Hello friends, Osiris here and the 7th star Meganium Terrarid event is now back for its second time out and Pokemon Scholar and Violet, we're going to cover all of the details as well as the best Pokemon to solo this with in your game. So a little bit late to the party on this one, wasn't able to do an upload last week because I was at the European International Championships but the Meganium is back in Pokemon Scholar and Violet for its second time out, we can take a look at all of the details. It is running from April the 12th until the 14th so over this weekend so you've got a few days to take advantage of this one, it will be level 100, it will have its hidden ability leaf guard and the moves it will have access to are going to be seed bomb, zen headbutt, body press, curse, with the additional moves of reflect, light screen and bulldoze, my deus mark it can never be shiny and it will have the psychic terra typing, it will have the nature of impish boosting its defense stat and can only be catchable once per save file, it will have the item drops of a normal seven-star terror raid, lots of large and XL candies, psychic terra shots, TM and an ability patch alongside a lot of other high-cost items but the big important thing is the herbomistica drops that will be returning with this seven-star raid so every time you do beat the Meganium you're gonna have a 3% chance of at least one of these dropping and you can get multiples of them as well so it's a really good event to take part in to form for these herbomistica over this weekend. Alongside the Meganium as well we're gonna see the blessy spotlight terror raids returning in game, these will be five-star terror raids and they will offer up a lot of terror shots as well as a lot of rare and large and XL candies, these will be level 75 of course with the moves heal pulse last resort softball and seismic toss and the terra type will be random, there is no catch limit on these either and they have the standard raid 4 being shiny again you're gonna see a lot of different blessies appearing on your map so a decent event to also take part in alongside the Meganiums to just form for items if you need them in your game but like I say it will be run until the 14th of April and on the 14th when it does end in midnight we may get the next seven-star terror raid event announced so to access the seven-star terror raid event in your game you're gonna need to come to your menu in poker portal and then come down to mystery gift and then check poker portal news if you click on this it will connect you to the internet and update all your terror raid dens on your map to then be able to go and locate the seven-star terror raid den for Meganium while it's running. Now the builds that we're gonna feature in today's video are gonna start off with the most consistent build I feel that we've got for this raid over the weekend and it is gonna be Skeletor's all available in the base game soon and don't need the DLCs to actually get this Pokemon one of the starter Pokemon if you chose it you'll start that is a bit of a bonus level a hundred hyper trained make sure that you max out those IVs and the terror type for the Skeletor's is gonna be ghost with the held item of the shell bell all of the builds that we feature in today's video of course like always will be featured in the description below if you want to take a look at those after the video now the moveset that we've got in the Skeletor's is gonna be protect slack off shadow ball and torch song with the most important thing on this Skeletor's being it's hidden ability unaware so you're gonna have to use an ability patch to get that on the Skeletor's and of course if you do want the slack off as well it is an egg move so find something in your boxes with slack off delete a move on the Skeletor's and make it hold a mirror herb item then set up a picnic with the Skeletor's and the Pokemon with access to slack off and it'll be transferred onto this Pokemon protect is a TM as well but torch song is it's signature attack and move the eevee spread that we've got on the Skeletor's is gonna be 252 eevees in special attack and 252 eevees in special offense and we're getting to the raid in a moment to show you exactly what you need to do in this raid to beat the Meganium very consistently especially if you are looking to form those hermimistica over the weekend the other build that we're featuring in today's video is going to be for a Nileb for a few reasons it's in the base games and a lot of you probably already have a Nileb built in your games already there's level 100 make sure you do hyper train it and the terra typing on this Nileb is going to be ghost again with a shell bell held item just make sure that you maximize all those IVs and hyper train them if any of them on 31 already the moveset that we've got for the Nileb is going to be focus energy bulk up taunt and rage fist and then the ability is going to be defiant that's going to mean if we do take any stat drops throughout the raid that we're likely to do against the Meganium then we get an attack boost for our troubles the ev spread on this Nileb is going to be 252 evs in hp 252 evs in defense and the remaining evs those four in attack with an adamant nature again this build will be featured down in the description below and like i said these are the two builds that i recommend the Skeletage is the most consistent out of the two the Nilebs a little bit faster but it is more dependent on rng but we'll jump into the raid now i'll show you how quick it can be with these pokemon to beat the Meganium when the raid begins against the Meganium the turn zero it is going to set up a light screen and reflect this is before we're able to click in or choose any options now the light screen and reflect are going to give a 1.5 times boost to its defenses so physical and special until these screens disappear so five turns is how long they last so just to be aware your attacking options aren't going to be doing as much damage until the screens go away so when we're doing this initial setup if you're wondering why there isn't much attack power going off onto the Meganium this is the reason why first turn you're going to see us lock in for that torch song now we're just basically chasing our terrestrialization at this stage so just locking in with the torch song that's going to boost our special attack as well by one stage every time we do it we'll see the Meganium go for a mixture of curse zen headbutt and also seed bomb into the Skeletage at this stage but don't worry about any of the boosts that the Meganium's getting access to the curse will boost its attack and defense by one stage every time it uses it but because of our unaware ability we ignore any boosts that the Meganium is getting access to here we go we are going to go for that terrestrialization turn four and lock in with a shadow ball this is pretty much predominantly going to be the main move that we'll be using to damage Meganium but at this early stage of the match there is a few things you are going to need to do to make sure that you get to the end point where you can then just spam the shadow ball until the end of the raid now shadow ball like i said the light screen is still in effect so not going to be doing as much damage here as you maybe would expect on plus three but it's doing the damage that we need at this stage this will probably activate the shield on the Meganium and then at the same time it will probably nullify our stat boost on our side of the field so getting rid of that plus three special attack that we've got access to and here you go there is the shield activating and also on top of this we will see it nullify the stat changes and abilities on our side of the field now that key turn i was talking about earlier is right now when it does nullify your stats and your abilities this is a turn where we need to protect this is the only turn where unaware is not in effect and those boosts that the Meganium has got access to will hit for a lot more damage so to avoid being knocked out at this stage we go for the protect now our ability is back intact now we will have lost all of those boosts that we've got through the torch song but this is where we go for another six torch songs here this is going to boost our special attack to plus six after the sixth one and it's going to mean that our shadow balls are doing a lot more damage like i say and unaware ability is now back intact after that turn the Meganium is not going to do that again throughout the battle so we're pretty safe here just going for six torch songs get a special attack boosted up to plus six so we can do as much damage as possible and make the raid as quick as possible now if you do get lower health at any stage throughout this setup where you're going for six torch songs just use your slack off to get that health back because you're going to want to try and keep yourself in as healthy a place as possible sometimes if you have something like a God of War next to you with heal pulse and then it will be restoring your health that's going to be nice you're not always going to be able to guarantee that and if you've got something like our Bolivia as well with the grassy terrain that will also help you out although we'll be boosting the power of seed bomb as well so a little bit counteractive but it will be recovering health as you go so now if you look special attack is plus six now we can just lock in with those shadow balls and we'll be able to recover a lot of health going through this raid now the light screen is faded at this stage so we don't have to worry about that and you can see we're chunking away at this Meganium quite nicely we're going to cover a nice chunk of health here so we're not in any danger of getting knocked out at this stage and Meganium will nullify the stat drops on its side of the field but because we're not lowering any stats on its side of the field we don't need to worry about that turn at all we can just lock in from here on out with the shadow balls two more will break the shield and then I would say another four will probably get rid of it and there we go friends one last shadow ball and it is as easy as that the raid timer is pretty healthy still we've got plenty of time to knock this out for the Skeletorge able to beat this Meganium pretty consistently and a very nice option for you to go into this raid over the weekend if you are planning to do this one so I hope you have fun with this build but like I say if you want a faster one I would definitely recommend the annihilator and there we get a salty herbomistica for our troubles so the other build that we're featuring in today's video is going to be for the annihilator so we'll show you exactly what you need to do to beat this pretty easily in your game it is going to be a lot faster than the Skeletorge but it is a lot more reliant on RNG and can go wrong sometimes so as I say not the most consistent build but when it works it works great turn zero again you're going to see the Meganium set up it's reflecting the light screen giving it a 1.5 boost to its defences for the next five turns but turn one we're going to lock in with a taunt that's going to prevent the Meganium for setting up a curse that's pretty important in these early stages of the raid especially with the annihilator build that we've got going forward so we'll get the taunt off that's going to prevent it from going for the curse like you can see stopping it there turn two we're going to lock in with a bulk up that's going to give us a boost to our attack and a defense by one stage meaning that we can take these attacks from the Meganium a lot better and we can also do a lot more damage now if you do get lucky here you're going to avoid the zen headbutt but if you do take it that's not the worst thing in the world you're not going to take too much damage from it anyway and it does boost the power of your rage fist turn three we're going to lock in with a focused energy that's going to boost our critical hit chances throughout the rest of the raid and you can really see if the Meganium does get affected by a burn here then it really is going to limit its ability to go for any big damage now turn four we're going to go for another taunt because the taunt wears off after three turns this is just to mitigate the fact and stop it from setting up another curse in this raid before the shield goes up so we're at a good stage now where we can start launching our rage fists off we'll go for this if we get a critical hit that puts us in a great position going forward but it's not always guaranteed this is where the rng factor comes into the raid so you can see here we're not quite at the point where the Meganium is going to set up a shield yet but we are getting pretty close to it now if we did get a critical hit there it would set up the shield but we are going to be in a position where we are going to get another rage fist off before that shield is set up from the Meganium and when the shield is generally set up as well from the Meganium it's going to nullify these stat boosts on our side of the field as well as our abilities for one turn so another zen head but coming out here you've got to remember with rage fist every time we do take an attack its base power will increase by 50 base points so doing a lot more damage now is the turn where we're going to see the Meganium set up its shield and there we go nullifying the stat changes on our side of the field so the first thing we're going to do after that is set up another bulk up now the problem is the shield's gone up the Meganium going to be able to go for those curses so that's something that we want to keep an eye out for going forward in the match and it is exactly going to do that so unfortunately we are not able to stop or launch a taunt off at this stage with the shield up because it will be blocked and it will fail but we can go for one to two bulk ups at this stage but we are going to want to try and chase down our tracelization as soon as possible so we can get rid of that psychic weakness that we've now got access to we'll see the another curse coming out from the Meganium here sometimes it will go for a zen head but but it does depend on the RNG of the Meganium throughout this raid boosting its attack and its defense by one stage now we've got one more rage fist to hit now if you get a critical hit this is going to really help us get through the shield if you don't get lucky though you're going to be doing damage just like that and you're going to have to rely on the tracelization to kind of help power you through this next stage it's sometimes good to show you some bad RNG we've had good RNG in this raid but for the majority of it we've not had the best RNG now we are at the point where we can tracelize we're not going to be hit for super effective damage from those zen headbutts anymore so we can lock in with that and hope that we do hit those critical hits because we still got the boost from that focus energy earlier on in the raid and if we do hit the critical hits throughout the rest of the raid we're going to make it very very quick but like i've already mentioned it's very RNG depending on how quick you get through the raid another pretty good option overall but just not as consistent as the Skeletorge and you can see here not getting those critical hits is just not getting the damage that you need and you're really relying to break the shield to get those critical hits through the raid now you can go for subsequent bulkups here because the Meganium Oni gets rid of your stat boosts once throughout the raid but you kind of want to just try and plow through it as quick as possible so locking in with the rage fist is probably the better option here than sitting for six turns setting up bulkups you are going to be able to take attacks a lot better but you know the chances of you getting critical hit are probably higher throughout the six turns so you can get rid of the shield early and then after that point it's going to be easy to remove the Meganium but like i say sometimes you hit the critical hits sometimes you don't but with those two bulkups that you've got access to you're going to be in a really easy position with that Shellbell held item to just fire these off continuously and recover health and not really have to worry about getting knocked out but when you do hit the critical hit like this right here the damage is significant you're going to be able to do a lot of damage to the Meganium put yourself in a really good position to close the raid out very quickly the only problem is landing those critical hits and like i've already mentioned a hundred times already throughout this raid it just comes down to if the RNG favors you in that turn or not we'll take another zen headbutt for our troubles but now in a position where we can fire another rage fist off another critical hit here will probably be enough to close the raid up and you can see how quick it is but then again if we don't get a critical hit it's probably going to take a few more turns but there we go another critical hit so these focus energies in this situation showing a really good example of how quick you can run through the raid it's just that initial setup that you need to go for bulldoze coming out that's going to proc our defined ability because it will lower our speed by one stage but we've got a plus two and that can also kind of help expedite the raid as well with the annihilate but not the most consistent but a very fun and quick set to run through the Meganium over this weekend and of course we do have those drops for Herba Mystica as well so depending on what you're wanting to do if you're wanting to run and farm for Herba Mystica I would probably suggest going for the Skeletorge although it's about two minutes slower to do on average than the annihilate and it does seem the more consistent and on an overall plan where you're doing a lot of these raids the Skeletorge probably come out on top over the annihilate because the RNG factors here and you can see we get one sour Herba Mystica for our trouble but that's the annihilate build and basically the premise that you're going to want to follow throughout the raid when you're going in with it and of course because you only get one seven star raid on your map per day after you've beat in you want to farm more come into your home menu system settings down into system and date and time and just toggle through the date and time options here click okay of course you need to make sure that your synchronized clock by the internet is set to off and come back into game and all of your dens will respawn again including that seven star raid for the Meganium so you can just locate it on your map and fly over to it so that is everything for today's video with the Skeletorge being the most consistent build for the Meganium and the annihilate being a very quick way to beat it but a little bit more RNG dependent you're going to have no trouble going in and beating this Pokemon and farming for Herba Mystica or just picking it up while the raid is running over this weekend hope you found today's video useful if you have do drop a like on the video does really help and do subscribe to the channel so you stay up to date with all of our Pokemon scholar and violet content and let me know down in the comment section below before you go what you think the next seven star raid Pokemon will be we should get a new announcement when this event ends on Sunday evening so i don't know what to expect going forward i'd kind of be happy if we got something like for alligator but i'm still hoping at some point we get some mythical or legendary pokemon added into the games considering that the new VG season starting and it is going to be one restricted pokemon so now feels like a good time to throw some of them into the mix if that was the plan in the first place but i'd love to hear and we'll look forward to reading through what your thoughts are on that next seven star terrarium pokemon we'll leave it there friends thank you so much for the support tuning in i'll be fun today's video useful have fun with the event over the weekend and i'll see you all in another video very soon so until then take care of yourselves and bye bye


Thank you seeing the clock is 1015 it is now time for member statement the member from Waterloo will be able to resume her debate at a later time I recognize the member from Kingston and the Islands for a member statement thank you speaker and I wish today to draw attention to the combined tragedy of the housing and opioid crises that are is unfolding in Kingston right now each made more acute by the pandemic we have few lines of defense against the outcomes of these epidemics but one of them that is particularly important is the integrated care hub this hub although stretch for resources provides essential support for our most vulnerable it is those speaker provincially funded and we are awaiting the announcement from the province of funding that will allow it to continue its essential work and it is essential work speaker it serves those who have the most complex needs and its services alleviate our already threadbare emergency services in Kingston I would like to share parts of a letter from a harm reduction worker who works at the ICH they say from March to December 2020 the rate of opioid related deaths in KFL and a average 20 per 100,000 exceeding the provincial average of 17 these figures are with the ICH open and operating 23 hours a day seven days a week for almost two years without the ICH we can expect overdose deaths to explode and overtake the rates reported by every other public health unit in Ontario the ICH was never intended to be a permanent solution but it is underfunded and precarious and we need it supported speaker we need the promise to step up support the most vulnerable and provide permanent funding for the integrated care hub thank you thank you member statements I recognize a member from Mississauga and Bolton thank you mr. Speaker mr. Speaker every year 35,000 Canadian experienced cardiac arrest in the public spaces and their homes unfortunately some do not survive it is important to note if they had access to an automated external defibrillator AED or CPR their survival rate would have been doubled in 2002 Mikey Salem a family man cherished by many was in joint golf in beautiful Muscoca when his heart skipped a beat far away from help Mikey passed away to ensure similar people affected by certain cardiac arrest have a second chance at life Heathwood and healthy launch the Mikey network organization since 2003 the Mikey network has installed 2700 AEDs in high-risk location including schools police station and good trends in Ontario and has provided CPR training to over 1300 people by using AEDs or Mikey's survival rate are increased by up to 50% and as a result 47 lives have been saved to date I want to say thank you to the management of Malton Merchant for informing me about the organization and for your hard work to arrange an AED for the safety and well-being of our community and I also like to extend my sincere gratitude and thanks to Huron Morty Henkel and the entire Mikey network team for your determination compassion and contributions your organization exemplifies the true Ontario spirit and thank you for saving lives to learn more to my colleagues you can visit at www.mikeynetwork.com because when hearts stop beating Mikey's save life thank you mr. Speaker thank you member statements the member for Niagara Falls Speaker I rise today with a question for the people of Niagara and all Ontario is like more affordable today than it was four years ago four years ago we heard newly elected Conservative government make lots of promises regarding affordability what happened four years ago the government said they're going to lower hydro rates by 12% they've actually gone up five this government promised to cut gas prices by 10 cents a liter in Niagara Falls this weekend it was over a dollar 50 a liter that's a 30 to 50 cent increase per liter over four years buying a home in Ontario in Niagara is out of reach for most people the medium price for a home in Niagara has increased by 33% in four years what costs $381,000 is now $717,000 the rental market has skyrocket the average cost of a one bedroom in Niagara Falls is 1400 a month a 17% increase in one year and this government cut rent control measures child care in Toronto is upwards $2,000 a month yet this government won't sign the deal for $10 a day child care while inflation rose 6% this month alone the Conservatives refused to repeal bill 124 with caps the wages of nurses and other workers that 1% but you know who the Conservatives made sure we're taking care of multinational corporations billionaires who made record profits during the pandemic companies like Walmart Amazon law laws for profit long-term care operators for taking care of well 4,000 seniors died from COVID in their facility in 100 days today we can change this there's a provincial election we can elect a government that will make decisions that make life more affordable for all of us not just the Conservative government's wealthy friends thank you thank you member statements the member for Scarborough agent court thank you mr. Speaker on November 30th 2021 I joined Ms. Lee Soda a agent court a agent court community service Association outside for short executive director and the staff to make a 369,600 dollar funding announcement to Scarborough agent court students for the after-school program to support safe and supervised activities for students during the school year in priority neighborhoods across our community the program help kids stay active and engaged improve academic performance and encourage leadership skills through activities such as sports recreation and physical activities personal wellness anti-bullying nutrition education and internet safety students in 10 Scarborough agent court the school will benefit from this timely funding this funding announcement for a Scarborough agent court the schools are part of our government investment of 13 million five hundred thousand dollars to Ontario after school program to support 110 organizations that provide activities for children living in high priority neighborhoods across the province AXA is the world recipient of this funding which helps 45 families in each school to fulfill their potentials and live a healthy life AXA has been a pioneer in serving our community especially during these challenging times their staff have been at the forefront of reaching out to our most needy families residents and seniors we are fortunate to have such a dedicated organization and team to make our community a better place to live work and raise family thank you very much thank you very much speaker speaker today I want to talk about Jim Hobbs Jim was a steelworker a hard rock miner mining helped Jim provide for his family helping to ensure that his four kids could finish post-secondary unfortunately for Jim like 25,000 Ontario mine workers he was forced to breathe finely ground aluminum dust known as McIntyre powder it wasn't optional this was a condition of Jim's employment it was breathe it or get fired before each ship they'd seal the doors the dry they'd seal the doors of the change room closed they turn up the ventilation and they pump a gray mist of fine aluminum into the air and encourage the miners breathe deep boys this will coat your lungs this will protect you from harm McIntyre powder is an improved medical treatment as early as 1946 international medical and scientific communities warned of potential harm to miners health despite those warnings was forced on Ontario miners until 1990 it was used with the full knowledge and sanctioning of the government of Ontario it was supported by the Ontario Department of Health and the workers compensation board the only Ontario study completed on these miners found statistically significant cognitive decline in McIntyre powder exposed miners in 2001 Jim was diagnosed Parkinson he died May 24th 2017 but Jim wasn't the only miner forced to walk into a cloud of aluminum dust Jim wasn't the only miner told to breathe deeply Jim was one of 25,000 Ontario mine workers forced to breathe the moon dust and no one has ever officially acknowledged or apologize for walking miners in rooms and forcing to inhale metal or lose their jobs the remaining miners are elderly their health compromised many are dying many like Jim are already deceased but all of them speaker deserve an apology for what happened to them thank you thank you member statements the member for York Center speaker first to the charter a few months after we immigrated to Canada on a wall hanging by the elevator in a North York Central Library I loved it from day one which is why I'm blessed to guess lecture on it and defended in this house Canada's Charter is magnificent because it doesn't just ashrine our rights subject to reasonable limits the Charter is all Canadian because it protects Canada's pluralism Canada's diversity Canada's freedom of choice that's why I and many Canadians condemned the blatant assault on our Charter by Justin Trudeau's declaration of emergency one way disagree with the protesters opinion but the Charter says they have the right to assemble the legitimate fractions may be dealt with by municipal traffic or criminal laws Canadians are frightened that they may be doxed or financially ruined Canada is the talk of the world our country is not recognizable the declaration of the emergency is not rooted in fact since the situation is resolved it's not supported in law since there's no dangers to life and safety since it can be resolved by the province and may be dealt with by other laws of Canada this is about Justin Trudeau's ego and politics because the science does not support him on the mandates and no one even talks about the virus anymore this is all a distraction a distraction from the failure of lockdowns passports and mandates a distraction from the mental health pandemic a distraction from the last two years at the expense of our democracy it must be condemned and it must be opposed thank you member statements the member for Brantford Grant thank you speaker I am absolutely thrilled to announce that recently in my writing of Brantford branch minister Colander and I were able to announce our government is adding 59 new and 69 upgraded long-term care beds to modernize and expand Hardy Terrace in Mount Pleasant and adding 83 new and 45 upgraded long-term care beds to a new building for Telfer Place in Paris this is part of the government 6.4 billion dollar commitment to build more than 30,000 net new long-term care beds by 2028 and 28,000 upgraded long-term care beds across the province the project at Hardy Terrace in Mount Pleasant adds new and upgraded long-term care beds through a renovation to the existing home the home will have a total of 160 long-term care beds after the renovation is complete Hardy Terrace will continue to offer specialized services be a part of a campus of care and has proposed to provide cultural services to the sick community the project to Telfer Place in Paris involves a brand new building for the existing home Telfer Place will have a total of 128 long-term care beds once the new building is complete the home has proposed to continue current volunteer-based partnerships and collaborations with social emotional spiritual and physical service groups to continue to supporting resident needs construction of both homes is expected to start by spring 2024 there are now 266 new and 318 long-term care beds in development under construction are completed in Brampton brand for brand for brand speaker this is welcome news for my residents thank you member for Brampton North thank you mr. Speaker it's an honor to rise here on behalf of the great people of Brampton North as a matter of fact the great people of all of Ontario as we continue to celebrate Black History Month now I was honored to be a guest speaker at one of the events in Brampton the 21st annual Black History Concert and I want to thank the United Achievers Club and the Congress of Black Women Brampton chapter in particular I want to thank Marjorie Taylor who organized the event well we missed the opportunity mr. Speaker to be together in person because of COVID but we still had a great time enjoying and learning all about the great achievements of black people not just in Brampton but right across Ontario and Canada our province as we all know is home to a many many vibrant black people in Ontario and many communities that are vibrant in Ontario and Ontario could not be the province it is today without the strong dynamic black leadership at provincial and the municipal levels to our black communities across the province I want you to know that the Black Caucus and the official opposition we see you we hear you and we'll continue to fight for justices for you from education to health care to justice we will be looking at every aspect of political life through the black lens now this year's theme for Black History Month is February and forever what does that mean and means that we're going to celebrate black history not just today not tomorrow but every single day of the year and of course mr. Speaker I have to talk quickly about the elephant in the room we still have anti-black racism will continue to fight anti-black racism in all its forms and I join and I ask everyone to join me regardless of what color we are thank you member statements the member for Whitby thank you Speaker there's more good news for region of Durham residents last Friday our government announced that it's restoring fairness and cutting costs for drivers and businesses in Durham by permanently removing the tolls on highways 412 and 418 effective April the 5th 2022 we've heard the people of Durham loud and clear and we agree that the tolls imposed on highways 412 and 418 by the previous government are wrong and unfair and that's why we're removing the tolls on these highways so that people and businesses have more travel options and hard earned money in their pockets speaker the previous government unfairly targeted drivers and businesses in Durham region by imposing the tolls on highways 412 and 418 leaving them underutilized while local streets became increasingly gridlocked when the previous government imposed these unjust road tolls they place a financial burden on drivers and families in Durham region including my riding of Whitby by delivering on our commitment to remove these tolls our government is fighting gridlock while supporting once again hardworking families in the region of Durham thank you very much that concludes our member statements for this morning and i beg to inform the house the following document has been tabled a report entitled Ontario's labour market in 2021 from the financial accountability office of Ontario i will now ask our legislative pages to assemble it is my honor and pleasure to introduce this group of legislative pages from the riding of Bruce Gray one sound Leah Elder riding of Barry Innisfil penia guinean from the riding of Kitchener Conestoga Maverick Harris from the riding of Hamilton Mountain Daunte Hillen heading of Scarborough Southwest Tanisha Hossain New York Center Elia Karen Sagiv from the riding of Etobicoke Lakeshore Julia Markson riding of Waterloo Zane McKinnon from the riding of Dufferin Caledon Morgan Schultz from the riding of Essex Benjamin Selmy from the riding of Willowdale Owen Shen and from the riding of Etobicoke Center Kristen Tawija and from the riding of Richmond Hill Lucia Way thank you very much and before I invite oral questions I'm also pleased to inform the house that Paige Julia Markson from the riding of Etobicoke Lakeshore is today's page captain and we have with us today in the house her parents her mother Alicia Markson and her father Joseph Markson welcome to the legislative assembly of Ontario we are delighted to have you here thank you very much


Hello fellow followers of Christ. I'm Joseph Pierce and I'm truly honored to have been invited by my friends at Tan Books to host this series The Authority. We're covering authors right across the spectrum of history in these shows from Homer, the father of literature, going back to almost a thousand years before the time of Christ, right up to the 20th century. Some of them are very well-known writers, including the Giants if you like, so Homer as we mentioned, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Dickens, all the obvious Giants but we're also including maybe lesser-known characters such as St. Robert Sutherl, the poet Richard Cresshaw, Robert Hugh Benson, a priest novelist of the 20th century, Maurice Bering, a great friend of Chestnut and Bellock who was a best-selling novelist who's sadly largely forgotten. So we'll be looking at authors are both very well-known, the household names and those who aren't household names but should be come with me on an adventure in the Authority.


Welcome back to Think Tech. I'm Jay Fidel. This is you from the north, Dr. Ken Rogers in Kelowna. He's Columbia, Canada. And we're going to talk today about building houses because, you know, the way to avoid homelessness, at least one way, probably the best way is to build homes, isn't it? This seems logical. So welcome to the show, Ken. Nice to have you here yet again. Hello, Jay. I think that, you know, the housing crisis is more than just the whole situation. Yes. Well, let's talk about it. What are the dimensions of the crisis? Well, I suppose one could start with, in Canada, it's almost like a birthright that you're entitled to a single family home in the suburbs with a backyard, garage, you know, hit a school thereby.  But, you know, people are grasping at potential solutions. And, you know, in my opinion, there's no short-term solution to the general housing crisis. But you've got to start with the idea that the public warrants a single family home in the suburbs with a leafy vegetation in the neighborhood. On the other hand, the municipalities do not work that. The municipalities are doing everything they can to minimize urban sprawl because they simply don't have the money to extend roads and be a sanitary sewer facilities, water facilities, and in particular, transportation. You can't separate housing and transportation, but really, you know, it's the municipalities not having sufficient funds to do their job that is really key to the housing shortage. Well, yeah, but there is a connection, isn't there, between a housing crisis of the kind you've described and homelessness. If I can't find a house, if nobody wants to build me a house, or sell me a house, or finance a house for me, I'm closer to homelessness, right? Well, that, you know, difficulty to build suburban housing in the quantity that is needed is just one part of it. I think of homelessness of people living in tents in the center of larger cities or even medium-sized cities like the one I live in, and I think there are totally different problems. There is a connection, but really, you know, the kind of connection would be we do not really have the types of housing that we had before. You used to have, you know, boarding houses, but we really don't have such a thing as a boarding house or a rooming house of the scale that we had, you know, in the 30s when people were short of housing. You know, I think 1930s, since it's almost a sultry ago. However, the major housing crisis really starts with rental properties that people can't afford, and single-family homes, which there's not large enough quantity, and because of that, the prices keep skyrocketing. Well, let's talk about rental for a moment. You mentioned it, the R word, if I may. You know, I was looking at a really silly article this morning in the paper about all the people, all the celebrities that we have heard their names over and over again. Now, we don't think about their individual wealth, but you know, such a huge number of people that we see in the media, celebrities, have personal jets, okay, and there's a distinction between those who have the money to buy the personal jet and those who have the money only to rent the personal jet. So there's this really interesting distinction in the economy.   What about just building houses for rental or building apartment buildings for rental? You know, I grew up in a neighborhood in New York City where everybody rented. Nobody owned their own home. And the rent, you know, the rent was relatively cheap. Why don't we just build apartment houses and rent the apartment? Well, that's a reasonably good idea.   You know, it was probably 90% when I was there. And you know, it's really what do people want. I would assume, you know, your parents probably would have preferred a single-family home, but you know, in metropolitan New York City, that's difficult. Well, the migration in my parents' generation was to get out of town, to go to Nassau County or Connecticut or New Jersey, and get a single family on exactly what you're talking about. And if you could afford it, that's what you would do. On the other hand, if you couldn't, you stayed in rental units. And what seems to me that you could house people pretty well in the rental unit. Yes, your idea is a good one if you take this concept that the ownership of a rental housing unit is a business for a lot of people. It was a business that I'd been in much of my life. And the major problem with rentals is that the price of rent is very high. And an awful lot of the rules or the laws are anti-landlord. You know, for example, during COVID, quite a few cities such as Los Angeles imposed rent control and went overboard with the rent control saying you couldn't even evict a tenant for non-payment of rent.  Now, one of the key solutions for the housing crisis or lack of supply of housing, which is greater in Canada than it is in the US, believe it or not, that would be for the federal government to use their financial leverage or their financial muscle to build housing units which are owned by either the federal government or a government agency or even the local government. Local in my mind is better, that is the federal government should provide the financing so the local government could build a large amount of rental housing. And the idea with that is that they maintain the ownership of it and you could have also non-profits that they would encourage to own rental housing. But where if the government owns it, you know, if you wait 10 years, then those rental units could be rented at a price which is far below the mark. You know, and that is really kind of the solution that Singapore did with great success. They, you know, they had the advantage if they don't have a city government, a provincial government, a state government, they just have one and they built the housing units and it didn't take very long for those housing units which they built and publicly owned could be rented at a very low price.  And I think that you need a stark of housing which the government owns which has no problem with the rent, you know, that they're not in it for making a big profit from renting the housing, they're in the business of trying to help their citizens make their way. And, you know, some housing units will always need a subsidy. You know, if you're going to have some young girl that's pregnant and, you know, her husband leaves and she's got a couple of kids in tow and she doesn't have much education, she's going to have a real trouble with housing.  And, you know, so that there is that type of person that needs housing. But I think that that's a first solution and it emphasizes the idea that any solution for housing is usually not a short term quick fix situation. You know, government housing has been popular in a number of American cities. I can't speak to the large cities in Canada, but and they're called project. And so we have in New York, we have a huge number of projects, they're high rises, they're not fancy. And then we have them in Chicago, I guess Chicago is famous for the Chicago project. And what happens, you know, you talk about five or 10 years, what happens, you talk about five or 10 years. And by that time, the project is turned into a huge slump. Dangerous, crime infested, drug infested.  And this, this is pretty much predictable. Well, are you referring like I familiar with example, Stuyvesant town in Manhattan, you know, and it's the scale of that. The Stuyvesant town is not a government project. Stuyvesant town was built privately by, I think, Metropolitan life insurance company. But there were projects, for example, in the Bronx, they're huge. And in Harlem, huge. And these, these are, these are projects that began deteriorating 10 minutes before the doors opened. And nobody takes care of them. The government has essentially abandoned them.  So how do you deal with that? I mean, yes, the government should step in, but how do the government manage what it, what it has built? Well, in, in Canada, we had a program at one stage called limited dividend housing in which the government subsidized the financing to enable developers to build rental units as long as they maintained the lower rent, or they had rules for what the rent could be. But it was basically subsidized rental for the term of the mortgage 25 years. And then the person that built or owned that project could do what they wanted. And during that period, the owners of those projects had probably had the best kept units in, in the cities that I'm familiar with them because they, their rent was at such a bargain. And these were usually townhouses, rather than, you know, really big city apartments, or, or mega projects, even though the townhouse projects were sometimes quite large. But they really had inspections of the units on a regular basis. And any, you know, employee or neighbor complaint about somebody involved inspections and the occupants were just turfed out. It's the units were not well kept. And, and they were really fussy. And it was really, really successful way to just, you know, have hanging over the tenant is, you know, to do proper upkeep, you're out, period. Yeah. And where are you going to go? Yeah, there's not a lot of options where it gets thrown out. Yeah. So the government management could be done on a similar basis.  You've got to be pretty, pretty ruthless about the standards that you're going to keep. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. But to me, that, that is the solution and the government really has to step in. And I think, you know, the point here is that the government has to step in. So let's talk about changing the rules. You know, you mentioned in Los Angeles during COVID, a landlord, he was a small landlord who owned one rental unit, you know, he couldn't collect the rent. And a lot of tenants took advantage of that. It's okay, I'm not going to pay the rent because it's COVID time. And then the landlord has to bear the burden. He, he, he, he suffers financially, maybe to the point, often to the point where he can't pay his market. New York had the same divine, New York had the same experience. They made it impossible for a landlord, even a small landlord to collect the rent during COVID. A lot of landlords lost their properties. Well, you know, this is, this is very troublesome, and you, you can't adopt those kinds of rules and expect that one part of the, what it called the food chain could, could, you know, bear the burden of the whole, of the whole chain, especially in a crisis like that. The other thing is that, you know, we have government agencies that are responsible for permitting, responsible for, as you say, managing that, that are failed agencies. You know, in Hawaii, we've had a big problem with corruption in permitting.   And sometimes you'll have to wait for literally years to build some, you know, a green field or a brown field or a remodel or renovation. A lot of people in Hawaii, I think this is probably the case on the mainland, do not build new homes, new apartment buildings because of the permitting issues, because the permit, the requirements may have changed since the original construction. And now it's much more expensive, you know, to build precisely the same kind of structure that was there before. So as far, it's hard to build a new one, they wind up refurbishing an old one. And that also takes a long time. So I mean, I think government is standing right in the way here in a lot of jurisdictions, including especially including Hawaii, where if we alleviated that and forced them to act on permits, we, and we allowed them to, you know, get by some of the most odorous provisions in the building codes, not like Istanbul, by the way, I want to distinguish that. But, you know, we could make it a lot easier for investors, builders, contractors, and banks, you're building housing. You're correct in most regards, but you've got to put in perspectives that for a municipal council to get elected, you've got to say who are the voters. And there's an awful lot more tenants, renters, than there are landlords. And so the bias is there. And you have to have senior levels of government intervene to prevent that bias from ruining the market to the degree that it does. You know, in British Columbia, for example, you know, the provincial government, which is equivalent to a state government in the US, the provincial government has imposed a variety of rules on the major cities in the province in order to avoid some of that, you know, not in my backyard type of push from local residents. They've insisted on certain zoning things. And really the development, the real estate development industry is probably loaded with more entrepreneurs than any other business there is. And the United States and Canada are ahead in that regard compared to, you know, any part of Europe, they're just entrepreneurship's a bigger thing here in North America. And so if you bring in rules that push, the development industry will rise to the occasion. And a great example is in the city of Vancouver, they created a, the province subsidized the creation of their public transit system for, you know, rapid transit, the train system. Now their rail system, they basically insisted that no rail line will be built anywhere unless every time there's a station, there has to be a huge increase in the amount of density permitted around that station, you know, and so any, you know, then, you know, nearby single family neighborhood that says, well, we don't want any apartments in our neighborhood, that's just too bad. You know, there's either no train, or you've got these high rocks as well. Now, if you drove into the city of Vancouver, you'd have a lot of trouble recognizing where is the downtown because it looks like there's about 30 of them.  There is one whole city, or let's call it used to be a city, you know, that has a municipal government, but it's really part of Metro Vancouver and it's part of this transit system called Burnaby. And, you know, the apartment buildings are like 60 stories. And, you know, when you get one of those neighborhoods around those transit stations, then you have a place where all kinds of people can live, all kinds of different households, you know, works really well for for seniors or for, you know, anybody with a job in the downtown area of the city, you know, it it's not as good for families, you know, but the single family home family that could be, you know, a mile or so away can easily commute to the train station a lot more easily than they can commute to wherever their job is.  But that kind of insistence by a senior level of government to override local zoning rules, you know, is a good item, you know, and another one that you used to have in between housing, you know, for single family homes, you have apartments, well, what's the in between the in between usually row housing or town housing. And, you know, there's generally been a lack of enough of that type of housing. Well, one of the new rules that provincial governments have been posed in in Alberta and British Columbia is is what they call or just taking a single family home lot and saying you can get special government fendal or provincial help if the municipality takes a major neighborhoods and allows four to six dwelling units on each of those what used to be single family home lots. You know, and so you have neighborhoods that were total, you know, brand new single family homes in, you know, 1960s and early, you know, 1970 kind of thing and those take a neighborhood that was solid single family homes and put in that kind of zoning. And very quickly, you have, you know, tripled and quadrupled the density, you know, which is really important to the municipality because they didn't have to put in in any extra roads, any extra sewers, any extra water systems, etc.  Well, you know, you're really touching on a very important point, a point maybe we should reserve for another show and that is city planning. Planning, zoning, you know, make bringing the city, the municipality, the living area current with the expectations, the requirements of the society, the population, the community. And I, a lot of, a lot of communities haven't done this. And they just let it go. And the result is that you get development willy nilly, you get strange relationships between the developers and, and the planning authorities, you politicize the zoning. And you make it very hard even for somebody motivated to be an entrepreneur, to be a developer, a housing developer to actually do the job. Because it's been politicized and it's been the subject of obstacles. And the city, you know, is just saying no to a lot of changes. So I feel that the enlightened city cities as a service, as they call them in Finland, in Finland, got the right idea, by the way, cities as a service to the people really has to keep track of what the people want, what the people need, what the city can provide. It's a dynamic, ongoing, ever-changing, kaleidoscopic affair. And a lot of cities just don't see that.  And the majority of the public who wants to have, you know, their neighborhood not disrupted, for example, you know, the best way to maintain the value of certain kinds of property is, is if you have real homogeneity of your neighborhood, the property will hold its value or increase in value more than any other way. You know, if you could build a whole subdivision and build a wall around it and control the size of every house and, you know, the make all the streets mesh nicely, your neighborhood will increase in value faster than anyone around you.  You know, let's build the apartment building in the middle of your neighborhood and stick those people in it.    Well, we have a unique situation here in the sense that people come from far away. They like the weather.  They're going to try to find a nice apartment because they're well-heeled in many cases. And so what you have is a whole market of mainland companies or multinational companies that have come here and built these extraordinary condo buildings. I mean, every inch that's been available for condo, that's a condo, places that used to be places where the public went to shop or do recreation, migrated into condos. And these condos are in the multi-million dollar rate. So the local people can't afford them.  And it's like the appraisers, the banks, even the planning department, you know, all seem to be part of a process that makes housing way too expensive. I don't know if this happens elsewhere, but that's not really responding to the needs of the people. And then when you put on top of that, these extraordinary benefits that developers, you know, and the companies that build homes get from a tax point of view, you know, federal tax point of view, they achieve with, you know, the whole guy just have a chance. He's going to pay too much. And his mortgage and the mortgage rates are going up right now. It's going to be too high. And it's the biggest investment he makes in his lifetime, but it's really hanging around his neck. And then from time to time, we have, you know, crises like in 2008, where people couldn't afford the housing that they bought. So, I mean, it's all sort of disrupted. And I think the government is not doing the right thing in terms of the tax structure and the incentive structure. The government, the federal government, and for that matter, and state government, which usually follows the federal government, could be organizing its tax policy to increase middle-class housing, whether it's, you know, single-family or apartment housing, it should be beating up the process and enhancing the possibilities for construction and to achieve lower rents for people and so forth. And one thing, before I stop, I just want to mention that in Hawaii, we have this spinning affair. You have the bucks to buy a cheap and you sit on it for a year or two and then you sell it again and you sell it at a profit. So, not only is it too expensive for the middle-class person, family, to buy at the inception, but it gets further and further away from that. And, you know, it's treated as capital gain, as a tax benefit and so forth. Seems to me that there ought to be some kind of limitation on the spinning process to hold the values down, hold the resale prices down, so people don't get into the market just to make a lot of money on the reset. Well, there's a major reason that you miss, in your description, as to why new buildings, especially larger ones, involve an endless number of people who are short-term flippers. And that is that the mortgage rules or the financing require that the developer have pre-sales.  The major builders need those people to buy their unit or you know, sign up for their unit so they can qualify for their mortgage financing or their interim construction financing and to get the building built so that, you know, it's not so much a local zoning problem as a financial regulatory problem. Now, how would you change that? How would you fix that?  And as long as, you know, all of them are requiring the pre-sales, then, you know, you know, the next new mortgage company, you know, has no trouble imposing that. Well, you need the federal governments financing like Fannie Mae or equivalent to be the first one to do that. Well, they were the first ones to go the other direction.  For example, because transportation and housing go together, you know, it would be ideal to have little satellite cities around, you know, these larger cities where land is not a great problem and it doesn't work for New York City.  And then, and you can have lots of single family homes not too far from, from that, that Newtown Center basically creating a new satellite city. And you can then control greatly the price of the house. Again, you're doing your utilities all as a larger scale. And you've got the real high density in the center where you're building your train station. Well, you know, we used to talk about Kapolei, which is out in the West End of Oahu as the quote, the second city input. And it was exactly on that concept that they, they put various institutional, you know, construction out there. You know, city, city building, bait building, and the like. And as time went, this is like 20, 25 years ago, maybe. And, and as time went on by, you know, it says you found that it was, it was not, it was not being developed as a second city. There were some shopping centers out there. But people were still coming downtown, downtown level. And then, and this is interesting because you talk about transportation. And then we have built a rail and the rail goes from what was supposed to be the second city into the first city. So people really didn't change their habit. They stayed on the highways and pulled the highways to meet me clogged up. And then they built rail to achieve the same kind of transportation. So the second city idea really hasn't come to fruition. And I think, you know, again, it goes back to the notion of a project. The government has an idea to build a project. In this case, the second city. But then it doesn't follow up. We're on the same concept. Administrations up and go, politicians up and go. The electorate doesn't necessarily understand the fine points of city planning. And so here you have a second city, which is more like a half a city, and it's all connected with rail and people, they and work in pretty much the same places they used to. And I'm not sure that the housing out there is any better than the housing closer to the city. So, you know, it seems to me that you and I needed asbestos and much greater detail. If we are going to get all of the nuances involved in any city, whether it be Nolulu or Vancouver or any of us. Well, there's, you know, two, you know, what Canada would call major cities, both in Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton, each of which have grown phenomenally. And that importantly, these satellite city ideas, you know, both of them have actually grown so much, they've absorbed the original satellite cities, you know, but, you know, the new ones have been very successfully and, you know, but they really don't have, you know, rapid train transportation, but Alberta, you know, is the richest province in Canada, or the wealthiest by far. And they have a phenomenal road system. So this, you know, these satellite cities did not really ruin, you know, the traffic in the central cities.  You know, like I am reminded of a conclusion I made a long time ago, and that is that the Commonwealth countries, you know, British Commonwealth countries are, are better planned than the West. Not sure why, you not know why. But for example, Adelaide, Australia, Adelaide, Africa, the other three kings of India and Pakistan and, you know, Jamaica and a few, you know, Commonwealth countries that, that I do not fit that pistol at all. I mean, I certainly agree with you when you think of Australia, New Zealand and, and Canada, the United Kingdom.  I like to think that, that, you know, Hong Kong was the, you know, the leading city in, in China for, for a long, long time, you know, because of the British influence. And similarly, why is Singapore what it is today? I mean, it has pretty well the highest standard living in the world and, and, and leads in many, many areas in particular, you know, housing, I think is, is one of the things that Singapore shines at in terms of quality of planning, you know, you know, 90% of people own their own place in Singapore.      But, you know, we still have every problem the US has, Canada has, it's just a matter of degree. Yes, just a matter of degree. So many issues raised, Kent. Well, we can explore this further. I'm particularly interested in exploring transportation, not only in the context of city planning and development, but also transportation through Canada and how it compares with transportation in the US. Thank you very much for this discussion. It's always interesting. And it's always provocative. Maha. Go Laurel Dave. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please click the like and subscribe button on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Check out our website, thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.


Hi, everyone. Welcome again to our live broadcast of the Course in Miracles Workbook Lessons of the Day. And today we are jumping into Workbook Lesson number four from A Course in Miracles. So if you can join along with us anytime we come live, we're so grateful to practice with you. I will oftentimes bring maybe a reading from the course in that's pertinent to the Workbook Lesson and then also field some questions and issues that that people have written in as well to to our platform. ACIM Lessons form, which is part of our mailing list. So if you want to actually join our Living Miracles mailing list and just look for signing up for the ACIM Lessons form, you can send in your issues and things that you would like to really find out how you can apply the lessons in a very practical way to what's going on in your in your world. Okay, so today we start with ACIM Lesson number four. These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things I see in this room on this street from this window in this place. Unlike the preceding ones, these ideas, these exercises do not begin with the idea for the day. In these practice periods begin with noting the thoughts that cross, you're crossing your mind for about a minute. Then apply the idea to them. If you are already aware of unhappy thoughts, use them as subjects for the idea. Do not however select only the thoughts you think are quote bad. You will find if you train yourself to look at your thoughts that they represent such a mixture that in a sense, none of them can be called quote good or bad. This is why they do not mean anything. In selecting the subjects for the application of today's idea, the usual specificity is required. Do not be afraid to use good thoughts as well as bad. None of them represents your real thoughts, which are being covered up by them. The quote good ones are but shadows of what lies beyond. And shadows make sight difficult. The quote bad ones are blocks to site and make seeing impossible. You do not want either. This is a major exercise and will be repeated from time to time in somewhat different form. The aim here is to train you in the first steps toward the goal of separating the meaningless from the meaningful. It is a first attempt in the long range purpose of learning to see the meaninglessness as outside you and the meaningful within. It is also the beginning of training your mind to recognize what is the same. And what is different. In using your thoughts for the application of the idea for today, identify each thought by the central figure or event it contains. For example, this thought about bill in the blank does not mean anything. It is like the things I see in this room on this street and so on. You can also use the idea for a particular thought that you recognize as harmful. This practice is useful, but is not a substitute for the more random procedures to be followed for the exercises. Do not however examine your mind for more than a minute or so. You are too inexperienced as yet to avoid a tendency to become pointlessly preoccupied. However, since these exercises are the first of their kind, you may find the suspension of judgment in connection with thoughts particularly difficult. Do not repeat these exercises more than three or four times during the day. We will return to them later. For those of you doing workbook lesson for today from a course in miracles. We can see that that the first, the first three exercises that we practice here were basically about perception. And the first one was nothing I see means anything second one was I've given everything I see all the meaning it has to me. And then the third one was was helping us start to understand that we don't understand anything that we see at all. And so the first three lessons of the workbook have been focused on perception. It's meaninglessness. Also that it's coming about from projection, I have given everything I see all the meaning so the ego is writing all the meanings onto this world. And when we keep thinking with the ego and believing in the ego then we keep interpreting and reacting to the perceptions of the world and we may judge some of things some things as happy events happy situations, and we may judge other ones is as upsetting. And, and what we're learning today in this lesson is that the, what we would consider the good thoughts aren't really the good thoughts they're just shadows of, of unreal thoughts, and then the dark thoughts the good thoughts we might call them or the seemingly judgmental thoughts, those are are just dark thoughts that are just blocks to seeing. And when Jesus uses the term seeing he's not really talking about seeing with the body's eyes or seeing through the five senses and experiencing the world through the five senses he's actually pointing towards a deeper what we'll call Christ vision. It's a spiritual vision. It's a way of seeing with light. And that is what true seeing is so these first lessons are just opportunities for us to start to clear away the debris that's blocking the true seeing. So again, the good ones, the good thoughts that that cross your mind when you pay attention to the thoughts that cross your mind today the good ones are but shadows of what lies beyond and shadows make site difficult. The bad ones are blocks to site and make seeing impossible. And he reminds us you do not want either. And he also mentions that this is the beginning of training our mind to discern between what is the same and what is different. I touched on that during the very first workbook lesson commentary we did here in this new year of 2023, where I was basically reading from this section on the border land, the border land of thought. Between the world and waking up from this world. There's a border land of thought where there still seems to be things happening, but your mind is becoming very much aware that what you're perceiving is is not reality. You're opening towards the gates of heaven towards the gates of eternal life towards abstract love and light, and that's also opening towards Christ vision, which is really the goal of the workbook is to train your mind to see with Christ vision, not with the body's eyes, and not with the five senses. So, what is the same and what is different we touched on that a little bit before but all of the things that are in perception are actually the same. So, when you look as a human being you think, what, how can all the images and the things of this world how can all the bodies be the same. All the images the trees, the clouds, the mountains, the stars, the moon, the sun, we have different names for all of these different things but what Jesus will show us as we go through this awakening is, is that all of the images that we perceive are actually because they're equally illusory. They're idle images and they're all equally false. And we may give different names to them and we may try to with the egos advice try to rank order them into the high priorities and the low priorities and the middle priorities. To the things we're attracted to to the things we're repulsed by to the things that we're indifferent to. We, this is all egoic hierarchy and trying to make hierarchies of illusion and that's what blocks true vision Christ vision from from awareness. So, as Jesus goes on. He basically is telling us, just practice this lesson and pay attention to your, your thoughts and and really don't try to do this in an obsessive way. He wants us to just ease in almost like if you're going into a swimming pool he's taking us. He's taking us into the shallow end, so to speak. He doesn't want us flipping out or freaking out with the lessons he wants us to gradually practice and practice and practice and transfer the training that he's offering us. And so, we get happier and happier and happier as we come more in alignment with the Holy Spirit's way of thinking and with Christ vision. So, we can see that he's asking us not to repeat these exercises more than three or four times during the day. Remember he's taking us into the shallow end of the pool he's just starting us off we're just on the fourth day of the year, and he's easing us in. A lot of times when when people start to do these lessons.  What are you doing. Why are you doing these lessons it's a waste of time the ego will try to dismiss the mind training opportunity that the workbook lessons offer. So, that's really beautiful and, and I thought to, I would just read a little bit from the text of a course of miracles with something that's relevant to the workbook lesson that we're working on today. Now, some of you know that with our community we practice no private thoughts and no people pleasing and as we move along here in the workbook here pretty early on Jesus is going to tell us that you have no private thoughts and yet that's all you're aware of. So already in lesson number four Jesus is saying that the thoughts that we think are passing through our consciousness and our awareness. The good ones and the bad ones are all part of a stream of, of thoughts that are egoic that are made by the ego to block us from our real thoughts which are buried even deeper. So, our unreal thoughts, which are egoic by nature because the ego is not real, God didn't create the ego, the ego's make believe and all the thoughts that typically go through the stream of thoughts, as you're watching your, your mind, those are not the real thoughts, the real thoughts are the thoughts you think with God, and the private thoughts, the illusory stream of thoughts, the past and future thoughts are the thoughts that you think with the ego. And the whole thing is, you can, you may go, wow, what a mess, my mind is preoccupied with these thoughts. My mind is addicted to these stream of false thoughts in 12 step programs they call it the stinking thinking. And Jesus doesn't use those words, but that's from 12 steps, the big book. And basically, what we're realizing is the thoughts that cross our mind, everyday awareness as you're beginning the mind training are all part of a system of denial of the love of God. And, and what Jesus is going to show us progressively is when, when we're thinking with the ego we're not really thinking at all, our mind is literally blank when we're thinking with the ego, because the ego isn't real. So, what does it mean to constantly be preoccupied and addicted with unreal thoughts. Insanity actually, the psychologist would call that insanity. But what Jesus is saying is, these unreal thoughts are not real and you're actually not the thinker of these thoughts that can be a big stretch but, but who you really are, never could think these erroneous thoughts these past future thoughts. We really are is Christ and we have real thoughts that we think with God and their thoughts of pure love, pure happiness and pure joy. So this is great this is laying the framework for making things very very meaningful. And when you do this lesson today, basically saying, the thoughts I'm thinking don't really mean anything, it can, it can feel a little bit absurd, but you also might think, oh my gosh, my mind is so identified with these thoughts and so preoccupied it's going to take, it's going to take a miracle for me to let them go. And Jesus is saying, yeah, that's, that's exactly right. That's why it's a course in miracles. That's why we're doing the, the mind training of the workbook of a course in miracles because it will take a miracle to let them go. But you will also learn as you go deeper in your practice of the course to give these thoughts over to the Holy Spirit and to Jesus and it's kind of like saying wow I've got a whole stream of unreal thoughts going here Jesus about the past and the future. Here, let me give them to you. And why don't you select from them and bring them back to me in a way that will help my mind unwind from this unreal stream of thoughts. And Jesus is like, great, yeah, that's what that's what guidance is all about how I'll take your make believe thoughts and I'll give you make believe guidance, but the benefit of make believe guidance is that it's coming from Jesus and the Holy Spirit and it will unwind you and it will unwind you from your connection to these thoughts, it will unwind you from, from the your obsession with these thoughts, and more and more you start to feel like wow, I feel peaceful, and if there's something I need if there's a word I need or some guidance I need it will be and that's Jesus using these thoughts and orchestrating them and putting the thoughts together in a way, packaging them as your guidance, your little prompts your nudges. Now that's a good use of judgment. That's the Holy Spirit's use of judgment guidance. So, let's, let's actually go to chapter 15. And the section is, is, it's chapter 15 the Holy Instant and section four is practicing the Holy Instant.  Six, we'll start right there. Jesus has to say for us. The reason this course is simple is that truth is simple complexity is of the ego, and is nothing more than the ego's attempt to obscure the obvious. You could live forever in the Holy Instant beginning now and reaching to eternity, but for a very simple reason. Do not obscure the simplicity of this reason, for if you do it will be only because you prefer not to recognize it. And not to let it go. A simple reason, simply stated, is this, the Holy Instant is a time in which you receive and give perfect communication. This means however that it is a time in which your mind is open, both to receive and give. It is the recognition that all minds are in communication. It therefore seeks to change nothing but merely to accept everything. Yeah, there's that one distinction that needs to be made in awakening. It therefore seeks to change nothing but merely to accept everything. And you will see that as you go along in the practice that the Holy Spirit's teaching of forgiveness is very simple.  And the ego's purpose is if something in the world would change other than my own mind, then I would be healed. These, these two plans for salvation, the egos and the Holy Spirit are directly in opposition. So one is to accept all things exactly as they are, which would mean to change your mind to the Holy Spirit's perspective of the world and see that all things work together for good and there's no exceptions. Or the ego will say, touch that, just tweak, this could change, this circumstance, this person, this situation. If they would just get better, then I would be happy. I would be saved if something in the world was different. There's the ego's plan. So again, it is therefore seeks to change nothing but merely to accept everything. How can you do this when you would prefer to have private thoughts and keep them? The only way you could do that would be to deny the perfect communication that makes the Holy Instant what it is. If you believe you can harbor thoughts you would not share and that salvation lies in keeping thoughts to yourself alone. For in private thoughts known only to yourself, you think you find a way to keep what you would have alone and share what you would share.  Every thought you would keep hidden shuts communication off because you would have it so. It is impossible to recognize perfect communication while breaking communication holds value to you. Ask yourself honestly what I want to have perfect communication and am I wholly willing to let everything that interferes with it go forever. If the answer is no, then the Holy Spirit readiness to give it to you is not enough to make it yours for you are not ready to share it with him. And it cannot come into a mind that has decided to oppose it. For the Holy Instant is given and received with equal willingness. Being the acceptance of the single will that governs all thought. The necessary condition for the Holy Instant does not require that you have no thoughts that are not pure. But it does require that you have none that you would keep. Innocence is not of your making. It has given you the instant you would have it. Atonement would not be if there were no need for it. You will not be able to accept perfect communication as long as you would hide it from yourself. Or what you would hide is hidden from you. So if we take what we've just read from chapter 15, we can see that Jesus is starting off today here in workbook lesson number four, and he's saying these thoughts do not mean anything. These thoughts that seem to be crossing my mind do not mean anything. Why don't they mean anything? Again, these are private thoughts. These are thoughts about the past and the future. And what he's encouraging us to do is to be aware that they're all the same. All of the thoughts that you think about the past and all of the thoughts you think about the future are defenses against the present moment, against this Holy Instant. And when you begin to watch your mind, train your mind with these workbook lessons, and then you also become very willing to give the thoughts over to the Holy Spirit. Say, here's my stream of thoughts. This is what I'm dealing with today. This is what I'm believing in and what I'm attempting to think with these false thoughts.  What's that? But that's his guidance. And then that's going to be the Holy Spirit's and Jesus's use of these private thoughts. So we've learned this, and this is a theme of the course. You have to bring the illusions to the light of the truth. You have to allow the Holy Spirit to use time to teach you that there is no time. You have to allow the Holy Spirit to use the forms to bring your mind into a pristine, still, quiet state that is in alignment with God and in alignment with your true identity as the Christ. Those real thoughts are there, but they're just covered over by a lot of other make believe thoughts. And when the mind is asleep and dreaming, it seems to be very identified with this stream of false thoughts. That's the definition of deception. If you're, if you're thinking thoughts that aren't your real thoughts, if you're thinking the imposter's thoughts, then you feel guilt because the imposter is the ego. It's the devil. And, and that stream of thoughts were generated to keep you from knowing who you really are as a perfect child of God to keep you from remembering the divine innocence. So I had said that we would use these live sessions to to take things that you write in the issues that you're dealing with. And we will try to take the idea for the day, which today is workbook lesson number four these thoughts do not mean anything and apply them to what seems to be going on in the world as it's perceived. And to make this as practical as possible. So actually today we did receive a question via our ACM lessons form from our mailing list. And this is from Diana from Mexico City. Diana writes, Dear David, I find myself going deeper into the lessons, practicing them with more awareness, and asking to understand more and more of them and of course of miracles. And this lesson, and the first three have been on my mind with great vehemence, yet I am seeing and experiencing pain, seeing in my partner violence, a lot of anger and sickness. We have three male dogs for a couple years they were fighting very badly and we had to separate them. And then another big dog also came in from the street and we left to who seemed to get along better together. But these days they have started to fight and bite each other. Yesterday, one of them was badly injured, and everything in the house became tense. The male was very angry, resentful, had resentment, anger, lack of empathy, loneliness, sadness, and said that he felt everything very heavy, including the dogs. So his response was to give away one or two dogs or just leave them on the street, which I and our daughters have accepted. That atmosphere became tense and said, I have not been able to stop giving meaning to the animals, and to the members of this family. I keep interpreting and I feel that painful things keep happening. So, if we take those stream of thoughts that Diana is sharing with us. Maybe we can, we can see that that the purpose for these stream of thoughts is to keep the mind from being at peace. The dogs seem to focus on the dogs, on the fighting and the violence when the dogs, the biting and on the family members, Miguel and the daughters and Diana and, and Miguel, all of them are thoughts. And the ego made this world to bring a reflection of conflict to bring a witness for conflict to the thoughts. So it's a sneaky plan to, first of all, believe in the ego seem to have attack thoughts will call them ego thoughts, a stream of ego thoughts past and future.  And you lose your peace. The purpose of this world is to reinforce the thoughts of the ego to reinforce them to make them seem real to make your mind seem to be unable to change the thoughts to change the way that you're thinking. And so this reinforcement is, is part of a sneaky trick to hold on to ego thoughts rather than letting them go. And so our first three workbook lessons were basically all about perception about what I'm seeing not mean anything about, about me giving everything I see all the meaning that it has and not understanding anything I see. And when there's a feeling of meaninglessness or feeling of anger or hurt or sadness, and it seems to be because of the things that are being perceived, then there's not really awareness of the thoughts that are underneath. And as I said, in workbook lesson number one, the purpose of these lessons is to show you that there is no world apart from your mind, there is no world apart from what you are thinking. So if you are thinking ego thoughts and perceiving an ego world, then you have to begin to start to question those thoughts. Do you really want to, to feed the ego, do you really want to, to try to think with the ego and think against God, or would you rather think with Scott. And that's where the guidance of the Holy Spirit comes in, because you're basically handing over those stream of thoughts and you're saying here, take my thoughts and now give me some thoughts as guidance that I can follow that will help me loosen my attraction to this distorted way of thinking that will actually take me toward the light within. So, if we did, there used to be a Jell-O, a dessert mix called Jell-O 123 and there was, you mix the Jell-O and the water and then it formed in the cup, you let it chill in the refrigerator and it had three different layers. We could say the top layer represents the perceptual world, and then the layer below it maybe represents the thoughts that you think are your good thoughts about the world and then the layer below that are the negative or upsetting thoughts that you think about the world. And then below all of that are the real thoughts, which is the light of truth, which the purpose is to reach the real thoughts, to think only the thoughts that I join, I think with God. And that will be a later workbook lesson my mind holds only what I think with God will be to go down beneath layer one, two, three down to the light of heaven and remember the truth of our being. So, that is a practical lesson for the day and thank you Diana for writing that in and giving us a context or a situation to work with with these things. And I know for all of you watching, whatever you seem to be going through today, that's what you want to do. You want to apply this lesson. And again, we're just at the beginning of these workbook lessons so you know if you have three or four practice periods, just today just pay attention and be aware of the thoughts that you're thinking. And many times, the mind is so caught up into actions and reactions and to do list and running around busy trying to achieve and accomplish that that there's not really an awareness of the thoughts but that's what today's workbook lesson is about it's just saying, be aware that the thoughts that are crossing your mind don't mean anything. Don't take them personally don't identify with them. And as you move forward in the mind training, it will be an opportunity, more and more and more to release those thoughts to Jesus and the Holy Spirit and say here you take them and give them back to me in a way that can be helpful in a way that I can use to bring a blessing instead of a grievance to bring happy lighthearted laughter instead of anger and jealousy and upset help me move in the direction of coming to you God, let me move toward the light. So thank you. Thank you so much for joining today. I love you I'm so grateful that you're practicing this course in miracles and get the picture of Jesus right behind me here. It's just a beautiful reminder for me as he's looking, looking toward the light and his, his arms are open looks like he's waving, waving to somebody and waving his home. That's what he's doing. Okay. Love you. God bless you.