 It's Earth can seem like a stretch. It's a real strong body identification or just like to use my diagram over here. If I'm convinced, if I believe that this is my reality, not only the body but the private mind that goes along with the body, you know, if I really believe in private mind and that this is my identity, then all those lessons that I have got created me and I am the light of the world and everything, they can seem to be like a big, big, big stretch, almost unfathomable. It sounds sentimentally nice a lot of times when people, someone who has a real strong investment in the body, it sounds like it sounds good, but what we want to do is we want to question so deeply the beliefs and just throw everything out on the table that we just, the ego can't hide when it's put out, when it's not hidden, when it's laid out on the table to just be. You were talking this morning, Linda, about at one point when we were reading one of the lessons that I just realized that my mind was like wanting to be drawn other places and I wasn't even listening to what was going on. Right. It was the lesson where we hit three legs that I've already loved. I don't remember the lesson now. 162. 162. And we've had two others that had to say a topic and, you know, I could stay with those. We got to that one and Rhonda finished reading and I thought, I don't know what she said. And it didn't hear words. It didn't hear words. It didn't hear words. No. Do you remember what it was? Because I remember you went back and you looked at it again to yourself, and where was it that I went off? And you recognized where it was? Where it was. I'm real good at blacking. It was 162. I remember it all came back to the idea that you thought you were going to have to give something up to experience that I am as God created me, that there was going to be a sacrifice called for. And that sacrifice was me. The power was perceived. That's pretty good. You might think it's going to be the cost. And see, I've already forgotten it totally. You know, blacking it right out. But I thought it was really good that you were able to go back and see what it was that you read and you said, okay, no thank you. I'm not going any further. Shut down. Yeah, totally. Because when she finished, I thought, I've got to read that again because I can't meditate on that because I don't know what's that. And it was good to be able to recognize that when you said to start to squeeze, uncover it a little bit because we talked about the exact thing. It was like, why would I not want to know about I am as God created me? Why would I be resistant to that? That sounds wonderful. Why would I want to wander off somewhere and not hear what he has to say? It has to be because what I perceive as the cost of that is something that I value dearly. And that's what you identify. Unfortunately. Well, that doesn't necessarily start because that's certainly a big one that has to be looked at. But I think Teresini sort of points out too that sometimes when you get into denial because it says, if this thought is held firmly in mind, it can save the world. And to think that you are as God created you, again, is such a tremendous thing that, again, in our loneliness, we couldn't possibly reveal all that denial that we as God created us. It's perfectly sinless being that has everything. You have to really question. The thing I've noticed is we have to question all of the littleness. It can even seem like it's humble. I think the word sometimes is realistic. Oh, let's all be realistic now. It's like that false humility too of saying, well, I'm not there. I know that I've got a long way to go. Well, that's something that has to really be questioned because Jesus said that's very arrogant. Who's saying that? The Christ? I've got a long way to go. I'm not there yet. I don't think so. It doesn't quite go together. So we have to question personhood. We have to question private minds. We have to question linear time. And also this thing about, like you're talking about giving us Jesus, to be as I am that God created me, I have to give up this seeming sense of self. Another way that we could bring it back to kind of relate to it a little bit from a different angle would be I was sharing in Adrian this whole thing of relationships in the sense that it seems like two people come together and like you were saying, I want the house to look nice. I want to be clean. I want to make a good impression. We could call it the initial meeting and the initial dating is make a good impression. Don't unload and the first date is the world teaches everything about yourself. You may not have a second date. You may never ever get a second date. So just let some of your positive aspects shine and come through carefully discern and be discreet. Feel you way along. Feel you way along so you don't blow it on the first date. And then there will be the second day a little bit more and then a little bit more as you go along. And you, what? You get a few, well I never do that about you. I have to think about that one. But as you go along basically it's like there was a book written one time. Do I have to give up me to be loved by you? You know that the ego wants the sense of closeness and intimacy. Well let's share certain illusions. Maybe we have certain things that we believe in or certain things we can pursue that theme in the world by commonality. And that's good news for the relationship. That's seen as a stable relationship. But we don't want to completely fuse. According to the ego's logic because that would be losing the sense of myself. That would be giving me out. That would be losing my uniqueness. That would be completely confusing. And the ego, that's the last thing that it wants would be a total union. And what it wants is it wants the bodies to be together. It wants the companionship as it defines it and everything. And it wants to keep on the separate lines. Even so called the best of marriages. Well we don't agree on everything. What can you expect? We're human beings. Jesus is saying to come to the awareness of the right mind. To come to divine mind. That you need to come to a place where there's a total merging or a total agreement. In other words what would that be? It's like wow that seems like an awful high goal. To have perfect union and harmony in a relationship seems like quality. The old way is you've got to take the good with the bad. You've got to compromise. I always thought compromise was a pretty good term. That's a good thing for relationships. You've got to compromise. Not with the course. You're getting there and he's saying no. Salvation is no compromise of any kind. That's the Holy Spirit. That's the union and the harmony. That would be like to accept the Holy Spirit as the goal for your relationship and the goal goal to say I'm going to, anything that's any separate interest that I have I would want to bring to the Holy Spirit so that I could be right minded to speak. So that would be the merging. That would be the part, that would be the higher superordinate goal is above the specific separate interest. The Holy Spirit is above persons even. The Holy Spirit is a reminder that minds are joined to even go beyond that. His mind is one. And again, to the ego, the Holy Spirit is the biggest threat to the relationship. Gip wants the relationship to be bodies together. I've talked about bodies under the same roof. You've heard of those marriages where people, two bodies are together for 50 or 60 years. And the quality of life or the communication may be limited to watching the grass grow together or watching TV. Hey, what do you think about so and so? What do you think about them? That sports theme or... My, isn't it lovely weather today? Two hours later. Don't you think it's a nice day today? Then two hours later. My, isn't it a lovely day today? I'm like, you know, the ego is like, that's safe. Or even, you know, taking it away from that stream and saying, you know, we have really good communication. We talk about our feelings. We talk about what we think. And we talk about everything, almost. There's some things we're just kind of... It's not good to get into because, boy, that's just things blow up to finances. We just kind of, you know, we don't get into that. But we can talk about the kids. We can talk about, you know, what house to buy or something. But these things, it's best just to kind of avoid it or tiptoe around. Or you do your thing. I'll do mine. I won't ask you any questions. You don't ask me any questions. And then we'll be happy. To me, that seems to be, you know, less away from the extreme and more of what at least I've experienced. To say, well, that doesn't seem like a bad thing. I think it's okay to have my interests apart from you and, you know, my things that I do and you may not agree, but, you know, you don't have to agree with everything I do and everything I buy or everything I think. I'll do what I do and you do what you do. Go your way, I got mine. In other areas, we can come together and we can have what seems like this union. It's like, oh, this is union, you know. We're joined in these things. But there are a few that, you know, just will never, will never agree on everything. And who does? That's the best you can. It's kind of like bringing someone over to a family and saying, now, when we go in, whatever you do, don't bring up politics, you know, or you just pick the topic, Gary, because it's like, it's this big hot mess and there's a strong, seeming strong opinion. I'm right about this. I know this candidate, I know this party is better, you know, or, you know, just pick your spot, but there's always areas that are hidden in that. And that's what's so great about when we come together to examine these things, because, you know, it's great. If you want to bring up the realm of politics, if you want to bring up the realm of environment, you know, ecological issues, if you want to bring up abortion, if you want to bring up racism, if you want to bring up sexism, if you want to bring up nuclear disarmament or the military, you know, any of those things, as we throw these out, if anything's crossing your mind or anything, there seems to be charges on them, or anything that you really seem to have a pretty strong opinion on, that you're pretty polarized on one side or the other of those, those would all be excellent things to bring up during our week seminars. It's not personal. I mean, that's the beautiful thing about the ego is that there aren't any personal issues. And that's the thing that a lot of times people see the fear so fear the most about revealing or a thing that, I mean, we had a woman in Adrian where she said, gosh, I can't believe what I've said today. I just spilled my guts for 20, 30 years. I've been holding these little things around, thinking it was stupid. I'm dumb to even hold on to them, but I can't tell anybody about them, but anyway, and she just started fucking getting rolling. She got rolling. She just, like, empties out. She went, whew, gosh, oh my. It was like, it wasn't personal. It wasn't, she wasn't carrying that thing of stuff around. And also, they do something with it. Again, we were tracing it through and unveiling it as, yeah, this is just ego thinking. This isn't your thinking, this is ego thinking. And it only felt like a load because it felt like her thinking to her. It felt like that's who she was, that's how she thought of herself. But I know just what I'm having is, I wonder how this is for you, Lynette, with all the ideas that we've brought out and been talking about. Because you said before we started that you haven't really studied the course that you bought the books this week and flipped open a little bit. But the only problem I'm having at this point is staying awake. I have to admit that. Boy, this is my time here. Well, I probably didn't need to get up and get some oxygen in my bloodstream. But as far as the concept, I'm trying to...