 Welcome everyone welcome again to a course of miracles workbook lessons live, we're doing them spontaneously so here with Jesus there in my background in my bedroom here. So today, we are jumping into workbook lesson number five. So we'll have some with a lesson. And then we'll have some little bit of commentary. And finally, we will move on and I might include a snail mail letter that I just received from my friend Dale to include that for practical application today. I am never upset for the reason I think this idea, like the preceding one can be used with any person situation or event you think is causing you pain. Apply it specifically to whatever you believe is the cause of your upset. Using the description of the feeling in whatever term seems accurate for you. The upset may seem to be fear, worry, depression, anxiety, anger, hatred, jealousy, or any number of forms, all of which will be perceived as different. This is not true. However, until you learn that form does not matter. Each form becomes a proper subject for the exercises for the day. Applying the same idea to each of them separately is the first step in ultimately recognizing they are the same. When using the idea for today for a specific perceived cause of an upset in any form, use both the name of the form in which you see the upset and the cause which you ascribe to it. For example, I am not angry at blank for the reason I think I am not afraid of blank for the reason I think. And this should not be substituted for practice periods in which you first search your mind for sources and quotes of upset which you believe and forms of upset which you think result. In these exercises more than in the preceding ones you may find it hard to be indiscriminate and to avoid giving greater weight to some subjects than to others. It might help to proceed the exercises with the statement. There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind. Then examine your mind for whatever is distressing you, regardless of how much or how little you think it is doing so. You may also find yourself less willing to apply today's idea to some perceived sources of upset than to others. If this occurs think first of this. I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. For the purposes of these exercises then I will regard them all as the same. Then search your mind for no more than a minute or so and try to identify a number of forms of upset that are disturbing you. Regardless of the relative importance you may give to them apply the idea for today to each of them. Using the name of both the source of the upset as you perceive it and of the feeling as you experience it. Other examples are I am not worried about blank for the reason I think I am not depressed about blank for the reason I think three or four times during the day is enough. So, as we really look at the practical application of today's idea. This is teaching us two things that there there aren't degrees of upset, and there aren't really different forms of upset. When you are upset in the least bit or in the extreme it is the same. Both irritation, annoyance, a little bit of even fatigue that's that's bothering you a little bit of tiredness is really the same as rage. As intense feelings of shame and guilt, or any type of envy or jealousy any type of upset whatsoever. We are just beginning the workbook lesson so we're just on lesson five and Jesus is already slowly introducing us to this idea with just 304 practice periods throughout the day. And that's the idea that that all forms of upset are equally disturbing to my peace of mind. And so this is really a good example of mind training, because Jesus is saying, you know, you will be tempted to think that there are some forms of upset that are major and some that are minor. There are some that you can say I can I can just push that away or I can dismiss it and others where you feel like you're going to die if you keep feeling the intensity of that feeling. And all that whole range is just an attempt to distract away from the holy instant and distract away from from inner peace. Again, you may begin to start to see that this entire world was made up to make up false causes for the upset in the mind and that is the ego's way of trying to keep the mind upset, either through denial of the emotions, repression of the emotions pushing them down, pushing them out of awareness and trying to just get by in in some semblance of peace or to keep the the upset by projecting the cause to be external. And this is what the ego made the world for. The world was made as an attack upon God, a place where God could enter not Jesus tells us in his workbook. Also, he says the world was made in hatred. Okay, well, that's good to know what was the emotion behind the big bang. What was the emotion be behind the cosmos. It's anger, it's hatred. And so we're dealing with the undoing of that belief system today as we begin with lesson number five I'm never upset for the reason I think one way that the ego sponsors anger and tries to cover itself cover the difference in separation from God is by attempting to convince the sleeping mind that there are cases in which anger is justified, just like in this world, people would say well, yeah, it's best to try to follow Jesus and be defenseless. There are those situations but then there's always exceptions given like a well you, you can get defensive in self defense. Somebody's intruding into your house, then you're justified in defending yourself were justified in defending yourself if if a country invades your country. You're justified in defending yourself against the weather. If the weather is stormy or freezing cold or burning hot, you're justified in defending yourself body self personality self against externals extreme conditions. And he applies emotionally as well. People would say, don't be a doormat. If somebody attacks you, then you have to stand up for yourself, you have to be strong and so forth. These are very common held beliefs and common health stances as far as the egoic world and the sleeping but what Jesus is teaching us actually there's in chapter 30 which is right toward the end of the text. There's a section, section, section six called the justification for forgiveness and basically in that section Jesus will say that anger is never justified, which is the way he starts off that section is the very first sentence in the justification for forgiveness. In chapter 30 first in italics. So he's really emphasizing that anger is never justified. And then, in one paragraph later, he starts off his second paragraph with pardon is always justified and he italicizes the word always. So, now we're beginning to see what Jesus was teaching 2000 years ago when he said if someone smite you on one cheek turn the other cheek. If someone asked for your coat offer your cloak as well. Forgive. Pray for your enemies. You know he's he is never, ever, ever advocating anger. And this is what he's saying in this section called the justification for forgiveness is he's basically beginning to teach us with this workbook lesson today. Number five, I'm never upset for the reason I think he's basically saying that upset is never justified. All of those human emotions that we would put into one pile and call them upsetting emotions. They're never justified. In other words, when you believe in the ego, when you believe in Satan or the devil, then you believe in attack. Because the ego belief system is the belief that one can separate one's mind from the mind of God. It's the belief that the Christ can leave God. And Jesus clearly stated the father and I are one. You know if you've seen the father you've seen me, you've seen me, you've seen the father he basically was saying, if you recognize spirit, you recognize divine love, you recognize the eternal nature of the kingdom of heaven, which is a fact. And he is telling us that that anger is always based on a misinterpretation. And it's never based on a fact. So there is no set of facts where you can say I was justified in being angry. And he's teaching us that victimization is impossible, that mistreatment of any kind is impossible. And he's teaching us that that while there is a belief in separation and the experience of upsetting emotions. This is the ego's anger. The ego is a make believe thought system that God did not create. And if we use Christian terms and we people say that that that the devil was just a fallen angel. Well, what God creates is eternal. And so what God creates is pure, it's purely divinely innocent and it's, it's cannot be corrupted. It cannot, it cannot separate spirit cannot sin. The sins of the flesh that the Bible talks about that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit that sin is associated with flesh and so therefore sin is associated with perception. It's associated with bodies. And when you interpret that one body has done something to another, apart from their own will. That is the belief in attack. And what Jesus is really teaching us he's just beginning here in chapter chapter 30 he's giving it full on but in workbook lesson number five I'm never upset for the reason I think Jesus is saying, you're just fooling yourself, if you believe attack is real, and you're fooling yourself if you believe that your upset is justified, because you have to believe in attack before you will even attempt to justify an upsetting emotion. And these again can be attack thoughts that relate to the past or attack thoughts to the future. In the past they often are associated with grievances and regrets and there's just very, very bad memories. But basically it's just an interpretation that someone mistreated someone. And in the future, when you have a sense of worry or concern or anxiety about the future. It just means that you believe something real happened in the past, and it could happen again. And therefore, the mind will be caught up, as I was mentioning in our, our last lesson workbook lesson number four. I do not mean anything that that private thoughts are thoughts that you believe you can hold on to apart from God. God has nothing to do with private thoughts but if you believe in the past or the future. Then this is is where the, the, the case is made for victimization. In other words, the ego will say, well, you have been victimized and victimized in the past. And here are the situations and here are the circumstances. And the ego may say, yeah, yeah, forgive but never forget. In other words, the ego is going to say, this was done, and it was done wrong, somebody was wronged, whether it's you or someone else that you value and love, or in the sense that the future could be more of the past. I saw a quote from my friend, Alan Cohen, who's an amazing writer and beautiful course and miracles teacher and I think the quote was maybe on Instagram. And the quote was, it wasn't really a quote, it was just a beautiful saying the saying, God's idea of grace is bigger than your idea of karma. And if karma sounds kind of like an Eastern word, you know, for giving and receiving are the same and you, you draw forth what you so what as you so so show you read that's more of a biblical way of talking about karma. Basically, what, what he was saying is that God's grace is greater than any idea of mistreatment of abandonment of victimization of, of, of attack, no matter what kind of idea of attack that you may come up with. Grace of God, the love of God is greater than that belief for that concept. As far as practical application, which I know that's why you're tuning in. We did have a question that came in through our form but also I've just been traveling recently for a couple weeks and I just returned and opened my mail up and there was a nice typed out letter from some of you know my friend Dale is in prison in Ohio. And another friend of mine, Kenneth Price, Kenneth, I hope you're watching. Kenneth went to visit Dale in prison because Kenneth is there in Cincinnati and Dale was up much further north above Cincinnati. But I got this beautiful letter and he wrote, he typed it out but he wrote in his handwriting. I loved my visit with Kenneth, nothing like being in prison and having someone come up and visit you and talking about healing and sharing miracles. So Dale's been in prison for over 18 years and he's practicing his forgiveness lessons and so I thought it was interesting that this morning when I opened up the letter and read the letter. And the workbook lesson of the day was I am never upset for the reason I think I just kind of smiled and I thought somehow I think this is going to all be used by the Holy Spirit today. This is going to be used by Jesus so he wrote this. Yeah, I'd say back looks like the 13th of December. This is what he wrote. Hi buddy. I'm in my thoughts tonight I had a recent conversation with Jesus Christ and some deeper emotions were triggered. I finished 18 years in here, meaning in prison. And none of these emotions or feelings have come up have been this intense. They waited all the way till the end. He's getting closer to his release date perhaps next year. So he's saying these emotions these intense emotions waited all the way to the end. Now they want to rise up and try to bite me. frustrated as I might get miserable as I may feel at night sometimes still there is a deeper part of me that knows these thoughts feelings and memories aren't true. They're not ultimately real. No matter how much I appear to hurt inside still I know it only burns away everything which was not real. I've lashed out of people at times I feel like I've been that little girl in the exorcist with some of the things that I've that have flew from my mouth, but I'm determined I'm inspired and driven to keep going in these stories aren't true for any of us. So he, he's writing in there and he's just pouring his heart out he likes to journal to me and just to join in mind and feel the presence of love to feel the, the strength of the spirit, the, the comfort of the spirit, the, the inspiration that comes from the spirit to keep going because this mind training that we're embarking on here as we go through these course of miracles workbook lessons. It may seem to be some of the most intense and and difficult work that you've ever done in your life. Let's say yeah it's very psychological. Yeah, mind training is psychological. It's very intense to have a teaching from Jesus teaching us that that all all illnesses of the mind all sicknesses of the mind that all things that we're upset about are based solely on interpretations and facts. So that's when, when Jesus is telling us in chapter 30 Anger is never justified he's just basically saying, no matter what it seems to be. It's always coming from an interpretation and not a fact. You're always misinterpreting what happened in form. Miguel Ruiz, you know wrote a book some years ago called the four agreements and one of his four agreements was don't take anything personally. And as you practice the workbook lessons of a course of miracles you're going to have specific memories that come up. Things that are triggered. And that's what Dale's doing in his, his letter here to me he's basically telling me that sometimes he wakes up and he's feeling really good. His mind is like a giant building with endless empty rooms, no rooms, no structure and infinite building. And then he's telling me that that basically he had thoughts come up, and he was triggered when he had emails. And there was an email from an ex girlfriend that he had known 20 years ago. And basically all she was basically communicating was call me, but it triggered so many memories which he's opened up and shared. And so this is a good example of the things that he's dealing with, even though he's been in prison for 18 years. It's still a mind experience that when these memories come up, he hadn't had any contact with this ex girlfriend for years he got an email message call me and then boom, a whole flood of memories come up. And basically what he's, he's saying is, is that he's realizing what this mind training really is, you know that he can come back to peace. But he has to just let everything come up and he was a bit surprised that after 18 years that he would have these old memories still resurfacing. And this is kind of also a good example to use with Dale because he's living his life in, in prison, and has been for all these years but. But once he began to start to really practice forgiveness and really open his mind up to the teachings of Jesus and the metaphysics of spiritual awakening, then he he just began devoting himself to this. He even told me in this letter that he's, even though he's not too far away from his release date in prison, that he knows that it won't mean anything to him. If he still is harboring these feelings is this darkness, this heaviness is this guilt if he's, if he's released from prison, his body is released from prison and he's still dealing with these emotions these upsetting emotions. Then he realizes that's the prison, the prison is the prison of the mind. For some of you who, who have kind of studied the, some of the most inspirational people in the, in the history that that were in prison like Nelson Mandela, for example, or, you know, certainly Gandhi was another one who, who spent quite a few years, decades actually in prison. And both Nelson Mandela and Gandhi are great examples of, of going through and working on their healing, their inner healing, the release of grievances. It's so important. Denzel Washington starred in a, in a movie that we have in our movie watchers guide to enlightenment to called the hurricane, where at one point after he's tried and tried and tried to get out of prison. And he has a group of young people working with him and helping him. So, he does utter the line, hate, put me in here, and love is going to break me out. And that's one of my favorite movie lines from it was a boxer hurricane Carter Dale is a boxer. He was in prison. Dale actually was a pretty successful, well known boxer, he, he fought on cable channel ESPN, very publicized boxer so he's now years later, having been, you know, put into prison for murder. He's come across these beautiful teachings from Jesus and he's just putting such dedication. If some of you haven't seen that YouTube video that I did. I did a weekend retreat one time and I read from Dale had typed out, or have actually a handwritten in red, this beautiful message for me and I used it. The title of the video was escape to freedom, but people are still touched by that and of course when I shared that online. We also put his mailing address and people sent him letters and he received so many correspondences and friend of mine another friend sent him envelopes and stamps so that he could correspond with him. And my friend Kenneth actually has been corresponding quite a lot with Dale by email and actually put a lot of their interactions what Dale wrote back to Kenneth into a booklet, a booklet form which he recently bought brought to Mexico. But, but this is just showing that when you have the willingness to forgive, when you have the willingness to release grievances from your mind. It just activates you and in fact activates everything that's evacuate it activates the entire plan of awakening for the whole universe when you are willing to forgive. And so I've been so inspired by by all these different encounters I've had over the years but this one is is really a good application of the teachings. Again, when we come to lesson number five and in the workbook of a course of miracles. I'm never upset for the reason I think this is is a beautiful opening it's like cracking open your mind, and just giving a tiny bit of willingness to the idea that I've been wrong about my upsets I've been wrong about my grievances I've been in cases with the ego, using the past, and it has never brought me lasting joy and happiness. And then once you start to really give it over, give your mind over and say, I must have been mistaken about everything, I must have been mistaken about this world. With the love of Christ to enter into my heart I'm ready for the Holy Spirit to lift me up higher and higher and higher back into the light, lift me toward the kingdom of heaven within, then that is where we begin to heal. And I just have to thank Dale and Kenneth and all the ones that I've come in contact with Jeffrey Kosker. He's visited Dale many many times and corresponded with him and talks with him on the phone. And Dale had a present ministry going there for quite a while, even involved bringing movies and using movies as I use them for spiritual awakening in the prison in Chilli Coffee, then he was moved so now it's like a fresh start with a new group of inmates. Still, it's all mind training. He's just practicing day by day, allowing the emotions to come up, allowing them to be seen anew, inviting the Holy Spirit in, inviting the Jesus to come and bring healing and love. He also was, he likes to use acronyms to train his mind to think differently. So he uses a prayer that I had given before about before going to sleep asking the Holy Spirit to please use my dreams for my awakening. And then letting all the signs and symbols come, but he's got some great acronyms here. Leap, which means leave everything at peace. That's so beautiful. And then he's got jump, which means Jesus understands my problems. Isn't this lovely? Isn't this adorable? And he goes on, he just shares a few more that he uses, but it's just the process of reminding ourselves whenever we notice that we're getting upset, either mildly upset or majorly upset that we need help, we need help to see it differently. And again, this is how Jesus is teaching forgiveness to us. He's teaching us that whenever you're upset, you believe something's been done to you apart from your own will. And that's not the case. Our will is one with God. God gave us free will, meaning God, not choice, but God gave us the will to be as God created us forever. So we have free will in heaven. But in this world, when we look back to the past, and we start to be upset with something, we're literally just upsetting ourselves by the beliefs that we're holding and the thoughts that we're holding. That's where these upsetting emotions come from. And we're looking at something that the ego has generated in terms of a false interpretation, a very personal false interpretation. And then the Christians will call this like a sense of self righteousness, you know, and part of that self righteousness is, is believing it's a pride in believing that you're better than someone else or that you're above someone else in some way. And what Jesus is teaching us is know you're really upset about a segment of your imagination that you generated with the ego. So when you release this, when you release this false interpretation, then you can embrace the Holy Spirit's interpretation and come back into the joy. That's my wish for all of you. I wish you joy. I wish you happiness. I wish you peace today. And if you notice yourself starting to get upset in any way remember your workbook lesson for today search your mind. Don't let that grievance get kindled and grow into something. And over, give it over, see that you were wrong about the whole perception of the grievance and then also think of Dale, you know, Dale's there in prison and he's just practicing and practicing and practicing his mind training. And he's not even concerned about the date that his body gets released from prison because he knows if he hasn't healed his mind. What difference will it make. And that's an amazing perspective that's really starting to see that the imprisonment is always in the mind and the healing is always in the mind. Thank you so much for joining me. God bless you. God bless you.