 day. So we're going to start with a movie with David and David's joining us from Cincinnati. And then afterwards, we'll take a 10 minute break. And then we're going to have some breakout rooms where you can share any, anything that came up for you during the movie. Then we'll have a 45 minute break after that. And then I'll be holding the closing session today. Hello, I'll pass it over to you now, David. Okay, thank you, Pete. Hi, everyone. Welcome. We have a Christmas treat today. We are entered into December, working our way towards Christmas and praying that Jesus will fill our mind with light. That's our stocking stuffer. We want to be filled with light. And I know a number of people who always tell me that Christmas time is their favorite time of the year. And I think there's something in our heart that is drawn to Christmas because 2000 years ago was when Jesus seemed to be born to this world. And there's something inside us that just loves the feeling and the experience of the birth of Christ. It's not like it's really about someone else or something else, but I think it's because since we are the Christ, that's who our identity is. And the birth of Christ would be the remembrance of our identity as God created it. So that's a celebration. I mean, even the ancient Greeks before the time of Jesus, their main message was, know thyself. And then I think with the birth of Jesus, we got a glimpse. We got a little bit of a glimpse like how wonderful that self is, that Christ self, and how wonderful that God is, the creator of our Christ self. So even though it took about 2000 years to get the message into a document, the Course in Miracles, that we could nod our heads and go, oh wow, that's what Christmas is about. It's about knowing who I really am and forgiving all the rest. So as usual, we just took the themes down for this week. And as Pete was saying, we have a large expanded group. We have, I see our Living Miracles Monastery is all there. I see our Living Tabula Rossa Mystery School is all there and sprinkled around from countries throughout the world. We are all joining here for this beautiful Tabula Rossa edition of our Saturday movie session. So the themes that you voted on this past week, the themes that you want most to experience and why we're doing this movie workshop here is to experience these themes in a full way in your heart. Not as a concept or an intellectual idea, but as a heart-opening, bursting, loving experience. And that's what we're all praying for. We're praying for the experience of connection with our Creator. So the themes this week that you voted for coming in at number one was release the need for control and personal responsibility. That's a big one. Both aspects are huge. Release the need for control and personal responsibility. Some of you are familiar with the Serenity Prayer of part of the 12 Steps program. And you know that the Serenity Prayer has three parts. You know, that which you can control, that which you cannot control and the wisdom to know the difference. And when people ask me about the Course in Miracles when I traveled around the world to these 44 countries, I would say, well, the Course is just an expanded version of the Serenity Prayer. It's just 31 chapters, 365 lessons, a manual for teachers, and a clarification of terms, just so you can understand what the Serenity Prayer means that was previously given. And of course, it's important because what you can control is your state of mind. What you can control is the direction of your thinking. You only have two options. The range is set. Ego and Holy Spirit. So there's not a lot of options there, but you still have control of which one to listen to. And therefore, you do have control of whether you experience peace and joy and happiness or guilt, shame, suffering, pain, you know, jealousy, all kinds of fearful emotions come from following the imposter self, the ego, and our choice of our state of mind and our choice of which voice to listen to is always our own. So, you know, there's one part in the Course where Jesus says that that choice was the greatest gift that God blessed his sleeping son with. In heaven, there is no choice. Everything's just absolute love and oneness. But if you believe in separation, then choice is the greatest gift that God blessed his sleeping son with, because it allows us to choose again. We can say, oops, separation, that wasn't a very good idea. Oops, that was not a really good experiment. But in any moment, we can laugh and we can just say, oh, I choose again. I choose the Spirit. I choose love. I choose love. I'm not going the other direction. I'm sorry. Sorry, Ego. Thank you for sharing, but no, thank you. I would rather be in eternity with my creator than be dilly-dallying around in time, trying to make a better self than the one God created perfect. So, I've been perfect from the get-go. I never messed up. I never could fall from grace. I never could separate from my creator. That was a ridiculous idea. But when I believed in the ridiculous, I had some pretty ridiculous emotions. Fear is a very ridiculous emotion. Guilt is ridiculous. And all types of suffering are ridiculous because God didn't create them. Why would a God of love have anything to do with them, actually? And now we are on our journey back. So, I think this is a sacred moment that we all share because, you know, what's the best use of time except realizing it's not real? That's the best use of time. Jesus says, time is a learning device that the Holy Spirit can use to teach you that there is no time. So, if that sounds like a paradox, it's not really a paradox. It's just a paradox to those who believe in time. And the more content you are with the present moment, you don't have a paradox. You're happy now and that's it. End of story, period. There's no paradox in heaven. There's no paradox with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit will just keep repeating this simple lesson of forgiveness for the sleeping mind until the time it's accepted. And that is inevitable. I love that word inevitable. Inevitable is joyful to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Inevitable is fearful to the ego because the ego associates it with loss and destruction. You know, if you tell the ego, your existence is disappearing. It's fearful. But what is spirit can never disappear. What is spirit less forever? So, the body is now just a learning device to learn forgiveness. That's it. It only has one purpose. And the simpler that is for you, the better. Because the more you really see that there aren't many purposes for the body, there's just one. Then the more you start to really relax and go, okay, I got this. Holy Spirit has taken me home and I can do this. In fact, when Jesus was asked, is it possible to reach God? He said yes. Is it possible to reach God directly? Jesus' answer is a big yes. And he says yes. In fact, you might say it's the most natural thing in the world. Reaching God is the most natural thing in the world. And it's really, he says, it's the only natural thing. So, we don't have to worry about nature or mother nature because wakening to the love of God is the only natural thing in the world. You don't have to worry if you're eating natural foods or not. All foods are artificial. All learning in linear time is artificial intelligence. So, you don't have to associate artificial intelligence with technology. It's like everything that was learned. Apple, grass, sky, mom, dad, learned, learned artificial intelligence. And Jesus said, you spent your whole, you spent so much time learning an artificial world, but you never paused to ask, why am I doing this? Why am I over learning an impossible situation when I could just let it go? So, second on our list of poll results is, remember the spirit's gentle laughter behind it all. Oh, gentle laughter behind it all. Well, sure enough, Jesus has got a comedy for us today. Jesus loves to show comedy movies and we love comedy movies. In fact, all of us laughing together all over the world, that will bring a frown on the ego's face because it wants us to take this world seriously. And Jesus doesn't. He said that was the only mistake is forgetting to laugh at an incredible ridiculous idea like ego separation. You know, all you have to do is remember to laugh at the ego and then you can laugh at its world too. But if you take the ego serious, then you take its linear world of time and space serious too. And then it gets quite frightening. Not in reality, but in awareness, it gets really frightening when we start to give validity and belief to this linear world. Number three on the list, transcending doubt through communication. Yay for communication. I love communication. Transparent communication. Open communication. Say what you feel. Speak what you feel. Don't hold back. You cannot be limited unless you attempt to limit communication. Because full open communication is how we enter the holy instant of release. So wouldn't it be great to be in total communication with everyone that you know and everyone you think of? Imagine that that's just a way of saying all minds are joined and you're really totally telepathic and nothing gets by the mind of Christ. It's all connected. It's all perfectly connected. And that's how we remember the love. So we're open to it. And this movie definitely takes communication and it starts out very egoic. And in fact, it's quite antagonistic between two of the main characters. They just don't really like each other. I like a movie where a couple of the main characters don't like each other. And then the Holy Spirit gets a hold of them. And lo and behold, they fall in love. They go from hating each other's guts to falling in love. There's there can't be a better love story than that. This is this is really transformation when the characters don't like each other and then they fall in love. That's that's our kind of love story. That's a Christ love story on Christmas. Okay, number four, staying open to things my brothers point out about me. I'll say that again, staying open to things my brothers point out about me. If I believe my brothers and my sisters are other than me, it can get pretty frustrating. Nobody likes to be told of their flaws. Nobody likes to be told what's wrong with them. People like to hear good news. They want to hear the good things. They would rather hear all the good opinions and zero of the bad opinions. That's how the ego thrives. You know, if it likes, tell me, tell me something good. You know, it wants the compliments. It wants the praises. And it does not like the criticisms. It's like, just accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative and don't mess around with mister in between. Well, Jesus is like, well, that's okay, but actually both the positive attributes and the negative attributes are made up by the ego because all of them are shadows. But the positive judgments are light shadows. And the negative judgments are dark shadows. But shadows are shadows. Shadows are not the light. Why would you settle for light shadows? Why would you take a little bit of shade when your reality is pure love and light? No shade involved. No shadows. Only direct awareness of the light of heaven. That is what we're going for. So we do have to learn to come to guidance and come into a state of mind that transcends doubt and it transcends all things that my brothers point out to me. When your brothers and your sisters are pointing things out to you, they're just acting out thoughts and beliefs that you still hold about time and space. So actually that's why Jesus says only full appreciation and gratitude is an appropriate response to your brothers and sisters. You never actually have a reason to be upset with them because even when they're acting out your dark beliefs, they're showing you the dark beliefs and you need to see the dark beliefs so you can let them go. So that's why it's mirroring. Even if somebody has seemed to betray you, stabbed you in the back, if somebody annoys you, irritates you, if somebody you feel is not on your side and somebody is actively against you, they're just showing a belief in the mind that is still held dearly. Jesus talked about the line attributed to Judas in the Bible, betray us thou with a kiss and Jesus simply has only one comment on that line that's attributed to Judas in the Bible, betray us thou with a kiss. Jesus simply says I could have never said that to Judas because I don't believe in betrayal. Whoa, that's a whole reinterpretation of the whole story at the end of Jesus' life. He didn't believe in betrayal. He was all just acting out and he had removed his faith and belief in the images and therefore he didn't believe in betrayal. He goes further on to say Judas was a beloved brother, like all brothers and sisters. So he's not only saying that Jesus is saying Judas didn't betray me because I didn't believe in betrayal but he's saying I loved Judas and that's important because you could say that about anyone. He loved everyone because he knew who he was and he knew who everyone was as well and that's the Christ. And then the last one that's on our list is giving my state of mind top priority. Yeah, your state of mind. Your peace of mind is important. It's no small gift. It's worth every effort that you make in mind training. It's worth your attention. It's worth your vigilance. It's worth your devotion. There's nothing else I can think of more important than mind training in order to accept the atonement and to forgive the world. There's nothing even close to that. So giving my state of mind top priority is very important. Okay, now today I know now you're really interested to say what are we going to see that helps us with those those themes. Well, the name of the movie is No Sleep Till Christmas. No Sleep Till Christmas. And I have to say Kirsten sent me an email this past week and before I went to bed I saw the email and she was recommending this movie No Sleep Till Christmas. So I saw the email, I looked at it and it was addressed to me and several others and then I went to sleep and then I slept several hours and then I woke up because I couldn't sleep. So when I woke up in the middle of the night I said okay Jesus what do you want? And he said no sleep until Christmas. I said oh yeah the movie maybe I should watch the movie. So about three o'clock in the morning I went on to Netflix. No, it wasn't there. That's where Kirsten said she had watched it up in the States and I was in Mexico. I went to Amazon. No, put it in your watch list. It's not available. So I thought that's funny. I can't sleep. I have this movie on my mind and then a couple hours later still in the wee hours of the morning I got an email from J.P. Jason Press and said I put that movie on your hard drive in your share folder. Oh my gosh, Jesus is delivering the movie even when I can't find it on the internet. So I watched it and I loved it. I laughed so hard at this movie because I thought this is perfect for in a funny way helping us see that we can laugh at these judgments, laugh at the grievances we hold, that we can actually be brought together with brothers and sisters that are kind of like our forgiveness assignments in helping us release the thoughts, attack thoughts in our mind and the grievances that we hold. So I'll just give you a little setup of the movie and then we're just going to have a good laugh together. So the main characters I think in this movie are Lizzie. She's an event planner and she's got a pretty structured life being an event planner and she pretty much tries to plan out her life and we all know how that goes. Has anybody else tried to plan out your life? You know, they always said if you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans because there's nothing so frustrating as planning out your life and then having your plans go astray. Having things happen that completely disrupt your plans and we think it's the world doing it to us but maybe we were planning something that we didn't need to plan. That was the problem. Maybe we were just supposed to take it moment by moment and enjoy the ride instead of trying to figure it out and plan it. So Lizzie is an event planner and she's got a lot of stress and pressures and so forth. She's engaged to be married right at the end of the year and so this movie takes place in December and she's engaged to be married to Josh who is a surgeon and she is feeling pretty stressful about this wedding because as an event planner you know she's wondering how much active planning she has to do in this wedding and Josh, her fiance, he really loves his mother and his mother really wants to plan the wedding. So you've got an idea of how stressful this is for Lizzie because Josh's mother is wanting to plan the wedding. A lot of times the bride likes to have a big hand in planning her own wedding, not let the mother-in-law plan the whole the whole thing but she's a planner so she's quite invested in this. The one thing that is interesting is that Lizzie is having trouble sleeping. She cannot sleep and as you know some of you who have ever had sleeping difficulties if you go many many nights or many even weeks without sleep you know what an impact that can have as you're trying to move through the day and you are tired all the time. So that's her main issue. She has a sleeping problem she can't sleep and on top of that she's getting married at the end of December to Josh and Josh's mother wants to plan the wedding and she's having trouble functioning in her day job as an event planner so she's struggling and the more days that she goes without being able to sleep the more stress comes. She just feels like it's absolutely intolerable. She has to find out what the problem is and for any of us who go through issues and problems in the world the problem is the ego but the ego is mostly unconscious. It's just a puff of nothingness that is turned into an entire belief system and most of it is out of our awareness so we tell ourselves I wish I could quit making these mistakes or I wish I could be more loving to the people around me I wish I could be more kind. I wish I could be more gentle but when you have an unconscious belief system that is based on fear that's where the sickness comes in that's where the struggle comes in the stress. All upset is basically produced from wrong-mindedness which is what the ego is it's a wrong-minded belief about our identity. So that's Lizzie and that's Josh and then the other main character in this movie is Billy and you'll see that that Lizzie is going to meet Billy because she just doesn't know what to do with herself she's tried everything she can't sleep she actually will even get in her car and the city lights for her are very bright so she sometimes just goes driving through the streets of the city with her sunglasses on in the middle of the night because she's nothing better to do she's just she's just an insomniac with a great struggle going on in her mind because she cannot sleep but it turns out that Billy who she has not met is also unable to sleep. So Billy's out jogging on the city streets in the middle of the night and then Lizzie's out driving with her sunglasses on and they will meet they will they will crash together she will hit him she will hit Billy the jogger with her car and she will claim that Billy jumped in front of her even though she was wearing sunglasses and driving at night and Billy will say you hit me so you see the two interpretations of the the meeting point you hit me no you jumped in front of my car and thus we have the antagonistic interpretations of even a meeting that will help free their mind even the beginning of a love story is interpreted as you did it to me you you shouldn't have done that to me you see the ego always interprets every situation in every event is something was done to me against my will and Jesus is saying no nothing happens to you apart from your choice I love that that little part in the course I am responsible for what I see I choose the feelings that I experience and I decide upon the goal I would achieve and everything that seems to happen to me I ask for and receive as I've asked no victimization no betrayal no abuse Jesus says the secret of salvation is but this you are doing this to yourself wow that would be the first step to admit I'm doing this to myself if I wanted to be free and go back to eternity then I must start to realize that this world is like distraction though this world is a make believes place of time where things seem to happen that don't really happen they're just imagination just my imagination running away with me it's just imagination and it's all based on our thoughts and beliefs so if if we somehow egoically want to be mistreated then we can invent a dream where the character that we identify with is mistreated but it's not real it doesn't really happen in heaven there is no mistreatment in the kingdom of heaven it's only in the realm of time and space where this belief in abuse a belief in being mistreated the belief that that something can happen to us against our will that is what the realm of time and space is all about and then Jesus contrasts that he says well actually God's will for you is perfect happiness and so if you're not perfectly happy it just means you don't want to know God's will for you and you don't really want to know your true will you would rather be miserable and struggling than happy and in eternity that's the that's the context of the metaphysics of of course the miracles you want to be right about the human condition or you want to be happy in heaven the choice is yours you know basically Jesus is saying there's no pressure it's it's but it is totally up to you whether you want to know God's will for perfect happiness or you want to continue to participate in an illusion of struggle and that's it that's the the the choice so we've got Lizzie the event planner we've got Josh the surgeon that she's engaged to and Josh's mother is trying to get this wedding planned and then we have Billy who uh he's pretty much personality wise the opposite of Lizzie in every way have you ever been with somebody who seems to be your exact opposite in personality yes it's kind of like hi oil meat water water meat oil see if you guys can coexist hmm it's it's an interesting equation now the one thing though even though Lizzie and Billy are complete opposites they do have one commonality and it's both of them cannot sleep okay this is what the Holy Spirit does oh great I can I can bring about a lot of healing in a very humorous way but I have to have give me one commonality to work with and they both cannot sleep except when they're together so they discover that they can only sleep when they're together Lizzie and Billy mind you though Lizzie is engaged to get married to Josh and she's not functioning very well because she's not sleeping and Billy's not functioning well either his girlfriend left him like I'm out of here I can't handle this I can't handle being with you like grow up Billy and so in one sense Lizzie and Billy have a huge need and the Holy Spirit will use this common need to bring about an enormous healing in fact to bring about such a healing that love will be able to stream through that relationship so he's going to take a very antagonistic relationship and he's going to purify it so that the love can shine through it wow that's good news for all of us if Billy and Lizzie can forgive then I think any of us can forgive as well because they're going to show the way so I think you're going to really enjoy this movie I will I will pop in from time to time but I found this this movie is like a beautiful ride in transformation of consciousness and awareness I think sometimes people say to me you know David I don't quite what know what you mean when you say no private thoughts and no people pleasing I mean what how what does that even mean and in a course of miracles in the text Jesus says that if you would have no thoughts that you would withhold from anyone else in other words if you are willing to share your thoughts with everyone without exception then you would soon realize the nature of who you really are if you had no thoughts that you would keep private and you were open to complete transparent open communication with everyone and everything you would find the holy instant for sure if you were that open Jesus also tells us in the beginning of the workbook that he says you have no private thoughts and yet that is all that you are aware of so the human condition is is the belief in private thoughts secrets and the perception that comes from the belief in these secrets what is the secret it's a thought that you believe you can think apart from God in heaven there are no secrets but if you believe in secrets then you believe in private thoughts and then the Holy Spirit will use relationships to teach you it is not so now I remember we had I think it was Kai hi Kai it's good to see you again Kai was asking about desires he was saying I have all these organic desires well let's talk a little bit about desire too before this this movie Kai was saying that that I still have these desires for things in the world and I don't know how to reach beyond them I'm basically seemingly stuck with my desires like every day I I have to face these desires for things of the world and I was giving you that quote from the course you know truth will be returned to your awareness by your desire as it was lost by your desire for something else so I'm just going to say this realm of time and space is is a trick and it's a trick of unfulfillment every human being that seems to come here is dealing with a core issue and I'm just going to call that core issue unfulfillment there human beings are restless human beings are goal seekers they seek things in the future to to help alleviate a present sense of unfulfillment relationships in this world we'll call them interpersonal relationships always begin with some sense of unfulfillment in other words that's that's why you're more attracted to some people than others because you believe that they can fulfill you and then there's other people with it you don't believe can fulfill you at all those are the ones you just want to cast aside like I'm indifferent I don't need to meet them thank you just bring me the ones that will fulfill me and eliminate I don't even want to meet the other ones because they that they serve no purpose but you see the problem is is that the unfulfillment is coming from the ego and the unfulfillment is coming from a from a belief in lack and deprivation that's where all unworthiness rises it's from a a belief in lack and deprivation in the mind so therefore as you identify with the body or as you identified with being a human being you will then seek for those who are not you but who can combine with you to be a better you so uh you know I guess we could say in terms of dating and and pursuing a relationship or even a lifelong relationship sometimes people will say oh I I haven't found the right one yet it's like that's like out of six seven we'll say seven billion you're looking for just the right one that will turn the key and provide 100 fulfillment it ain't gonna happen I can I don't want to ruin the romantic stories here but uh if you're looking for the right one and the right one is in your mind is some form then you're seeking outside yourself which is what seeking in form is because your spirit so if you seek in form for the right one you're actually looking for love in all the wrong places you're looking for love in time and space and it's not there you're looking for love in the projection in the projection of the ego oh sneaky sneaky sneaky but looking for the right one sometimes um sometimes people say David I found the right one and I say what does that mean and they say I found my better half that doesn't sound actually good to me I don't I don't really know about you but when people tell me I found my better half I'm like what do you have a worse half too did I meet the worse half before I meet the better half can I meet the worse half you know I kind of been playful about this because you know it's it's it's ridiculous but it is heavily believed in so I don't want to ruin anybody's party too much but this movie helps us get under the game you know it's a game it's a game when we're searching outside Jesus says seek not outside yourself he's basically saying don't look for yourself outside of spirit seek not outside yourselves for it will fail and you will weep each time an idol falls so every time we set up something to be our savior or even I'll say our fulfillment and then lo and behold they say or do something and then we wonder did I make a mistake I didn't think a better half is not supposed to act like that I didn't think a better half would ever say that to me I already had a worse half I didn't I don't need that kind of behavior out of a better half that's just not acceptable from a better half and then finally you start to turn within and that's what Jesus said in the Bible the kingdom of heaven is within you meaning it's it's spirit it's light know thyself as spirit and you will be happy for eternity because God is eternal and God created you as a spirit that is an eternal being it never is born it never dies it's just an eternal being of love and light so let's enjoy Lizzie and Josh and Billy and these three it's just uh it's really good I think that's that's how you get a movie like this is I've watched the the the way that comedy movies play there's some kind of secret that is established pretty quick early on in the plot and then the more that that secret grows and is continues to be hidden then that is the that is the plot it's it's a plot of secrets and then the big laugh comes when the secret is kind of exposed for the first time why do we laugh so hard when somebody else's secret gets exposed is because there's something inside of us that's hoping our secret will get exposed we're hoping this whole trick of identity gets exposed you know that we we let it get exposed so um I think that's that's pretty much the the tension that is felt is that that there you believe you have to do something that you have to keep secret and then in keeping the secret there's a pressure God doesn't keep secrets I don't know why we would think we would be happy keeping secrets but it's part of the belief in the ego that certain thoughts are meant to be kept hidden in private and other thoughts are meant to be shared the ego is very selective about its perception of reality it only selects things that would serve it and it disregards everything else so we're going to see that the answer to unfulfillment is miraculous communication miraculous communication dispels the belief in separation and therefore it it dispels the experience of unfulfillment miracles are really the way because they dispel this false erroneous sense of unfulfillment that is usually the mind will try to dispel the the loneliness and the deprivation and the lack by using some form to substitute that it believes is better so it's always trying to trade up you know if you got let's say you've got a self-concept as a single man or single woman and you're you're unfulfilled and then you look around the world and you see everybody they're getting paired look over there they're getting paired up and they're getting paired up over there and then pretty soon your unfulfillment starts to come and why am I a lonely single person and then you go to the park to get away from all of these couples and you look out in the water and it's two swans it's like oh my god it's it's even in the birds the birds are pairing up you know oh my god and then you think i'm i'm destined to be lonely forever look at even the swans get along they're they can pair up but i can't and this is still the ego's projections to try to to make you feel unfulfilled make you feel like you're lacking something and make you feel like you feel so sad you just want to die that's the ego's goal is death basically that's its ace card i mean if you follow the ego's plan eventually it's just going to flip its ace card out and go just kill yourself you see it's all aimed at one one card it's the ace of spades it's black or maybe even the ace of clubs it wants to club your mind with blackness and darkness and listen that is not our god's will for us we are not meant to be stabbed or shoveled or clubbed into death we are to to awaken to eternal life so enjoy the movie and i will join you during the movie let's have some fun today this is this is the start of our christmas time we are going to rev ourselves up and this time for christmas we're going to celebrate the birth of our true self in our awareness that is christmas and you don't even you don't even need eggnog for that you you don't even need uh material presence you can just feel the presence of god's love bursting in your heart and the joy filling the world so let's go into that joy to the world the lord has come let's go into that experience through this movie