 We have a question around family and we have a question from Japan. Me, Settle. And me's question is, thank you for always guiding me. I have a question, it is about the difference between people-pleasing and kindness. I think that people-pleasing has a lot of fear in it. But when it comes to kindness, I'm not sure if what I want to do is kind or not. For example, after talking with someone who was going through a difficult time, and I felt as if he was a reflection of my mind, I suddenly felt like doing something for him and wanted to make lunch for him. Also, when I see someone working in the midst of feelings of dissatisfaction, I want to help them with their work. Does this mean that I'm just looking at my poor self because I can't see them as spirit in a safe place yet? What can you tell me about kindness? That's a really good one. We love these kind of deep questions. Yes, yeah. It's so beautiful that you're asking this too because having an awareness of, we'll say, the Japanese culture and Francis and I have visited there in Tokyo and done digital gatherings and so forth, I feel a sense of honoring, a deep honoring, a very deep honoring that's actually even part of the Japanese culture. I have friends sometimes, a friend, Nicholas, up there in Canvas one time when Kirsten and I were doing an interactive online retreat and he was having a lot of resistance coming up before the online retreat but seeing these amazing, honoring, gentle, meek, kind Japanese women, he just cried. He just couldn't believe that there was such kindness and gentleness and honoring and presence. He said to me after the retreat was over, he said, well, I broke through my resistance. I'm back. I'm back now with Jesus just from the interactions with these women and their kindness and sincerity. It was so strong. So let's take a look at this more deeply because I know a lot of people are saying kindness seems extremely important and yet kindness has to come from a state of mind of true alcoholic gentleness or meekness. That's what Jesus even said 2,000 years ago, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. It's got to be pretty important if he says meekness is associated with inheriting the earth. And he says in the course, he explains himself, he says they will literally overcome the earth with the strength of their perception. Wow. That's an amazing interpretation of meekness. But meekness must come from true gentleness, which must come from true empathy. So I must be so aligned with the spirit in what is real and true to be truly gentle, to be truly meek and to be truly kind. So this is where you start to realize that you can't really act kind. You have to feel the kindness. You have to have the kindness state of mind in order to be strong to overcome the world, as Jesus says, the meek shall overcome the world. Another thing and aspect of it is to be truly gentle, you have to be defenseless. If the mind is identified with the body, it can't be kind. If the mind is identified with personhood, with family constructs, with societal constructs, it can't actually be truly consistently kind. It may be have glimmers of kindness, but it won't be able to be consistently kind in all circumstances because of an identification with a self-concept that God did not create. As soon as you start to believe in ego things, like then expectations come in and you may go visit a friend and they may talk to you and say things and you may keep a kind smile on your face and you may keep a sweet look. And yet, if they say something or do something that the ego, the mind takes offense to, it identifies itself in a personal way and suddenly it just takes something personal. The ego will say keep smiling, but it's not going to feel good. You're thinking kind, stay kind, stay kind and you know how it is in Japan. That's part of the self-concept of being a woman. You're supposed to be kind. But as soon as you take something personally, even a little bit personally, then the mask tries to stay there as a kind look, a kind appearance, but inside it, ooh, that hurts. Because the mind has taken something personally and when it does, the kindness of the spirit is out of awareness. The spirit never takes anything personally because spirit isn't personal. So it's a really good question and you have to remember in my defenselessness my safety lies. Now, even with the Course in Miracles students and teachers, this has been a very big lesson. I know there was one course teacher who always was talking about kindness. Be kind, be kind, be kind. And yet when it came to the copyright controversy, the teacher seemed to take a side. Whoa, when you take a side in this world, the kindness is just a word. The kindness is gone as soon as you identify with one brother over another or one side of a illusory issue with another. Kindness is gone because as soon as judgment enters, gentleness is gone, tolerance is gone, and kindness is gone. And remember I said yesterday, truthfulness, honesty is consistency. So that's another aspect of this. In order to truly be kind without any people-pleasing involved, you have to say what you mean. You have to mean what you say. You have to have a consistently peaceful state of mind and then just let the actions, if they are to come, come involuntarily from Jesus so that it's not a person acting. It's just the words, if there's words, they'll come or if there's a smile, it will come or a laughter, it will come. But it all comes from thoughts. It's not about trying to act kind. And I think that's part of the struggle and the human condition is even with core students, they say, I should be kind. Should be kind? What does that even mean? I should act kind. Well, don't worry so much about your actions. Watch your mind, watch your thoughts. That's what we're always working on. I just remembered when I read the Tao Te Ching, there was one sentence that says when people lose the Tao, they try to act normal. So when I first read it, I was like, wow, when people try to do good, it's because they already lost the Tao. When we're trying to do good, even though that looks so good in this world, that's maybe the best, the highest standard, but inevitably we already lost the spirit. So the spirit is the only good. The spirit knows all situations, how to be truly loving. And another example, when you were talking about taking sides, I was thinking, you know, when Bill Setford, again, when he went to a course group and two students were arguing about what a course sentence means. And then someone asked him, what do you say, Bill? And he said, just rip the page of the book. And that kind of action is a demonstration of an attitude, is a demonstration of the spirit. It is coming from an attitude to be in alignment consistently with the miracle and with the truth. Then that comes through, that becomes such a gentleness that's really out, really it out. Good old Bill, that was a good example. It's better to rip the page out from the book than to argue with your brother. That's what he said at the time. And that is such an example of go into the kindness in your mind, go into your right mind and be defenseless. And that's accepting, be accepting. I think two, two thousand years ago, Jesus had a teaching where he said, if someone smite you on one cheek, turn the other cheek. And that, even for Gandhi and Yogananda, they were kind of like, whoa, that's a strong teaching. If somebody smite you on one cheek, turn the other cheek. But Jesus, I don't think was talking so much about the behavior, like a literal thing, is he was saying, come back to your right mind. If you perceive an insult, if you perceive something that is offensive, if you perceive an attack, turn back to the love of the spirit in your mind. Come back, turn to your right mind. And in that sense, you don't get into a defense. If you do this to me, it gets you back. If someone does something wrong, they need to be punished. If someone does something wrong, they need to face the consequences. What Jesus is saying, no, the meek shall overcome the world with their strength. By turning the other cheek, he's just saying, calmly remember what you're here for. You're here for the miracle. You're here to be the light of the world. You're here always for only one reason. It's to shine the light of heaven and to shine it for everyone and everything. And therefore, if we perceive an offense or an attack, he's saying, that's just a misperception. Come back to me. Come back to your right mind. And I think, to me, that really relates to your question. That's how you're kind. If you're a miracle worker, you will naturally radiate kindness. And it will come out with clarity. Kindness and ignorance don't go together, but kindness and clarity do. So a clear mind that's free and open and the light shined through will naturally be kind without trying to please any person or place or thing. It's just a beatitude. It's like the beatitudes. Kindness is like one of the beatitudes. It's peaceful. Thank you. That's a very subtle Christian. It's very beautiful. Thank you.