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Living Living A Course A Course in in MiraclesMiracles Week 5 Class

Spiritual Practice: 1% Principle & 99% Practice

David Hoffmeister With Jennifer Hadley

Spiritual Practice, 1% Principle & 99% Practice...................................................... 4

Opening Prayer .............................................................................................................4

Spiritual Practice............................................................................................................5

Manifesting is a Step.......................................................................................................7

Definition of Resistance................................................................................................10

Beginning Authentic Journey ......................................................................................12

Course Lessons of Holy Spirit .......................................................................................14

Beatitudes.....................................................................................................................15

Little Willingness..........................................................................................................17

Defenselessness and Safety...........................................................................................19

No Thing is Plenty........................................................................................................21

Perceptual World .........................................................................................................23

Spiritual or Egoic Experience........................................................................................25

The Turnaround ..........................................................................................................27

David’s Offerings ..........................................................................................................31

Closing Prayer..............................................................................................................32

Living A Course in Miracles

4 Living A Course in Miracles

Week 5

Spiritual Practice, 1% Spiritual Practice, 1%

Principle & 99% Practice Principle & 99% Practice David Hoffmeister With Jennifer Hadley Thursday, June 14, 2012

Opening Prayer Jennifer I’m going to invite everyone to take a breath and I’m going to start us

off with a blessing as I always do. And I invite everyone to center in and tune in.

And I like to place my hand on my heart and remember that the kingdom is within and that literally, just placing our hand on our heart and taking deep breaths, it profoundly opens us to be in that divine connection that assists us in recalibrating and healing, because we’re choosing to remember our true identity that we are the perfect givers and receivers of love.

Love is our true nature, our true identity. We’re consciously in this moment, forgetting any false idea that we’ve carried around about ourselves and we’re partnering up with the higher Holy Spirit self.

And we’re remembering not just our divinity but the divinity of all life, that we are one and this is our healing right now. We’re opening our hearts and minds to receive the maximum level of healing.

We’re opening our hearts and minds to this refreshment of the spirit. We’re making ourselves available to share, share the benefits of our

David Hoffmeister With Reverend Jennifer Hadley 5

healing and our awakening awareness with everyone because we’re one with them.

We’re so grateful and so thankful to join together in this way now. In gratitude, we let it be and so it is. Amen.

In taking this breath again of gratitude and love, we’re welcoming David Hoffmeister.

David Thank you so much. It’s always such a joy to do this and actually another extra treat for you to be here and be able to do this live, in person.

Jennifer For those who are going to be listening to the recording later and didn’t hear our little into, I’m at David’s house in Utah. And we’ve been enjoying the Miracles Monastery and the center here.

And it’s just wonderful. And I’m encouraging everyone to make a plan to come visit and to do retreats with David. And today our topic is Successful Spiritual Practice, that it’s 1% Principle & 99% Practice.

I love this topic. Let’s just begin with defining our terms. When you say spiritual practice, David, what do you mean?

Spiritual Practice David Well, it’s actually an active process that we’re invoking the spirit,

calling upon the spirit to join us in a way of training our mind, or training consciousness so that it can reach higher and higher states and, ultimately, to a state of complete forgiveness and complete transfer of training of all the lessons that we’ve practiced so that we come to a fruition of our natural state of mind.

It could involve form of spiritual practice because the mind that’s falling asleep believes in form. Then the spirit needs to use those forms in a way that can involve repetition and strengthening the ideas in the mind.

And also transfers to all of our perceptions of ourselves and everyone, and basically the whole world and the whole cosmos. So, it’s quite an all encompassing term, but that’s really the gist of it as far as what it means to me.



Jennifer Some people think that spiritual practice is a portion of their day, and that they have a limited idea of their practice. I find that that’s really debilitating for people because if you think, “Well, my spiritual practice is this 30 minutes before I leave the house in the morning,” then you’re really saying, “The rest of the day I’m dedicating to something else.”

And we can, just by shifting our minds say, “Oh, my whole life is my spiritual practice,” and then use everything as you call it, for mind training.

David Yeah, I think that’s absolutely essential because we have to remember that the whole goal of the spiritual practice is to loosen the mis-identification with the body, or with the doer, and open to this heart-centered state of being and this presence.

Once we remember that, we realize that the ego will defend against that actual experience by trying to compartmentalize and categorize and organize and even ritualize the journey, try to turn the practice to just to doing.

It starts and stops at various segments of the day and then you’re off into another category called work, or called eating, or called exercising, or whatever.

Then you see the spiritual practice is relegated to a very tiny proportion of the day and it’s no wonder that people find it very slow and tedious and they’re not making a lot of progress when that kind of ego defense kicks in.

Jennifer As you’re talking I’m remembering myself and before I made a 100% whole on, total dedication, I did want to compartmentalize because I really thought there was value in giving myself permission to be un-spiritual if I felt like it.

So, I like the idea. And I didn’t even realize what I was doing, but now looking back I can see I liked the idea of compartmentalizing my spiritual practice because then the rest of the day I could misalign, or


disalign with the divine and be judgmental, live in lack and attack thoughts and blame others for my limitations.

And there was something that I really valued about that. It was perpetuating separation. And then I got to a point where I realized, “Oh, this is the source of all my suffering, this desire to compartmentalize.”

So I said, “Forget it.” Now my spiritual practice is all that I am. It is my life.

David I think it’s good that you bring that up though because the spirit knows how much fear the mind has when it’s asleep. And the spirit knows how resistant the mind is to awakening.

Manifesting is a Step Just like we could say that manifesting is kind of a step along the way on

the spiritual journey, we could say that even giving yourself some time during the day to read spiritual texts, or scriptures, or like A Course In Miracles, or maybe to go to a study group or things like that, that could be an initial good step when you haven’t, let’s say, really given any time out of the 24 hours a day to the spiritual practice.

It’s just kind of getting your toes wet. And in one sense, that can be a very helpful step just to be able to open the book and to be able to talk about these things openly, even with a couple trusted friends or to go to a study group.

I never discount even the smallest, incremental little steps, but like you say, at some point then you go, “Hmm, wow, I’m compartmentalizing my spiritual practice and I think I can open it up a little bit and maybe jump in the pool instead of just putting my toes in.”

And then the benefits, of course we reap the benefits when that happens.

Jennifer If God is all there is, why would I want to exclude God, or the divine, from some aspect of my life? When I know truly, if I invite the divine into every part of my life, I will have an easier time of it.

David Yeah.



Jennifer I think that part of why we don't that is because we may be called upon to do something that seems crazy making or fearful. I remember interviewing Regina Dawn Akers on my radio show. And people can listen to that at Unity.fm or at iTunes. Just search for me.

She was saying that the Holy Spirit said, “Quit your job and move to Colorado.” And it took her a year to finally be able to follow that. She would get so paralyzed with fear she would take to the bed and just get under the covers.

And she said she did that maybe 20 times, that’s how afraid. But she ultimately said, “I need to follow this guidance. I’m going to even though I have no idea what’s on the other end.”

And of course, ultimately, it was the happiest making thing in the world for her.

David It’s beautiful. I think most people do encounter resistance and fear when they open up to the spirit. And I think the most important thing I always tell people when they’re encountering this is, “Be very gentle with yourself. And if you have to repeat that over and over, please do. I’m going to be gentle with myself.”

The reasoning behind that is really the worst thing that you can get into at the beginning of your spiritual practice, is falling into a sense of coercion where you believe somehow that God, or the spirit, is coercing you to do the practice.

And then the resistance will grow stronger and you probably will end up falling away from it just like people fall away from diets or exercise routines when they feel fed up or it’s not working and so on and so forth.

And the spiritual practice, the ego will try to sponsor a sense of coercion. And that’s why it’s so important to be gentle, to say, “Okay, I’m going to go swim or I’m going to read something else, or I’m going


to take a walk or do this or that,” not feeling that you’re pressured or somehow coerced into the practice.

It’s important to remind yourself, “I want this. This is going to bring me value.” Truly, a peaceful mind is not a small gift. You know, a tranquil, quiet mind is not a small gift. And it’s worth the reward of the practice.

I think for me, that was very important that I never really pushed it with a hard edge because I was told in the course that you didn’t want to fall into a feeling of coercion because that would work against the whole practice. It could sabotage the practice.

That stuck in my mind and I really pass that along to everyone that I meet that really asks me about that.

Jennifer That’s so valuable because we were talking about the other day, you were talking about it. Resistance and reluctance are going to come up. And many people, when that resistance and reluctance come up, they misinterpret it and they follow the resistance and the reluctance and they make a negative meaning of it.

I loved what you shared the other day. I wonder if you would… When people are resisting or having reluctance to do their spiritual practice, in other words just to define it a little more clearly… People have a clear understanding, “If I meditate, that will help my spiritual awakening. If I study the course and figure out how to apply it in my life, do the daily meditations, that will help my spiritual awakening.

“If I, perhaps, do some journaling or go to course meetings or have conversations with friends about spiritual practice, that will help me awaken.”

And they resist doing the very things that they know so clearly will bring them the results they want and then they feel guilty and ashamed of their resistance and reluctance. And they will hide that from their friends. How can we reframe the resistance in our life?

David Okay, well that’s good because the ego will attempt to use the resistance and reluctance as a way to encourage the mind to conclude something about identity with a line like, “I’m not getting it. My progress is too slow. Look how resistant I am. I’m never going to get it.”



It’s taking that “I” statement and bringing it into a very negative result. And the ego wants the mind to draw a conclusion about identity that’s little, that’s weak, that’s powerless, it’s helpless.

That’s what it’s aiming for, to keep the mind a slave to the ego and never thinking that it actually could rise up to know its true identity.

Now, the flip side of that would be what I call Jesus’ positive interpretation of resistance which is what I was hearing the other day which I thought was just amazing. I said I’ve never heard a therapist or anyone ever talk about resistance in a positive light, through a positive definition.

Definition of Resistance And the way it goes from I believe it’s the psychotherapy pamphlet is,

“Resistance is the ego’s interpretation of progress and growth,” meaning the progress and growth are occurring and it’s wonderful.

We are waking up. It’s a glorious, exciting thing. And the ego is interpreting this progress and growth in a very, very negative way because it’s afraid of getting undone.

Actually underneath the resistance is a very beautiful, positive movement of stuff coming up for healing that needs to come up for healing, that we’re actually calling to come up for healing.

And the ego’s saying, interpreting, “Bad, wrong. Look at you now. It’s worse than ever.” And it’s always trying to bring us down and get locked into a false perception of ourselves and a false conclusion.

Jennifer And for me, I know in my personal experience, one of the primary ways that I would experience that evidence of the resistance and reluctance, if you will, was in the impulse to self-sabotage, in the impulse to self-medicate which of course is a form of self-sabotage.


When I came to recognize if I feel that, then I know what it really is is I’m trying to slow down the spiritual growth. I’m aligning with the ego.

The ego is saying, “Whoa, you gotta slow this down here. You don't know what you’re doing. You’re going to bring on something where you’ll have to change your whole life and that’s not a good thing.”

I’ll just pause on that and say, well what do you think about that, the self-sabotage and self-medication as evidence of resistance and reluctance?

David Yeah, the ego is always trying to sponsor a feeling of doubt. Doubt is like a little crack that will… crack that will lead to shame and pain and this deep feeling of unworthiness which is kind of the root of the ego.

And the ego is like saying, “See, I told you so. Take a look. Ah, there’s the evidence.” And it’s like a closed system. There’s no opening. You need a miraculous divine intervention really to break through that kind of closed circular way of thinking.

It’s very negative and very dark. That’s what I would call self-sabotage. And then we want to know thyself, capital self and it’s going to take miracles. It’s going to take rays of light that penetrate through that circular system of darkness and show us that there’s another way.

And that was how the course started with was Helen and Bill coming together and basically Bill telling his employee… Actually he was the head of the department, telling Helen, “There really has to be another way of living.”

He wasn’t expecting her response which was uncharacteristic of her. It’s like, “You’re right, Bill, and I’ll help you find it.” And that’s what preceded the psychic dreams in color and the voice saying, “This is a course in miracles. Please take notes.”

It was that little crack in the closed system of darkness that said, “There must be another way,” and a joining, “You’re right and I’ll help you find it. Let’s find it together. That opened up the whole pathway that we call A Course In Miracles.



Jennifer If people are feeling mired in that darkness, if they can find within themselves that mustard seed of willingness to, I call it partner up with the higher Holy Spirit self, to not go it alone.

Beginning Your Authentic Journey David Yeah, that’s it. That’s an essential beginning of, I would say, the

authentic spiritual journey. And even though it’s just a beginning and there’s a long way to go with it, that’s essential because until there’s this inkling that there could be another way and helps available and there is a higher power called whatever you want, then the mind stays in the circular.

In the 12 steps they call it the stinkin thinkin. It’s just a circular, stinkin thinkin loop and, at some point, there has to be a ray of light that comes in there and goes, “I need help, sincerely. And there is help available and I’m going to avail myself of it.”

Jennifer Yeah, we must ask for help. I love what Jesus says about being an elder brother. We ask the elder brother for help. And it will never be denied, so why wouldn’t we ask?

And that for me was key to my own transformation was, I recognized that any time I felt the slightest irritation, frustration, disturbance, it’s what I call the divine alarm clock going off reminding me I’ve disconnected from the divine.

I’ve disconnected mentally. I’ve decided to go it alone. So, all I have to do is join together again, go back and say, “Holy Spirit, please help me see this differently. Holy Spirit, assist me.” And instantaneously we will feel that refreshment.

David Yeah, and I think once you kind of get that spark and you have that opening, then if we talk about it in A Course In Miracles terms, or in general spiritual terms, that this is a world of learning.


In fact Jesus tells us that this whole world was learned and he says, “You never pause to stop for an instant and ponder what it is that you were learning and why you were doing all this learning.”

And so because human beings are always into learning, whether we’re talking about children, or young adults, or adults, it seems like the spiritual journey and the spiritual practice is perceived through that learning filter. And it can take people days, months, weeks or years or even decades before this next big leap on the spiritual practice comes in that actually this experience that you’re going for you’re not going to learn it in a book.

Even the most inspired book like A Course In Miracles which is very inspiring and extremely helpful, I know people will spend decades in study groups studying it, doing lessons over and over and over.

And there was a show I think on HBO called Arrested Development. And as long as you think that you’re going to go to so many seminars, workshops, conferences and you’re going to accumulate… Oh, I’ve read it 20 years. I’ve been in it 23 years. He’s been in it 25 years.

It’s not cumulative in a sense if you read, you see eyeballs moving across words for a cumulative amount that suddenly God will say, “Yes, you’ve crossed the threshold. You’ve hung with it and read it for this many years and I now pronounce you a scholar in the course and you are enlightened.”

It’s actually you have to cross a threshold where you start to go, “My God. He calls it A Course In Miracles and it’s all about unlearning and it’s all about undoing the ego.”

And the whole process is really… I could summarize it and say it’s unlearning, or undoing the getting mechanism of the ego, that the ego is all about getting, and get all that you can and get while the getting is good and all this stuff, get as much as you can.

And whether we’re talking about accumulated knowledge, book learning knowledge, study, or intelligence as the world judges it like in Stanford Binet and the wastes[?] and all these things, or getting



material objects, possessions, getting a partner, getting a house, getting children, getting all these things.

Lessons of the Holy Spirit Then you get into the course, he’s got a Chapter 6, Lessons In Love and then it’s Lessons of the Holy Spirit. And there’s only three, but you get a clue when you realize the first lesson of the Holy Spirit… We’re getting into principle now, that 1% principle that we talked about.

But the first lesson of the Holy Spirit is, “To have, give all to all.” And if that isn’t the first step of a complete reversal of this ego getting mechanism, I don't know what is.

I couldn’t even imagine a more direct simple lesson is, “To have, give all to all.” That just kind of sends you in the right direction of this divine principle that you want to actually experience as a living presence, not as a word you learned, or as a concept you learned, but actually that you open up and empty out to actually feel it.

So, we’re talking about 1% principle, that’s a good way to start to really get an essence of what that principle really is, “To have, give all to all. To have peace, teach peace to learn it,” and, “Be vigilant only for God and his kingdom.”

Those three lessons of the Holy Spirit, really summarize this divine principle that we’re talking about. And all of our practice that we do… And we’re talking about mind practice, reminding ourselves of these lessons and these states of mind throughout the day, not just meditating for X amount of time, or reading the book for X amount of time, but really putting that into practice as much as we can remember, that that’s going to be the essence of undoing that getting mechanism.

Jennifer One of the things that even it reminds me of, David, is many spiritual seekers are giving service in their spiritual community. They’re giving service. And they’re doing it from a place of giving to get.


And if you’re reading the book in order to get something, in a very real way you’re not recognizing that you already have it. It’s already preinstalled.

So, spiritual practice is not about trying to get something. You’re not trying to get peace. Because if you think you’re trying to get peace then you’re actually affirming that you don’t already have it. You already have access.

So, spiritual practice is really about practicing the presence, about practicing the connection. And that can be done while you’re standing in line at Starbuck’s, just holding a blessing, a beautiful thought for each person there, not trying to get anything from them.

People will do spiritual practice in order to get stuff and then if that’s the approach then stuff is king of their world.

David I think that’s so important to realize that that’s what it’s about. It’s undoing the getting motive and then you start to see that you have to have some clearly about this because even the first principle, the first lesson of the Holy Spirit, “To have, give all to all,” immediately the questions can come from the ego like, “That’s absolutely ridiculous. What are you supposed to do, empty out your wallet everytime you walk out of your house and you go anywhere? And anybody ask you for anything, just materially give everything? Oh, help me lift this sofa. Help me do this. Help me do that,” and just giving all your money away.

Beatitudes It’s really talking about your state of mind. It’s talking about the

Beatitudes, to have, give all to all. And that’s so important to undo the getting mechanism.

And then to have peace, teach peace to learn it, that in this world we are so accustomed to ego goals and they’re all tied into that getting mechanism, getting ahead, getting career advancements, having more pay, more possessions, having a partner, a better partner, an even better partner.



It’s almost like trading up this whole thing. Everything seems to be about getting ahead or getting more. Now we even have the beer commercials, more is less and less is more, kind of pointing to maybe more isn’t everything that it’s all cranked up to be, even though to question that in this world seems absolutely insane.

It seems like everyone is aiming for more of something. Jesus says that in the beyond the idol section, “What is an idol? Do you think you know? An idol is for more of something. It does not matter more of what.”

So there’s our core of the getting mechanism. But we’re used to self-concept goals and now the course is giving us a peace of mind goal. And he’s not only giving it to us, he’s saying, “To have peace, teach peace to learn it.”

That, when we go to the grocery store, we may think we want to get the best prices, the best sale items and get out of that store as fast as possible so I can have more time for leisure and things I really want to do except for grocery shopping and we miss the whole lesson.

We’re going to be zooming through there with the blinders on zooming past all our brothers and sisters, griping and grumbling when the line next to the line that we’re in is moving a little faster, and impatient with the cashier all because we’re trying to get out of there with the best, cheapest items in the shortest possible time.

And why would we do that except as self-concept goal of thinking we can control time and there’s only a limited amount so we’d better get through and get while the getting is good and get onto the next thing.

And you can see. Once you shift into this mode of working with the Holy Spirit, you have these wonderful encounters. You’re laughing and smiling at people at the grocery store. You’re so gentle and patient and kind, offering a kind word even if the cashier seems to be stumbling over something, or feeling all stressed out.


You are the bringer of peace and the cashier smiles at you and goes, “Thank you,” like almost a relief that you’re a reminder that there’s another way.

Jennifer Yes, I’m so glad you brought that up because that’s a living practice right there. Our spiritual practice is to be on the lookout for where if there’s a sense of disharmony or discord that we can say, “Oh, okay. I’ll be the living representation of peace, of harmony, of joy.” And we don't have to know how ahead of time.

Our little willingness is all that’s required.

Your Little Willingness David Yeah, that’s it. And with that little willingness and with practice, that

little willingness as we talked about this morning on Lisa’s show, you were talking about it grows into abundance, willingness.

But it has to start somewhere. And really you can see the beautiful design in this whole principle and plan because the bottom line for the ego is you are what you get. Whatever you have gotten in life, like the bumper sticker, “Whoever dies with the most toys wins the game.”

You know that’s a great outcome of this, “What I have is what I get.” If I get an education, I have an education. If I get a partner or a spouse, I have now have a partner or a spouse. If I get a house, I have a house.

You can see that these lessons of the Holy Spirit are undoing this belief that what I have is what I get. And he even mentions that in the third lesson of the Holy Spirit, “Be vigilant only for God and his kingdom,” because once you start to value the kingdom, which we’ll say translates to your peace of mind is what the kingdom of heaven is, then you practice in every circumstance, in every situation, in every instant you now are so focused that you’re getting close to the top of the mountain, you’re getting close to the peak, and you want to experience that peak and so you give yourself over to that practice in everything.

And what is the peak finally? It’s not that what I have is what I get, it’s actually what I have is what I am, that having and being are finally



associated as being the same thing. It’s synonymous at the top of the spiritual mountain.

And Popeye said that, “I am that I am and that’s all that I am.” People resonate with that feeling, “Oh, wow that sounds great.” There’s no pressure to get anywhere, no pressure to accumulate, no pressure to achieve, to strive, all those things.

There’s no challenge when the final lesson comes fully into awareness. What I have is what I am. Having and being are the same. So that is the ultimate experience of where all this is leading.

And when you come into that experience, then you are sourced. You are consciously sourced in everything that you seem to use in this world, receive in this world, you know comes from God, the spirit. It’s just the spirit’s use of the symbol.

You’re not relying on people. You’re not dependent on people, on governments, on even planetary conditions. None of that will, in the end, make a difference when you see that what I have is who I am, or what I am.

That’s very high. At the beginning you don't have that in mind. You’re just facing your expectations and your struggles and your doubts. And you don't fully realize that that’s just from the unconscious mind floating up to the surface and playing out as a motion picture of your daily life.

You just take your workbook lessons in the course and you just, as best as you can, you carry those ideas. Let the emotions up and then let them go to the Holy Spirit as the practice.

Jennifer Two of my favorite affirmations, if you will, are I am that I am. This always takes me back. I am that I am. I am the perfection and the wholeness. I can know it now.

It’s not something in the future. It’s now. It’s not I’m learning that I am. No. I am that I am. And then the other one is seek first the kingdom.


Where is the kingdom? It’s within. And then all else will be added unto me.

To me, seek first the kingdom and all else will be added unto me. Like what part of that is unclear? What part of that is vague? What part of that don’t people understand?

Instead they’re laboring in vain. And what they could do is make their whole life their spiritual practice and experience the discovery of the kingdom and everything else being added unto them.

You and I are living evidence of the deeper our practice becomes the more it’s 24/7 without exception, the more whatever it is we think we might need in a moment, it somehow is provided, or we don't actually need it and we recognize that.

So, there’s not a sense of lack or limitation. Everything is perfect. For many people, that seems impossible to achieve. It seems unreal. But I think it’s really important that we talk about our literal experience of that day to day.

Defenselessness and Safety David Yeah, if I think we’re called to be meek as you just called it in the new

testament, or defenseless, like you said in the course, “In my defenselessness my safety lies.”

As we look into the eyes of rabbits at the monastery, or a little chipmunk or a deer or goats or cows and we have this peaceful gaze, there’s a sense of harmony that comes from a sense of defenselessness. We’re not defending anything, neither are we having a thought of attacking anything.

That’s so important that we do allow the unconscious to come up for healing release. As profound as those course workbook lessons are, “Nothing I see means anything. I’ve given everything. I see all the meaning it has for me,” and so on and so forth.



When you get to Lesson 23, already 23 in the book, in the workbook gives you the escape hatch, “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.”

So, we do have to let them come up and we have to let them go. And then we start to realize that whenever I’m having attack thoughts and they keep coming and coming and coming, what’s the root? Where are they coming from?

Well, they’re coming from the ego and the self-concept. As long as I value the things of the world I’m not going to be detached from time. I’m not going to be detached from outcome. I’m not going to have no expectations as long as I value the idols and the images and the pursuits of the ego. I’m going to have all those things and it’s just going seem to recur over and over until I realize that the only way I can be truly defenseless is to have no identification with anything of this world.

I have to be non-affiliated. I have to be empty and open like your prayer when you said, “Take it all. Take my life, really, God. Take it all. I don't care if it’s just a blaze of light and I disappear as I’ve known myself, I mean it. Take it all.”

And to me, that’s again the prayer of the heart. God knows the prayer of the heart before a word is spoken. When that’s truly our desire, you will actually, actively enjoy the dismantling, enjoy the undoing.

It’s like, “Okay, bring it on. This is wonderful.”

Jennifer Thank you, God.

David Yes, this is what I want.

Jennifer Yes, it’s so true because that dismantling can then bring forth that which is truly of value. You can finally see it. You can finally see the forest and not be caught up in the trees.

That’s why I love that trust section in the Manual For Teachers because it really lets us know. If you’re praying to be free and you’re clinging to


the things that inhibit your experience of freedom, the prayer is going to be answered.

Those things are going to start to be difficult to hold onto because your answered prayer is in letting them go, or holding them differently. And if you’re not willing to hold them differently… And that’s the thing people discover, “Oh, I thought that job was everything. And now I realize, ‘No, that job’s not my identity. I am not that job. How could I be a job? A job is nothing. It’s activity.’”

David Yeah, it’s just another concept that can be used by the spirit for a moment and then to be transcended and let go like you were mentioning with Regina Dawn Akers, the terror around leaving a job and moving to what? To Where?

Well, spirit’s like, “Oh, it’s so glorious. You won’t believe how glorious it is when you do it.” And then you start to sing a new song. Instead of waking up and plodding out of bed in the morning, you don’t sing a funeral dirge everyday. And you’re not singing TGIF, Thank God, it’s Friday. No Thing is Plenty

You’re not waiting for Friday. You’re living in the moment because it’s so wonderful. I think about some of these great Broadway plays. I know how much you like Shakespeare and theatre and I think about Funny Girl and Fanny Brice and Barbara Streisand and, “I got plenty of nothing and nothing’s plenty for me. I got the sun. I got the moon. I got the deep blue sea.”

Then it goes on, “Folks with plenty of plenty they got a lock on their door. Afraid somebody’s a gonna rob ‘em now that they’re making more. What for? I got a lock on my door. That’s the way to be. They could steal the rug from my floor. That’s okay with me. Because the thing that I prize like the stars in the skies, they’re all free.”

You can’t but be joyful. Imagine jumping on a bed everyday with that song in your mind where you’re actually celebrating that you’ve got plenty of nothing because what you have is what you are.

You are the living Christ. You are the living Buddha, the living Krishna. You are the living one. And just to hold that in mind, you could just go



singing along in your day radiating that presence and really not having a care or concern for getting, making, accumulating, achieving.

And yet that seems so antithetical to the way that the world operates. Some people will say, “That’s just not the American dream.” And I say, “I’m interested in knowing that I’m the dreamer of the dream, not having the American dream of accumulating.”

And it seems to stand out, but again, that’s what we’re to be, the light of the world to show that there’s a new way.

Jennifer Alright. So let me ask you. For someone who’s hearing us right now and what you’re talking about seems as far away from them as front row tickets to a Barbara Streisand concert, let’s say.

It seems like a cartoon. It seems so far away from where they are because they’re thinking, “I can’t pay my rent,” or, “My teeth are falling out and I don't have the money to go to the dentist,” or, “My son is a crack addict,” or, “My husband left me. I don’t even know where he went,” whatever. They’re dealing with major, major life issues.

So, they’re thinking, “I don’t have time for a spiritual practice. I don't have time.” What would you say to them?

David I would say that some people know that acronym, “Fear of false evidence appearing real,” that the first point is not to deny what your body’s eyes are showing you and your body’s ears are showing you.

In the course, Jesus is so practical. He says, “To deny the body,” we could say, “To deny the body and the world that surrounds the body is the inappropriate use of denial.”

What’s the appropriate use of denial if that’s the inappropriate use? He says, “Deny the belief that error can hurt you.” So, okay. Okay, I perceive my teeth are falling out. I perceive I’ve got a sibling, or a parent, on crack, that’s addicted. I perceive that I just lost my job and the mortgage payment is due and it’s not looking good. It takes a faith to say, “Okay, this is the way that it seems and I’m not going to deny


what seems to be my reality. What I’m going to do is have a crack of openness and willingness and just begin to question my perceptions. And why would I want to question my perceptions?”

In The Matrix Agent Smith says, “We accept the world that is presented to us,” the ego character. And it’s like, yeah, if you just accept the world that’s presented to your five senses without questioning it, it’s pretty easy to say, “Hmm, I’ve become a victim of the world. Look what happened to me. My teeth are falling out. My partner is addicted to crack. I’ve lost my job. I can’t pay the mortgage.”

But you can’t stop there. There has to be willingness to say, “Hmm, maybe, just maybe, I have a perceptual problem. Maybe, just maybe, there is another way of looking at the world. Maybe it still seems far off, but am I willing even to move in the direction of that new way of seeing. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing if I just had a crack of willingness and openness.”

So it’s not trying to deny what seems to be there, but it’s just saying maybe I can go deeper. And then I will talk to people and I will say, “Well, what if you’re psychotic, you’re schizophrenic and you’re hallucinating?”

And they say, “What do you mean?” And I say, “Well, these are not… I’m not talking about people who are locked up in the insane asylum. I’m talking about, again, psychotic means a break from reality. Maybe the world I’m perceiving through this fragmented lens actually isn’t reality.”

People are worried about burning in hell. Sometimes they say, “I did this when I was 5 years old, and this when I was 10 and this when I was 20. I’m going to burn in hell.”

Perceptual World I said, “Listen. This perceptual world of fragmentation is hell, so you

don't have to worry about burning in the afterlife.” I tell them it doesn't get any worse than this. This perceptual world is hell. It’s a psychotic break from reality. It’s schizophrenic.



We’re listening to multiple voices in our mind, not one voice like Jesus told us to do. And we’re hallucinating because we’re seeing a bunch of images and we weren’t really created to be an image maker.

We were created to be a divine being. So, I give them that context and then it’s more like a presence. Like we connect spiritually. And I’ve seen people who have risen off of their deathbed who have had a miraculous change in an instant, where the symptoms had vanished in a miraculous instant. And through the power of our joining, through me not agreeing with the sickness, or agreeing with the problem, or even agreeing with the wanting like you talked about even working with your staff.

Like whoa, whoa, we’re not trying to encourage wanting here. We’re encouraging acceptance of all that is, and so it is. You know? You’ve probably said that prayer 100,000 times.

Jennifer A million times.

David Because it’s really true in your heart because you really are extending that as a real thing.

Jennifer What I’m hearing you say too is… And I share this all the time because it’s been such a profound awareness for me. If you study even the words of Jesus in the new testament, you study the stories of healing.

He had all those experiences of healing. And I think part of the reason for the healing is also it draws people’s attention. If you lived in a time where medicine is well, pluck it out, or just put leeches on it, or well, let’s bleed some of that bad blood out of there, or just you know, lock them in a cave for three days.

And along comes someone who says, “Let’s join together and your faith will make you whole,” because Jesus always said in these miraculous experiences when people said to him, “Thank you, Jesus, for my healing.”


He never said, “Oh, you’re welcome. I was happy to do that for you.” He always says what?

David “Because by your faith you’re made whole.”

Jennifer Yeah, exactly. So what you’re talking about is people coming to you and they say, “I have these big problems.” Michael Beckwith says, “Instead of telling God about your big problem, tell your big problem about God, your big God,” which is your faith in the individual.

Instead of thinking that your problem needs to be fixed, maybe that problem is your answered prayer. And your willingness to say, “Oh, I can’t make my mortgage this month.” Well, maybe the best thing in the world that could happen to me is to move out of this house. Maybe that’s the indication I need to get still and try to listen and get some guidance. Maybe I am not this house. Maybe I am not this stuff.

And maybe if my neighbors think, “Oh, look at Jennifer down the road. She went bankrupt and they took her house away from her.” And they might be judging me, but if they see that I let it go because I knew something greater was coming forward, then they might become interested, “Well, let’s see what happens to her next.”

And then they see I’m singing a happier song. I’m not condoning, of course, defaulting on mortgages. I don’t think defaulting on mortgages is good or bad. It’s neither.

Experience is either Healing or Pressure for Healing How could it be either one? It’s just something that happens. It’s what

you make of it that makes it a spiritual experience or an egoic experience. It’s either your healing or it’s more pressure for your healing.

Michael Beckwith also says, “The pain pushes until the vision pulls.” And I say, “The pain is always pushing and the vision is always pulling if you could just decide, what do you prefer? What is the thing that you’re most interested in?”



And so we’ve got about 10 minutes left here so I want to ask you, David, what is the spiritual practice that you would give to somebody? Let’s say their fear is really intense. And they’re having a little meltdown. What is the spiritual practice that you would recommend to quickly shift and move out of that and back into divine alignment?

David I would say the first thing that comes to mind in terms of practically is the section in the back of the text of A Course In Miracles called The Rules For Decision.

Basically, he’s saying decide the kind of day that you want and then say to yourself, which is Number 2, “If I make no decisions by myself this is the day that will be given me,” then 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 are your remedy back.

But he does even give us a pointer and say, “It’s easier if you stay with the first two and you don’t let your mind drift off into the problem.” What you’re describing is a crisis.

And he does say in there that it’s much more difficult to get back from that crisis misperception than it is to stay on the beam, gliding down the highway in truth. It’s much easier.

So I would say that’s an important little antidote. That’s an important little note that goes with this. And also part of those steps back that Jesus is describing in there is coming to the point of starting to see that maybe I don't really know everything that’s tied in with this misperception.

Perhaps I’ve been wrong about what I’m perceiving and feeling and then, what harm would it do to go along with that line of thinking that perhaps I’ve been wrong, and actually open up to… Here’s the key in getting back to the peace. I hope I’ve been wrong. Do you see? It’s gone from perhaps to I hope I’ve been wrong. Because why? Because I’m not happy. And I hope I’ve been wrong in what I’m interpreting and what I’m perceiving.


That crack, that’s that crack of willingness that will definitely get you back into the groove, into the alignment with God. It’s so important. But you see how humbling.

Would you rather be right or happy? You really meet that question in your mind. Would I truly rather be right about this grievance, this misperception, this thing that I think that I’ve been done wrong, that somebody done me wrong song? Would I rather be right about that, or would I willing to be happy and to be shown the road back to happiness?

Jennifer What that makes me think of is so many people get wrapped up in valuing their thoughts, their perceptions of things, their opinions and judgments of things. And that thinking that they’re right, they really, really value that.

They feel like that is my life raft. My judgments are what keep me afloat in this world. It’s my protection from the world, my judgments. And so the very idea of opening their mind to they might not be right is very scary for a lot of people.

The Healing Turnaround I know for me, one of the biggest healings in my life is when I got to the

point where I said to the higher self, the holy self, “Holy Spirit, I don't want to think my thoughts anymore. I’m not interested in these thoughts anymore. Please help me rid my mind of them. I don't value them anymore. Help me wipe my mind clean of them. I only want to think the thoughts I think with God. And I mean it. I am there. I know that every thought that I’m thinking on my own is hurting and I am tired of hurting myself with my thoughts.”

David Yeah, that’s the turnaround right there. That’s one of those kind of prayers where you feel like symbolically you’re down on your knees and it says God answers the prayer of the heart, well, that’s one of help, what you’re describing. That’s a true prayer of help.



And then I think another thing that you and I talk about is that really, ultimately, that’s the most important thing. And the spiritual journey is not an intellectual process.

It’s interesting to remind yourself of that when you’ve got a book in front of you that’s over 1,200 pages long. But Helen Schucman did say, “Ah, at last a path for the intellectuals.” It’s like a way of coming out of all those words.

It’s beautiful, Shakespearian blank verse and it’s spectacular, but it’s a pathway for intellectuals. If you have the sincere devotion and the prayer of the heart and you really go with that and you really value that, you will save thousands and thousands of years.

And I know people have asked me, “What’s the key in your journey?” And I say, “Well, I was an intellectual, 10 years in university. I dove into the course. I read it eight hours a day for two and a half years. I actually memorized it and I could go to course groups and quote verbatim with the first edition of page number and so forth.”

And even then being introduced at a course conference as a walking A Course In Miracles encyclopedia by Jon Mundy, there’s something that hit me there with that. I don’t want to be an encyclopedia.

It hits you between the eyes, encyclopedia. I want to be happy. I want to by joyful. And some people I’ve heard those interviews on the Internet that I did with David Paul and Candice Doyle, where I described from 1991 to 1996, living in divine providence, no house, no apartment, no tent, going from house to house, day to day, place to place for five years, between ’91 and ’96.

That really developed my trust. And for those that say, “Wow, I can’t even imagine how I can go from intellectually grasping these ideas in some sense, to actually living it.”

The Peace Pilgrim route was a good roto rooter for me. That really cleared away the doubt and got me really fully into this experience. And


now it doesn't matter whether it’s in this big house. We’re in a 5,000 square foot metaphysical center now, and before there wasn’t even a tent.

It was just a bed, a closet to sleep in, a rug on the floor or whatever. I love it all. I’m grateful for it all. I’ve stayed in mansions and hostels and pup tents and slept out under the stars and things.

But to tell you the truth, it was all for one lesson. And that was the lesson in that same spark and faith and trust of, “Take these thoughts from me Holy Spirit.” That was what it was all about.

Jennifer Yeah, take it all. What I say is people circle back around all the time to, “Oh, I have to surrender again.” And they’re feeling like, “Oh, the burden of surrender.”

Surrender, you can think of it as giving up. And, yes, it is that. It’s giving up your own opinions, your own judgments, your own way, or they way I think of it is I’m making an offering like the Buddhist practice. You make an offering.

I’m making a holy offering of my life. Do with me as you will. I’m here to be your servant to the glory of God, and even wiping away that desire to serve that the ego can come right in there, “Ooh, look at me. I’m a servant. I bring benefit to everybody with my life, my personality.”

David Yeah, it’s sneaky. It will just slip right in there on that one.

Jennifer Yeah, to me it’s never not about surrender. What you’re surrendering is any sense of separation so that all you have left is unity. The minute you can find a little sense of separation, oh, I’d like to be better than my neighbor. I’d like to have a nicer dog than my neighbor, or a nicer car, a nicer house, a nicer cubicle at work, or a prettier dress, whatever it is that you’d like to have for yourself so that you can feel better.

As soon as you can see this you can say, “Oh, I’m going to surrender that attachment to that. I’m surrendering, surrendering and do the happy dance. I can surrender everything that’s torturing me, all my attachments, all the suffering, you know?

And sing the song from what was it?



David Funny Girl.

Jennifer Yeah, I’ve got plenty of nothing. Yeah, because I’ve got everything.

David No thing, but everything, the whole universe. And surrender is not lost, but surrender is release of illusion. You can see that little tweak from all the stuff surrendering, like you said the other day, “Surrendering at war means you’re the loser.”

And this is the thing, no, it means I’m releasing illusions. That’s a happy dance. If illusion is the only thing holding me back, I can surrender and release all the illusions and that’s just again a tweak of meaning from the ego perspective to the Holy Spirit perspective.

Jennifer Yeah, that’s true insight and genius. And once you get the hang of it you start to celebrate because it really does get easier and easier. And my friend, Chris told me… She was with Colin Tipping the other day and he just realized he lost his laptop, gone, gone, laptop’s gone.

And he was like, “Well, so be it.” And she said this guy is really walking his talk because he just lost his laptop.

David I can relate to that very well.

Jennifer Yeah, and when something like that happens you think, “Well, a holy purpose must be. So, okay, I get a new laptop.” You can learn to have that. That is your spiritual practice. It’s a waking, living, breathing, spiritual practice.

As you and I both know, we can go on and on. And it’s time for us to close out here. Just before we do, David, please tell everyone how they can find you on the web and how they can find all the free recordings and your You Tube channel has 500 videos, so your Website.


David’s Offerings David The LivingMiraclesCenter.org is the main Website where you can get

into the monastery. A lot of the Q&A’s and things and it’s a good entry point.

And then just for a lot of the free stuff, acim.cc. I’ve enjoyed some of these recent talks I’ve done with you. I’ve put it up on my Spreaker account.

If people want to have free Internet MP3s to download, that’s Acim.me. Dot me, it’s easy to remember. There are lots of audio files. There’s lots of writing, lots of transcripts in six different languages, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese. It goes across the board.

It’s mainly I’ve heard from the spirit, “Freely you have received, now freely give.” And people do, like we talked about, like hard copy things.

They can order the CD if they want this and listen to it for free for 48 hours and then order it. And it’s the same with us. If you like it in a book form, some people like to carry around a book in their purse or in their backpack, or they like CDs, DVDs.

Jennifer That’s how I am, yes.

David They want it tangible in their hands, then we do that as well. But for me the essence is we’re offering our insights because we’re just giving to ourselves.

And I love that about you, that you’re just so in that vibe of extending and giving and collaborating. And it takes one to know one. So, we recognize each other very easily.

Jennifer Yeah, if I didn’t share I’d explode. And I know the same is true for you. It’s such a joy to be able to share, particularly because it’s been so hard won.

We didn’t just wake up and go, “Oh, all of a sudden I feel all this enlightenment and all this awakening and everything is deep and beautiful.” No.



There is like moment by moment we offloaded negative thought by negative thought through our daily commitment to living spiritual practice 24/7. That’s what we did.

Closing Prayer I’m going to invite you to join with me. I’m inviting everyone to place

their hand on their heart and take a breath of love and gratitude. And it’s like we’re sealing it in and we’re saying, yes, yes, Holy Spirit. For the love of God, please take everything that no longer serves me.

Help me to recognize that the kingdom is preinstalled. Our prayer is that we value that which is already been given, that we explore it, that we share and that we recognize that we already have it.

And we do, indeed, enjoy every opportunity to share the benefits of our healing and our expansion, our spiritual practice with everyone because we are already one with them.

In grace and gratitude, we accept our healing. We accept the expansion. We accept the clearly. We surrender that which no longer serves and we let it be. And so it is. Amen. Amen.

We love you everybody. Thank you so much. Enjoy the replays. Invite a friend to come and listen with you. And you can pause and listen again and again on those replays.

With Jennifer Hadley 33

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