 has a lit universal beliefs it's online it's a list of beliefs and I find that when I have an upset in my life I go back to that that list of beliefs and oh yeah I see I'm feeling rejected I'm feeling like things must be this way or must be that way but the one that I keep coming back to recently is it's possible to make a mistake and so it's like I really want to I really want to look at that that you know even our education system everything we've been taught is that there are mistakes and you correct them so that's what I would put out there is that's a theme for me recently is that it's possible to make a mistake okay that's a good for us to start off that's a good leading off well from what I was just describing about complicated decision-making choices awareness and then abstraction we would say there's no mistakes in in oneness there's no mistake in choiceless awareness so it has to be something prior to in awareness choiceless awareness so what it really boils down to and that's really what also the book is about is is this tracing back to this conviction that mistakes are in form it's the ego has made up an unreal world world of projection and it's associated this mistake idea this error with forms so behaviors are mistakes you can make you know mistakes of behavior different kinds of actions some people might say well maybe there's mistaken thinking that's a little closer to the release point of the choices awareness when you start to see that that a mistake is a call it a misperception it's a it's a faulty formulation of reality it's a distortion of reality not an action at all not a behavior and yet the ego has associated the mistakes and errors with the behavior to keep guilt in place I did this wrong I did that wrong as you go along you start to see the experience of being a human being comes along with what Jesus says everyone who comes here keeps a list counts the goods the good and the bad believing that in the end there will be some consequences so you hope that you have more good they've talked about when you go to the pearly gates and you try to get entrance in every human being is hoping that the good list is better than the bad bigger than the list Oscar and I have a little bit of a similar way of looking at that we'll do something then that's going to really suck on the life of you for some of you may have seen the old classic Howard Brooks movie defending your life where he's got to go to Judgment City and then they actually do review scenes and say what were you feeling there in other words to see if he's grown enough to move on to the next level of undoing you know the skill of the judgment so the thing about it is that's what's the good thing about this book it keeps bringing it back to the choice that you make the decisions that you make are really decisions of purpose they seem to be decisions of do this do that and decisions of behaviors and actions even about divorcing marrying somebody who I date what job do I take do I stay or do I leave you know whether it's in a job or relationship whatever those seem to be major decisions on planet Earth and they aren't they're just projections of purpose there's a choice for heaven and there's a choice for hell there's a choice for spirit there's a choice for ego there's a choice we could call a wrong minded decision and there's a right minded decision and so you see this is where the mind training is coming in this is where the unwinding is coming in unwinding from the idea of personal choices and personal consequences to I have a choice in the way that I look at the world I have a choice in the way and really who am I looking with the Holy Spirit or am I looking with the ego there's a major difference between those choices to look with the Holy Spirit or to look with the ego that split in the mind is projected to form and that's projected to persons it's projected to the dream figures as if they've got really weighty decisions to make from the larger perspective the script is written and those choices that seem to be so crucial important in form are not what they seem to be their projections of a choice in purpose which the mind doesn't want to face you know it's too afraid of even going back to that decision point between love and fear and it would rather be it be mitigated in time and space in little teeny meaningless choices that really don't have any consequence at all and and the deeper you go in towards this awakening towards unplugging you know that's what they tell Neo at the beginning Morpheus said even before he gets to see Morpheus is the friend that knocks at his door and the woman's within the juror and she's got the white rabbit and he says buddy it looks like you need to be unplugged and that's exactly what we're talking about unplugging from this twisted belief that the decisions in form are important now what we're going to do is work at going from this belief that decisions in form are important to what Francis was just talking about in her introduction which is the involuntary nature of miracles miracles Jesus says are involuntary they should not be under conscious control he's teaching us if we allow miracles to come through us that is going to be the way out from this conundrum of mistakes of the belief that we've made lots of mistakes or maybe even the belief that we continue to make mistakes on the timeline it's the same thing or even the fear and worry about making future mistakes like when you take a driving test or when you are reading letters and numbers on an eye exam and you know that getting your driver's license depends on saying mostly the right the right letters and numbers passing the test could be some nervousness some apprehensions of anxiety some pressure but still that's the same thing maybe you can just share a bit how how this involuntary experience has changed your experience of yourself in the whole world I think for me as long as I believe I have a choice personal choice there is always guilt always even I think I made I made a good choice or there's some good consequence there's still this heavy fear or guilt underneath it and then fear of losing it fear of you know come do it again you know it's just everything that associated with this force identity that that doesn't exist always bring guilt and fear so really you know if my experience if I don't believe truly in experience experiential level I don't have any choice then there is no guilt there is no guilt and but from for my own experience from my own experience from this step that it is firm belief of everything is perceived from the personal perspective and every decision is you know made by myself to this completely involuntary experience following the Holy Spirit guidance is the big stepping stone is where it leads to that experience you know like to just I guess for myself practically it was through a lot of relinquish of the decision-making and just willingly pray to the Spirit to you know guide me and then really follow whatever that comes my way that is obvious sign or doesn't really matter whether it can gain me anything and that is another part of the big thing that the self that is not there needs to exist through you know decision-making to re-inform that is its own existence and also circulating getting something whether it benefits me and the wrong decision-making is I lose something it's just like going this way or that way you know there is no peace in that but just through following the Spirit gradually what is lost is this always this this continuous wish to gain something to you know always comes from the self-interest it's all about benefiting this self to allow that to loosen up and have the thinking the direction of thinking gradually towards something that's bigger and then in that the self has been gradually washed away and when the self-interest and self-preference been gradually washed away the self-judgment of what is right or wrong what is benefiting me or not it's gradually washed away as well at the same time and that the involuntary nature is experienced involuntarily it's not like we chase this experience it just comes when those washing away gradually take that's where it takes us and when that is experienced there is just no guilt and there is no mind energy that's been you know put towards that anymore to assess a situation to decide what is best what is good and consequence of the future and assessing of the past there is just no interest from the mind to go towards any direction there is no interest to think about the past because there is no interest in assessing assessing it there's no interest to go into with the future because there is no interest in anticipating anything and the cause and effect has been completely lifted up from the form level to think that anything I did in the past is causing the present moment or will cause the future that's been just completely washed away so just knowing that this is a huge flow from the beginning of the universe and there is no cause in events and in form in external world that we perceive at all and in that way the mind just truly relax and just follow the flow and collaborating with what is coming in awareness and you know just being in this constant yes and yielding just yes and yes and that's where the mind start to be still and the joy is experienced so you can zoom in with Karen's question about things so one example we could use that would be like the towards the back of the course text Steve you have a lot to look forward to when you get back towards the very end of the 31 chapters Jesus goes into the rules for decision and really it's a convincing job you need those five chapters you need all those chapters to start to gear up for where this is going because it's like reversing a faulty decision-making mechanism that's been really the egos decision is trying to make an impossible choice to be apart from God and trying to choose between opposites that don't even exist but it's a big projected very intricate trap of a cosmos so if we go to rules for decision what's so great about the rules for decision is is he says it's easier to have a happy day if you follow what I'm going to tell you and really what that is is the first two rules for decision is he's basically saying this is where you should put all your focus because it's easier to happy day have a happy day if you could just get one or two it's kind of like the Ten Commandments if you really look at the Ten Commandments those first two if you could really get those first two I mean experientially number one and two that's why Jesus emphasized in his Gospels he really didn't emphasize a lot of the Ten Commandments but he did emphasize the first two and it's the same with rules for decision if you can he says if you can really get these first two you you are on your way to really having a happy day the first is the slide the kind of day that you want basically and the second one is if I make no decisions by myself this is the day that will be given me he's like saying this is simple the rest he says when when you go off of one and two it's harder to get back so it's it's better to be you know how they talk about preventive medicine is better to to be help minded before you find yourself in stage four cancer it's easier to get back happy day with your thought process at the beginning then be far along on stage four not impossible but it's easier to be lined up and stay tuned up and tuned in so one of the reparations to get back though is I have no question I forgot what to decide this is this is one of Jesus's techniques to try to get you back to one and two if you find yourself off the beam you're upset I have no question I forgot what to decide he said number one you know with the side the kind of day that you want so if he's telling you to get back to that he's saying you're questioning something and you have no business questioning something you forgot the quote you forgot what you should decide the kind of day that you want I want a happy day I want a joyful day I want a peaceful day your mind is so powerful if you really wanted it nothing could take you off the beam of that you really wanted to be happy you would be happy but he's one of his reparations I had no question I forgot what to decide one time I was actually in meditation and I just said give me an example of the question that I'm supposed to let go of I have no question come on give me an example just give me a prototype I mean that'll help me understand I have no question I forgot what to decide it's a little ethereal how do you relate that to human condition you know what I'm going through right now and Jesus said to me well here's your question and it takes many many many forms but basically underneath all the forms it's just one question that you're asking of these illusions which do I prefer you can see how that contradicts the first principle of the 50 miracle principles at the beginning of the book if he's starting off 50 miracles with number one whatever he's putting in the number one slot's got to be pretty important there's no order of difficulty in miracles when you have a question in your mind of these illusions which do I prefer the miracle is not an awareness and no wonder the upset is there the mind is off onto it a question that has no answer of these illusions which do I prefer remember the first question that was ever asked will say metaphorically not in reality not in heaven but metaphorically the first question that was ever asked is what am I it was a question of identity and everything else this big projection has been an attempt to forget that there was a question asked about identity now it's did you bring home the milk I told you to get the milk when you came home I wrote you a note I left it I sent you a text and I've got my chocolate syrup here and you know and and you know it's not pretty when you've just got chocolate syrup you've had your mind set on good old-fashioned hot cocoa and then you know there it is that's the thing now I'm gonna use some other practical examples because it's a great question to take us down into the rabbit hole really deep practical example from Francis's level parable from Francis's life Francis she was Beijing really good student really good sought after by universities went to Chicago University eventually scholarship partial scholarship just came over all the way over to the United States and she's a good student so how does that apply well let's look at this whole thing of mistakes Francis came one time and she was going to get her driver's license in the state of Utah aced the written portion that you've got to go out and do the driving portion and on the day of the driving portion she took one of our vehicles Honda CRV SUV kind of sits up high and she was in it and she came through various aspects of the driving thanks to the cones parallel parking she couldn't see the cones because she's there the car is up it's not your Honda Civic model Honda CRV so she's a good student she's ace the written part and she's and then what she failed but because she's a good student she came back a second time very prepared took my Honda Civic smaller car and she you know in the traffic and everything she just had just like that's what the world would say learn from your mistakes learn from your mistakes well let's see where this goes she goes to take the test and she's going through and making sure that when the stop sign is behind the intersection and she stops there at the stop sign not where she can see the cars that doesn't matter you can see the cars or not there's a stop sign there rules are the rules are the rules we have a guy out there who's a real stickler for rules so she goes through the whole test making sure this time as she passes learning from her mistakes what happened I failed again because there was a traffic light and turned red so I was slowly preparing to stop and I didn't realize there was a huge truck just pulling up to towards me from behind and the examiner failed me because the truck was too close to me and I should speed up a little bit to make room for the truck and I could understand how I was driving forward and I was watching front and stop because it was a red light and how could that be the reason but that was the reason so I pull forward actually into the intersection because somebody else was so close too close behind so after she's failed now the second time she comes to me and she goes what is the meaning of this you see this is an important example because she has made mistakes and now she has learned from her mistakes to make sure that she's not in the intersection she's not violating any rules and then she sees the mark coming right away how can I fail the test because of what somebody else did is that we were talking about afterwards she said what is the lesson in this and again it relates to rules for decision I have no question I forgot what to decide it was like you're supposed to have a driver's license in Utah that's worth the question I picked her up and she got in the car and she's like I've got a question for you now what's going on in Utah but but you see how this relates to what we're talking about you see how this relates practically to the rules for decision I have no question I forgot what to decide purpose is the only choice the only thing that you can truly decide with confidence is your purpose and that will determine your state of mind as soon as you forget that it's a dream as soon as you have a goal in form and get driver's license as soon as you have an objective you see how opposite these teachings are forgiveness from practicality you know this would seem to be a very impractical conversation what did I do wrong nothing you're not supposed to have a driver's license because a good student would never be almost like saying I'm not supposed to pass the exam but remember the script is written yeah it's very well for me in your other book and I thought how I see it that there is no choice in in what's happening but there is it you know you say but I'm not believing that the mission yeah you don't believe in that and then you say but there's no choice how to look at it and wow that clicked for me I think okay this is what it is I have no choice in how what happens I cannot change it I kids all my life my best to change things and never have it I feel every time again and again and again but I have no choice to look at it and everything's okay in a way it's fine it's good it's and yeah thank you that was great to be that I think well Francis I remember soon you asked the whole spirit if you should go and get a license well that was I believe that all of those events that happen need to happen as well you know like I need to go in to get a license to do the written part of the test and feel the first time have the blizzard feel the second time and just it's all just a big flow of life and it's about how to see it you know there is no mistake there is no not because I fail the text it wasn't supposed to happen in the first place no that's not really the interpretation but it is like all of it you know they're the same it just from which perspective to see that and that's it too because it does take it off the timeline of like well the Holy Spirit had me go there just fail three times or something but remember the Holy Spirit is is helping the mind unwind from the belief in choices in the world so whatever it takes you know to come to a choiceless awareness that's the Holy Spirit's curriculum is choiceless awareness I've even had people in their lives they they say I can't feel the Holy Spirit I can't feel the Holy Spirit they go through a phase where they actually are hearing instructions and guidance and prompts and then they go through a face where that stops and they think immediately something's gone wrong sometimes you're just taking into stillness and even with stillness ego goes now you've done it you've lost you've taken the Holy Spirit off and Holy Spirit has quit talking to you this is how the ego works you always want to stir up some guilt but now take the Holy Spirit off as if you could make the Holy Spirit angry you know the voice of love the voice for love you know it's crazy but this is how it works when the whole point is to come into this state of acceptance of choiceless awareness of stillness so that's the beautiful thing with all this is you see how this fits with with you aren't ever making a mistake in form and then whenever you seem to have what seems to be a wrong-minded choice it's just a call for love that's what wrong-minded choice is it's a call for love you know and when you answer that call you bless yourself you bless the whole universe that's really what we're opening that's a miracle when you answer the call for love that is that's another could say definition of a miracle is answering calls to love the discernment comes in it's just starting to remember be reminded oh it's just the way that I'm looking at it that's faulty help and then the correction occurs but as long as you project it out to form and think I made this mistake I made that mistake how could I be so dumb how could I be so stupid how many times if I like in Groundhog Day you know you're stepping down into the same little pothole all over and over and over until one day he starts and he's almost going down there and then he just swirls it around the hole and goes over it and that's the last day you remember the movie that Phil puts his foot in that hole as soon as he has that moment where he goes over it that's it he never goes down that hole again that's that's a miracle that's really what this is all about because driving isn't special driving isn't like that's not what that was all about right it was it like it's not that there was something that you have to think about in regard to the Holy Spirit not wanting you to drive this that's not the right level to think of it right yeah even with a symbol of like a driver's license I mean we have this thing like universal driver's license if you have driver's license in a country like Australia or another country you can drive it wasn't a matter of driver don't drive the fact I think they were out recently driving and she goes she was making her turns and doing this you know very just smoothly miraculously involuntarily like very going very easily and then she turned to me and she said pretty good for someone who doesn't have a driver's license we see he's not driving it at all you cannot question it though when I did use my driving yeah I think like well when I first turn into like try to follow the spirit it seems like the question was what was the guidance informed at the beginning stage you know what was the guidance but eventually just like every decision is about decision forgiveness and every decision is about my conclusion my judgment things shouldn't be what they are and things could be different it's just all about that in the moment and like anymore you know it's not about what should I do what shouldn't I do it's all about the conclusion that I'm forming right now can be let go right now forgiveness can happen right now and then the next step because when we look at Karen's question about mistakes it's like if the Holy Spirit is taking you up to this choiceless awareness and this is peace choiceless awareness that acceptance of choiceless awareness then it must be that that every guidance every prompt is really designed only for one thing not to have you accomplish anything informed but to have you experience choiceless awareness which is where the pieces that's that is a piece so you see how different then it throws into a whole different realm of practicality then choice this awareness being the observer being the witness self and then off ultimately just being that's where the value is not in doing it right or wrong as a person because ultimately as you go deeper with this into choices awareness you will come to a point of realization and it can be as quick as you want it could be now it could be this weekend you don't have to do it over many many years you come to an experience that you've never done anything wrong or right that's the release point you see what that doesn't is the pride but think of all the things that you think you've done right in your linear timeline like those are as much of a block to choiceless awareness as the wrong and that's the humbleness that's the stillness that's the emptiness that's the wow that's the wow factor of literally your innocence yeah that was the doer the identification with the doer which involves obviously personhood is is the mistaken choice not that it was a real one but just that you thought that you had the power to forget the Christ to forget that you're the Holy Christ and to shrink your universal will that you share with God I will and my will as the Christ our one we share the same will to shrink that down to a body then it's did I do the right thing how many right things that I did do I often if I've done enough right things to offset the wrong thing you see is conditioning that's the that's the unconscious conditioning so what is your self inquiry can you get an example of some self inquiry that you went through well you're just watching your state of mind for everything like I remember when I just go to discussions or roots or lectures or whatever and you you hear a stereotype you know there's a famous show all in the family with Archie Bunker and Edith and my gosh you watched this show how many judgments come out of in one episode and he just like over this you just kind of a contrast experience you know but there's so many and what I call it those judgments are example of stereotypical thinking you know and so you notice if you have any feeling like you're with somebody some party you're talking to somebody and you hear all men are or all women are that's an example of a stereotypical thought there are all women are not you know all women are women even that you have to start your question I wouldn't be here probably your best shot at a real thought all women are women women are women no that's not even true that's not true you can see where it's like loosening so your real thoughts would be those thoughts that you think with God or you could say those those inspirations that you receive from the Holy Spirit even are filtering through the ego belief system and it's saying go visit so-and-so get so-and-so a call you know it's using what the ego made but in a very helpful way to be a miracle worker and and there's no stereotypical thinking and call so-and-so you know following instructions guidance of the Holy Spirit there's not that so you can start to see that most of the mind's thinking when it's in this upside down deceiving state we could say most of it is is faulty and it involves specifics and involved judgments and also it involves with what Francis said involves this belief in causation you know this should happen if this happens then that will happen for every action there's a reaction even in physics you know science you can find these spurious false cause effect relationships that really don't have any validity at all and doesn't help your peace of mind one bit to hold on to them it doesn't matter whether you get a PhD and you know you're really convinced for every action there's a reaction but that be like the guy gets too close and I don't feel and I feel like Robert's just yeah that's exactly that's just another story and other positive things like guys goes you know like well yes you stop but you should have stopped everything right but behind you there this guy hold up too close you should have moved forward but you had no control over whatsoever exactly which is still that's just an opportunity to let go and that's what she was saying in the beginning was she was saying that's the joy of letting go of all cause effect relationships that's very peaceful because there are a lot of assumptions we don't even see that we're making and those assumptions and conclusions are judgment and you know when court when the course teaches us to forgive what are we really forgiving are we really just forgiving people or a scenario where forgiving our conclusions of the scenario for example if I made a mistake I made a mistake there are so many conclusions at the same time I'm upset because I made a mistake there is a you know in my mind I'm upset because I made a mistake not just I made a mistake I'm upset because of that and of how I know what is not a mistake I know what I want and I have a choice all of these assumptions are never questioned I have a choice in this and I decided to act this way and that's why I'm upset now all of these causing effects are unquestioned assumptions and then when we say that do not draw conclusion is another way to say forgive but forgiveness word has been taken on different meanings in different you know people's mind but it seems like do not draw conclusion is more it's more fresh way of just saying you know which really every single conclusion that you you form around anything and let them loosen up and let them say you know maybe I'm not really upset because what I did but I don't know I'm open I'm open and in that openness there will be new interpretations that come through new insight will come through but it's closed conclusions and judgments just locked locked in our guilt because the guilt is really underneath all of that is who I who am I that is underneath all of these conclusions and assumptions underneath that and that is the cause really of the guilt the belief that you could make an identity mistake supersedes the belief that you can as a person make mistakes as in your actions and your behaviors it's this deep sense of wrongness there's a deep sense of unworthiness not feeling worthy of love but if God created you as love and you feel unworthy of love there must be something unconscious push down there it's it's saying I'm not who I really am even though all the characters of toys even pop I am that I am and that's all that I am my gosh we've had witnesses coming through the cartoons that were still whole and complete but but there's something underneath it's there so this is really good because it's it's getting at the us to question this association between the perception of wrong behaviors and this feeling of upset and go much much deeper in an inquiry not like we have rules for decision at the end of the text but then you get into the workbook oh my gosh there you could just go into the beginning lessons and you can see Jesus has gone right at the heart of it that he talked about rules for decision lesson number five I am never upset for the reason I think let's just use that example of three times trying to pass the test and then being failed for some guy pulled in close behind you and if you had a charge on that one failed then we'll say you're annoyed we'll use that word annoyed three times now now I feel the test because because you see that's where the problem but I'm never waiting it never upset for the reason I think I'm upset because I see something that is not there you see already Jesus isn't leaving you hanging with number five I'm never upset for the reason I think that doesn't do any good it's a good start I'm upset because I see something that's not there what could that be are you hitting my hallucinating or something here it sounds like a mirage I see something that's not there I see only the past oh I'm upset that you're telling me I'm upset because I'm seeing the past maybe I think that it's still present and I've forgotten that it's gone that it's overdone gone out of there and gone never to be seen again maybe I'm still reinventing maybe I'm still calling for the witness from the pool of the unconscious past that is really gone over and done this world was over long ago he says so and then it gives you one more step in number eight my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts and then he goes on from there you know he's trying to connect and saying listen you're hallucinating you've got these past thoughts and my thoughts are images I have made so the world you think you see is coming from the thoughts you think you think and they're actually identical you've got this mesmerism going on where you're just stuck in the past and you're preceding the past and that's very upsetting because the holy instant is like this at all and as long as you keep thinking this because of what this one did that one did even the person that you believe you are did things wrong or right there's still got a time mesmerism then going on and that's why the workbook is designed to loosen the mind from this even says that in the early workbook lessons we need new time ideas because all our old time ideas are very linear and the ego made up linear time the ego made up the whole system to keep the mind asleep and guilty and now we're being shown this new way so so that's why it helps when we talk about we have a great question that's a good lead-in and then we start talking about miracles and experiences that give you a new way of experiencing everything