 Welcome everyone. So grateful you're here with us. Wow, what a huge topic we have for this retreat. This is a juicy topic because there's so many nuances to it and there are a lot of questions. Again, we ask you to write in your questions and your prayers and your experiences. And yep, we have another book here. So we've started to go through it. But always with Friday night we just want to really welcome everyone because yeah, we're just going to take this journey together this weekend and really go into guidance in a very practical way. And I guess for many of you who have a course in Miracles as your practice, you might say in terms of spiritual practice that guidance is a really a central piece of working with the Course in Miracles. There are a number of pathways to God. Some of them are non-dualistic. Some of them involve meditation, long periods of meditation. Some of them involve adherence to rituals. I think a lot of monasteries and convents traditionally have involved lots and lots of rituals with the monks and the nuns wake up sometimes at 4 or 5 in the morning and then do a huge amount of rituals throughout the day. Usually with their attention on God, even though their mind is drawn into all kinds of other things, you might say distracting ego thoughts. But the pathway of the Course in Miracles is definitely a pathway of learning to be in touch with your higher self, the Holy Spirit, your intuition, your guidance. And this is something that you might say is designed to save time. So that's why it's so important on the pathway of a Course in Miracles because you're being asked to go through a transformation of consciousness and you could say in which you start off being very, very identified with the body, heavily invested in the body and the things of this world. And then you go through a phase where you start questioning and raising beliefs into awareness to be questioned. And then as you question the belief system in the mind, including some questions of beliefs that seem to be even unconscious as they're flushed up into awareness, then you do go through a phase of we call it being done through. So you go from being heavily invested in the doer to going done through and then as you go much further with being done through, you might say you go beneath the ego's thoughts of identification with the world and the body and you sink down toward the light and then you are literally undone from the ego and are able to merge with the light. So that's the context for it and often times we could say just at the beginning, a lot of times people think of guidance so associated with the future. What am I going to do with my life? Holy Spirit, Jesus, what are you going to make of me? Where are you going to take me? Will I even be able to recognize myself when you're through with all this guidance? And it's very associated with the future but I think we want to start to have you relax a bit about that because actually it's not like the secret or law of attraction where you're just going to have Jesus in the Holy Spirit. Use your mind to manifest a better future than your past. That's kind of a simplistic way of thinking of guidance as if it applies to, oh, if I learn to be guided then the Holy Spirit will give me a better world in the future than I had in the past. It could be thought of as a world where you learn less and less to compare, to contrast, to analyze and you move towards acceptance but it's not like you're trying to manifest a specific future and you need guidance to fuel your manifestation of a better future. Actually all guidance is designed to take you to the Holy Instant, to take you into the present moment, to take you into the keyhole back into eternity. So then you can relax a bit. Oh yeah, okay. The guidance is for me to become fully present, not about generating a better future. That self-concept that you have believed you are, the body personality and the cosmos may seem to undergo some seeming shifts and changes but ultimately it's just taking you to like a leap off point to go to the light and to take you into the present moment. So I just wanted to say that up front because a lot of times people put so much pressure on themselves about getting guidance for the future and I'm saying no, no, relax. This guidance is just totally designed to take you into the Holy Instant. That's the point of it. It's not about making the world a better place. It's not about saving the world as if there's an external world that needs to be saved. It's actually bringing your mind back to its natural condition of peace and stillness. A son of God can only be happy in the environment in which the son was created. Well, that's heaven. So it's great when Jesus tells us, listen, I'll make it easy for you. You can only be purely happy in heaven because you're a child of God and you were created as a spirit and you're happy when you know you're spirit. As long as you still are identified with the images, there's going to have to be an undoing. We were talking at the beginning how even this undoing of the ego, Jesus has six stages of the development of trust because trust is key in letting the ego go. But four of the six stages are challenging, difficult, disorienting. Four of the six stages are difficult, which gives you kind of a little bit of an idea how it's going to feel at times like a dismantling going on. You can feel a lot of confusion and disorientation with this dismantling, but Jesus says, don't worry, it will be much shorter this period of confusion and disorientation than the time it took to fix your mind so firmly on illusions. It's shorter to let it go than all the... He doesn't even tell us how many years or millennium we've been building this false matrix, but he's telling us it's going to be shorter letting it go than it was in building it. But it will be uncomfortable at times, and so he's kind of trying to give us a realistic picture of that. So this is our Friday welcoming. We're just here welcoming you. And I know, Francis, you love this topic. We both can talk on this till the cows come home. Yeah, I do. And yeah, I just also want to join David in welcoming you all to join us because I know that this probably is the one thing that really defined this whole journey for me. Even I would say when I had the course and studied it, had a study group, facilitated a study group, but it's not that part of my journey that defines what this journey is about until I really jump into this style of living. And I would say that I had so many questions about guidance before really jumping into this life because I thought this is the most understandable thing based on my frame of thinking. How is this... I don't understand it. And I had a lot of questions at the beginning. So really what we're here trying to do this weekend is trying to put in words and have us all join together in a state of mind to tap into a different way of thinking and a different style of living, really, because I think we all know that just even you joining this weekend is because we know that this practice has to be integrated in every single part of our life. It has to be practical. So guidance is the practical application as our topic of this retreat is saying it is a direct pathway to God because this is where we cannot just talk about the concept. And we are reading all of your questions. They're all about how exactly do I apply it in my life. And I feel like behind it is a question that I am ready to use every symbol in my life and to give those symbol over and to have spirit guide those symbols and guide my life in order to achieve a more expensive state of mind and we join you in that in this weekend. That's our purpose. Yeah, that's it. We are so joined and really I have to say your prayers and your questions really show the depth that you care about this topic. And because you go into so many different nuances about it like if it's a diamond you're like okay let's look at all the facets of the diamond. So after we come through this weekend retreat there will be a much clearer understanding and feel for the topic of guidance. I remember I think Anne Farrington basically was we've talked during the week on Wednesday and Anne you were saying oh I think I'll maybe I'd like to talk to you but maybe I'll get my chance here in the weekend but you actually wrote it out. Your one question that maybe you were having on the top of your head was one too about going to MMT and watching some of the videos and the audios talking about how guidance works through attraction and you were saying I don't know if I actually get that you know it's not like when I'm being guided I'm thinking oh yes I'm so attracted to this is probably some ego resistance and maybe even a lot of it coming up and it was beautiful because when you ask the question it started to remind me of the guidance that I've received over many many years and how in the past it was like the David character the mind and thought it was David basically had had these preferences these values these beliefs these daily thoughts and a pretty fixed perception of the self-concept of a self that was made to take the place of the Christ of a self that had adapted and adjusted to the world oh there's a grade school junior high high school and then ten years of university on top all developing and shaping a self-concept which is supposed to take the place of my divine reality and then I remember as I got into the course and started practicing the course and following these inner prompts that I would have it wasn't so much that I I could actually see what it was that I was was attracted to and the guidance but I experienced a lot of what I would call whims where I got so focused on the mind training on following my little nudges and prompts that it's as if the Holy Spirit and Jesus know our ego preference system our ego belief system and then with Jesus knowing our preference systems he's like okay I got a lot lot for you I want you to do I want you to travel travel hmm yeah you know I don't like to travel yeah and I'm going to speak through you you know I'm was voted most quiet in my senior class and I don't like to speak I didn't have a lot of friends in high school I didn't have a lot of friends in university and you went to now use me for speaking for you are you crazy I mean it's like travel and speaking those are not things that that I would identify as strong points at all I would say I don't know I don't know the ins and outs of traveling and I don't know where I'm going to get the money to travel that's another big one and I don't know about this speaking let it being used in the speaking function but yet as I seem to go through the process of traveling lots of emotions coming out fears doubts oh my gosh am I going to make it I'm going to die out on the road all those kind of things that it's like where I went and the foods that were offered to me the places I was offered to stay the use our use our swimming pool I like that use our tennis courts hmm what that's an interesting synchronicity you know all these things that were part of the preference system of David were getting used but it wasn't David seeking them I wasn't in my car okay the secret law of attraction let's manifest the tennis court let's manifest the swimming pool let's man manifest the foods that I like you know which is kind of more trying to use the power of the mind to bring something in from the future that that is liked that I'm attracted to is more like Jesus is like do the mind training work on the forgiveness follow those nudges and prompts and I'll give you a little whims along the way like little little things that you find attractive and I know you find them attractive so I'm going to sprinkle a lot of breadcrumbs on your awakening journey with the things that you are attracted to I saw Kirsten's on on with us tonight too and she was always attracted to to water she she grew up in New Zealand she was attracted to to water and we would have pools and lakes and oceans and so forth coming in ice cream you know when we really needed the ice cream the ice cream Jesus brings in the ice cream because there was it was part of the preference system but it's not the focal point of of the guidance to bring in things that you like the ego has just been doing that historically for millennium you know here I'll make a face fake world here's some cheese just keep and I'll let you get the cheese every once in a while but you work hard earn that money and go spend it on all the things that you like and prefer and then just grow old and get sick and die and then keep coming back and doing the same game pursuing the the ego desires for distractions really to keep us away from heaven to keep us from knowing who we really are so thank you and for for bringing that up because that's one of those nuances about what does it mean to be that the Holy Spirit uses attraction it's it's like the spirit Jesus they use it so that you can really stay devoted to the mind training to the dismantling to the to the undoing and to the miracles and then these are like little signs and symbols that are like little winks from Jesus like I know you like that to just did you catch that how this happened that happened I know that that was important in your journey too because there were these little things even with the film you enjoyed films I enjoy films Sava enjoys music but none of us believed I would be traveling talking about the course all over the world you never believed you know really that you would get into filmmaking or use that as a mechanism Sava is just working on her second album and and it's it's it's not easy for the ego because it's she didn't see herself as a as a writer a composer a singer a recording artist and now doing mixing mastering doing like all the aspects including playing instruments that she either had never played a guitar or a playing the keyboard which she hadn't played for many many years that she was a child so we're giving you a clue that the spirit will activate and use things that you you may not initially be drawn to like for me travel and speaking or it can come in this is kind of the method that the spirit uses to to show us that we can be done through even though we may think I don't even have a clue how I would do such a thing if we're willing to be used then the spirit will expand our awareness by bringing through these skills abilities tasks it's not really it's not even about taking our skills and making the skills better it's more channelizing our skills in the direction of loosening from our identity with the body and and taking us more toward the light sometimes people think well I have certain skills and abilities maybe the spirit is just going to take my strong points and make them stronger it's not usually going that way the spirit is not big on skills the spirit is more big on what's the purpose for the skills how can I channelize all the skills in the direction of forgiveness not about taking strong points and making them stronger not about having a self-concept and making a stronger self-concept it's actually designed to dismantle the self-concept yeah and I think maybe it is even helpful to just zoom out from specific guidance because when we get into the specific guidance sometimes we get really caught into you know these are the A option and B option which one and I'm not hearing anything and if I hear one thing you know the ego always want to come back and assess and judge are you doing the right thing but I think really you know following the spirit in the end we realize that it is this overall purpose you know is this really our sincere desire to want to have God's love fill our heart is this really the desire of our heart and is this the only desire of our heart and if it is the only desire of our heart then everything in our life is fit into this then use it use it to achieve this purpose and I bet when David you know I like the parable when you say when you realize Jesus says in the Course you either you either learn the Course a hundred percent or not at all and you said okay then a hundred percent a hundred percent and I sometimes listen to that parable and I think that is saying a hundred percent I want to know the spirit and I want to know however you know the spirit meets each other meets another person how the spirit would meet the situation how the spirit would forgive so that the overall goal is unwaveringly so that I can have I can learn love I can learn I can have this love fill out my heart and with that being the overall goal that I can guarantee you everything becomes more like a flow and instead of a decision-by-decision struggle and that's why you know when Slava comes here the music would pour through but it's not like she would pray every day you know I don't know what my function is today it's like suddenly it becomes given and it's like when we make a big decision to say yes to God and we really mean it and that is what I was thinking you know how do we really make different decisions every single day or are we making the same decisions over and over and over and this decision is always that is this God that I'm choosing and if yes then I say yes to whatever form that is going to come my way and trust that so and I can tell you yes it's very attractive that when we say yes to the spirit the spirit actually wants to shower our love in a way with the most little things and that's why sometimes we use the word attraction because it's like wow I can still do that I can still have that yeah like we're so loved like that was my experience that as we really deeply commit and say yes to God then there's usually I always say you know you get showered with these symbols and these whims almost just the slightest when you make the big yes in your heart then there's a lot of symbols that get used to say thank you thank you for voting your life to this thank you for pouring your heart into this thank you for putting your mind energy in this way and that's really important and then the ego always is trying to make guidance into a very simplistic kind of a form simplistic goal that is unattainable in its eyes and then it wants you to feel depressed discouraged because many times when the mind when we're talking about guidance then people start to think about hearing guidance and then you say hearing guidance what's that well I want to hear guidance like Helen Shuckman took it down I want to hear it word for word it's okay if it's rapid you know I'll be patient I'll go as fast as I want I want that guidance to be in words that I can follow and Jesus says that very few can hear the voice for God directly He even says it's rare so the ego is setting up a very difficult and rare outcome for its definition of guidance so that there's many of the questions that come in I wish I could discern the guidance I wish I could hear and everything at the beginning I could not hear the voice of Jesus at the very beginning but I used the Course in Miracles as an oracle I would just pray and open it up and get my guidance that way I was like hallelujah that this works I don't care if I can hear or not but I've got this oracle here and I'm going to pray and I'm going to open the book up spontaneously like an oracle and I'm going to get my answers that way and then I could also see though that the ego wants to make this goal about hearing so that you can feel frustrated and really discouraged and depressed and as Francis was saying it would like to set up these simple things like okay am I supposed to do this or this you see how it's very simplistic alright Jesus give me a sign do I have to use kinesiology or do I need a pendulum or do I need something pick a card or something like flip a coin the mind is desperate to get that guidance in some kind of simplistic way where you may have option A and B which you've just come up with and now you're presuming that it's one of these two and so at the beginning I thought I'm not going to get all spastic and frustrated about this guidance thing I think I'm just going to use all of my heart to say I'm coming to you God with everything I've got I'm going to give you 100% of my devotion it's a definite yes and now I'm going to put it on you make it obvious you make it obvious if I can't hear your voice then you make it obvious with the signs and symbols in the world you make it so obvious that I'll be able to see what it is that I'm to do and I think many of us have had that experience where we do pray make it obvious and then something happens and it's so striking now the ego may not like the obviousness it may go oh come on you can't expect me but there are things that happen that are very very direct and they're like huge signs yeah it's like even in today's lesson I want the peace of God Jesus says for those who sincerely want this the how or the mean will be giving you in a form that you cannot miss but if that is not the sincere or the sincere desire then the means will not recognize so he puts it right back to do you really mean it you devote the whole day to practice and to see whether you really mean this simple prayer I want the peace of God so I think guidance is so sometimes I remember the beginning when David talks about his earlier experience when you started to hear Jesus saying oh you missed the key or you need to turn right or left it wasn't like you're constantly praying but it just comes like unexpectedly as you're going along holding that prayer in your heart I want God I want to give my life and then boom the direction comes and you're like where is this coming from okay I will follow so it becomes like you know it's back on Jesus exactly like that yeah you lead I will follow like this whole guidance thing is on you you're the one that has to give me the guidance and then I will follow it so we're just trying to loosen it up from all of these false egoic constructs like a lot of times you know people will say okay like here I'll write it down there's a thousand things that I want out of my life in this world and I would be happy if you could just give me like 10% okay that'll be the guidance you pick on the thousand things that I want out of the world you give me maybe 10% maybe 5% you know it's okay but you just bring those to me and then I'll be happy and it's like Jesus is always leading us is it passing or is it everlasting is it temporary or is it eternal is it finite or is it infinite you see these are the this is the standard for the guidance because the eternal and the infinite and the everlasting that's the holy instant and leading us to eternity to believe we want from this world to be happy because Jesus is saying well actually this world that you made you invented you believed in the ego it invented a time-space world and now you keep looking to these images in the world trying to decide how you're going to get the things that you believe you want and you believe will bring you happiness when Jesus is saying none of them they're all temporary none of them will content the Holy Son of God when you decide upon the form of what you want he says in the Beyond O' Idol section he says you lose the understanding of its purpose so really that's where the whole context of forgiveness and the Course comes in he's saying there's nothing there is no thing he's saying the good news is that God created you happy so you already are happy and you have to just remove the obstacles you have to remove all that you interpose between your eternal spiritual self and the way that you perceive yourself now so this is not a Course in manifesting and getting things that can be a step showing the power of the mind it's not that it is wrong but it's like it just doesn't go all the way the secret doesn't go all the way the law of attraction they have their benefits they do show the power of the mind but the real question is what is it for if I would manifest and use the power of my mind to manifest what do I think that's going to get me do I really think that will get me happiness more self, more skills more abilities when the ego made them all in the first place to keep the mind from knowing eternal life so I think that's the big key right there it's getting a deeper sense of the context and realizing well this journey of guidance will help me go through a dismantling process instead of me achieving the goals that I had which is the world's formula for success I have ego goals I work hard I make a lot of money and I can buy a lot of things that the ego says will make me happy and the whole thing is a setup there is never a point when you say I've accumulated enough even when you're successful in terms of the world in terms of education in terms of acquisitions stocks portfolio possessions all the things skills you know what you get to that and you still go is that all there is it's insatiable the ego has set up an impossible situation so you can never be content by following it it just leaves you high and dry it leaves you empty you work at a company for 40-50 years and you know you get some kind of a gold watch okay and then after like 10 minutes you're like okay alright it's kind of nice but you don't have a fulfillment from the gold watch or even if you're married for 50 years my grandmother and my grandfather were married for 57 years so when they had their 50th wedding anniversary it was like a big party people came from all over the United States to celebrate but it's not like you get any brownie points in eternity for how many years you've been married it's more what was the quality of the relationship were you happy did you feel joyful did you feel free did it expand your awareness in your mind that would all be a good use of a marriage if you actually felt content in the moment and you learn to forgive your grievances through the context of the relationship then that would be a marriage well well spent but if you still find yourself where you're dissatisfied you have nagging doubts, nagging fears it just means that the ego tried to use that relationship to maintain and perpetuate itself in the mind we're getting down to some core things here but this is the context of true forgiveness of really following the guidance in a helpful way