 Okay, we had a couple days to let things start to percolate a little bit and with the movie last night and the montage. Muy bien, durante los últimos dos días hemos tenido oportunidad de que empiecen a circular y surgir las cosas y especialmente con la película de anoche y los clips de la mañana. We can hopefully things are starting to stir in the mind about these attachments to the past. Because in this world you never meet anyone in the present, you're just seeing a representation of the past. And as this keeps happening over and over you start to realize there has to be more than this. Y empiezas a darte cuenta que esto se repite y se repite una y otra vez y que sabes que te das cuenta que tiene que haber una mejor manera o otra manera de hacer las cosas, que tiene que haber algo más allá. Because every day I'm just meeting a pictorial representation of the past. Porque cada día estoy reencontrándome con una representación pictórica del pasado. And this preoccupation with the past blocks Christ's vision from awareness. Y esta preocupación por el pasado bloquea nuestra visión para hacernos conscientes para el despertar de Cristo. Now in a workbook of A Course in Miracles Jesus says that you could receive Christ's vision from a table. So he's telling us you don't actually need people at all. You could just scoot right back into heaven if you could forgive a table. And then he goes on to explain that when you see a table you're just seeing what you believe in the past about tables. For example it's size and shape and color. Texture. What the table is made of. And also all kinds of ideas about what tables are for. Tables usually are made so something can go on the table. We have kitchen tables, tables by the edge of your bed, nightstands. It's basically for convenience of the body, nothing else. What would a table even mean without a body? And generally we're talking about human bodies here. If I could interview the birds and I asked them this morning what do you think of tables? They'd say I have no opinion on that. They said you can ask me about the water fountain over there, I take a bath in that, but I'm really not interested in tables, human tables at all. Because they don't really have a use to the birds. And all of the uses are just memory implants that the ego has filled up our mind with. So what we're asking for when we pray is the dismantling of all these concepts in the mind. And it takes a bit of curiosity to even move in the direction of this dismantling. If you already think you know what everything means from the ego perspective, why would you even question that there's more? Yeah, it requires a willingness to see that all of this learning has not brought peace of mind. That's the fastest way to do it. That's the fastest translation in the world. And so this also applies of course to human interpersonal relations. As you can see from the movie last night, when you bring a bunch of human beings together in one house, it's going to be very interesting with all the frictions that come up into awareness. Yeah, the first night when Shiloh and James were talking about possible divorce, it reminded me of a movie that we have. There's a filmmaker named Henry Jaglem who makes movies off Hollywood movies just for a spiritual awakening. And one of his movies takes place over the 4th of July weekend. And it's a couple who have decided to get a divorce, but they're not sure whether they really want it or not. So before the weekend begins, he gets a notary public to come and sign the divorce papers. On Friday night, the night before the weekend, they're going to sit down and sign the divorce papers. But just like with our couple, they really still love each other and so as the notaries there, they're kissing and they're very affectionate with each other and he's there to witness the paper just signed. And then finally the notary public said, I can't do it. You're in love and I won't be a witness to sign. Call me back tomorrow if you still want it, but I won't do it. He refuses. So the whole movie is all these people show up, all their friends show up on the 4th of July weekend to be around them as they're pondering whether they're to stay married or not. And so they take walks together and they have meals together and they really question what is the trouble in their relationship. And they keep trying to find the problem and they really keep exploring all weekend what is the problem. And at one point the wife is just so happy and she's smiling and she's laughing and she said, I'm happy right now. And then her husband, the filmmaker starts saying, well, yeah, that's it. We just have to be able to stay right in the now. She says, yeah, yeah, now, now, now. She keeps saying with a big smile on her face, now, now. So it's only the unconscious mind that projects false meanings onto everything of the world, including our partners. And this means that the ego once has set the person up in a role and expects the person to play the role in order for there to be happiness. We just have to remember that the ego always assigns the role. The spirit does not assign the role. And whatever you believe about yourself, you must believe about everyone else. And very simply, if you believe you are a body, you will perceive everyone else as a body. But if you're able to completely let go of that belief and identification, you will let go of the same identification for everyone else. Because there's only one mind. And as Kirsten mentioned, there's just one ego. And when you pull your belief, your belief away from the ego, you free the entire cosmos. The ego has multiplied itself and all of the images to make it seem like every person has their own ego. That every person has their own private thoughts, their own secrets, and the form may vary but the content is the same. And this makes it seem very complex, like it's multiple egos that are conflicting. In the Bible it says that Satan is Legion. And we could say the same with the Course. The ego seems to be a Legion. It's called a collective unconscious. And according to the Course, what the ego says is the same. It's like the ego is a Legion. It's a great unconscious vastness. Even the word collective implies like a group or multiple. And Jesus is helping to train us to realize that there is no collective at all. Even the concept of a collective unconscious is still giving a reality to multiplicity. You've heard of concepts like the hundredth monkey, where they say if enough people start believing in an idea, then it will begin to take hold. And these are still stepping stone ideas. Their ideas as if every person has their own consciousness, their own separate consciousness. And so when you practice a Course in Miracles you have to be willing to let go of all beliefs. Because it's the personal perspective is where all the struggle comes in. You simply want to experience a state of mind where you take nothing personal. Some of you remember that Juan Miguel Ruiz wrote his book, The Four Agreements. Four agreements, that's one of the agreements. Don't take anything personal. And so the only way you can find peace with relationships is from this very high perspective in your mind. And that is the purpose of mind training. It can seem when you are with a group of people that anxieties and fears will come to the surface. Because the concerns can be what do they think of me? What do they expect of me? And concerns about fitting in with the group and doing what the group wants to do. But there is no group that wants. And there is no group that expects. These are all projections that are being generated by the ego. It's lesson number two from the workbook. I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me. When you come into this state of mind, the body can still seem to be active, but the body is under Christ's control. It's simply being used as an instrument or device of communication. To help the mind expand consciousness, expand awareness. And then as you become strongly identified with the spirit, you come closer and closer to seeing you have no need of a body at all. As you merge with spirit, the body loses all of its utility and value. Because the only purpose of an illusion is to point to the truth. And when your mind merges with the truth, you have no need of illusions at all. And this is the return to eternity. So let's bring it down to the practical again today. Because behind every question and every problem is a call for the happy dream. It makes sense that before you wake up to eternal happiness, you have a happy dream. You don't reach eternity through death but through forgiveness and happiness. And to do that you have to become very disinterested in time. This is what I love about Mexico and I think some of you are here too because of the disinterest in time. In terms of levels which are just symbols, this is a highly evolved society that is disinterested in time. It makes me think of the aboriginals in Australia. And the native Americans and the native Canadians. The more civilized the people, the more the ego is involved. You won't find aboriginals trying to destroy each other with nuclear weapons. They probably would say that's crazy, it's cuckoo, loco. So as you give your mind over to the spirit, you will have to allow these false thoughts and beliefs to come up into awareness so that you can watch them pass. Like passing clouds. That's always a beautiful meditation is just to lay in the grass and just watch the clouds go by. Some people like to bust the clouds and use their mind to move the clouds. No, that is not as evolved as just watching the clouds go by. Because you must allow yourself to come into a sense of divine ease. We were at lunch and Deb was talking about that this area is called God's waiting room. People from the north, they have hectic stressful lives. Their bodies seem to have aches and pains, diagnosed with diseases. And something strikes them, I'm going to go to Mexico. So they come down to Chapala and Ajijic thinking, I'll just go and die in Mexico. They're surprised, they're surrounded by friendly, happy people, who don't care about time, who live their lives on very little money, who are smelling the roses and appreciating all the beautiful things of life. So they think they're going to die and they look around and they go, this ain't so bad. So they wait another 30 years until they're 90 years old, living the good life. And then they go, okay Lord, I'm ready now. And this is how your life will go in some way. The form may be a little different, but the meaning what we're talking about will be the same, divine ease. When I was over in France, my friends took me to Mary Magdala's cave. And we took a nice French picnic, we went and we got bunches of cheese and bread and fruit and wine. And we carried our lunch with us. But we left it in the car while we hiked up the mountain. And when we arrived at the cave, we read about Mary Magdala's life. Most people know about the early part of her life with Jesus. But after Jesus ascended back to the Father, Mary Magdala was still over there in the Middle East. With the Romans and crucifixions hanging people upside down, she said, I'm taking off. No need to hang around, Jesus is gone now in form. So like a very intelligent woman, she traveled away from the Middle East to France, the south of France, to settle in a city. Because at the time the Romans were not that interested in France. And so she found a Greek temple in the city along the Mediterranean to teach. And so she taught for 20 or 30 years teaching what she would learn in a peaceful town along the French coast. And this is a good example of how the Holy Spirit will guide you away from conflict and into a place where you can teach what you would learn. So it was like a Greek temple in the south of France and it was a good backdrop for her to teaching what she would learn. But then she reached a point that the Course Workbook talks about. There's a point where Jesus says our use for words is almost over now. Because Mary Magdala discovered what I discovered is that you don't reach God through words. This is also for all you course students who believe you can just keep reading the book for 30, 40, 50 years. And magically the Holy Spirit will scoop you up and say, oh, what a devoted reader you've been. I'm taking you back to heaven because you read the book for 40 years. It doesn't work that way. Jesus tells us that words are symbols of symbols twice removed from reality. So you're not going back to heaven through something that's twice removed from reality. That's not what this is about. What this is about is about prayer. Prayer is the altar at the core of your mind. And we know that an altar is sacred. It is your point of power. And it could be equated with your desire. And so what Mary Magdala did was she moved away from the city and away from the temple. And she went to live in a cave. And there was a friar who would occasionally bring her food or anything that she needed. Just like Buddha had gone off from the palace into solitude. And Jesus would go off to Sermon for his mount to pray. Eventually Mary Magdala left the city to go into prayer. Very, very deep prayer. In fact they said that she would only come out of her cave to go stand on the top of the cliff to commune with Christ in silence. And what I read when I was there was that she did this for 30 years. A third of her life was really devoted to this deep communion prayer. She really wasn't using the five senses very much at all. And she wasn't using words. She was connecting with the memory of Christ that she had fallen in love with. She was allowing her mind consciousness to expand far, far greater than a human consciousness. Because Jesus had taught, I and the Father are one. And she was simply praying with all her soul for that union with the one. Now that's a love story. Some of you might have read Dan Brown's book about Mary Magdala and Jesus as if it was an interpersonal romantic relationship. No, it was truly a relationship of the soul. And that is what all of us are called into. We're called into that communion experience of prayer. It's so different than being concerned about bank accounts and mortgages and debts. Questions, should I wear the red dress or the blue dress? Should I wear lipstick or earrings? All the questions of the world start to fall away in this communion experience. And you are being called into a very devoted life. If you look at the lives of all the mystics and the saints, of all the avatars, you see that they simply let go of their concerns of the world, trusting that God would take care of them completely. And they would experience greater and greater joy and happiness. And that's the prayer I heard at the opening session was a prayer for true happiness. That communion experience is the true happiness. And the things and stuff of this world are the distractions. Jesus dictated a little booklet called The Song of Prayer. And in this little booklet he had a very powerful line that just hit me so strong when I read it. The secret of true prayer is to forget the things you think you need. By forgetting these things you are really handing them to the Holy Spirit. It's like you're saying, I don't know the way to heaven but you do. As a human being I cannot direct my life anymore. But I would ask you Holy Spirit, decide for God for me. Then your mind is free to think about the past and the future. All economic concerns are just the past and the future. All concerns about the environment are just the past and the future. And all concerns about interpersonal relationships are just the past and the future. You are being asked to empty your mind of everything you think you think and think you know. Now the ego does not like this at all. The ego says if you do this you will be an idiot. And you will be a fool. And you will die a very lonely cruel death. And then you will get punished in the afterlife. Because the ego doesn't want you to rest in God. And yet you must come into a sense of divine leisure where you can just enjoy smelling the flowers and watching the hummingbirds. You know this has happened all throughout history. Siddhartha had everything a human being could want. He lived in a palace. All his needs were met lavishly. And his father wanted him to be the king. A high political position. But there was a song that kept calling to Siddhartha's heart. But he had doubts. He said how can I leave the palace with all these expectations around me? But one night when everyone was asleep he slipped out of the palace in search of enlightenment. We saw St. Francis the other day. His father was very wealthy. He was well provided for. And his father wanted him to be the head of his business. But he slipped out naked out of Assisi. At least Siddhartha took some clothes. But St. Francis is not even the clothes on my back. I'm leaving. And this is the direction of your life as well. All of your seeming needs are provided. Not through jobs and not through working in the human concept. But your devotion to the Holy Spirit. All the skills and abilities that the ego developed. And hand them over to the Holy Spirit. And say now you use these skills and abilities. And help me reach a state of mind that is so high that I forget about the skills and abilities. I mean look at these birds. You don't think they're thinking about skills and abilities. Do you think a bird thinks about a resume? How much money it has in a bank account? Do you think it's concerned about transportation? Traffic. All these concerns that occupy the human conception. No, they're just flying around happy to say come on, snap out of it. You've got to get out of this crazy heaviness that you're carrying around. In the parable of David I had to face this in graduate school. At university. And all kinds of long exams and endless exams, projects, grades, grade point average. It was crazy. It was very crazy. But in the middle of my final exam week I went out to sit on the patio in the backyard. And my dog Chipper was looking up at the moon. And then he would look over at me and he would say like join me in watching the moon. But he could see my mind was crazy about memorizing meaningless facts for exams, college exams. But Chipper was very patient. She just kept looking up at me with her eyes. Join me. Watch the moon. So more and more I started to join my dog. And forget about my professors. Forget about my examinations. And eventually forget about graduate school and academia. And then that's when A Course in Miracles came into my life. And Jesus was saying very good now you can begin unlearning all of that you have learned. It's too bad you've learned so much but we'll have to go in the other direction now. Eventually you may be as happy as that dog. And my dog was very happy always wagging the tail and wiggling just very happy dog. We need to look around us for the symbols of happiness and have the curiosity and openness of a child to realize that that's what this whole journey is about. It's about happiness. I think there's even a country in this world that measures their success as a country by the happiness of the people in the country instead of how much the country produces in terms of economics. I just read this the other day. I think it's called Bhutan. Over near India. It's a little bit to the east of India. And I thought there it is. They're on the right track. There's a country not too far from here called Costa Rica that has a peace university. And all the statues at this university are from the peacemakers of this world. You can see statues of Gandhi and all of the peacemakers St. Francis throughout history. Because the peacemakers are revered as way showers. And you see how that is a contrast to the universities of the big cities. In many countries we have statues of war heroes people who just went around fighting and killing and slaughtering people. In the big cities you can see that the statues are for war heroes who killed people, murdered people. That's around where I've lived. I will go look at the statues and they have swords in their hands, guns in their hands and very stern, mean looking faces on these statues. Locals. This world is absolutely insane in what it pursues. So once you start to gain your confidence in the new direction which is simply opening to divine ease where you can simply watch the world without concerns without an investment in politics or opinions or judgments. You can be so relaxed that you can say with confidence when you are questioned you can say I don't know and mean it. That's what happens when you empty your mind. You just don't know. You don't know anything about the world and you mean it. If they ask you whose side are you on you say I don't know. If they say who do you think is right and who is wrong you say I don't know. Because the way that you think and the way that you live your life is a demonstration of being clueless of the world and cared for by the spirit. It's a very simple life where you can gain full appreciation of the present moment. Recently I have in the past few years I have been over to China and I met a friend who told me about this Buddhist monastery and in the very inside the core of this monastery all the monks did was meditate and go into the stillness. And right outside the core were the monks that would do the teaching that would teach the principles. They would use words in a very directed way. And then there was another ring where the monks were in total service. In service to the core and to the first ring. And then there was another ring and they were in service always to the inner rings and to the core. Their attention was all focused towards this reverent stillness. Then I think further out there were monks that would interact with society and do some traveling. But all still in service to the inner rings. Now the ego is the exact opposite of this. It's more service to the constructs of the world and the five senses. To try to compete and win and conquer. It puts focus on military spending. On training to fight and kill and defend. And even on more subtle forms of competition like the Olympics. Competitions of the body to try to be the best and try to win the gold medal. This is all ego. All attempts to change the world and make the world better. In physical terms including the body train the body make the body better. Make the body look better. Dress the body up. Ego, ego it's all ego. Because it's all a distraction away from be still and know that I am God. So when you devote your life to spirit the ego in the mind will put up a fight. It will put up a big fight. It will say oh it cannot be all this simple and easy as we're talking about now. It will tell you you will have to strive and struggle. But you will never reach the peace of God through striving and struggling. You learn to trust by trusting. You come deeper into peace by being peaceful. And you come closer to true happiness when you realize it is an inner state of mind. Happiness does not come from accumulating. From getting more. Happiness does not come from collecting. From striving to get things from the world. That is the ego's definition of happiness but it never is satisfied. And from the hands that grasp and hold it will still seem to be taken away. So let's open it up now and apply what I have just spoken about. Because this is your heart's calling. And you are deserving to receive this. You are worthy to receive this. Just as Jesus called his brothers and sisters out of the world 2,000 years ago Christ is still calling to us to come home. The miracle is so enjoyable because you see everything is provided effortlessly. It just comes and just like a feather dropping into your hand. With no striving. Okay, we have a roving microphone. James. I really appreciate what you said about the culture in Mexico. And I saw an article, there's an OE, ah sorry. Me gustó mucho lo que mencionaste sobre la cultura en México. There's an organization called the OECD which is like 65 countries around the world. It's like an organization of economics, something, something. Hay una organización alrededor de 65 países en el mundo que se llama OCD. And of the 65 countries, Mexico is number one for happiness. And second last for average income. I really get over the last number of years money and resources has gone away and I'm happier. I guess I'm a Mexican. Viva la vida! Yes. Thank you for that, those are striking statistics. Because they show that happiness and possessed income are on an inverse relationship. They act opposite of what the ego teaches. And so we see a world where people are chasing a false dream and moving in an unhelpful direction. And then Jesus's words from the cross are even more profound. Forgive them for they know not what they do. It wasn't about bodies trying to crucify Jesus, it was about the whole direction of the ego with this world. And I think what we can say for you and for Mexicans is there is a call to true happiness. And Jesus is a very important figure in the culture. In the United States we are known more for separation of church and state. But the core of the church is Christ. And the state of mind that we all want is Christ. In that sense I am advocating a unification of church and state of mind. Go for the experience that the church was set up to symbolize. See that the state of mind is very happy and simple. The state of mind does not involve governments. The state of mind is beyond theology. The state of mind has nothing to do with economics whatsoever. It's truly a transcendent state of mind. And this is our natural inheritance. Because this natural state of mind was given us by God. And so it's a new retranslation of inheritance to the Kingdom of Heaven. So thank you for joining me in this opening to this happy state of mind. It's beautiful. I hear Jesus saying the phrase, mi casa su casa. A very important saying to those here in Mexico. And when we were talking about the desire to go home, a home in this world is a physical structure. But we are really calling from the altar in our hearts, mi casa su casa. Mi corazón su corazón. Yeah, that's more of the meaning. Practicalities are showing the demonstration that this is possible, this can be done. As you take the steps with the Spirit, you are showing everyone around you that this is possible. Some people may say, oh, loco, you've lost your mind now. But you just say, no, I've found my heart. But this is very practical. I'm in and out of sleep here. It's very strange. Yeah, I'm in and out of sleep here, but it's strange. And then I'm waking up and hearing these words. And I want to talk about this losing, dropping the identity. And how difficult it is for me actually. I don't experience last year when I came through passport control without a passport. I left my bag behind as well, and none of it was intentional. It was kind of happening to me. And my lesson for that day, that whole day, I lost the plane and wandered around in a very strange state of mind. I was one with God. It was let me remember I'm one with God. Yeah, the lesson let me remember I'm one with God. But I don't remember the bit I'm one with God. So coming into Liverpool, 27 hours later, I was expected to arrive in Manchester the day before. I looked in my bag and I had no passport. And I didn't go into fear because I had already felt that the whole 27 hours was a very strange, like dreamlike state. And then the words, your smile is your passport came to my mind. And I looked in my bag and I had a glasses case, which was the same color as a passport. And I found myself just holding it up and smiling. And I walked through passport control in Liverpool. And the woman then came after me and said, have you shown me your passport? And I smiled again and said no. And she walked away. And I showed her my hand and showed it as if it were a passport. And the woman then asked me, have you shown me your passport? And she said no. And she said, pass it. Yeah, so that's how I came into the country. And a few hours later when I was home, I had a phone call to say, we have your passport. Do you think you know where you lost it? On the plane, maybe on the airport. I didn't know what to say. I said, maybe on the plane. And they said, wait here for you to pick up. Yeah, with no questions of how I got into the country. And that's really stayed with me since. And after that, I went to quite a depression after coming back. Because I think symbolically it felt like Jesus is saying, you don't need a bag passport. I just want you to smile and your smile, your happiness will take you anywhere. So I just wanted to ask you when you came here. After that, to return to the country. After that, there was a depression. But then Jesus realized that the only thing he said was, you don't need a bag passport. The only thing you need is to smile. Yeah, and I've been angry with myself, but I've been shown. A miracle really of, you know, there is no Michelle. And yet at this present moment with my mom dying at home and things, the family stuff, I'm not listening to that lesson. So I must have a very strong belief still in the body. Because so many times I think of these words, your smile is your passport. And knowing that a person didn't come through that passport control. Because this thought in my mind is constantly approaching what Jesus told me. That my smile is my passport and that I don't need it to pass through that point to enter the country. And I'm hoping that with mighty companions I can really go into that experience that, you know, I am just in the moment as awareness. And what I'm saying is that here, together with my mighty companions, I can reach that point of awareness. I'm just in the moment. A spirit of being, a mind that's in the moment. And that my mind is so powerful. And I really believed that I could get through that passport. And I did, because I had no fear at all at that time. And I just wanted to say that to you and maybe what that brings up for you. To have your response from you, David, and how I can use that in my life. Yes, I feel that when we say yes to the Holy Spirit, we're really saying yes to mind training. One time said to me, someone said to me, is this Course in Miracles brainwashing? I said, yes, it is mindwashing. And it is designed to wash away everything that you believe. So, when I began to travel to 40 some countries, I had to get a passport for the first time. But I realized that every border crossing was just an opportunity to let the Holy Spirit speak through me. So, it has been fun crossing the borders so many times. Because I never know what the Holy Spirit will say. I never know what the questions will become from the border patrol. So, it's quite fascinating to watch this thing acted out over and over. And then, when I've been traveling with other people, sometimes in a group, that is fun too. One time, I was in a group of six people going into Canada. And the Holy Spirit said, divide the group into two groups of three. And the Holy Spirit told me, you will go with the first group. And my friend Carrie, who was with me, she will speak for the whole group. We went to passport control, we showed our passports, and they asked Carrie one question. And the question was, what is your purpose for your visit to Canada? And Carrie was very good at just tuning in and listening to the Spirit. And so she said, we are here to visit friends. Friends, yes. Not friends. Oh, local, you people are local. No, denied. You're changing the whole parable. You Americans come to Canada to visit France. Denied. We have an insane asylum here for all three of you. They go in there. So we passed by very easily. Even though I was there to do a gathering in some city, the Holy Spirit just said, visit friends. The second group of three, they were coming second. And we had met a man in Seattle who was so excited to meet me and was so excited to... He wanted to travel along with me up to Canada to this gathering. So when the second three came to the Canadian border guard, the border guard asked them the same question. What is your purpose for coming to Canada? And the man spoke up and said, I am following a Course in Miracles teacher, David Hofmeister, and I am going to his retreat. And on the surface, all of that was true. So he was just speaking what seemed to be obvious and evident to him. The Canadian guard said, what is a Course in Miracles? So he began to explain in detail to the Canadian guard what a Course in Miracles was. So the Canadian guard frowned and said, who is this David Hofmeister? So he was just here a minute ago. He got through and he must be up there somewhere ahead. So the Canadian guard said, okay, what is this retreat that you are going to? Why do you have to go to a retreat with this book that you have just described? I thought you said it was a self study book. Why are you following that man somewhere up there? And if this book is about inner peace, why do you have to go to a retreat to find inner peace? So a half an hour later they made it through. And I use this as an example that we are simply to listen and follow. Just like when Michelle reached in and she got her eyeglass case that was the same color as a passport. That was just following. And the Bible says with God all things are possible. And a Course in Miracles, Jesus says, if you will work miracles for me, I will arrange time and space for you. So Michelle's story was a very good example of Jesus arranging time and space. She was focusing on her lesson of the day, which is all that Jesus asked her to do. And he simply arranged time and space so she could enter through the passport control without a passport. And then arranged that the passport would come back. Now you can see how the ego would try to use these set of circumstances for guilt. Oh, you've lost your passport. And try to make you guilty for that. And try to generate fear about getting into the country. But Michelle did not listen to the ego. And it turned into a very powerful lesson of trust. One time I was traveling through Ohio and heading for the East Coast. I had two friends, Resta and Kathy. We stopped. We had lunch at Wendy's, hamburgers. And then we continued driving and we came to a gas station, a service station. And so I went in to use the banyo. I came out and Resta, her face was very sad. She said, I lost my whole purse. My identification, my identity, all money, everything, credit cards, it's all gone. I recall it was a green purse. So I said, well, let's stop. Let's pull the car to the side of the gas station and pray. And after we had prayed for about five minutes, Resta began laughing. She burst out laughing. And she said, Jesus appeared to me in my mind and he was wearing my green purse on his shoulder. But she completely relaxed because that was a symbol of Jesus saying, I have got your purse. Keep going. Don't worry about it. And so Resta was quite relieved and I said to her, what I got in prayer is that you are to call your husband. And she said, I don't want to call my husband. We're going through a divorce. He always ridicules me that I lose things. And I don't want to call him and tell him I've lost my purse. And so I said, oh, so you have resistance to that. But I'm hearing from Jesus, you are to call your husband. So she called her husband and she told him everything. And then we continued driving on towards the east coast. We went through that whole trip and she did not have or need her purse one time. And when we got back to Cincinnati, she went to visit her husband. And her husband said, oh, this woman from Wendy's restaurant called up with the phone number in your purse. And so she sent it back so it was waiting for her when she got back home. And she looked at her wallet, all the identification was there, all the money, everything was exactly as she had it when it disappeared. So in my life I've had many, many stories like this. It happens every day, every week. And really the moral of the story is if you follow the purpose, if you follow Jesus and the Holy Spirit, he really means everything will be handled and taken care of. And I call that divine providence, because the ego will try to convince your mind otherwise. The ego will say, if you follow this crazy path, you will really be sorry in the future. But these experiences, like Michelle shared, convince you that it's safe to follow. I would say even that you've shared that experience with me on Skype and that that experience helped you even come across the ocean to this event. Michelle shared that story on Skype and even so she came here to this retreat. We are all like little children that have to be convinced of this new way. Because it contradicts all of our past learning. I wish we could summarize as fear. That's what all our education was about. And oftentimes we receive this instruction from our parents and our siblings, teachers. Primary school fear, grade school fear school. We go through junior high fear, high school fear school. University fear school and then finally for me a slow learner, graduate fear school. And as Jesus said, it's too bad you had so much education but we'll work on this. We'll start wherever you seem to be and we'll take you back. Back to the Kingdom of Heaven. Where you are and where you forever belong. How are we doing on time? Still going. We're still cooking. If I shared all the parables of houses, cars, planes, buses, boats. If I shared all those parables about buses, planes, boats, boats, boats, we would last weeks. The fun of it is being convinced of your divine leisure. Because after all those years of academia, part of my mind was still concerned about the future. And it was very helpful in my late 20s. And Jesus said to me, let's get this clear. You will not have a career in this lifetime. Because typically in your late 20s you're thinking a lot about a career. And I had debts too and so I was concerned about those. And Jesus said, I know you're afraid about this but can you at least let go of the idea of spending your life working in a career? Because a career is a series of jobs that takes you in an upwardly mobile kind of progression. So Jesus had to reason with me and ask me to follow him and say, can you trust me? You won't have a career. So consequently for me in life everything has gone backwards from the norm. I was living a very simple life with hardly ever any money in my bank account. Everything else that has come has come in an unusual way. For example, when I go to a conference or to do a big conference they usually introduce me as an author. But that's a strange word for someone who has never written any books. I just talk. I just let the Holy Spirit talk through me. And then all these other things seem to just happen. Early on people started showing up with cassette recorders and recording the talks. And sometimes they would transcribe the talks and make a little booklet or a website. And all this has just continued on and on but it's not been under my control. I have never sat down and had the thought I will write a book. I just talk. And I have a feeling I will be getting more silent but it's the way that it's gone. So I've never really had a career. I just keep showing up. And then people put these words together saying author and speaker. When I was growing up I never had any idea of living in a community. I watched television and I watched Lucio Ball. I dream of Jeannie. I watched lots of cartoons, many TV shows. None of those shows were about a community. I saw husbands and wives. I saw boyfriends and girlfriends. I saw families with children. I saw people going to work. I saw probably what most of you saw when you grew up. But I didn't see any TV shows about spiritual communities. In fact it took many years before I saw a sitcom called Dharma and Greg. And Dharma was a tall blonde woman who seemed to be very into all kinds of spiritual ideas and practices. But mostly she was just funny and easy going and happy. That's why I think the show was so successful in the United States because of her radiance, her happiness. And her husband Greg was like a square. He had a regular job and all these conservative, regular ideas. And it made for a lively show. It was a lively couple because she was always getting him into yoga and all kinds of things. Back then it was not so well known. But even Dharma and Greg they were a couple. They weren't a spiritual community, just a couple. And I think if you went around everybody in our community and you asked them, Did you ever aspire to live in a spiritual community? They would say no, never aspired into that in their whole life. There's nothing special about a spiritual community. It's really just opening your heart to love. It's like taking all of your past thoughts about what you think the world is about and then handing them over to the Holy Spirit. And saying, OK, you arrange time and space for me now because I haven't done a very good job of it. I tried to rearrange time and space and all I got was a pile of grievances. So just maybe you can do a better job than me at this arranging time and space. And that's what we mean by just accept what is given. If you do the inner work and you clear your mind, then everything that comes to you will support your inner happiness. It's kind of like when we were very little children when we were playing. Sometimes we would play house and we would take chairs and furniture and maybe a tablecloth and put it over the top to make a little house. You notice when children play house they don't play mortgage? Wouldn't that be a bummer if you're playing house with all the furniture and your parents come and say, oh, you've got to have a mortgage to get that house? I would say, OK, give me a piece of paper and I'll pretend like I signed something. The parents said, no, you've got to commit the next 30 years of your life to working in crazy jobs to be able to pay for your way in life. Sign your life away then I'll let you play house. Chava said, now I'm going to go play with a dog instead. It sounds too complicated. But you see how the ego wants us to stay stuck in time and space through debt, through guilt, through fear. It doesn't want us to really think that we can experience heaven or nirvana. It likes to poke fun at those ideas as if they're just crazy ideas that are just fantasies. Heaven is actually real and this world is the fantasy. When we play the ego's game of fear we're desiring to be caught up into fantasies. Who can tell the difference between fantasies and what seems to be everyday experiences in this world? For example, is this room a fantasy? Or is it a reality? It's a fantasy. Everything, all the images of time and space are all fantasy. They used to tell me, only God can make a tree. But actually a tree is a fantasy too. So let's go back to A Course in Miracles to let Jesus define a fantasy. Because I think Jesus might be the best one to tell us what a fantasy is. Jesus says fantasy is the attempt. To make false associations and obtain pleasure from them. That's the definition from Jesus Christ about fantasy. To make false associations and obtain pleasure from them. And he does say all real pleasure comes from doing God's will. So instead of marking everything off as negative we can say Holy Spirit. Please use all the fantasies that the ego has made. So that I can learn to do God's will. So that I can experience that your will and my will are the same. Because the will of God and the will of Christ are the same. But the will of God and the will of the ego are different. And I would let go of this ego. Let go of that ego. It's really precious. It really is precious.