Welcome. Thank you all for coming this morning. Hi. Hi, Nikita. Well, I thought we would start off with some music today, and Ricky is here, all set up over there. I heard some practice tunes coming through there. I did. I did. No private sounds. Ricky comes to us today pretty much fresh off the Quantum Love Tour, so she's been touring, and this is another stop on the tour. Yes. It's beautiful to think of that. Yeah. Yeah, just like a few days off the tour. So it's good to be here. I'm so happy to be landed. I see you all here happy. It's seeping into my pores all the joy, so thank you. So, you have something you feel something, or you want to open it up like there did any kind of request? What do you feel? I could be open for a request, I think. I had right of a lifetime, and I need to know a lot, so. Yeah. Thank you yesterday for everybody. I feel like everybody stopped to give me love, and it was just, it was everything. It's very healing, so. I'm just very grateful, so keep it coming. Doesn't want to see anything crash. After this coming to mind, I believe Gandhi said it. It's a good way to kick this off. An eye for an eye, making the whole world blind.  It's almost like a reversal of the golden rule, do unto others as you would have others do unto you. It's more like I for an eye, it's like what you did to me, I'm going to do back to you. It's like a reversal of the golden rule. And the whole world is blind when there's revenge, when there's a motive of getting back, really getting anything, but getting back at someone. That's where hatred, that's where the seed of hatred is sown, an eye for an eye. The tooth for a tooth, it's like what you did to me, I'll do to you. And then there's another one that came to mind too, the blind leading the blind and both fall in the pit. They're kind of graphic images, blind leading the blind and both fall in the pit.  Because it could be quite a trust walk with many, many difficult things including pits that you might fall into if you're just holding on or following someone that literally can't see where they're going. And it's interesting that this is a world of duality, so this is a world of leaders and followers where even sayings like that make any sense, the blind leading the blind. And I would say that the present moment or the spirit in the moment is the equalizer. It's really, that's what forgiveness is about. It equalizes all the images of the world and shows us their sameness so that we can be steady and at peace, not pursuing some, thinking that some images will free us and some images will imprison us, but just seeing actually that when we're seeing a fragmented world and we're seeing differences and we're seeing emphasis on differences, that it's literally about being blind. And what comes to mind is when you think of, like if I threw the word out blind, a lot of times people will say, associations come to the mind, like Helen Keller or Stevie Wonder or different ones. Helen Keller would, you know, for deafness when you talk about the senses. But I would say that that's the trick of the whole world that when we talk about someone being blind, you think of someone who's lost their eyesight and someone who's not blind is someone who still has their eyesight. But both of those are actually the same. It doesn't seem that way in the world. It can seem like a big difference when there's such a focus on the five senses and perceiving through the five senses. But blind and not blind are actually the same. They're just two different categories that don't have anything to do with reality. And what we need to do is start to see their sameness in order to come to what I would call spiritual vision. A lot of times people talk about what's the goal. And we talk about peace of mind. We can talk about forgiveness. We can talk about being in the present moment. But I thought today to kind of launch us all, because we're going to have a very interactive session today. But to launch us all today, I actually did something I haven't done. I don't really see this book very often, but this book is called A Course in Miracles. And I haven't seen one of these. I was walking around today and I found one. I went, oh my gosh, it's like a relic around here. But I actually just popped it open and it was kind of neat because I could see that there was something that was coming as a message for me to talk about today. And so some of you might be familiar with it and others not. But I thought I would just read through the first maybe nine or ten lessons and then I want to get into the depth of what this is all about, really. Because if we lose focus on things and our life gets complicated and we seem to have many different pursuits, it's very difficult and challenging when your mind gets set on many different goals and many different strivings. You lose track of the simplicity. So I'm just going to read through the first, we'll say ten lessons then I'm going to spring into this. Lesson one is nothing I see in this room on the street from this window in this place means anything. I have given everything I see in this room on the street from this window in this place all the meaning that it has for me. I do not understand anything I see in this room on the street from this window in this place. These thoughts do not mean anything. I am never upset for the reason I think. I'm upset because I see something that is not there. I see only the past. My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts. I see nothing as it is now. My thoughts do not mean anything. Now that covers it. When you actually go through those first ten lessons, did any of you ever have the why question arise with any of those? Imagine reading lesson number one. Nothing I see means anything. Did anyone ever have a little voice come in your mind and go, why? Why? Or maybe that's pretty radical and why? So it was interesting today because I just I have not seen one of these books for the longest time but I saw one and I popped it open and I popped it open to lesson 29 and this is what it said. It actually emphasizes in bold. The idea for today explains why you can see all purpose in everything. It explains why nothing is separate by itself or in itself and it explains why nothing you see means anything. In fact, it explains every idea we have used thus far and all subsequent ones as well. Today's idea is the whole basis for vision. So when I read that paragraph I thought, well, this is an important idea. Remember, he just says saying, this is an awakened mind saying it explains why nothing you see means anything. In fact, it explains every idea we have used thus far and all subsequent ones as well. Every idea that we have used so far, there's a 600 and some page text that comes before those lessons and then there's a lot that comes after the manual and all subsequent ones. So what is this idea? I'll share it with you today. You can see that it might be kind of important. Everyone's like, what? Did I miss that one? What is it? And really here it is. This is the idea, the idea for today. It's very short. God is in everything I see. That's the idea. Wow, talk about a key. The idea that explains why nothing I see means anything. And every subsequent idea that you'll ever come across, that's important. Now, I was in university for 10 years so I studied philosophy among other things and many different spiritual pathways. In fact, I was just interviewed on Buddha at the gas pump. Has anybody ever heard of Buddha at the gas pump? Very non-dual sight with non-dual teachers from all over the world. So I think there was a few people here. I think Jenny was one of them pushing to get me on there. Actually I interviewed David. So anyway, I went on there and I knew in the course of our, whatever, two plus hour interview, we would get into some depth because Rick is really well-versed. He's really studied his philosophy, his metaphysics and lots of non-dual teachers. And we got into this too. It's kind of interesting because there is a branch of philosophy that says literally that God indwells in everything. God indwells in objects. It's called pantheism for those of you that aren't familiar with philosophy. Like God indwells in this cup and in this table, in this body, in this shoe, in the shoestring. So what this lesson does, it's such an important lesson. He does give us a little disclaimer. It's nice when you get such an important idea as this.  If every idea that I've ever had, including explaining why nothing I see means anything and all subsequent ideas, it must be an extremely important idea. So it's important for me to really grasp it in the fullest sense. He says, disclaimer, you will probably find this idea very difficult to grasp at this point. He's kind of saying, don't get too frustrated with this one. This is the big granddaddy. This is the mother of all ideas. So don't get too disappointed if you go, what? Or, huh, with this one because we're going to go into it together very deeply today. You may find it silly, irreverent, senseless, funny, even objectionable. Certainly God is not in a table, for example, as you see it. Yet we emphasize yesterday that a table shares the purpose of the universe. And what shares the purpose of the universe shares the purpose of its creator. Try then today to begin to learn how to look on all things with love, appreciation, and open-mindedness. You do not see them now. Would you know what is in them? Nothing is as it appears to you. Its holy purpose stands beyond your little range. When vision has shown you the holiness that lights up the world, you will understand today's idea perfectly. And you will not understand how you could ever have found it difficult. And then as usual it gets very practical where he starts with practice. God is in this coat hanger. God is in this magazine. God is in this finger. God is in this lamp. God is in that body. God is in that door. God is in that wastebasket. That's right. He's even using garbage to apply the idea that God is in everything I see purposely to take us away from thinking that some things are holy and sacred and some things are not. And we know throughout spirituality that that's a temptation. Holy rivers. Holy water. Holy people. Saints. Holy energies. Hope did you go in. Did you feel that vibe in that ashram? It's a holy energy. Let's go to McDonald's and talk about it. What is the holy energy is everywhere.  You know you have to realize how happy you would be to know the experience of God is in everything I see. And he mentioned the word vision. It's a very important kind of word. Sometimes it's called vision, Christ vision. It's not with the body's eyes and it's not through the five senses. And I feel really grateful in this lifetime that I've had three like revelatory experiences where the whole world first collapsed the figure ground collapsed and all the differences. It kind of looked like a picture or a painting and then it was like this blazing light that came through and then the whole world disappeared. So I kind of had three disappearance of the universe experiences and they were all glimpses of vision, spiritual vision is a vision that doesn't involve the five senses. And that's important because we need a context for what we really need to focus our mind on. We think we're focused on survival on making a better life for ourselves, for our families for our bodies. I think much of the human condition is trying to overcome ailments, little pains, little struggles with the body, you know, wake up and your ear has some wax in it or something.  I gotta go to work with my eye going with this whole day long. It's going to be very embarrassing.  You can spend the whole day or some days on like a little hang nail or like an ingrown nail where then you but you didn't have to go to like a a diatris, somebody to help you. You see how so much attention goes onto the comfort and really I could just say eliminating discomforts. Some people could say, I could just live with no discomforts, you know. You go ahead, minimize the pleasures but just please give me no discomforts. I could just have a life where I ease through with no discomforts and these lessons are kind of calling us to go much deeper, you know, drink of me and you will never thirst again. That kind of stuff. That kind of stuff all the way down so he says in here he goes on in his next lesson to kind of explain the first one. He says, God is in everything I see because God is in my mind. The idea for today is the springboard for vision. From this idea will the world open up before you and you will look upon it and see in it what you have never seen before nor will what you saw before be even faintly visible to you. So when we talk about spirituality, really it's important to remember if you seem to wake up in the morning and you open your eyes and you see a world of shapes and sizes and colors and different things different objects that that is not seeing. That's not seeing. To open your eyes and see the world in a fragmented way is literally distorted perception and it's more, sometimes you can say oh it's just distorted. Well actually perception is not seeing. That's why the blind man and the man who can see the blind woman and the woman who can see they're the same because they're both being perceived through the distorted lens of differences and seeing does not involve the body's eyes and hearing does not involve the body's ears. In fact, that's why the body and the world were made. The body's eyes were made not to see and the body's ears were made not to hear. And we can call that self-deception not knowing your spiritual reality and coming up with a disguise so clever that you forget that it's a disguise it's a mask and you actually seem to open eyes in the morning when you get out of bed and you think you're seeing something and you think you're hearing something or even in dreams at night when you're dreaming and you think you're seeing something happen in those nighttime dreams and hearing something that's the same thing. That's all one category not seeing. That's why this is pure non-duality. It's showing that everything that seems common and accepted and normal and assumed to be true of this world is not true. Because it all comes from a dualistic belief system and it's a dualistic perception and you will never be satisfied because why? The blind leading the blind fall in the pit and the goal is to see to have spiritual vision. Now it goes on to say real vision is not limited to concepts such as near and far. We're not talking about remote viewing. Some of you are studying parapsychology and everything and remote viewing and astral travel perceiving other realms going in your mind to other realms and doing visitations. We're not talking about all this stuff in parapsychology. Real vision is not limited to concepts such as near and far. Real vision is not only unlimited by space and distance but it does not depend on the body's eyes at all. The mind is its only source. Somebody asked me last night you're always talking about time can we talk about space? And it's okay, let's talk about space too that when you get into quantum physics and you get into the quantum field you start to see that time and space are no factor at all. There's an interconnectivity in the unified field that has nothing to do with time or space. There's no distance in the quantum field. I like how the quantum physicists call it entanglement. That's their word.  But the experience is there's no distance so this goes way beyond even concepts of remote healing or beaming healing into troubled parts of the world. It's starting to see that you are going for an experience in which everything is light, pure light. And some of you have followed me along on YouTube, you know how every time I go to Europe or different places amazing kind of symbols start to happen. Because one time I was over in Europe and I had been complaining for years I would go around to different countries and they were complaining about Catholicism and the Pope and everything and then when I was over in Europe more recently Pope Francis was selected and elected and the cheers went up. Finally an innocent Pope he actually likes the ideas of simplicity and voluntary simplicity and non-judgment and so forth. Started even bringing up he said, well maybe we should have female priests. Some of the stuff that was like the Vatican was like, ah, rocking. Oh my God, what happened? Where did he come from? But it was kind of interesting. Also I went over to Europe one time and that's when in I think it was Bern, Switzerland they had these subatomic particles the accelerator where they fire particles and they had made the discovery of the God particle. So anytime I hear anything about a God particle I'm always oh, what's that about? I'm curious when scientists name a particle God particle because science and religion though haven't been known. Now we know they are the same but it seems like they were apart. So when I investigated the God particle it was like Einstein all of the scientists had agreed that actually Einstein said that everything in the cosmos is moving at the speed of light. Isn't that wonderful? Everything is moving at the speed of light but there's this one particle that is everywhere in the cosmos that makes it appear as if some things are slowed down. That explains distorted perception, objects. I call it the ego particle I mean it's the one that's slowing things down and everything else is moving at the speed of light I would call it the ego particle. They don't like the joke but I think it's good. So what it is, it's so beautiful is because what you start to see is that that's really everything moving at the speed of light that's the vision that I just was talking about that's what spiritual vision is and it's only a belief in gradations and levels and fast and slow and all that that makes it appear gives the appearance of separate objects but actually we're getting it reflected everywhere from quantum physics through spirituality through metaphysics it's all coming in. So how does that apply to you? How does that apply to you and what seems to be your everyday life? That's the exciting part isn't it? Who cares if you call it God or Atman or Oneness or Quantum Field or who really cares anymore about the words? We're getting to the point like yada yada yada we're not we can't split hairs and become upset about words because they're just symbols symbols of symbols twice removed from reality How does it become practical? I would say this is your focus purpose. If your purpose is to open up to spiritual vision if vision truly shows the love that is the light that is, the oneness that is then when you're tempted during the day to become distracted with goals we'll call them time space goals of trying to attain something accumulate something achieve something, reach something solve something, save something anything of the world when you're tempted to let your thoughts go towards that person that thing, that project that goal or whatever that ambition just remember that vision spiritual vision is really what it's all about. That's why that's the idea that explains everything God is in everything I see it's spiritual vision God is in everything I see because God is in my mind that vision is still within you, it's within us it's within our mind and that's the only thing that's what everything is about don't be tempted to get into debates don't be tempted to get into arguments don't be tempted to get into taking sides don't be tempted into opinions don't be tempted into who's right and who's wrong isn't that a sneaky temptation as you move through your daily life just the temptation to take a side somebody says something to you and there's a part in your mind that wants to jump on it either wants to attack it defend it agree with it disagree with it all of it's a temptation instead of coming back to what is it that I truly want what is it that I truly truly truly want what is it that I truly truly truly want so you see that's the focal point is desiring to see there are other workbook lessons above all else I want to see things differently that's talking about the same thing above all else I want to see things differently this light that I'm talking about this vision is pure innocence it's pure happiness it's pure joy and that's why it's so important it's actually worthy of your attention in fact it's it's the only thing that's worthy of your attention that's a very interesting thing to explore as well it's like saying the truth is true and only the truth is true the first time I read that in the course I was like oh come on redundant you just stop the truth is true you have to put on and only the truth is true and he goes on to say what it means is if you say the truth is true it means and only the truth is true that there are different types of truth there are different kinds of truth it's singular it's one I mean when I was growing up I was kind of on guard against all these books and people and places that said we have the only way to God we are the way you are not we are you aren't this is that no I was I was so on guard that I wanted to be more open minded to that and I wanted to say there's many pathways to God and why can't we just be open to the idea that there's many pathways to God and then this thing of truth came up and this sense that the truth is true and only the truth is true and then what about this idea that there are different truths can there be different can we not have many flavors of the rainbow and then I read the course and that was the first law of chaos that the truth is different for everyone chaos so you see where this is going it's very very very very singular we're not talking about concepts or theologies there we're just saying that the truth which is an experience that can't even be described or explained is one it's not there are different truths so this is beautiful because we're focused on going for the experience so I just threw all that out this morning at the beginning because I think as we go forward here in strawberry it's so important to remember that you're going for an experience and you're going for an experience of true vision like what's the movie that came out this spring heaven heaven is real and in that experience this little boy in the hospital he didn't actually go through a dying experience but he experienced this light I think he saw Jesus and he had these experiences and that we'll call it that blazing light that's not of this world nothing like sunlight that light is the purpose it's the focus and what I mean by that too is anything else you can think of in your mind anything pales pales in comparison with that so whatever ideas flow through the mind it can be about money and sex and what you're going to do with your day or what you're going to do with your future or thoughts about your relatives or thoughts about the environment or even thoughts about the comfort of the body fatigue or a slight feeling of tightness or a slight feeling of feeling too hot or too cool any of those thoughts or really just covers over of this spiritual vision so there you have it that's our context and I am here with you fully to join with you because I feel like this is an openness to deep clarity is what the calling of your heart is it's really the prayer of your heart is always for spiritual vision no matter what the form may seem to take on the surface underneath if you could really see the calling of your heart it's calling out for this it's saying I really want this I want to know who I am I want to know this light so I'll open it up for any questions yes Rick we have a roving mic we could use it no sir no no no hearing I want to get it very good now that's a great example what an exchange no no I really clearly I have resistance to experiencing the oneness my understanding is that it's been said that God knows nothing of this world and I've held on to that as the symbol of separation I chose to jump out of the love and why I'm here and my responsibility is to clear all of those ideas that I jumped into in order to realize oneness and perhaps what you were saying is that when I stop looking and see then I will be able to see God in all of this in all of this is that what you said yeah that's the forgiven world or the happy dream and it's again coming back to that God is in everything I see because God is in my mind and it's this experience of union with God that is reality reality is not apart from God kind of contradicting some of the new age teachings of you can create your own reality as if you have the power to create your own reality different from God or be a co-creator with God and somehow co-create perception all of those ideas are just more blocks to spiritual vision they have no validity I think what's helpful I remember when I went through the course just for years deeper deeper deeper it's like okay what's the key thing here is there like a key thing that I'm supposed to get from this whole book it can just get one key thing from all of this it would be helpful because then I could just practice transferring it finish reading and just transfer transfer transfer transfer make no exceptions and what I really liked about it the key that I got from it was don't try to bring truth into illusion bring illusions to truth that was that's what I finally got out of it like I could just get one thing that would serve my awakening serve everyone would be that one thing so if we if we put the word God in place of truth don't try to bring God into illusions bring illusions to God and that is important because even the questions about whether God has anything knows about the world or what is it that's the God in me that can see the God in everyone and if he says it's God does not exist in that table as you see it we could transfer that to the God does not exist in those bodies as you see them either it's just phraseology that's being used to really start to say I need to just be open to letting this love in my heart just extend and extend and expand and expand and that literally whatever I perceive will fade and fade and fade away and also literally disappear into an experience not disappear like magicians make things but I mean literally fade and fade so I think I think you're on the right track because you're feeling it in terms of the love that God love call it what you want it's just an expanding extending thing and you do deep down in your core you want that to extend to everything to be what it is not to be a watered down version of it and so there is a way of looking upon the world of complete non-judgment which is still perceptual but that's an illusion too but it's a very helpful illusion because non-judgment is a much closer reflection to abstraction or heaven than anything that judgment offers judgment is the is the block Holy Spirit also for me tends to get tends to stand between me and God in that Holy Spirit the communication mechanism so the concept of Holy Spirit for me has sort of held me back from considering that I can have a direct or be God in that there's the wrong-mindedness, the right-mindedness and then the atonement and I'm not an atonement and I need Holy Spirit and therefore I'm telling myself I cannot have the direct experience of God and the proof of that is that I need Holy Spirit that's what I'm telling myself and what's so great about it is that with me speaking today with Lisa Cairns speaking this afternoon regardless of what words we use and we can use many many many different words but it's going to be the escape from concepts and it's going to be the absolute dropping of absolutely every concept and you can tell that even a system like A Course in Miracles even non-dual systems like in China and India even Advaita Vedanta and everything there's words involved there's concepts involved and what I'm sharing what Lisa's going to be sharing this afternoon is really an invitation to drop it all absolutely drop it all and it will be fun for you all to hear it in different dialects in different language because there's a content there's an essence behind there's a presence that's being shared that it's okay to drop it all including the concept of the Holy Spirit including concepts of the Trinity including concepts of forgiveness whatever it's believed to be there's an experience you see that's everything and it's free of concepts it's absolutely completely utterly free of concepts and therefore you can see you'll be free of debate you've got those concepts you've got nothing left to debate about talk about being happy and laughing and joyful and free it's an experience of no concepts so that's the invitation and then like you're saying if you notice a resistance comes up well how wonderful that you're allowing it up actually how wonderful because resistance doesn't seem to feel good and then you have an impetus to let go you see how wonderful that is yes I do and at the moment I'm letting it go to Holy Spirit and you're saying okay allow that to be adopted as well so all I'm doing is trusting myself ultimately yeah you're true self, you're higher self and that's why I had so much fun even when I seemed to trail around the world because when I'm sitting at a tire shop or a muffler shop or whatever and somebody will strike up a conversation I think I was in a muffler shop and a woman sitting next to me and she looks at me and she starts off with what some people call a loaded question but I just don't think there's anything I don't see loaded questions I don't even think that I can't even conceive of a loaded question she smiles and turns and looks at me and she said do you know the name of God that's the opening question do you know the name of God and some people say that's a loaded question but I just don't see any loaded questions I feel so in love with everyone so connected I don't even care what anyone professes to believe or not believe I don't believe in this believer non-believer all these I mean empty of all concepts so what came out of my mouth was tell me that's all I could say she said do you know the name of God I said tell me and what she followed up she couldn't have said anything she could have said Fred or Louise or whatever and because I don't believe that what is undefinable actually has a name including God that word you know it's beyond the words it's beyond the concepts and beyond the names see how much fun we had and oh did we have fun the real name of God was and I was like just adoring her and she was having so much fun talking to me and that's the way that it goes you see once you start to realize that the only place where we seem to split hairs or ever have an upset or difference it's all about belief you know who believes what and who has truer beliefs and which beliefs are true and which beliefs are false they are all of them and I'm delighted to actually have some fun now in coming to that experience that they're all false so you'll see that in my talks you'll hear that with Lisa Cares this afternoon that's the fun of it the fun of it is that you can't really take anything seriously because it's just belief this is a realm of beliefs it's not reality but it's a realm of beliefs but the only difficulty comes in is when you start to draw a line is if there's a you that believes something and another that believes something else that's crazy that's absolutely crazy to think that there's separate beings with different belief systems private minds, private thoughts no two people see the same world you know and that's what quantum physics would say it's just a product of consciousness but no two people see the same world I don't find that depressing because I know there are no two people that's the fun part that's where you feel this connection of God is in everything I see it doesn't matter what the words are it doesn't matter what the facial gestures are it doesn't even matter what the energy is I was just got back from Sedona I saw vortex over there and good energy and go into a shop and ooh there's good energy there that's the funniest thing to me good energy and bad energy I mean if you really subscribe to good energy and bad energy then you could still call yourself a victim whenever you were in the bad energy you could say well I'm victimized by the bad energy I need to move over there to get into the good energy but you see you're still dependent then people tell me oh be careful you gotta protect yourself I say protect myself that's the funniest thing protect myself from what well certain things in the world and then energies and aliens and abductions oh my god but I just I think it's funny protecting is funny to me protecting what? I just don't get it I need that protection and that's only because the mind is empty of concepts people say oh did you hear that's a good teacher oh that's a bad teacher oh did you hear what that teacher did it's like concepts, concepts, concepts even words use of words that's the fun I think of this retreat that's really really why I invited Lisa Cairns to come is because she has absolutely nothing to do with this and no knowledge of it I think that's delightful I haven't seen it for a while either I just saw it around this morning but isn't that fun wouldn't you want that wouldn't you want to be able to feel presence whatever the words seem to be and not try to do the mental genetics of trying to pair up certain things like holy spirit and God and where does this fit and so on and so forth you know to me that's delightful that is true freedom when you're beyond all interpretation of words and what but concepts limit you know what but concepts bring the filter of what the words mean the words don't really mean anything in and of themselves but if there's a reaction then aha you've got a an identity concept to look at we were at Lisa and I were in the hot tub today we were just laughing laughing laughing because it's like within of course in miracles there seems to be all these different people and trains of thought and camps and all these crazy hierarchies and all these things and it's the same she said in non-duality there's just all these different flavors and versions and one can walk in oh there are those non-dual and these and non-duals it's like but it's non-dual mean not two how could you have those and these and them and this it's the most common thing but you know you end up being like a stand-up comedian when you start to see how funny all of it is I would go around to all these unity churches and I would go in and I would just have lunch with them and talk with them and I noticed they never use the word died or dead or death it's just like you go to all these unity churches and I said after doing this for years I thought this is amazing no one ever dies immunity they make their transition they pass you see how they say pass some people will say fart some people will say pass wind you see they died oh please they made their transition so I was there and finally they were saying please transition they made their transition so I said to where to the other side I say this is unity how many sides are there in unity somebody's got to play yep hers got no clothes who's going to finally just say wait a minute stop with these concepts there aren't any other sides there is no afterlife or before life that's you know these are concepts of linear time where did you come from where did your soul come from before it entered this life you see you could get into a whole thing that's what psychic greetings and past life regressions and the deeper you go into this if you really see it's just about emptying your mind of all concepts funnier and funnier and funnier because you've got nothing to cling to who were you in a past life Cleopatra no we don't have to go back there we don't have to try to figure any of that out it's so important just to allow ourselves to be fully present fully present fully open maybe I can shout about things I had when I first met David I had a glimpse of the unified awareness and vision actually beyond form and I had this desire just to not have any concepts in my mind anymore and I joined with David and it was like my mind merged with spirit David's mind and and I went for probably three weeks I don't know it was beyond time and space and I was so high in this life experience there was no person and it was so simple it was almost like it just happened you know there was a desire and the prayer I had but it just happened and for three weeks or whatever and in that time there was some awareness that I needed to invite concepts that I did have in the personal mind after awareness so I did because of the trust that I had spirit in the form of David through David through that joining so after about three weeks I woke up and went downstairs and it was like I was back in time and there was a table in the room because through those weeks there was no table there was unified awareness that wasn't everything I saw there was vision but that day there was a table in the room and I said there was something there was like a triumph like David came to David and said David I see the table don't you see the table I see the table and I'm right it was actually a rebellious thing and he was so gentle he knew I needed to go through that and he was like yeah yeah it's a matter of time it's a matter of time that was his answer I thought it was brilliant it was a belief in time but it was I just went to share it because it's on this thing like how involuntary it is that you don't have the effort no one has the effort to work on the enlightenment and death now or whatever I think too the humor and the laughter and the lightness when you start to think okay yes spiritual vision but just think humor laughter love lightness I think it was maybe last week a friend of mine from Florida sent me a YouTube video but it was Jim Carrey delivering a commencement speech at Maharishi University in Iowa and I was like oh my I gotta open this one up and I just I laughed and laughed and laughed and then I had to take it out and show it because it's got as many people as I could to get the projection and we all just took a pause in the middle of the day to just watch it and laugh because it was so touching how it would just come through in that it was a presence that was coming through a presence poking fun at the things of the world poking fun at really the things that would be important even for a commencement class he had a big painting that he had done which was an amazing group of symbols that he had put out for everyone to use and there he was just in presence just glowing and shining and it just shows because what we do with spiritual symbols or whatever laughter, the love, the lightness that's what it's all about that's what truth ultimately is it's light it doesn't take anything seriously and he's been using all this laughter then also recently with Robin Williams and that whole experience those kind of reflections started to come out from all over the love and the laughter that really we can feel in our hearts it transcends the body, it transcends this world it just feels so real so I think that's really what we're here for is just to have that experience and again I find it very very natural it's just unnatural to try to categorize things to try to categorize, arrange, order things and try to get meaning of symbols and images and out of those organizations it's like an invitation to be free, to be childlike again really childlike where you don't seem to know what things mean and you don't really care like when you're playing in the creek when you're a kid you're playing, you're full on into play everything the whole world feels playful when you're playing you're not interested in anything else and to me that's that single attention that we're called into I see some hands go up okay well I had a wonderful experience this morning David but I wanted to share with you when I woke up the first thing I did was use my iPhone to look at today's lesson which is there is not justified in any form 260 240, fear is not justified in any form and then my mind started thinking of all these forms of fear that I have usually having to do with judgment I like this, I don't like that I don't like the sound of this I don't like the looks of that person I don't like this stuff I don't like that stuff and how my mind is so littered just polluted with all that so I've been practicing letting go of all these judgments like driving here looking at rocks looking at the mud and all that sort of thing and then when you read those first 10 lessons that really hit home and then 29 and 30 especially because God is I see everything I see God in everything because God is in my mind really hitting home to me and then the last what you said a few minutes ago about this invitation to let go of our concepts and I thought of that wonderful paragraph in lesson 189 which I used to know just merely do this just do this, let go of everything everything you think you know everything about God everything about the Course and just come to God with completely open hands completely open arms looking for I want to experience that I have this intellectual understanding oh yeah I can see how no I don't want that I want an experience of that and I think that's what you said you're offering us correct? yeah it's also I think when I say let go of all concepts I'm also saying let go of all concepts about cause and effect and that really runs deep too so it could be this simple thing of how did these rocks get to be this way or how did this center or monastery come to be even like sometimes introductory things I call them ice breakers we don't even need to break ice you'll find that delightful about Lisa she's not going to come here to break ice with you you know could some see this like a sledgehammer but it's really not to kind of ease in it's just come into this experience where you can really let go of the why questions and you can let go of the wondering years ago I think I was in I think I was in Lexington, Kentucky and I was taking a walk with a friend of mine who was in this Lexington Symphony and a violinist first violinist and this and this and we went on this walk and as he was walking he was looking at the rocks and the trees and the leaves almost like a little child who's going on a walk in nature very curious I wonder where this river goes I wonder where that road goes I wonder how that rock formation came in a little child who was very very curious and so he was wondering wondering wondering that was the whole walk and so then finally he looked at me and he says what do you think and the spirit just went wonder wonder wonder wonder who wrote the book of love and he just we just laughed together because really that's how light the spirit is the spirit can give you a little jingle of it doesn't really matter you know because the love is what it's all about and then ego is the opposite ego thinks everything matters and it's got a tit for tat or even judging itself judging oh you like that rock you saw that rock you know even we were talking this morning about heads turning because sometimes you find your eyes are just drawn to look at people or look at things and avoid just allow just allow allow allow because the inner critic is the ego it's always trying to shape and control things and analyze things oh you looked at her you looked at her for 5 seconds you know you can hit his voice what does that mean it's like the critic the psychoanalyzer of there it's always trying to make a problem out of everything and really there's nothing to get hung about it's much to do about nothing and slowly it seems to be being convinced I'd say that the reason that I'm here the reason I'm sharing and extending and everything it's just purely for inspiration just if anyone even seems to be inspired by that and feels like I think I'm going to drop my judgment too then that's wonderful not that there has to be people dropping it but it's just how freeing it is to live without judgment and it's also you can let go of this fear that if I really let go of all that mind chatter and I let go of all that judgment then I'll surely die it's not that at all that's actually when you live and nothing's taken away people have said to me sometimes like oh you're so devoted on this spiritual journey and everything but what has it cost you you know what's the what kind of question is that nothing really I honestly can say that I don't really feel that I've ever lost anything in the present moment you can see how true that is it's always you it's so loving and there's no loss involved there's no sacrifice so it's the anticipation where the struggle comes in and it's the acceptance is where the joy is the hands are out is it coming oh I was so inspired by the lesson in what you said and the moment just when I think of God like my inner definition is the divine matrix of all that is consciously experiencing the bliss of itself and and for me the fruit of reading the disappearance of the universe that got me really into the course at that point was when I was a little kid I'd go to sleep at night there'd be these dots like swirly little dots everywhere it'd be the same if my eyes were open or my eyes were closed and over the years I've noticed that like anything I look at is made of all these little light dots it's just like and they're all the same they're the same whether it's the table or the glass or you or nothing or something somehow in reading the disappearance of the universe it got for me all of a sudden it dawned on me that you know we were like the Star Trek holodex matrix and we go in and and say Star Program and there's you and this and this but then it all goes back to this dot dot dot dot dot dot dot everywhere and so when I'm in anywhere I can just do this kind of little shift and just look at the dots and it's really beautiful and there's been another and I realized at some point oh my gosh this isn't reality my dots are my reality but then it's a fun place for me to go to even when things get intense is just go to the dots and and when people recently I had an experience where like somebody got really angry at me and for the first time I just kind of watched it go through and when I look at people like these little energy aches of just like things are just flowing around and I didn't decide to grab it I just and it went on by and so I guess I kind of think of you know enlightenment is this word of this retreat of one of one of those words and I feel in life I mean I believe I'm already enlightened and I think that that's important like a decision that hey I'm there and the aspect of light to enlightenment has really intrigued me because when I look at all this dot matrix I really don't think it's visual I don't think it's the little thing associated with the eyeballs it's something like way more that makes me really blissful just to do that funny little shift it takes me to this really happy place no matter what's happening or going on in the dots and yet there's a light and dark quality to them and when you described your experience and when many people that I've read describe their enlightenment experience and it's an experience at a certain point in time where there's blazing light and I'm intrigued I haven't experienced the blazing light and yet there is this permeation of the gentle uniformity of everything in this thing that I can shift into and so I'm curious and I've never heard anybody say oh I went into the light and I stayed there forever you know maybe they just wouldn't be anymore so I guess I'm asking and when I look there's an aspect of darkness there too it's not like a uniform field of light I'm shifting into so I'm inquiring about the light of enlightenment or the great rays maybe that they refer to I don't know and I just toss that out well I'm glad you brought it up because I will say that that this world is backwards and upside down and and it's a when you see it in its fragments it's a projected world of ego and indifferences but the unified field and it sounds like your dot experience your dot matrix is the way you tap into the unified field that's why it's so happy because it's all permeate you use the word permeate it just permeates everything of time and space and that's a good aspect that's like a symbol for you how you perceive it that is comforting and like calling you and drawing you and it's always there and you can it's there to go back and tap into it's interesting with the world of time and space because there seems to be an emphasis on bodies and doing you know Spike Lee did the movie do the right thing do the planet earth do the right thing morality and ethics and do the right thing and what's good and what's a sin and all this and this I'd say as you drop all the concepts and every last one is dropped then you have this experience that transcends the doer so it's you know like Frank Sinatra dooby dooby do you don't have that dooby dooby it's just be be be be be be be be you know you see it's not there's not a desolation it's that's really where the struggle comes in it's the do part isn't that really the struggle did I do enough could I have done more you know it's always there's an evaluation involved when the doer is seen as real and imagine if like you're describing like this dot matrix you know it's where everything is dots it doesn't matter what eyes closed eyes open table chair cliff that a tree that's like a symbol of the unification so to me I think that's just a symbol of your mind going into that and you know like that James Taylor song when this old world starts getting me down you know it's called up on the roof but yours could be you know because it's the dots it's the unified field that is really impersonal and that is what makes it it permeates through everything it's not contained it's not limited that's like an inroads I just think that's the symbol that your mind feels comfortable you come through chemistry and all kinds of symbols and chemistry your mind was fascinated matter, fascinated with matter and symbols and now the dots are kind of a way of yeah of expansive perception what do you think of a life I mean what do you think about is there an innate aspect of enlightenment that includes some aspect of light as we think of it well again let's go back let's use Einstein um Einstein called this world an optical delusion that was kind of an interesting name coming from Albert Einstein and then of course he said that everything is moving at the speed of light so the light is going to integrate with reality it's actually beyond speed you know we use speed in terms of like light years and particles and so forth but it's just like wisdom and understanding and that's what's real so a lot of times people say well so-and-so was a great saint and a great mystic and he hung on for 70 or 80 years so he could continue his teachings and transmissions to the planet well actually there's a line in the course that slips that one all the way around and Jesus said there are those who have laid aside their body in order to increase their helpfulness you see isn't that a beautiful line laid aside their body in order to increase their helpfulness everything's upside down words seem important, teaching seem important teachers seem important transmissions seem important no, no, no in this world again perception is a veil over the light and there's a reason you hear so many say I went into the light and I came back is because that experience of light and perception they don't ultimately go together it's the disappearance of the universe which you were so inspired by is like a destiny and it's not that you're trying to speed anything up or slow anything down but it's just being present giving yourself permission to go fully into that or like this dot experience that can be like part of your calling you know to give yourself permission to go like the child that just adored that said oh this is wonderful to give yourself permission to open to that to keep opening it's beautiful and then as far as the light it's described as if really revelation ready so it's been described even with Helen and Bill Helen had a revelatory experience but Bill didn't but Bill kept transferring the training just giving himself permission to go deeper and deeper and that's really what it's all about it's just giving yourself that allowance and permission thank you we've got two right here Casey's had her hand kind of forgotten some of the thread of it but one of the first things she said that stood out for me was the thing about being blind and seeing as being the same well so right before you started talking my glasses got put back there and got put up here and then thrown on the ground and I'm on the road for a couple months and I have no glasses and you mentioned Stevie Wonder and I'm imagining somebody helping me down the trail into my tent back and I just saw how I can get attached I've got to see and then looking at the whole completely other thing of vision and what is that really in anyway just felt so in congruence with what you were talking about because I'm sitting here going oh my god what if that had happened and then just letting it go wow and it was a gift to me to have that happen so I could look through that yeah thank you for sharing that because I think that's the thing if you have a context of you're just opening to spiritual vision anything at all that would even seem to happen in perception oh you have this context like it's all working together for that like I think of the pretty famous teacher Ram Das who would be here now and he traveled for so many years and then a number of years ago he was he had a stroke and he went down to the floor and he was laying there having his stroke and he was noticing the tile ceiling and just looking it up at all these tiles just noticing as he's laying there and then he noticed the first thought that came into his mind which was look at this Mr. God is having a stroke isn't that wonderful that he's so candid to share his experience of what's going on in his mind his consciousness during the stroke look at this Mr. God and then he just bought a new car and the body could move and thoughts were like wow I can't drive I have a new car and can't speak much of the life was speaking going to lots of places speaking couldn't speak it's been beautiful that he was so transparent all about his thoughts because it all comes under wow it's an opening to spiritual vision and you see how the ego wants to make things into good things and bad things the ego would say to have a so-called healthy body that has free speech and good eyesight, good hearing good range of movement and everything is good stroke you see how the ego wants to divide everything into good and bad and isn't that one of the most basic dualities? good and bad good and bad it's like this thing that's just like computers one and zero one and zero just binary good and bad, good and bad it just goes on and on and on and this is really an invitation to just to drop beneath that and say wow I'm going to allow myself to drop underneath that and it's safe I will still exist in fact I will know my existence when I drop beyond these dualistic concepts and that's how precious it is when people tell me things like they do say sometimes they say David doesn't have all of his marbles or David's not all there or whatever I actually take that as a compliment that's exactly how I feel I've lost all my marbles and I'm not all there wherever there is because it's a time space thing he stroke with a gift a spiritual gift gift used very well and right behind you the white light experience coming out of it everything was like see-through and I'm curious does that ever become a day-to-day reality like a stepping stone along the way where your day-to-day perceptions is like you can see through things but then when you touch it everything came solid again yeah I think the revelation experience I was describing it wasn't quite a see-through thing in terms of seeing through objects the objects were gone I mean everything was gone I mean there was the light like you're talking about and then like when it started coming back down coming back to this it was like to see through the door to see the sidewalk through the apartment door and come up through the refrigerator and then when I put my hand through the door everything became solid again yeah yeah I think you're describing that's kind of that transition point of the solidness is where it's the distortion because if everything is mind everything is consciousness and literally that see-through experience I'm describing is a beautiful kind of symbol of it's not what it seems to be like nothing is solid is what I'm hearing so I would say you do have an experience and this is what healed perception is about where it's described in a course of miracles exactly this way the body's eyes will continue to report differences but the healed mind in one category they are unreal of all the senses in the course I was like my gosh he's even describing the happy dream in great detail the body's eyes will continue to report differences of course that's what they were made for they weren't made from vision they were made to cover over vision so as you go deeper into this stillness this non-judgment the body's eyes will continue to report differences but the healed mind will put them into one category they are unreal now also I tell people don't try to explain this to your parents or your friends or whatever because it's all for you so to speak in other words it's not transferable it's not like you can just knock on your neighbor's door and go listen and therefore it's a good kind of rule of thumb don't think you have to declare and announce and speak about something that's not your experience you don't get any brownie points like for talking good words or having accurate metaphysics or any of those things it's just speak from experience and what you're sharing is this was an experience that you had I'm curious about does it become like for you does it ever become day to day or is it just like that little flash in the pan thing I think actually the day to day has gone too that's like a mindset too Jesus will talk talk talk in the course and then he says but what can this mean to those who still count the hours and the days even as we do in common language the day to day experience you hear the day to day is in there so you just have these deep experiences and they transfer and they transfer and they transfer and what it really feels like is that it's like holographic it's like everything and every one of the whole universe is I can feel them all with us now so to speak like the body's eyes may report so many bodies and a wood structure and some canyons off in the distance and everything but that's not my experience that feels very contained that's like a little tiny sliver or container and that's not my experience so when people talk about everything I see that everything's an idea like for example we may be talking somebody goes France now untrained mind would think that there's an actually a country that you can actually take an airplane to and fly to but I just know that France is just a concept it's just another concept among concepts same about the United States you can see as you start to just begin to get an inkling to see that everything is in mind everything is consciousness and nothing is apart from mind they would say oh well yes it's true France is a concept but there's an actual country if you fly across the Atlantic Ocean you can actually like land there and they go we they actually have a language they've got a language and you know it's actually but the more you go into this quantum experience you start to see that everything is an idea everything without exception cancer and France are the same including the see-through stuff including the see-through stuff yeah it's all the same last night was time and space are just concepts too everything yeah there are scientists that it's interesting they showed me a program where they were they not only talk about the Big Bang but they had mapped the Big Bang as a picture it looked like when it was mapped out it was like a static picture but you know how the course says you know it's all over and done it kind of implies that the cosmos is like just like a snapshot and what they described was that inside the picture depending on where you perceive it it seems to be moving it still seems to be in motion but Jesus tells us the world was over long ago he's actually you pull some lines from the course this snapshot that they've actually mapped the entire Big Bang it's only from inside of it it seems to be expanding and that it will reach a point where it will reach equilibrium and then it will kind of go the other way but that's from inside of it but from they've like mapped the whole thing so they're showing all the little coordinates and everything that's not the human being experience of time and space it seems to be constantly changing constantly in motion Lisa will talk about this a lot you'll hear a lot about that it's how it seems inside of it but where does that relate with the script is written it sounds more again like a snapshot the script is written that's a line from the workbook of A Course in Miracles so you know it's all about shifting the perception like those early lessons that we were talking about you know lesson number seven I see only the past you know that's a key idea if you come to a place actually where you're just saying everything I perceive is the past then actually that's the release point that's the release point why would that be the release point because you wouldn't make an effort to change the past right the past is gone why would you try to change it you see how freeing that would be then you wouldn't try to improve the world wouldn't try to save the world if you had a partner make the partner better or hope the partner would change like eventually they'll come around though it's not going to happen you see how freeing that is how practical that would be even in relationships of having no inkling of trying to change anything or anyone and doesn't that relate to no control over the world doesn't that relate to the serenity prayer some of you have come through into sobriety through that which is basically what you can change what you cannot and the wisdom to know the difference all these pathways are leading to this one experience let all things be exactly as they are accept everything exactly as it is Byron Katie loving what is it goes on and on it's like the whole universe is singing to us did you get it we'll try this did you get it like lovingly singing to us saying you're so loved you're so beautiful you're so perfect you can just accept it and time and space are the same it's on I don't know whether it's a concept or an experience but I frequently go to this place where everything phenomenal it's like you've had a big blanket and you just put everything in it and tied up all the corners and just ignored it and then everything else is this abstract nothingness just abstract and I just that brings me I don't know it just takes me out of the world and I just wanted to share that and see if you had anything to say about it I love hearing these things the dot matrix and now you're nothing blanket and then the nothingness those are just symbols of reminder how wonderful that you just allow yourself to go there you give yourself full permission like yes this is wonderful there's nothing being lost we had a hand up down here here it comes you started out at the beginning talking about pain and discomfort and they seem very absorbent to me how do you go to a place of laughter having this when you've got that hand mail to me it's a question of what is it for no doubt discomfort they seem to be real attention grabbers attention getters as you go through and so for me as I went into this I experienced there was a line that said an untrained mind can accomplish nothing I think all of us have kind of this awareness that whatever we call the spiritual journey or path awakening or healing whatever we call it they seem to involve some discipline just like if you were training in karate or tai chi even learning how to ride a bike or learning how to read there's almost like a training or a discipline that's involved in becoming proficient so your question is like how do we go from discomfort or pain into laughter there's a transformation there that just seems to involve a mental discipline a mind training just like they talk about the yogis that meditate for 10, 12, 16 hours a day that's their pathway they really focus on that I'm sure they could tell you they have discomforts and distractions that come up even people now that go to these vipassana retreats where there's long stretches of silence or a friend of mine Jasmine down in Australia she used to have these retreats in Thailand where I think you had to stop eating for like 2, 3, 4 weeks before the retreat and then if you haven't eaten for weeks you go there and you only get water at the retreat it's completely dark so you you walk in there you've not been eating for weeks just to prepare and then you finally get there and they give you water and yes there's toilets and beds and everything it's all completely dark pitch black I'm like okay this is the way the training goes she said oh yeah people get accustomed they can find their way to the toilet and do everything their senses other senses get stronger when the visual thing is completely taken out of the picture but they oh you better believe discomforts come up because of that but it's kind of showing you that it's like it's part of a discipline that inside you just say yes to sometimes like with this it came in the form of a text a workbook and a teacher's manual I kind of like that in the sense that those lessons I was reading to you are like very practical one lesson per day and really it doesn't take much time to do but it's like it re-orients the mind and it's like saying hey I'll work with whatever you believe in it never told me to stop eating or stop having sex or stop doing stop breathing or something like this it was just saying here let's try these on and we'll take you step by step so just for example the workbook that I was reading from is a discipline it's a discipline of training the mind and transferring the ideas and there are many others that are also very very helpful so that's the how that's the how question we were talking about because the mind is looking for practicalities you know it's looking to be reached like reach me all is God, all is one, all is happy discomfort I have in my shoulder or whatever you know then that's exactly how it happens and also I would say that's how it's gone in the sense that the more I got into my my function I mean it started for me seemingly in my 20s where I had this calling and then let go of university and let go of relationships and let go of ambitions and goals and all kinds of things in the world and I said ok your mind now use me in any way that is helpful that was kind of like my calling moment where I said I'm yours completely and then from that there's a lot of instructions given and a lot of guidance and prompts and that was years ago because this body is 56 now so that was in the when the body was in the late 20s devotion I'm yours I will do whatever I will follow and help me wash away this sense of a doer help me wash away this identification with the body that's where the discomforts are arising when we're spirit and we misidentify we identify with the body instead of the spirit then all kinds of things seem to arise only for the healing not that they're good or bad any of the feelings it's just an opportunity but thank you it's a beautiful practical question how are we doing getting right we're just getting close to our lunch break time well Ricky's back I think like last night could we have a closing song so bouncy I was like Kirsten went out you feeling it Kirsten are you feeling quantum alright Eric here they are reunited for quantum love I'll give you guys if some of you have heard it maybe some of you haven't a little sneak preview if quantum physics baby love radiates I'm getting I'm getting we have Eric around though well we only have one guitar so it's just trust me it's best if Eric plays guitar Kirsten got the download for the song I put music to it and then Eric put music to it we haven't rehearsed this together since we recorded the CD we can do it