 I'm going to be your host this weekend and we've got a beautiful weekend ahead of us. We'll have a movie workshop tomorrow. We'll have some sharing from our community members later this evening and yeah also today we're going to be joined by David Hofmeister from The Peacehouse in Cincinnati and also Francis Zoo here with us in our studio in Mexico. So I'm going to pass it over to you guys right now. Hi everyone. Hi, so beautiful to see you. Hi Francis. Hi David. Hi everybody. Lovely to be here spending this whole weekend together. Yeah, we look forward to these times to come together with you because it's so precious for us and it's great to see all the smiles and the laughter and feel the the deep connection and yeah Francis and I were talking this morning and wow this is this is our way of life now. Tevila Rasa, it's the title of the weekend retreat because that's that's how we are living our life and so if we do look rather clueless and innocent then that's a good sign because we are really clueless and the deeper we go the more clueless we get about everything. We're very happy though. So Francis isn't this beautiful to have this forum to do this and even though all of us are spread around in different parts of the world I could just feel the synergy and the love swirling underneath. Yeah, that's it. That's it. You know we we're here to listen to the spirit together and give ourselves over to feel the spirit which is love and this is the way that we want to live our lives. This is the way we want to spend every moment to just give our mind over to the spirit to tell us his thoughts, to tell us what how to follow him you know how to live our lives and truly I feel this awakening journey is it's a journey to come back to this very humble and very honest place to say that I do not know anything. I do not know what the world is for. I do not know my own best interest. I do not know you know how to get me back to be one with God to that awareness and so really it is a gradual journey to realize that and when we when we admit that so fullheartedly we're able just to ask with that reservation and Jesus says in the course that the ability to hear guidance is in direct correspondence to the the willingness or the desire to hear so truly here we're just purifying purifying our desire day after day the desire to hear only one voice the desire to be led to the desire to to not having to know anything and be shown so so rich so rich it feels so full and you know for the for maybe three and a half or four years we had themed online retreats so we pick a theme and then we would devote the whole weekend to a particular theme and now what Francis was describing that life of trust that life of openness that life of show me the way show me the way I do not know the way please show me like a little child putting his hand up and saying please take my hand and please leave me show me the way that's our attitude our attitude toward the spirit we are here to be shown and it's interesting because even though we didn't have a theme it always shows up like for example even though there isn't a specific theme for the weekend a number of you have voted on our polls for the movie that we're going to watch tomorrow and it's interesting we the movie hasn't been shown yet or it hasn't been received yet in prayer but but the themes did emerge from all of you and and those that have been following and offering their calling to these themes so I'll just give you a little glimpse of the themes we have because this may spur on your questions or they may relate exactly to the issues that you've been dealing with on a daily basis and that's how the spirit works when we're dealing with issues the spirit reaches us in a way that we can relate to in a way that we can can understand so that we have an insight we have a miracle we have release a letting go so here's the here's our our themes for the movie and this will be throughout the whole weekend I know we'll talk about these things accepting I've been mistaken about everything that's the top theme we are a clueless group right here if that is our number one theme we join together online here on zoom accepting I've been mistaken about everything well that surely opens our our mind up and our opens our heart up the second one is following the Holy Spirit with precision not kind of shoulda coulda woulda but really strong feeling do this go for this say this whatever it comes very strong to you without hesitation you do it follow the Holy Spirit with precision third one was self judgment is an attack upon God's creation yeah that's the only problem is self judgment and self criticism if if our mind wasn't judging and criticizing then it would just be still and we would know just pure love so it's it's only this self judgments and criticisms which are really our judgments of everything and everyone in the world including the personality that we had believed we are exposing private thoughts to release all guilt that's the key of course we talk about that every week but I love that in these online retreats because people can come on and they can just pour it out and share whatever it is that they have to share with no sense of evaluation or criticism or any hesitation you know it's just letting it pour out and then using that as an opportunity to release it just to see that it has no power over you and then the last one I am in need of nothing but the truth which is really coming back to our divine providence that we talk about all the time so a number of you have written in some some prayers and some questions but but I think it's always good for us to just start from from this point of coming with a willingness to see that we have been completely mistaken about everything the positive judgments the negative judgments the compliments the criticisms the praise and the the put downs the the things we were sure we did very well and the things that we were sure we were sure we messed it up but suddenly through the grace of God we oh my god we didn't mess up wow I was convinced otherwise there for a while I was really carrying a heavy heavy burden so for us this is how we we approach things day and day out and whenever Francis and I get together you know we we don't mind talking about guidance because for us guidance is not a bad word it's not a bad word it's actually a very helpful experience to have guidance and it's through the living of the guidance and sharing it daily and just pouring out our hearts and and really praying together and saying what do you feel and being so open and so receptive that allows us to to tune in to that guidance so what do you think Francis share a little bit about guidance because yeah because that's something that sometimes people say oh well it's I either can't be guided or I'm not consistently guided or some people just say I don't even believe it's possible or other people tell me it's not even possible and and those are all things to be aware of yeah and I do know that at the beginning this this idea was very foreign to to my own upbringing or background it it's one thing to to say that okay there is a spirit where that's like after mind training maybe you can reach it one day but it's it's another thing to say you can actually live your life and be guided and not not not rely on your own past experience and your own judgment it was very you know I remember I had this suspicious mind to think how how is that possible you know if I don't make decisions everything would turn into chaos or nothing would happen nothing would happen my life would just turn into no nowhere and nothing that's really the the the suspicion underneath but I have to say that you know what has really happened in the past 10 years was that to to actually be able to see firsthand that the spirit is guiding absolutely everything in our lives and if we give this willingness over to let the spirit use the symbols in our lives and to the degree we give the symbols over to the spirit to say you you're in charge you know you're going to be in charge of the interpretation of the events you're going to be in in charge of the interpretation of the relationship and I'm going to give everything to you and then I'm going to be here to let you decide then that is a good space to actually be able to see the spirit at work and then everything turned out to be beautiful and I I do know that it's the same for David that you actually was completely convinced through your own experience but not through just words from from a book but it was kind of undeniable experience day in and day out which was very out of the box very different from from the decisions that we would make based on our own um past references and our own frame of thinking and it was completely we were completely convinced through that kind of experience that everything worked together for good you know if we give it over to the spirit so that is um we all need that kind of convincing to truly trust yeah I think I think for a lot of people who have been drawn to a course in miracles too it's not like they were necessarily raised in in an environment or raised with role models that were sprinkled all over the place they it's not like they were surrounded in an environment of prayer and guidance and it just dawned on me uh some weeks ago when I showed this uh Billy Graham movie this documentary about Billy Graham's life and then after that movie then I started to see a few things on YouTube about Billy Graham's children and uh and it was like oh yeah that would be fascinating to grow up as one of Billy Graham's children because your mother and father are constantly talking about prayer about the Lord's guidance about spreading the the message of Jesus about spreading the message of forgiveness and how every trip to every country every encounter and a whole community they're all buzzing about God and buzzing about prayer and guidance and and for most of us we didn't grow up in that kind of environment we weren't constantly hearing about guidance and and how it works we weren't seeing evidence of it we weren't seeing daily evidence of it so in one sense we grew up without a context of how guidance could could solve everything for us if we just would listen and follow we would be peaceful and happy in the simplest way so I think I mean I went through of course I went through like Bible school and I was raised in a Christian church but but you know we didn't really talk much about guidance we talk a little bit about prayer but it it wasn't it wasn't like a practical thing it's not like in the morning and breakfast we wouldn't hold hands and pray and say what are you guided to do today what are you guided to do it that was the farthest thing from it you know it was all about oh it's cold outside who's going to scrape off the windshield and who's going to who's going to shovel you know Cincinnati Ohio who's going to shovel the the driveway and the sidewalk and oh is are we going to have school today did we check the monitor or a school canceled you know we weren't talking about guidance and then when I got into university for 10 years you know the first the first year was engineering no we didn't talk about guidance in in the College of Engineering at the university at Cincinnati we talked about calculus and we talked about vectors and all kinds of mechanics how things work and then after that I was in the School of Design Art and Architecture and I majored in urban planning in five years of urban planning guess how much we talked about guidance and prayer zippo zilch and then when I left that five years of urban planning I found that the two of my professors were Christian scientists and never even told me well I was in I saw him at a church a Christian science church after I was out of urban planning I said what are you doing here David what are you you know they kept it quiet nobody talks about about guidance nobody talks about these things and so when I got into psychology you know I call it I was into rat psychology for a while p.m. Skinner and stimulus response but when I kind of worked my way on my own interests more into humanistic psychology and and transpersonal psychology then the psychologist I was reading we're talking about your intuition follow your intuition follow your heart still not calling it guidance still not calling it prayer but you know we can relate to that follow your heart follow your intuition or Joseph Campbell follow your bliss yeah yeah I like that Joseph I like that follow your bliss that sounds good to me I I'm going to go for that but still we weren't talking about guidance and then as Francis was saying when I got into a course of miracles I started to really really see and have experiences where I would get inner promptings little nudges feelings arising drawing me calling me pulling me towards certain things towards certain people towards certain certain books to meet certain people I don't know why I have to meet them but I think I have a feeling I have to meet them today I don't know what it is but it's a strong feeling and that was the beginning of starting to pay attention to these inner nudges that eventually came to be guidance eventually it became of instructions it became word speaking to me word speaking through me it became so natural it became more natural than breathing the guidance became more natural than breathing it became so intimate where it was like of course and then the more we started to come together I met with people all over the country and all over the world and sometimes we start to live together we would just be saying I'm feeling this or I'm feeling this it it doesn't mean we had formal ways of speaking about this but but we started to be very transparent what we were feeling I'm feeling a strong call to this I'm feeling a nudge to do this I'm feeling to connect with so and so I don't know why but it's a strong feeling I need to call so and so or I need to visit so and so and as we gave way to this this new way of living then everything unfolded so amazingly everything just started to fall into place like it had always been in place and now we were just seeing that it was all connected and it was all part of a perceived whole of a connected perception that was so wonderful it was delicious it was glorious to experience and yet we were led into it through a series of nudges and prompts and guidances and it became very natural so that's why in our tabula rasa state of mind guidances is in the forefront and as the famous mystic peace pilgrim used to say she said yeah I just go along you know she walked around and around the United States and Canada for for many years with her white her silver hair and she was so into the flow of spirit and she used to say yeah I'm just flowing along flowing along doing what I'm inspired to do and then if ever I have a doubt a problem will come along and knock me back on the path what what a philosophy if ever I have a doubt a problem will come along and knock me back on the path the problems knock us back into our intuition the problems direct us back to live a hundred percent intuitively and zero percent analytically zero percent based on just past learning and 100 percent on inspiration what brings me joy what inspires me so I think this is important that we're talking about this because if you have a willingness to open up to this then you have everything that you need and actually there was a few things that were written in but I think it was Stephanie who who wrote in and she's at our right there at our Living Miracles monastery but but she wrote in a little piece to to Francis and I this morning and I think we can use that as a little launching pad Stephanie wrote Dear David and Francis this morning the words from the course came to my mind the willingness to communicate attracts communication and it awakes in me a sense of curiosity and adventure and joy my attention is drawn to the word willingness I feel the lightness and the openness there is no push and expectation I feel the gift behind these words I feel like Jesus stands with open arms and invites me to come to fall in love I pray to be shown the obstacles to my willingness with love and gratitude Stephanie and it's interesting Stephanie because I was just up there at the monastery and I know those words came out of my mouth the willingness to communicate attracts communication because I was very shy and I was very reserved and I was very hesitant about communicating and I could feel that that those words that you mentioned were like a key to me at learning to fulfill my life's purpose because I knew I had some fear around communication I knew I was very selective about who I would communicate with and I wouldn't communicate with I was very protective I was shy because I believed there was safety in shyness I I was timid because I believe there was something to fear in opening up opening my heart up and because I was afraid to communicate I was limiting my own awareness of what was possible so then Jesus got ahold of me and I started communicating and I did so much communicating with speaking and writing and calling people on the phone and communicating so fully that it took me into a different state of mind from the state of mind that I was accustomed to it took me into a place where I felt I was really in communication with everyone and everything in a very broad sense of the word of communication I think communion is a better word for it now but at the time I would not have understood communion I would just say oh I know what communication is and I I'm I'm hesitant I'm hesitant so I feel like that is is a lesson for all of us that that every day as we wake up and we pray to be guided and we pray to be shown the day that we will be given these little communication assignments with many many different people and every one is meant to open our hearts up every one is meant to to allow ourselves to feel the love that wants to come through us and that lives in us as us so to me communication is beautiful