 Okay. Hello, everybody. Nice to see you all. Welcome to our Tabula Rasa online retreat weekend. And I'm Peter. I'm going to be the host this weekend. And yeah, we've got this wonderful theme this month, my spirit given function, which feels very inspiring. And I can let you all know a little bit about the weekend if you're new. So we're going to have a session with David and Francis this morning. And then later today, it will be another session with Linda and myself. Then we've got a movie workshop tomorrow coming up, which is going to be very, very good. And then we have our Sunday closing session with David and Francis again. So to start with, I'm going to pass it over to David and Francis. We have Francis in Mexico and David in Cincinnati. Pass it over to you now. Thank you, Pete. Hi, everyone. Hi, Francis. Hi, everyone. What a beautiful topic for this online retreat weekend. I think that's kind of a springboard topic to really expand your consciousness to take the lid off of your consciousness and just let it fly and open and soar with the Holy Spirit help. So we're, we're excited to be with you. And it's interesting. I was looking down at the participant list of countries. And it's funny. It's alphabetical. Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States. It's just, wow, this is really a global joining we're having here today on Zoom, all for the purpose of remembering our true source, remembering the spirit. So I'm just excited, Francis. And we've got a whole weekend to enjoy. Yeah, yeah, it's wonderful because I think this is like a new word for for me, at least, since I got on to follow across the miracles and Jesus and and really devote my life to this, this awakening journey, while this function word just keeps showing up keeps showing up. But yeah, I just, you know, today, when we when we devote this whole weekend to talk about my spirit given function for me, I feel like I, I connect the word function with joy. You know, it's like such a beautiful and a happy and opening journey to discover what joy is and what God is, and what amazing function we have to remember God again. Yeah. Yeah, I think in, you know, I know in my work with the course for like 36 years, you know, I started reading it as a book and using it as an oracle, but at some point in your journey with the course and miracles, and in some point in your spiritual journey, you start to realize it's more about undoing than doing. It's more about emptying the mind of everything you think you think, think you know, everything you believe is true. It's like all the mystics and saints of all the centuries have told us empty your mind, and you will know the truth. It's very simple. And so I think for what we have this topic of my spirit given function, we could first say that that in order to know the function that God gave you that God gave you in eternity, then you will have to unlearn a lot. And the word function in terms of time and space has tens of thousands of meanings. What imagine if you just applied it to objects? What is the function of a cup? What is the function of of a mouse? What is the function of a smartphone? You see, function gets applied to all kinds of objects, and then function gets applied to people. Who's that? Oh, that's my mom. My or that's my dad. That's my son. That's my daughter. It and then the function gets applied to your career, to your vocation. And then the function gets to what you seem to be doing in any given moment. So function in this world is so associated with form and so associated with the body. And I can tell you that that's what has to be forgotten. We have to unlearn all that in order to know the truth. Because this world was made as a veil to keep us from knowing the truth. In Francis and I during this week, Francis, we found the same idea jumped out at us from from the text of A Course in Miracles. And I think that's a good starting point for us because because what we both were reading, we both our eyes are like, wow, the what we were reading about function and God and function as it relates to heaven and eternity and also at the time that that stand out for me. Yeah. Jesus actually, you know, the thing is, over these many years of reading the Course, I never really read the word creation as much as this week, when I was asking the Spirit to guide me to what you know, but basically holding this question in mind to ask him, what is my function God? What is my function spirit? Why don't you show me? And this creation word came up so much everywhere I read is unbelievable. Then David called me one day and he said, our function is creation is creating with God. That is our true function. Talking about that, you know, that blows all the body identity. What is this body supposed to do for your spirit on earth? No, that is even the spirits to us is saying, this is what the function is. It's so abstract. It's completely about the mind. Maybe that's a good starting point. Yeah, I mean, I, I love the metaphysics of a Course in Miracles, but I have to say over these last 36 years, the biggest distortion I find in the teachings of a Course in Miracles is around creation, because Jesus teaches us that God creates, and God creates in spirit, and creation is eternal. So creation is what what is ever extending in eternity in heaven. So that was a great starting point. God created you to create. In other words, that God gave you the function of creating. If God's a creator, and God's extending a function, and that function is creation, then that function is purely spiritual. It has nothing to do with form. It has nothing to do with time and space. And we're even told in the Course that he says, as the Christ, you have creations too. God creates Christ, and then Christ has creations. All of those are purely spiritual. And, and that's when we're really in our function, we're creating our spiritual beings of love and light. And that has nothing at all to do with form. And then we also found a passage where Francis was saying that that your function in, in eternity, in heaven is creation. And in time, it is healing. So maybe we could shift from the purely abstract of love and light, which is just our natural creation to create like God in purely spiritual ways. Now to bring it down to your function is healing in time. In relation to time, that is how creation translates. If we're going to look at it in terms of time, our purpose is only healing. So that gives us a good clue about our function in terms of time and space. And healing is, is, you know, when we talk about the word healing, it, it feels like we have this association around healing, which is remove body symptoms or heal sickness. And that is, again, is not what Jesus is talking about for us as our function on earth in terms of healing. You know, we really have to allow all these past associations to be undone so that we can come with an open mind to be told what healing is, and allowing healing to, to be done through. Ultimately, healing is, is of God, and is, is communication with God. But even that is completely done in mind, is off the mind is for mind is so that's also what we, you know, keep wanting to focus on is, is what is true healing? What is our true function here? It is not what we were learned when we were taught, you know, as identity here on earth, we are healers to, to help. That is a result of being in miracles, being in communication with God. And that's why our topic this weekend is my spirit given function. And that is very important, the spirit given function is not my self made function. And I know that to know what healing is, to know what my function is, is a constant prayer. I can never expect that God tells me what my function is. Okay, thank you very much. I think I understand here where I go, on the next 30 years, I think I'm sad if I just do this. But really, it is a constant prayer, because it is a constant communication with God. And this, this function that we are having is, is done with the spirit together. It's not of ourself, it's not by ourselves. It cannot be understood. So yeah. That's so beautiful. It really gives us a whole context because, because I remember when I used to I was raised Christian, so I was curious about some of these terms. And in the Bible, and one of the terms that I was kind of interested in, was the word sin. What does sin mean? And then finally, I was told, well, in the original era mayach, that Jesus spoken sin meant missing the mark. And I was like, fantastic. So missing the mark is a mistake. It's not like a black mark on my soul that I'm going to burn in hell for. It's, it's missing the mark. Ah, well, that means that can be corrected. Even an archer, you know, who keeps practicing their archery to get in the Olympics, they may miss the mark, they may miss the bullseye many times. But if they practice a lot, they start hitting the bullseye. They start hitting the mark through a lot of practice. And an archer would tell you for an Olympic to try to win a gold medal, you really have to become good at hitting the mark consistently. And Jesus is telling us the same spiritually. He said, Well, when you feel bad, you're just making a mistake in your mind. It's nothing really wrong, not in heaven. God hasn't changed God's mind about you. You're still perfect and you're loved and you're healed and whole in God's mind in the kingdom of heaven, you're whole and perfect. But while you keep missing the mark, while you keep mistakenly choosing the ego as your identity, then you feel guilty, you feel afraid, you feel hurt. So this is really a course in healing. And it's, it's how to hit the mark instead of miss the mark. The other thing that comes to me too is that when we say healing, like Francis said, most of the associations of this world are, are about healing the body. That's why we have physicians and nurses. That's why we have hospitals and emergency rooms. That's why we have medical science. But what Jesus is saying in one sentence, he completely wipes out all of medical science and all attempts to associate healing with the body. And here's the one sentence from a course of miracles that wipes it all out, wipes out history of medicine. He says, the mind was sick, that thought the body could be sick. I'll say that again, the mind was sick, that thought the body could be sick. So what he's really teaching us is if you believe in the ego, that's what a sick mind is. Because if you believe in the ego, that means you have a split mind. Part of your mind is still listening to the Holy Spirit, because it could never break that connection with God. That connection with God can never be broken. So that Holy Spirit is like the eternal flame. It will never go out. You can't put it out. You may try. The ego may try to do all kinds of things. But it never, it never attacks. It's always gentle. It's always comforting, loving, kind. And that's the Holy Spirit. But the belief in the ego generates a split mind. And this mind is split about identity. The Holy Spirit says you're the Holy Christ. And the ego says, no, you're not. You're a sinner. You're, you're dark. If anybody ever saw how dark you were, they wouldn't want to be around you. That's what the ego is telling us. So we have two voices. Now, the whole purpose of A Course in Miracles is to accept the correction, which is the atonement, and to accept your right mind fully, and then spring back into remembrance of heaven and God. But the ego projects the split mind onto the world and onto the body. And then it tries to convince us that bodies can be sick, and cities can be sick, and countries can be sick at war, like with Ukraine and Russia, you know, that's an example of projecting the split onto the form, as if the problem's in the form. And the ego is quite expert at doing that. It's, it's, it's mass hypnosis is what it is. But what, what Jesus is teaching us is no, no, only the mind can be sick. And that's only if you believe in the ego. And that's what generates the split mind. So let's take another word like vocation. Some people associate their function with their vocation. I'm a teacher, or I'm a construction worker, or I'm a mother or a father, or I am a scientist. That's taking your, your true vocation, which is healing in mind, and it's projecting it to form and giving you a form occupation. And that's what's taken for, for function in this world. You know, when you, if you go to a bar, and you have a couple drinks, and you're attracted to somebody, and you say, where are you from? And they give you a time space answer. I was born in India, such as such a time, whatever. Or if the next question is usually, what do you do for a living? Okay, those are the top two questions. Where are you from? And what do you do for a living? That's how people meet. Is it like the starting questions to get to know each other? But what you do for a living is, is associated with a function. What is your function in this world to earn money, so that your body can survive? You see? And Jesus is is telling us, no, our function is what God gave us in heaven, it's really to create like God creates. And in time, it's just to accept the correction for the error of the ego. So all we're here to do is one simple thing. And in the end, it may not seem simple to you. But I would say in the end, it's the simplest thing we could ever do is is remember the answer. It's like if you were taking a quiz, and you were trying to think of what the answer was, and then ding, suddenly you remembered the answer. Jesus is saying that's how it is with your identity, you think you're a human and then ding one day. Oh my gosh, I'm spirit. I was created by God, I'm actually eternal spirit. So that's that kind of sets us up for the for this whole weekend, what we're looking at here. First, we have to remember that our that our function in relationship to time is healing. And healing is always in the mind. It never has anything to do with the body because the body is just a reflection, it's a mirror. But the body is not a cause. Body is not a cause.