because I want the Spirit's correction and that does something to the mind. And that is seemingly a journey of keep going, keep going, keep going, but it's a purification of my own mind is to really leap back in this perception that everything is exactly how it is, and it's my choice to see it so or not. And everything that ever happened, all the problems I ever had was only due to this wrong perception. And then that becomes a gleeful realization that feels very light, okay. Now I know the problem, and I also don't have to strive to think I can have the right perception all the time, but I know who to call to. That's all that I feel, all this journey has given me. And yet everything that happened is what needs to happen, because the mind needs to reach a point of acceptance. And I actually just also want to talk before we move forward. I just also just wanted these two paragraphs in the course really also talk about the perception. And I want to just reinforce what David just said from chapter 12. He said, Holy Spirit is invisible, but you can see the results of his presence. And through them, you will learn that he is there. So he basically is saying that your perception, through the perception and through the imitation of that perception, you can see the presence of the Spirit. You can see the presence of love. And that is the goal actually in this realm for us, for all of our work here. And then the section before he said, you do not want the world. The only thing of value in it, in the world, is whatever part of it you look upon with love. So we're talking about valuing what is valuable and what is valueless. And we keep talking about the world is valueless. And yet there was question, what if I really value this, what if I really value that, what to do. But here he says very clear, the only thing of value in this world is whatever part of it you look upon with love. You look upon with love. It points at the perception that gives value to the symbols, not the symbol itself, but you, the loving you give it meaning. You are the light of the world. Your love, your love give anything meaning. And he says this gives it the only reality it will ever have. Its value is not in itself, but yours is in you. As self-value comes from self-extension, so does the perception of self-value come from the extension of loving thoughts, our word. Correction is for all who cannot see. Correction is only necessary for those who cannot see with love. To open the eyes of the blind is the Holy Spirit's mission, for he knows that they have not lost their vision but merely asleep. So I think it's just, it can't be more clear than this. The value of this world, if we still perceive we're in this world, there are still things to do. The value of it is in our perception with love, shining on it. And that brings back, again brings back all the focus of what is valuable, what can I do, all of it back. To how to have a vision, a perception that is being corrected by the Spirit, desire. He said that to see me only takes invitation. That's all it takes, invitation. That's why I feel there is no reason we're not set free now, today. Why does that take forever to just have an invitation for loving perception that shines on absolutely everything? It takes still willingness to not have exceptions. You know, some symbols seems like it's easy, some symbols are very difficult, but the work is to allow that to shine on everything without exception. That's the freedom, that's the correction accepted. That's mastering through love. Jesus is there shining, giving us correction from time begins. Saying this takes only an instant, just an instant with the invitation. So that's where the hope is and that's where the good news is. And that's where, you know, this world can be seen with loving light. Okay, thank you for all the symbols that sent by the Spirit. Now I see, now I see the Spirit in you, now I see everything. And Spirit never says one miracle is harder than the other. Heal your own body is harder than healing other's body. Let's focus on this miracle first because you have difficulty miracles to come. No, he says, once you accept me, miracles are your inheritance. Miracles should be everything you perceive. That's what your perception is going to be like. Spirit is talking to you all the time. Spirit is with you all the time. You don't need to lift a finger for anything because he's there with you to do what is truly helpful to bring this vision back to your mind. It's so loving. Yeah, I think what we can say is that just that admission that I have a perceptual problem opens you, lifts you all the way to the gates and then the gates of heaven. What is heaven? What is the goal? Is the goal to become a teacher of God? No. Is the goal to become a minister of God? No. Is the goal to become an enlightened person? No. Is the goal to become an avatar? No. When you admit that you have a perceptual problem, you are opening towards the one goal that Jesus says you can reach. He actually emphasized that in the workbook. When he starts to talk about, I am the light of the world. When he starts to talk about Christ's vision, he is giving you the goal. You can't reach the goal of Christ's vision until you accept that you have a perceptual problem. It's impossible to pass because as long as you believe you have personal problems, how are you going to accept a vision that is beyond the body's eyes? And Christ's vision is way, way, way beyond the body's eyes. How will you go beyond it? We talked about you have to first accept that you have a perceptual problem. Beyond that, accepting that you have a perceptual problem opens the way instantly, as Francis has been saying, instantly to Christ's vision. It's not like you accept that you have a perceptual problem and Jesus is, Okay, stay in the waiting room and I'll bring you into God the next appointment we've got. You have to just wait. If you accept that you have a perceptual problem, you've just eliminated all the rest. You've just taken all those personal problems and you've eliminated all of them. And then you're ready for Christ's vision. Now, on the panel today, I love looking at all your faces on the panel, but we have a couple really deep, sincere, earnest ones here today. And they're going down the rabbit hole. Muna and Esther, my goodness, the questions that you wrote in are all about personhood. Muna is writing in, this is the last question that I received. She just sent it, but she's basically seeing that as long as she's focused on Muna, there's no hope because Muna and all of Muna's problems are a distraction rejected out by the ego that you would never accept that you have a perceptual problem and never accept yourself as the Christ. Muna has become the great distraction for you, the ultimate idol of thinking that there's this woman that has these unsolvable problems and then you try to run up the mountain and you throw your full effort into solving these abuse issues and all the issues that Muna has and you're thrown back every time because you're down to the common denominator in your question, it's the person of Muna. It's the body of Muna. You couldn't even have a person unless you had a body, right? So it's this belief in the reality of the body that is at the foundation of personhood and that is what is blocking the admission of a perceptual problem because if you have a perceptual problem, that would mean that your personality self and all the issues of that personality self and all the issues of the environment around that personality self, whether it's local or it's national or global or intergalactic, it doesn't matter if you're a Star Trek fan. It doesn't matter. Still the problem comes from taking everything personally. Some of you probably have read Miguel Ruiz's book, The Four Agreements, right? Most of you probably read that. What's one of those four agreements? Don't take anything personally because why? Because if you take it personally, you aren't admitting. You have a perceptual problem. So you have to at some point come off the screen of the world and come back into your mind. And there's a whole section in the course called The Fear to Look Within. Francis and I were talking about that section today. He mentions this throughout the course. Esther brought that up in her question. That your fear of sin is still great. The fear of sin is still just the fear to look within. And Esther was writing me a question and paraphrasing Ramana Maharshi and really coming to the same realization, the same direction of Munna's question. She was basically saying, Who is the I that perceives all these issues? Who is the I that perceives all these problems? You can't experience Christ's vision if you give any value or any credence or any weight to the five senses and what the body perceives. And when I talked the other day, the Saturday morning talk, remember that quote I told you all? Nothing so blinding as perception of form. The sight of form means that understanding has been obscured. The goal of the curriculum, no matter what the teacher you choose, is know thyself. There is nothing else to seek. That's so profound from Jesus. He's just given it to us really straight. And some of you are onto it because whether you're dealing with, as Cheryl, with the death of a husband, whether you're dealing with hormones, and Carly talked about, whether you're dealing with perception. Adriano wrote in a question about preceding bodies and sexual attraction and attraction, almost like attraction to women, like sexual attraction as a prey. All the questions that I've received, when you really come down to the common denominator, you can really see that the personhood, the belief that you're a person, is blocking the admission that you have a perceptual problem. A perceptual problem about the whole screen, about the whole cosmos, about seeing a fragmented world. That's a problem, but you have to admit it in the full extent before you can let it go. As long as you try to play small and play, oh, I'm a person, I'm a human being, I'm only human, born to make mistakes and all this foolishness, as long as you keep trying to play small, what you really have going on in your mind is a fear to look within. You're afraid of the separation. You're afraid that if you go inside, it's going to be dark. It's going to be pitch black. It's going to be dark down there. And then you have Jesus even saying things like, take my hand, and in his workbook, he has the meditations where he says, take my hand and walk with me. I'm going to go down through the darkness with you. I have the light. The entire course is about exposing the darkness. It's about walking through the darkness. It's about facing the darkness. If you read those obstacles to peace, you cannot draw any other interpretation except you need to go with Christ's help to go down through these dark obstacles, including facing death, facing the veil, lifting the final obstacle and the fear of God's love. You see that when you play small, when you play personality self and you put all your focus on all those personal problems that you seem to have and all those problems interacting with the environment from the person, that's all an attempt to avoid going through the darkness. That's what we call staying on the surface of consciousness and playing little. And you're not going to be able to read Lesson 191, I am the Holy Son of God Himself and accept that if you're still wanting to play little. Littleness versus magnitude. Personality self versus Christ's idea self. And what I had noticed when Francis mentioned that lesson today, 191, I went in there and I just could feel the glory and the magnitude of Jesus coming through with that lesson 191 because there's a particular paragraph where when you read it you know that basically he's turning it up. He is giving it to you straight. Let's see if I can find it here. It's the one that it basically talks about all power is giving you. It's number nine. Number nine. So here's what he says and this is like this is like Jesus giving he's like giving it to you with so much strength and power and glory. He's giving it with the certainness of who you really are. He says, you who perceive yourself as weak and frail with futile hopes and devastated dreams born but to die to weep and suffer pain hear this all power is given you given unto you in earth and heaven. I'll say that again in case you missed it. All power is given unto you in earth and heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. You play the game of death of being helpless pitifully tied to disillusion in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord at mercy will its mercy shine on you. When you accord the world mercy what Francis was saying when you look with the Holy Spirit upon love when you extend love anything that you perceive is lit up by that love. It is lit up in that Christ vision and only that shift, that change in mind to accept this Christ vision prepares you for what is beyond Christ vision. In other words if you read the workbook he actually starts to talk in the recent workbook lessons we've been having he's talking about what's beyond but you attained it not through learning what lies beyond Christ vision is direct experience of God. You attained it not through learning. It is so direct that it cannot be meaningfully shared because it's just a direct experience of God's love and there is no sharing because there's no thing that's separate to share anything with but he does say in the course that Christ vision can be shared this is a gift this is the goal of the curriculum to reach Christ vision and that vision is shared with everyone and everything because when you're in that vision you perceive everyone in the same vision. That's the love. That's the love that's the only thing in the realm of perception that can be achieved it's the only goal there is and nothing else is worth the least bit of effort so when I said I read the course for like eight hours a day at the beginning I just actually I just read it as much as I could before my eyes couldn't read anymore. That was about all I could handle was about eight hours a day that was my max I maxed out at eight hours it wasn't like I could do more because I could only do about eight hours a day and again I just popped the book open and I used it kind of as an oracle as there I prayed but what I'm saying is don't put your effort towards anything else other than Christ vision that's the whole point of everything and the ego will try to latch on to any concept you have if you're a teacher of the course the ego will try to turn that into a self-concept. If you're a miracle worker then the ego will try to turn that into a self-concept the ego will try to turn anything you can come up with even if you go I am now an avatar I am the avatar you know Christ vision is beyond the avatar the Christ vision sees that Hitler and the avatar are actually the same how's that for Christ vision you know that's how powerful Christ vision is don't be settling for an avatar oh my gosh that's so tiny because what avatars are still what persons what goes beyond beyond Jesus beyond Buddha what goes beyond Ramana beyond David's what goes beyond Hitler what goes beyond Mussolini what goes beyond Saddam Hussein Osama bin Laden what goes beyond male and female what goes beyond masculine and feminine what goes beyond all duality Christ vision and this book that we have is actually telling us that we can go for that goal of Christ vision Christ vision look upon everything with love absolute divine love seeing no error imagine seeing no error only looking with love upon everything and then Jesus tells us even this vision this happy dream this forgiven world that you experience with Christ vision that's not even the final thing God will take the final step and take you higher beyond Christ vision that's how much love God is God is actually beyond the because God is not a learning goal you know you can still attain and achieve Christ vision that's what Jesus is our demonstration of but then the I am presence the eternal I am Christ I am one with God the eternal spirit is even beyond Christ vision but that's why you really need to remember what we've talked about here there was an Eddie Rabbit song about first step ask her out and treat her like a lady second step tell her you're the one she's the one you're dreaming of okay I'm giving you three new steps forget Eddie Rabbit first step admit you have a perceptual problem second step Christ vision and then hold on you can let go of even your Christ vision because here comes God and God transcends Christ vision that puts everything in perspective just one admission that you have a perceptual problem opens the gates wide to the Christ vision which will come instantly and then what is beyond Christ vision it will come fast too fast fast fast fast it's the opposite of this world this is slow slow slow slow this is the merrily merrily merrily in the row row row your boat this is what it's referring to and what I mean by this is if you accept your one problem is separation which is what the perceptual problem is then you can go beyond to the correction beyond the correction to pure beingness pure spirit pure oneness there is an interesting term that Jesus uses in the course and it's called dissociation and dissociation is the attempt to maintain in your mind two irreconcilable thought systems one of love and one of fear so dissociation is a key defense mechanism that enables you to believe that you can maintain both love and fear in the same mind it never happened one perfect love cast out fear and there's no way that love and fear can coexist but the thing is here's the key when you accept that you have a perceptual problem you bring all the problems off the world you bring in the cancer and the heart disease the volcanoes erupting the death of the body all the struggles of inequality you bring back, you reel back off of the screen of the cosmos into your mind all the problems and you whittle them down into one which is separation and when you bring separation back off the screen back off the projection into your mind you reverse the dissociation because the dissociation was forgetting that you had light forgetting the separation from God and getting lost into a state of complete dissociation the only way that you heal is by bringing the problem back to the mind where the light is the light is not in the images but the light is like Francis was saying is the love in your mind and it can look upon all things when you come back into your mind but this world was made to keep you mindless this world was to forget that you even had a mind and be so associated with the body and oh I have a brain now and to think that the brain thinks brains don't think brains don't even they weren't even created how can they think how can gray matter think it's not it's just a blob of gray stuff it's come on don't even give it the power of thought brains don't think brains had little electrical impulses but those aren't thoughts you know to think that those electrical impulses Jesus says our thoughts is like holding up a match stick to the sun that's how how tiny those little illusory electrical impulses are compared to the sun that little match stick so what I'm telling you is bring love and fear together in your mind and the fear will disappear don't project the fear out onto the body don't project the fear onto your neighbor onto your partner don't project the fear onto the political system if onto political figures if you feel that politicians are the problem you are projecting the fear from your mind from the belief in separation onto the politicians and thereby keeping the mesmerism and the dissociation going where it seems like you can maintain light and love and fear both in your mind if you bring them together one will disappear perfect love casts out fear if you bring that fear in off the screen that fear will surely disappear because light shines away darkness but if you project it out if you blame anything of this world going back to that mosquito if you blame that mosquito for your discomfort that's a case of dissociation of trying to keep love and fear both in the mind bring them together and they will not coexist this is so simple it's very simple but you have to practice it you actually have to give your mind over to it and practice it with absolutely everything that crosses your mind you can't let one little scrap of ego thought attack that one projection you can't give way to it because if you give way to it then you're not admitting you have a perceptual problem that's so beautiful David I was just thinking that we were talking when I was in Spain we were talking about the movie 51st date I think Jason showed a clip yesterday but that's exactly how from the Holy Spirit's perspective Adam Sandler's character how from the Holy Spirit's perspective how much love there is to try absolutely everything to remind the mind that is forgetting forgetting the love that they share that's what the Spirit is doing to us that's why we dedicate this retreat to master of love because of who is there calling us to wake up he's saying that's okay I have endless tools I can use movies I can make little clips I can use different characters I remind you every morning if you forget this morning that's fine I'll keep reminding you I'll keep reminding you but for the Drew Barrymore character she doesn't even know the problem she does not even know what the problem is let's be humble she cannot wake herself up she does not even know she had a problem and all she can do is to link up with Adam Sandler and in trust in giving herself over to the presenting steps and the tools and then she will open up and open up so I just feel that was such a vivid metaphor or demonstration of this assignment that we have we have with each other we have with the Spirit in this seeming perceptual world that's really the only thing do you think Drew Barrymore needs to do anything else other than remembering do you think she needs to solve all her little problems what is more important than that can she do it of herself she can't she completely was oblivious of who she was and what the problem was let alone the solution so this let's just accept this is how it is the mind that lost Christ vision actually does not know anymore what is helpful to wake itself up we really have to come back to this humbleness and not in victimhood or smallness or weakness but just to accept this humbleness so that we can truly open our mind up to even want to see with the Spirit a lot of arrogance to think I know my problems I don't have a seeing problem I can see okay I can know okay I know how to define my world okay but I don't know this but let's just come back to this humbleness today and remember that metaphor the Spirit is just showering us with tools and steps but for that same reason just calling us I want to bring you back to your memory I want you to bring back and the Christ vision or the admitting of the perceptual problem is what we can do in this in this world so that's beautiful you can see where practicing is going to be important so you know how some people have alarm clocks that you can program to wake up to a certain radio station or whatever imagine if you had an alarm clock in the morning and all it did was go I have a perceptual problem that was all it did you know it went that's all it did I have a perceptual problem and imagine that every day you woke up and the first words that you heard where I have a perceptual problem and you started to like take it in like oh yeah that's right I start the day every day with one thing and then maybe maybe you forget that during the day and you think you have other problems and then maybe you get a little eye watch like I've got and now they're making these watches we're going to try to work on watches that are hooked up to Siri on your phone and eventually when you're the watches can measure your pulse rate but as soon as that pulse rate goes up instead of hooking into spirit that may come in the future but imagine every time your pulse rate goes up that the watch speaks to you and says I have a perceptual problem every time your pulse rate goes up I have a perceptual problem and if you have a stressful day you've got to listen to that every single time your heart rate goes up your pulse goes up I have a perceptual problem you see this is what the thing was about Drew Barrymore in the N50 first dates is he ended up he ended up making a scrapbook into a video and then the last we'll say seven, eight years after they dated and then we see in Alaska they're up in a ship in Alaska and the little girl is however old but all those years of marrying her and having that little girl and the fathers they're also on the boat every single morning she woke up with that video wouldn't it be nice she got to remember the separation the accident, the crash and she got to see all the helpers and she was reminded that she could see the world in a new way she was kind of received her update every morning for all those years and then she comes out on the deck and she sees her little girl and she sees her husband and he's loved her so much by giving her those reminders making that video for her to play the first thing every morning that's what the course is really doing it's saying I'm going to give you these profound ideas and the more you can really give your heart to them in practice I will lift you up you are personally going to do it you just have to have that little willingness you just have to have the desire to be happy the desire to be happy and then the light just keeps lifting you and lifting you and lifting you until you finally go I have a perceptual problem and then suddenly Christ's vision comes and then suddenly before you know it it's only love it's only light you are the kingdom of heaven Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is within you the word within is unnecessary the kingdom of heaven is you he says in the course is you that's the third step the kingdom of heaven is me but before you come to it you've come to the perceptual problem and you've got to go for the Christ vision I'm telling you you can't skip steps you can't skip over the Christ vision you can't just click your heels together there's no place like home first then and then there it is wow, we are really cooking here wow wow, wow, wow so precious, so precious at one time I did a dialogue with a friend of mine in maybe in Cincinnati or Kentucky and we went so deep in the dialogue that there were so many spaces between my words because I was starting to get drunk on love, you know, I mean I couldn't I would say whisper a word and I would whisper a word but I was getting so drunk in love into the mystical experience and then somebody actually recorded this and so you hear these long spaces and there's these long, long spaces and then finally after all these long spaces she she says to me I think I'm going to forget this can you remind me about this tomorrow and what the Spirit said was leeway like there is no tomorrow it was so cool how the whole thing went into an experience of such joy and such happiness that when it was said can you remind me of this tomorrow there was the Spirit had no answer except to say leeway like you still want, you don't want to accept it now come on in come in with this now come in with this, in with me now and let's never leave let's never leave this let's stay here, now with all that is with all that ever will be right now now that is mastery through love that's it oh my such dear ones, thank you we start with Francis being speechless now all of us are speechless we're all Julie you're so beautiful we put Julie on the screen I would like to see her thank you everyone I mean I hope you can feel the invitation in our hearts it's so wide open and it's the only thing we live for and we watch as Christ calls everyone up up out of this world and and I just can say along with this invitation is we have such trust we have trust and we know that you will follow and succeed we know that your heart will carry you there absolutely certain and so when you feel your heart opening and you feel a strong guidance or a prompt trust that and and I know if you call her right to me I'm just gonna reinforce it and I'm gonna cheer you on like all of the angels and and that's what we want for all of you is to just go for it to go for this gold Christ vision and and let nothing stop you let nothing let no thought hold you back we cannot fail we cannot fail in this so I leave you with that I leave you with that big huge big hearted invitation come come unto me who are weary and I shall give you rest and Francis you want to share a benediction with all of us a final blessing yes thank you because I I feel like you're all with me like Jesus said when I awake you're all with me do you think I will wake myself and then leave all your behind it's impossible and that's why I feel this honor too because I sometimes I have this kind of opportunities to speak to you guys or to anybody and I always ask myself what is what is this for and I think I think this is for me to to be able to share my gratitude to the spirit that is the only reason because there's just so much gratitude in my heart for what has been given me and I just feel like I want to share it with you whenever I can and I trust that you share the same in your heart and you can allow that to come out and to shine and we're in this together forever so I'm so honored that you can show up you can answer this call in your heart and I really don't take it for granted that you are here so I want you to remember that for yourself you are an answering answerer to the call and that's good enough so thank you okay well another amazing experience