A Course In Miracles - Commitment to Your Spiritual Practice -David Hoffmeister -Miracle Mornings #7

[Music] beautiful being here and situated in a very still quiet room and looking out over the Portuguese countryside a quiet sunny afternoon so it's beautiful beautiful for me to see that and I'm really grateful to be part of this because the new beginning is it is an invitation to all of us to leave the past behind and to look completely anew on everything and everyone and it's just beautiful I'm just putting the gallery view on so I could see all your smiling faces again it always inspires me only one thing more beautiful than the Portuguese countryside is looking down in my screen is hanging up her faces so joyful that's so happy we're so joined in this well today I thought I was glancing through some of the questions that had been written in and also I thought I would try to give a context for this new beginning because it helps to be aware of what's really going on because most of us whenever we use a word we always have some kind of a context for a reference point or a connotation for that word and even if you look at the word beginning there's there's some meanings and connotations that go with the word beginning certainly with new beginning as well and what I would say is all of our concepts that are based on the past are based on time and based on our reference points in time so when we think of beginning we juxtapose that in the world of opposites to beginnings and endings and beginnings come first and endings come last but the new beginning that we're talking about is not really a beginning in time we're so accustomed to thinking about everything in terms of time so sometimes if you would think new beginning means new start or fresh start that still could be a point in time and this new beginning is actually transcending time it's actually our desire and our willingness to transcend time entirely and remember eternity so Jesus 2,000 years ago he said I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the ending and he was talking about that in the sense that that's thing that that the presence of the Christ mind the presence of the the Christ the pure spirit that's a pure creation of God is literally beyond time and therefore what we would say is a new beginning in terms of course of miracles is a complete letting go of all concepts of time including our our meanings we've given to beginnings and endings even coming here to Portugal Lisa was hearing it's the last chapter but but first and last and beginning and ending in terms of time in the end doesn't really have any meaning because there are no beginnings and endings in eternity so we're just opening our hearts up to a new experience I see what this experience is it's an experience of our abstraction everything in this world of time and space is about specifics and our minds become comfortable with specifics it's become very familiar with specifics you might say even it's become addicted to specifics and now it considers the specifics for example births and biological life it considers those specifics as life itself because it's for God it's divine abstraction as pure love and light the pure being created by God and so now it's all wrapped up into the specifics and it needs to be loosened from the specifics so that's really what our new beginning is about it's about training our mind to loosen from its belief in reliant on dependency on an addiction to specifics we need to come back to the remembrance of God which is remembering our abstraction so really that's what our new beginning is about is it's a willingness a desire a determination to remember God or remember abstraction so I have been looking through some of the questions that were written in and there's some long months and some short ones but I would just I thought I would just pick one and just make a comment on it and then I will look at some of the others and go into more details from our section the new beginning chapter 30 and also from other parts of the course as as needed but there's basically prayers these you've been offering the prayers of your heart basically for your heart to break wide open to really come into a deeper experience that the transcends the the concepts I see her Aviano from over in Germany I see that it's a short question but I thought I would make a comment on that from the same context that I'm talking about audriana's question was hi David I have a question can you talk about fidelity specifically sexual fidelity so here's one of these topics that are pretty common and people have a lot of questions about this in terms of their daily lives and this is a big topic and a big issue in sexual relationships of fidelity but I would say that it can be a springboard for us in to go deeper inward into the new beginning we can take any topic any topic you can think of and we can take it much deeper and we can find out what is really there underneath that topic what is it that we really need to accept what is it we really need to hear what is it we really need to learn and I would say initially the fidelity if you look at it just in the terms of sexual relationships it's it's very much tied into monogamy and having one sexual partner but if you look at it a little deeper you can see that there's actually a commitment required in that kind of situation in other words to maintain fidelity and those terms would require a commitment and what about commitment we know that commitment fits into this picture somewhere we have to be shown where it fits and basically when the mind falls asleep and forgets its source and forgets his oneness then it it believes in fragmentation and it has just gone into an experience that you could call hell because it's division its multiplicity its complexity it's chaos it's its destruction it's pain it's it's duality that belief in separation is is the attempt at the impossible and hell in reality is impossible because God is real and only that which is real comes from God and Christ and spirit is real but only that which comes from God is real but in terms of this world commitment is required because you have to begin to commit to a change of purpose in the mind you have to shift the purpose from a purpose of hatred to a purpose of love and forgiveness and that's a big shift when the world was made in hatred and you have to pull your mind completely away from that hatred and that division and that conflict and open it only to the experience of wholeness and completion and love and joy and happiness that's a big turnaround from separation back to wholeness so it will require a commitment and actually it takes a commitment in terms of your mind training that's what the commitment is going to be you're going to have to have a discipline and a strong commitment in terms of your mind training to fully dive into this new beginning to fully experience the full effects of the new beginning not a time and space beginning but the new beginning in terms of turning an upside-down thought system that is based on fear and guilt turning it right-side up to the light so that what remains is is a reflection of love which is what forgiveness is it's just a pure beautiful reflection of love and that's going to take a commitment in terms of fidelity what adriano is asking about is is that that's a commitment as well and all commitments in this world including sexual fidelity are temporary commitments because they are the Holy Spirit using the what the ego made the ego made up the body that made up the world it made up time and space and now the Holy Spirit uses what the ego made to bring the mind back towards that wholeness and completion and and fidelity is basically a commitment in terms of being with one partner maintaining the sexual fidelity and that's just a temporary mind training device that the Holy Spirit is using to help strengthen this experience of commitment because when you believe in the ego you believe in that which is very impulsive it's it's wild it doesn't even know what commitment is the ego is is like a wild child that he's a total denial of God and love and it doesn't know what consistency is it doesn't know what honesty is it doesn't know what commitment is and it certainly doesn't see any need for commitment because it's total impulsivity is what it is pure impulsivity in a in a very dark kind of way and so that would be the meaning that would be the helpful aspect of sexual fidelity would be a mind training exercise to start to strengthen your belief and awareness into commitment and and again it's just a temporary device that will will go much higher because in the end you're gonna have to use that commitment toward the atonement which is the correction which is the correction for the ego and that's going to as help you escape from time and space it's that important if you have to learn to develop commitment so that you can then aim it and use it for the atonement to accept the correction for your for the error in your mind and an atonement again is is the first miracle and the last miracle and all the miracles in-between it's the it's the correction for all of the ego and therefore it's the correction for the Big Bang and for all time and space so it's very important that you develop that sense of commitment Adriano asked specifically about fidelity specifically in sexual fidelity but if you have a yoga routine you could develop fidelity in there if you have exercise routines or diets or teens maybe you've gone through a period of being vegetarian or macrobiotics or you have various diets that you've practiced those are all opportunities to strengthen commitment because any of those things even even learning a language takes a pretty strong level of commitment and so even learning a language could be a temporary device where use developing this commitment you see it it can relate to sexuality and partnership but it also can relate to a number of aspects in time and space the key point is the Holy Spirit needs to develop commitment to belief in commitment because the ego doesn't even know what commitment is so that's Adriana's question and that's kind of putting it in a higher higher context and then I see Stephanie you've written into it you were talking about accidentally seemingly coming across a Spreaker that by Francis and and [Music] basically seeing that happiness is is it's a state of mind happiness requires a commitment but it's it's it's a state of mind and it's it's not it's it's synonymous with peace and joy and light light heartedness love and yet that's another good example where when you begin to look at the idea of happiness and overcoming a sense of anxiety or overcoming sense of loneliness or feeling separate then you start to open up to happiness you start to realize that happiness cannot really be for the things of this world you know for most people they would tell you like if you want to be happy you have to have certain things of this world you have to have things work out and you went through a number of those where you were starting to realize it that it wasn't related to to job or family or friends work those specific things actually the happiness it's within you and it's not related to any of those specific things at all and again that relates to what we were talking about about new beginnings because in this world of time and space and scripts and stories there seems to be many beginnings and many endings and when people go through a divorce or the loss of a loved one or losing their job or or their child going away to college and moving away there seems to be many beginnings and endings in this world but what we're learning is our happiness cannot really be dependent on any of those things and that brings up the big inward draw it's like it can be very intense to start to realize that things of the world don't make you happy and neither do they take away your happiness in their absence it's this whole belief there must be a belief system that's underneath that has to get raised up to awareness and exposed because it's not the things of the world that are going to make us happy or take away our happiness and that's a huge discovery it in fact it goes so much against the grain it goes so much against all of our cultural learning all of our cultural conditioning all of our societal conditioning it goes completely against everything we've ever been taught in this world because the world is saying yeah just get certain things in your life whether it's money or possessions or relationships or education or skills or abilities something if you get the right things and you get enough of them you're supposed to be happy you're supposed to be able to go okay thank you I made it I I have arrived and and all of us have been through that where we've sought after things in this world and then after we we got them we achieved them we accumulated them even after we seemed to possess them you know if we started to say is this some kind of a joke because I'm still not fully satisfied I'm not fully contempt I'm not fully happy and joyfull with things and stuff and this is because we have been looking in the wrong direction we've been looking to the world of form we've been scouring the projection to try to find what it is that will bring the happiness and it can't be found in the projection the projection actually Jesus's projection is the attempt to get rid of something that you do not want and that's why people blame the world blame people blame the environment they point the finger at the world because they feel lacking within they feel unfulfilled and then they're going to use the world as a scapegoat oh if I had this was different or if I had more of this or if this hadn't happened when I was five years old then I would be in good condition it's just a big big game so one thing I did go down to the questions I noticed Esther had also written in an interesting question and and this question was partly related to another part of the text of course in miracles' actually was going all the way back to chapter 6 the lessons of love and she was going through the lessons of the holy spirit a lot of you are very familiar with that section of the course and the three lessons of the holy spirit and basically Esther was saying that she's read the first three parts of this section and she finds that it's another pivotal place for me to grow into the lights in love and she was asking for a little bit of clarification on on those three lessons of the Holy Spirit and also wanting if there was a way to connect them to to incorporate them with chapter 30 the rules of decision and so basically I think I can make a few comments about those three lessons with the Holy Spirit has I've done a lot of teaching on these three lessons over over the years but I think they do relate to what we're talking about they do relate very directly to the new beginning first of all aren't you happy that there's only three lessons I mean ultimately we know there's really only one lesson but I'm glad there's not ten lessons of the Holy Spirit or twenty or fifty lessons of the Holy Spirit for me when I first read this in the course I went hallelujah three lessons that's fantastic bring it on high that's really a nice number that the same member of the Trinity please enlighten me on what those lessons are if I've only got to learn three lessons then let's let's get moving here at the course is a big book but three lessons I should be able to handle that I figured my mind should be able to handle three lessons and and he said in the course he said actually it's only the first lesson that that you do by yourself it's like as soon as you really get through lesson number one you are joined so deeply by by help by the Holy Spirit by my knee companions once you get past that first lesson which would be the most difficult one that's where you experience the most conflict and attack and and difficulty but once you get through lesson one then it's like downhill from there so I was very encouraged if there's only three lessons and I really have to get over the hump with number one and then I can cruise into two and three with lots of help from the Holy Spirit that was very encouraging to me as well so the first lesson of the Holy Spirit and this also deals with specifics because that's when the mice stuck and believing time and space it's going to have to to loosen itself from that that addiction to the specifics and the very first lesson of the Holy Spirit is to have give all to do all to have give all to all and he's telling us right away he said this is going to be the toughest one because it goes so against everything that you believe and everything that the ego believes it's going to be a 360 turn on everything that you believe and why is this so why is to have give all to all so so difficult so difficult of a lesson to grasp it's because the entire Big Bang the entire cosmos and everything in the fabric of everything in time of space is based on scarcity it's based on lack it's based on the belief in that you're incomplete and therefore the ego has made up this whole montage of images for one reason to promote the getting mechanism the ego is the getting mechanism in the mind I've got to get this I've got to get that it's I want to do these things but I can get those things I want to have a job to earn money so I can get other things for my body for my personality self and the entire cosmos is based on this getting mechanism and so the first lesson of the Holy Spirit is to have give all to all and as you are beginning to get into the attitude of being generous of being giving of extending of offering of really really starting to get into that giving state of mind ego is gonna have fits the egos gonna say I thought I told you don't don't be too giving because you're going to pay a price don't be too generous you know generosity would say has its limits and don't be going and having a loving attitude with everyone you're gonna be in trouble if you go try to love everyone you've got to have your boundaries you've got to protect yourself you've got to people-watch keep an eye out for people it takes different forms where people say well just be careful you can't trust everybody and and you know don't be too generous just don't be too generous because you're gonna be sorry in the future because if you're too generous you're going to give away all that you have and then there'll be nothing left for you and you'll be broke and you'll be brokenhearted and if you just give without being concerned of getting then it's saying you're going to become destitute you know poor alone and and so the Holy Spirit knows that that actually that's not the way the universe works that's not the way God's laws operate but this first lesson to have give all to all is actually a way to to begin to unwind from the getting mechanism from this belief that you have to keep getting and I'm collecting and achieving and accumulating and and building all these things are part of the human construct that are based in scarcity and lack and scarcity and lack are not ideas that God even knows about these are just purely ego ideas and then the human being is just a mechanism that his body is something that the ego uses to get for itself and and yet nothing that you get in in the name of the ego means anything you can't take it with you if whatever you get in this world believe me it's it's you can't carry it into eternity you can't you can't take anything of this world into eternity into love and light and so you can see that the very first lesson is basically saying why don't you trust me and just become really generous like really when you're with some give him your heart take time to fully be with them somebody's in need of something give it to them help people always be in this extending giving helping state of mind and why not because you get any brownie points for giving away stuffs but actually your focus the altar of your mind the altar of your heart starts to shift away from incompletion and lack and it starts to shift into a sense that you have an abundant storehouse of miracles within yourself that you can give away and the more miracles you extend and give away the more you're aware of them they actually multiply as you give these miracles away or even better as you let this Jesus and the Holy Spirit perform miracles through you you're more aware of the miracles and you're also more aware of the love that you are because miracles are a part of that extension of the love oh that's for me I mean to give you a specific example I was you know I was raised in a kind of a Protestant family I believed in the Protestant work ethic and saving money and and safer a rainy day and lots of things and also I had ten years at the University where I learned more about the intricacies of the laws of this world it didn't really teach me much about the laws of heaven in the university but I have to say that once I got into course in miracles' then it was like Jesus was saying okay now we're going to go in another direction you're going to learn to trust me and I'm going to provide everything for you I'm just going to knock your socks off I'm going to blow your hair back I'm gonna blow your hat off with so many miracles that you're gonna realize I'm taking care of you your jobs aren't taking care of you you know earning money and all the things that you believe that in the world are taking care of you they're not it's just that you're hallucinating you're you're off in some kind of crazy belief system it doesn't have anything to do with God so I'm gonna I'm gonna really blow your hair back I was back in the day when I had a little hair I'm gonna blow your hair back and knock your socks off and I'm gonna convince you that you are safe you are provided for you are cared for and you're going to be a miracle worker not an urban planner and degree in urban planning and of all these psychology credits no you're not going to be a psychologist no you're not going to be you're going to be a miracle worker and I'm gonna teach you through extending miracles how how cared for you our house safe you are how completely provided for you are so that you will understand it that you can give all to all and there's no sacrifice when you give all to all you realize you are blessing yourself you're blessing the whole universe and nobody's losing through your giving I'll give you a storehouse of miracles and you just give them away I'll direct you how where when but but I will provide for you the miracles that will change your mind about yourself and about everything so that's that's what to have give all to all is really about and that's also what Esther that's what the rules for decision are about that the rules for decision are about changing your mind from being ego dependent to being spirit dependent that's really what the rules for decision are they're just shifting your mind from those old past patterns of the ego and past learnings and believes to trust trust the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit Jesus will provide everything that you seem to need in time and space without exception it will be abundantly given now the second lesson of the Holy Spirit is is an another process lesson which is to have peace teach peace to learners and and that lesson is a way of strengthening the peace in your mind by extending it once you get out of that getting mechanism then you're not so concerned with the outcomes if if you're in business in a worldly sense or if you're in a profession basically if you have a career you've got to get the job done you don't get paid unless you get the job done you don't you don't get the money unless you do what's required to get the money with Jesus you want to experience the miracle Jesus says I will do the miracle through you if you'll just let me and so basically all you're responsible for is getting out of the way that's all you have to do to be a miracle worker is just to get out of the way to just be willing to be used by the Holy Spirit and then to get out of the way not try to throw up resistance and fear and put the brakes on it all just to say use me and I'm gonna vomit airily allow you to use my mind to extend miracles and use my body use my bank account use use everything use any skill and ability I seem to have developed in an ego framework now it's yours and I'm just going to get out of the way and behold the miracle as it comes through me and that takes practice I mean it took me I was a slow learner but it took me some years of practice at the beginning years of studying the course it took me four or five years of slowly starting to put this into practice in my daily life and then after five years Jesus I think Jesus finally is like come on let's take the training wheels off now and we're going on a road trip and I went on like a five-year road trip with Jesus all across the United States where he said I'll provide everything for you you just be there for me and follow me and I'll provide absolutely everything for you you don't have to worry about a single thing and that yeah that was from like 1991 the 1996 that was extremely helpful at really transcending the fear and and getting into to have give all to augs just learning how to be a giver at that stage the second lesson to have peace teach peace to learn it goes in conjunction with the first one because as soon as you get out of this getting mechanism you're just showing up to to be used and to extend peace of mind whether you're at the grocery store or laundromat a course group whether you're talking to a neighbor you start to realize that you're just here to teach peace and I mean not teach it verbally I didn't go out to walk door-to-door to my neighbors and say would you like to learn about peace you know it's not like that at all it's your attitude your attitude is the teacher of the peace and people start to notice that you're not getting upset you're just smiling a lot you're laughing a lot you're very happy you're lucky you're light-hearted I was teaching with my attitude and and wherever I would go it didn't matter who I encountered in what circumstances what country does it doesn't matter it was like I was given lots of opportunities you know to have peace teach peace to learn it and then the last lesson Esther that that is in that those three lessons is basically be vigilant only for God and his kingdom there's that vigilant word this actually relates to the first question I answered with Adriano which was basically about asking me to talk about fidelity and I was talking up answering that question I was talking about commitment and commitment ultimately has to be aimed at your mind training had to discipline of purification in your mind your consciousness so that last one is be vigilant only for God and his kingdom and basically what that's saying is you have to really go for it in the fullest way whatever stepping-stone lessons you've had along the way you're going for a place where you completely withdraw your attention from looking for fulfillment through anything of this world that's basically you're gonna go cold turkey on the world of images eventually you know how people talk about going cold turkey with with the incoming celibate or cold turkey and they're gonna fast for a month or you know they they're gonna they're not going to swear maybe they have they're used to a lot of profanities and I'm not going to swear I'm not going to use any profanities I'm going cold turkey on that it's it's ultimately all that stuff is just part of the context of going to start to realize that I need to go inward to my purpose and a sustained stable single purpose will show me God's real world will show me the happy dream it will show me everything all the same where I can look upon the world with no judgment whatsoever not the slightest judgment or thought about anything in the world because forgiveness is my only purpose that's one purpose that's the one interpretation that heals the whole perceptual world and that's why there's no order of difficulty in miracles and there's no hierarchy of illusions it's because forgiveness shows shows you the world anew and that is the new beginning the new beginning is seeing the world anew it's not a new beginning in terms of time if it's seeing the whole world anew and the only way that you reach that is there at that third lesson of the Holy Spirit is is be vigilant only for God and its kingdom and in that lesson you have an amazing revelation and I kind of sometimes I caught them some of you remember the cartoon Popeye is anybody remember Popeye the spinach the guy with the Spanish in Agua and Popeye sometimes would say I am what I am and that's all that I am that was Popeye I am that I am what I am and that's all that I am the final realization that you get from being vigilant only for God and his kingdom is the realization that what I am and what I have are the same what I have is what I am you see how different that is from the world do you have a bank account do you have a wife for a husband do you have a child do you have a pet do you have a house you know do you have a country do you have a nationality or ethnicity do you have a culture no no no you don't really have any of those things because that's all the ego that's all the make-believe stuff that the mind has become attached to and identify them with but it's not real none of it is real having and being are the same what I have is what I am so I have an identity and I am an identity but this having has nothing to do with time and space and therefore it has nothing to do with getting quark humilating or cheating or collecting you can't have it in the bank because what I have is what I am and what I am doesn't involve a bank what I am doesn't involve money what I am does it involve houses what I am doesn't involve bodies what I am doesn't involve anything of time and space and that's when you truly know true abundance not manifesting more stuff like the secret or you know some of these manifestation things you're not going to realize who you are by manifesting things and stuffs because the things and stuffs aren't you and never were you never will be you you are entitled to know who you are that the Greeks said know thyself that is the whole teaching right there oh you're doing is knowing that who you truly are is spirit and that you you have spirit you are spirit and what I have is what I am now how does that relate to the new beginning well that's that's definitely a good inroads to the new beginning right there that's that's the third and final lesson of the Holy Spirit it it doesn't go any higher than that when Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the Father but for me he was just simply stating I am you know he could have stopped right there even instead of I am the way the truth his life he could have just said I am you know that would have covered it right there and this relates directly to our section the new beginning ah borrowings a swabiz book look who I found in there those eyes have something to tell us today and when I went to the the new beginning I know Ricky I know you and jenni started off by reading from the new beginning and when I went through the chapter 30 you know I you know how certain parts really speak to you I have to say for all these years of working with the course since 1986 there's there's actually one section in this chapter that always jumps out of me it just always pissed me between the eyes and and I always end up with the biggest smile on my face when I go through this section no matter when I pop open the book it's always there and I think it's Jesus comes ooming into those eyes and he's just like saying you know here I have it for you please pay attention to my words so this section I'm just going to go through it briefly for you because I love it so much I'd love it with all my heart but this section is from chapter 30 the new beginning and it's number three it's called beyond all idols some of you probably know that I just get the biggest smile on my face when I when I look at this book and see beyond our idols I don't know why maybe it was because I was raised with the Bible when I went to Bible studies in Bible School and when I was little and I do there's a lot of stuff I forgot about the Bible I forgot I forgot most of it but actually one thing I did remember from the Bible was this this commandment that you shall hold no idols before the LORD thy God I remembered that I remembered that from my early Bible studies you shall hold no idols before the LORD thy God and I remember as a child I I used to ask people why don't what are idols what are idols and they say well you know you shouldn't be worshiping any totem poles or golden statues you know people would tell me I better stay away from the gold statues you know just you shouldn't be you shouldn't be worshiping things and I thought they meant like like images you know deities or whatever because I had heard there were other religions and they worshiped a lot of different things and so that's what I was basically told but I really didn't know the extent of what that meant hold no idols before the LORD thy God I really I didn't really understand the full impact of what this was saying so here's what he has to say idols are quite specific that's what we've been talking about here we're addicted to specifics and so idols are quite specific and Jesus gives us good definitions you know I would have helped me a couple years ago if I had heard that in Bible School but idols are quite specific but your will is you know versal being limitless and so it has no form nor is contempt for its expression in the terms of form that's important your will is universal being limitless so when someone tells you well that that person died it was God's will or that country got slaughtered that must been part of God's will no actually God's will is universal and our will which is one with God's is also universal it's it cannot be contained in form in scenarios in dreams it's the dreams of specifics that cover over our will so you might say that if you're asleep and dreaming in this world all that's happened is you've forgotten your true will because your will and God's will are the same but if you forget that then you think you have a will of your own and you think you have willpower and you're you have a will to be able to make things happen and make your world be the way you want to be that's not truly God's will and that's not your will God's will for us is perfect happiness idols are limits they are the belief that there are forms that will bring happiness and that by limiting is all attained so there's the key right there the belief that forms will bring their forms that will bring happiness there are things there are people there are situations there are scenarios there's this crazy belief that somehow if we go along enough in this dream world that one day we're gonna reach a point where we're just gonna look around and go I have all the right forms I have enough of all the rights worms but there aren't any right forms and there isn't and there isn't such a thing as enough you know the only enough that there is is when you start to realize that that that there is no form that will bring happiness and then your mind can rest at that point but that's the new beginning that's what we're talking about that's the whole new beginning it is as if you said I have no need of everything this little thing I want and it will be as everything to me and this must fail to satisfy because it is your will that everything be yours decide for idols and you ask for loss decide for truth and everything is yours so it's what we're talking about is you have to come to that place where you actually have a realization that what I have is what I am I will never have more than what I am I will never have less than what I am because what I have is what I am where it's washing away all ego connotations of having so is if you've never heard the word before as if you're completely free of this idea of having because we've been conditioned and we've been programmed to believe that in order to have you have to get you must get in order to have says the ego says the Holy Spirit what I have is what I am you see the difference there there's no getting you don't have to get anything to be who you already are because there's no incompletion therefore you don't have to seek and try to attain and try to capture or possess anything you can truly let go and expect a miracle of 1/2 of God to show you that you you have everything you always have had everything there's nothing that is missing there's nothing that's lacking it is not form you seek what form can be a substitute for God the Father's love what form can take the place of all the love in the divinity of God the Son and what Idol can make two of what is one can't and can the limitless limitless be limited you do not want an idol it is not your will to have one it will not bestow on you the gift you seek and some of you have listened to me for years the next line I have said this line countless times I I said this line back in the 80s back in the 90s 2000s now here we are 2018 David is still saying the same line I don't know why he likes this line so much but somehow he must believe it's important because he never shuts up about this next sentence he still he probably needs to go into divine silence but this might be the less words on his lips before it he finally closes that mouth for good and here's the sentence when you decide upon the form of what you want you lose the understanding of its purpose I'll say it one more time when you decide upon the form of what you want you lose the understand of its purpose so it's like imagine that you were watching like an eclipse and as you're watching the Eclipse it's coming closer and closer and then what's in front is the form and what's behind is is the purpose and when you decide upon the form of what you want when you really let that come in front if you put your focus and attention on the form oh I can't wait for a sunny day oh I can't wait to have a million dollars oh I can't wait to have a beautiful soul mate who looks like this I can't wait to retire and have a big mistake so I can just sit there and sit lemonade with the cherry and all day I can't wait whatever the thorn is that you decide what you want it will obscure the purpose of forgiveness because the form is the idol and the form has to be forgiven the whole purpose of the course is to help you forgive what you perceive that's why lesson number one in the workbook is nothing I see means anything you see Jesus is going right at forgiveness from the from the very beginning from the very first lesson he is starting off with the key idea that you have to forgive what you perceive and the more you do those workbook lessons the more he's going to show you that your fulfillment your joy your happiness comes from your purpose and from your function and it doesn't come from formals it doesn't come from any forms in this world it's it's what Stephanie was writing in her her message you know you were you were listing all the things that you had sucked for fulfillment unhappiness and those is getting intense now because those things are are drifting you're they're pulling back and it's because you're determined to find peace of mind you're determined to find true happiness it's the purpose for which you came is to discover this purpose yeah baby it's like a needle in a haystack but it's there it's it's there for sure and you're gonna find it because it's that important to you and that's what this is saying here is when you decide upon the form of what you want you lose the understanding of its purpose this is why manifesting in the end doesn't work because when you are trying to manifest something into form you're still chasing idols even even using the power of the mind to manifest it it could be a stepping stone it can show you how powerful your mind is that's for sure can be very helpful but ultimately it won't work because you're still trying to find something in form you're still trying to find something that will give you more give you more security more happiness more contentment it won't work and this is why it's because so you see your will within the idol remember we just read in the first sentence second sentence your will is universal being limitless and now he's telling us when you decide upon the form of what you want you lose the understanding of the purpose because so you see your will within the idol thus reducing it to a specific form yet this could never be your will because what shares in all creation cannot be content with small ideas and little things why would you ask for such a tiny little thing in all the universe and you're entitled to know who you are to know yourself as a creation of God and to know that you that's a stylist you are everything and everything is you oh you are everything and everything is you they forgive stylistics singing that the law of God and this is saying don't be content with little things because who you are is so magnificent so spectacular that it's not your will to be content with little things little ideas and things behind the search for every Idol lies the yearning for completion wholeness has no form because it is unlimited to seek a special person or thing to add to you to make yourself complete can only mean that you believe some form is missing he's getting pretty specific there to seek a special person where things to add to you to make yourself complete can only mean that you believe some form is missing and by finding this you will achieve completion in a form you like this is the purpose of an idol that you will not look beyond it to the source of the belief that you are incomplete so now we're dispelling we're dispelling the egos guilt we're dispelling sin we're dispelling fear we're dispelling all forms of conflict and limitation when we start to realize that it's just by using our powerful mind to search for little things that we keep ourselves lack lacking we hold ourselves back and when we release the search we come into the contentment of knowing our true will has will of God for just happiness just for the state of pure happiness not a happiness that's supported by things were I need this to be happy I need five more of these to be happy you know crazy ideas sometimes I hear sports sports heroes and they they win like four major events and then they say I really I'm gonna I'm on my quest for my fifth because I need I need five to be truly happy take it it's just never ends then you get five and what you're still going to go for six you know it's just it's the ego is so tricky it never stops it's never enough now there's also a line in the beyond oh Idol section that I really like in paragraph four and in sentence five is a very short sentence but I'm gonna read you this sentence and this is kind of an important sentence metaphysically because you'll hear people saying all kinds of things about God and God creating this world and you know and it's only the evil and the conflict it's the problem actually here's a beautiful sentence from paragraph four sentence five it's only got four words God knows not form that's pretty strong god knows not form God being love knows love wholeness spirit completion totality and form is a projection of the ego the ego made this world God didn't create this world it was the ego that made this world and God knows not form if God knows not form then God knows not the body God knows that earth God not Mars or Pluto were Saturday God knows not Big Bang God knows not male God knows not female God knows not form meaning spirit doesn't know about form it's the sleeping mind and the ego they have invented the Big Bang in this imaginary hallucination of time and space to keep from being happy to keep being joyful to keep from knowing oneness eternity infinity this world of form is like a veil drawn over the truth it's like a it's like a thick cloud pattern it's it's like a mirage of images that were made to cover over and keep the christ blinded to the christ it's to keep the christ from knowing Christ as Christ it's a substitute reality that isn't real at all it's just like a it's like a holodeck is Star Trek terms is one heck of a holodeck but it's meant to distract you from stillness is from from knowing yourself as abstract love and light so to me that's a key sentence god knows not form he cannot answer you in terms that have no meaning and your will could not be satisfied with empty forms made but to fill a gap that is not there it is not this you want creation gives no separate person and no separate thing the power to complete the Son of God so what this section is doing is it's explaining specialness it's explaining that as long as the mind tries to focus in on specific form as the good things the valuable things and then has other forms that are the bad things the negative things the avoidable things that the things that are despicable whatever it wants to call them it just cleans the world into duality the good and the bad the right and the wrong the moral and the immoral it just divides the world into categories and some of those categories it will tell you to pursue and some of those categories that will sell you to avoid and that is the game of this world that's the game of many theologies and many religions here's the good things here's the bad things do the good things go to heaven do the bad things burn in hell you know whoo scary scary scary that's pretty scary the burn in hell part and it's all made up there there aren't really good things and bad things it's just the purpose in your mind that that determines what you perceive perceive and if you forgive you you start to see there's no hierarchy of illusions there's no word of difficulties one illusion is the same as all the rest and you're not drawn to them why would you go for an illusion instead of the truth of who you are you simply are not going to be drawn to distractions delay maneuvers all these roads of the world that lead nowhere there comes a point where you say I'm just not into them now let's talk about this in practical terms a little bit because I think I always want to bring it back to the practical because for me when I read the course to me this was not some kind of intellectual endeavor this was not some kind of a book of theology that I could go around I didn't want to become a course thumper like a bible-thumper going around something something people on the head with the course that didn't sound very appealing to me to me I thought he must be talking about something really important here and he's talking about the freedom of my mind he's talking about free freedom of my will not not free will to choose anything I want in the world but I mean free will in terms of knowing my will and God's will are in alignment and I thought that is no small thing this is huge now I just have to practice it I just have to put it to practice to really have the experience of it that's all I really have to do is find a way to just dive into it and and what that has done over the years is that your trust that everything is perfectly taken care of grows stronger and stronger and stronger when you're when you even seem to be like traveling like I'm over here and Portugal now but I'm not really looking for anything you know I'm not like I'm not on like a little scavenger hunt looking around trying to find something in the world I'm enjoying all the holy encounters with the birds and the flowers and the people and the trees and bushes I mean but it's it's a state of if you're just beholding and you're giving and you're extending and it's so natural but I'm not really looking to find anything and when you're not looking to find anything in the world you'll never be disappointed but if you're looking to find something in the world you're always going to be disappointed something's always going to be disagreeable to the ego it's gonna say oh you can do better than that or you need to move to another place or find another person or find another situation it just goes on and on the ego it has an insatiable quench insatiable thirst actually for for nothing and it's always trying to tempt you to pursue nothing and then as soon as you find that nothing you go what's this it says over there that's it it just diverse your attention to go on another pursuit or goose chase and that's what my life is about and that's what we're doing these online retreats is to help strengthen this awareness that we don't need to search outside of our mind to find the truth or to find who we are we're strengthening the belief that that forgiveness is is an inside job it's totally within your mind it doesn't have anything to do with externals no matter what those externals are it doesn't really matter it's it's the state of mind that you can accept at any moment without having to go chase down more stories more people more scenarios more dreams more situations to me this is this is the good news this is the new beginning it's a it's a new way of looking upon the world with a sense of calm and peace and stillness and without the sense of like a drive to make something different to to change something can you imagine how peaceful that is when you can just sit down and watch the nightly news on the television with a big smile on your face knowing that it's all just a reflection of your forgiving mind that's what the news is a reflection of your forgiving mind it's possible to view it that way it's actually possible to see see it completely without any kind of charge or judgment but that requires discipline it requires mind training it require she just has to hone in on that deep desire you have for peace of mind and to say I'm worth it hi I desire a peaceful state of mind I desire a peaceful perception of the world more than anything else more than any outcomes of the world I desire that peace of mind so while we have some time here Jeff why don't we open it up to all these beautiful participants all over the world that I see and let's just open the floor up to go into some of these ideas that pertain to this new beginning that we're talking about this new beginning of looking at the world entirely differently sounds great Esther's was made for me you know and and now the psychiatrist search them involved in I realized that I'm not looking for something special in the psychiatrist to be changed and he's not gonna say certain things to me like others have or anything like that I realized that that's just a distraction from me focusing on peace of mind as my purpose and with Jeff's help on the mighty companions I've been able to work with him and realize that what is my purpose I asked him one time and he said well why don't you sit into prayer and and and discover and I still not sure what that is for me but when he said his own healing of the mind I realized that with me and I can work with that it's very a solid experience desire something I can relate to and so now when so thank you for all this explanation David and it's it's it's gonna be here for it for a long time for me to listen and we listen and now I can help my friend al and also when he needs the support because um he has issues too and not clear about guidance what it means and all that and now I I see that even that may not be as important as holding that purpose and knowing what's what's the distractions to look for being more clear on that so thank you very much Thank You Esther thank you okay I notice it mr. Issa mr. Issa hello thank you can you hear me yes I love smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee and I've not been eating well and I realized that like at first I felt guilty and I wasn't feeling guilty for the reason I thought I thought I was feeling guilty because I'm treating my body so badly no I am feel guilty because I think I'm a body and I think that these things can somehow help me or whatever so I guess what you're saying is maybe every time I want to smoke a cigarette I should realize I'm making it an idol but then I also remember when I was a clean liver I was vegan I'd ever had any caffeine and that to me was I made that an idol so I'm just kind of wondering how to go about this and look at this in a different way thank you beautiful beautiful well you know it's like Jesus said a couple thousand years ago it's it's not what is what you put in your mouth that defiles it's it's it's what perceives forth from the heart so one of the whatever you start to be concerned about about smoking or caffeine or all those kind of things that you mentioned because it can it can go in different patterns you can be vegan and then you're concerned about finding a piece of meat in your food or you know there's always a concern basically I like the workbook lesson I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts because what it does is it sends you back into your mind and the mind is extremely powerful and and he says there I have no neutral thoughts I see no neutral things the mind is so powerful that when we hold on to thoughts of this world that's what generates the guilt and then the my ego will provide all kinds of escapism distractions diversions addictions what will just go on and on and on to try to substitute for that that guilt feeling but it's it it doesn't work out it's almost like just taking one illusion and for another and then shifting around to different illusions it doesn't really bring any kind of peace or satisfaction but as you start to get in touch with your feelings it's good when you get in touch with your thoughts and are starting to be more aware of your thoughts that's that's good that's very healthy I've even got a sick a website called levels of mind calm and and I help people go inward through the level of perception and then through the level of emotions and feelings and then down to the cognition or thought level then to the belief and then down to the desire the core the alter in the mind and in our whole speery which is our automated facebook sperry as your spurious system is is a way of kind of doing that it kind of an automated way of going deeper into the mind so when you feel when you're when you're smoking or having coffee or doing things that a lot of human beings do if it's coming from a sense of craving of a need of a lack it's because of the the belief in lack and the the belief in need that is being generated deep in consciousness and so when you start to do the work with the course it's it starts to take the focus off of the forms I remember going to in the early 1990s like around 1990 1991 I would the foundation for a Course in Miracles up in Roscoe New York and my friend worked there and you know she would prepare the the meals and she worked in the kitchen and then she would put them out and they would make even like vegetarian portions and other portions and so forth but as people would go through they would look at her and say too salty needs more salt too hot too cold you know she would just watch the parade of thoughts all projected on to the food and she was practicing and course in miracles' which is learning to just watch these and I think that's that's really the way to go about it to reset it it's like when you are able to start to notice and be aware of the thoughts and then you start to go inward a little bit and you start to get in touch with that belief in LAC that's going to take you very quickly down towards what I call the new beginning the new way of looking at the world because it's it's bringing it into your mind and instead of the focus on the forms it's taking you inside the mind inside consciousness to be shown to actually learn how to align with the Holy Spirit get deeper into your purpose and your function and then the more you get into that function and purpose the feelings of lack the feelings that need go away and at first their meeting they're met by the Holy Spirit and very miraculous ways things coming at you left and right but not of your own pursuit but more just like given to help you and then they start to fade away my you know my appetite is just I used to really enjoy holy encounters having like three meals a day and I just that appetites just start to fade and fade away so they just start just to disappear because the the belief and the need for them and the belief in LAC is getting washed away I would say like with a firehose that's getting washed away with the Holy Spirit so I hope that gives you a little bit of a context for this thank you David to be here with everyone my question is yes like the practical application of rules of decision and getting into guidance and obviously that's very very important and so for time it was like even coming into community it's trusting my brothers and the Spirit in my brothers and the messages coming through brothers and as I'm sort of lately being presented with options like or invitations kind of like yes man it's like oh do like do I go for that or because I want to know the guidance I'm kind of not I'm sort of indifferent to doing it or not doing it it's more my heart is in prayer of is it something you're guiding me towards Holy Spirit because I'm interested in the unwinding and I was recently guided to or mentor to like like it says in the course nothing you need to know will not be given you or he will tell you and so for me I've been guided to like hear it within myself because I've been sort of leaning on entrusting my brothers and sort of you know looking for that direction externally I've been guided to wait and learn to hear it for myself through my own channel and what would your your advice be on that aspect of like following the guidance and the nuances of like discernment or do I sit in wait because it was brought up yesterday to just go for it like don't sit around and you know so do I hold steady and wait because then there comes the point where I'm like okay like not hearing anything like what you know what do I do there's a bit of impatience with that as well and sincerely I just want to know sincerely I want to follow and so what's better I guess would it be just to sort of jump in and say yes and then see and find out or hold steady and wait to hear it within myself I could be blocked or I don't know I just some kind of this is on my mind lately because I truly want to follow yeah well it's beautiful that you're asking that because it was like I was up early this morning about 4:30 in the morning and I got this text message and it was from Kirsten and she was like you know can you talk I'm at dinner you talking in 20 minutes and she was on the opposite side of the world she was actually over it in New Zealand and but she had just come through a lot of gatherings and retreats over there in Japan and some of you know the Japanese culture it can be kind of very reserved and and it's quite shy they're very gentle but but the mask can be pretty heavy as far as trying to be polite all the time you know to never be angry you know it's like you'd be quiet you'd be gentle and and so she mentioned this man who was who was there who came to the retreat and I recognized his name because when Francis and I went over there some years ago I remember him he's very very devoted but what she said about him was is that he was really trying to do this awakening by himself you know he's he was doing all kinds of things i-22 we're really pushing pretty hard like really really I want this I'm gonna do this I'm gonna wake up and it reminded me a little bit of that part in the course where it says you cannot wake yourself Jesus says but you can allow yourself to be awakened and that's very powerful I can allow myself to be awakened and so this man there was some other people that were there trying to help out attack and do all these things but they started to burn out in translations and there were people trying to be helpful and then finally they asked this man could you help and as soon as he jumped in to start to help with the camera or the sound or help out in any way soon as he jumped in he had a huge insight and that huge insight was oh my god I've been trying to do this myself and it's so hard it's so hard and I remember him I just helped he was just wanting and a lot of the Japanese were so much wanting wanting wanting to go on this journey to enlightenment but it seems so hard and of course as you know how one of the there's the cracking open phase where where you just have to allow all the emotions up and that's a huge part of it right there I think when Francis and I were there they were we were a little bit like pop course in miracles' pop icon's you know we have we had what do they call groupies sleep work in Tokyo and we were walking down the street and these two women came running up to us like we were John and Yoko or something you know it was surreal but I think we were like course miracles like pop icons over there and they were very polite and and they were terribly they told Kirsten they were terrified they were just terrified of the love they were in very strong resistance when this man jumped in and started joining in and helping he had this huge insight like oh my god because he relaxed and there's something amazing about the idea that relationships our relationships with our brothers and sisters can be used in such a holy way that we have the experience that we're not alone or they were not we don't have to do it ourselves because it's that ourselves is the personality construct and I think that sometimes gets for this man got in the way you know he was like he was struggling with it and struggling I remember myself I remember that reading that line in the course that miracles are collaborative when I first read that I was just like wow I never thought of miracles as collaborative I thought of the miracles like the Red Sea pardoning and raising the dead and you know feeding the multitudes and those are miracles to me that I read in the Bible but I I just never put that word collaborative together with miracles you know it just was like a stunning kind of thing that's what I think this man discovered he had this huge insight so I mean I would say if if it if you're presented with an opportunity where it feels like you that could bring some expansion that's well that side of the box or that's something I don't see every day you know those are kind of expansion opportunities I think keep keep your eye out for those another thing is just collaboration I mean I I was talking to Kirsten again today and she's she's kind of been paired up with this man Clint and and both of them I mean things are unfolding but they're getting used together in ways that he finds it's he never even believed that relationships could be used for God in such a strong way you know he was sharing with me this morning from New Zealand he's with her over there and about his his resistances like Christians like bullets that pray together well pray together he was raised Mormon but pray together like joined together around where to go what to do literally verbally pray together you start to go through the day where you you have this experience with somebody where you start to feel really joined and connected but like you're both the same there's someone pulling the string there's someone using you in a way that's so helpful for everybody for thee for the whole universe and yet it's not it's not seen in such an interpersonal way it's it's a very different expensive way of letting relationships be used in a very holistic I can say kind of way and and he was telling me he's he was quite astonished he he said I I was resisting but we went down to New Zealand I was thinking okay I'm gonna take walks on my own I'm gonna I'm just gonna have some me time I'm gonna you know because of all this intensity that was there and in Japan and one day where he decided he was just gonna I'm going out for a walk I'm gonna go on my own okay and then he went walking and it was just like a downpour of rain just hit him and he was shivering and he went back and he was all cold and shivering and and then Kirsten said what's going on and you know he was sharing some of his autonomous on me my time you know those kind of things in the spirit but I almost chased him back and we wrapped him up in warm towels and pulled him and nurture him kirsten was right there but it was it was again we're here to undo that sense of autonomy and where to dive in with this sense of collaboration and it's so beautiful too because I know clintus so he's so open hearted he's so open minded I watch him he just goes towards people towards animals towards with such openness and love and such curiosity and Kirsten said to me David other than you I have never met a person who like revels in holy encounters he's like everywhere he goes is all he's looking for it doesn't matter whether it's her father her brother's person on the street he's just got this warm radiant kind of love that wants to come out with everyone and and it was kind of striking for her that that there he was traveling with her and and he's so open because most people tend to be pretty closed off you know they've got their little zones and they live inside of those zones and they don't want to get too much connection and intimacy gone there may be is a feeling like that's going to bring too much drama and I am NOT going to go down that drama road again but I would say to pay attention to those kind of collaborative opportunities because they have the enormous potential once we start moving in that direction we start to see the whole world differently we start to see relationships there only we start to feel like really used me spirit and and I'm not going to push away my brothers and sisters and I'm not gonna throw up my boundaries and I'm not going to throw up my defense shields immediately when I'm around people I'm actually going to let this warm loving glow in my heart just come out through me with my brothers and sisters and I think that's that will make it a lot easier it's like you're gonna turn a corner like the guy in Japan where you're just going to be smiling 100 ispeed Jesus I see how it can be it's it's it can be very inclusive and very collaborative and it's yeah it makes all the difference thank you thank you okay up next is Heidi Peck go ahead mighty good morning guys morning so are you guys getting an echo oh there we go okay um so my question is I have a problem with understanding true empathy as opposed to false empathy on the meet on the retreat last night I got stuck on the respond to Esther's question and in the parable of Heidi it just seems like I've had a lifetime of what is seemingly suffering and so when I hear or perceive suffering outside of myself I got this big bleeding heart and I just want to comfort or like join in that and I can see that it that's that's a false empathy but I I need an example or some clarity on how I can break this or come to a new beginning or new thought on false empathy as and true empathy please yeah Thank You Heidi that's that's a really good question it's interesting it as I've traveled around the world and I go to meet a lot of people I have found myself sometimes in 12-step groups and and I watch to go around and introduce themselves hi my name is so-and-so and I'm an alcoholic and so I started practicing that at course groups I would get the whole course group with the facilitators permission that they would go around and say hi my name is so-and-so and I have a perceptual problem to start to lay it out because the first part of the course and the whole part of all spiritual authentic awakening pathways heart or just it's huge but but the first realization that must dawn before there can be a change of purpose before there can be a true healing in the mind is the admission just like an alcoholic is supposed to admit that their life is unmanageable and they need help from a higher power and they find themselves powerless to to find their healing is to first admit the problem and so when like you say if you feel like you you perceive very sensitive to suffering and then proceeding suffering in others outside of yourself it's a bleeding-heart kind of a like her just wants to reach out like aw but that's it's more that's more pity it's always the homeless taking pity on somebody in that way and what I liked about the course was the more I read it and the more I worked up with it I just was getting more and more convinced that that this was a perceptual problem first of all Jesus was saying he was using words like you're hallucinating and I had taken psychology courses and I know what hallucinating is were seeing like a mirage in the desert but he's he's saying that about the the world that he's saying it's a hallucination well that illumination is basically staying something that's not there and and I would ask Jesus he said yeah that's you got that right you're you're you're literally viewing something is not even there and that started to bring it home to me that I had a perceptual problem that that I was as I said psychotic like I'd had a break from reality break from spear that was psychotic I was schizophrenic I was hearing multiple voices the ego and the Holy Spirit and that I had a hallucination issue going on - I was seeing something that wasn't even there and it also helped me when I read and I think it's in the workbook where Jesus says that pain is a false perception that's an interesting definition of pain is a false perception it's not it's never true in other words it's always a false witness and and if I have a part of me that wants to reach out to that pain and say oh you poor baby or oh that's terrible you know you are not alone and that many of us have grown up with a with Paul sympathy many of us have grown up commiserating many of us have grown up with hearing gossip and jumping into the gossip you know you're describing a a pathological mindset that is what the ego is and so true empathy is quite simply staying with what is real and true and when your minds been addicted to upside down perception for maybe not just years or decades or centuries but millennium then this idea of true empathy it starts to be difficult because it's comike what does that even mean you know it's almost like asking a fish what do you think of the beach and the fish is been swimming in the ocean for 15 years and what do you think of the beach what's that you know I don't know what a beach is because it doesn't have a lot of experience maybe it slipped up on there once and it's flipped around and got back in the water as quick as it could but it doesn't have a lot of experience so Jesus does say and the true empathy is perhaps one of the hardest things to grasp because there's so much conditioning based on thinking that there's an external world and that there are suffering things and bad things that are happening in that world you know that that's part of our mentality of course we've believed that like the fish we only know a world where there's conflict and victims and victimizers and evil forces and judgments and stereotypes and we've been so convinced that all of that is is real that we need really deep mind training to unwind and it took me a lot of practice I mean I have heard course of miracle students that have told me things like oh yeah I went to my nephew's funeral and I was just laughing there and telling people that it's all and I was like thinking no that's you know Jesus will show you the world differently but but Jesus will will show you in an actual experience where you feel the connection and the love that's what a funeral is about it's actually about connection it's about connecting with that deep love that's it's underneath the grease you're not there to tell anybody the world's not real or anything like that you're there to to connect and yet I have found as I've gone deeper with Jesus into the course and deeper with the spirit that the Spirit is gentle the Spirit is always loving and the Spirit is always helpful in in being appropriate and what I mean by appropriate is is being truly helpful to everything and everyone and that's where it does take a lot of mind training and practice because that's part of true empathy too is is being so calm and so connected and so clear that you can offer a blessing wherever you go including situations where it seems like somebody's really in need they're really praying to be shown the light to be there praying to be shown the peace and we shouldn't think we shouldn't try to think the behavior is a certain way like when I went down to Argentina for the first time in 2003 there were children starving and there the economy had just collapsed down there in Argentina and there were kids on the street begging for food and doing acrobatics things and trying to bring home some coins for their parents and I was aware of the whole situation and so when I went there my friend and I we we got lots of coins and she even got little angels and we met the people on the streets and we were giving giving them coins as guided and little angels and you should have seen the children's face lighting up as I got an angel you know running off sometimes they they like the aims are better than the coin even but you you can be used in very graciously loving ways without perceiving the the perception of suffering in other words you have a lot to offer but clearing your mind of these misperceptions of suffering makes you more helpful to the world to the to the universe to the to yourself the clearer you become and when you become clear you become invulnerable and you become you have a clear serene mind and it's very powerful mind and that's how you extend the miracle it's from that that place of clarity so I would just hang in there with it because what you're describing is is very common and most people who come to the course are dealing with that issue and Jesus says say it's it's quite it can be quite difficult to be consistently in true empathy because it's so alien to the ego mind it's very alien to the ego thank you okay we have one hand left and we're about nine minutes from the top of the hour so it's perfect Catherine go ahead hi can you hear me yes okay great hi David hi so I just I'm really struggling with the concept of a holy relationship right so I can't remember the exact wording but what you've just read about idolatry is that even you know people places things but especially people thinking that someone else is going to bring something into into the relationship that's going to help us heal and then you know Jesus keeps talking about you know healing through relationships so I feel like I have this fixation around wanting to find you know the holy relationship that's going to help me to show me everything that needs healing you know and in my mind I really believe that it's an intimate relationship because partners or romantic partners seem to to trigger all sorts of things that friends don't really do so you know I wonder if you could maybe just shed some light on that because it's like yes the letting go of everything but it seems like the relationship is the stepping stone to help you to let go of everything you know so yeah yeah I think there are a couple of aspects to that I mean certainly the one that you mentioned that Jesus says you know your brother is the mirror in which you see the perception of yourself as long as the perception last means that that in terms of the way the course describes holy relationship and moving from special relationships the holy that's that's a major aspect of it is is starting to watch your mind in a closer way than you ever have because particularly in what you're describing there's so much mirroring that goes on and the temptation is always to see it as outside whereas the other but we know from the course that it's a mind thing that's happening there there's a bizarre just attack thoughts and judgments preferences all kinds of things getting flushed up into awareness and that's that is barney-boy in and of itself there and then the other aspect of it is well we talked I know who recently there was some talk of complimentary ego dynamics in the sense helman shuckman and built that furred complementary ego dynamics that there are times I think Ricky you and Emily we're both talking about some complimentary ego dynamics going on living there together lacasa but what that is is is there are some again some hidden patterns that are so pushed out of awareness that that because the the dynamics are so different that they really get exposed in in that context of being together and then I would also say that there's a way that the holy spirit wants to use the relationships in a way that that usually it's not seen at all but it's a way that is seen from the higher perspective as truly helpful let me give you an example with again with Kirsten so Kirsten has not been back to see her dad and her brothers for four years and she flies down to New Zealand to meet them and and in her mind is she's quite expanded and she's just there on her holy mission the same as she was in Japan you know just to see the Christ and everyone and and blessed and when in Kirsten in Japan I had a lot of wisdom pouring through her because the Japanese were like pulling it out of her just like sponges just loving it but when she got down you know there's a line in the Bible the Prophet is never a prophet in their hometown remember from the Bible when Kirsten and all of her wisdom leaves Japan goes down as she with Roger and and Glenn and Gavin and everything they don't want to hear it you know she may she may just get a few words out and they changed the subject cut her off you know it's like a prophet is never a prophet in the hometown because they basically on my sister oh my daughter you know it's the filters are too thick just like Jesus had when he would you know go back to Nazareth or you know and and they would say you know you know people that knew him as a child and as a teenager we're not buying the Messiah bits you know this baby but oh boy I know your mother I watched you grow from the baby and now you're the Messiah of the whole universe great get out of here you know because the past is so thick the ego learning is the filters do two things but I mentioned Clint there she goes down there with lovable Clint who's like there it's just such a loving guy and and he gets he's all excited with all his healings he's having and here they are the brother and the her father were like listening seeing this guy who's so happy and so grateful that he's been traveling with Kirsten and all the things that he's able to learn the person and so he's sharing it all from his own experience of how wonderful this is and and that's another use of relationships you see it's almost like using Clint to open them up and so much so as they open up more and more and more and more and get more relaxed and deeper down that her father are used to tell her you know why why are you leaving New Zealand you need to stay here you need to come home home and all this and that by the end with Clint's support coming in at the Holy Spirit through Clint that her father was saying you need to go back to Japan her father was saying you need to keep traveling there are so many people you are healing and helping you see it was through Clint that the Holy Spirit was able to reach in there and expand the perception when it couldn't always come through cursing because of the things so that's a very high use I would say if you're looking for like a holy relationship partner so to speak I would say as you start to realize oh wow I have a huge gift to give I have a my part to play in the plan of atonement I want to he'll and help everyone heal and if the holy spirits and Jesus deem me fit to send him a partner or the one that could help me in a collaborative way to do my function then you see how it's not so much Catherine seeking a partner is it's more I'm gonna get into my function and then the Spirit will bring in that which will collaborate with me and work with me and and make me more helpful and more expensive for the whole universe and the way that it works for me is that I mean I think in the early years I pretty much was around Cincinnati and and when I was going to Rosco and some of these things a lot of times it was just traveling solo and then in 2003 I was guided to go down to Argentina and then that began the world travels well David doesn't speak other languages other than English so with David going to all these other countries without speaking like over here I do meet people here in Portugal later bilingual trilingual multiple multi lingual all I spoke was English but then when I would travel then land I had different ones being sent in by Jesus that were my translators that we did collaborations and and some of them I mean Susanna Ortiz now from she slid all the way over from Spain to translate for me in Colombia she is an amazing course teacher now she has people from all over the world that follow her and it started with her traveling with me as a as a translator where we both had our minds open because we were both used in such a big way I was letting the spirit pour through me she was translating so fully and deeply into Spanish and then her mind expanded and then years later when I met her she had a center our announced Ellis Center over there and in the canary islands and and and also had a center in Malaga and when I went there she asked me to perform a wedding of two people that were getting married and then this man came there and came to our gatherings and his name was Paco and now Paco and susana are together they they are helping extend these great Course in Miracles and curso de Milagro's teachings all over the world he's very much helping her with the internet and tech support and she's got these teachings and poetry pouring through her so it's more of like I was saying with Helena it's more of a collaborative thing it's not just the mirroring it's it's actually how can can my skills and abilities be magnified and used in a in a broader plan and that's really to me that's the core of what holy relationship is I've had amazing translators I've had people who have traveled with me who added so much to what I was sharing because they obviously could translate it to the people I was speaking to and they were absolutely essential to this expansive feeling without them it wouldn't have been the same at all so I think that's that's really what you're asking about is is there has to be something even more than just a mirroring and there really is there's something even deeper see you shortly sup and I will see you very shortly okay well Jeff we've done it we we're at the top of the hour here beautiful [Music]

Channel: A Course In Miracles ACIM: Living Miracles ACIM

Views: 82,449

Keywords: a course in miracles, helen schucman, metaphysics, a course in miracles made easy, a course in miracles movie, a course in miracles eckhart tolle, a course in miracles kenneth wapnick, marianne williamson, acim, living miracles, david hoffmeister, enlightenment, practical spirituality, spiritual awakening, spiritual practice, ho to forgive, how to change my life, commitment to spiritual practice, true empathy, true generosity, beyond all idols, how to overcome suffering

Id: MddjbhomNX4

Length: 118min 18sec (7098 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 29 2018