 Hi, today's episode of We Are Only One is brought to you by mountgox.com and mesagrill.com and carpevm.com. Hi everyone, welcome to We Are Only One where we explore different aspects of spirituality and today we have something very unique, we have Reverend Bill Engelhardt, he is the ordained unity senior minister at Unity Marin in California, Unity Marin, it's appropriate. And he's written spiritual rules of the road and in this book I have to read one of the comments on the back, rev up your engine with Bill Engelhardt's fun practical guide to living a life that is so much more than you can imagine. Bill has the gift of spinning simple relatable stories and ordinary examples into extraordinary inspiration and truth. Spiritual rules of the road is an easy read that will refuel you with high octane. So without further ado, hi Bill, welcome. Hi Jude, glad to be here. I have to share the irony and spirit sense of humor with our viewers, some of whom were waiting to see this live and in the book Bill talks about cars and car ownership and car repairs and uses a lot of practical imagery surrounding cars to reveal spiritual truths and today we are delayed because a key component to our operations VP was in traffic and this is a great lead in for us to discuss curious why did you write a book about cars and spirituality? Well, I'm going to tell you Jude, I think that based on what's happened today it's given me more motivation to take the book and make an audio version so people could hear it in the car. Oh, that's great. You're stuck in traffic, you know, this might be the perfect thing to be listening to. That's true. But I decided to write this book because I'll tell you why, a friend of mine was telling me about a story of she was taking her daughter to get her driver's license and so she goes over to the Department of Motor Vehicles and they're inside and she's taking the written test and getting ready for the driver's test when all of a sudden they hear this screech of a car bouncing over a curve and side swiping three or four other cars and so everybody in the place turns around and they go to the window and they see the driver get out and more importantly they saw the drive instructor, you know, the tester, the DMB get out looking very shaken, I'm sure. And he was given a driving test of this driver and evidently who mistook the brake and the gas, a critical thing not to make a mistake about. Jump the curb and side swiped all these cars. Now, I don't know for sure but I've got to guess that she probably did not pass her test. Yes. But I got me to think it, not just about driving and where the gas from the clutch and everything else is, what really got me to thinking is that in life, for something like driving a car, we're given a handbook and that handbook is generally titled The Rules of the Road and you have to study that and you have to do training about it and it becomes your kind of Bible if you want to drive a car, you get the rules of the road. And as I was thinking about that, I thought that it would be really nice if we had a spiritual rules of the road, kind of a handbook that talks about universal spiritual principles in plain talk, not about dogma and ritual but just plain straight talk. And so for me, the three things I enjoy the most are cars, humor and spirituality and to be able to combine all three of those things in a way that no matter what your spiritual background or religious background is, that you'll be able to discern with me on this road trip of sorts what these spiritual truths are and how to avoid maybe some big pitfalls in life or some big accidents or if you're in one, how to deal with it. And so that's where the motivation came from me was that story about the DMV. Well, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really did and I'm part aficionado like you but I think it's a wonderful guide because and you know you had mentioned when we talked a little earlier, it'd be great for a glove compartment because I find my inner peace and my spiritual center, one of the things that knocks me off the mat is traffic and maintaining my chi and you know, higher vibration and if I could have this like to just look at the way it's written is wonderful with quotes and principles and there's so much to absorb and it's very easy and it's quick too, which I think is really wonderful. I figure when you're stuck in traffic, you don't want to have a really thick book, you know, you can pull this out and I did write it with the attention of it's fitting in the glove compartment because it seems to me that most of the time we're facing some kind of a challenge. We're on our way to something, maybe we're on our way to the hospital and somebody's sick and we're not quite sure how do we show up with those people at that time or that we've just come from a difficult situation, it'd be nice to be able to just open the glove compartment, not have it stuck on a bookshelf somewhere where you're trying to find it, where it's going to be handy and you can pull it out and I do quote a lot of different people. I'm just as likely to quote Jeff Foxworthy as I am Dale Earnhardt, you know, as a NASCAR driver as the Bible. So to me there's truth and God in it all. Oh, I wholeheartedly agree and I love the setup for people that you have these quotes from a variety of worlds and then weave in the car and the practicality aspect. One of my favorites I have to share is even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there by Will Rogers, I love that and I love his humor. Me too. You know, I wonder if you could share with me a little bit about your experience with cars and repairs and how you weave that in to our life. Sure, I remember when I was 16 years old and I got my first car and it was a 1974 Pontiac Grand Prix for the car people that had a 404 barrel engine that I'm sure got to about eight miles to the gallon at the time. And I think it was really appropriate that my first breakdown that started to happen in that car was when the starter wouldn't turn the car over and if you remember cars from the 60s and 70s and sounds like this, click, click, click, click, click, click, you just hear this clicking sound, it's the starter. And so I called up my brother-in-law who was much more mechanical than I was. I'd just gotten a car so I hadn't really had much experience. And you're going to think I'm making this up, but I'm not, that there's a way that you can get the starter to engage without using electronic devices or anything else. What you do is you take a hammer, you go out and you hit the starter with a hammer. To me, that's a tool I knew how to use. And of course, at first I thought my brother-in-law was just pulling my leg to see if I'd go out and beat my car with a hammer, but I believed him, I was 16. So sure enough, what I did, I went out and I hit the starter with a hammer. There's brushes and a starter in that when you hit it, if they're not engaging at starters at that time, it'll move them a little bit and then you can go and you can restart the car. Now, of course, this was meant to happen maybe once or twice to be able to get you into a garage or get you to our part store to get you a new starter. Well, being 16, I didn't have a lot of money and I was figuring, well, this works and it happened all the time right away, it would happen maybe once a week. And then it would start to happen every couple of days. And then it would happen every day. And then it would start to happen every time I started the car or tried to start the car. Of course, I kept my tool, the hammer, right next to me and I'd be constantly going out there and sometimes it'd be raining or snowing and I'd be out hitting the thing. And at a certain point in time, it just wouldn't work anymore, hitting it with a hammer. The thing looked, that part of the car had gone through a hailstorm with all the divots and the starter. And so finally, what I had to do is get the car towed, which cost me more money, I had to get it towed to a garage. And the mechanic, he pops the hood and I tell him the starter's gone bad. And he looks at the starter and he's amazed, he's wondering what in the heck happened to the starter, does it look like it got beaten to death. And of course I said, well, I really don't know because I must have bought the car. But anyway, it really taught me something. I remember to this day there was really a spiritual insight and that's that when we get information via our intuition, it comes in gentle nudges. And sometimes we listen to that intuition, listen to those gentle nudges from spirit about what it is that we're supposed to do and what it is that we should do and when we should do it. And if we don't listen, the nudge gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And once it gets bigger and bigger and bigger, it becomes a spiritual two by four instead of just the gentle nudge. That's when we finally get whacked over the head. And to me, that happens to us many, many times in our life. When we don't listen to those gentle nudges, we end up having a big experience finally wake us up. And just like with the starter, it always ends up costing us more in the long run, like the tow truck and having to go to the mechanic than if I would have just taken it and fixed it right away. Yes. It's kind of the cosmic two by four, huh? That's right. The cosmic hammer. If you don't listen to the still small voice, which to me is so beautiful that when we're looking for guidance or even if we're not and guidance is coming, if we can quiet ourselves and listen to that intuitive voice and when how often when your example with your car or just in life, when we don't listen, there's a, we find out later there was a really good reason to listen. That's right. Yeah, the thing to me is that we tend to get the intuition all across the board, you know, we get the information is just we don't act on it. And I think when we act on it right away, then it just the nudges get bigger and bigger and bigger until something happens that gets our attention even stronger. Yes. For me, I think that's why meditation is so helpful because it is a time to listen, you know, we kind of get out of the traffic of our lives, so to speak. Pull over to a nice overlook, a scenic overlook. That's right. If I wanted the other repairers that came to me, again, I thought this was just something that was made up when I was younger was the car battery. Sometimes it gets corrosion on it and that corrosion looks like it's this white goop that gets stuck on your battery terminals. And I remember at the time you were taught that you get out of wire brush and you scrape and you scrape and you scrape and it takes a long time. And I had my brother-in-law out, like I said, he was my mechanic teacher. He came out one day and he saw what was going on with my battery and he said, you know, get me a can of coke. And I thought, okay, well, I'll get a mechanic coke because I figured he was thirsty, you know, and that this was part of my pay for him was to get mechanic coke. But what he does is he opens it up and then he pours the can of coke right on with the corrosion on top of the battery and it just all dissolves. All this stuff just dissolves. Then you just clean it up with a rag and it all goes away. And I was just stunned. And I was stunned because I was thinking, I drink coke. What am I putting in my body? If it does that to the battery, I said, what's it doing to me? And then as I reflect back on that, I think about, well, what are those thought forms and habit patterns that I'm holding on to in my mind that are just as corrosive as that corrosion that gets up on the battery? And what am I doing to wash that away? It's because I knew those thought forms and habit patterns that I've held on to and some of them, like all of us, have not been from my highest and best good. I was thinking, what am I putting in my body is one thing. But what I'm putting in my mind is just as important. In fact, to me, it's even more important, those thoughts that we hold that determines what our health is. Yes. So can of coke and a hammer were the first two tools I ever had to work on cars. I imagine you've evolved since then. Yes. Tools you use now. That's right. I actually use real tools. I have a toolbox. And those were the first two. Well, that's that's so true, though, what you're saying about being mindful of what we put in our body and our mind. So many times we use distractions either through food. I think or other substances or distractions in life to not focus in on where we're going, so to speak, you know, or where the path is leading us. Where the road, you know, that's exactly right. I mean, there is we could it could be food for one person. It could be drugs. It could be sex. It could be relationship. It could be, you know, many, many different things. In fact, I remember when I sold that car that I had by 74 grand prix. And it was really hard to sell it. I mean, I loved that car. I was really attached to remember your first car for me. That was huge. And I sold it to a guy that I worked with and I was working in a machine shop at the time when I was probably 17 or 18. And one day I come to work in my different car. And I see my old car had the whole front end bent in. Like there must have been some huge collision that happened. Because these cars in the 70s were made like tanks. So you really had to hit something hard to bend the front end of the car. And so I go into the guys, the car too. And I said, well, what happened? And he said, well, I don't really remember. Because he had a bit of a drinking problem. And then he had not really come to grips with. And, you know, he was an alcoholic. He knew it. He just hadn't come to grips with it. And that same day, the police show up at the machine shop we were working at. And they come up to him. And they know that he'd had an accident. Thank goodness he had just hit another car. It was a parked car. But I'm sitting in the other part of the shop wondering, wow, I wonder how it is they figured it out. Was there a witness? Did the VIN number fall off the car? Were they matching paint to the 74 grand prix? What was it that led them so quickly to finding that this is the guy who hit the car? And it turns out that his license plate fell off the car. The collision was so hard. Oh, boy. If that's not the smoking gun of car collision for the policemen to show up with your license plates, there's no arguing about that. You're just guilty. Right, right. I bet your heart fell for both him and the car, right, as your old friend. I must admit, I went out and I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. You have your priorities. I love the car, but I knew the car longer than I knew him. But that's just another one of those examples about if we don't spend enough time in self-reflection, and we have accidents, and that those accidents don't just affect us. They affect other people. And I think spending time, you talked about meditation, or spending time in reflection, spending time in prayer, spending time looking at how it is that we're showing up in life is just critical. And if we don't do that, we continue to have one accident after another, and we continue to wonder why the same things are happening over and over again. But if we look closely, we can clearly see that we're behind it all. So what are we thinking, what thought forms and happen patterns are we holding on to that are not for our highest and best good? Now I know with cars, something that's helped me tremendously be more adventurous is the GPA system. I wonder if you could speak to that with regard to the cars and with regard to the spiritual aspects of litter. Sure. Well, certainly. In fact, I personally, as a man, think GPS is the greatest invention since air conditioning. Because I no longer have to ask anybody for directions, not that I wanted to ever in the first place, but now I really don't have to. But as I think about all idea about directions, before the GPS came along as an example, if I'm driving from one state to another and I get lost and sometimes that happened, or temporarily disoriented, I don't think I ever called it lost, if I was temporarily disoriented, what I do is pull over to the side of the road and I would reach into my glove compartment and I would pull out a map. If I pull out that map and I start to read it and I start going from one place to another and I'm still lost, then I have to look closely at what map I pulled out. Because in my glove compartment, I have maps from 10 or 12 different states and maybe I pulled out the wrong map and no wonder I was going from the same place over and over again and continuing to stay lost. Now, of course, most of us say, well, that doesn't really happen how often if we ever pulled out the wrong map. Well, maybe we haven't pulled out the wrong physical map of Ohio or St. Louis or whatever. But what we have done is we've operated from a prior state of consciousness. So instead of the wrong state, we're using the wrong state of consciousness map. So even when in a new state, we're trying to go from, say, the state of lack and limitation in our life to the state of abundance. If just because we cross over an imaginary border, if we're still carrying around that state of consciousness of lack and limitation, then no matter where it is that we go, no matter where we relocate to, no matter what new relationship we get into, that we're going to run into the same situations over and over again. So to me, concentrating on our own state of consciousness is really picking out the state of consciousness map that I want my life to be led by. And for me, that's abundance and joy versus lack and limitation. But we're the ones that choose which map that we end up taking our guidance from. And like you said with GPS, a lot of times people don't even think about maps at all. We just go and turn on the GPS. Now I love the GPS. I'll turn it even if I'm going to the grocery store and I know exactly where I'm going. Just because I like it, it's very reassuring to tell you to go left or go right or if there's a traffic jam on the way to the grocery store, it'll reroute me. And what I really like about my newest GPS, it doesn't say recalculating, which to me is just interpretation of saying, hey, stupid, you know, it just automatically does it. It takes you a different way. But as I think about the GPS system, I ask myself this question. And in the book, I ask the same question, do we trust spirits? Do we trust God as much as we trust our GPS system? Is the GPS system tells us turn right, turn left, and we just do it? But when we get the intuition, when we get the divine guidance, do we put as much faith in spirit as we do in that technology? And that's something to think about. It sure is that I'm just opening to that chapter. And you have the quote, you know, setting our direction in life. And then Mario Andretti. Circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, but never lose sight of your goal. And I had a friend give a talk, actually, on GPS and global positioning systems. And she interjected God's power system or grace positioning system, which I really like too, for trusting that grace will lead us to, through the maps of our lives, if you will, and you're talking about, I love that, state of consciousness, imagery and analogy. Because sometimes we are going to make a wrong choice or a wrong turn, if you will, on the journey of life. But how wonderful it is to have the freedom to choose again and go down a different road. I agree. And when we look at the great roadmap of life, there are times when we're in the fast lane, when we're on the expressway and we're going 75 miles an hour and everything's going wonderful. And then there's other times when the road gets closed and we have to go off onto a side road and things are much slower. And we're concerned that we're not getting there fast enough. Well, to me, an important thing to know is that life isn't about how fast we get to the end. It's about how much we're enjoying the journey. So on those side roads of life is where we can really find just the most wonderful experiences. Just like on driving, when you get off the highway and you go through the small town America, you get to see so much more and you get to meet people. And when we're just on the super highway and we're running through life as fast as we can, we're really missing out. So those opportunities which may show up as detours or road closed signs are really opportunities for us to learn more about ourselves and to really slow down and experience life in a different way that we haven't given the opportunity to in the past. Yes. I'm thinking when you spoke about driving cross country, how wonderful that is. I've done that several times and just what a wonderful journey to just enjoy each town and the flavor and the lessons that everyone has and the gifts that everyone has to offer each other. You know, if we slow down enough to see that. And I know that our studios are coming from New York, which is not a town that slows down too much. But I want to tell you, it's very usually very efficient with getting around, you know, traveling. But even in that, there's so much to see and so much to absorb that I think in New York especially, it's really key to take a moment to breathe and to just see all the beauty that is in that city. You know, be it the architecture or the parks or the museum or the diversity of the people and it's just fascinating. But we won't see it if we don't slow down just a little bit. Sure. And I think one of those things that happened, of course, you know, tomorrow being the 10th anniversary of September 11th, is that right after that happened, I'm sure in New York, I was there about a year later and it still seemed to be happening, is that people would start looking each other in the eye. People would stop on the street with total strangers and have conversations and be able to really open up and we could sense the family of the whole human race that we are in those moments because we had the shared experience of this tragedy. But what we got out of that, I think, initially was that connection to each other that is always available to us. But we had not access because we were in such a hurry with our own lives doing our own thing and that that event caused everyone to stop, to reassess and to be able to come closer to each other. Yes. You feel that spirit. I'm not there at the moment, but I will be back shortly and you feel that. I grew up in New York and I've felt the various waves and in the last 10 years, it's so much more cohesive and friendly and the love, you know, the exchange with people, even though the pace of life is quicker than in other parts of the country. There's a real helpfulness and a real neighborliness, you know, and I think that 9-11, as you were saying, it did bring all peoples together in the realization, you know, that we really are interconnected and what is really important is to stop and look people in the eye or have some kind of heart-awareness, heart exchange. And I need, I have to take this juncture for heart exchange to thank our sponsors for their generosity in our being here today. So if you'll excuse me for a minute, Bill. Sure. I'd like to thank our sponsors. MtGox.com, M-T-G-O-X.com is the largest Bitcoin exchange. Right now they're accepting over 20 currencies and we know that Bitcoin is a very exciting concept of electronic currency and we'd like to invite you all to tune to our Bitcoin show every day at 2 p.m. with Bruce Wagner. And Meze Grill, M-E-Z-E-G-R-I-L-L.com, which has wonderful Mediterranean food. I have eaten there many times. It's just south of Columbus Circle. I believe it's on 55th Street and the food is scrumptious and healthy like you were talking about earlier, Bill. It's all tabooly, hummus, just delicious fare and you leave feeling very nurtured. And Car-V-M.com, that's C-A-R-P-E-V-I-E-M.com. It's a video marketing company and we know that the internet and the web is the way to go and they will help you. They're very creative and they'll help you get your message out for the most impactful marketing on the web today. So thank you all for extending your heart in supporting our cause here at We Are Only One. So, back to us, Bill. Well, that food sounded wonderful. I'm making me hungry. You know, I just wanted to, because Anilevite is so important and this is an important weekend, and I know with Unity we just had a World Day of Prayer on Thursday, focusing in on, we all shine, together we shine, and we are the way that Spirit illumines the world. If you could talk a little bit more about 9-11 and musings and how that's affected people's lives and give us some more tips on the road. I think when that happened on 9-11, I was really reminded of, I lived in London for a couple of years or over a couple of years and there was still the occasional IRA terrorist bombing that would happen in London. And I remember the first time that happened when I lived there and I was wondering, I never had that kind of experience. What are people going to do? I take the tube to work every day and that was getting threatened and other things would happen. And I looked around me at all the Brits and the people that lived there and they were like, you know, life goes on. We are not to be stopped by these events. And I really looked around and I said, these are people that really are not going to let their life be changed because of this one or two events. And so of course we had the times, you know, 100, what happened at 9-11, but the principle was the same. And that to see people go about their work, to go about their lives and not to let this dictate how they were going to experience their life, I think took tremendous courage and I think that it's everyone. We talk about the obvious heroes, the Port Authority, the policemen, the farm and all of those people, huge heroes. But I think every person who operated helping in the cleanup, every person who went back to work within the next couple of days, every person and one of my congregants was talking about she was on the first plane out of O'Hare Airport after this had happened. And the courage that that took. I mean they're all heroes as far as I'm concerned. Yes, yes, everybody, really. I'd like to read a passage from Black Elk who was a Sue spiritual leader. And I have found this to be very comforting and I'd like to send it out to everybody about this weekend. And it says, the first piece, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers. And when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wonkin Tonka, the Great Spirit, and that this center is everywhere and it is within each of us. This is the real peace and others are but reflections of this. The second piece is that which is made by two individuals and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all, you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is known that true peace, which, as I have often said, is within the souls of people. And that was in the 18th century, you know, and I think your rules of the road, you know, weaving in the practical with the spiritual and how we can live a more peaceful life is very helpful. And I want to tell people that they can find it on the website, unityinmarin.org. And I'm going to spell that, U-N-I-T-Y-I-N-M-A-R-I-N.org if they want to order a copy of this wonderful book. And I just, I know when we were speaking the other day, you shared a quote which I thought was quite awesome, too, about anger. Would you share that? Yeah, I spent, I used to do martial arts, I was a martial arts instructor back in Chicago for a number of years. And so there's a samurai maxim that I often reflect on, and that says that the angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life. And if we go around angry at everyone else, angry at everything, being unforgiving of everyone else, either of those emotions. If we focus just on those emotions, and you've probably heard this before, but it's like us taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. Yes. We are wearing down and wearing out the mechanism that we have by focusing on those things. And you know, every 9-11 is horrible as it was. I think every generation has some huge crisis or situation that comes up where they have to reevaluate their own lives. In my parents' generation, it was December 7th, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was bombed and my dad went into the Navy right after that. And we had to decide how we were going to respond. Of course, when JFK got assassinated or Martin Luther King was assassinated, we can go back through history and there's the thousands of different events that just shook the population. So even back to the Roman Empire when they were overthrown. And so these things in life, they happen. We can either choose to respond or react. And I think, unfortunately, what happens, even with kids on the schoolyard, is you get pushed and you just push somebody back. That's more of a reaction instead of a response. And to me, a response is really about two seconds. And that's where we engage our thinking faculty and decide how it is that we are going to show up. And I think if we all spend more time responding instead of just reacting, we would be able to show up differently. I think of all the compassion that came our way in the United States when September 11th happened. I mean, there were Muslims that were killed. There were people of the Jewish faith, Christians, and people that had no spiritual background. But all across the board, I think there was even a Muslim prayer room in one of the towers. That this wasn't about religion as much as it was about people acting out in hate. And it's been my experience that fighting and fighting and fighting results in more fighting. And that if we could come to a place of loving instead of going right to the fighting, I think we have an opportunity to really change the world. And that doesn't mean we don't defend ourselves. It just means, how are we going to go about it? And what's our true motivation? Is it coming from a place of love or is it coming from a place of fear? And I think that is a key question in our personal relationships, in our relationships at work, at jobs, within our own political system, etc. Are we coming from a place of love or are we coming from a place of fear? And I think if we spent a little bit more time coming from a place of love, which was so clear after 9-11 in New York City and then all over the United States of the love that we had for each other, the love that came out, the compassion that came our way from all over the world, I think that was incredibly, incredibly powerful. I agree and I'm feeling the love right now. And I would like to personally send it out to everyone watching and to everyone who isn't watching, especially this weekend, because I know as you've met in different states of consciousness, we need to hold the high watch because there are some states of consciousness that are fear-based at the moment. And it's important for us to be mindful in holding the high watch of the love. And I wonder if you mind closing us out with a little prayer and I'll hold your hand via Skype, and we can send out some good vibrations throughout the waves of the web and the air. Let's do that here and right now and just invite us all to join in our hearts and our minds and our spirit, knowing that we are all one. And we are so grateful to have each other to hold our hands as we face challenges, as we grieve loss, as we celebrate life. For life may unfold in ways we do not expect, but the good news is that we get to shape it. And so we give thanks to spirit. We give thanks to each other. We give thanks for this time and for this message, for this opportunity to come together. We say this in the name and through the power of the living, loving spirit within each one of us. And so it is. Amen. Thank you, Bill. It's been an honor to have you on the show and the show's title is We Are Only One. And we're right in there on the message. And so just send lots of love out to all our viewers and have a blessed week. You do. Blessings to you and thanks for having me on this show, Jude. It was really my honor and my blessing, Bill. Thank you for the book. You're welcome. Enjoy. Yes, I'm putting it in the glove compartment. That's where it belongs. Bye-bye. Bye.