 All day movie workshop. I'm Peter. I'm going to be the host today and I can just let you know about the lineup. So we have the movie with David this morning and then afterwards we'll have a 10 minute break and then we're going to have our breakout rooms where you can express what came up for you during the movie. Then we'll have our 45 minute break and then we'll have the closing session with me today. So I'm going to pass it over to David now. Thanks Pete. Hi everyone. Welcome. Welcome. We're going to have a very mystical day today. We're going to roll the clock back to the times right after Jesus left the planet. And this this movie today will be approximately about five years after Jesus ascended to the Father. I was going through and piecing my timelines together looking at the birth of Jesus during the time of King Herod which was actually BC around 5 BC and then his public mission in his 30s and then the crucifixion and the resurrection which came around 33 AD and then this movie today is placed at 43 42 43 maybe 42 42 AD. So this is a period of years after Jesus has has left the planet and we have the Apostle Peter and we have the Apostle Andrew in this movie and James, Apostle James and Mother Mary is in her final days before she passes away and Mother Mary has a lot of profound wisdom to deliver to to Peter and to the Apostles before she passes away. I think people know in the story of Jesus that Mary Magdala was very very close to Jesus and and here we're getting the wisdom really from the Christ presence coming through Mother Mary and our movie today is titled Full of Grace. Some of you may know in the famous Catholic prayer Hail Mary. Does anybody remember that one Hail Mary Full of Grace? The Lord is with you that's how it starts. In the Catholic tradition this is important they will say many Hail Marys they will repeat this Hail Mary prayer over and over but today you're going to really get to feel what that Full of Grace is. We're going really deep into the experience of what it means to be full of grace not as a repetition prayer but as an actual experience and that experience of grace just will leave you with a big smile on your face. That rhymes. I think this is very poetic. The state of grace will leave you with a smile on your face. That's not from the Course but that just came through the Christ right now in this moment and we have movie pull themes that you voted on this week which we have the English version we have the Spanish version we have the tribe our tribe community pull and then we have our combined pull and so in arriving at this movie Full of Grace basically it's in relation to the the top three themes that came in from the combined pull so here they are this is what we're going for today with this movie the first one is saying yes to guidance in spite of fear and disorientation so fear will all rise from time to time during the awakening journey and how many of you have had like an extreme form of disorientation I have have you ever had times of prayer and meditation or or maybe you've even had a hermitage period or an extended period of prayer and fasting and then at some point you feel extremely disoriented you you have trouble relating to the world and that is what you voted on that was our number one theme 105 105 votes saying yes to guidance in spite of fear and disorientation if some of you have read the lives of the mystics and saints whether you're talking Christian mystics or Eastern mystics like Indian mystics when you read their writings what they have left behind like st. John of the cross coined the phrase dark night of the soul and the mystics and saints they did go through a lots of intense fear and intense disorientation so that just is a little snapshot that as you go along with the course of miracles and you go much deeper down toward the the belief in separation in the mind when you go deeper into the unconscious mind that's where the intensity comes and that's also where the fear and disorientation arise and it's so important to say yes to guidance when you encounter this fear and disorientation Jesus does tell us in the course that when you get to the workbook he says there are certain parts of the journey at more at the beginning of the course that are absolutely essential and so he's kind of telling us don't skip over anything in my course because he says as we go into the workbook we will be making a direct approach to God and that's why the earlier parts are important that's why he gives us a text and he slowly takes you into the waiting pool and he takes you into the kiddie pool first in the workbook and then eventually he's going to take you down to the deep end where you get to do a deep dive toward the kingdom of heaven but he's saying don't skip over anything because if you do skip over some of the earlier preparations he says that the direct approach to God will be more traumatic than beatific if you skip steps so this is why when you do something like the course you have to be very very thorough and very very dedicated and devoted in your practice of the course because if you try to skip ahead you know you skip over the early workbook lessons and say no I don't like these dark lessons this stuff is too dark at the beginning so I'm just gonna go way ahead here oh here's one I like I am as God created me oh that's a good one I'll just skip all the early lessons and go right on to I am as God created me and Jesus is saying don't do that because you'll be frightened it'll be traumatic for you if you try to pierce the veil without doing the mind training preparation and that's why it's 365 but workbook lessons and then people do that with the text too they they're going along oh I like that miracles yeah yeah miracles revelation cool revelation yes happy dream attainment of the real world yes yes but when they come to obstacles to peace oh no I'm gonna I'm skipping obstacles to peace and then they skip ahead oh yeah yeah yeah oh laws of chaos oh no no I'm not gonna I'm not reading the laws of chaos but Jesus says in the laws of chaos you after he gives the law of chaos the laws of chaos he says you may not you may say that you don't believe in these laws that I've just told you he said but because of your belief in these laws of chaos that's why you seem to stand on solid ground and he says brother you do believe them you see this is why he's telling us not to skip because he's saying what you believe in determines your perception of the world and it determines your interpretation of everyone and everything including yourself and your brothers and sisters so he's saying to learn this course he says at one point this course will be believed entirely or not at all this is not one of those dart games or dart games what do they call horseshoes darts you know where you get points if you're kind of close Jesus is no points no points except for the bullseye atonement correction got it you know you got it you gotta you've got to get it in the bullseye if you get it close to the bullseye no if you're alph on the side if you if you're hitting the wood where the dart dart game is hanging no no wood no close rings bullseye got to have that atonement correction so that's why this movie is important because it's really going to take us towards the the correction towards the innocence you can feel it through mother Mary you know she's she's just she's wise she's graceful she's peaceful she she exudes a presence and and this is years after her her son seems to have been crucified and ascended back to the Father in Heaven and she's she's just carrying the presence carrying the presence of of the beloved Christ and she's quite aware that it's a presence in the moment she she knows that arguing and debating about theology or arguing and debating about church rules and guidelines that's not it that's that's not what Jesus was teaching so already the ego is flaring up these in these years after Jesus has passed away already the ego is trying to interpret the teachings of Jesus and Mary is more saying no it's in the presence the presence of our Lord is is beyond these matters and and in one sense she's going to tell Peter that's why Jesus picked you because of of you have a heart that wants to to really extend the pure teachings and not get caught up into analyzing and debating and arguing that's why she picked you that's why Jesus had said Peter you are the rock on which I will build my church he was just saying you are the orator you are the speaker that will start to verbally extend the teachings that I have shared during these three years that I spent with you and the Apostles if some of you read the Rancher book you know that that Peter was was a spokesman even during the time of Jesus Jesus is very famous for the Sermon on the Mount and for many healings that seem to occur around him and for moving around in Galilee and doing these these teachings but actually we learned from the Rancher book that Peter was the one who was really the public speaker Jesus was more the mystic you know often the mountains communing with God comes down his idea of a prayer meeting was to get the apostles together in the upper room you know and maybe have a meal together and then start sharing these deep teachings in the context of the upper room and that is a small little community I'll tell you and it's kind of where the direction of our community we're going into a cloistered community phase so when you watch this movie today think of us because there aren't that many of us and and we're not going to be trying to do a big public splash you know fill a stadium like Billy Graham that was Billy Graham's job he did a great job of it we're more the cloistered mystics that are that are living a deep devoted life to Jesus and going deeper into prayer and and meditation so the second theme is seeing all people concerns as a defense against the truth this is a perfect theme for this movie because even though we know that Jesus went off to the mountain and he communed with God and then he would come back to the apostles and the women's core and and do some public teachings he knew that the essence of the connection with God was in the prayers of silence Jesus would say things like when you pray go to your closet and shut the door that's in the Bible from Jesus when you pray go to your closet and shut the door shut out the distractions of the world and what is the greatest distraction from knowing the stillness of God's love people how many of you think during your daily life how many of you think of people either think of yourself as a person or you think of maybe your partner or your your roommate or your neighbor or your co-workers so the biggest distraction to experiencing the pure light and stillness of God's love is people thoughts when you have people thoughts you you know your mind is thinking of the past and the future it's not present there's a great line in the course of miracles where Jesus says at no single instant does the body exist at all it is always remembered or anticipated there it is people thoughts if your mind is filled with people thoughts and you cannot stop thinking of people then that's a perceptual problem that's that's a major perceptual problem major perceptual distortion somebody might remember to in the Bible it says God is no respecter of persons who that's a high one from the Bible God is no respecter of persons but the persona if we go back to is that the Latin persona means mask now of course in the days we're living in that's that really is apparent everyone's wearing masks not only psychological mask of personhood but now we have masks on top of masks we're watching movies of a movie the world is a movie we're watching movies today of the movies of a movie we have mask on masks and Jesus is saying yeah we need to go into the mind and come into the stillness to get in touch with the light of Christ which is the light of pure being and that is the essence of reality that's what the kingdom of heaven is about and so the third one is releasing perfectionism by accepting divine perfection releasing perfectionism is when the ego says you need to be better you need to be a better person you aren't a good enough person you're not a worthy enough person but remember the ego made up the person it made up the persona it made up the mask and so the ego just wants you to strive to have perfect mask isn't that ridiculous when the the mask isn't you in the first place and then the ego takes the attempt to improve the mask to have a better mask or even a perfect mask and and that's what we call perfectionism and perfectionism is is an obsession it is stressful yeah anybody who's worked in psychotherapy knows when you have a client that comes in and they say help me to be perfect as a person Ken and I know that's like okay maybe you're not ready for therapy if you if you have a goal of becoming a perfect person but this can take many forms you know please fix my relationships and please fix my my career please fix my my house fix my family fix my partner those are all forms of perfectionism and they're all ego driven now recently we've been praying a lot as a community and and while we continue on we love these movie gatherings and our our monthly online retreats that come the first the first full weekend of the month we're actually being called to to live a cloistered life and sometimes people say cloistered what is what does that mean cloistered and that just means that we are willingly and voluntarily letting go of the distractions of the world and remember those distractions are in the mind you you can't do the geographical cure some people have tried to just go live in the woods or live in a cave and actually that's not bad but it's still if you have the monkey mind still going when you're in the cave then you haven't released the distractions of the world you want to be at peace wherever the body seems to be you want to be at peace with whatever the environment seems to be but cloistered the way I'm talking about it is is going deep inside your mind and sinking down like Jesus says in the workbook beyond the riotous raucous sights and sounds of this world and sinking below that into the kingdom of heaven which is just a beautiful state of of light and love it's a beautiful state of mind and you can't reach it through external means you have to that's what prayer and meditation is about it's thinking beneath the surface of consciousness and sinking down so far that you are beneath the thoughts of time and space you you literally go underneath the people thoughts deep deep deep into your mind at one point Jesus uses a metaphor in the course where he says it's like it's like you have these leaves that fall from the trees and they land on a stream and the leaves are floating down along the stream and then he's like saying now come with me and sink down beneath the leaves beneath the leaves that are floating on the stream sink down underneath them with me into the kingdom of heaven so it's beautiful it's a beautiful metaphor of of going into that stillness that's really our purpose we're going into cloistered community meaning we're going into a deep mystical experience that some have called mysticism and we are still broadcasting and sharing from this this beautiful state of mind but the actual state is is beyond the words it's it's beyond describing and Mother Mary will actually explain this to to Simon Peter today when he's still starting he's starting to wrestle with questions of the church and how to apply the teachings and how to live according to certain rules and regulations and she's saying faith cannot be explained faith can only be lived you can't explain faith in words and that that teaching from Mother Mary here in the movie today reminds me of the course of miracles where Jesus says truth cannot be described or explained only experienced and and Jesus uses the word truth in this movie Mother Mary will call it faith it's not meant to be explained it's meant to be lived it's meant to be experienced you don't have to try to tell faith to anyone else you experience it for yourself your expanding faith takes you beyond the body's eyes beyond the body's ears and beyond the perceptual world into a glorious state of mind that is beyond the world entirely and and ultimately if you if you allow your faith to be expanded you will move toward the light towards revelation which which is not perceptual at all it's it's just pure light not the kind of light of like sunlight or fluorescent lights or candlelight I'm talking about the light of truth the light of love the light of wisdom recently Kirsten from our community she wrote some words that kind of convey a bit about this sense of being cloistered and I thought this movie is perfectly timed for where our state of mind is because I know you all are really following very closely with us and you're always very interested and curious to hear what our experiences are and what direction we're moving in of course we're moving inward toward the kingdom of heaven but I thought I would read some words that Kirsten wrote down as just a description of what's happening for us right now because I know you're you're really with us she wrote I love the term cloistered order as our calling is to know through and through that we have no life apart from God to be cloistered is to be called out of the world into the heart of God and God orders our thoughts meaning we are the thought of God we abide in his mind and we cannot think apart from him for only love is real this direction is so deeply inspiring it is our calling into mysticism to abide in the total freedom and joy of that which is beyond this world and to be with those who share this beautiful holy joyful calling this cloistered ACIM of course in miracles order is established in support of a community of mystics who are called out of this world the life of mysticism is a devotional life of reverence and prayer it involves a heartfelt desire in commitment to mind training to listen and follow only the Holy Spirit being the spirit of joy the foundational purpose is teaching and learning true forgiveness as taught in a course in miracles and living and extending inner peace true forgiveness is recognized as being divinely inspired the goal is everlasting peace of mind and the gentleness happiness freedom and joy that flow from such a state of mind the cloistered community settings reflect the peace and stillness of a single mind which is incapable of personal judgment having become totally reliant on God as the source and provider communication leads to communion therefore this mystical order is based upon guidelines involving transparency and integrity daily life involves prayer meditation and contemplation all individual and collaborative projects are inspired by the Holy Spirit and all are undertaken with great care being that they serve the purpose of awakening to God's love amen and that that expression is so reverent it's it's it's a feeling of reverence that's deep within and it's not focused on the scenes and scenarios of the world it's not focused on the politics of the world it's not focused on the the roles of the world it's focused on the stillness within and in that sense cloistered means letting go of the distractions of the world this is what Jesus is leading us to this is where the Course in Miracles is pointing not to organizations not to political changes in the world not even to making the world a better place but coming into a state of mind that transcends the timeline transcends the theater it it literally is aware of dreaming it's it's pure still awareness of dreaming now as we go into this movie it's like we're going back we're going back over many centuries we're going back 20 centuries today for this movie and I wanted to kind of draw you all into that that time period because the movie begins and ends in 42 AD and so this is a period of years to say the crucifixion was around 30 33 AD so yeah this is about nine years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Mother Mary is up in years and her health is starting to wane and she is losing her her activeness in the body even though she still likes to take a hike like she did with Jesus when she was even pregnant with Jesus she would walk this certain trail and here she is probably maybe in her late 50s or 60s and her spirit is strong the presence is very strong but this is her her final days her final weeks and just like with Parma Hansa Yogananda at the end of his life he had a lot to deliver at the end he wrote prolifically when he came to the end of his life almost like he knew well I'm not going to be around in the physical form so I'm going to put it all down he got all the the apostles all the monks really busy transcribing and publishing his words and here's Mary this is back before the printing press this is back at the time right after Jesus and she's going to have a lot of heart-to-heart talks with with Peter because Peter is the apostle whom Jesus called he said Peter is I shall build my church on you on Peter the rock and so Peter is is a speaker is an orator he actively boldly spoke when Jesus was around Jesus was preaching to the multitudes and boldly speaking about the teachings from his master Jesus and this is more of a quiet time after some years have passed where now he's really starting to have a lot of discussions with people about how this early church should proceed he has questions he has doubts he will travel and meet with Mother Mary and she will counsel him to remember the presence of Jesus that Jesus even when she was pregnant with Jesus she had this great moment of connection with this light and this amazing presence and she's basically going to be teaching Peter Simon Peter and all of us that it's just in this moment it's closer than that than your breath it's it's a presence of love it's not a theology it's not a historical event it has nothing to do with linear time it actually transcends time entirely it's the gateway to eternity and I think it's beautiful because this is what happens when the Christ presence is offered that the world which is the ego the world of linear time always tries to interpret the presence according to time according to people according to organization and politics and the kingdom of heaven has nothing to do with any of those things and so we're going to see that Peter is is a bit disoriented and confused because he's supposed to be leading the church but he is gets very tired and stressed out with all of the arguments and debates and we can all relate to this we all can relate to this we just want the simple presence of the Christ we don't need all of the analysis and all of the the bickering about what the meaning is Mother Mary knows its faith cannot be described so when we look at a course in miracles we can say wow this is a tool that has been given us to go into an actual direct experience it's a tool to help us expand our faith our faith in that which is not visible to the body's eyes that was a recent workbook lesson I will not use the body's eyes today to the world that makes no sense at all but to the spirit which knows that the light is not of this world that that lesson is pointing us into the stillness of our mind it's saying be still so as you know Jesus in terms of time was was born at the time of King Herod and King Herod was put out a decree basically saying that that all newborns I think up to the age of two had to be killed and Herod lived and was king back from like six BC to four BC so that's right Jesus was born around five BC if you read the Euranshi book Susan was just telling me it's in August Jesus was actually born in August of around five BC and then he went on his public mission his teaching mission calling Apostles when he was about 35 years old so you take you start to realize it was like 35 and then he was crucified when he was about 38 and this is all according to if you piece it all together with the time of Herod him being born BC and then his public ministry and then his crucifixion in 33 AD on Friday April 3rd I give you this context because then nine years later is where we start this movie so imagine there was this glorious presence with miracles abounding that that stirred up Galilee that stirred up the Jewish people that stirred up the Romans and that happened about nine years prior to the start of this movie so now we have groups of little apostles and followers that that meet in small groups maybe little private houses there's no big cathedrals there's you know this is right after the time of Jesus and the main question on everyone's mind is oh my God how do we live this he has gone in form and when Jesus before Jesus ascended and passed away he said you know I will make a place for you and he basically said I will send forth the comforter and the comforter I must go away he said but I will send forth a comforter but we now know the comforter is the Holy Spirit and you can imagine being it living at the time like Mother Mary is here with the Apostles nine years after Jesus has disappeared from earth and they're just trying to integrate his teachings they're trying to apply what Jesus taught and they still have the memory fresh in their mind I know Mother Mary really has the memory fresh in her mind of Jesus's love it's very strong for her and this is her gift she's going today to in this movie pass it on to a few of the Apostles and to all of us she's going to give the gift of that grace and that presence to us and I know that after you watch this movie it's a very mystical movie we will have a break and we will have our breakout rooms and expressions but I have a feeling tonight that before you go to sleep you might just want to light a candle and sit very quietly and remember the love that came through this movie today because it's going to still be with you you know when you go to sleep tonight you're going to feel something in your heart that is very very deep it's very very mystical and I want you to remember that feeling remember that feeling because that's what a Course in Miracles is really about it's not meant to start another religion it's not meant to start another movement in the world it's not meant to revolutionize the world it's it's your escape hatch to go inward in prayer like Jesus said in the Bible go to your closet and shut the door and sink down beneath these raucous riotous sights and sounds of this world he uses those words in the workbook and this movie will really help you it will it will like you'll feel it when you get ready to go to bed tonight you're gonna feel that you're gonna feel the lingering effects of the reverence and the depth of this grace the title of the movie is full of grace and as some of you know from the the Hail Mary prayer Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with you if you only remember the beginning of the Hail Mary prayer you're hailing you're calling on Mary Mother Mary to bring in the grace of God into your heart and to be reminded the Lord is with you right now not in the future the Lord is with you right now you are innocent right now you are a perfect child of God right now and all we're has to do is focus our mind to remember the simple truth so enjoy the movie and I will come into the movie probably in the middle of some of Mother Mary's deepest teachings this is this is the kind of presence you need when you get a course in miracles so your ego mind can't just tell you oh this is a big book how are you gonna learn this book think of Mother Mary's grace saying you don't have to learn this course you just have to unlearn everything that you've believed about this world of linear time and space and remember the presence of God's grace so enjoy enjoy the movie your heart will never be the same