 Are we all good, Carol? So you all set? Are we rolling? Okay, well, you're very welcome to Awake in the Heart this Monday morning, 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time, well, Mountain Daylight Time right now. This is the summer. And we have a very exciting show today. We're about to try something new. We have an outside broadcast where we are beaming in David Hofmeister and Kristen Buxton live from the monastery. So when they're speaking, we'll have them up on full screen. And I would just like to share that this is a new adventure, and so anything that can happen will, and anything that's given will. And we just really want to join in the joy of this this morning. So we're going to take it over now to the monastery and just say hi to David and Kristen. And it's so lovely to have you join us. Hi, everyone. This is the first beaming in all the way from over here. Yeah, it's been an adventure just getting ready this morning. We had ideas that we could we could beam in from outside with the canyon view and and then there were some gusty winds and so it turns out that we have the canyon view. But we're inside where there's there's no wind. It's just very still. So we're going for the most unpredictable setting which which will work well. Yeah, and one of the reasons we wanted to broadcast from the monastery is because yeah we we spend as much time as we can out here. It's just so still. We have a couple guests from who are newlyweds who came to visit us from Texas who were out here with us staying in one of our our domes overlooking the canyon. But also there are going to be two big events coming up and we don't have that many so it's kind of an opportunity to talk about them a little bit and and showcase the the monastery a little bit because it's it's secluded and it's still and quiet and it's like a a quiet little peaceful haven away from the the world the perceptions of the world you know out here the animal life provides most of the excitement and the movement. There's not a lot of drama going out here except occasionally in the canyon or with the animal life but yeah it's good to be out here to be able to talk about this. Yeah just as you were talking about that there was a hummingbird coming right up to the window so yeah they're with us they love it yeah and this morning as I was um just praying about the the show and the silent retreat that's coming up at the end of September it's like very end of September it starts on the 30th through into October and I was just praying about the importance of silence and prayer and I mean we live a a prayerful life and I think that's really the goal of A Course in Miracles is to is to expand our time of prayer from what may start as you know five minutes a day ten minutes a day one hour a day to living a constant prayerful life where you feel like you're in constant asking and listening and receiving of the Spirit's plan and it's really about stilling the mind to to be able to ask and hear the Holy Spirit because when there's all the static in the mind and the mind is really busy and preoccupied with past thoughts the voice of the Holy Spirit really can't get through and so I feel like a lot of what my function is actually is to remind everyone to pray and to to pause and remember you know what is it for um with everything we're doing and to bring full attention to to this moment and using whatever it is that we're doing for remembrance of the Holy Spirit and to be in an awareness of where our mind is at and so the silent retreat is is an invitation to to have nothing else going on and to put this first to actually put the stillness of the mind first and to be supported to to sink into that and to see what is blocking the ability to be still so just coming out and landing here at the monastery this feels like this place is an instant reminder of of be still and know that I am God it's so vast and there's not a lot going on and in the canyon you know there's rocks there's rocks so there's a river running through and just walking walking out and being here you can feel this is the stillness in the air it's where you can do so it's the perfect place for a silent retreat yeah there was a an early Course in Miracles teacher who was out of all the early teachers he was the one to emphasize silence his name is Tara Singh and he came from from India from the Sikh background so it's kind of appropriate that he would be the one emphasizing silence coming from India the deep tradition of you know non-dualism that's there and many amazing gurus and transcendent beings and saints and avatars coming from India but yeah I would have to say that when the mind is trained then the state of mind the silent state of mind you might say it goes with you everywhere you go God goes with me everywhere I go but when the mind is untrained you need symbols and you need to be led into that silence and certainly that's why meditation and hermitages and things Kirsten and I have experienced quite a lot of those over the years and they were very very helpful and they still are helpful I see very practically for mind draining because when you don't have what Tara Singh called stimulation he said the mind that's deceived and the mind that's sleeping it's it's addicted to stimulation remember the ego made the world it projected the the world it it's the ego invented the five senses God didn't create the five senses God didn't create stimulation God didn't create drama and conflict God really has nothing to do with any of those things and so if you want to know God you can tell the direction you're going to be moving in is is is having all that undone and that is a process that will take a lot of practice and devotion I'm not kidding you with that it will it will take everything that you've got to even move in that direction because egos is addicted to stimulation it invented the five senses it uses the five senses and the veil of perception and all the projected images of linear time and space to defend against be still and know that I'm God it's it's all giant hallucination a giant defense system against silence so silence is no small thing and we're not talking about silence it's silence where your ears don't hear anything that you know is not that difficult you can just hop in your car take a plane and and go out into some place it's very very distant and rural and you could you know for maybe a few hundred dollars you could manufacture some of what seems to be silence of the ears but this is a silence of the mind and this type of conducive background is is very very helpful because once you allow yourself to go into that you know you do see there's mind chatter the monkey mind will come up and it gets quite stirred up by silence it's it's it's quite threatened it goes it goes into it's caution mode it goes into its fear mode and threat mode when it's it's perceiving silence because silence and God are a great threat to the ego and the ego is being undone through through the Holy Spirit so for example when we arrived here I came in and Michael got us a couple bowls of soup and as I was just sitting out there with the soup it was serenely quiet serenely quiet and we were watching a little chipmunk taking high hops in the tall grass and then after Kirsten went into to get her soup I just noticed a big rabbit with long ears it was sitting off to my side and we were just eye gazing for several minutes until our guest Vicki and Stephen walked by and then the rabbit hopped away but it's these are just like symbols for us it's very natural to be in the silence and and it's very nurturing and that's why we have these things called silent retreats and that's the first event that really we have coming up here at the monastery Kirsten mentioned today starting on the 30th of September and so we're right here in the middle of the monastery just to invite you if you would like to come along for that I'll be just getting back from Europe and Kirsten will be here maybe in the middle of book tours and so forth it'll be a punctuated a very soft quiet still time here for the monastery I'm so looking forward to it it feels beautiful yeah and and the support for going into the silence like you know David was sharing the the there is a lot of fear of the silence in fact that is that is the fear that's in the mind it's fear of love it's fear of being so absolutely still that there's a complete merge into the presence of God where there is no self left that's what the ego is really afraid of and and so there's a lot of support within a silent retreat to to come into that stillness and and to be in acceptance and non-judgment of whatever fear comes up or activity of mind comes up in response to the call to go into the silence so I know for when I for me when I first started meditating it was shocking to see how busy my mind was and and how my thoughts which is going and within an hour I could touch on a moment of silence perhaps once or twice and my meditation teacher at the time just said that one moment is is everything and just don't judge against the rest of the time your your intention to meditate is everything and even if your mind is really busy at that time just don't judge it if you spend your time judging the thoughts you're not meditating so just allow them to move through so we have that kind of support of coming together in groups to meditate or knowing that you can just go off and spend the whole time sort of on your own in the silence or coming together in silence to watch a movie or have an experiential heart-opening session which is non-verbal like a massage type healing touch session just to allow the the invitation of gentleness and non-judgment so the mind can relax into it so it's very much about the direction of our thinking and learning to train our mind towards the direction of the thinking because the you know the ego thoughts are always taking us away from the present moment it's a way to the future or back to the past or just always going elsewhere and and so we want to really practice and train the mind to notice that movement of thought and come back and come back and come back and know that that's really our practice and not to judge against it to know that every time we're doing that we're strengthening this desire to be present and to be with God so that's that's one invitation and then as far as events at the monastery I think a lot of you know that there's a major Course in Miracles conference that usually has come every other year although last year it was we did one in New York and then we did one in Las Vegas but that's pretty rare it's usually a pause in between and and this year there will be an event at the monastery rolling around after the winter coming into spring in April that will be an opportunity to go deeper into the ideas so we may have some silent times out here at the monastery but basically we'll have we'll have sessions and experientials and we're we're collaborating with James Swiman who is putting together a conference in Midway which is probably about 50 minutes to an hour from the monastery and probably about we'll say about an hour from the Salt Lake City airport so it's kind of Midway between the Salt Lake City airport and the monastery and that'll be over Easter weekend actually so it'll be an Easter retreat with lots of Course in Miracles speakers and then it will end on Sunday and then Sunday evening we will start a little retreat here at the monastery that we'll roll on to start Sunday night on Easter I believe it's going to be Easter weekend and then Sunday night we'll roll right into the depths so there'll be a number of speakers Course in Miracles speakers like there are conferences but they'll be singing and there'll be some interesting innovations that that haven't been seen in conferences and then for those of you that really want to come and attend the conference and then come out and really go into the depths of the teachings of Course in Miracles there's deep mystical teachings and these very deep experiences that go beyond this world and are aimed at returning to the kingdom of heaven within in a very literal sense then I believe it's a few days right we start on Sunday night Sunday through Wednesday Sunday through Wednesday so that'll be another great opportunity and if you're listening to the first part about the Silent Retreat and the fear is coming up and you're going don't think I'm ready for a week of silence there still be we still do exercises it's not pure silence not like a vipassana retreat or something but if you feel like that's a bit threatening then that's something you may want to consider there and then we'll roll on maybe you can share a little bit coming in July which is July 16th to the 18th 16th to the 18th over a weekend Friday Saturday Sunday it'll be a celebration oh yeah I'm so inspired by this event it's it's a celebration of inner peace events and it's coming together to celebrate our love and our gratitude for Course in Miracles as our path and it feels like an honouring of the first four students of the Course who we all know well by name at least most of us Helen, Bill, Judy and Ken and the work of the Foundation for Inner Peace who are the publishers of the Course and who have you know the really I think in some ways more than even getting the book out into the hands of the people because we all know Jesus is doing that behind the scenes it's not really people but it's Jesus through those people and I'm so grateful for those who I feel as like fellow devotees of this path who've just given their life over to serving Jesus in this way in a life of prayer saying okay I don't know how this is going to work I don't know how this is going to happen but I commit my life to you and I'm willing to do your work and that's what they did that's what Judy, Helen, Bill and Ken did they made the commitment together and from that commitment you know the Course has been published and translated and shared and yeah and I just feel like they're our extended family and and of course all of those original students now and the original founders of the Foundation for Inner Peace they're they're in their elder years and their twilight years there's just Judy and Bob and William Whitson who are still living with us and they're passing the torch this year to Tamara Judy's daughter and her dear friend who came onto the board of the Foundation for Peace decades ago Judy actually gave him this is Bob Rosenthal Judy gave him the Course when it was still in the Black Binders so he's been involved with the Course right from then he's a Course teacher and he is just very deeply committed to the the clear message of the Course continuing to go out which is a very yeah which is we know the Course in itself is so clear and so concise and so complete in itself we just feel very joined with them in continuing the support as they step into these roles as co-presidents of the Foundation to continue with this work with the Course so this whole event is it feels like an honouring of those who have done this life work and Judy and Whits and Bob and also just supporting through our gratitude the ongoing work of the Foundation and coming together and joy like from meeting Tamara that's the one thing that she says she said to Jesus okay I will take on this function she heard it three times she said are you sure it's for me are you sure it's for me are you sure it's for me and Jesus said yes I don't make mistakes you're definitely the one because she'll be the first to admit that she's not a Course in Miracles scholar and she wouldn't even say officially she's a Course in Miracles devotee student it's funny I keep using the word devotee but it's all about this devotion and he said yes it's for you and I feel the reason for that is because she is a spark she is so fresh in her approach to everything and she has this deep love and honour in her heart for those who have gone before her I mean she spent her whole life with them you know involved with their walk with the Course so she'll bring a lot of lightheartedness and passion and and I think when I was out with her and her mother and and Whit we were all praying together and what I heard was we'll do a fundraiser FUN or AIS or is she like oh that's great because instead of this being the funds funds that are generated from this event will go all to support the foundation for inner peace but where she's the fun part of the fundraiser and and Bob I have to say is a very deep devoted teacher so where she may have gone through the workbook once and not really read the text or the manual Bob is very devoted they're a very good complimentary team and they'll be coming on as the co-directors so where as Judy has done an amazing job and that was her role given by Jesus now we have co-directors coming in that are compliment each other in in many ways we know that that's how Jesus works even with Bill and Helen and all of the assignments that came read Eric Erickson the transgender man from Mexico who who paid for the the first publishing of the book you know is quite a team a lot of Jewish people and the transgender man and Jesus had his team for the launch and now this is to keep it disseminating and extending I think it's in the 22 to 25 languages it's been translated into and the beat just goes on and on and they're very much with us I mean you know it seems like people pass away and even though as Kirsten mentioned the first four students were really honoring them even though Judy is the only one that remains right now and Ken and Bill and Helen had passed on just when when Kirsten picked me up from the airport I got a phone call from a woman who said oh she was talking about Helen Shuckman and she said here I'm going to read you the a poem or a writing from the gifts of God and this is Helen's birthday so I didn't even know that I was getting picked up on Helen so we really felt Helen's presence with that and with all the the lunches we've had I've had with Judy and her daughter and with you know I feel their presence and I've always felt Ken's presence comes through so many times in so many ways I was talking about him recently in Colorado at the Estes Park event so it's it is a celebration and an honoring of the elders of the tribe so to speak the ACIM tribe and it's going to be fun and we just hope that you'll come and join in or participate in some way of us showing our gratitude and honoring those that have come before us and even now when Kirsten just was talking and she mentioned the four students the first four students the hummingbird just came and just stopped and was looking at us through this big window right by this kind of jewel that we have it paused right by this jewel that's hanging down there and while she was talking it just was looking in so I feel like they're with us in a very strong way even on these broadcasts you know it's like Jesus is behind all of this and and these are all the beloveds that he is using in his plan of awakening and so we're very thrilled to just be a part of the whole thing oh yeah and what feels so beautiful about this being like a fundraiser um which officially it's called a fundraiser is um we've just we've invited a number of really well known course numerical students as well to come not to um to teach or to be presenters but just to come and be in this vibe of of celebrating our love for the course and our love for these elders together and so Gary Renard is coming and he said oh I'll pay my own way you know I'll fly myself there and it just touches me I just feel like we have such a deep love for the course and for yeah for this purpose and um Carol Howe it's coming yeah built up for his dear friends yeah and it just feels yeah to be able to have them come here feels beautiful to be able to host them and other friends are coming I think Lisa Natoli wrote that she'll be away at that time but she just sends her love and supports is any way I can help to get the event out and I think Maria Felipe will come over and um your friend Bridget Trauma will come and yeah we've hardly started to put the word out yet but it just yeah it feels really beautiful to come and and James Twyman will be here he's a big yes for this and playing music and um of course we've got the stage so it feels like we're going to have this really big kind of festival vibe of a gratitude event together yeah it's a mixture of generations of the course from those that are barely new to those that have been at it for decades many decades and certainly we we have had the thought too that we might even try to do a pre-recording with with perhaps Judy or some others but um but it's interesting you know the visits to Judy you know she says well we're just enjoying the moment because they feel this is definitely the twilight of their life and they know that anything can happen at any time and so after some of the visits she would say to me after lunch uh come back soon we don't know if we'll be here so you know it's beautiful they're they're just so full in the love and the joy and and have done such a magnificent job and really fulfilled their parts so beautifully so we'll see just how that all goes uh i think uh temer was saying you know and talk to them that she said when is it going to be next year you know her mind can't even go there and tell you the truth my mind and our mind can't really go there either but we're here with you now talking about it but that's about as far as we go we never really look ahead to anything and then when it just kind of rolls up in the script so to speak uh then we're just we're happy but we're just rejoicing all the way so you know we're not really into certain days or events in the future or holidays or all that stuff because it's such a living presence for us every day is Easter every day is Christmas and every day is a celebration but but this will be this will be something that will really touch a lot of hearts because there's been a lot of devotion around the course of miracles and this is always fun when you can bring people together for that celebration we're gonna celebrate in a piece it's such a joy to talk about it now it really is this moment and i had this beautiful inspiring idea this morning of like oh i could call and interview you know these ones who are coming who have mentioned um and just interview them and say okay we've got 10 minutes yeah just share your love for a course of miracles and your gratitude for the you know our elders and let's just join in there and do some short interviews with everyone before they come and share them because it just yeah it feels like an ongoing honoring that's starting now like we've got a whole year to be in this vibe and that's what it feels like to me every time i start talking about it i just get so lit up in my heart it just feels so beautiful yeah yeah it's it is and it is it'll be fun to have it out here amongst nature you know the beautiful cliffs and valley and everything that's around us and all the animals there are always a big part of it and it's in many ways it feels like when we come out here we're coming out and it's really it's it's their territory you know and we're just coming in here and we're gracing them by our presence they're gracing us with their presence and and it feels um you know very very precious and and and this is ongoing this this place is also available for personal stays you know if you feel to just come out and and practice stilling your mind uh we have some people our friend calico was here and michael was saying she's planning to come back here and uh and others have come too that have had profound uh turnarounds in their mind just from from coming here and the personal stays uh are just amazing another friend rita uh from california was just he was just talking she was talking to michael too about possibly coming for uh a personal stay before the mystery school we're having the it's another thing i forgot about we have the mystery scroll next next may but she was talking about maybe coming for a personal stay before the mystery school just is a way of going inward deeper deeper and and getting deeper into that vibe and so she's just revving up to the mystery school so and that's yeah that's another event it's not really an event is it's a four-week uh immersion but during all of may so so if you go to non duality online dot com if you want to find out more about the mystery school that's that's there too and yeah that's probably if you're ready to really take the lid off of of your mind and and expose the ego and and penetrate deep into your mind and take uh as neil armstrong said one giant leap for mankind uh that's going to the moon will be seemed like nothing compared to going through a mystery school for four weeks that's all i could say the trip to the moon it seems like a like a small thing like eating a piece of cheese compared to to uh you know going through this immersion and and there's so much that's being geared towards that it's just ongoing there will be mystery schools around the world just like there have been ancient mystery schools in different parts of the world uh we'll have our first mystery school during the month of may here in 2016 but then three months later in september uh we'll roll around again with another one in a different part of the world and then three months later another one so yeah if you really want to go deep uh and you really are not threatened by anything we've talked about today and there you go silence joy celebration gratitude right if none of that is threatening to you then of course the miracles then the mystery school is is going off the deep end it's beautiful so sarah how are things going there in the home studio we'll roll we'll throw it back to you yeah so you guys are just so wonderful it's lovely to see the one mind doing the sharing of the dates and everything i have this feeling that part of what's really wonderful about the um the celebrating inner peace event is that we have camping available and that means that anyone who's really feeling that very strong call and maybe has already started to simplify their lives by having camping as part of it it keeps the overheads very low for them coming because it's only 70 for the weekend to come and stay um at the monastery and then the event fee which is the donation that's going to the the foundation for inner peace aside for basic costs that just feels really wonderful because i feel particularly in america and at this time of the year people love making almost like a camping pilgrimage type trip and what better focus could you have than you know caravanning towards the living miracles monastery and setting up your tent and being in presence and that recommitment to the purpose of your life for the weekend and and really there is a lovely feeling of a grand swell of having everyone at the monastery for it for those two two and a half three days together from the 16th to the 18th and i think that even though there's other accommodations and people can stay in hotels locally or anything and we have a certain amount at the monastery for staying as well that the idea of camping the idea of a whole course group deciding to come and come together and have their own little circle where they're staying and have bring back to wherever they've come from that recommitment and that devotion to to this pathway that's been given to us because there's some ideas sometimes that you choose a pathway but i think um all of us least i discovered that you just get given one just to present to you and and this is really um it's the word commitment keeps coming up our just our joy of watching the commitment of the first four students and what it took to make the commitment first and not know what it would mean for their lives and so part of this is a well as being a complete celebration is the other c word in my mind uh of commitments and the joy of commitments and the celebration of the relief of making that commitment first in our lives and letting everything else follow so that just feels very valuable too yeah it's beautiful i i think it will offer something for everything too because even when there's some of you probably tuning in going oh camping oh i i don't know if i want to camp but that's okay too because we we we have a cute little old western town and for some of you if you come and and visit duchess it kind of looks like duchess any if you if you try to pronounce phonetically but it's duchess and it's like an old wild west town um i have to say it's just absolutely delightful every time i go there and there's a motel six and a pretty new one down there and you know just a time for our festival and some restaurants and you know small town western cafes and diners and you know it's like going back to the old west with the diners and it's just really nice and then if even that's a little bit wild for you then the other direction is is heber which is you know all kinds of different motels amenities um movie theaters and all kinds of restaurant opportunities and so forth so you know if somebody really wanted to come here and just enjoy the weekend like sarah was saying to camp would be very intimate you'll be right here the whole weekend if you feel that you want to in the evenings go and and and have a little more than camping then there'll be opportunities uh i would say with the people that are the presenters and and the people we've invited yeah the housing and the monastery will be quite filled up we might have a group of us sleeping on couches or who knows what uh just to make sure we have enough room for everyone we're invited but um there'll be a lot of of accommodations there and it's i think it'll be something for everyone really it'll be beautiful like fourth of july instead of fourth of july weekend with fireworks you can come to celebrate god and waking up to god with with your course of miracle friends and so uh it'll still have that big celebration feeling like uh we have on the fourth of july or in the united states but this will be you know very reverent as well very reverent towards this purpose and tamra is our main contact for that event so if you're bursting after all of the sharing about it you can email her um directly we have an email address set up for her inner peace at living miracles dot org and inner peace at living miracles dot org that goes straight to tamra and she can connect with you about it and it's our tamra too but we have there's tamra morgan so don't start trying to contact tamra judy sketch his daughter she'll be she'd have a fit if she could start receiving emails for this but it's our tamra tamra young blood and all the information is on the monastery website too we have um miracles dash monastery dot org as where you can find the events and the conference information actually we have a conference website acim dash conference dot net and that is all of the events on including the conference with james twyman with the follow-up retreat here and uh yeah don't stop shopping just sign up for one website because it what actually links to the other sites and everything but it's all it's all listed there including the mystery school no i think the mystery school is was not considering considered a retreat or a conference but but as i said they say i'm not they say i'm non duality online dot com uh it's been a lot earlier this year poured into that website and it's quite amazing if you're even wondering what is a mystery school wow you go visit that website and your head may be spinning because it's it's really uh the depth of all the ancient traditions have have pointed to what the course is pointing to of of going beyond transcending this world and that's really what what the purpose of life is is to forgive the world and and then transcend it and experience the kingdom of heaven within beautiful beautiful i'm not sure can you hear me yes we can yeah i just feel that this this monasteries recall has has been like a gift and there's just such a joy in extending it it's almost like with all the mind training that everyone's been doing over the years there's a stability and when people come to these side retreats the mind is just like held in the canyon and it's held in the space and it's held by the devotion of those who are surrounding you and yeah and i i would just like to say that my experience has been that and i just feel very grateful for having the gift of being able to go out there too so yeah i would encourage everyone you know even if they've had a talk that the silence is something that fear may come up the container is is ideally prepared the nest the womb experiences there and so it it becomes extremely safe and and inviting for the mind so yeah i just want to share that it's really beautiful and here too everybody's just been sinking into that same devotional container here at camis and yeah so i appreciate the support i appreciate the support of the first four i appreciate the support david of you and the messengers and everyone who goes before because like we can't do this alone so yeah thank you yeah it's got like a an ancient uh reverend vibe to the whole thing i mean we we all just gathered there in in camis to watch the new jesus movie the young messiah and all of our hearts were stirred up and our visitors from texas and of course steven came all the way via perth australia they were just overwhelmed steven was overwhelmed earlier with the church service with all the love and then we all felt just so deep in the experience watching a movie of a young jesus like a seven-year-old jesus uh and it was quite amazing and and i remember in that movie uh when they were coming back from um alexandria egypt because they had fled with herit killing all the the male children that were born because of the prophecies around around jesus and the king of the jews and all this and that but they were coming back and they were really kind of fleeing and trying to make their way but kind of being a bit haunted and pursued and at one point they said how we can go there these scenes will help us and it was funny that there was that word ascenes again uh some of you who who know of these scenes know that there was a mystical community around the time of jesus and here was the seven-year-old jesus and it was right in the storyline the scenes will help us because they were very deep very mystical very devoted some people have compared our community to the ascenes or to the cathars cathars came much later than you know in europe but they were the ones that were given the choice from the catholic church to renounce all their beliefs and to adopt the beliefs of the holy mother church the catholic church or to walk into the fire and they've probably 200 of them walked into the fire but they were mystics that had this experience that the world was not real uh and we had a friend elizabeth from down in san fe i think she's maybe moved on from there uh to another part but she's actually when she first came here she's originally from from europe i believe from france and she she said oh my god this this these scenes everything this is like the cathars she she felt a strong connection and why do i bring up the the ascenes and the cathars except they're they're very devoted deep mystical communities that have existed in history and there was a time too when i was visiting judy at lunch and she was telling me the story of how ken wobnick and bill and helen all went to the middle east they went to what was gallally you know and took to walk around those areas and they took their little trip and at one point um helen wasn't feeling well and um she really didn't want to get out of the car and it was very hot but they the rest of them their party got out and they kept coming over to say helen just just to get out and it's just don't sit in this metal car it's just so hot and just stand there but um they judy told the story how uh when they came to this one area helen was very very distraught and and it was she said this is the burial ground where all of them all of the four of them uh had had been a scenes and they'd all been murdered and all been buried in the same grave and so uh when helen and bill first received the course they thought it was very esoteric it was too esoteric they were research psychologists so too esoteric really for the world they they didn't really see what would happen with the course and publishing and all the language translations but they did feel that that there would be just a small group of people that would actually practice and live the course during the first generation and to me all this ties together obviously with the the scenes and the cathars is that there is community is just a symbol but there is a real depth in living it practicing it applying it with everyone around you on a full-time 24-7 basis uh there's a strong synergy I don't even know if synergy is even a strong enough word because it's the miracle becomes so habitual and so consistent and you begin to reach higher and higher states of mind seemingly it's all within the dream but those are all metaphors as well and so there's something about doing this celebration out here in these canyons of of Utah there's something about these lands our friend Diana sometimes calls them the holy lands now there's a lot of seeming strife over there where Jesus had walked but these are are quite serene places and and the interactions are very deep and ancient and some people I think Lisa one time was living here for a while she told somebody come on you've got to see this it's biblical she started calling these canyons biblical and in Utah row Utah you know for many people they would laugh and they say well that's a little bit out of context but when you consider everything that's happening and you consider the depth of things and you start to be aware like I am of of the culture and the history of the course and the nuances and everything I think that's probably why you're feeling the swirl in your heart Kirsten because because there's something you know that's very profound underneath all of this it's just appearances like every other appearance but there's something very profound underneath it that's using the appearances to take us very very very deep into a very profound otherworldly experience or experience that's beyond this world and so yeah there's just an honor that comes of respect and honor with just being a part of something like that you know it really it really touches my heart and I know that we have a whole year to kind of just keep extending that that feeling that we're feeling right now yeah we're really honoring our own relationship with God and I think even over the last couple of years there was beings you know you get to that point at the the course and he says you know put down this course put down you know just basically let go of this world and let go of all the tools and come to God with wholly empty hands and for many of us we've actually found ourselves putting the book down even up to a number of years I've done that myself I just no longer read it I just heard heard it constantly in my mind just the reference point towards that truth was just so set that there is no need to read the print and yet just in this last number of months I Jesus is bringing her back in and he's saying I don't bring attention to it the course is your path this is your life this is for you to share this is for you to extend this is like bringing attention to it and I know Lisa's heard that too and we just switched places recently I came back up to Utah from Mexico and she left Utah to go down there and she kept hearing you're going to go down there and read the course so she went out and was looking for a recliner chair so that she could just be there and fully accept this next prompt from Jesus to be in Mexico and read the course and yeah the mystery school is all based on these deep teachings of the course you know of course they're found in the deepest Nondual teachings you know throughout the world but this is the way that's been given us and it's a joy to recognize that same truth and these other paths but at the end of the day this is our one path and I feel like yeah we're now being called or for myself anyway I'm being called now to just bring attention to it so yeah it's a joy yeah and I'm finding a course book and it's sitting on my bed all the time the last couple of weeks I was there and you don't know course books right on my bed every day so and I'm just picking it up and just reading and it's you know reading through a leeson and it's just like a love letter it's like every time I pick it up it's like oh so grateful thank you thank you just feels like I'm just in deep appreciation that all the technology worked and flowed first for the joining was possible jc central it just just what you were just sharing kirsten just reminded me of my experience with the course because I got in an isolation I didn't have any outward intellectual concepts to go with it or things that I've heard from other people and I literally just was opening it and dependent on what I would hear in my mind to understand it because I know uh context when I received it and I just put out a post today for one of our our websites which is a searchable form of course and miracles which makes it so easy you just put in a word search it's called um acim now and I put the picture of a baby reading the book because you know it's not that we have to figure out or understand anything and some people sometimes when they put it down for a while of course they have this thought that they didn't quite get it or understand it and you just have it open and put your eyes on it and I just really feel that it's just that invitation to the spirit to just those lessons of love to be constantly whispering them in our ear and yeah and I just because that's what I did just before I came here just it's fresh in my mind of just coming as little children again to it that's where I am and not having anything and being shown yeah it's a course of miracles now.com because if ACM now is like is also a Facebook page but uh yeah it's a course of miracles now.com we got Michael here from SEO and so he he both me and I picked it up by the way. We have so many. We know what side you're talking about but yeah but that's the one you got to type in SEO wisdom coming through. And also literally Utah is the number one place in the world to film Jesus movies in because it's like we've seen it so similar and the greatest story ever told was filmed here and I think the the young Messiah was filmed here too. So it just that symbolism is being notions by the world and and I'm in it. Yeah we didn't even plan that Jesus just sent us out here and we've been getting all those questions from Steven and Victoria like how did you get to Utah and it's like what we can try to tell you the story but none of us could ever have predicted. And Michael's come all the way from Australia and and we were all sitting around having lunch there at campus and I think almost everyone around the table was from different regions of the world so it's quite an eclectic group but here we are converging in the desert again. An oasis in the desert. Like the little garden part of the course I feel really that's all we're sharing this morning is the invitation to the little garden the oasis for people to come and be refreshed and move back into whatever it's seemingly given for them refreshed. Just like an outward picturing of that past in the course. Yeah miracles fall like healing drops of rain on the dry and thirsty world and that's the way it feels yeah that's the way it feels in our lives. Our our lives were dry and dusty and thirsty even when they were trying to set up for a beautiful canyon shot this morning the winds the dusty winds were were whipping up and first inside I think I don't know we might have to find another location but it got very calm right before the broadcast started so we've been looking out over through beautiful windows at a very calm scene all the the trees are very still and serene and the only movements we've seen are these hummingbirds that are there's hummingbird feeders around so there's lots of lots of hummingbirds around us but everything else is very still right now. Thank you so much for joining us this morning it was just really beautiful to have you to beam in and just this welcome and invite to the garden and an experience now those events are upcoming but this is an invitation now so thank you. Yeah and Michael is going to just give you a little panoramic view for all of our ones tuning in while we have a chance we don't get to do this very often from the monastery so we get smaller and smaller and Michael you can see our studio that's our studio. Good morning America and good morning world and now is Jesus. Look isn't that a great Jesus. I thought the light is fast. Oh there's Stephen Bean down there. He's our guest with his new wife Victoria and the Kenyan in the background. We finally did get that view that window did get used. It's like a view. Thank you for joining us everyone. Thank you. Yeah many blessings I'm so grateful to be on this path together. I'm so blessed. Many blessings.