That's really exciting. And so now I will introduce Sam Cassatt, who is the Chief Strategy Officer at Consensus. He's doing a lot of great work around bringing the applications that we're building to a point where they're gonna be market ready and he's very, very knowledgeable. We're lucky to have him here today and he is going to talk about the promise of decentralization. Thank you very much, Carolyn, for that introduction and thank you, Daza. Am I sharing currently to the hangout? Okay, great. So I'm very excited to be at the Media Lab today. Consensus generally loves the Media Lab. We love being a part of a group of people that's so innovative and so on the cutting edge of the technology and I think we're really happy that we've been able to help and, you know, provide some of our tools to the audience here. So Blockchain, I think, is going to do a number of things to our economy. It's gonna do a number of things that are enabled by technology and there are a few themes that sort of emerge from those things. So I wanna talk about what decentralization is gonna do for us. And as I do that, as Daza mentioned, it would be helpful for our format if people went to the website and they submitted questions or they submitted an answer to my question, which was how can rich notions of reputation enhance economic interactions on the Blockchain or just generally? I think that's one of the most important things here. So trust. Trust has a lot of meanings. It means many things to different people. The Economist recently called out the notion of trust in their description of what Blockchain technology is going to do. They call it the trust machine. So let's think a little bit about what is trust in this context? If we have a Blockchain, we have something like Bitcoin. The central innovation of Bitcoin is that it allows us to agree upon information at some time step without necessarily trusting the other parties. Even if someone were trying to sort of game the system, they were trying to say that my Bitcoin account balance is not what it truly is. I don't have to worry about that being a problem for me because the system through its inherent properties is eventually going to make sure that we all agree upon the actual trusted value. So let's look at how do we have trust in our society right now? What businesses, what economic activities depend upon trust or provide trust? So for instance, banks, right? Banks have physical buildings. They have doors that you can go knock on. They have the ability to interface with regulators. So if banks are doing something that is not trustworthy, like stealing my money, regulators can come knock on their door and they can do something about it, right? And so that's why I trust the bank to hold my money and I don't trust a random person to hold my money, right? So they're capitalizing upon their ability to be a trust provider in our society. At a larger scale, the DTCC, right? The Depository Trust and Clear Incorporation. So what this company does is if I want to do a large financial transaction, so say I have a million dollars and you have a million stock units and we want to trade those things, I have something called settlement risk. I'm not sure that you actually have those million stock units so you're not sure that I actually have those dollars. And when it comes time to actually trade them and we're both holding on to the stock and the dollars and we say, who lets go first, right? They provide that trust. They allow that settlement to actually happen, right? And they're a pretty inefficient organization when viewed through the lens of a technologist like ourselves, all they're essentially doing is something that I could simply write into a piece of code that said, take these two things and atomically swap them. And that's the promise of what smart contracts on something like the Ethereum blockchain could do for us. And that's why we have companies emerging. I think some of the first really interesting, possibly profitable, very valuable companies emerging, digital asset holdings in T0. T0 says the trade is the settlement. And what they mean by that is that I do not have to trust that this settlement is going to happen. I can have a smart contract written on the blockchain that can hold a token that represents a unit of stock. It can hold a token that represents a dollar. And that contract itself can execute that trade and ensure that it's atomically swapped. So what does that mean for trust, right? If we can disintermediate some of these organizations that right now their function is to provide us with trust, where does that move that relationship? What does it move the notion of trust in our society? So one possible answer is that it moves it into the blockchain. One possible answer is that it moves it into other sort of trust provider entities. So for instance, say I lose my private key to my Bitcoin wallet, maybe I wanna recover that and maybe that's a kind of trust. But I think it's going to open up new questions about who can provide us trust and where does trust require? Probably less so than we've had in the past. So identity. This is another important topic in blockchain technology. So what does identity mean in the context of blockchain, right? Identity, it seems like a very simple concept, but it can have a very rich notion. And in fact, it does in blockchain technology. So at the very most basic level, an identity is just a cryptographic key pair. It allows me to interact with the blockchain network, right? It could also be something that is generated from a hierarchical deterministic tree for people who are more technical in the blockchain space. Maybe you realize that what this means is that from one key, from one cryptographic notion of identity, I can generate an infinite number of identities. Maybe in the future, I don't think the technology is there yet, but maybe this could be constructed by a biometric. I have an example of a signature as the original biometric. It's something that derives from our physical capability and maybe some of our cognitive ability, but it serves as a pretty good marker of this. There's a company called Identity 2020 that's trying to provide this type of cryptographic identity to Syrian refugees, because if you have this kind of identity, you have access to a global economy that you didn't have access to before. So what happens when you give that kind of power to people? One example, even though they're not using blockchain technology, but I think operating in the same principle is M-Pesa.  So it was a pretty good market to enter for Safaricom, who said, well, we already have this infrastructure of places where people can go and purchase things like cell phone minutes. So why not piggyback on that and create a payment network, which is exactly what they did. So with just a feature phone, you now have access to a global economic activity of access to a global payment network. ABRA is attempting to do the same thing, more focused on remittances than just payments locally, but ABRA is using blockchain technology. And if you combine that notion with what ID 2020 is doing and what Safaricom has done when ABRA has done, you can imagine a future where a very large swath of the population of the planet that hence to forth has not had access to financial services, has not had access to identity as we traditionally consider it, is now empowered. Other people have tried. Other companies have tried in the past to modify the notion of identity and failed. Open ID, why it's a great idea that you can control your identity. Nobody used it. Mozilla persona project closed its doors about three weeks ago because they weren't able to get market adoption. And the problem is market adoption really, right? The closest thing we have, which I think is kind of sad is Facebook Connect, right? But Facebook owns your data. But this is the promise that if you owned your data, if you owned your cryptographic identity, your Bitcoin wallet, what have you, and you use that to log on, that is where the information is contained. That's where the notions of identity are contained, like metadata about yourself and your behavior and your preferences. If you own that instead of a company like Google or Facebook owning that, that also empowers you and it gives you the portability of identity that we hope to give with Washington technology. Just as an example of that, Uport is a technology that a consensus we're developing. It's a way for you to control your persona, control your identity, control access to your identity. It can have rich metadata that's associated with it like reputation and preference. I wanted to note also open mustard seed, I think is a great example of this and it came out of Patrick Deegan's work who has spent some time here at the Media Lab. And importantly, obviously, it's accessible to everyone on earth because with something as simple as a feature phone, you can access this. Reputation is one of these sort of metadata properties that I mentioned that's useful. It's already ubiquitous. We already use it all the time.  And if I'm a financial institution, I wanna use your FICO score to determine whether or not you're worthy of a loan. Even though that's relatively poor as an indicator, I wanna know whether someone's a good handyman. So these are great, but they're siloed and they're owned by. The data about this is owned by the company itself. It's owned by TaskRabbit. It's owned by Uber. So where blockchain will go further, as I mentioned, why blockchain will succeed where others have failed in providing these notions of identity and reputation is that there's no core utility to something like a persona project, right? You can say, well, that's nice that I can log in to something in a different way, but why do I care? Why would I use that instead of just my email or my Facebook ID, which is already ubiquitous? But if our entry point to a new global financial system that provides an incredible amount of value is this open standard of reputation and identity, then we can succeed where others have failed. And because that reputation and identity is portable because I own it and it's not siloed into a particular company's database, it means that I can use it in a new place. It means I can go to the next service that a kid in his garage or whatever innovator that sits here at the Media Lab thinks up, I can come in, I can use it for that. And that data can enhance the experience that I would have in that new area. And it can enhance the ability of innovators to use that. So this is a report from Goldman Sachs that relates to my next theme, which is the socialization of finance. I guess before I go down this, I would remind people I'm getting towards the end of my remarks. So if you are on the internet and you would like your answers to the question to be included, try to wrap it up the next. So the question was, how can notions of rich identity enhance economic interactions or general interactions on the blockchain or at large? Okay, so Goldman Sachs estimates that there's a $4 trillion with a T addressable opportunity in what they call the socialization of finance or what you could also call peer-to-peer finance, right? So this is something like equity crowdfunding. This is when an engineer says, well, I do have $5,000 that I'd like to throw into that really innovative company. And until relatively recently that would have been impossible, I do have a few thousand dollars that I would like to lend to someone on the other side of the planet. And I didn't have any way of really understanding who they were or what their reputation was before or whether or not it would have been a good idea to provide them a micro loan in order to get their business started in Africa, let's say. But now I do. So how can we sort of unlock this value? There's this value that's hidden in people's bank accounts. It's hidden in communities. It's hidden all around, but we have no way to access it. And so one of the promises of blockchain technology is to allow us to use data, to use reputation, to use the analysis of what people are doing on the blockchain to provide even additional value to them and to unlock this value that's already sitting there. So one can imagine what this looks like if you think of something like Uber. Uber is a two-sided marketplace, right? Airbnb is a two-sided marketplace. It provides a thin layer that intermediates between people who would like to do business with each other. But if you have economic interaction that begins to sit on the blockchain and that information is open and accessible and it comes with portable reputation and identity, then third parties can come and they can analyze that and they can provide additional value to that. So maybe if Uber were sitting on a blockchain, that layer of intermediation would be even thinner for one thing, right? Because the blockchain, no one owns it, it's very cheap to operate. So the large infrastructure that Uber maintains in order to allow it to operate wouldn't be as necessary. So for one, there's a market efficiency there, but third parties could then come along and they could say, well, I can analyze the data of this behavior and I can see that this is a driver who with a high reputation. And if I were to provide him some financial services like say a loan or say I were going to come along and provide another service like the ability to background check drivers or something else that I can't even think of, but I'm sure some innovative kids and garages can think of, then we have a much more efficient economy. We have a market network rather than a two-sided marketplace, an end-sided marketplace. So I think that's one of the most important promises of blockchain technology. And so as an example, a consensus, these three sort of products in the middle are things that we're working on. Wayfund is a way for us to distribute tokens to essentially IPO a company on a blockchain by distributing tokens. Those tokens can be purchased and those tokens can represent something like our financial community has already imagined, something like a bearer share that allows voting or it could be something more complex, but those shares or those tokens could allow participation in something like a boardroom. So boardroom instantiates a virtual decision-making process that's predicated upon your ownership of a particular cryptographic token. So one could imagine that a group of decentralized people could fund and govern an organization maybe having never even met each other, maybe having never met their financiers, but yet that economic interaction can be facilitated and made more efficient. And then once those tokens have additional value that could be traded on EtherX which is a decentralized exchange that allows counterparties willingly to conduct business with each other and trade those tokens openly. And we could have, for instance, a kid in Africa that IPO a company and it's governed on a blockchain by a bunch of people in Africa and Germany and in India and we could have somebody in Silicon Valley that's sitting there analyzing the data and deciding that it's a good idea to provide additional financial services to this company and help it grow all with such a thin layer of intermediation that it's much more efficient than anything we can imagine right now. I guess just to sum this up, I think what the internet promises to be, what it has promised to be for us is almost a meta-layer of our cognition as human beings on this planet. We've added another layer of communication and speed and what blockchain, which many people call Web 3.0 promises to do is it promises to add a layer of trust and an economic interaction and money to that nervous system that is the meta-layer of our planet. And I think that's the promise of decentralization of blockchain. So, those are the end of my remarks. And... Well, I think this is a good time for applause. Thank you. Thank you. That was awesome. So in the future, we're gonna have people like Sam speak at the beginning of the class. Because there's a few things you said that really opened my mind to some of this. So thank you for making a trip from Brooklyn up to the Media Lab.


Hello everybody, E here welcome back to top five Friday. This is going to be the last top five Friday of The year so we won't have another one until the first week of January the first Friday of January anyways We're going to I'm going to preface this with there are more videos coming They may not be what you expect They may not be what you want when I'm gonna try out a couple new things with the channel You can like dislike whatever you want to do But I need you to interact and let me know what kind of content you want to see If any of these new ideas coming are things that you like I really need to hear from you if you dislike them give that dislike button to click It doesn't hurt my feelings whatsoever. I don't need the support. I need the input. Okay, so let me know On those videos use the like and dislike buttons like they were first intended to whether or not you like or dislike that content So top five Friday today is my top reads of 2018 period. I'm gonna start off with an honorable mention one that I mentioned this a couple Episodes back about wanting to bring out books that were you know Maybe other people thought were great that I didn't care too much for this time I am going to bite the bullet and take off one of my favorite reads of the year because I know most of you will Not like it will not enjoy it So we are going to start off with an honorable mention, which is how do you give it a commies killing commendatory? This one I loved everything about it, but I know it's not going to be for everyone the rest of these books I'm pretty sure most people will like this one while it was one of my favorites It'd probably be number, you know number two on the list because I did like one just that much more I know that most of you won't like it So I'm gonna bite the bullet on this one and do the ones that I think that I should you get everybody should go out and buy I don't think everybody should run out and buy this one plus. There's a problem with the actual hardcover of the book Watch my review for that. So honorable mention out of the way Jump into number five gun love by Jennifer Clement This book has stuck with me half the year. I can't remember exactly when I read it It was before blogging for books closed. So as least half the year ago I got it free for review and it's one of my favorites of the year. I Remember every single detail. It's a rather short book But I remember every single detail of this novel the little girl the the way that guns were handled in the book Where there really was no side taken and I appreciate that There's one of the reasons why I hated elevation Stephen King's elevation so much is because he took a side and he cemented whether that side He's right or wrong. It doesn't matter Because life is not right or wrong Human beings are not right or wrong By you know just by definition. We can be right. We can be wrong and there are some right things about What are perceived wrong and there's some wrong things about you know what's perceived right? And I think she did very well with this Jennifer Clement is definitely an author. I'm going to be Whose books I almost said I'm gonna consume her I'm gonna be consuming her fiction, you know as the years go on so number four Aram into halls our kind of cruelty I was fascinated by this book it was my number one for most of the year and The reason the only reason I dropped it down is because I am still thinking of a group of characters more than In other books also I'm still thinking about those characters more and what stuck with me the most about this one wasn't so much the characters But the way the characters were handled like I don't remember any of the characters names in here And that's that's fun gun loves the same way. I'm bad with character names as it is But none of them none of their personalities really stuck out. It's more what happened This is probably the best story just hands down best story. I read in 2018 A lot of it had to do with this is like the anti you You Caroline Kepnes is you this is the this is the response to that book basically and it's funny because Aram into Hall on Caroline Kepnes. I've seen Caroline Kepnes I've seen them interact online on Twitter and they're just you know, they're great to each other So it's not like Aram into Hall is coming out, you know shops fired at Kepnes. That's not what happened What happened here is she wanted to give the other side the other possibility of this type of Stalkerish relationship and she nailed it and at number three we have the mere wife by Maria Davana Hedley this book I I'm a big fan of the Beowulf legend poem all that this put a Amazing twist on the story and gave different characters point of views from that story and modernized it it tackled some some Issues with society today. It tackles all all different aspects of life today Tackles the impoverished. It tackles the wealthy. It tackles everything I was very impressed with what she did and the imagery toward the end is fantastic Okay, so next we have our top two books if You've been a fan of the channel this year You've heard me talk about both of these authors over and over and over again. You've heard me talk about both of these books One of them more so than the other but just because there was really no reason no purpose to bring up the number one But number two is of course the outsider by Stephen King The reason this book is on here is going to surprise some people because I keep hearing Time and time again that the second half of this book is terrible I thought the beginning of the book while engaging was just another generic thriller on Par with like mr. Mercedes or even some of the other stuff like like Harlan Coban In fact, he he mentions Harlan Coban books in this one It's almost like he was shooting for that and it just got it to a certain point I was like, okay I'm ready for this to end and as soon as I felt that way the book completely switched gears and it turned into a Stephen King book what he does in the second half of this novel is what Stephen King always does Which it it doesn't really drive me crazy as much as I just don't understand people who show up for a Stephen King Novel and then get to the second half of this book and dislike it And there's a lot of you that I agree with on everything else when it comes to Stephen King We dislike Tommy knockers together. We dislike dream catcher together. We dislike all of those books But then we get to this one and the second half of this book is good King content is some of his best work It's his story within a story. It's the there's a supernatural aspect everything that King has done right in his career He does right in the second half of this book, but still I'm seeing people enjoying the front matter more than the back half and that's really interesting to me and I'm wondering if it's because he's gotten people into this new style of his and They have forgotten the old version of King because from dr. Sleep all the way up until I would say Yeah sleeping beauties end of watch all that stuff. He's been writing the same kind of way It's not been it has not had that flavor other than revival But I hear that was a trunk novel that was sitting around for a while just like that cemetery was But there and that that might not be true But what I'm getting at is there was a problem with those books because there was no king content in those books The Mercedes trilogy did get some stuff in the way of brady heartsfield there towards the end But mostly what we got was just generic thriller and that's what you get at the beginning of the outsider But then as soon as king start starts doing what king always did before Before Uh dr. Sleep, that's where people are having a problem and an issue and that that really fascinates me So if you want to talk about that more you can down there in the comments unless we've already talked about this Then I mean there's no really real reason to rehash it Anywho going on to the number one spot there are characters in this book that I cannot get out of my head eggy and low these two characters I I don't know why they stuck with me as well as they did probably because they remind me of me and my wife But the number one spot goes to Providence by carolina keppness caroline keppness. I always want to like roll it carolina It's not it's caroline keppness So fantastic fantastic book and it has stayed with me. Yes It came out this year but I read it during the winter uh in december of last year, but it did come out this year. So i'm putting it in this year um the The the story is great and i'm not going to give any spoilers. I'm not going to get into it whatsoever I really did appreciate the uh The extra aspect that she added to the book and if you want to talk about this And I don't want to spoil anything for anybody. Um, but if you want to talk about what happens between the two main characters Then we can but what I really appreciated Was eggy and low the detective and his wife those two characters really really stood out for me And I had the same thing happen with hidden bodies Some of the side characters meant more to me than the main characters not that I don't love joe Or love this character's name or in you not that I didn't love beck and joe and reading about those characters But the side characters Keptness what keppness does that almost no other author in her genre does is makes the smallest character matter And I find that I I love that everybody matters in one of her books. There are no throwaway characters There are no superfluous characters. There are only characters there to forward the plot and even if they don't forward the plot They still get a full story Everybody in her books get a full story. She right reminds me of steven king in that regard So This year we have in the top five. We have some new faces. We have some old faces Um, and especially if you don't go out and buy any uh any other books this year I highly suggest getting the top two which is steven king's the outsider keeping in mind what I just said about it And providence by caroline keppness, which is funny because both of these books have the same kind of thing They could be fine the stories could be fine without the extra added element But they added it and I appreciate that they had the the courage to add those extra elements and step outside Maybe their comfort zone or their reader's comfort zone, but until next time I have been e you've been you This has been the best books of 2018. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye. Bye


long cosmos and its淨 braking Ḥḵម Ḝᴀᴕᴇɾ, ˜ˡᴼᴒᴏ, ᴀᵜᴃ ˜ᴜ� Nazas ˜ᴇᴇᴏ Or system For next it will see how it asks to turn we will enjoy it if you like our video then you can like, share and subscribe for more videos


Well, thank you very much indeed, Minister. Just before we kick off the question and answer session just to say that this session is taking place on the record and regards questions, if you could just identify yourself, say who you are and your institutional affiliation. So we've got about 35 minutes or so, but sort of more than that. Would anybody like to ask the first question? Yes. Honour daily member of the Institute. Thank you for visiting us. My question is about Bulgaria's relationship with Russia. Last week Vladimir Putin met with Bundeskanzler Angela Merkel and it appears that she is trying to put relations between the European Union in a broader sense back on track with Russia. Do you have any comment? I know that Bulgaria has very close cultural ties with Russia. How Bulgaria sees the ideal development of foreign common European policy as regards Russia? Yes. I feel comfortable. This question really comes right on time because today exactly our president is in Russia meeting President Putin. Yesterday he met Prime Minister Medvedev and today they are meeting the president of the Russian Federation. It is a real topical question, so thank you for this. There are a lot of speculations very often about our relationship with Russia, but I think we were always a country that followed exactly the common foreign security policy as far as Russia has been concerned. And if someone can find even a case where Bulgaria was outside of this policy as government, as official establishment, if I may say so, please ask me a question again. But I think, yes, we were absolutely following these five guiding principles of the relationship with Russia, which include of course the fulfillment of the so-called Minsk Agreement, which is part of the relationship as far as Ukraine is concerned and the issues that concern the security in and around Ukraine. It's always a very important issue. It's important issue to us even more than to others because we are very close. We are neighbors in the Black Sea. We are neighbors with both countries. And also Crimea is in the Black Sea, everyone knows that. But we are absolutely following the common European policy on these issues. And here we have sanctions and these sanctions will stay until we have progress on the Minsk Agreement. So there is no exception to this rule for us. Of course the five guiding principles include also to have a relationship with Russia on many other issues and to keep it also with the civil society. So we think it's important to keep all the channels of communication open. And that is why we have a certain relationship, which is not more intensive than of others. I think this visit comes of our president to Moscow after a long post of high-level visits between the two countries. And it's also part of the general, I would say, chill in this relationship between the European Union countries and Russia. And what we see that is positive and important to keep is that this country will stay. It is not going to go anywhere. We have to have really some certain relationship, very pragmatic relationship with Russia, which is to know that she meant to the general policy that we have with Russia, as I mentioned. But we also have strong cultural ties with this country between the two peoples. And it is not possible just to interrupt all the relationship. Besides, we have also important energy relations with this country. And like many in Eastern Europe, we were having a lot of our gas and other energy sources brought by Russia actually to this part of Europe. So we cannot interrupt everything like just in one moment, from another moment. We need to do a lot more to diversify, which is also our policy on energy issues. But still we think it is important to keep good relationship and to try to make them even better whenever it is possible. Of course, not to the expense of breaching sanctions. Here we are also very strict in implementing whatever it takes because we also suffer a lot as far as our agricultural products are concerned, as far as some products of this defence industry are concerned also. But that is why we very much rely upon the development of this new, as I mentioned, new and very important policy of the European Union in common defence. And also developing this new regulation, which is still under question mark, but we are doing our best to bring it to fruition. It is the regulation to create a common industrial programme financed by the European Union to develop together our industries and connect them even better in the European Union. Speaking about Russia, this is our view from this corner of Europe. It is very pro-European, I would say. Thank you very much indeed, Minister. May I just ask you a question about last week's summit meeting? Many people looking at the communique said that it was disappointing compared to the communique coming out of Thessaloniki 15 years ago. And that in some ways it represented a backward step for the Western Balkans. And I just want to ask you how you anticipate everything is going to go between now and the European Council in June. And whether the European Council is going to follow up on the commission's recommendation that Albania, for example in Macedonia, status will be upgraded. And whether we're going to see momentum, because I think the worrying thing for many people is not only that Germany is much more reluctant to embrace enlargement than it was 15 years ago, but also President Macron in Sofia. The language that he used for many people suggested that he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the Western Balkans either. So I just wonder about the impressions that you took away from the summit meeting. And given the enormous effort that Bulgaria has put into injecting momentum into enlargement, are we going to get a positive outcome at the summit meeting in June? And what would that positive outcome look like from your perspective? Thank you very much. It is a very important question in the recent weeks that we were dealing with, and not only weeks. I started myself to work for the success of this meeting as of first meetings I was political director of my ministry before being upgraded to this post. And in February last year, in 2017, I actually have made certain meetings in the commission and in other European institutions, starting talking about organizing such a summit meeting in Sofia during our presidency, and trying again to, not probably again, but after so many years to bring back the focus of the attention of European countries and institutions towards this region of the West, so-called Western Balkans. I think at the very beginning it was really very difficult. Nobody wanted to listen. Everyone was saying, no, there are so many and so influential countries in the European Union that are absolutely against. And it's better that you just quit and you don't deal with this issue at all because nobody will want to come to Sofia and start talking about these countries. So the skepticism was really strong and it was really hard to start persuading people that it's really important to do something. And besides, there is the enlarging process which has its very well-established channels to develop. So it was easy to say there is a process so you can leave the things as they are and just quit this issue and find another better subject to deal with. But we decided to continue and we think that it is a very important issue, a very important part of our own national foreign policy and perception for the world. That we think that we can have better security and stability in the whole Europe, in the whole corner of the world. There only through European perspective and European path for all these countries that are situated there because we are really sure we know that they are just European countries and they should have this perspective open. So we started to work a lot and to work on all different levels that were possible with many countries, especially in Brussels, which is of course everything is concentrated there. And I think at least we managed to have everyone on board. And finally, it was a great success, the very summit itself that happened in Sofia because we have seen everyone there on board with one exception. We know why, but I don't want to mention different countries, but it was really very well-motivated and there was a good meeting the evening before. So we know that there was a support also for general support for enlargement and for even stronger than some other countries that participated. But in any case, yes, if you read the text, it is not so impressive, it's true, but it is still a text that was adopted by all 28 countries, 28 member states. And all the six Western Balkans are aligned to this text. It wasn't possible that because of the non-recognisers, of course, to have them all agree together or sign it in a form. You never sign actually political statements, but usually don't sign, but in this case it was really I think a success after we should not be maximalistic. We know that diplomacy is not the skill to have a maximum result, but it is also something that is about the possibility that exists. So what is possible and what is really desirable. And I think we have managed in these circumstances to reach the maximum. It is up to others to decide and to judge, but I think it was really a good result that we were having. Also we have this annex to this declaration, which is so-called Sofia positive agenda for the Western Balkans. And it is about very specific projects and they concern connectivity mainly. All these different types of connectivity, which is in the modern era not only transport, not only energy, but also digital connectivity. In many ways human relationship and also connectivity in education and the possibilities for all these countries to benefit from the possibilities that exist also in the European Union. And I think it also helps a lot to confirm the European perspective and to see whatever is possible to be done from our side. And now it comes their time to show up what is possible from their side to be done also to persuade all these very skeptical countries, some of them, to really open this perspective even wider. So I think it is really a very, very important summit. We cannot compare moments in time. It was 2003 in Thessaloniki, the previous one. And at that time even Kosovo was not on the map of Europe. And there were also other things that were not existing. For example, Montenegro, which gained independence in 2006. So there were a lot of changes that we lived through all these years. But still this is the main message. We very often say that it is also a Balkan presidency because we were supported by other countries from the region like Greece and Romania. And Romania hold on a non-recognizer. Their president participated in the summit and it was a gesture towards the Bulgarian presidency. He might have refused, actually, with the full right. I mean, as a lawyer or ambassador they confirmed that they are not obliged at all to take part in this. But they came and even participated in the family photo, which was another big issue for some countries. So I think it was the possible and very positive outcome. And I think it was good that we have managed to have it. I think also that the strategy of the European Commission adopted on the 6th of February was also part of this joint effort, which was very well understood by many in Brussels, also in the institutions. People in Virginia, which is dealing with enlargement, they know actually very well what is happening on the ground. And I think they were really assessing positively this effort and trying to somehow to respond to this policy and to be really in fine tuning with the Bulgarian presidency and what were our vision for this. And about the joint enlargement conclusions, we are really hopeful that we will be in a position to have this time after 18 months joint conclusions with the participation of everyone else on board. And there might be certain exceptions, but this time we try to do our best and have this type of conclusion that will fulfill the national positions of everyone. We will see it is not an easy task, I have to admit, but we will do our best.  Further questions? Jill. Thank you very much for a very interesting presentation. I just wondered, could you elaborate a little bit just on the W regulation? That's quite an interest to my audience and it is contested. The second thing I just wanted to ask you was you said that it was more important to get agreement on the priorities before we started hiding in the other back negotiations about budgetary contributions. I just wondered to what extent is there now convergence or consensus around the priorities. Thank you for this question. They are very difficult, but very interesting. I mentioned in our previous talk, the Dublin regulation, it has the name of this beautiful city of course, although I think we are together with Ireland on this issue. Here we were trying to have a balanced approach and have again on board both sides in the European Union, which are now more or less in diverging positions about, as I mentioned, solidarity and responsibility. Here we have, to a certain extent, confronting views of countries that are at the border of the European Union and are confronted directly with the first wave of migration that comes sometimes illegally and sometimes we have, of course, sometimes refugees. And we have the countries that are the final destination of certain of these people, of some of these people. And we have also others who just would like to have national approach and control of their own borders without taking any kind of solidarity responsibility here in solidarity. And we will try to find our best way to fulfil, to a certain extent, and find the right balance between these diverging positions. I don't think it will be easy and we might need the help of the institutions in a certain moment in time from here up to the end of June, but still we think it's possible. It depends on the will of the different countries that are involved in this, the main proponents of the two main opinions in the European Union. What I can just, I cannot get into details because we don't have time, and they are, of course, a bit insiders in it. But I think it is possible to have, to reach consensus before the end of our presidency. And it is important, of course, to take everyone on board, as I said, because we can understand that also the countries of final destination are having a lot of burden on their economies, their national budgets, so it is absolutely understandable to us. From another point of view, here we have also the views of the so-called frontline countries, especially the countries that are bordering the sea, which is very difficult to defend and to have control of these sea borders. And everyone should take its own part of the burden we think and find the best solution. So I can just say this, only this. And about the not-annual financial framework, I think the discussion just started because the project has been presented on the 5th of May, the first one. So there was only one general discussion up to now at the last general fairscast. It just started. The different views are in the process of formation. Of course, everyone has its own views and considerations. For us, it's very important for Bulgaria, probably also for Ireland too, to keep certain parts of the policies that existed for several years or many years for some of the countries. For example, we are absolutely a problem of the cohesion policy, and I think it will be our priority to keep the cohesion policy and convergence policy because we think it's really what it is about the European Union. It is about having a stronger union incorporating each and every member state in it with the possibility to develop further and better and to make it stronger also on the European and international scale. And after Brexit especially, we have to find also the right balance between countries that benefit from the budget, the cohesion funds and countries that are net contributors. But I think there are certain policies that are really important for the welfare of our citizens and for the idea that we have to bring the European Union close to its citizens. Without these policies, it will be really difficult to do it. But of course there is an important issue added to that because the new policies that we have agreed to apply as far as the next framework is concerned. So we have again to find the right balance between these two options, and we cannot have... We can have better, of course, restructured policy. We can have better spending and we can have also find better ways for greater income to the European Union. We still have to think that we pay only 1% of what it is now, 1% of our GDP each and every country. So sometimes it is a bit exaggerated in certain sense but it's really very important to keep these policies. That's what I can add to this. Perhaps I could just follow up Jill's question on the budget by asking what is the Bulgarian view about this attempt to link future budgetary entitlement, structural funds and so on, to rule of law. This is a reason of course because of what's happened in Poland and in Hungary. What is the Bulgarian perspective on this? Are you in favour of establishing a linkage and how might that actually work in the future? Well, that's another very important issue. We think it is... Rule of law is something that we cannot debate. I mean, it's an overarching principle of the European Union. We have to follow it with all possible means. But when we establish a link between these two, we should think also that there should be an institution who will say finally that the rule of law here and there is in breach. We have to be very careful in this. For the moment in this presidency we try to be really very careful on pronouncing this and that on this issue because we have to see how the issue will develop in the several months. As a country that still has our mechanism for cooperation and monitoring, it is important for us to know what will be the criteria and who will be the judge finally to say what is happening here and there. We know how difficult is the debate, for example, when we speak about Poland reforms of the judicial system and this activation of Article 7. So we would like to have a very careful and balanced approach on this issue. Yeah. Further questions? Yes. I will have two questions. First is, is there any prospect that the Macedonian name issue will be resolved before the next EU summit? There are some rumours about progress. Second question, the whole of the new context has been discussed how to face a more assertive Turkey and where they are as a name of Turkey what is your impression of what will develop? So thank you for these questions. They are really part of, in the heart of our national foreign policy also and they are really crucial for the region, for Southeast Europe but also obviously they are very important and give repercussions to the whole European Union policy and sometimes especially the issue of Turkey is really important for the general security in this part of the world. I think before the end of the week we will see what will happen with this issue, with the name issue, so-called name issue, the debate between our two neighbours because there will be another meeting in New York these days between the two foreign ministers, perhaps with the participation of the UN messenger Metunimid. So we are really in the days and hours of these talks there were also talks in Sofia between the two prime ministers during the summit meeting last week they were talking even during the night I understood I wasn't there of course but what we have heard was really good news that they are very close to solution still having a role in front of them but close to solution much more closer than ever happened before so we will see we are just in a position of witnessing what is happening in this issue and trying to be the best facilitator as possible as a neighbouring country, as a country with history and certain legacy and part of our national history is also connected to this issue it is really very very important to us what we will get out of this finally but the many thing is really the two countries to find the best solution of this name issue which concerns also other things part of this we would be a name valid for each and every use or we would be just a kind of national name and inside they will keep the Republic of Macedonia we will see I don't think it is a possibility at all actually for Greece to accept this solution which is not valid for each and every usage but still we are in a process and here we are also very carefully watching what is happening and there was recently a name that was mentioned by the two sides by the Prime Minister of one of the country and the other was responding and the whole opposition was involved so we see how difficult it might be but finally they might find the best name for both of them we will see it is really directly linked to the progress on the enlargement process we know that it is a precondition for the the commission has already of course recommended in its report that negotiations be open with Albania and former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia but still we expect to see how the countries the member states will react and what will be their conclusion at the end of June and in the meantime we need to have this solution on this issue of course so I cannot prejudge but we are in a good hands both countries have the best negotiators now both foreign ministers seems very well prepared and very positive to find the solution and I know from both of them that they really want to have a solution of course they have their own domestic political public all these issues that might be involved and about Turkey about Turkey I would say that how do we see getting out of what is happening there first of all we have to see what will happen on the 24th of June we expect to see the national elections in Turkey and how they will develop and what will be the results which kind of government they will produce and the implementation of the constitutional changes that have been voted I would say democratically voted in Turkey in the referendum so we will see I think it is important also with this country to have also this so-called channels of communications open and not to close the door just because it's an Islamic country or a Muslim country, better said not Islamic but hopefully to stay just Muslim country and we will see it is important to keep and we think Turkey in a negotiation track although negotiations are frozen but what is the other perspective that we have and what are the other means that we have to deal and of course we have also Turkey not only this but a key country to confront with this illegal migration coming in big waves to the whole European continent one of the ways of course coming they keep 3,500,000 of refugees of migrants in their country and I imagine what could happen if they are not strong enough to keep them so we are also working on this so-called mechanism of financing these refugees and migrants in Turkey with the European Union budget so that is what I can say for now I mean I just ask you a question about the euro and it's a very simple one will Bulgaria join the eurozone in the near future you mentioned ERM2 for example a little bit earlier the left has been one of the most stable currencies in Europe for the last 20 years or so a little bit less the Bulgarian economy is doing very well growing very strongly so do you see a point in the near future where Bulgaria would join the eurozone well of course we see a point that we joined the euro I cannot name a year or a moment exactly in time but I think we are determined to do it determined to do whatever is needed to do it and the reaction that we received was positive from Commissioner Mosco we see for example he said yes of course Bulgaria is eligible and ready according to certain benchmarks but still it needs to do certain things to bring its budget probably GDP to better numbers and also to work a lot on other certain specific issues but probably to join the ERM we are ready to do it even now if the eurozone minister decides so I think we will be there it's part of our vision for the future of Europe we should be in the core of part of Europe because it is in our interest I think it's also to the interest of all others to be there together ok are there any further questions ok I think we may draw the session to a close and just before we conclude I'd like to thank the minister for that very comprehensive view of the Bulgarian presidency Bulgaria's attitude to European integration and to thank you also many of us in this room are very aware of the great support Bulgaria has offered Ireland on the Brexit negotiations and that's very much appreciated so thank you very much thank you very much also to Ambassador Simon for the support that he has given the institute in putting this event together thank you very much indeed so we will conclude with the appropriate applause for the minister so thank you very much


Migration is a global phenomenon that can have both positive and negative consequences for people and societies. It can be driven by a variety of factors such as economic opportunities, political instability, and climate change. When people move from one country to another, they bring with them different cultures, languages, and customs. This can create tension and conflict within host communities, while at the same time providing opportunities for mutual understanding and exchange. This article was authored by Dashdi Hussein Ali.


Thank you, Jo. Thank you everyone for coming to join me in this park because just before we started, Jo was asking me that it's pretty neat now to be a messenger of peace to get to deliver this message as a full-time job, so to speak. It's really nice. I said I almost feel like that, a full-time messenger or a full-time channel, but the only difference I guess is all for me. So that actually makes it very simple. I just want to focus on that whatever is going on that is for an experience that I can tap into now. It's not like anything that I strive for for the future or anything that I need other people to get or to bring along. So it's constantly becoming an invitation in this moment and everybody can join me. And that's really the purpose of today as well. And I have David Hoffmeister join me again. Thank you so much. It's great. It's great to be here. Yeah. And I know this is all for an experience just for us to be together like this. This is it. Yeah, it's beautiful.  A little creek flowing gently by us. It's a beautiful mountain. Yeah, mountains behind us. Amazing. Yeah. That's Jessica coming. Oh, another recent Salt Lake City resident. Jessica Rary, let's have a hand. Here she comes. It's interesting too. When we're just sitting here too, it's like I just had this thought that dropped in my mind from the course of miracles where Jesus is saying that, you know, Christ is an idea in the mind of God. And he's saying that you have great difficulty. It's very challenging to think of yourself as an idea as the whole part of separation and the whole part of the seeming fall from grace or the idea of falling asleep in it and taking on a dream is that it's really thinking in terms of concretes and specific. Even a body seems to be very concrete and specific. It seems not like an idea at all. We were never told by our parents when we were growing up that we were an idea in the mind of God. That never came about.  And if you don't clean your plate, you get no dessert. But they weren't talking about that we were an idea in the mind of God. And I was just having a meditation this afternoon where I was thinking how wonderful to be told that, first of all, by Christ that I am an idea in the mind of God. And then furthermore to start to think of that this is a world of ideas. And that's something that we were never told either. That's the first time I heard that was in A Course in Miracles that this is a world of ideas. And then you go a little bit further that all of these ideas that we call time and space, they're all equal. I mean every single concept and every single thought that we think we think as far as this world is equally the same. Everything. Whether it's a snow cone or a world war, or whether it's intense rage or a little bit of irritation, or whether it's an ant or a tree or a mountain, they're all equally ideas. And that's really the realization it's going to take for us to come back to being an idea in the mind of God. First we have to deal with what's in front of us, in perception. And just to open your mind to that idea that everything is equally an idea, that this is a world of ideas. You really have to forgive spirituality to do that because spirituality, a lot of spiritual teachings will teach you there's thoughts and then there's the manifest world. That there's a difference between the thoughts that you think you think and the world that you think you see. And that it's there are invisible things and there are visible things. And that the visible things, you know, the images are very different from the invisible things. There's a big difference between the visible and the invisible. Like I could think, I could just throw out an idea or concept of a pink donkey. Okay, sounds like something out of more of an animation or something. What's that one where they have all the animals, Madagascar, all the different amazing animals. But okay, we'll show out the idea of a pink donkey. Now people can say, well, there really aren't pink donkeys. But if we open up to the idea that everything is equally an idea, then pink donkey is just the same as gray donkey or pink elephant or anything else. It's just a convincing, but it really can't be that hard to give yourself over to the way things actually are that everything is an idea. Nothing's really projected because projection is not an attribute of God, you know, God doesn't project. So if God doesn't project, it can't be real. So we have to let go of this idea that that somehow there are levels and there are degrees and gradations and that everything is more than a world of ideas. And I absolutely enjoy the experience of the world being a world of ideas because there's nothing to protect, there's nothing to defend. You don't have to stand up for something or protect something or deny something. It's just simply an awareness that this is a world of ideas. It's great. I mean, that's the message that we're sharing. And that's why there's no problems. If this is a world of ideas and they're all equally unreal, then how could there be a problem out of that? If that's the soup that you're dealing with, so to speak, then you don't have a problem. Is it practical? I think it's the most practical to start to see the world as a world of ideas. Walt Disney made up a lot of characters and a lot of things we call animation, talking animals and dancing animals and dancing broomsticks and all kinds of things, but it can be entertaining and it can even be more than entertaining can actually be peaceful if you just see that it's just a world of ideas. How could you have an argument if it's a world of ideas? It's when you think that some ideas are more important than others or you're identified with some of the ideas and not with others, then that's where the difficulty comes in. It's unthinkable. An idea can't think of itself as an idea. It's like that's why you can't think your way to reality or to truth. It is an effect, that it's not something that can perceive itself. It almost has to job. It's not something even when we come together, it's not really about getting or acquiring or gaining any understanding. It's actually about dropping any understanding so that what you were talking about can be experienced. That's my experience, I think. I was talking to a friend a few days ago just about this transfer of training idea, because that is what I see as practicality. To practice across the miracles and eventually transfer it to everything and every idea, every thought and have no exceptions. The experience of that in the end was I think I was asked particularly about you, how I see you. I remember my answer was it actually really took me, this kind of practice really took me beyond to see a person as a person being more right than others. It's actually really lifted up to to seeing the spirit behind it and the experience of it was that I said I always can't see because it almost feels like a clear lake. I feel like I always can't see the bottom, but as soon as I drop to where I thought was the bottom it was deeper and I keep dropping, keep dropping and it's always deeper and deeper than I thought. That's my experience living this way. I don't know how deep the rabbit hole is. It actually seems shallower than it actually is. It's almost like you can grasp, you can always grasp. There's a temptation even to the egos wanting to see that it's gonna get there soon and some kind of arrogance of I know what this is about and I can get there very soon, but it's the very opposite in the experience. It's actually this constant humbling experience and opening up and then realizing oh my god I thought this is it. It's still the floor keeps opening up and I keep dropping through the lake and do not know where the bottom is and just that that was my answer to a question of my experience with you is this constant humbling experience and to see a guide has walked through the practical steps and always think ah I know I know now I get it but then when I get there I was like oh my god that's the lake keeps getting deeper. Yeah it's nice. Yeah it's nice when somebody even asks like what's your opinion. The first time that happened it was like oh that's funny. It's a funny thought what's your opinion but then or even when somebody says share your thoughts and so forth and yeah I guess it gets to be it's just such an expansive experience and feeling that there may be something to speak or not and but we're all it seems like every talk we do we come back to that involuntary nature that there's nothing to figure out whether to speak or not to speak. Actions seem involuntary a friend of ours from Las Vegas contacted us and she was pondering this whole involuntary thing but you can just feel how relaxing it is to open up to just a couple ideas that I've shared. One is that everything is an idea equally an idea because you don't have to order them you don't have to arrange them you don't have to identify with them you don't have to to figure them out there's nothing to analyze if everything's equally an idea then it takes away all conflict and then the involuntary nature so there's nothing really to explain. You're in an experience you feel the connection you feel the joy but there's nothing that needs to be explained because there aren't persons that need to be explained to and in the end you're not a person that has to explain yourself it's that's ultimate freedom is is a state of acceptance where you see is beyond the personal entirely always has been it never was something there you don't have to justify actions you don't have to justify inactions. It's very freeing not to explain anything and justify anything actually because it's a state of guiltlessness if you don't if you're innocent then obviously there's nothing to justify one way or the other but this also means that that there's nothing to pursue because if this is just a world of ideas then and they're all equally the same thing it just talk about wiping everything out Joe played a song and everyone was laid out but that's really what forgiveness does it it's like it throws a blanket of peace over the whole world and says no there's nothing to get huff about as the Beatles said there's an ease with that everything all is well in forgiveness and and that's because there's nothing to pursue there's nothing to defend yeah we talked about you know swallow swallow the red pill have we swallowed the red pill yet like the matrix metaphor yeah you have taken it but it's in the mouth have you you know get it fully down there yet but you know when we yeah the temptation is to think if if we have done that it's almost like a again another thing to achieve you okay i'm gonna go for it but it's a total opposite really when we if we have swallow is that swallow is it that's a word if we have swallow swallow the the red pill it's really then you swap everything clean basically that's really what's going on in the mind you don't carry anything with you anymore from the past or achieve anything in the future and that is the opposite of what the mind is thinking it's like okay i'm gonna go for the end of the rabbit hole i'm going for it but it's no it's allowing yourself to drop allow yourself to be carried and you yourself quit that's like you leave everything you leave everything you leave you go with empty handed and allow yourself to to fall with the spirit every moment that's what it means yeah let's let me let's just review that scene from the matrix because he goes to visit morpheus and morpheus is wearing those sunglasses that are reflective and you can see neo in the sunglasses and you can see that that there's two two pills the red pill and the blue pill but before taking the pill into his mouth and taking the glass of water there's a glass of water there too to help the swallowing morpheus is the symbol of the holy spirit morpheus pauses and says remember it's a pause before he actually takes the red pill remember all i'm offering you is the truth so imagine that you go through this whole so-called spiritual journey and you think you read books and you listen to teachers and you go to seminars and workshops and you pray and you meditate you do all this stuff seemingly as a human being and then you get to one point where you've got to commit your your whole life over to the spirit without compromise unequivocally you've got to do it and that will say is taking the red pill but right before you do it the spirit says like in morpheus saying remember all i'm offering you is the truth i'm not saying this will make your life better in the world i'm not saying that it will make the world a better place i'm not saying it will make the world a happy place uh what i all i'm offering you is the truth and there's a pause there because in order to take the red pill you've got to decide for it and then when he actually does take the red pill he puts it in his mouth and he takes a drink of water and he swallows it then the thing the whole scene shifts very quickly where they they get move into another room away from the tall chairs and everything and remember that's the one where they start hooking things up to him so immediately as soon as he takes the red pill everything starts to be set in motion for a very different kind of experience and then you remember that's the scene where he's hooked up and then all his like this uh kind of a mercury this shiny gooey liquid starts to come all over his up his arms and he's cold so now he's gone into another room where it's just like mercury coming up and then it comes all the way up and it comes up all the way to the neck and then it comes all the way to the first or orifice that the mercury finds which is his mouth it starts to come up around the neck and it starts to go in and that's almost like a symbol of dissolving of the personal self because the mercury the shiny fluid mercury is like the spirit again the holy spirit is like water in some cases but this is like shiny mercury and then when it starts to go in it's like his whole personality the whole person just kind of implodes and that's when he drops down into the I call it the subconscious mind where he's all plugged in you know he's he's gone from the surface Neo or surface Neo to yeah mr. Anderson down into the unconscious mind and he's still undoing but that's I think that's really the point that you everyone has to come to where they're willing to let go of everything that they think they know about the world about themselves about survival about family about community about everything that's truly what leaving the world behind is it's actually you know last time we talked about seemingly leaving the tangible things and a job that is like the beginning if you believe you're compromising then that could be you know some something to opening up and as a starting of not compromising this inspiration and happiness anymore but in the end leaving the world behind is leaving everything like my drive to towards anything in the world you know every kind of past associations what I think I am and what I think I I know about relationships about friendships about career security health everything needs to be leave behind it's in the mind that's been left behind yeah yeah even something like loyalty I mean when I was being raised you know loyalty was a very important thing you know you you trust to have loyalty you keep the faith and so on and so forth and then but loyalty is still at the level of of interpersonal the way it's talked about in the world but in the end can one be loyal to peace of mind can can you be willing to when all the concepts are getting washed away instead even loyalty even personal loyalty and some of the things the noble things of the world those are starting to get rinsed as well you know you really have to let go of everything because everything that's aimed at persons is getting rinsed away even personal loyalty loyalty to a to a spouse to a teacher you know to a friend those things are the things that movies are made of you know and then in the end you know there's like a a disillusionment with all that and then it's just finally an experience that comes that that is completely unlike the human condition right it is very practical if we really you know talk about even the practicality is actually practical to leave everything you know behind and you know come to this blank slate every moment just be willing to to job that you know everything can be used for us to see where the hooks are and to see what has been brought to this to this moment from the past or try to achieve in the future you know it's actually not that hard to have these kind of realizations yeah yeah so i think it's you can see why it has no ambition in it because it's just so focused in the present there's not a shred of ambition to make something happen and that's also the relaxation with it it's like that the gateway is let you yes yes your no be no and then there comes a point when when yeah everything falls away even the yeses in the nose but but to trust that unwinding to reach that point of of serenity of acceptance just taking your moment by moment flow like you're saying going deeper down the rabbit hole however it feels just giving yourself fully over to that with no attempt to control anything or direct anything in the end linear time is the grievance that has to be forgiven it's not so much with persons that's just the trick to kind of keep the guilt in place but yeah and you can feel it when your mind just is letting go letting go more and more and more just sinking sinking deeper and deeper inward how many of us have seen that linear time is the grievance like you have seen it you have seen it that's great you can see linear time is a grievance it's not it's not even specifics between people let alone is the person in and of itself it's linear time yeah i love the line in the course beware of the temptation to perceive yourself unfairly treated imagine that you could see the world in a way in which you see that there's never been a mistreatment ever of course that would wipe out history but that you know that they're not only that they had been corrected but that there never was it reminds me of us we were just in sugarhouse was it a couple days ago we were guided to go see x-men and days of future past you know i had to laugh when i first saw that title because i used to talk about that for years the past past and the future past and they're both equally unreal but it's beautiful because there there's an awareness that grievance has to be released and they nobody knows how it's going to happen and when it finally comes down to the scene of the release it's it's i think it's more so not the mystique character dropping her weapon but it's more so that charles says i've always tried to control you he realizes he can't control mystique nor anyone else you know he's he's been a helper but but there's been an aspect of control there and when he says i've always tried to control her because there's somebody saying make her freeze her mind or you know as if he has the power in his mind to do something to her to save the day and he won't exercise that option he lets go he surrenders yeah i love that because she was trying it's a little like butterfly effect like in this realm like she was trying or they were trying different ways to stop her but they could try whatever they want it's still gonna play out like they could stop her but then something else would happen to to make it happen as well you know nothing could really eventually stop the war or the grievance or the the inevitable outcome except the forgiveness that's the only way that they completely dropped the whole seemingly impossible scenario there is when seemingly she for she chose to forgive but he saw his control of her and when that dropped and i love it because i we went to we have seen that movie many times we were just guided to to see that again and i noticed you actually drifted off a little bit during the movie and i did that too and when i woke up you woke up in turn to me that was a very scene you said this is the revelatory scene and i was like yeah and we were just went there for that very scene actually we paid our dollar fifty to go in there for big spenders we spent the dollar fifty for one scene and then we both are like and when the scene came i'm like it was so great but what was so great about that scene he gave up the control she dropped the gun and then the seeming future scenario just vanished so it's like a hypothetical destruction scene from the future that really it's not like it's the forgiveness stopped the scene or saved the day or stopped the bad ones or whatever all that like the typical things it just the whole scene was gone and never was you know and that to me that's what forgiveness is it's when you think of your life in linear terms and like if you'll somehow somehow make the right moves and do the right things and say the right things it's not really that it's just all hypotheticals and when you finally forgive you give up the control you come to the accept the atonement acceptance then you see that it never was so for all of you that have had trouble healing relationships it's the problem is you're trying to heal something that you're you think really happened that's the problem that's how deep it goes you know like jesus says in the course forgive your brother for what he did not do well the only way you can forgive your brother or sister for what they did not do is if it was just a figment of imagination did you notice when some of you came in the park today that that was in flowers that was what was written out imagine there now we're kind of coming into the park here to say okay what's how can we relax beyond even beyond imagine yeah that's it we've enjoyed the movies but now we're they're kind of running running out to everything's running out yeah this movie festival we're doing in september that better come to it because we made we might be going beyond movies soon you know as much as we've enjoyed them the spirits use of them yeah this is how deep it goes like but we start with the leaves and that's that's where the perception level is that i remember i kind of remember watch an interview or something the last few days this guy was saying that he he had this attraction to to this girl but he did something really embarrassing he i can't remember the details but he did something really embarrassing that i just unbearable to himself that he did that to the girl so he will and the girl wasn't aware of it completely so so he from that point on for years and years he just avoided seeing her and when the topic came up from friends and he will attack her but all of this attack and grievance and anger towards her she was not aware of it has nothing to do with her was all started from seemingly this this experience of he did something really embarrassing and he couldn't bear to remember that event so just like her existence was almost like a memory or a trigger of this this deeper grievance or this guilt that came up but that is at the the surface level you know that's where we can start to see even to forgive the other person that go of the other person because you can just get caught in how i don't like the other person and how you know that is just not the case at all and then when you go he's grievance he did something embarrassing that is not it either you know just but that is opening up to a possibility to go deeper eventually it will open up to nearer time that's that's what it really is about not an action that is embarrassing what come up as a guilt is not because of an action or because of anything it's all coming back but that's what really the process is about is that we we do not deny the the specific because that's a great entry point and to be used that to really drop deeper and if without forgiveness this dropping process will not be able to happen so the whole thing is to you know with every single specifics is to to say you know to jesus or spirit hold my hands so that i have the courage to drop further to see what is really underneath this that's the wind that's that's my favorite prayer is to you know have this picture that i'm holding jesus hand to come to a place that maybe at this point i i'm not even have the courage to see you know so it's not about even figure out a specifics but it's really about how can i let this specific go so i have the courage to drop deeper to what's really really really is the source of this grievance so every time i think about that i feel grateful for this process you know just knowing that the specifics in everyday life that we can see you know just just staying there can never really heal anything really yeah yeah it's beautiful just to be able to stop and and realize that's not it and then you don't put your attention into pursuing trying to solve the problem where there is no problem the wind got very still for us that's good but we have a live audience here anybody want to inquire about something with since we're on the mics we'll we'll repeat whatever you've got that you'd like to to share comment question inquiry jerry yeah jerry's asking if everything's an idea or all these ideas to be let go of i i think from the ego's perspective it looks like a let go from the spirit's perspective it's more of an integration like more of an acceptance of like oh these are all equally in my mind so it's not so much a let and go it's more of an embrace like it's a big embrace like oh these are all all ideas in my mind yeah yeah and that embrace we'll call that forgiveness that's that's still a concept too because in heaven there's nothing to forgive so even forgiveness must be a concept but it's like an all-embracing all-encompassing concept and how is that practical well i did it the show i think with francis very recently maybe a couple days ago and i've done some shows recently where i would say it doesn't matter to me what people believe anymore whether they believe in god or they don't believe in god you know that seems to be a pretty big distinction as the world would see it believers and unbelievers you know you know you want to be on the right fence there with that one believers or unbelievers but but i was seeing that really people are just ideas so all people are just concepts as well and they're equally concepts so there's not better people or worse people or right people or wrong people you know you really have to see that in the end in terms of the world right and wrong morality that's deep when you start to say oh those are those are a bunch of concepts as well but this embracing concept of forgiveness which sees that they're all the same to me that's where the peace of mind is so it doesn't have to be seen as a letting go because it could be like as a person what do i have to let go and and that's that's still the assumption that you're starting with being a person and you somehow got to let go of these concepts that are like whirling around in there but but in the end even letting go of the person seeing that's just another concept as well yeah i think yeah it's the embrace is from the ego perspective it can seem like a letting go because it thought it had in the first place from this from the higher perspective you can't really let go of what you never had and so it's more of an opening to the real world or the happy dream of just seeing that everything's an idea so it's not really a letting go it's more of an opening to an appreciation of what is in the sense that the Course tells us that the Holy Spirit answered the separation as soon as it happened simultaneously so we're really just accepting that correction it's not really an action thing it's not really that a person ever goes oh i've done it and even when we look at history and we say well Jesus did it now we've got to deal with the rest of us you know he says when i awoke you were with me kind of implying oh no when i accepted this embrace everybody was with me and and we're all home in this embrace so isn't that a relief you don't even have something to let go of you don't have to it gets easier and easier it's more of just seeing that you're just opening to an acceptance an acceptance that's why in the Course it says accept the sole responsibility of the miracle worker or the teacher of God is to accept the atonement for himself accept i like that it's it's already there it's not you don't have to come up with it you don't have to come up with it say is this good enough is this do i get back can i come back home you know it's you don't have to keep is it you don't have to come up with this process of of hoping that you've come up with something good enough you know yeah that's lesson 189 that simply do this be still and then it goes on lay aside all thoughts of what you are what God is hold on to nothing do not bring with you one thought the past is taught and or one belief you learned before from anything forget this world forget this course and come with open arms unto your God from the ego's perspective remember the course is is written for the ego or for the even more specifically for the mind that believes in the ego because that mind is going to have to make a choice for another way but it's got to come in egoic terms because when the mind believes in the ego everything it perceives including the book of course the miracles is perceived through that filter of separation it seems to be a separate book it seems to be a blue book with gold letters somebody just sent me a purple book with gold letters it's called a course of love so now i've got two books there in my room purple and blue gold but but still it's perceived through the filter as if there's separate books and separate words but ultimately i would say that's just practical for the mind that's waking up is to describe it from a letting go perspective you know it's the same thing we you know give up something for lent or you know in christian terms you have to give up things and mystics and saints had to give up things and we even talked about give up the world but i'm saying from a higher perspective it does dawn in your mind that it's more just an embrace or an integration because most of us know that integrating and wholeness sound good you may not know what how that happens or what that really is but integration and wholeness has a good ring good resonance to us and that's actually from the holy spirit's perspective everything's just coming whole because it's already whole it's just wholeness is coming into awareness integration is coming into awareness integrity is coming into awareness and that's more of a of a sense of embrace or coming together than it is i've got to peel the onion just keep throwing off as many onion peels and layers as i can that's certainly how it seems as you're going through the process so that's that's why it's in there that way it's just to be practical oh you all look so relaxed out there it's even more relaxed than in in a studio in a garage is out there on the grass on the blankets it's very relaxing it's great seeing you again john you look so relaxed the sunglasses on just kicking back it's beautiful it's beautiful it's a way to have a friday afternoon laid out in the grass with your friends that's it time just flew by it's already five so isn't it this is really what what this is all about just to be together and job together this is like excuse the show is excused so they will go come out and be together it is it's a great excuse to backdrop just to be together no expectations isn't it nice just to be together without an agenda without an expectation hmm how freeing that is i mean it's got to be the height of relationship just to be in a state of beingness acceptance and and embrace this this itself is an embrace yeah it's like there is no future there's no next moment and and just for now just for for now that we can be in this together ego has its own version of early retirement and the holy spirit has a version of holy retirement the holy spirits version is is one of of acceptance of everything right here right now and then the egos is very much again on the timeline work hard maybe have to do things you don't want to do maybe have to do a lot of things that you don't want to do but save your money invest your money have your nest egg and then retire and have a pension or a retirement fund or something that will sustain you and then you know it it will throw things in like well you know sometimes pensions get raided or get squandered or you know it just will say well yeah you know that there's nothing for sure in this world but yeah just forget put that aside for a while and stick to the formula and you know try to use the formula but basically i i think i had to see that following the holy spirit was a purpose and literally i felt like i could feel emotionally and experientially like that was an early retirement because i was not working for a boss in linear time anymore just that comfortable small still voice that i could connect with at any time then that was at the time that was the way i saw it now it's more like a merge like you know it's there's nothing yeah nothing to get huff about there's there is no you know buying into the formula in any way it was always about an acceptance and some of you have been following the news like with robin williams recently with the suicide and then it it came out you know just recently two more details that it was like he had been diagnosed with parkinson's and some of you know like what michael j fox and different ones that have gone through that that are kind of celebrities and the public eye and it's again it's just a self-concept but robin wanted to bring laughter to the world he wanted to bring joy and inspiration he didn't want to bring frailty weakness concern you know parkinson's is so associated with it being a depilitizing kind of disease where you lose control of faculties we're here we are at spiritual terms we're saying lose control lose control but to the ego it's the worst thing especially if you see yourself as a bringer of laughter and funny active supporting supporting children supporting people all over the planet you know with your roles with your movies and everything so it it either it's kind of came down to a sense of do i have to let go of the role that i'm accustomed to that i want to offer as a gift or do i have to you know move into something that seems very scary like loss of control leaving control over the body you know that can seem very scary and in those terms the suicide can even you know that that's how it goes in the mind is suicide can look more like an out like i can't stand to be in the public eye in kind of a diseased falling apart way i would rather take a bow you know like the truman show good afternoon good evening good night and stop while i'm ahead but what we're learning is you know we we it's not really a letting go of control because we never really had it in the first place god didn't really create us to be controlling the world controlling bodies having even control over motor control you know that's accepted as part of the dream but it's really still another aspect of what never was it just it's just starting to realize that's hum humbleness to start to realize no everything that i thought i was i wasn't and they were talking about all of his you know movies mrs. doubt fire and good morning vietnam and all these movies but they said the one that that most fans identified with and found most comfort with was the one with anabelle scorsi and the with the paintings yeah what what dreams may come and that was about a suicide actually if you remember anabelle you know and he he played the comforting character that his wife was tormented with suicide at the thought of losing her husband and he you know he cuba gooding jr was played like this character they all it all turned out that it was a world of ideas and he was told by cuba gooding jr jr you know you can have it be however you want to be the sky it was all like a painting it's a beautiful movie but i think of all the movies that we were aware of that's one of our movie watchers guide to enlightenment that just touched a lot of us because it was a transcendent movie about facing and going beyond suicide beyond the belief in suicide that there was something there beyond it that death wasn't the end and it's how appropriate you know really with with the way things played out with robin it just gave everybody a chance to go oh yeah let's come back to that movie of transcendence you know that was that was it of all the movies that was forgiveness that was transcendence it was there's more don't lose hope don't don't think that death is is the end yeah and in that movie you might remember even though he had he found that tracker and that guide and and he had his helpers along the way that turned out to be his children even helping him but it was like that he had to go into hell to try to rescue his wife but the course is so good it's teaching us you can't bring the truth into the illusion you just have to see the illusion for what it is you have to see the illusion of hell and you have to bring the illusions to the truth the truth of who you are so that's what we're doing you know that's why we have a wayshower who showed us it won't work to bring the truth into the illusion keep questioning your illusion keep raising up the unconscious beliefs keep raising up the darkness to the light and see that the darkness will disappear that's the way that the way that the wayshower has given us and that's the way that I took you know it whenever it came down to me having a thought those people aren't getting it when will the world change when will this happen Jesus is like come on would you quit singing that tune you we're not going to bring the light into the darkness we're not going to ever bring the truth into illusion you're never even asked to take the light into hell like your brothers are in hell and you're going to have to go deliver be the great messenger deliverer Jesus is like no way just start to see that everything that you perceive was made up by the ego and and you don't have to identify with any of those thoughts and you're free and so I like that that the way is clear you know we don't have to hesitate we just have to apply it you know we have to apply it we have to apply it yeah what do we need a wayshower and and and those instructions apply it as best you can try not to make exceptions to the lessons well that's pretty simple give me the lessons give me the instructions and just say now do it or undo it so we did it again out of the blue out of the blue comes Francis weird the show is so effective it's becoming weird to complete the title but you like out of out of the blue yeah thank you thank you everybody thank you for joining us yeah thank you