 Well, on behalf of Nikita and I thank you and welcome, welcome to this day. I think we're going to have a very deep profound day. I hope that it is very enriching for you and I think of the words empower health Empowerment is very important and basically that's just returning your Mind to its natural state because all power is of God of spirits of love of oneness and The teachings are very uncompromising in that there is no power, but that so everything that we consider power military power or all different forms of worldly power martial arts Intelligence power that comes with intelligence power that comes with money power that comes with all these other things Are all fictitious? They've all been made up They really don't come from spirit at all It's a deception to think that you can achieve power in the world It's a deception to think that you can achieve or accomplish power with a body identification As the body was made by the ego To take the place of our Christ self our real self our true eternal self. And so whenever we invest power intelligence Skills all kinds of things If you want true empowerment, you have to go back to your mind I would say divine mind will work with right mind and wrong mind with course of miracles But that's just a discernment to come back to alignment right mind. It's just alignment with source and so In the end of course of miracles is not a dualistic path. It's a past oneness. It's a past that Says God is love. God is one and that's the reality. That's the reality that we come from So it's really good. We can start to Take it in deeply and health too is another word since we're talking about power health Health as is defined by Jesus in a course of miracles is is inner peace So we need to stick with that because if you're Striving for health in the body you're striving for health in a neutral image that actually has no meaning whatsoever It's actually an oxymoron everyone know what an oxymoron is. It's a contradiction in terms to talk about bodily health It's a symbol and that symbol can reflect if you're feeling peaceful joyful happy Then that symbol can reflect that it just it just means that you won't feel pain suffering hurt All the things that are projections of the ego but also that Your search should be inward the kingdom of heaven is within The kingdom of heaven is a state of mind that's very natural But it's not going to be found in a body Which is part of a projection that was made as a veil to cover over the reality who we are So in power health is basically saying come back to the power of who you are in in God and love and also come to that inner peace and inner peace Basically the thing that's striking about it is that all of the goals of the world And I mean all of them inclusively and all the roadways of the world were made To to keep you from knowing who you are Sounds like very much like Morpheus in the matrix Matrix is control with setup to keep you from knowing who you are And it's set up with linear time Again eternity and time cannot coexist So I would say if you're going to invest in something invest in your eternity because that will never pass away The peace that passes the understanding of the world you're not going to find peace of mind Or power or glory or anything in any of the symbols of this world The Holy Spirit can use what the ego made to take you back to that eternity There's nothing wrong with anything of the world It's just symbols and images that were made by the ego But the Holy Spirit's use of those symbols becomes extremely important You do not speak your own words Let the spirit put the words in your mouth Let the spirit smile for you, laugh for you, sing for you, hug for you Give it all to God, give it all to spirit and know then who you really are And that self is not contained in a body Jesus tells us that the Savior of the world is not a body or in a body So we don't need to keep going back and forth Am I a spiritual being having a human experience or a human being having a spiritual experience? It's neither of those We are a spiritual being and period The Christ If you follow the teachings if you go for it with everything you've got You will realize you will not have a wish to tarry in time and space When eternity is calling you When love is calling you, when love calls you want to answer You don't want to hesitate with, hmm, I've got a few more things to work out here You want to, you want to be a resounding yes So for me that in the parable of David that's been very important because of course the miracles came across my path or I should say instead of me finding it it found me about three decades ago 30 years ago and Then about 25 years ago a quarter of a century is when I began Seeming to travel and move about and just be used as a as a mouthpiece for the Holy Spirit and for Jesus and that is what guarantees health That's what guarantees empowerment. That's what guarantees the joy and happiness. It's being uncompromising in following that To say the words I want the peace of God and to mean them are two different things We're reminded in the workbook if you have to mean it and When what does that even mean to mean I want the peace of God? Well peace is a present state of mind So if peace is your goal you have just adopted a present goal Isn't that sound funny when all of us have been raised and conditioned to think of goals in the future? And now we're given a present goal You see how different that is from all the pursuits of the world. Are you pursuing? Fame money. Are you pursuing success as the world defines it? Are you pursuing? Anything any goal you can name it in terms of the world or art is your focus present peace So Jesus says you may notice how different the goal of this course are from your current goals or your Your goals in terms of the world. It's the exact opposite To have a present goal Would be coming a little closer to the section in the course of Miracle. I need to nothing if you really got into The idea of peace of mind is my only goal. You would be Taken into a state of mind In which you need to do nothing. There is no sense of Pressure there is no sense of lack. There was no sense of heft to should up to must Wow, that must be a fun life to live a life without shoulds obtuse have to must You know, I think any child that was told by a parent listen. I love you unconditionally Have fun on planet Earth. I'm here to support you in everything. You may make mistakes. That's okay Everyone seems to make mistakes. I'm here to pick you up when you fall down I'm here to hug you love you support you. You can't mess it up What about your future? Well, let this lead that to the spirit Good grades not important Education no pursuing You know achieving accomplishing Carving out your niche in the world. No, no, no, I'd rather you be happy Just be happy. I'm here to support you in being happy. I Get to do that with the people that I live and work with you know They call me up and working at the center working with people and people start to leave and don't play Oh, it's getting empty here. Did I do something? Oh, no, you did. No, there's not donations coming. That's alright There's no problem. Remember, you're here to be happy. You have one function is to be happy and the discernment is coming to Being happy by following the spirit not following the ego because the ego will generate its own version of happiness and That involves becoming something attaining something Achieving something in the world. It's a timeline Achieve the goals of the timeline and then you'll be happy and all of us have tried that And I would say we could say with the resounding has it ever brought us a lasting happiness By attaining and achieving and accumulating and all this. No, it never brought us left to happiness The goal was still in the future Even future awakening and future enlightenment. That's another goal It becomes a trap, you know then you're on this constantly going to some songs and seminars and workshops and psychodramas and and Therapy and on and on and on and on and you know what that's all part of the spinning wheel, too Not that there's some helpful elements in all those things if given over to the spirit It could be very useful Be a fast track if given over but you're not asked to To stop on one of the rungs of the ladder and just decide okay. Here's a room. I kind of like it I've done pretty good look at all those rungs below me So I've gone pretty far God just came out here with my tent down my sleeping bag my stakes Look at all those other rungs. I'm better than all the rest. No spirit Doesn't understand degrees Spirit doesn't even understand rungs. Those are just concepts that the Holy Spirit can use so you keep pushing off and pushing off and pushing off Never resting content Think not that you know what anything is for until you have passed the test of perfect peace You are clueless Until you pass the test of perfect peace Your peace of mind is constant and I'll tell you if you think you're clueless on the way you really be clueless In that state of mind. That's more like the Chauncey Gardner Being their state. I like to watch Chauncey says he's a he's a witness. He's a watcher of the world But he's not involved in the outcomes. He's not concerned Where he stands he doesn't have that comparison You know, where am I? Where do I stand on the journey? There's six stages of development of trust in the course. It's only the ego ask what stage am I on? Some people tell me I think I'm on all six simultaneously I'm very confused because we're thinking, you know We just clear one and you move on to two the three four, but in the end the last stage is the stage of perfect peace And I know some of you have studied the course have you noticed that four of the six are difficult Uncomfortable challenging that's two-thirds Many of you that are on this journey and you a little peak to how it's going to go My friend Suzanne one time she listened to one of my talks and She said so basically What I'm getting from your talks is the way that the spiritual journey is going to go is damn damn damn damn ah Yeah, that's it very good And that's why we joined together in the midst of the seeming damn damn damn damn For a moment today hopefully will will go in that you'll experience a quantum moment of happiness For no earthly reason today That's really what you want and in the heart of your hearts. That's what you're praying for. It's just happiness for no earthly reason Happiness that doesn't involve the consequences happiness that does involve outcomes happiness like those old Eastern story where the farmer's son, you know is Working and the farmer's farmer gets hurt The good or bad we shall see Sun takes over on the farm, but then the Sun gets caught off to war There's a whole long series of things with the Sun and all you hear is we shall see an open-ended question It's actually a statement. We shall see we shall reach a state of mind that's beyond judging the form and We shall see with the vision of Christ the vision of spirit, which is perfect spiritual vision and You cannot achieve this spiritual vision with the body You cannot even achieve the spiritual vision with words because I know the course is Three books a lot of words 31 chapters 365 lessons and what happens is the ego tries to hop on the journey and says I'm gonna be a course miracle scholar or a Course in miracles writer a course in miracles. I'm gonna do that for my career I'm gonna be a Course in miracles expert a course in miracles Professional or whatever. No, you can't marry anything of this world with the spirit You've got to let it all go The caterpillar has to shed The skin to go into the metamorphosis of the butterfly and fly away The butterfly doesn't carry all that baggage up into the flight. It has to leave it behind And so that's really what we're called to do Some of you remember quotes from the Bible. I think St. Francis was was very thawed and quoting That which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit. I Now am born again That just means that the ego projected out time and space the ego Projected the body the ego projected the flesh and as long as you hold your identity with the flesh You deny the awareness of the spirit People say what about Jesus? He seemed to be flesh He seemed to be the spirit doesn't he kind of qualify as a middle a middle ground there Well, we could say that in the Bible it says the word was made flesh in the Course in miracles Jesus says strictly speaking that is impossible The word of God is spirit the word of God is I am as God created me pure spirit and spirit cannot become flesh Jesus was a symbol of this time and space world that the ego made of the Holy Spirit using What the ego made to point? like the Zen master pointing to the moon pointing to the light You're gonna have to forgive Jesus You have to forgive the apostles You have to forgive all the saints for give all history and come with holy empty hands unto thy God You're going to have to forgive everything of time and space without exception so this pathway is actually a very direct and Very simple and very straightforward not to the ego, but to the ego everything is complicated and difficult You might have noticed that voice in your mind that does the complaining that Always has the doubts. It's always self-critical That's the ego And the ego will never awaken Because the ego by definition is the belief that there is no God That love is impossible It's a death wish. I think the first one of the first times I came to Canada. I think I was up in Edmonton and Svated to a religious science church. I said, oh religious science It's pretty open and doing like a 10 12 15 week Series on the Buddha Church that does a series on the Buddha But when I got there and spoke I was only five or ten minutes into my talk and some elderly woman in the front She said hey, hey, hey, stop stop. You've got nothing good to say about the ego Come on now. Let's lighten up a little bit. That was only ten minutes into my talk If I took a long drink my water And then I looked out at her and I said the ego once you dead But when I there was another course teacher who was coming some weeks later And I saw a memo from the minister at the church and he said We're a little wary of course and miracles Because of the controversial nature of the previous speaker Controversial nature. I wasn't controversial in the least bit Tell it like it is Give it to me straight. Don't mess it up in with all kind of other metaphors and everything. Just give it straight We're removing our minds attention from a death wish I'm not trying to molecule the ego. I'm not even trying to love you. How do you love a death wish, you know? Carl Young said no you expose it You expose the shadow you expose it and you see it's unreality you pull your mind away from it by raising it up into awareness That's what all our transpersonal psychology our psycho drama all of our workshops everything We're doing when we're allowing those emotions up into awareness. It's good because we're simply exposing a puff of nothingness We're exposing a belief that really isn't deserving of our mind's attention That's why it heals But there also must come a point where if you've done all the psycho drama Psychotherapy you've done these things. I think I hear that complaints mostly is that people said I've been doing this for 20 years Or 30 years or 40 years. I Want to actually know how I can have a breakthrough And I said good now you're ready for the topic of true empathy of staying with what's real and true and And and seeing only what's real and true because that's what you have in your mind My mind holds only what I think with God Beyond the drama beyond the mirroring beyond the conflict There's a point that goes beyond right and wrong and good and bad And all the dualities of the world and it is just a state of pure Atonement a pure alignment with spirit And that is the presence of love And you must come to an end of the searching And you must recognize it and you must come to an end of the pursuits You must come to an end of the compromise of trying to have a compromise identity That still falls short of your christ nature your christ being your buddha nature You must come to an end of this pursuit So I've been having some great lunches over the years going back about 12 years with the publisher of The Course in Miracles Judy scutch and her husband William witson and We were going through we went through a few lunches About 12 years ago and recently we just I've had three or four more lunches with them and Finally I brought up the topic of the ancient mystery schools and Judy lit up and she said that's it when when Helen and bill first received this material They said you know what this stuff is. It's a mystery school It's kind of esoteric It's hidden. It's not for a public consumption. It's too too radical It's too deep to be out there Among the masses, which is what the mystery schools were about you had to come and go into the mystery of Letting go of all your concepts of who you are come to the the divine nature. So The first time Judy was the publisher of The Course so the first time she went to Helen and she said how many Books shall we make how much how much for the first print run, you know, how much we should have and basically Judy said Helen looked at her and said four Now Judy's in the role of the publisher Four four hundred thousand No, 40,000 No, Helen said no, I said four Helen's pretty sharp, you know, she she's a professor. She's I know my numbers. I said four He said four who was the four well the four of us can Helen bill and Judy, you know See how practical but do you see how the those were more in line with the mystery school feeling Like whoa, this is deep It's not really ready Many people want to hear it and they were pretty still Helen was concerned about a reputation, you know, first of all You know research psychologists that hears voices. They usually lock The psychologist locked those people up So if you put it out, oh, I've just channeled the work from Jesus Christ It says give up the world and come back to God and lock her up though. She was not too thrilled about Publishing she Helen at the beginning even you know, she all the way through her life She really she never really felt the course was even to be translated into other languages It's only with Judy and those that have followed that we have now 25 translations of the course of miracles, but Helen's original don't translate You know and four So we have to come at the spiritual awakening where you open up the course and you just have to think this is just for me This is spirit coming in a form Of all the different forms. It's just coming in a form of reaching me in a very direct way And saying this is just for my mind This is for my way. How many teachers of God does it take to save the world one? Guess who that one is It's our mind. It's our shared mind. It's not a personality But it's our mind is here to wake up or here to receive the truth to go for it now for Judy and Ken and bill and Helen, you know, they they were basically Told that before they would actually be given the next instruction to publish the course they would have to pray and receive instruction So they had these black binders with all this great material But basically they were told by the voice That they would have to pray and when they all prayed they waited waited ken heard nothing Bill heard nothing Helen heard nothing And then Helen said yes, Judy Helen had a really good contact with like here's the point and then Judy heard Make the commitment first No more instructions about this course of miracles until you first make the commitment. What does that even mean? Make the commitment to spend your whole life devoted to Experiencing what this course is pointing towards No more instructions until you make the commitment first So let's look at The commitment idea. I remember I was doing a gathering in Kentucky years ago and my friend William He came down there and we were having deep sessions lots of emotions coming out out in the woods of Kentucky and And finally a friend of mine Lisa started saying what you know William is going to take a commitment He said don't say that word So the whole thing was we were laughing don't say the c were please Don't say the c word And finally at the end he could say commitment he got He's came down from Canada. He's able to hold retreat to get to the point where he can speak the word commitment So the c word is not cancer. The c word is commitment That's what's more terrible. What's more terrifying than cancer? Commitment The mind would actually choose cancer over commitment to God it's actually it chooses Illness because sickness is function unfulfilled. It would rather choose to not fill its function and and try to die even To not just die but to try and suffer and die as opposed to commit to God The ego doesn't know what commitment is. So when I say commit, I'm saying your mind is going to have to commit to awakening your mind Our mind has to commit to forgiveness That's what jesus was teaching 2000 years ago judge not let's you be judged commit Commit to the plan of god So I've been giving these talks and traveling for the last 25 years and the same message that's been coming through is like Make the commitment What does it mean to put god first? It really means to put spirit first And to start to let all the priorities all the values Everything you've ever learned before to let that all start to fall away like scales falling off Like leaves falling off a tree like petals falling off a flower You have to let everything that you've pursued drop away Everything you strive for everything you Believe you've achieved and you've accomplished let them be like leaves In the fall in the autumn that just fall blow off the tree Let your mind be empty as the tree becomes empty in the winter The winter has its place the fall has its place It's part of the seasons the stages of letting go of the ego What about money? What about survival? What about You know the practical things of this world? Well, I had to actually start to Re let the spirit redefine practicality for me because I'll tell you Following the spirit and answering the call is the most practical And I would say the only practical thing that you can do in your mind in your life is to answer the call Jesus said I am calling you out of the world. He meant I'm calling you out of the thinking of the world I'm calling you out of the ego's purpose of death. I'm calling you out of the ego's Striving and comparing and judging I'm not asking you necessarily to go live in a cave Live in a tree You know go off and be alone. That's more like traditional mysticism But I am asking you to practice with my daily lessons to really commit to staying present To commit to emptying your mind like Buddha had taught empty your mind of everything you think you think you know Jesus is asking for the same commitment My parable of David has kind of been a testimony of how That's definitely the way to go because as I gave my life over I let go of career jobs Not all at once, you know, I had to keep asking Jesus about what would you like me to do and I had student loans. You have to be practical You can't just be like an ostrich and just kind of bury your head in the sand and pretend you don't have death pretend You don't have mortgages pretend you you have to be let the spirit unwind you from these ego traps death scarcity lack stress pressure you have to be unwound in a practical way from all of those things And that's what following the guidance is about That's what the Holy Spirit is here to do. It's here to give us practical guidance so for me when I took those big steps about You know, it's beginning to be about 30 years ago and then really 25 years ago when I started to travel I I took a lot of what the world would call leaps of faith and then People may say over the years David you learned how to live In divine providence like like mother Teresa and st. Francis and peace pilgrim and those things no And that's not even true either Let's get past all that stuff too, you know People don't live in divine providence. People are part of the problem The ego people of the world And the Holy Spirit is using That concept and that symbol to take us way beyond the idea of working for a living, you know We're talking today. I've started with a couple people about Since I've come up here about the high cost of living or The prices of real estate and then kubernetes and the craziness and how it's getting way out of hand and everything Oh, believe me the ego belief system is out of hand Vancouver is not out of hand Vancouver is in the Holy Spirit's hands and it's doing just fine actually not crazy Not good or bad Beautiful flow It's part of the flow like like the rest of the world. It's just flowing in the divine flow of god's love with Holy Spirit, but It's it's not the things of the world that are good or bad. It's it's Seeming thinking of the ego that makes it so these judges of what's good. What's bad? What's right? What's wrong? I'm telling you there's a state of mind in which everything is flowing perfectly and always has been flowing perfectly and there actually Are no problems So we'll have a fun day today. It's always fun when I come together with a group of friends And they try to tell me and convince me there's problems and I say I don't think so I don't think so. I'm not experiencing them It's always fun Bring the light and the dark together Problems no problems. Let's see how that goes When you turn a light on in a room That it's not dark anymore. I thought a fight that goes on Is there no problem no problem. No, it's the joy comes from The experience that there are no problems. There are no ecological problems. There are no military problems. There's no ozone problems Of course the miracles is is saying very very simply. What is the same cannot be different and what is one cannot have separate parts Well, that's important. What is the same spirit cannot be different People talking about diversity. We have to learn how to accept diversity. Where do we get these crazy ideas about accepting diversity? When the ego made the diversity And we're supposed to what accept the ego? A death wish for our mind. Come on. We can do better than that What is the same cannot be different? What is one cannot have separate parts? We have to come to a unified field if they call it in in quantum physics Or roomy said there is a field. I will meet you there the poets the mystics the saints the quantum physicists everybody is teaching The same thing is pointing towards oneness pointing towards unification. That's what resonates in our heart when we're Feeling that opening to the idea of oneness We are one in the spirit We like that word harmony We like that even in the coke commercial world Sway We don't care about the coke and then tell us a piece of our contestants. No, we're we're swaying and singing, you know In perfect harmony. That's the joy. That's the joy of it all So we're trying to open up to the idea that jesus stresses over and over in the course He says bring your illusions to the truth The problem with most spirituality seemingly in most religions in the world is they try to bring god into the world But if god is eternal and the world is temporary, why would you try to bring the eternal Into the temporary that doesn't make a lot of sense Why would you try to bring the transcendent that's beyond all time and space? Which is what spirit is into time and space Isn't that very familiar with the tower of babel remember the story of the tower of babel trying to build a temple High enough to reach god. Oh It's backwards and those temples always fall down Jesus tells us none of your cities have stood the test of time If you look at history, you will see that even famous cities have crumbled And everything of time will crumble and pass away Everything of time is temporary and passing everything of time and space is ephemeral Why would you put your attention and your focus and your care on the ephemeral on the temporary? When you could aim it at the eternal You could aim it at the light and know who you are The key to spiritual awakening is desire Some of you have seen my levels of mind and the core in the center is desire. That's the prayer of your heart Focus your desire on God on spirit Put all your faith in that and then you have no problems There's this guy in the bible back in the psalms Psalms remember that they've been back then Maybe it's before our time The lord is my shepherd I shall not want Pretty wise Pretty good start Now you can say well, that doesn't seem practical. I'm I have lots of ones but The chorus is just saying why don't you focus your one thing while you believe you have once Why don't you focus that on peace of mind? Instead of focusing on the form outcomes Oh, I'll be happy in the future when I achieve this and accomplish this never we've all tried that many times It never worked. Why would we keep trying the same things? and keep failing When the kingdom of heaven is within it's not going to be found in an outcome There's a beautiful section in the very late in the text of the course called beyond all idols Where jesus has a beautiful line that I just love to bring up spirit just brings it through me so much over these years When you decide upon the form of what you want You lose the understanding of its purpose when you decide upon the form of what you want You lose the understanding of its purpose Form and content are are inverse If you're in the love the form doesn't matter Because love is everything the form just can be a reflection of that love But when you're in the lack the form becomes very important and you seek You want out of lack you want objects to fill that lack and it never works That's the trick of the ego The ego's basic path is seek for idols and you shall be happy And what's the bible say hold no graven images hold no idols before the lord thy god exact opposite of the ego's teaching This stuff's been around for centuries It's been always been there And the idols aren't just golden calves and and golden statues. They're anything that we pursue in the entire cosmos It could be anything you may have a goal like one day. I hope there's space travel and I want to go visit a black hole Because time is so different in black holes No, that's still a goal whenever you try to to figure something out So I want to start to go at some basic Misconceptions this is mysticism 101, but I think it's important for all of us because people are so concerned about the ecology And they're telling me there's a big difference between a vegetarian and a meat eater No, actually what is the same cannot be different and what is one cannot have separate parts You have to come to such a unified perception that you empty your mind of meat eating and vegetarianism All this stuff about organic food and chemical food Who the hell cares? When it's a projection of your mind And it's only your thoughts that can injure you All this work That's diet and nutrition That's magic. Now the Holy Spirit can use magic But why is the Holy Spirit using the magic to unwind your mind from the belief in it not to you don't end up with the Holy Spirit Okay, I'm I'm divine. I'm lightened. I'm a vegetarian I'm a breatharian. I'm a Something or other this and this no the Son of God is not defined by what he eats or breathes Or doesn't breathe or anything Oh, I'm a traveler. I travel travel travel I I travel all over the world then I got into extra projection and then I started I started going visiting other planets I'm going to other galaxies. No, no, no, no, no No, no, no That won't make you happy either You're the Christ The Christ is no traveler in time and space Christ doesn't go anywhere. Christ doesn't travel Christ doesn't live in time and space. Christ lives in God and eternity Stuff about exercise come on I mean, I went through that stuff in the parable with David, you know, cardiovascular fitness and eat ride And the tennis instructor and did all these different things be fit be fit be fit be fit Exercise or your muscles will atrophy Right, have you heard this feel before I've heard this for so many years now God and how many decades No, when I got into the glory of God and just started living by divine grace by the mona from heaven by the prana energy By whatever you want to call it from any tradition That was the end of that I don't think about exercise because exercise is a what? It's a concept And that concept is Guess what sponsored by the ego If you don't have a body, it's kind of hard to exercise, right? People send me all this kind of stuff and I hope you have enough time to read this spirit doesn't read Spirit doesn't read You can't ever get overwhelmed with too much email if you're spirit Because why because spirit doesn't read. It's all intuitive. You get all your answers from your intuition You don't have to have little eyeballs passing over a bunch of words There are people that are like intellectuals and they believe that that's the way the scribes and Pharisees actually believe that too You keep running your eyeballs and practicing rituals and you'll make it back to heaven No, that's not going to even work You can let go of that too Are you willing to question your belief in exercise? Are you willing to question your belief in nutrition? Are you willing to question all the beliefs? of time and space Lesson 189 from the course simply do this be still And let aside all thoughts of what you are and what god is and he goes on to say hold on to nothing Do not bring with you one thought the past is top or one thing you learned before from anything Forget this world forget this course And come with open arms unto your god Are you willing to transcend the course of miracles? Or are you going to stick with the belief that you're just going to be a human being Reading and studying this practicing this book for years and years and years to come I've heard teachers say, you know, the course is not something that could be experienced in the lifetimes Who invented the concept of lifetimes? How many lifetimes are there in one? I go to unity churches all over the world and I'm given a talk there and and I kept here nobody would ever die You know in unity churches nobody dies. They just make their transition So I finally go to the minister and congregation. I say what's this transition stuff? Nobody ever dies, but they keep transitioning Where are they transitioning to the other side? The other side how many sides are there in unity? Come on your church name is unity What do you talk about sides? That's dualistic Are you willing to just simply go for this and give your life over to it? Like it's the only thing that there is really that you can give your life to Like that story of the the master in india welcome Come on in you got chairs here Sit in the front No, no problem There's that old story about the the master who has the devotee and They go to the river and then the master takes the devotee and dumps The devotee under the water and holds the devotee under the water for Quite a while and then finally the devotee comes up This is a giant gasp for air And then the master says when You want enlightenment Self-realization as much as you just wanted that breath of air You'll know it It has to be the desire You have to put spirit Love peace of mind first and you have to mean it. You can't just throw it in there and say, okay It's going to be I'll put it in my top 20 of priorities, you know, you can't it's not going to it's not going to actualize It's not going to ignite if it's somewhere in your top 20 It has to be at the top spot And then everything else just flows in from that everything you seem to need Those are my concerns at the beginning. I'm like I back and forth to jesus. I'm talking to jesus and saying well I don't know about you know, I'm in my 20s now. I'm thinking like career is kind of important when you're in your 20s You're supposed to start thinking about it Nowadays when you're a child they start throwing you know Get your skills guilt your skill set and you know, the right teachers and get your basics and math But you're supposed to by the time of your 20s. You're supposed to really be serious about a career and Jesus is like no, can you are willing to suspend that belief and and trust that I'll provide for you Not your past learning not your job not your skills Not your education all the things were taught that you got ahead in place to have a career to provide for yourself I'll tell you one thing That's one of the sneakiest traps to spiritual awakening is the belief that you have to provide for yourself Because you don't even know who yourself is. How could you provide for yourself? That's a wheel Of thinking that you know enough from your own past learning and your skills and abilities To get you out of time and space Somehow you think oh, I'm pretty good. I'm successful person I'm a good candidate for spiritual awakening. Jesus is like no You're twice removed from reality. Do you think you're successful in this world? You're twice removed From where this is heading I would travel around the world and meet people that were alcoholics drug addicts that were Had sex addictions They were had lives filled with pain and suffering and misery and addictions But all of that drove them down to their knees finally and they fell down to their knees and their knees hit the ground And they cried out sincerely help Things have gotten really out of hand here. I need a better way And then they would go to a 12 step group get involved with course of miracles all the great Healing modalities that the spirit uses and they would go soaring After they were knocked down to their knees first If you think you're a successful person in this world, you are twice removed from reality Don't look down on those addicts. Don't look down on those people that have been driven to their knees because they're only once removed You cannot judge your advances from your retreats Whatever you think you have built to make you better in this world Has actually been barriers against the truth barriers against the light of love You have to come down to your knees. You have to come down to a state of humbleness of true humbleness modesty Really to understand I do not know you have to come to that. I do not know a moment and I need help And then from that point the spirit ignites in you and the soul ignites and soars up to its natural condition of perfect love and unity So everything in this world is backwards and upside down. Absolutely everything without exception Can you mix the world's teachings with the spirit's teachings? Absolutely not You cannot mix light and darkness. You cannot mix love and fear What did the bible teach us years ago? Perfect love casts out fear perfect love It doesn't say romantic love casts out fear It doesn't say occasional love casts out fear It's perfect love agape love unconditional love casts out fear Again, it's very simple, but you have to give your heart to this Now in my life the parable of david it's just been I basically came to an experience where Jesus told me When he had said this before with the apostles and he said it for many many years many hundreds of years, so he said freely You have received now freely given He doesn't say give in order to get something back. That's reciprocity He doesn't say give occasionally He's asked you to become a true giver Just like the flower gives off its fragrance. It doesn't Tell the fragrance tell the wind where to blow it blow it over to that cat. I like that cow don't like that horse Blow it over there You know, that's more like human beings do with their love, you know, I'll love you because you treat me right treat me right And I love you. No, that's not giving and that's not love because there's conditions That's not unconditional love. There's conditions The only way to be happy and joyful consistently is be to become a giver like god gives god didn't give and then say Okay, what do you got for me? It was just a free gift So I decided that I thought well, I'm gonna have some fun here with planet earth. I'm going to become a giver So when I was told freely you have received freely give That's why I started to use things like The internet and before there was an internet to start to extend resources and so on and so forth and And and more recent years It's like record things just because I can put them on to the web and let people listen to them At their own time for free The only time that Thanks came in people started telling me, you know, it's people if it's free. It doesn't have any value Because money is the standard of this world. So if you don't have a price on it So I thought well, if you have to reach some segment, but everything Is given freely and then do what you want with it after that, but it has to be May available freely because it's a free gift It's the grace of god And can we not get into that mentality where our life becomes about freely giving and extending And that's the focus of our life And we trust the spirit will handle everything else And that's what st. Francis did and that's what the mystics and saints had done the sinyasis in India They would basically just go out. They were like wandering saints and mystics Letting the grace of god pour through them and trusting that everything would be handled That's what inspired me was the story of the like the saints and the mystics that would did that Wow, what a demonstration That's so far beyond capitalism socialism all the isms of the world, you know, it's just it's so simple show up in love Live the beatitudes extend the grace of god and then trust and watch how everything is handled It works with everything If I need a word God will give it to me if I need a thought god will give it to me if I need whatever You know, it's it's to me. It's it's just become all the same now So I just I just have a wear a smile on my face like even coming up here, you know I'm walking up to board my plane and I've got my coach tickets In my hand, you know printed boarding pass and I go there and They go to the counter and they they scan it, you know, you gotta scan it before you walk down the Thing to get on the plane. They scanned it and then they Delta has this thing where they give you automatic upgrades. They they she Pulled out another ticket and gave me another ticket and it was first class I went I walked in on the plane. It was the last first class ticket available. I thought It would be another great day Upgraded to first class I mean, but the the thing about it is there's really nothing better to coach first class But it's just like when you give yourself over to spirit to shine the light of spirit There will be symbols because you believe in symbols that will come your way And it's basically just saying god's saying I got your back Oh, I love you so much. I got you. I got you Spirit provides the symbols The spirit provides the symbols you don't work for the money And so you can attain and gain all these symbols because that's egoic You simply Decide you're going to be happy and you decide you're going to follow spirit and let all things else be added unto you without any effort Think of the life you would have if you went through entire days No, let's say entire weeks and months without thinking of money at all Wouldn't that be fun to just have most of you would be happy with 10 minutes A half an hour I didn't think of money for a half an hour I'm on my way But imagine living your life where you had where you just saw the whole world with symbolic And then it was all you And it was all provided For whatever would serve shining the light of love. It was just props Like a theater just props being used to shine the light of love with no value in and of itself Just images that were swirling around like leaves blowing in the wind With no interpretation of that except you're just shining your light in love and going hugging people and Singing rejoicing and god's love like actually you can watch the birds At this time of year, you know, you see how they they fly between the trees and they're chirping and singing so happy The springtime Yeah flying around Look up on the wires. They're like doing their mating things and all kinds of it's all alive and it's all happy And they're all singing a happy tune I've never met a like a a grumbling bird They're always like chup chup chup chup chup chup. Oh, I love that. It's fun to meditate to chirping birds, you know It's a nice sound. They're happy And st. Francis was the one who pointed out they they don't need much. They eat a few berries a day I mean, they're probably not even looking. They just probably run into a berry or a bug every once in a while Lunch, you know, they're not thinking is that organic? You know, imagine how free your mind would be if you're like going around and and it just shows up That's how it works for the aborigines In uh in australia, too. They go and walk about they're just rejoicing in the happiness of the present moment And then telepathically When it's when they get hungry then an animal gives itself up To them says, oh you happy people? Here you go. I'll be lunch today for you The the fun and the joy of just starting to see it's all just symbols being used for the glory of god And we don't have to break it apart into all these little divisions This is right. This is wrong This is better In the end there's a state of mind that goes beyond Right and wrong it goes even beyond better and works it goes beyond helpful and unhelpful As you're going through your mind training the spirit will still work with your mind and say that's helpful That's helpful Do this it can guide you in all kinds of things diet Where to go what to do, you know, it's very practical with spirit is very practical And and it's so worth it when you get tuned into your intuition and guidance That's the most wonderful thing you could ever do for your mind because from that point on You're like on cruise control with spirit driving the car so to speak with spirit leading the way There's nothing easier than living a life guided by spirit And there's nothing more difficult than trying to hack it out with ego And and keep feeding the ego With its once and greed and desires and then having these outcomes that you judge is terrible disaster Like the fires that were just And it's not far from here over near Calgary and above, you know, was it good? Was it bad? There's a miracle available in how you see it And that miracle is always available with whatever you're perceiving There's always the miracle that's inspired by love That can see the blessing So Yeah, I think For my skill for a while now I like practical questions curiosities Things from wherever you perceive you are in your life And wherever you perceive you are with this linear time thing You know It doesn't take anything but the love and the willingness in your heart to say yes to spirit say yes to god You know god doesn't say well, let me see your resume and Well, you've been loafing there a lot and Now you're asking the work for me. You're asking for a job The spirit doesn't Look at resumes The spirit doesn't look at your past and go I don't know about this one We have Nikita and I have fun because When Nikita first heard of me and everything I think we had do we have a phone call? She was living in Canada So she applied to come down to Utah and we're living in Canada and I think The last job that you had was working in a bar at a bar tender at a club She was at a bartender at a club not A nun in a convent bartender in a club And as far as money and resources No, she was the first one where the spirit said buy her a ticket. I'm like, oh buy her a ticket Okay I never met you So it said buy her a ticket. Okay. So no money Last job working at a bar You're at your apartment and it's kind of wrapping up and you've told me before you said You had no redeeming skills or abilities at all Not that I knew of at a time. My my last skill was uh that got undone It was a bartender. I thought I was good at it. So it was my last standing. So No skills bartending skills. That was that was the end of it By the end of it, I couldn't even count and I was like, uh-oh And then I heard well, that's your last night. So And how many years ago was this we talking? That was exactly four years ago because exactly in may well, it's june It was may I came like I came to utah on may 13 2012 So it was right around this time that the whole transition was happening So those are all the things that you didn't have and then And basically what is the course of miracles? What is all spirituality about about being attentive to your mind? Being attentive to your mind to your heart to your emotions mind watching You know disciplining the mind We have to have discipline to drive a car to drive a bike You know to fake a cherry pie. We have to have some kind of this we have to have some kind of discipline We just don't go and look and stare at the oven and Wait, you may come to that point where you do that I think you can cherry pie it I'm thinking warm cherry pie. Oh, no That's more like Sai Baba It's made you just simple though. You won't even care, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, let me cherry pie But it was like for you. It was it was part of unearthing the ego facing things You know trust I think it was it was trust even though when you came and you got off the plane I always tell that story too where some time had passed where I went to the monastery and I was over there We had these two ponds and one was drained and turned into a little mini epitheter But there was another pond next to it And Akita was standing in the middle of the pond Would it look like a like a mop or some kind of mop or something like this And she's in the middle and she's going like this and and I'm looking at her and I said So what are you doing? She said I'm cleaning the rocks This was inside the pond And I just saw out there she is trusting She was trusting to come out in the middle of rural Utah and get a mop and stand in on in a little pond And and I thought but see that impressed me because I thought There's some trust going on there She's trusting I'm not talking about blind faith, but I mean just the trust to Let yourself be taken out of what seems to be your circumstances and your story and your Way of life and your opinions and conclusions and trust that there's going to be a crack and opening for Another way which would be what called God's plan to forgive everything that you think you know And it takes a lot of determination to to hang in there because when the ego starts to flare up that's when You want to go back to the old survival strategies bolt Do this distract away? Addictions, you know all the things the ego has a whole plethora of Defenses against love and you have to have the commitment to say no, thank you I'm going to open my heart up. I'm going to move through this darkness And come into the light So that took a lot of determination too Yeah throughout the years Like throughout the four years definitely Yeah Especially Past year if we want to talk a lot and so that was nothing but that I don't know if any of you have seen insurgent Um, it was like this that was your insurgent. I was exactly you were trist for one year at one word for you insurgent Something shifting I don't know what but yeah, but something shifting. So I'm just Open now what but it's kind of I have a lot of gratitude. That's funny because we were testing screen the other day here and Just so happened I was testing it with insurgent whatever you like later. I was like, oh, what is it going on tris? You're hurting tris, you know, I'm like, huh? And uh, and I just had like almost like a moment of like almost like I wanted to tear up because it was so I'm like, I love this movie so much. Like I had a lot of gratitude because it was like Like it was a deep face because it was insurgent like through the whole year like not like almost like nothing But just really like facing everything all the values all the like going like as deep as you possibly can It can't allow with the spirit and face everything all the values like even like lots of loved one like she had to let go for Like everything like the pot the worst possible things that your worst fears And and not knowing where it's going to take and not have a plan and it's like and every soft I'd be like I need a reminder like What's going on and um, and so Like I said, but like when I was testing the screen. I just had a lot of gratitude that it was like, you know something I could feel almost like I'm starting to forget last year So it's like almost like It's like you wake up and it's like, whoa What a dream like that. So it's starting to become like From what was so horrific and all all the horrible things and It started to feel like all like even like talking about almost like didn't really happen kind of like sometimes I feel like Like almost like really But but but it was all for mind training and then like oh, yeah, of course This is what it's all about like in the end like this is like of course in miracles nothing real can be threatened nothing unreal Exist and then it's practical too. How much do you want to actually Like experience that how dare are you like do you dare to really? experientially find out that nothing real can be threatened and just like go How deep do you want to go with it's not in the conceptual way? And so and then of course everything Like when there's a desire for it like everything is given like in terms of form I had the most gentle backdrop even in the most like what You know like could be like My win place which was in utah in camas, but it's like so well It was everything Like given in such a way and gentleness in terms of the form so that the mind can just totally allow and go you know for what it truly wants which is like The piece of the piece of God like to truly like I want to know like the truth Yeah, some of you know that that that's a trilogy, you know it's Tristan Divergent was the first one insurgent was the second one Divergent, you know when she would go through these great trials in that movie And the other candidates would always have the face of fears and this and this But they they had a great difficulty with it the way she would transcend fear was just a simple thought. It's not real She was in the miracle Transcending the fear while the other candidates or the other Ones that were part of it were how are you doing this? What is your secret? How how can you go into that fearless state? It was it was she would go into this. It's not real She would go into the miracle and then of course the second one insurgent You know she had to face all her deepest fears And then the third one the thing that was I was traveling and people were I saw critics saying oh The young people today They're not going to see the third part of the trilogy The critics were projecting on to the young people. They're so thick all and I said no I thought if the young people aren't seeing it, it's not worth seeing Because everybody had that experience with the matrix. You see the first matrix and you go wow It's all there in matrix number one And then oh, then there's it diverts a little bit The thing about it is the mind gets witnesses to what it truly wants and and I think we have A symbol of a lot of young people that are kind of getting wise to the ways of this world And when they see all the twists went through in number two They're like got it Lesson learned Thank you for the direction. I don't have to go and continue watching More movies. I can really get the lesson Really face the fear and go through it. It's the same with therapy It's the same with psychotherapy trans personal therapy. Listen The listen to the name trans personal It's to transcend the personal It's not called wallow in the personal Therapy although sometimes people treat it like wallow in the personal Because why it makes money, but what's the money for? You know Jesus says what what are you doing? Why are you earning these he calls them? Strips of green paper strips and piles of metal discs. He's pretty detached from money Strips of green paper strips and piles of metal discs. He says you use these strips of Paper strips to buy things that you don't even need and want Doing things Jobs that you don't even Need or want and then you keep recycling you just do it over and over again never Stopping the question. Where is it all going to end? What's it all for? To keep hearing that people say i'm stressed out. It's higher taxes and There's traffic problem. Oh my god. There's more traffic congestion and you know how long it took me to get to work and And what are you working for? What is the point of your work? What is the point of your? Vocation your occupation? You have to start to ask those questions What is it for? What is this vocation for? If it's just to earn green paper strips and buy sense of things and Let them go and buy some more and keep going through this recycling thing and then grow old get sick and die Come on. You think that's the point of life You know is that I mean that seems to be the mass consciousness of really come on. Let's be real here Is that really the point of life? Live it out as the best you can and then get grow old get sick and die You know if that's all that the world has to offer you Then I think with the course of miracles you can start to say up. There's more There's definitely more. It's called enlightenment It's called awakening. It's called forgiveness It's called healing. It's very important coming to peace of mind So that's why you have to put that first You can't really come into full experience of peace of mind if you try to straddle You try to straddle between Two different thought systems one of love and one of fear You can't say Glory to god glory, you know, jesus said many will come in my name and say jesus jesus lord and he will say I know you're not What does that even mean? It means if you're really Into serving christ, then you're not going to be a peaceful warrior. Why? Because That's a contradiction in terms You're not going to stick with this whole thing of fight the good fight. Who says spirit has this fighting at all I mean, it seems that way when you're pulling your Mind away from the ego. It seems like a battle an internal battle psychic battle that's going on But in the end what does jesus say in the course? Truth does not fight against illusions nor do illusions battle with the truth Illusions battle only with themselves If you have a conflicted mind you have to admit that you're still trying to serve two masters And you can't serve Love and money. You can't serve love and fear. You can't serve love and guilt You have to give your minds full attention to the love And let it be pulled away from the the guilt and so forth Aren't you happy to hear a teaching that comes out in the psychotherapy pamphlet where jesus has a very short little sentence money is nothing period From jesus christ Is jesus christ into capitalism? No socialism? No any isms? No Money is nothing Could you live that? Could you actually use this seeming lifetime to give your mind permission to live that? Where you're so divinely guided You're so tuned in to the flow of all that is that you're not obsessive about Saving money Spending money earning money, you know how many thoughts A day go through the mind that are tied into those money concepts That's that's a waste of your mind energy actually What's the solution? If you give those thoughts over to the holy spirit and say I don't know what to do with these but here you go I give them to you and you give them back to me as guidance That's practically Oh, you need to leave a tip there Oh, you forgot your wallet. Oh I've got a new job for you. It's going to help you pay off your debts. Oh, you know You you give the thoughts Of scarcity and lack you give the money thoughts and the financial thoughts over to the spirit and you say Wow, my plan did not work at all. I've been really tangled up Into this complexity of trying to learn how to you know be a successful human being which is really an oxymoron again When you're a spirit, you'll never be a successful human being a successful person You've got to you've got to take that concept give it to spirit and say now it's your plan Be you in charge some of you remember the course of miracles how the workbook ends This holy instance When I give to you Be you in charge I would but follow that's how the workbook ends As you're letting go of your daily practice and he's saying now let the holy spirit take you from here. He's got you These lessons that just helped you make the connection with the spirit now Give it over to the spirit and let the spirit orchestrate that How many of us grew up trying to figure out what we wanted to be when we grew up? Like how many still are wondering Or wondering if we should ever grow up at all. Maybe maybe that was a problem If we're playing and you know in the creek when we were little and laughing all the time and whoever Maybe have this the wrong turn trying to become a functioning human being adult human being. Maybe that was the turn I need to you know become as little children. Jesus said meaning just become as dependent on spirit as Little infants are to their mother Little infants are very dependent on the mother and father become that dependent on your guidance on the spirit And then as you go in that direction then it becomes quite joyful because Basically, then you are being called out of the world You're being called into a A new way of seeing the world I think we have been recording the workbook lessons from A Course in Miracles and today the one that I put out was Only An instant from the from this workbook only an instant does the world endure Isn't that fascinating from Jesus? Only an instant does the world endure. He has got a lot to say This is a thought that can This is a thought that lets you know that everyone who comes here Um Comes here to suffer and die And yet this is the thought that can heal your mind because Only an instant does the world endure starts to take you into a new perception of time The transference from the unholy instant the time of terror and fear to the holy instant The present moment where you're free and innocent That's the one little tweak you've got to make in the mind That's the only thing the whole spiritual journey is about is is making that little tweak from From fear to love from the unholy instant to the holy instant What does that mean in a practical way because I was Reading that lesson and I'm like, oh, I love this lesson This this lesson is basically saying Only an instant does this world endure is basically saying that that time was over And the only struggle you have Is trying to perpetuate this belief in linear time When it's been handled by the holy spirit. It's already over and done. It's been handled It's not a future thing. It's already over and done But as long as you keep perpetuating this belief in linear time past present future You are bringing guilt and fear and shame and pain And denying eternity which knows nothing of this past present future construct And what it's really saying is If you can just for an instant see this world as simultaneous Simultaneous then you that is the gateway to eternal life and freedom And how does that relate to us as we're on the journey because what we're driving yesterday Helena was asking about she was saying what experiences have you had in your life that have been symbols of undoing Plenty of time and I was telling her some of the most profound ones that I've had But let's just think of a word that human beings know Spontaneous or spontaneity A lot of times we think of children as beings very spontaneous Not like everything's pre-planned and preconceived. They're just very spontaneous They wear their heart on the sleeve They're just very very In the moment. That's what spontaneous means And imagine if you could live a life of trust where you completely lived your life in 100 spontaneity With no preconceptions no past ideas of what was coming next No prejudgements no agendas No underlying assumptions that were hovering underneath no kind of program running underneath You could be just completely spontaneous And and greet the world with that spontaneity and the spirit within your heart That's the goal Of spirituality to live in that pure spontaneity Joyful happy happy free spontaneity You see what a contrast that is to the human construct learning planning striving concept image Agendas, you know so on and so forth all of that is an egoic block to that spontaneity Now I will find that also There are people the ego is so clever and so ingenious that anything that's true and real and helpful The ego will make a counterpart To throw you off It's that much of a of a Clever trickster. So what is the ego's counterpart for? Spiritual spontaneity what clever defense would the ego throw in to throw you off the trail? Planning But even planning so such a future thing, but let's draw it even closer. What what Could the ego come up with that seems to be the moment, but it's just a substitute for the moment Distraction that's it. That's almost describing it Impulsivity You see spontaneity the ego comes sliding in with impulsivity How many friends do you know that are on the spiritual journey and they go around they're constantly talking about I'm living in the now now You live with a partner Well, let's do this living in the now Well, are we gonna get out of bed or anything living in the now living in the now You know there's something about the ego is so clever It will take Eckhart told the book the power of now and it will make it into a cliche And see how clever the ego is and now It's the now everything's living in the now Did you pay the mortgage bill this living in the now? It's like you see the ego will hijack It's trying to hijack pure spontaneity with impulsivity with ego impulsivity. You see how clever That's why we have to really be honest. We have to come to a self honesty Because these spiritual cliches and catchphrases ego will just hijack them and then it will just it'll be parody with these concepts It's you were talking about undoing the concepts. It just turns into a concept so then suddenly You've gone from actually living spontaneously in the now Which is what the whole point's about to a fantasy concept Of what the ego wants you to believe is the fantasy of living in the now You see how sneaky it is just be aware of that candy well All kinds of there are many different ego impulses in the mind. They're distorted miracle impulses It's like taking your divine calling and running it through a filter of lack and craving So when someone's impulsive There's fear there And they're trying to impulsively Say the right thing or do the right thing or put on a good mask, you know, even even Spirituality the ego will turn into a mask. So then it's so clever then it has a spiritual mask There's always comparisons and judgments You know, it's kind of fascinating to me how Personhood and and spirituality get kind of licked up again and again. It's an oxymoron You know, I talked to a friend and they said, yeah, I just went out on a first date with this guy and I really liked him and You know, the best thing about our dinner was He's spiritual I thought how do you do that, you know That could be a trap too If you think you know someone's spiritual and nobody and nobody else is This one of all the candidates. This one's spiritual You know, you start to see that we throw these words together spiritual man spiritual woman, you know, those things are Trying to again mix spirit and matter spirit and flesh when we're actually Asked to be very honest with our feelings and emotions. Am I feeling joyful? Am I feeling Happy peaceful? That's What spirit is is that state of mind. It's not these things well It's organic And he's spiritual, you know, it's like wait a minute It's you've got we've got to let go of all of our categories in order to know thyself in order to recognize it that the form is not it in the Sutras and in Buddhism, you know form is empty empty is formed you get to the same place That the course is taking us is don't Try to read the meaning onto the form. That's lesson number two. I've given everything. I see all the meaning It has for me And he's going to take it much further than that. I can escape from the world. I see by giving up attack It's urgency with fear whereas We've all had those experiences too where when something lights up our heart And there's like a change coming And we feel a sense of like urgency like spirits saying You know, trust me. This is an important leap So there could be an urgency That's underneath there not with a sense of fear or panic But the sense of like I'm calling you. I'm really calling you out of the world And a lot of times people who go on a spiritual journey, you know, they're they're saying oh these teachings of Jesus and Buddha sort of radical you know sell all that you have give to the poor and follow me and and Sink you first the kingdom of heaven and all those will be added unto you. Actually those aren't radical. Those are very simple direct instructions from the master And it's only the ego that says those are too radical But as I followed in myself And and dove into them. I found the bliss That's what those instructions lead to is absolute bliss and then interestingly I There was the mind was calling for a symbol. So basically the people say well You know, do you like do you live with someone? Do you live in community? Do you live with a partner? Listen, the whole universe becomes your community when you're in the state of mind Because there's no world apart from your mind. It's what they call unified consciousness So really you're in love with everyone and that's the matter of the fact of how it is because you're not judging Anyone as being separate or apart from yourself You're letting go of the personal identification It how it plays out of the world jesus had of 12 apostles It seemed that we seem to have a community. I lose track of the numbers, but it's like 20 25 We don't use those days It's around 25 to 30 around the world, but but it's just those are just symbols too of devotion of Living a devoted life where you're pouring yourself into your purpose and your function and you Are willing to let go of the time ideas you're willing to let go of the the scarcity ideas the lack ideas where You're willing to trust that you're living in divine providence and everything's being provided Sometimes the word mystic is used or mysticism mystic to me. It just means devotion to god. It's not a special term It's not a special concept or whatever. It's just another term for devotion to spirit That's what the goal is Is to be devoted The form is very individualized, you know, the spirit will Arrange time and space and will handle all the form So you don't have to get into the struggles of comparing this with that. That's where the the judgment's coming Mighty who wants to ask a question The question is How does the concept of romantic love fit into this Inside of the course well, I would say There's those nine chapters on specialness from 15 chapter 15 to 24 And I had a friend who used to live up in roscoe new york with ken wapnick And it was part of the community up there for years and she was in the kitchen And she would say every time they would do workshops on that particular topic that you're raising People they have to order like four times as much food People were jamming their mouths with food or however Five days a week and she's in the kitchen trying to keep up You know, so when they get into those that question that theme it's charged with lots of fear It's charged with lots of guilt There's a huge defense mechanism That's there tied in with it and that's why people would just stuff their mouths Because they weren't ready to face that they had something to distract with so the food was awake What I would say is that As you believe in time and space the spirit is so gracious and loving that it will use the concepts that the mind believed in and so You're dealing with starting off with the relationship. You're talking about A romantic sexual maybe committed Monogamous maybe not, you know people nowadays, you know, When you talk about romantic relations, are we talking polyamory or you know, you have to get specific what you're talking about But that's going to be a starting point for healing What can we say about How the Holy Spirit can use what the ego made Is there's a lot of mirroring that's going to go on Because what happens is when you start to throw in concepts like commitment In relationships and and monogamy and different things like that Those are concepts too There's a lot of mirroring that goes on and what really is happening there is it's intensifying the mirroring in other words let's say there's You know billions of people and you You've noticed that your mind is focused on the behavior of this partner Where they are what they're doing Looks on their faces You know all these things start to take exaggerated importance not so concerned with the rest of the 6 billion 7 billion you you're concerned with What's going on right in front of you? And the concern around that is You're perceiving what you still believe so there's an intense mirroring that goes on in those Significant other romantic relationships and the spirit is going to use that if you're willing To trust the spirit and say i'm giving this over to you to use For spiritual awakening to free my mind of of this guilt Yes What I got is that That person is like a gift to teach to teach you That's who that person is That's what spirit Deserving gave me so perfect gift for for you for me. Yes. It's a perfect gift. Isn't that wonderful? Thank you, you ask the question and just your willingness and then she comes right there Yes How can we keep balance between living spontaneously and also be vigilant because um, living spontaneously it could be um Abused by untrained mind Because currently i'm living with some keys. I don't have kids, but I live in red kids I see the kids so they don't have self control So, um, and what can we talk about asking Helen this question right behind you? She's she's like, oh, thank god Thank you. I'm somebody's raising this one up So that uh, even the buddhism talk about the deep discipline And the course also talk about the like that the ego has such Continuity things it keeps going so we need kind of a reason for vigilance. You know, we we need a kind of a discipline so, um But I understand when you talk about living spontaneously means we don't need a plan We don't need to think about too much time the linear way to feel worry about the future regret the past Yes, um, the same idea pretty much like the another another concept They talk about in chinese about the low people pleasing So I understand that the forefront of this one, but it can also be misused. Yes, you know by ego So between the discipline between the you know, discipline and the living spontaneously, can you How about more how we can keep that balance? Yeah, yeah, that's what I was talking about before too with the spontaneity and the impulsivity the impulsivity would be the the defense like the ego misusing the spontaneity for its own purposes and I would say that you Jesus says an untrained mind can accomplish nothing. This is a course in mind training The whole focus is on mind training. So really that's a very key point that if you Begin to use everything for mind training. You have to you'll become much more aware of these tricks As as you become more mindful is a word that they use in buddhism you become more attentive and focused So the same with people pleasing, you know the ego can use that to interpret it for its own ways of I'm not going to do what other people want There's not a sense of real joining and connecting and asking Internally what is helpful here. It's just the ego will jump on that and try to Say I'm just going to do it my way and I'm I'm not going to care about what other people think or do But it can be very ego centric and so the ego is very clever at doing these things now When you talk about my children, we were having those discussions children called little monkeys today and So on and so forth you start to realize that Everything in your life is is an opportunity for you to undo the self concept and let go of control so for example When I was in South America, I was out in the rural areas years ago and And a lot of the women had children young children and they said the young children are teaching us so much They're working with the course They're learning from the young children and I said what is it that they're teaching you and they said That this game of control is over You think you have a bigger body that you're in control of my smaller body I'm here to teach you a major lesson and I'll do everything I have in my my power to teach you That's not the case. That's the undoing of the parent concept That's the undoing there's a lot of control That's built into every self concept of the world. You're a manager in a business. Are there control issues there? You better believe it You're the president of a country a country. Are there control issues? Yes You're the ceo of a company You have under unconscious control issues. You better believe it people don't like that when they They say can somebody who's a ceo of a company be enlightened. I said absolutely not Because there's so many concepts that are built in with these masks that they're all based on control And anybody familiar with the 12 step program, you know the serenity prayer What you have control over what you don't have control over and the wisdom to another difference Jesus makes the serenity prayer very clear in the course when he says you have no control over the world you made Because the ego made the world So it's trying to control the children is where the problem comes in Even trying to control the body Still is giving Reality to the body Trying to control the world The human being is a construct Which is this impossible situation where there seems to be an external environment And this body And then inside the body and things are not always in accord You know, there's always seems to be friction between the individual and society There seems to be friction between this person and that person Even with soulmates, you know, you go for 30 years you find your soulmate you I've got my soulmate And then you wake up in morning one in bed one day and you go you believe what? You know, oh, come on. This is you're crushing my soulmate Concept too, you know, the spirit will always Undo every concept that we believe in because that's where the conflict's coming in What's the conflict? Am I a creation of God or can I make myself any damn well way? I want myself to be That's what the projected world is is I want to make myself in any way that I want to be I can be Caucasian. I can be oriental. I can be Russian. I can be male female Oh, let's try a little a little bit of both. I'm going to be a Transgender I'll switch in mid mid course and blah blah blah There's a belief under there that I can make myself any way I want to be And that's the authority problem. That's saying I could be the author of me And spirits saying no God is the author God created you as perfect innocent spirit And that's the reality of things so What the answer to your question is If you start to feel that that There's been a hijacking or a misuse of something And even around something like spontaneity because that can be like a parent saying listen I'm going to do laissez-faire hands off Just do whatever you want You want to watch tv? Here's the remote Paper review go ahead spend as much money as you want Rated r rated x I don't care, you know I had students years ago in the 1990s and and it was so interesting because there This couple one was into the course and following my teachings One was not husband was not they had two children and The husband would kind of hear the things I would say and then would watch his wife because the wife would say Well, I don't want to I don't feel comfortable showing the children certain kind of movies And certain violent kind of things and this and this and this And intuitively she was feeling that she really wanted to work with her children directly and and be very selective in Kind of things that they were exposed to and the things that they watched and free time and this and this and her husband would say No, no, listen to david. It's all an illusion. Anyway, they can watch anything they want to you know And this and so it was this conflict between the intellectual ideas versus intuitive listening What feels helpful? What feels right? so I did a whole talk a whole weekend uh Some years ago over in sweden out in rural sweden on parenting and spirituality Because I had a group of parents that were coming together and they were saying can you help us? Start to take a closer look at these issues that are coming up with the children Mostly the children just were out playing While we were doing it, but then they were coming for some of the talks too, but it was all about undoing the self concept Letting go of this idea of control over others of responsibility For other people as well Because the course takes us all the way back to the atonement your sole responsibility is to accept the atonement for yourself Except the correction for the ego except your alignment with spirit That's the answer and the ego is constantly projecting that one responsibility out into unresponsible for My country my society my children my parents, you know, it's always trying to project Responsibility and that's where a lot of the people pleasing comes in Where the mind gets so caught up into a false identity and doesn't even realize That it's a false identity so What I would say is that if you really open the spirit The spirit can move very quickly with your mind if you're willing to Shift things and maybe what we'll do this afternoon to is I can talk. I don't know how many people here are into quantum physics But I can talk about the difference between Isaac Newton and Newtonian physics And in quantum physics we can get more into Einstein and And the last seven decades of quantum Physicist because what they're doing is they're showing us that it's all consciousness that it's basically That there is no external world apart from consciousness apart from the thoughts and It truly comes down to to be the witness self to come into the quantum field that they're talking about the unified field We have to let go of everything That we've perceived from Newtonian physics Newtonian physics was based on false assumption. It was based on empiricism. It was based on an external world outside of consciousness That's why when people tell me, you know, well, I I need evidence for this spiritual stuff, you know studies have shown About nutrition studies have shown about sleeping studies have shown About exercise studies have shown david studies have shown. Yeah, what are all these studies based on? Newtonian physics They're all erroneous because they all are based on the assumption the entire scientific method Because we've come to know which many of us have grown up with Is based on the assumption that there's an external world and that you can learn from experimenting with that projection Which doesn't it's not seen as just a projection It seems like it's reality and we're going to deduce facts based on studying the images doesn't work so this will save you thousands of years if you if you stay with me because you can start to let go of Of all these studies and all this so-called factual Basis which are all based on false cause-effect relationships that don't even have any existence at all and you can come back to your intuition Which is what is my heart telling me? What is my heart telling me to eat? What is my heart telling me to do? What what do I have by following my heart? There is no sacrifice in following your intuition But we have to be really clear on what that intuition is too because like you're saying ego is so clever It will try to hijack even intuition I've had even people in the spiritual circle over the course It you know the funniest thing in the early years for me was My holy spirit and your holy spirit My holy spirit is telling me this what's your holy spirit? Oh my god, and then they try to form communities based on On this stuff What are we going to have a vote of the holy spirits then okay five to four? five holy spirits here Or over there the five wins you know This is it makes a mockery Of it's trying to bring the truth into the illusion until you come to an actual experience of divine guidance If you just try to use the words You know i'm guided to do this What are you guided to do that can be helpful to start to tune into it? But you see how clever the ego is it breaks the holy spirit Into six billion holy spirits And no wonder there's still conflict because there isn't six in cold spirits. There's only one And that one is trying to take the mind wake the mind up out of the sleep Words would be that the person got would be different but the message might be the same so then it might be Yeah, that's it. The holy spirit keeps the message consistent But it will reach people in in the language that they can hear it and everything But what would happen is if you get into prayer topic of prayer Jesus did that pamphlet the song of prayer and he said if if two people are Really attuned and listening They will hear the same thing and and even further at the same time It can even come in so we once we get into the topic of prayer We start to go beyond the seeming Proceed differences into the sense of harmony again so and I would say in the end We were talking about that lesson. It's all for you if you if you keep it really simple just between you and spirit While you're waking up and seeing that it's all unified then you take away the complexity of trying to judge anything for anyone else because ultimately It it comes directly into the mind and you're given You know you give away the miracles that you receive you first have to receive them before that you can give them away so in terms of practicality Yeah, it's it's the purpose when people are using my Holy Spirit and your Holy Spirit If it's for a purpose of maintaining differences And maintaining personal autonomy then again ego is hijacked the whole thing Yes, I just wanted to ask you a little bit about ego and I'm sorry to feel a bit sick in my tummy It feels like there's a war going on when you talk about the ego and how sneaky it is and how and I just I just Feel like I'm out of sync with that and if I've come to accept that maybe that ego is trying to keep you safe But I hear you a different language from you. So I just I'm just noticing my body. It's like ooh, I'm I'm in war right now With what you're saying about ego versus spirit. I I don't remember Yeah, it's it's again, it's kind of like a purge you know if If a virus had got on your computer No matter how undetected It is you would want to be aware you would want the virus Scanner to pick it up no matter how big the hard drive was or whatever There's an unsettling thing you have to find that What I'm sharing is is can be interpreted by the ego as a threat Because it sounds a little Bit like the bible that you're yay be yay that you're nay be nay Basically jesus is saying the course you will believe this course entirely or not at all That's extremely non compromising. It's not a little Mishmash of a little of this a little of that and so The interpretation can come in Where the ego is very threatened By the direction that all this is moving and I would say that as people go on in In jobs and love relationships and in various aspects of life They do start to come to that point where they feel an uneasiness Like they're caught between worlds. There's a there's an inner an infpsychic battle Or something going on that they maybe had distracted away from but now It started to be brought more in awareness Even this last year. I know with nakita. She would just have days. We're just it was just pain Not pain because of anything obvious in the environment like she was saying it all seemed serene and gentle But there became like this intensity that started to come out And if you read the lives of the mystics and the saints, you know, saint john of the cross He would even talk about the dark night of the soul When you start to drop in towards that unconditional love The ego is going to try to put the brakes on It will try to distract you from that pursuit. It will try to Just to see you Turn you away from it because Because that's going to be the end of the ego if you come into experience of love and light There is no ego and the ego doesn't want to It tries to exist. It wants an existence Among everything else so it's it's quite common and I would say That when those uneasiness feelings or the queasiness or like a low-level anxiety or different ways that it can come up That you can recognize that there is a gift Like you were saying that that relationship is a gift. There is a gift there And the gift is like a a freeing From something something being brought up into awareness that was hidden That's the gift Because as long as things remain hidden then they're out of awareness Then the mind the person is like a robot just acting out the thoughts and beliefs and patterns And and it's you know trying to make the best Of time and space, but we know that we're worth more than that We don't have to just live a life just to make the best of it We know we're entitled to everything We're entitled to true divine love And that's really what's going on So it's a lot of it's committing and hanging in there And I would say that's important on the spiritual journey My question was around the darkness of the soul Could you talk more about that? Well It's just a phrase that that st. John of the cross came up with but Darken out of the soul. It's I would say it's it's kind of like in Course in Miracles terms, you know There's the obstacles to peace You go through one two three and then you come down to four The fear of God the fear of God kinds love And that ultimately is I think what st. John of the cross was describing. It's almost like That's when you're going to have to pull your allegiance away from it entirely Or as Jesus sometimes says he says in the Course do not Attempt to breathe life into your failing ego You know, it's like You've been mind training for years. We'll say centuries millennium, you know, now you're getting close to the light He goes like Please No, please Don't do it. Don't pull the plug It was this monster boy. I've got you you'll never escape from me now. You're getting down to don't pull the plug It's whimpering And and That's like that's kind of on your when you're past the dark night now Do not breathe life into your failing ego You know, just really go for it. Go the go the extra step Finish it Let's finish it not kill it because to see it likes to fight If you try to kill it, then it goes oh You have to forgive it, you know, which is means just keep exposing it That's why we have two guidelines in our communities. No private thoughts. No people pleasing Is just to encourage the exposure of the ego So that you can come into true empathy, which is just staying with What's what is right and true and given from spirits staying with the guidance