So we have had a lot of fun and I'm so grateful for you guys and for me to have them here tonight. There's such blessings in my life. Thank you. Thank you. We're so glad you came. I'm just so grateful to be back to California. I just love the vibe coming out here to California and Sava has been wanting to come. We came out here once. I think she got to experience, what she got to experience of the entire LA area was Topanga, Kenya. So that was pretty mystical actually but she's like I would like to see some water and I would like to go to a beach and different things. So those were whims and we did. We were at the beach today enjoying everything. So I think just wanted to welcome everybody and I think it's we'll start off with a song from Sava to kind of help everybody relax and sink inward and she has received quite a few songs like over 137, something like that or something, something like that and she's received these songs from the spirit and then she yeah she went on YouTube she learned how to play the guitar, self-touch. She plays the keyboard for making albums and then she went into a recording studio and then she thought oh I think I I could get into mixing and mastering and distribution and so she's done the whole thing with intuitive guidance. Sometimes they have a comedian like Lily Tomlin does like a one woman show and she's had all these songs just come to her and through her and then she's able to layer her voice like Inya does and use digital electronics and so I think it's quite amazing uh the splits come through but you've got a song for us to sink inward. Yeah I'm so grateful to be here. It's loving it so much. Thank you all for coming and the song I'm gonna sing is called Eternal. If you know your own song. It's kind of hard to hear you. She sings much louder than she speaks. Yeah I should speak a little louder like that. Well it dawned on me that um after I started really tuning, diving into the course and listening to the guidance and hearing Jesus speak to me that yeah it's been and it came my first trip with Jesus. He guided me out west and this was the it's just the first city in California that I came to back in 1991 and it started off with the guidance after I've been immersing in the course and using it like an oracle and diving in and then Jesus was just telling me go west that's that's where it started with go west it wasn't it was to be a a journey of undoing preferences undoing judgments. Hi Rich. LA he's got his LA habit and LA ended up being where I was coming came out through I-40 took the southern route and to me spirituality and spiritual awakening is about living in joy living in the present moment and being in touch with your intuition the inner guidance and just following it and that's it living in presence in the moment and for me what became initially a study of many different spiritual traditions and spiritual teachers and a curiosity about spirituality it turned into a daily life so for me when I first picked up a course of miracles in 1986 I did have the strong feeling that this was to be lived and I really wanted to fully know what it means to live in the present moment because all the mystics and saints had talked about living in the present moment and most spiritual traditions do talk about guidance there are some non-dual traditions that that don't emphasize it it's more of an I'd say focus on meditation and stillness but of course the miracles says the Holy Spirit's voice can speak to you all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way to me that sounded very practical speak to me all through the day without interrupting my regular activities in any way so that was the great experiment was to go on a road trip and the road trip brought me out to LA among other places then it took me up to the bay area up to past Seattle out to Whitby Island and then across the the plains the northern plains and that was first trip was five and a half weeks and for me it was an opportunity to listen and follow because that was what I was told when I heard go west of course I was curious where am I going and it was like you will be told all that you need to know a moment by moment basis I'm not giving you a plan you're undoing I have five-year degree in urban planning and Jesus was basically saying I want you to become so intuitive I want you to become a hundred percent intuitive where you don't rely on your past learning for anything and I think I'm grateful now looking back to that 32 years ago because that was the beginning of of letting go of relying on past learning and becoming guided and just following the guidance and then as I went along with it deeper and deeper I was I was literally told day by day where to go where to stay I had no organizational support I had no church behind me I had no money in the bank I had no what the world would call means of support and after 10 years of university to be told go west I you can imagine some of the thoughts that I had I heard go west where will I stay where how will I eat how will I put gasoline in the car all the typical things you would think about it's prudent and practical and basically what I was being taught was Jesus was saying that just listen to my voice and I will tell you where to go what to do and I will take care of everything that that doesn't matter and I was quite curious about that like so let me get this straight you just want me to show up and be in joy and in purpose and then you'll take care of all the details sounded pretty radical to me that was nothing that my past learning 10 years full-time undergraduate and graduate had taught me it was all about preparing how to handle the world how to survive how to have a job how to have a career how to build a future how to carve out your niche in the world and society so that began a listen follow experience with guidance that has continued on for the last 32 years that was pretty radical for me at the time because it was really letting go of of job of career it was letting go of future ambitions it was letting go of all my goals for this world and life and I found that that was absolutely essential to fully merge in the present moment was to be freed up from future goals which were based on past learning to open to the present moment and that the present moment would always be fresh and clean and new and it started off as a really a grand experiment but after the first trip to LA and the first five and a half weeks that it went so well that I thought well this is this amazing I'm just going to continue with this and the course of miracles is teaching the same thing that all the great deep spiritual traditions teach which is empty your mind of everything you think you think and think you know and tune in to your holy spirit to Jesus to the present moment and everything will be taken care of it was pretty radical because in one sense Jesus was saying that that the guidance would handle everything and some of you know that line from the course trust would settle every problem now that is definitely an invitation to the present moment it seems radical from the ego perspective because it's like what what possibly could handle every problem now what could collapse the idea of problems specific problems into it an experience that that is just everything is perfect and everything is taken care of so to me spirituality really had to be practical and it had to be something that that I could give my heart and soul over to and then I couldn't even begin to tell you all the experiences that have occurred in these these 32 years it has been a sense always that that everything is taken care of and anything that was perceived as a problem was just an opportunity to give it over and that's what the course has taught me bring your illusions to the truth bring your perceptions of lack to the truth bring your struggles your challenges your pains to the truth bring the darkness to the light do not attempt to bring the light into the darkness if you do the ego will persist because you cannot bring truth to illusions you can only bring illusions to the truth so that was a basic tenet that I got from studying and practicing the course always always always bring the illusions to the truth and so what I've experienced too is that Jesus not only was speaking to me but he wanted to speak through me so that's been what's gone on some of you have followed along you spend 44 countries and different many different cultures China so some amazing experiences there some of the parables at the beginning I said do I am I going to have to make up parables and teach parables like you taught 2000 years ago it was the Jesus laughing said no you're going to live through so many things that you won't have to make them up like there was a man who had two sons you know no you're going to have such amazing experiences that when you're meeting with somebody and they're struggling with something one of the teachings you'll have probably like 10 parables that you could tell them and lots of examples and metaphors to help make it more practical for your brothers and sisters we want it practical we want it to be practical and meaningful we don't want ideas sailing over our our awareness we want things to meet us where we needed the most and so that's been the great great adventure and and also it's it's allowed me to just to kind of just be aware of the world I enjoyed reading books I enjoyed watching movies music I guess in those 32 years I've had I don't even know how many singer songwriters that have appeared because Jesus was saying yeah you can talk but let's complement it with some music so I've had singer songwriters one after the next after the next in different countries and different cultures translators show up it's just been amazing and and also it's been very practical because it's been able I've been able to show movies which I enjoy movies I think they're the modern day parables so that's also been something that's been wonderful for me because I like it to be as practical as possible so people can actually start to feel their heart open up so they can feel this love and this connection and this happiness and joy you know a lot of times I've just won't meditate and listen to music but it's just this this great joy so I think the important thing is is that that when we look at the teachings of the Course in Miracles it's teaching that the origin of this linear cosmos in this world is is the ego and Jesus says the world was made in hatred that is pretty radical I was raised Christian and I remember reading the first book of the Bible Genesis said God created the heavens and the earth and then Jesus is saying well it's half right God created the heavens God created eternity God is eternity and everything that comes from God is an eternal creation spirit creates like itself but this world is is temporary by nature this world is is is is an invention of the ego which the world was made in hatred and once you start to just begin to take that in you start to realize wow then I don't need to start to think of this world as my home I actually need to start to pray for help to see beyond this linear world beyond as Jesus says in the the Course uh lesson 128 is the world I see holds nothing that I want and then lesson 129 is beyond this world as a world I want so to me that became my prayer I want to I want to experience the happy dream I want to experience a world of non-judgment I want to see the world light up show me the light bring me the light as as I go along and that's been very very very practical for me to to go through it that way it's been a joyful journey and I have to say it just kind of continues with things that that drop in and or given over and and that's part of what brought us here that's what's brought us here do you have a song do you like to come in thank you thank you okay one of the things that I was struck with with my practice with the Course was that Jesus says miracles are involuntary and should not be under conscious control that is quite amazing because when we think of that word control it seems that there are things that we perceive in the world in our experiences of being human that we have had a desire to control and we have equated with this desire to control the body and the world with with intelligence with success with survival we really believe there are certain things that are good and well to control and over these lists of 35 36 years of working with the Course that's been the the most beautiful thing is is the experience of being able to watch the world with such a state of calmness and stillness and a very deep deep strong awareness that that nothing in the world can be different than it is Jesus says this in a Course where he says seek not to change the world seek rather to change your mind about the world so he's calling us into a perspective he's just saying there is a perspective in you that's so holy and this is the Holy Spirit's perspective and this is sometimes he calls it above the battleground come above the battleground or he will give us phrases like let all things be exactly as they are or he will say all things work together for good there are no exceptions except in the ego's judgment it's it's this sense that everything actually is in divine order everything that is happening is in divine order and yet you can only know it's divine order from this higher perspective so it's like that's why it's so important to be intuitive because the more you practice being intuitive the more you're taken you're merging your mind with this higher perspective and you can see that there's only one way that you could see that all things are working together for good he he says he gives us a clue where he says without judgment all things are equally acceptable so there's the key without judgment all things are equally acceptable this is echoing what jesus taught 2000 years ago when in the beatitudes and the sermon on the mount he said judge not lest you be judged he's basically saying that if you judge you are judging yourself and god didn't create you that way god didn't give you the ability to judge that was the ego that was the ego adding to spirit and saying well let's just try some judgment so in the course of miracles jesus says judgment arose as an invention of the ego in order to minimize fear while keeping it see how sneaky the ego is minimize fear while keeping it so that's of course we now we perceive a world of linear time where we have a judicial system we have prisons we have rules most public places you go you can either find the written rules for that public place or the unwritten rules for that sometimes we find out after the fact but when did that rule come from that's that's a given so so the ego tried to bring stability in what seemed to be a very chaotic state of mind which some traditions call the fall from grace or the course calls up the separation living in a state that's that's not what the creator created a state of of lack a state of need and and this state initially was experienced is very chaotic because the mind was used to just wholeness and love and oneness so the fall in experience from grace from wholeness into lack or wholeness into need was extremely chaotic and then the ego answered that chaos with i'll invent judgment to minimize the chaos sometimes people say can you give me an example i said well let's say there's like a preschool teacher and she leaves the room for about 20 minutes and while she's gone there's a food fight the preschoolers start pulling each other's hair throwing food there's food sticking on the ceiling coming down and the teacher comes back in the room and goes stop like stop stop stop okay all your little girls over there all the little boys over here and and the teacher tries to bring some order into the preschool room where it's gone berserk with food and everything like this that's like the ego trying to come up with an invention to manage fear and that's what judgment is it's a it's a device that was made to manage fear without letting it go you see how that also preserves the ego because the ego is fear so that's what all defenses do is they protect the ego in heaven there aren't any defense mechanisms there's no need for denial or repression or projection all the things we know from from psychology very i'm being a psychotherapist she could tell us oh there's a list of defense mechanisms but she's encountered in all of her counseling sessions over the many many years but they all were made by the ego with the purpose of of protecting itself of perpetuating the ego which is really just perpetuating fear recently uh Olivia Newton John passed away and i remember all those songs that i listened to for so many years that soothing voice and and uh lately on my phone uh on one of my playlists the song just keeps coming and playing over and over on the playlists and the name of the song is love is letting go of fear this is the title of Olivia Newton John's song it's the same title of Jerry Jim Palski's book which has been translated to many many languages all over the world love is letting go of fear and at the end of the song she has two words that that are very lengthy and she says them very present and very slowly so the whole song she sings love is letting go of fear and then she says let go the final two words and as she's just passed away i she's been like talking to me people pass away sometimes they come in my mind they keep singing to me serenading me talking to me let go let go of judgment now jesus said that 2000 years ago he said judge not lest you be judged i think probably those are probably the two most succinct words when you put them together what jesus taught you could you could say his entire teachings on planet earth could be boiled down to judge not that's that's it and i think experientially we all can relate to that because we do know intuitively that the only difficulty we ever face is when we're judging would be nice to be in that pristine state of mind of just beholding the glory and the perfection of of god and being totally in the present moment with no concerns or regrets about the past and no worries or concerns or plans for the future the other thing some of you might have heard of the gospel of thomas some of you may have heard of the gospel of thomas but there's another two word teaching from jesus and the gospel of thomas and it's very very famous and it's it's be passersby be passersby and i looked around the course to see if i could find anything in the course and and basically i found it in lesson workbook lesson 128 jesus says the only value that this world holds for you and when jesus starts a sentence with the only value that this world holds for you doesn't it get our attention don't you want to know how he's going to finish the sentence when he starts the sentence with the only value the world holds for you and then he finishes his sentence is that you pass it by be passersby judge not so there's even a section in the course called i need to do nothing and jesus talks about meditation and he talks about fighting against sin and he talks about contemplation he he says these means that will will succeed and have served others but your way will be different only relationship has given you so he's giving a method in a course of miracles that will actually save time you say yes meditation that will work contemplation good good fighting against sin tough one but it could succeed if you want to try it he says your way will be different holy relationship has given you as a means of saving time as a means of collapsing the alpha and the omega as a means of coming to the present moment which is what all spirituality is coming to the present moment and and even there he's saying if you would do one thing for me to show your allegiance allegiance do this one thing but but mean it mean it be sincere say and really mean i need to do nothing that of course with what we've been conditioned from the past can at times seem the most absurd thing i need to do nothing because our identity our self concept our image is tied into being the doer the body is not just a puppet in our experience on the string but it is an identity it has taken the place of our spiritual reality is the i am presence and what jesus is saying is well you need to make a quiet place in your mind which the activities of the body cease to demand your attention that's the ultimate aim of meditation that's the ultimate aim of be still and know that i'm god but the course is saying that if you are able to tune into guidance you will be done through in other words spirit will will use the puppet in a very purposeful way the spirit will speak through the puppet smile through the puppet left through the puppet hug through the puppet bring happiness and joy will be an instrument like st francis prayer lord make me an instrument of your peace and that alignment where you basically are giving up the control of the puppet you're giving up the ambitions that you placed on the puppet you're giving up your hopes for a future for the puppet you're you're giving up the desire to to literally control the puppet and you're literally saying it's yours that was my experience that i had back around 1986 when Course in Miracles first came into my life out here in southern california it's actually down in la joya a little bit south of here was when the course first came to me i could feel that the purpose of the book was to help me let go of the identity that i had held for years had built for years the self-concept that i had invested in was egoic so so to me this is a course that is so so direct at letting go of the false identity to experience the truth of what spirit is many traditions say the present moment is is the gateway to eternity and jesus says that in the course he says the past is gone the future is but imagined these concerns are but defenses against present change of focus so you can see true spirituality is really having the prayer of your heart to simply be fully present to the ego he says that's ridiculous that's that's unattainable but jesus repeats over and over in the course he says for example he says that no single instant does the body exist at all it is always remembered or anticipated so you can hear he's saying the same thing in many different ways he's just saying if you're willing to truly let go of all investment in the body and you will find the joy of god you will find the peace of god you will find that you you have no cares no concerns no worries he he calls us and he says that that can you imagine what it's like to have no cares no worries and no concerns and to be completely quiet all the time that is what time is for to learn just that and nothing more you see he's saying it over and over and over to be present now sometimes people will say well i would love like the like the jerry jampalski book love is letting go of fear i would like to let go of fear and jesus is saying that because the ego is fear because the ego is a death wish that those that seem to come to time and space whether they're conscious of it or not are death worshipers so that's a pretty strong it's a pretty strong teaching uh most of us think of ourselves in many different ways but maybe death worshiper is not the thing that we we have on our list what jesus is saying he says things that no pathway ever in history has ever said even non dual pathways the world was made as an attack on god a place where god can enter not that's from the workbook uh wow that's the world was made as an attack on god he's like no problem it was answered by the holy spirit and the holy spirit is the spirit of joy and so everything i'm going to teach you is going to teach you to tune into the holy spirit the holy spirit is a reminder that you're the christ the holy spirit is a reminder that you could never ever truly sin you can never ever truly separate yourself from god because god's will is for perfect happiness so there's no room in god's will for error there's no room in god's will for doubt there's no room in god's will for for separation and in the course we're offered what he calls the atonement the sole responsibility of the teacher of god with the miracle worker is to accept the atonement that's the correction he tells us you're not responsible for the error you are responsible for accepting the correction and then he goes one more step to say that's your only responsibility now for me that that is a very strong indeed teaching because when you hear jesus say that it's your sole responsibility and he means s o le only sole only one responsibility that's important because that responsibility has no guilt with it and anything else you accept in your mind responsibility for responsibility for the body responsibility for children responsibility for your your front yard getting moved your responsibility you know anything that you experience in this world where you project that responsibility to something of time and space is where the guilt is being generated you see how it works one responsibility takes you into innocence the awareness of innocence and the other takes you into holding on to guilt so what we would consider reincarnation is still an attempt to hold on to to guilt and and we're told even in a dispirited universe that that no one returns to earth without without guilt guilt like draws you back draws you into karma draws you into pain draws you into time draws you into repetition so so this this is to me this has been such a practical helpful course because it's basically said your function and your happiness are the same your function will set your mind free your function is forgiveness and nothing else and and and then it's a matter of of simply saying let me test that out let me let me try that out and see if that that really works and the good news is is that it does it does work it it takes your mind into that state of like being lifted up and carried above concerns worries the things of the world it's not that you don't have to face anything but it's that you experience that you are not ever facing anything alone you know that feeling of of heaviness like it's on my shoulders you know like oh my god this falls to me or i'm expected to carry this or i'm expected to be the one who who makes it happen i'm the go-to person or whatever we're very familiar with those things and and what it's shouldn't be like even coming out to here do la we hopped on the plane we flew here we came down we came to the luggage rack and then uh there were the two our two friends there and it said what's your name senta senta we had a big discussion about that name darin and senta were there at the very same moment that we arrived and it was beautiful that we uh we had those kind of things happening all the time of of meeting arriving tonight even we were going to meet at a restaurant and we got there at the very same moment those kind of little synchronicities those kind of things are are kind of like the humor of the universe the humor of the spirit saying oh look at this and then look at this and then look at this and that's what i mean by miracles are involuntary you don't have conscious control you don't have to figure it out you don't have to plan it you don't have to think what am i going to do to make this happen that's the biggest issue for of course the miracle students is this still this belief that i have to do something consciously to to bring about the miracle and and actually we don't we just have to desire it we just have to pray for it we're used to words too i mean the course is is 31 chapters 365 lessons and a manual for teachers but actually what it is is it's a book is saying prayer is medium miracles your prayer is so powerful what you pray for is how you draw god into your awareness we had lunch with jennifer today and she was she was so excited was telling her practice you know i listened to this i listened to this section from the course from you david and then the workbook lesson and then i do this and i do this this and this but was with joy this is my practice this is my daily practice and when your daily practice is joyful you're more likely to put your heart and soul on it if you have a thought like uh what have i got to do today you know if it if it turns into a task if it turns into something on the timeline you know okay i've got to fit it into my schedule today if it if it turns into something that you feel you're personally responsible for and that you literally have to personally do something to make it happen you have to personally effort then there's going to be a bit of resistance i would say be reluctant wouldn't you be reluctant if if you if part of your mind was going get it over with you know but if if you feel the joy of your devotion to god if you feel the joy when you do your course workbook lesson or you you do your meditation or you do your prayers and you feel the joy just bubbling up in your heart then that is going to everything that will make the practice what it is and eventually you know you can feel from this teaching miracles are involuntary that that you might say as your practice becomes more and more devoted and more and more joyful and more and more happy then what seems to be even the effort falls away because miracles are natural when they do not occur something has come isn't it nice that start to think that miracles are natural you go gliding through the day you feel like Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger like you're dancing through the day you know and your having fun and then you think wow this i think this is the way it's supposed to be it's actually supposed to be happy it's supposed to be light it's supposed to be joyful i have that sometimes i'll be just meditating i'll see the the puppet of david just kind of dancing like Fred Astaire hit my mind with this with a bubbly kind of sense of joy like yes that's it it's a dance it's a dance we have love in our heart we have joy in our heart it's a dance it's a dance it's a dance and then there are no problems in the dance so you have a song that could capture that spirit the journey home okay that's good wait it's crazy see wake me from the please take me and breathe it's so dark here i can't see please take me and breathe again it's true thank you marjorie let there be light she's like i can do that for all of us you know the practicality is is like wouldn't it be great to laugh more frequently wouldn't it be great where you just didn't have to laugh at jokes but you started to feel the cosmic humor in everything the gentle cosmic humor the gentle laughter of the spirit nothing is really the matter you are safe you are home you can start to see the humor in the tiniest tiniest little things and and that your life becomes more comical it's like Dante called the divine comedy but but it's not a it's not a comedy that involves putting anything down it's it's a comedy that just is so light that just allows everything to be exactly as it is without any desire to change it for me that has been the most important thing is that that when you devote your life to spirit god whatever you want to call it to your intuition the the immediate effect of that decision is a lightness you start to feel a lightness you feel you're not carrying a burden anymore when you give your life over we've had judy sketch my friend judy sketch witchen it was the publisher of the course she passed away it was last year when my mother passed away too and we had jerry jimpulski passed away jerry jimpulski he loved the course here was a psychiatrist who got so led up with the course of miracles and and jerry i think jerry's favorite line from the course was this the peace of god is my one goal the aim of all my living here the end i seek my purpose and my function and my life while i abide where i am not at home wow that's pretty single-minded my purpose my function my life what a teaching that says if you focus your mind on your purpose with the holy spirit everything will click in i remember the first time i read this setting the goal section in the course where jesus said if you set the goal out front if you put the goal first and you set it out front then you will perceive everything and everyone in each situation as as working together for the good as as actually all supporting that purpose but with ego we're not used to putting that purpose in front we have too much past learning we already decide what do i want to come of this situation so jesus repeats it again rules for decision at the end of his text he's basically saying your one remaining problem is that you decide first what you want to come of the situation and then you ask that's your one remaining problem you decide first what you want to come of a situation we know how that works habitually if you have children what do i want to come of this situation with my daughters with my children what do i want to come of this work situation maybe you're a sports fan what do i want to come of this california angels game it's playing tonight we were sitting at the at the restaurant before we came here and and they this baseball game going on saba knows nothing about american football american baseball he said no it's the california angels and mike trout is coming up to bat i said oh he's he's the franchise so as soon as i said he's the franchise boom he hits a home right on the spot as soon as i said he's the franchise but it's like everything we perceive is exactly as we wish it to be it's it's hard to believe at first that your mind could be that powerful but jesus is saying that everything that happens to me i ask for and receive as i have asked uh there's a part uh in in the workbook where he says um what happens is what i desire and what does not occur is what i do not want to happen that's a little bit like remonna marshy you know what he used to teach what happens is what i desire and what what does not occur is what i do not want to happen he's basically saying our mind that nothing not just in our personal lives but nothing in the entire cosmos happens without our desire and then what jerry jimpulski his favorite quote was a piece of god is my one goal do you want the piece of god more than you want outcomes you know maryan williamson said early on of course she said do i want the piece of god or do i want him to call meaning like in a date do i want him to call back or do i want the piece of god that's that's the question always the question do i want the piece of god and then what i discovered is now i can start to put my mind into that but the more i put my mind into this piece of god into this purpose then the more i just held everything is working out very synchronistically very serendipitously very much without effort uh but i don't i don't i could fredestair ginger roger dance you know it's a happy dance when you don't have any outcomes in mind everything is taken care of because it says once you accept his plan as the one function you would fulfill there will be nothing else holy spirit will not arrange for you without your effort what without my effort you see it's a very very very very high teaching but it's only experienced by the practical application by the devotion to it you devote yourself to it and you receive the blessings and the benefit from from it all that i give i give to myself it just it's just very good now practically speaking i remember i was raised in kind of a sports family and of course i was raised you know that's all education was you know your job your career and everything i did remember i popped the book open in the early years back in the 1980s and i remember reading the line where jesus said never underestimate the need to be vigilant against he's got my attention when jesus said never underestimate the need to be vigilant against the idea of competition but this whole world is based on competition the economic system is based on competition the sports competition the political system is based on competition the fabric underneath this entire world of time and space is based on the belief in competition and what do you need to have competition you have to have opposites you have to have two there could not be competition in one and so you can just imagine you know when in the parable of david when you're 28 years old you're supposed to be well underway into your curriculum of competition by 20 28 years old yours what is the purpose of an education if it's not to help you to compete in the marketplace what is the purpose of of learning if it's not to learn to compete and if we look at nature you know marlin perkins and all the survival remember those those things it's the killer be killed world the animal kingdom is in competition the there's a competition in so many different levels in so many different realms and then jesus comes along and i have to say that hit me hard i think i was in my 20s but i read never underestimate the need to be vigilant against competition now that was helpful for me but i actually was more like okay i'll do that but actually what do you want me to focus on because if i'm not if i'm going to be so vigilant against the idea of competition i have a feeling you're going to unwind me from career from job from family from everything that this world is about if we're going in that direction and and jesus was just saying yeah you remember your sole function is to be a miracle worker i will perform miracles through you but you have to be willing for me to use your your mind and your body to do that and what a magical 30 some years it's been in that mode because the the doors open up the blinders come peeling off your eyes you start to be able to look you know at the world in a new way that you've never seen it before like you're seeing it for the very first time like our cat who every day is going around sniffing every single thing in the house like she's never seen it or smelled it before it's a great symbol you know when this cat comes out and it comes up to your your foot starts sniffing your toe again for the every single day what this is the kind of symbols the holy spirit is sending in so preciously innocent so symbolic of of no past always the sniff everything gets the sniff test you pack the luggage oh that's an inspector coming in for that you know gotta get in and sniff every bit of it it's actually delightful when you when you see a critter like this creature like this that is so clueless that you start to think wow could i be that clueless and if i was that clueless would i be safe you know in a world of defenses would i be safe to be that clueless remember what jesus said in the bible blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth and of course in my defenselessness my safety lies so to me that's been what an adventure i've had people there was sometimes where i was just like is this going to work jesus you know somebody threatening threatening something you ever get a threatening letter in the mail or a threatening email or something or threatening voicemail and then you go who and then jesus says give it to me give it to me let me take that let me take that perception of the threat you just pray and give it to me and that's it but but how how am i supposed to defend myself you're not you're not but is that practical you're not to defend yourself give it to me even when in the period of a course of miracles there they got into a legal struggle over the ownership of a course of miracles i remember i was traveling around and there was a i heard there's a lawsuit there's an actual lawsuit with with attorneys and defense attorneys and the sides and all this and this and then i heard there's two lawsuits and then there's three lawsuits and then four or five there was at one point i think i was traveling and they were telling me there's actually six live current lawsuits running about the ownership of the words in the course of miracles and then people i was giving talks and people were saying which side is right and i was like which book are you reading what do you mean which side is right just jesus ever ever once in the course of miracles say you should take a side not once not once be defenseless be completely defenseless be me even explains what he meant in the bible we shall inherit the earth he says it they will literally overtake the perception of the earth with their strength if we don't judge our mind is so strong because our mind is God created it's a it's a beholder of love it beholds love in everything it looks upon when we don't judge and when we judge we meet out that judgment on our own mind we we just take it upon ourselves so for me the most practical thing is i i did say to jesus you know i said well that's a pretty tall order not to judge and he said well why don't you then let the holy spirit go before you and judge for you why don't you listen to the holy spirit who will judge for you if you have a decision to make he will tell you what to do if you have a concern or you have to make a decision he will make the decision with you and it will bring joy to your mind and to everyone so to me that was the strongest pull to listen and follow the holy spirit it was tempting i i mean you know raised with parents and that sister and ten years of university it was tempting it was tempting to fall back on past learning and think occasionally like well i think i have a plan here i think i know what's going on here in this situation and then jesus would remind me again don't you remember that part in the early lessons of the course i told you in no situation do you perceive your best your own best interest not in some in not a single situation do you ever perceive your best interest and then if you are open to that then you will be shown what what your best interest is which is the holy spirit's perspective but in no situation do you perceive your own this interest that wants to draw me more to watch that cat and the cluelessness of that that's sniffing everything as if it doesn't know what it is with a curious nose i do sometimes call her the nose it's my nickname because the nose because the nose is like first time what's this and and yet she does live a graceful life clueless and grace i gave a talk at our course of miracles monastery one time and i those are the three words that came out clueless carefree and cared for and my friend at the time lila her eyes just got real big and i think the first time she heard those three words she just took that as a motto and she's passed away now but she became so joyful living clueless and carefree and cared for she had to let go of a lot she was she was in the corporate world when i first met her and she had to drop out like st francis slowly unwind unwind into that state of life of grace just a grace of god well i actually i put this chair up here because we have one mic here where this mic and i thought i love practicalities if anybody wants to come up and and share anything or ask the question ask a question or dive into something because for me it's all about the practicality of it and that's the greatest joy for me is the practicality so in this world that that can be kind of fun to to kind of explore something together that's what i grew up watching videos of like j christian merdy exploring a topic and i felt so much joy in my heart watching him explore a topic because he was basically a letting go of what was believed to be real and important and then kind of going down into an experience of just joyful acceptance so if anybody wants to come i thought i put a chair because it's easy for me to best quick one yes i have also read in the course that we are to love everyone and everything and i'm wondering i could see loving everyone that means all the spirits here but does that include whales, cockroaches, rattlesnakes, all living things question is what does the course mean by all living things very good that's a good question what because i know that is in the workbook all living things you guys come with those exact words well what i came to was he Jesus referred me to workbook lesson 29 and workbook lesson 30 god is in everything i see which is 29 i'm sorry that would work pretty well with all living things god is in everything i see and then lesson 30 because god is in my mind so is jesus trying to teach us that god is in the rattlesnakes and the cockroaches and the whales and the giraffes and ants and everything else no in philosophy we would call it pantheism that god dwells in objects god is in the chair so when jesus is doing these two lessons 29 and 30 god is in everything i see because god is in my mind which lesson number 30 he's explaining himself he's basically saying that the holy spirit remember the holy spirit is god's representative for a mind that's asleep and has forgotten eternal love the holy spirit is the bridge back so we could say what two ways we could interpret lesson 29 and lesson 30 is the holy spirit is in everything i see because the holy spirit is in my mind the holy spirit is the perspective i was talking about earlier that simply sees the false is false what is true is what god creates god creates the eternal our rattlesnakes eternal no our you know ants or any body are they eternal of course not yeah anything so god is the creator of eternity and god creates like himself so for example you know even in this world we get we get apples from apple trees we get pears from pear trees we get oranges from orange trees and we say the fruit comes from the the vine or the grape the vine the the branch or whatever and and what course is teaching is that god is an eternal being god has no beginning and no end god is eternity and that christ is an eternal creation and that that christ even has eternal creations and that our creations are waiting for us to wake up so we can remember them because while we are identified with bodies we've forgotten our creations what christ even has creations but they're all spirit they're all we spear they're not form there's even a line in the be on our idle section where jesus says god knows not form now we're going back to lessons 29 and 30 if god is in everything i see because god is in my mind then the holy spirit is in everything i see because the holy spirit is my mind it must be that there's a way that the holy spirit sees that is real that is real it doesn't have these dense vibrations that we call bodies because we all know even in quantum physics that everything's energy right but there's some energy that's vibrating and slower denser rates and we call that the physical world even though god didn't create those slower denser you know those denser vibrations god's not like oh i think i'm gonna create some dense vibrations you know god god has love and life and god just creates like god so so basically when he says we're to love all living things he's basically calling us to the vision of christ and he's calling us to the holy spirit's perspective where he's just saying you just have to first of all forgive and he also says god does not forgive for god is never condemned so forgiveness doesn't have anything to do with god but it does have everything to do with the holy spirit because the holy spirit is the comforter he's the bridge he's the one that's going to help us and you could say that this vision is is the whole point of a course of miracles and for me it's one thing where people say okay i'm trying to follow this jesus but i can't wrap my head around it and jesus is saying i don't want you to wrap your head around this because this is not something that involves your head or your past learning or your intelligence this is something that involves prayer prayer is the meaning of miracles so in my experience i remember i took the course to the woods of kentucky and i was just praying and praying and i left everything behind i'm just down there praying and praying and praying all day night praying and praying praying and then at one point i i kept praying so much that i was a bit shocked and surprised that i had a revelatory experience where the three-dimensional world just all of a sudden looked didn't look three-dimensional i started to collapse i could do two-dimensionality and then it was gone i went into direct contact with with god with the light and that was a very powerful experience because there was nothing anything in earth on earth that i had that was anything like it it was like it was like a direct contact with god and then i just kept praying and praying and praying and praying and it happened the second time and then it happened the third time and and i could say that was very convincing you can only imagine i guess you can't really imagine but if you can only feel what the experience was like because the world was gone it was the disappearance of the universe that gary harden a person to talk about but but to me that showed me that there was a light that was not of the five senses that was beyond like the world was a veil and the veil was was split and then it disappeared it literally seemed like that while i was doing i was doing open-eyed eye gazing meditation with a woman three different times where we were just sinking deeper and deeper into the stillness and then her figure the figure ground of her and the background collapsed and then the light just streamed through and then the world disappeared so so when jesus is saying we have to love every living thing he's not actually speaking of perception because perception of the five senses is literally the veil of fragmentation it's like the veil anybody see the matrix when neo first goes to meet morpheus morpheus says the world was has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth and then neo is like what is the truth and basically morpheus is teaching him that the matrix is real he's teaching what the horse is teaching in lesson one third 152 there no one 133 he's teaching 132 there is no world he's he comes in one sentence there is no world now this is not so different now from now we're looking at quantum physics because quantum physicists have said the same thing that jesus is saying is there is no world it's it's all energy and what we perceive as the cosmos time and space is just dense dense energy in in india they call it maya they call it maya which is another word for illusion so so it is a metaphor when he says all living things he's not making a category he's not saying that snakes and and elephants and giraffes are more living than rocks or rivers you see there's no hierarchy of illusion all his first principle is there's no order of difficulty miracles and then later on he restates that there is no hierarchy of illusions what an adventure we're on can you imagine that there's no order of difficulty and miracles that jesus could raise the dead pull lazarus out of a out of a crypt and say come forth and lazarus comes in with these stinky gray clothes on and you can only imagine what mary and martha thought when their brother who was dead for the bible says three days but i think in rancher book it says four days four days stinky gray clothes and then jesus comes along and the first thing he says to mary and martha and the bible is is they're crying and weeping lord if you'd just been here just a few days sooner our brother would not have perished and then jesus says this one is not to the death what is he talking about this one is not to the death and then lazarus come forward so that is a dramatic miracles in the bible literally there's no order of difficulty and miracles so there was no levels of sickness some people say david what is the worst sickness that you've ever come across i said well death lazarus was by any medical definition that's a bad case he's he's been dead for four days and he stinks the body stinks now that is sick by any definition any nurse or doctor that's very very bad dead for four days and yet come forth so what jesus is saying is now i want you to practice this in your daily life i want you to just pray and ask the holy spirit what to say and what to do so that you can be taken back back back back back in your mind to a point where you realize that love is real remember that carol king song only love is real does anybody remember that only love is real everything else illusion adding to the confusion the way we connive at being alive chasing chasing and then till we can sign the thing that allows us to feel only love is real wow that's carol king is teaching what the course is teaching in that song only love is real and something in us resonates with that we something in us knows absolutely that's true only love is real and and yet the mesmerism Mary Baker Eddie talks about the all the the trickery of the ego and genius at fooling the mind that into these these things specialness this one is more important than that one this thing is more important than another even that that we can tell the difference between birth and death or that we can tell the difference between dead and living right what's the movie salaris at the very end of the movie the wife returns again for the third time only to tell the psychiatrist psychologist played by George Clooney when he says am i dead or am i alive her answer is we don't have to think like that anymore that's quantum when your wife returns three times and tells you we don't have to think like that anymore that's Jesus that she's representing Jesus Christ saying you are an eternal being you have eternal life and nothing can keep you from remembering that it's inevitable that you'll wake up and remember the way that God created you so that's that's like a long answers to about the living things but he's just using a he's just using kind of a metaphor yeah but take us take us back into the thank you very much anybody else carl didn't come up here but he asked it from you got one over here we got one two yes well you made a couple of references there to the matrix and salaris um could you uh just in a nutshell explain uh the idea behind the mindful movie watching that we referenced to in the book over there about yeah yeah i think i mentioned earlier how i was saying to jesus am i going to have to invent parables that he was like no no no in fact there came a point i loved the movie so much and then jesus would be praying praying praying he would say let's go to the movie theater or let's rent something blockbuster back when there was a blockbuster and and he would like start giving me commentary while i was watching the movie and he was like giving me instructions and commentary which wasn't new because in the early years like in 1990 i went to spend time with ken and gloria and then i was back there a few times 1990 1991 and when i would be listening to ken jesus was giving me commentary in my mind of what ken was teaching he was pointing things out pay attention here look at this look at this i don't get it here's some examples you know like you almost if you had like a life coach an eternal life coach in your mind that was like and here's the commentary so for me when i started watching star trek and started watching movies and everything i thought wow these movies are kind of like hollywood movies and movies from india bollywood i said these are like parables and he said exactly these are teaching devices and i can use them to give you instruction while you're watching the movie so that's what the movie watchers guide to enlightenment it's it it gives like like maybe you're dealing with a certain issue and then you kind of go through it or online you can even use the index like you you say i'm feeling guilty or i'm feeling doubtful or feeling like uh my issue is infidelity or my issue is um lack or whatever and then it cross references movies that help help you move through that stuck point with that maybe stuck in a major issue and then it helps you locate the movies and then i started doing them online so like right now i'm in the middle of showing a turkish series i'd never watched a turkish movie in my entire life or a turkish sitcom or soap opera but jesus brought in this one movie called doom of love and it was an amazing teaching device that went all the way to transcendence it went all the way to the real world in the movie where one of the main characters appeared two other characters even though he had died it was it was like a in one sense like a resurrection scene of transformed awareness and then this other one i've been showing i've been showing a couple episodes online and and i'd love how practical these teaching devices are we'll go the week and then sometimes sometimes as early as monday or tuesday but we we were just shown the movie that were to to show and so that's another way we keep it practical people write in their themes or they vote on the things that they're dealing with the most things that they're struggling with the most and then we pray and then jesus gives us the movie or the episode and the commentary he sets it up through me and then he gives commentary all the way through so it's a very fast way of um of of coming free of these uh these dark thoughts and beliefs you know it's kind of a quick way and people have felt that i'm rich you know with romano mars people would just go and and sit in the cave or in the presence and then things that seem to be difficulties before they went there would just start vanishing from their mind because minds are joined and the the light was so bright that that the darkness couldn't couldn't hang on it literally just start to fall away so that's how you know i use movies and those kind of things a lot they're very very joyful i'm going to follow your instructions thank you you got a david i met you about seven years ago and i remember over there over over there by the beach and i asked you about 30 questions um the course for me i've been studying about 20 years and my big takeaway and it's been like this for about five years is that we're all connected he created uh got created this sunship calls it all our minds are connected uh i studied networking in college and i think of it as uh like my phone or my pc has a network card and that i have these downloads he talks about in like the first page you know vertical downloads and that he helps me with the downloads and i like your your puppet example really bring my chimes that i want these downloads i want to i want to empty my my minds of my brain whatever of any obstacles hindrances get these downloads and that's what i was created for that's uh in the course one of the things i pick up on that a lot of people don't pick up on is to work what what am i the question is what am i not who am i i believe is what i what i made up what am i is what he created me connected with everyone so cool i did one this that we're all one i've heard people talk about uh something like if there's eight billion people and they're and it's all like think of them as eight billion brain cells that pick up one brain that we're all connected when i studied networking all the all the we're all like t8000 cisco routers we receive and right now i'm transmitting to 30 people of bluetooth there's like there's this connected we're all connected and we're all communicating all the time with energy and everything so this is what he made and i believe that i have this life he's in the course i pick up on the line that says life is a gift and when i sit in course meetings when i read the course you know i have this life he created me with these eight billion other people having this really funky experiences in the way of mastery he talks about to be a spiritual being is boring to be here is a very fascinating experience jesus wrote jesus channeled through the um in the way in the way of mastery he says uh i want to be in a physical experience more it's more it's more rich and experience than being just a spirit so i'm here i have in this life i've got a kid i've got a wife i've got you know i have a very good life um in the way of mastery says like think about what your experience here what level of experience you want to have and then you can kind of make it manifest and i have you talked a little bit about it today or you go through in your dancing through your days that's helped me do all that in this life when i sit in course meetings people it's all a dream it's not real and i'm like well there is a life it is a gift i want to hear someone like you talk about the difference between the dream and what is my life what he created all of us together he created something here and i hear that minimized that's what i hear and i kind of appreciate my life and i appreciate what he made what he made and and i'm trying to think in terms of i'm one with everybody you know and that's what he's teaching me through the course david here you're one with every good release no david there's there's just everybody in my my problem and i have one is that i think that i'm this individual can you talk about that yeah thank you david well what i've come to experience is that when i asked jesus like what is the function of the body and jesus said the holy spirit only sees one function for the body and that's communication i thought oh wow peter that's amazing you mean that of all the invented functions for the body we could talk about all the different jobs and roles and family roles and and romantic roles and and on and on and on and on of all the seeming will say trillions and trillions of different purposes and meanings and roles and functions for the body and jesus says no no it's much simpler than that the body is only a communication device for the holy spirit so then i was like okay then then really knowing my myself as light as an eternal being is equated with the holy instant and then i started to look very closely at those holy instant passages how does this communication relate to the holy instant and jesus basically said if you would would share and be in full communication with everyone and everything then you must not have any private thoughts i was like that sounds really cool you mean to tell me that this is all a communication function we're getting close to our darling johnson you're the camp outside way very good see how practical we are there's a camp outside thank you darling thank you for coming but you see how i was like okay if he's teaching us the holy instant is where you go completely join with with your brothers your sisters and with god and you do this by having no thoughts that you would keep private and hidden i thought that's great it's a communication solution see how practical you say i've got a wife i've got kids and everything and jesus is like yeah so i i studied a lot of spirituality through history and you know st francis and mother trisa and the scenes and all of them the apostles and on and on and i remember with these mystical communities and these convents and monasteries i remember they had to take vows you know remember the vows you take vow to be a nun you take a vow to be a monk poverty chastity and obedience that was the vows you had to take and jesus said well poverty really doesn't mean poverty the way you think of poverty it means non-possession oh i can see that if if i can have a mind that's non possessive i could realize my oneness and then chastity he said is purity of thought and i oh that's good too if i can be non-possessive and go for jesus taught that in the bible blessed are the pure of heart for they shall seek out remember that you oh that's what the that's what that's about and obedience what if that just is obedience to the holy spirit to listen to one voice to follow one voice to just let the one voice of voice for god speak through me all through the day and speak to me and through me all through the day you see so that's where we came up david and with a practical when i said to jesus how what's the most practical way for me to reach you god through my relationships because you're saying that's you just want to be on the network that's here's you're just saying i want to be connected on the network and he's just saying if you have no thoughts that you would keep private and hidden then you will know communion you will know communion with the creator with the source so in the most practical way that's for me the way that you move into an awareness that you're dreaming a dream is by not keeping secrets and not having anything private and you can see if you go all the way with that wow no private thoughts and i call it no people pleasing will transform all of your relationships if you practice every day no private thoughts and no people pleasing watch how everything lights up isn't it the secrets that always get us in trouble if you watch these formulas for the movie you at the beginning of the movie usually the first 10 or 15 minutes of the movie sometimes there's a secret and then the whole movie plays out around the secret that's the formula of the movie but if you if if that would have been openly just like ah here's i'm gonna let go of this if you let go of the secret then the drama disappears the conflict disappears if you can actually practice no private thoughts no people pleasing with your daughter with your husband with your daily interactions with your children with everyone then give a practical example well you know in in business for example people would say maybe your boss might say well you know you don't don't give away any of our trade secrets because that gives us a competitive edge and we are we can earn more money and win more contracts um by these certain secrets or there can be certain things in relationships where people will say oh you don't you don't want to really tell your partner that because that could cost you the entire relationship in this world it's it seems customary to keep secrets and it's because the guilt this generated in the mind comes from this belief that you can have private thoughts god didn't actually create us to have private thoughts private thoughts are are what makes humans seem to be human seem to be less than christ so yeah to me it just goes like even this series i'm showing i'm doing a lot of commentary we watched an episode together you and i and saba but you can start to see that that all of the stress all of the strain all of the struggle and all of the hiding and defensiveness comes from the belief in private thoughts so to me david you were asking like what's the most practical way that i can really fully realize that i'm on i'm on this giant network is that actually only the thoughts of god can be shared and that's what jesus came to teach you know how is that practical i remember when i used to read the bible and i was raised christian and everything but the one thing i'd like to read was i always was drawn to the new testament and i was always drawn to the bread letters because those were the letters that jesus was speaking and when i was reading the red letters my heart was going like this good good good good stuff good stuff can i read more i just loved reading the red letters now the reason i now i think i love the red letter so much was jesus was speaking for god and for everyone he never had to be concerned and and tone down his message for a person or for a rabbi or for the authorities he didn't let anything stand in his way from speaking for the whole universe he was he had like a megaphone out for the whole universe i am the way the truth in the life whoa that's some kind of red letters you know and when we read them we we have a joy in our heart so carol is giving me the time signal we've we've reached our time tonight but what what a blessing it has been i hope some of the things i've shared have been good food for thought and uh yeah we have a lot of stuff that we share online and everything so if you want to maybe check out a movie or with us or check out some other some previous movies or some some of the teachings i hope you'll avail yourself and saba has how many albums three three different albums yeah so what do they call and i just gotta say one thing for me the greatest part too for the course is connecting with other people and sharing and and having those connections sometimes we don't always have thank you thank you all for coming