 We should be able to get into a lot of topics pretty deeply this week and it's just an opportunity to save thousands of years of learning. Because when you go deep into the metaphysics and you start to get insights about how it relates to your everyday life, and I call it the top 40, those thoughts that just recur over and over with any recurring thoughts or issues, those are just opportunities or those are topics and thoughts that are just waiting to be dissolved. And when we come together like this, it's really a good opportunity. We do have a lot of movies that deal with the idea of no private thoughts. And you might say that the definition of a private thought would be any thought that you have about the past or the future. These are also sometimes called hypothetical thoughts. Hypothetically speaking as if in the future something may or may not occur. And if you really just watch your thoughts as they roll through, you'll see there's a lot of hypothetical thoughts or what the course would call private thoughts. And some of them are judged to be very desirable and that's why you think about them over and over because they're very desirable. And some of them are very fearful and worrisome and have a lot of doubts attached with them and anger and guilt. And the positive ones about the past or the future and the negative ones are all the same even though they seem to be very different. They are all part of a device to keep you from experiencing the present moment. So I would say that the journey to enlightenment or the journey to self-realization is voluntarily, willingly and hopefully gently letting those thoughts come up into your mind and starting to have the willingness to say, OK, these thoughts are no longer serving me. I don't really need them for survival. I don't need them for a sense of well-being and that it's possible for me to just relax and sink into the present moment and experience everything that I could ever want or ever need in this very moment. And that's what the spiritual journey is about, is learning to just live in the present moment and trust. Because it takes a lot of trust to let go of those thoughts because the belief is that those thoughts serve to bring about safety, security, and many, many kind of desirable things when in fact it's like a wheel. You just keep thinking about them over and over and over. And the wheel does not bring peace of mind. The wheel is almost like the karmic wheel they call it or the wheel of distraction to keep you away from the present moment. Now the Holy Spirit knows that the mind when it's asleep is heavily invested in these thoughts. And even though in reality there are no prior thoughts, the condition of seeming to be in this world is to believe in those thoughts because it's a reality. So you will notice that there are a lot of emotions that are connected to those thoughts. And that's why it can seem like the human condition is just an emotional roller coaster ride of up and down. People will even say life is meant to be a series of challenges and you will have challenges every day based on these thoughts and these emotions. But actually life was created by God to be perfect happiness that if we had to give a definition of God's will it would be, God's will is for perfect happiness, not for a roller coaster ride of emotions. And so it seems to take a lot of mind training to allow those thoughts to come into awareness and then to be willing to not protect them, not push them down and repress them, to deny them, but just to let them come into awareness and then to let them go and give them to the Holy Spirit. And one of the questions that comes up the most often is how do I do this? And I would say that the basic teaching of the Course is Jesus just saying try not to interfere. In other words that's all you have to do is not interfere with something that's already a movement of healing that is occurring always, all the time and it's not like you have to learn some special formula or certain steps that you have to take all the time, but it's like by not protecting those thoughts in your mind then they are voluntarily offered, opened to the Holy Spirit for healing and there's no sense of needing to do anything special to release those things. And you don't even have to go on a witch hunt and try to find out what they are. Just your daily experience as you move through this world you have plenty of opportunities of those thoughts dealing with those thoughts. So it's not like you have to go on a search and destroy mission or something with the Holy Spirit you just have to be willing not to protect those thoughts as they come up. When you say thoughts does that mean whether they are expressed or not? I mean there's a lot of things in the past and in the future that you know that you're attached to and you can express it. Is that still a crime of thought? Yeah, it's very nature. They can seem like thoughts, they can seem like memories. We can talk about the past, we can talk about memories that we seem to have experienced. They can seem to take the form of plans when you're looking forward to things and you're planning things out. And you might say that you're opening up to a completely different experience than you've ever had before. And so the deeper you go the more you see how all-encompassing this ego defense mechanism is. That it's not like a lot of spirituality where we were taught to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. That's a common thing that people talk about in the spiritual past is if you can just eliminate the negative and then have only positive thoughts in your mind. But the positive thoughts and the negative thoughts are part of a continuum and it's the very continuum that's the block. And that's why you can't just affirm your way back into reality or the Kingdom of Heaven. In fact, the man we met right before we started here, Peter, who came over from a nearby ashram, he was saying he was listening to a Louis Hay book or something with Louis Hay and he was talking about a lot of affirmations. And he was saying that he's actually in a part of his path where he turns the affirmations into a question. Maybe something more like Byron Katie's work where you take a look at fundamental questions about her thoughts. Is this really true? Is it so? Instead of having an affirmation and just repeating an affirmation, it's more getting down underneath to, oh, is this belief that I have really so? And that's a way of opening your mind to what is real and true by questioning the false. So it is very all-encompassing but it's actually, it gets more and more humble as you go along because the deeper you get into spirituality, you really start to get this feeling that you really don't have a clue about this world. It seems disorienting. It seems like confusing. You may feel like I must be doing something wrong because why am I feeling confused or disoriented? I'm supposed to be clear and have a sense of certainty but on the way to that certainty there's going to be a lot of ambiguity, a lot of confusion and a lot of uncertainty. And you might say that it's like when people ask me the question about what is God's plan? You know, you hear things like God's plan or something. Is this supposed to be some kind of a script or some kind of a scenario that my life is supposed to look like? Is this supposed to take a certain form? Is God's plan for me to be a writer or to be an artist or something like that? And in the most basic way you could say that God's plan is just a state of mind. It doesn't really, it's really actually independent of what seems to be going on in form. And so that's why it's very frustrating when people are looking for their calling or they're saying God show me your plan because they want sometimes a vision or a perception. That's why people go to psychics. It's like I want to know how is my life going to plan? Am I going to be single or married? Am I going to have children? Where am I going to live? What am I going to do for a profession? It's like going to a psychic and then having a psychic or a seer kind of look into the record, Akashic records and see, well, let's see what you did. Oh, you did this and supposedly if you find out that information is supposed to make you eternally happy, even knowing that information still would seem to be struggles because God's plan is not a script. God's plan is a state of mind and that you embrace and achieve God's plan when you embrace peace of mind. When you're at peace, you are smack dab in the middle of God's plan for salvation no matter what the form looks like. So that's probably going to be a theme that we could explore in the sense that ultimately when you are still holding onto the ego, you will still make up pictures in your mind of what peace must look like. Even when you say the words world peace, then people have different images in their mind about what world peace would look like. Maybe like that old coke commercial we know, everyone holding hands, like to teach the world this thing, perfect harmony, you know. Or we had a thing, Hands Across America, everyone joins hands or Michael Jackson, you know, we are the world, we are the children, you know. Everybody's got some kind of vision or some kind of a song or something associated with how it would look. And what I'm saying is when you train your mind to join with the spirit, you come into such alignment with the purpose, with the spirit's purpose, that what the world seems to look like is completely irrelevant to that peace of mind. It's like Jesus, you know, looking from the cross, forgives them for they know not what they do. You could apply that to the whole world. He wasn't just talking about the ones that were, maybe laughing at him or the ones that had just driven spikes through his arms and his legs, but it was a perception where he saw that the world of images had no meaning whatsoever and that those images, regardless of how they seemed to look, that peace of mind was completely independent of that picture because the perspective had shifted. There was a little tiny tweak in the mind where the perspective shifts from linear to simultaneously where everything is not a linear script anymore but it's like all simultaneous and in that little tweak in the mind, that's where the peace comes. It's not about achieving it or attaining it in the world or thinking that there's some kind of quantitative measure that if so many people in so many countries reached a point of peace that suddenly we would have it. It's like it's just a tweak in your own mind or in the mind that brings about this peace. And people often get into those questions about manifesting. In other words, manifesting peace or manifesting happiness and so forth, manifesting abundance. Basically, the deeper you go, you can see that all this idea of using the power of the mind to manifest something in the world in a specific way is just a stepping stone idea because what you're moving into and towards is a state of mind that is completely unified and you see that everything is mind, that nothing is physical, that everything is in mind. And in that state, of course, there's peace because there is no conflict, there is no duality. There is no thought and manifestation of thought which is still tuness or duality. It's just that everything is thought, everything is mental, everything is energy, you might say, in quantum physics terms and in that sense of the unified field or the unified mind then that is the whole goal of spirituality is just to be that state of mind where everything is completely unified. So if you start to look at your life, you can start to see the practical aspects of this mind training is just enormous because it's not like you have to change anything in the world at all. You don't have to fight against anything, you don't have to make anything different, you don't have to try to fix anything or change anything, but you do have to be willing to allow the spirit to guide you into making that little tweak, that little change of point of view in the mind, change of perspective which gives you the peace that you've been desiring. And that's what we'll talk about on this weekend is just opening to that tiny little tweak. It's so simple that it's like a feather blowing off a table. It's something so soft and simple that it's not just a major experience, but it could be that effortless, just completely relaxed. And that's what all the mind training is for, is to come to that change of perspective. The first step in coming to that perspective which is a huge step is to just be willing to open up to the idea that the only problem that you have is a perceptual problem. The only problem that you have is the way that you are viewing the world. That's it. And the reason that that seems to be such a huge leap and a huge step is because the ego has made up this entire cosmos to make it seem as if that statement is not true, that there are problems that come every day that come on so many different levels, interpersonal relationship problems, problems with the environment, temperature, germs, noise, just ozone layer, ecological problems, problems between nations, problems in local government, all the seeming range of problems. And the teaching is very simple is that those are all just a distracted device to try to make it seem so overwhelming and so complex and just settle into a state of a status quo or you have to take the good with the bad, nobody's perfect. The human condition is basically saying there are lots of problems and the best you can do is try to manage the ones that come your way and get ready for the next group and then the next group and the next group, which could be very depressing to think that that's all that there is. So that's what we're going to also look at today is to start to begin to open up to this idea that there's only one problem and it's a perceptual problem. And I would say in fact that the problem has already been solved. That's a good news too, which would mean that you have no problems if you put those two together. If the only problem is a perceptual problem and it's already been solved, then you're in good shape. It's the joy of it, I mean that's what I really enjoyed going around the world. Because it's like I show up with this joyful, gleeful state of mind which basically says there aren't any problems at all and basically it's an invitation when somebody says, well I have a problem and then we start to really take a close look at it. You know, actually is it really a problem? And the deeper you go into it, you'll find that the problems are really hypothetical. Right here and right now everything is perfect and it's only when you think about the past that you wish something was different than it was. Something could have been better, something could have been different and so forth. Kind of like lamenting the past. I gave it a go but it really wasn't my best shot or it didn't work out as well as I would have liked or something like that. Or worries and concerns and anxieties about the future. Which is another common angle of thinking about where is this heading, you know, thinking that something from the past that you were not, it was not enjoyable at all could recur in the future. That's another fear that comes up, you know, preventing an occurrence of something that you didn't like. So it's really beautiful when you start to just be willing to come together and say maybe I really don't have any real problems but we don't encourage to just kind of gloss it over and kind of affirm that. It's just, let's examine it really closely and see, is it really so that there are problems? Take a long time to get to that point where you become joyful from realizing that obstacles that are coming up are thoughts that you've created and you've seen before it's like these challenges, they come and then you kind of look at them and they go and then they all come. When do you get past that really joyful feeling? Yeah, it's what we call transfer of training. In other words, we'll talk about a principle and even a miracle is like a principle and then to the extent that you seem to make exceptions a divine principle is to the extent that it will seem to take time to realize that state of mind. So that's why it's such a time saver because, you know, people walk around and they feel like it's almost like walking around with blinders on thinking well I've got this certain set of problems that I'm dealing with on a daily basis that are very different from everyone else but it's actually the same. Everyone's going through different forms of the same error and that's what makes it seem so complicated but once you start to realize when you come and share in a group for example, the spirit orchestrates exactly who's here there'll be parallel experiences that are going on as a speed up so you can start to see it if you were mentioning like the last retreat we had where you met Therese and then now you've become close friends and, you know, it's part of the speed up when you're joined together with people and so it's not so much a matter of time as it is a matter of willingness and what I mean willingness is that I'm saying that the willingness not to hide and protect certain thoughts and beliefs and that's what makes them seem to be unconscious because they've already been judged as terrible, as wrong and so it's like they've been pushed out of awareness and then there's a mask, the personality that the mind wears so it's got the personality mask on and it's got these underlying beliefs and thoughts that it's too afraid to face and expose because it believes they're real and it believes that those are real issues and that it's only going to be so willing to expose those but once they are exposed then they become laughable and it's almost like this feeling like I can't believe I held on to that for so long under this idea that if people knew about this or these thoughts they wouldn't even want to be around me but this takes it more to that place of these are just unreal thoughts that I've held on to and I've protected so it's like a feeling when people come together in a state of non-judgment then oh my gosh you should hear the issues that people talk about I mean if we recorded all these on a camera it would be R rated or X rated stuff that comes up it's quite amazing all the stuff that comes up and it's also quite miraculous to see all the laughter and happiness and relaxation that comes too when people start to realize these thoughts are not what they thought they were there's a likeness to it I don't have an issue which seems to be with me all the time it always comes up yes I can explore and gain my peace of mind and expose private thoughts with certain groups of people or in certain situations but with that group of people no I can't do that or there's a fear and so there's a sense that this set of circumstances is holding you back from that set of circumstances and so then there's this push and pull going on which is really frustrating and it's like well if I was with those people all the time yes I could really get to change the perceptions and be in integrity in that but because I'm with these people I can and so there seems to be that's a real block a real block and when you say you don't struggle with it you don't push it along how then do you deal with it? yeah that's a good example of how the ego makes it seem like it's safer and it's more comfortable and there's less vulnerability in certain groups or with certain people than with others and yet that's again kind of predicting out into form as if this would seem like you could be much more peaceful and happy in certain circumstances and with certain people than with others and that kind of divides the world into again it's the we and the they it's the we which may be the ones that I'm comfortable with and the they are the ones that I'm not and so what it is though is a real ego control mechanism that's still seeing it in personal terms instead of just seeing it in terms of just thoughts and it's the persona, it's the mask that seems to be vulnerable in other words it's the mask that seems to be safer in some groups or with some people than others but this mask is just something that was made up of over the real you and the only way to reach the real you and to feel a sense of invulnerability or constant happiness and safety is to let go of the mask the personality self and the world that seems to surround the personality self what I mean by let go of it is let go of the beliefs that those thoughts are really who you are and the validity of those thoughts and then the validity of the world that seems to surround you the environment thinking that there are real environmental concerns that are all based on this lie this past learning all these past associations so that's the reason why it seems like a big issue is because it's like Jesus in the Course in Miracles says what does healing cost you it costs you the whole world you see wow that's an interesting phrase healing costs the whole world you see meaning the whole distorted world that you see that you have believed is real that you believe you know something about that's all going to have to give way you know the dam is going to have to break at some point and it's just going to have to start to be like this realization okay it's not the world is just not what I thought it was so the spirit knows that it seems to be a big deal so that's why there is it's graduated and it's you actually can feel maybe more comfortable talking and exposing things in a group like this than you could in some other groups the family circles or the certain friends and so on and so forth those people may seem shocked actually if you would bring up certain topics because they're just kind of beyond the norm you know outside out of bounds whereas it can feel much more safe and secure to do it in a group like this it's still magical you know it's still temporary but it's a very helpful temporary stepping stone so you shouldn't feel like I should be able to do this everywhere because you're working with where your mind's at right now and you're working with what you do believe in and the only way I would say in the end where this frustration and doubt and this block falls away is when you actually have an experience that you are everywhere that there is no limits in your identity you literally exist everywhere so to speak there's no sense of of individuality in that state of mind though so it's not a concern about it being a front to other people because there really are no other people in that state of mind it's that state of mind that's all encompassing and all expansive and completely vast because there's no sense of individuality or personality with it so the step towards that is it's just doing what we're doing here and when issues like you're talking about come up or even more specific issues come up and you're able to voice them there's nothing special about voicing them but symbolically if you're able to voice one person or in a group like this that's very symbolic that you're not hiding them at all from the Holy Spirit and that's a good sign because remember you're just not to interfere with this healing that's going on so that's a very good sign so when something comes up and it feels as though that's right to say that's part of all the healing you don't actually think because that's the part that's all being explained yeah it's symbolic of that there's nothing special about the words or vocalizing it or verbalizing it but again it gets down to the motive if you then like most people on the planet hiding your whole life it's good to turn the tables in the other direction and again to be guided there can be a context for verbalizing that and bringing it up some people have just tried to just begin talking about it in all kinds of circumstances without any kind of discernment and it turns into a disaster so that's not what we're talking about