So let's do this.
Let's take a deep breath and close our eyes.
We see in the middle of our mind a little ball of golden light and we watch this light as it begins to grow larger and larger until now it covers the entire inner vision of our mind.
And we see for ourselves within this light a beautiful temple.
We see a garden that surrounds the temple in the body of water that flows through the garden.
We see that the inside of the temple is lit as well by this same beautiful golden light.
And here we are for we have been drawn together by the power and in the presence of God.
We devote our time spent together all of our relationships and experiences together to him and we pray that God's most Holy Spirit be upon us and we might thus be lifted above and beyond the turmoil the chaos and the fears of this world to the infinite love and peace that lay beyond.
And so it is together we all say Amen.
Well tonight is the second night of Passover and Sunday is Easter and we know that the Last Supper was in fact a Passover Seder.
The spiritual dispensation of the 21st century of this time in human history does not have to do so much with new spiritual information because in a very real way there's not so much new spiritual information.
Rather it has to do with rescuing as it were the spiritual information that is contained in all the great religious and spiritual systems of the world.
The universal spiritual themes that have been around for a very very long time that need as it were to be rescued from the very narrow and constricted doctrinal and dogmatic limitations that so many organized religions have impressed upon them.
So A Course in Miracles for instance is not a religion.
There is no dogma.
There is no doctrine.
It is a psychological mind training.
So whereas the course itself is based on universal spiritual themes the power of the course has to do not only with the text where you read about these spiritual themes intellectually but the workbook where we actually go through the psychological training to make this material real and practical in our own everyday lives.
When we then through that mental lens look back at all the great religious systems of the world the heart leaps at the joy of seeing these same themes repeated over and over.
It might be in Buddhism.
It might be in the Old Testament.
It might be in the New Testament.
It might be wherever in whatever spiritual or religious treatise,
AA,
Quran,
Whatever.
You see these same basic themes and these same basic themes are essential to both the story of Passover and the story of Easter both of which I thought we could unpack a little bit metaphysically tonight.
First of all we know of course that Jesus was a historical figure.
About Moses perhaps he was perhaps he wasn't.
But as Jack Kerouac said when asked whether or not on the road was true he said it's true even if it didn't happen.
We do know there was a journey.
This foundational myth.
There was something there was some real stuff in there and it always feels to me like Moses was a real person.
But in a very real way that is not what matters most.
What matters is the larger story.
We do know that the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites.
We do know that.
So let's talk about the story.
Now if you just see this as a story then it will just have the effect of a story in your life.
You know a story is a story.
But you know it's like I've never heard a Jew say they're not going to go to Passover Seder this year because I know the story already.
And you don't hear about Christians whose reason for not going to church on Easter Sunday is because they already know the story.
That's the least of it.
The story does not change.
The issue is that we change.
And we are changed by the story when we allow the story to penetrate us at very deep levels.
If we only look at the external story if we only look at the circumstances that that imbue the story then it is just a story.
But if instead we recognize the great religious tales and those which involve the great religious figures of the human race as actual coded messages from God to us that go generation unto generation carrying every generation that same coded seeded message by which human consciousness should we receive the message is transformed then the story becomes something else.
It becomes more than abstract information.
It becomes information in that it informs us at a very deep level.
The pharaoh the Egyptian pharaoh enslaved the Israelites.
Now if you only look at this in a historical context it's just a story.
If instead you recognize that that pharaoh lives inside all of us that the pharaoh enslaving the Israelites represents whatever condition enslaves the children of God which is all of us.
It could be an internal condition in your life.
It could be psychological.
It could be emotional.
It could be physical.
It could be social.
It could be outer economic conditions.
It could be any kind of condition outer or inner.
But it is symbolized by the fact that you are enslaved.
Pharaoh enslaves the Egypt the Israelites.
Now pharaoh was told by an astrologer that a child would be born and that child would overthrow him would would ruin his rule.
But the astrologer couldn't tell him was this going to be a Jewish baby or was it going to be an Egyptian baby.
Well pharaoh couldn't the astrologer couldn't tell the pharaoh for sure but could pinpoint the date in which the astrologer said the child would be born.
And so pharaoh sent out a decree and that is that every child Egyptian or Jewish that was going to be born on that day was to be thrown into the Nile and drowned.
Now Moses was born on that day and when he was born the room was filled with light and his mother loving him as every mother loves her baby was heartbroken at the thought she might not be able to save him from the Egyptian authorities.
Ultimately she realized that it was too risky.
She probably would not be able to save him from the Egyptian authorities.
And so what she did as we all know is she made a basket made of reeds that would be waterproof.
She put it in the Nile and the daughter of the pharaoh who herself was resisting this decree found the baby.
Yochabed who was Moses's mother kind of tricked the princess did not did not reveal that she was the baby's mother but suggested to the princess perhaps you would take the baby.
Part of the story that I love the most is that the princess not knowing that Yochabed was Moses's mother basically then took the mother as the baby's nanny.
So Yochabed did in fact raise her child although it wasn't revealed that she was actually his mother.
Now Moses in other words escaped.
He escaped the destiny of the Israelites at that time.
He himself was not a slave.
He was raised in a palace.
He did not have to relate to the suffering of his people.
Now we've talked before about Buddha and how similar this is to a theme in Buddhism.
How Buddha was born Prince Siddhartha his father had him living inside the castle compound.
He didn't have to go out there and start relating to the suffering of his people yet his heart was restless.
He escaped the compound and we know what happened after that.
Now the same happened with Moses in that even though his human circumstances separated himself from the destiny of those who were suffering the most something in his heart was restless.
Something in his heart and in the story of Moses led him to without any choice in the matter whatsoever recognize the suffering of his people and I think that that's something right there that all of us can relate to.
You know you're doing pretty good by definition if you're here tonight compared to what some people on the planet are going through as we speak.
Everybody here even those of us who have the worst circumstances imaginable to us are doing pretty good compared to some people in the world and it is very tempting for all of us to say well I escaped.
I know what's going on but I escaped.
Well one day Moses was out and there was a slave driver an Egyptian slave master and he was beating an Israeli an Israelite slave.
Moses saw this and it angered him it enraged him and he then killed the slave master.
When that happened he knew he might be held accountable for that so he went off he escaped and he ran away to the land of Midian.
There he got married and he had a child and one day he was out tending his flocks.
He'd become a shepherd and one day he was out there and he encountered the burning bush.
Now that's the second thing that makes you and Moses have something in common.
You too have encountered the burning bush.
How do I know that?
Because you're here.
Because what does that mean?
Well the interesting thing about the burning bush is that in reality physical reality as we know it if a bush is burning then it ultimately burns out but the burning bush continued.
It burned continuously.
In the Russian Orthodox Church they refer to the burning bush as the uncreated glories the uncreated energies the uncreated glories when you meditate when you pray whatever has taken you to the point in your life where you feel called where you feel drawn out to something more.
The word Moses means to draw out to draw out the Israelites from the land of Egypt but also to draw out the people into their destiny as a nation of holy people.
So the burning bush told him that God wanted Moses to go back to Egypt and to tell the pharaoh to let the Israelites go.
Now once again Moses had escaped.
Moses was like you know I made it out of there although he had ultimately had to run but he wasn't a slave but something in him knew yes it is my business.
You know one of the things that that Islam and Judaism have in common that is different than Christianity is that the history of the people is inextricably bound up with the theology of the religion but we're living at a time so that when the the Muslim or when the Jew is thinking and contextualizing the spiritual journey it is never just about me it is about us as in an actual people but we're living now on the planet at a time where none of us can afford to contextualize our spiritual journey as just about me because at this point if we don't make it you're not going to make it and I'm not going to make it.
So that kind of collectivity is hallmark of the new spirituality no matter what your religious or spiritual entrance into the conversation.
Now Moses said to God when God said I want you to do something great.
I want you to save your people.
God speaking to him from the burning bush said I want you to save your people.
Now we've already discussed the fact that everybody here pretty much knows that you've escaped the worst of what's going on on the planet.
I mean any of us are reasonable we understand that the trajectory of human action behavior and interaction today on the planet is something that could absolutely spell catastrophe over time whether it would have to do with a nuclear disaster or biochemical disaster weather catastrophe or whatever but for the most part we can rationally assume that it probably won't get too bad in our lifetime we've basically escaped the worst of it and so forth.
We've already talked about that.
We've already talked about the fact that we too have on some level been called to be more.
You wouldn't be at a course in miracles lecture.
You wouldn't be seeking reading the kinds of things you wouldn't be here unless something in you if you weren't part of this thing that we all feel happening on the planet and it has to do we say it has to do with personal transformation but it's so much bigger.
It's personal evolution in order to be part of this collective evolutionary impulse that is our only chance for survivability and sustainability of the human race over the next hundred years.
Now Moses said to God when God told him I want you to go back.
I want you to save them.
I want you to tell the pharaoh that he's just not allowed to do this anymore and we're going to save our people and Moses said to God what probably you have said in one way or another.
What me?
No not me.
I so do not have what it takes.
Maybe you have somebody else in mind but not me.
Now we've already talked here it's not just personal it's collective.
What happens when you have the personal savior figures?
Well socially and politically they tend to shoot them whether it has to do with Martin Luther King or Bobby Kennedy or anything that can't be the revolutionary impulse of this moment.
It's not about soloists.
It's about a choir.
You can shoot a soloist.
You can't shoot a song.
This is like all of us.
This is not the zeitgeist of this moment of saying she'll do it or he'll do it.
It's we'll do it or we'll not get done.
So Moses says to God I don't think I'm your man.
I don't think I have nearly what it takes.
The first response of God was to rebuke him.
How dare you doubt my choice.
If I say this is your job and I have chosen you it is it is impertinent for you to doubt God's choice.
Why not you?
You know this is where the Course in Miracles says we have all thinking on this planet.
It is upside down 180 degrees away from the thinking of God and arrogance and humility are an example.
Remember we speak often how the Course in Miracles tells us that those on this earth who've achieved the most have achieved a fraction of what each and every one of us is capable of.
So there's none of this no not me I don't have what it takes.
Moses tried that.
God first rebuked him for his audacity and doubt in God's choice and secondly God explained to him how he was going to compensate for whatever weaknesses he might have.
First of all Moses stuttered and that's a symbol for we all have something right.
We all have some reason to say well it certainly can't be me.
Maybe you haven't noticed God but I blank whatever it is.
With Moses it was I stutter.
I don't have the resume.
I'm not the right age.
They won't let me.
Whatever it is we all have something.
To the issue of of the stutter God told Moses that he would send his brother Aaron to speak for him.
And the third thing is that God told Moses that he would send him all the power that he needed in the form of a rod.
Now the rod of Moses is very interesting.
It is analogous to Merlin's wand and from a metaphysical perspective it is your word.
Your word when spoken the rod he it was a a snake that Moses was afraid of.
It's your power.
It's your shakti.
It's all this power that you have that you know you have you have but when it is undisciplined and it is not used for God's purposes it scares you and probably the people around you more than it serves you.
And that's where most of us are.
We we I see it every time we give a lecture.
We all experience it in our own lives.
You know the issue when you mess things up when you sabotage when you self-sabotage when you undermine yourself when you mess up an opportunity it wasn't that you didn't have power.
I remember saying to myself many years ago I must be very powerful to screw up so consistently.
So you it's not that we don't have power.
It's the power is usually that which would be symbolized by the snake which could do more interesting the idea of a snake that you see after you have in some way misused your power.
God told Moses pick up the snake by its tail and when he he followed God's commandment pick it up.
In other words take it from that which is down on the ground.
That's what the snake is.
It's powerful but it slithers on the ground and that's why it's dangerous.
We are not meant to be the snakes.
We are meant to the angels who have wings who are meant to be of the sky and not of the earth.
God commanded Moses to pick up that snake by the tail at which point it turned into his rod and that's our spiritual power.
That is the power that Martin Luther King referred to when he said you have within you a power more powerful than bullets and that is when we speak our word and we speak with conviction.
We speak often here about the fact that the Course in Miracles says miracles are born of conviction.
Evil is born of conviction as well.
We talked about the fact that terrorists have conviction.
The problem as we've spoken often is not that more people on the planet hate than love.
Not at all I don't think.
It's that those who hate today hate with decided conviction and seriousness and they speak their word and do what it takes.
The problem is that more conviction today is being displayed by those who hate in too many cases than is currently being displayed by those who love.
In other words we are being told pick it up.
Pick up your power because you are on this earth to save your people.
Now at that point Moses has the rod and throughout the story of the exodus throughout the story of the of the journey of the Israelites as long as he held the rod high the Israelites were victorious and whenever he would be we just it was too much stress it was too much burden it was too heavy for him to bear and he would drop it then the Israelites would be defeated and at one point one of the stories is that Moses is tired and it's heavy and he can't do it and he can't do it and her comes on one side and Aaron comes on the other and they help him hold it up and isn't that what we're all like sometimes I want to be positive I want to believe in myself I want to atone I want to take responsibility I want to forgive other people but it's just too much for me and that's when your friends call and that's when you go to a support group and that's when somebody supports you in getting it right because if your thoughts are held high you will be victorious well Moses goes to Pharaoh he's got his rod he's got his brother he's got the whole thing and basically starts communicating with the Pharaoh that God has told him to tell Pharaoh to let my people go this is the story of Passover all our Jewish friends who are and and family who are at Passover seders tonight or last night read the story let my people go let my people go and what is the bondage today the bondage today on the planet and we have actual slaves on the planet as well still slavery abject slavery has actually not been eradicated from the planet but there are many different forms of slavery and externally all the forms of slavery the economic slavery that various forms of injustice are slavery to a slavery to the ideas of brute force militarization and so forth militarism not just militarization so Pharaoh said to to Moses pretty much what you would expect him to say no Moses goes back to God he says well I did tell him God said you told him he said yeah I told him and he said no so God said go back and tell him I'm sending locusts and there were 10 things and there was blood in the Nile and there were frogs and there were all these horrifying things the 10 plagues and you know as these plagues continue to accumulate by the 10th time God had had it and he said you tell him I am going to kill the Egyptian baby the firstborn Egyptian baby that is when God told Moses to say to the Israelites and this is the meaning of the Paschal Lamb the Passover what is Passover means they were told to take the blood of the Paschal Lamb put it on their door put it on their door and God would know to pass over remember the Paschal Lamb because that Paschal Lamb will reappear in the form of Jesus in the next story so that is the story of the Passover the angels are to pass over the house to know that those babies are not to die that scares the the pharaoh and he said take your people and go Moses high foots it out of the palace and he says to all the Israelites we can go come on now we're going now and don't worry and they said well we can't because the bread's not leavened it doesn't matter 2,
000 years from now they'll call it matzo people will sell it a deli they'll actually like it right now this is another thing that any of us can relate to did the Israelites say thank you Moses did they say wow we're gonna we've been delivered by God and we're going to no longer be slaves to whatever your internal or external condition is that what they said no they didn't they said the exact same thing you and I have said in our lives which is now wait a minute it might not be perfect but I'm functioning I mean I wouldn't call myself free but what is it you want me to do you want me to go where to a promised land and where is this may I ask and we're going to go oh into the desert are we like there are roads there and is there a way to the promised land oh God's going to tell you so Moses was not appreciated and how often is this not true for us that we know that our lives are not exactly what they could be but when we're told surrender to God make your God your your life completely in God's service and just trust God and use the rod that God has sent you use the power of Moses that is within you and go out into that into that territory yes you do not know what it looks like you do not know where it what it will be like you do not know how to get to this promised land surrender completely how many of us can honestly say oh okay no we say things like well I got to figure this out well Moses could not figure out where they were going to go there are no roads in the desert here that we're talking about right and we say no I got to strategize it I got to figure out how I'm going to make money in the meantime I got to figure out I mean I don't know I mean I don't know I mean that sounds a little like what do you mean surrender completely to God and thus began the journey and that journey through the desert did take that symbolic 40 years just like the crucifixion to the resurrection is that symbolic three days and not just symbolic and it's an important period of time because all of us have our time when we wander in the desert and all of us have our time we're having been crucified we go through that journey from crucifixion to resurrection but the significance of the story and the reason that we are reading about these stories this week the reason we are allowing these stories to penetrate our hearts to really allow ourselves to be penetrated you know there's a lot of talk about why is God referred to as he and all of that the gender stuff but you know in the eastern religions they also talk about masculine and feminine yin and yang and yin is the feminine earth aspect and yang is the masculine sky aspect so to the extent to which God is seen in masculine terms human consciousness is the feminine the soul is feminine take this stuff in whenever people say to me when they're just starting the course in miracles anybody says to me do you have any suggestions or advice I always say the same thing take it personally take it personally don't keep it up there it means very literally what it's saying it's about you now not long after the had been gone from Egypt they came to the Red Sea and at that point that was at the very point that the pharaoh symbolizing that ego mind decided that it wanted its slaves back we've all been there right you thought you were getting over something you thought you were doing better could be a recovery or could be doesn't have to be external recovery something where you think I got that habit handled I'm going to be better and then it brings you back oh my god I'm doing it again and that's what the pharaoh did pharaoh said I want my slaves back he sent his his soldiers out to get them at about that point the Israelites are standing in front of the Red Sea if they go forward I mean obviously they'll drown if they just go into the sea but the pharaoh's soldiers are coming up behind them and the pharaoh's soldiers if they turn back around will either take them back to slavery or kill them what happens then once again allow yourself to recognize recognize and drink in and allow the enormity of the message being given here God told Moses to take his rod put it up like this and to start walking into the water and to get all to the point now that's an act of faith here man you're walking into the water I don't care how good a swimmer you are you're walking into the sea but he's holding his rod high and just at the point when the water gets here and that that the message there is the level of faith he had to have to just go keep walking keep walking keep walking and at that point the Red Sea parts miracle that's what these stories are about they are about miracles they are message from God do what I tell you to do and anything that needs to happen to support your deliverance even unto the complete transcendence of the laws of time and space as you know them will occur if you remain outside the identity of your relationship to me and you remain outside the context of your deepest conviction and deepest surrender and deepest devotion being that you are of service to me then things aren't going to work so well and that is the whole point the Course in Miracles says that you are heir to the laws that rule within the world you identify with so if you only identify with the mortal world and you only identify with mortal circumstances and you only identify with your slavery then the laws of scarcity and chaos and death will be true in your experience but when you instead place yourself within the context of having received the message from God having encountered the burning bush having recognized yeah I escaped but not everybody else did and I'm on this earth to be part of the collective Moses the collectivity of the Christ the collectivity of salvation that each and every one of us it is defined in the Course in Miracles as the plan of the teachers of God and the plan of the teachers of God the Course in Miracles says who are the teachers of God anyone who chooses to be one everyone is called but few care to listen that's the meaning of the concept of the chosen the chosen doesn't mean some people are called it means everyone is called but few care to listen so we are all sent some sent into the arts some sent into education some sent into law some sent into the healing arts some are sent to North America some are sent to Europe some are sent to Africa some are sent into this race this ethnicity the point is that as we allow ourselves to be teachers i.
E.
Demonstrators i.
E.
Miracle workers then that means that wherever we stand because our consciousness is imbued by this ecstatic impulse which the rod gives you that you actually meditate and you pray it's just like when you do yoga you build your musculature we have flabby attitudinal muscles the Course in Miracles says you achieve so little because you have undisciplined minds when you pick up your rod that means I will not be negative I will be positive I will act in faith I will atone for my mistakes I will seek to take responsibility for my life I'll recognize it when I made a mistake I'll try to atone I will try to make amends and I will seek to have mercy and forgiveness towards others this makes us strong attitudinally gives us the muscles of attitudinal emotional psychological power and then wherever you are you have an influence you have a subtle influence now when Moses stood before the Red Sea and you in your own life there are Red Seas in your own life now one of the things about Moses in front of the Red Sea there were other people with him but they did not have the power to part the seas just like Jesus somebody crucified to his right somebody crucified to his left we weren't we're not told that he that they resurrected it was the consciousness of Moses it was the consciousness of Jesus now in time not too long after that no several years after that I think Moses was called up to Mount Sinai and there where he did not speak he did not eat or drink for 40 days he was then given by God the 10 commandments he was to write with the finger of God onto those tablets and he was to go back down to the people of Israel and they were to be told that these were the message that God wanted to give them the way he wanted his people to live now here in the higher consciousness community and not just in the higher consciousness community these days it seems to me that all over the place there is a lot of talk about what God will do for you but too little talk these days about what God expects from us we talk a lot you know about how we've been told this kind of faux spiritual paradigm where God's basically your your errand boy you know if you journal it and write down exactly what you want you can bring it and you can make it happen you turn God into your errand boy that's magic the Course says it's not even that it's bad but it's certainly nowhere near the spiritual mountaintop the spiritual mountaintop is not where you tell God what you want him to do for you the spiritual mountaintop is you place yourself in service and ask how you can be there for God same with Jesus it's not like just believe in Jesus everything will be okay to believe in Jesus means to believe in that Christ which is within us all and from that emerges the law to love one another so what we have is a world where people say they believe in God and yet are forgetting the part about what God has given us whether it's in the Ten Commandments or whether it's in the it's in the the injunction to love each other or whatever it is even in the Ten Commandments and I talk about this in in my book Tears to Triumph if you look at the Ten Commandments from a metaphysical perspective these are not just some quaint thousand year old silliness exercises in silliness let's take a couple that we might be tempted to talk about that way honor thy father and thy mother well this was thousands and thousands of years ago because this was thousands before the birth of Jesus right all right we now know you're not going to get clear in your life it's not going to work for you if you don't get clear with your parents hello do not commit adultery now if you look at it only in terms of married people and all of that we may or may not whatever your stuff is however if you look at it metaphysically it means don't have sex outside a sacred context and guess what any adult here actually knows that's a pretty good idea because outside sex being within a sacred context you get love addiction love avoidance you just dated a sociopath and didn't know it all the different diseases and dysfunctions and syndromes of modern life and modern dating why because we don't have any sense of deep ethical connection and deep real sense of sacred meaning to what what happens when you have sex with another human being so when you look back at these at these laws and you look back at all of these all of these these stories from way way long ago you realize they are eternal coded messages now moses did not make it into the into the um promised land don't know quite how that works because he supposedly lived to be 150 and it was a 40 year trip so i don't know exactly how he didn't make how he didn't make it but we know that he didn't actually get to enter into the promised land and it was joshua who was born in the desert interesting joshua who was born in the desert uh who then led the israelites into the promised land and god said to joshua during that journey do not be afraid i am with you i am with you wherever you go and we know that uh it was very common when people were being marched into the gas chambers or i think what sean spicer would call holocaust centers um uh knocked me out of my bubble didn't it um i apologize when the jews were walking into the gas chambers many are known to have repeated oh just kept repeating over and over again because by that time most of them knew where they were going and what was going to happen when they went in and were known to have repeated over and over again do not be afraid i am with you i go with you wherever you go which were the words of joshua with the words of god to joshua one of the metaphysical interpretations of the fact that moses was not able to enter into the promised land was that he still had a memory of the slave condition and your mind must be made new and you see this in a parallel concept now when we move into the story of jesus when the angels told the women not to look for the body the body is gone the body is risen so before we look into the story of jesus let's just talk about the basic universal spiritual theme here of both the old testament the new the the um story of the exodus as well as the story of jesus one of the things we talk about here is how the universe is intentional the acorn is already programmed to become the oak tree and the bud is programmed to become the blossom and the embryo is programmed to become the the the baby and all of us are programmed to be the men and women that god would have us be once again infinite potential the problem is that unlike the oak the acorn and unlike the bud you and i have the capacity of free will we have the capacity to say no we do not have to follow that natural intelligence we do not have to follow the words of god and for many of us you heard you know a lot of times people say i don't know what god is saying and what i find in talking to people and i've certainly seen it enough in my own life the problem is not usually that you didn't hear what god was saying it's that you didn't like what god was saying you were afraid of what was god was saying i can't tell you how many times people say well i'm trying to figure out what to do and from a course of miracles perspective just close your eyes and ask and then how often i get the get the answer yeah i'm trying to figure that out that's not what i said the course in miracles is about actually taking direction to know that we are led and guided by an internal teacher the idea here is that when we do that the course of miracles says god's plan works and yours doesn't the reason our lives are not working is because we're not being the people god would have us be the reason this planet is is in trouble the way it is is because we are not being the people that god would have us be but we don't say that with dogma and doctrine and all of that stuff we just say that from a very simple place our love for each other is supposed to come first and instead we we are a nation of horrors we are a world of idolaters you know we put money before humanitarian concern who are we kidding we talk about a red line with with some children who were gassed as awful as that is our red line should be that 12 000 children starve on this planet every day why isn't that our red line why isn't that our red line well when you look at the money to be made from tomahawk missiles it's very different than the no money to be made from actually dealing with the fact that so many children are starving on this planet the course of miracle says that love restores reason and not the other way around we are moving in an unreasonable direction now why is jesus called a savior well when you look at all this metaphysically the only thing to be saved from is our own insanity everything that's happening on the planet whether it has to do with an out-of-control arms race whether it has to do with nuclear bombs or chemical warfare or or weather catastrophe the problem is not environmental degradation the problem is the insanity that would make anyone be willing or even interested in harming the planet the problem is is not nuclear bombs of themselves the problem is why anyone would ever even want to for them to exist much less use one the problem is the insanity within us and that's why the notion of salvation first of all you start with the old testament that no matter what the problem god has an answer god sends a person the issue from a course of miracles perspective as i said before is the collectivity of the moses impulse that all of us to the extent to which we devote ourselves the course of miracles says who are the teachers of god who are the moses or moses archetype whoever allows ourselves to be used to the extent to which we say dear god use me use my hands use my feet and the course of miracles says all of us are special and none of us are special the course of miracles says that obviously within the space of our human experience some of us are more talented in some areas than others we all know that but remember god will send you a rod god will send you erin and god is not incorrect in his choices when we say i just want to be used i know that the world is in trouble quote unquote my people so moses thought of it as the israelites we think of it as the entire human race my people are in trouble and i give myself to god that i might be used and that's why our lives aren't working our lives are working because we have been taught this false doctrine that it's all about you and we talk here many times you know about how the cancer cell is a cell in the body that has forgotten it's gone insane it is disconnected from its natural intelligence and instead of working to collaborate with other cells in order to serve the healthy functioning of the whole it instead goes off to do its own thing that's called cancer it is a malignancy it is a malignancy in the body and it is a malignancy in consciousness and that's what's happened to the human race we have been infected with a malignant consciousness that is what ego is that is what pharaoh symbolizes it's a malignant consciousness now jesus was a jew and the last supper was a passover seder now in a course in miracles we are taught that the christ is in all of us that as jesus says in the course i don't have anything you don't have the difference between us is i don't have anything else he says in the course of miracles i am in a state which is only potential in you now we've already talked about how the israelites were definitely confronted by the murderous challenge of the pharaoh's soldiers but that god created a tunnel in the red sea so that they could make their way through also a beautiful part of the story is that once they did the prophetess miriam was there and who is moses's sister and led them in song and that's the song of miriam means the song of freedom when you realize i got over this i'm going to be okay i'm not stuck in that same state of slavery that i was before jesus you're talking about the continuation of these stories they all dovetail into each other so jesus stands within a situation obviously what could be more of a of an intense and murderous symbol of the ego's power than the torture and the murder of an innocent man who had hurt no one and helped many now don't think of this as a symbol and don't think of it as far away and don't think of it as somebody else's life what do we know about alcoholism it's not just out to uh to uh to inconvenience you it's out to kill you what about drug addiction is not just out to inconvenience you it's out to kill you what what is happening with so many of the bombs and the craziness on the planet today you know it's interesting about the higher consciousness community because when it comes to things like drug addiction and alcoholism we get we have a very sophisticated understanding the new thought movement higher consciousness community does tend to be pretty sophisticated in its understanding about recovery issues because there's so many people in recovery but they really get that when you're talking about drugs if you don't get this right and it's a moderate and you're an addict this could kill you enough people have died of overdoses that we all know this could kill you and when it comes to alcoholism the same thing you've been around enough to know hey man if you don't get in control this could kill you but the new thought movement is still keeping the blinders on about all the other threats to the planet which if we don't get it right would kill you and so the same kind of adulthood and the same kind of sobriety and the same kind of maturity and consciousness that it takes to really be there to intervene with an individual who has gone so far in the wrong direction that it could kill them that's exactly what we need now we need to be a collective intervention humanity needs an intervention now that intervention means a collective field of consciousness which acts as a disruptive element but even though you know disruption has become kind of a cool term and everybody wants to be a disruptor too many times when people talk about how they want to be a disruptor if you actually look at it it's just moving some furniture around it's not really disrupting on the kind of fundamental level that will probably get you some anger on the part of somebody which probably means you're doing the right thing once again they didn't like Jesus either but the Course in Miracles says that he is not asking for martyrs he's asking for teachers and to teach is to demonstrate so what Jesus demonstrates is that even though the worst craziness the worst insanity the most murderous impulses of the ego mind which is symbolized by crucifixion was not only thrown at him but even succeeded to the extent of destroying his physical body because his consciousness was one with the Christ which is the truth of who he is the truth of who we are being eternal beings the Course in Miracles says that your physical birth was not the beginning but a continuation your physical death is not the end but a continuation the true self is birthless and deathless as they would say in the eastern religions and to the extent what do we say before you are at the effect of the rules that identify that that that prevail within the world you identify with if you identify with the realm of the crucifixion and the circumstances they will be true for you what the Old Testament is saying is God will heal the circumstances what then Jesus and no it's not better the other the Jews have their covenant the story of of of the Israelites is a covenant Jesus put on the door every there's one door excuse me there's one room many doors so it's not like one is better than the other and Jesus is one name the Course of Miracles says on the door because the name Jesus the Course says in any language automatically reminds the mind of the relationship between the Father and the Son so if you say Jesus and this is where you get the metaphysics of the meaning Jesus saves the the word itself is a Shakti the word itself has ecstatic impulse so the word itself Jesus spoken in any language and it helps realign you it's like a chiropractic adjustment we are unaligned we have been fed this belief that we are these little bodies separate from each other and very powerless in this world that is not who we are to say that you are that the Christ lies within you means that the truth of who you are cannot be crucified the truth of who you are you know we talk all the time about how you know you're not I think Wayne used to say you know you're not a you spiritual no you're not a human experience not a human being having a spiritual experience you're a spiritual being having human experience what does that mean what that means is that anything is possible what that means is that the past does not exist what that means is that you cannot die once again to take this week and to just even to the smallest degree any degree you can allow yourself to embrace the enormity of this to embrace that if God needs to part the red seal part the red sea if somebody comes at you and you dwell in the consciousness of the Moses or the consciousness of of Jesus the with with Moses it was the realization of the law it is the realization that we are to be the people that God would have us be and he says through Moses I will make of you a nation of priests and that was spoken to the Israelites but now the message of the Israelites as it always is with the Jews it you know in metaphysic tradition it is said that the Jews are God's lending library any message for any people is actually meant for all people and so then this dispensation emerging out of that Jesus being a Jew that the consciousness lies in all of us wherein the complete nullification of all non-loving circumstance occurs in your life and for you and that is why you working with conviction and you working in dedication and you working in become part if you so choose if you make this the story of your life that you're not just out to get what you think you want for your needs to be met that that will happen automatically as you place yourself in service then what happens is that we will disrupt we will intervene we will turn the ship that's headed to the Titanic around because when enough of us are lifted in consciousness to where Moses was that in his presence the Red Sea parted where Jesus was that in his presence the crucifixion turns into resurrection then we too not like oh they got to do it and we we can't they're doing it was meant to be a lesson and a message to all of us you can not because of your own power but because of the power of God that lives within you and the Course in Miracles says that you're being thinking you're humble by saying oh I could never work miracles that's actually not humble that's arrogant because it suggests that God must not have made you and also as God said to Moses who were you who are you to to think that my decision is wrong to really understand the enormity of that is to really allow ourselves to embrace what Easter can mean for all of us now after Jesus dies and his body is put in the tomb three days later the women who had been around him go to retrieve the body and they go to the tomb and an angel is standing there and an angel says don't even I don't know why you're here we don't look for him he is not here he has risen now that is so profound because what that means is that these wounds that we all have these weaknesses that we all have these things we're all working through yeah I'm working on that I'm processing that and we do have to process ladies and gentlemen but it was supposed to be 40 years not 120 years it was supposed to be three days not six months six years three decades at a certain point you get off the cross at a certain point you make that decision and you make a break for free for from your your slave condition you know the thing about your slave conditions in life you're all poor me story you know what my hope for all of us is is that it become as boring to you as it probably already is to those who hear it over and over and over this keeps us small this keeps us small we cannot afford to be small we cannot afford to be small we must become the people you know if we hear it one more time be the change we now actually say be the change instead of being the change we need to be the change and be the change means to rise Jesus didn't say I have fixed everything he said I have overcome be of good cheer I have overcome and the first place we overcome is in our own lives and we all have stuff but you know the problem that we make the the the the that we continue to perpetuate is that somehow we're thinking that once I've I become an enlightened master then I will join the great crusade of God to save the planet that's why I love to read biographies because when you read biographies of people who've done great things they were just like us you know that there's a there's a story there was a lot written about Lincoln's melancholia right and the there are a lot of eyewitness accounts about how because they thought the civil war was going to last for like six weeks right 600,
000 people died 600,
000 people died in the in the civil war I remind you the 257,
000 died in World War II and think how much smaller the country was and when Lincoln's secretary would come into his office and tell him of the latest figures of how many people had died in a battle in the civil war several people spoke about how he would take his head in his hands and he would rock back and forth and say I cannot bear it I cannot bear it and that that's such an image to me that represents the fact that you don't wait till you're beyond caring or beyond crying or beyond having issues before you sign up and get real and get that if if Moses can do it that's not just about Moses it's about all of us it's it's an archetype yes but that we are to live within and when Jesus said greater things than I have done you will do when he said I don't have anything you don't have I just don't have anything else he says prove that I did not this is the line in the Course in Miracles prove that I did not die in vain by proving that I did not die and proving that I did not die means as we're taught as Course in Miracles students that he has become one with the atonement he has become one with the Holy Spirit and for those who feel called to him he is a name for the internal teacher within us all in the Course in Miracles this is very literal you wake up in the morning and you say where would you have me go what would you have me do what would you have me say and to whom and that natural intelligence within you which goes among other names by the name of Jesus will direct you very specifically like I said it's not that you don't know what the voice is saying it's that you're not in the mental habit of asking and even when you hear you sometimes go I know I've done this many times a God I heard that answer but I'm not sure you really have considered all the facts and so I'm going to give it another few days because I think if I ask again and so we are limiting our capacity so to say that Jesus is the Savior what does that mean unless it's actually saving us from our own craziness and what does it mean if it doesn't save us from the craziness of the collective at this time there is no time in human history no time in human history where the collective insanity of the human race posed such a collective threat to the survival of our species we need to like get this it's like an alcoholic who's in denial you don't get this it's like the drug addict who's in denial you don't get this and there's a way in which perhaps many of us or many people on the planet anyway are in denial and we're in denial because we're afraid to go there we're afraid if we look at the dangerous conditions on the planet we'll get depressed of course you'll get depressed if you're not depressed what you're not looking or I'm into empathic or whatever I believe that we are all empathic and we are all sensitive creatures and are recognizing that the crucifixion today not just that it's it's not just one man and that it's you as well but it's also not just you it's us we are living on the cross on in the human race we are living a condition where there are so many ways in which if you look at it just from a rational perspective we are headed to the probability of global catastrophe on a scale that no one has ever even imagined before within the next 50 to 100 years and so when we consider the possibility and that's the Course in Miracles says salvation begins when you consider the possibility you consider the possibility that there might be another way and when you have stories like the parting of the Red Sea when you have stories like Moses striking the rock and that's what brought forth water when you have the stories of God will speak to you from the burning bush and God will lay down the law in your life and God will tell you what he expects of you and God will take care of you and he will be with you wherever you go and you will enter the promised land and you will minister and yeah the world will throw stuff at you but they're not going to kill you Jesus did that we don't need you to do that but you will be part of this collective resonance by which this shall be overcome you know even on the death part Martin Luther King said if you haven't found a cause worth dying for you don't have a life worth life worth living the kind of disruption the kind of ecstatic impulse to really save the human race we're talking about really turning things around now is not one in which somebody's asking you to die for the cause or you to die for the cause but unfortunately many many people every child who starves every day is already dying so who are we to like complain about the fact that we might die when the truth of the matter is if we don't change things we assuredly will or our children our children's children Moses did not not speak to the suffering of people Jesus did not not speak to the suffering of people the Israelites were were slaves this is people's suffering Jesus was on the cross this is people's suffering this is a grown-up story this is now you always talk about children's stories and bible stories for children it's really cool that children come to understand these stories what we need now is some adult understanding of these stories and when we do and we really realize that Buddha under the Bodhi tree being enlightened the Israelites arriving in the promised land and Jesus resurrecting it's all the same story it's the same journey but the journey that matters now is not only your salvation your resurrection your deliverance of the promised land but the entire species the entire human race and we are here just like you can think of like Jesus went through therapy we're in group therapy that this as the course of miracle says just as his consciousness was purified and lifted as he became one with the holy spirit the course of miracle says relationships are the assignments by which together we are going through a process of an evolution of consciousness we heal one aha at a time i hope that something that has been talked about tonight these stories that are endlessly deep these stories that penetrate on levels as deep as you allow them to penetrate i hope that what we are talking about here tonight has provided even some element of aha because the great religious and spiritual truths are like a tincture a tiny tincture of unlimited power there is no order of difficulty in miracles and God not only saves his people that that intentionality is not only built into the the scheme of the universe just like Moses always arrives but he is asking us to be that the course of miracle says we cannot save the world without God's help but God cannot save the world without our help and even to the point of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus that we are not asked to ignore the crucifixion we are asked to look at it the course that says but do not dwell on it but he says do not join i cannot join with you in the crucifixion join with me in the resurrection join with me and in being and dwelling and remaining in a state of consciousness where it won't matter what they throw at us and right now we are cowering right now we are cowering before all these horribly frightening forces on the planet because they seem to be telling us you're threatened you're threatened by terrorism you're threatened by the possibility of nuclear war you're threatened by by environmental disaster there's so many threats every day you pick up the newspaper there's another potential threat but the problem is not the threats the problem is that we're going we're cowering as far as we can take it as hope moses didn't just hope he lifted his rod jesus didn't just hope he forgave and he extended his perception beyond what he saw with his physical eyes to the innocence inside each and every human person and to the extent to which we do that to the extent to which we do that the course of miracles says miracles occur naturally as expressions of love so when you ask what could i possibly do that would actually be part of the collective christ consciousness which is the true intervention and the true disruptor of of the craziness and the insanity of our times that you yourself might be a vessel of salvation these words become so different it's like whoa that's what that could mean then what happens is that miracles occur naturally in your presence so i want to read to you this from the course this is palm sunday the celebration of victory and the acceptance of the truth let us not spend this holy week brooding on the crucifixion of god's son but happily in the celebration of his release so this week we celebrate that no matter what you've gone through and no matter what the world is going through the potential the possibility of infinite possibility exists like we we need to open our imaginations expand our imaginations it could be different once again salvation begins when you consider the possibility there might be another way for easter it says is the sign of peace not pain a slain christ has no meaning but a risen christ becomes a symbol of the son of god's forgiveness on himself the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole so no matter what your problem no matter what you're going through no matter what you've ever gone through remember god is bigger than the problem god's not saying i'd love to help you but you know your mother was an alcoholic my hands were tied no matter what you had been through no matter what mistakes you've made no matter what anybody has done to you or what anyone thinks of you you are the person god created you to be and you are infinitely loving because love is what you are you are infinitely innocent that doesn't mean you haven't made mistakes we all have but as we atone for them the level of the mistake remember is not the essence of who you are as we remember that and seek to remember with everyone else that we know and interact with,
That's true of them too.
That other people are not their mistakes,
They are the innocent child of God,
That God created them to be,
And even if they've thrown some stuff at us that was aspect of crucifixion,
That enabled us to learn things that we would not have known.
And when we dwell within that space and make that what we're after,
To be that person,
To rise to the occasion,
To put ourselves in service,
That we might be leaders in the journey,
That we might be miracle workers,
Knowing that that's not arrogant,
That's humble,
Because it's a power in us but not of us,
That will work through us,
It will not be directed by us,
But that to the extent to which we seek to forgive one another as the highest law,
That things will happen on this planet,
And we will stand for love,
And we will not go along,
We will not conspire,
We will not accommodate with the policies of fear and hatred,
We will take a stand with conviction for policies of love and justice.
And as that happens,
The Course in Miracles says,
An idea grows stronger when it is shared,
We don't need anything near a majority,
We just need a critical mass,
Whatever that is on the planet,
And then what will happen,
And this can happen in our lifetime,
I'm not saying that in our lifetime all war will cease,
Or all hunger,
All unnecessary hunger will cease,
Maybe not,
But enough can happen,
Enough can happen,
If we allow ourselves to expand into the space of possibility with our own lives,
That when we say the word hallelujah,
We'll mean it,
And when we say praise God,
We'll mean it,
And it won't be just because we saw the wonders that he did in Moses's life,
Or the Israelites life,
Or in Jesus's life,
We will see the wonders that happen in our lives.
You know,
Even among traditional Christians,
When they talk about the end days,
If you look at the end days from a metaphysical perspective,
It means the end of the ego's reign,
And yes,
It does say there will be awful things happening,
Yeah,
We got that,
We've read the paper,
But it also says there will be marvels,
And signs,
And wonders,
And if we allow ourselves to open to the meaning of these holidays,
And say yes,
Let that be done in me,
I'm willing,
Use me,
Then those signs and wonders will not only be present within you,
But they will be present in the lives of people around you because of who you are,
And that's what we celebrate,
That's what we celebrate,
We celebrate that this is not just symbol,
That this is not just metaphor,
That this is a message from God to each and every one of us about the fact that we too will be delivered from the conditions of slavery to the conditions of freedom,
That we too will be lifted by God above the cross,
The crucifixions of our lives,
To the resurrected state where all effects of the crucifixions are nullified,
And we too,
Should we choose,
Will be part of a great evolutionary and revolutionary impulse of collective consciousness,
Whereby not just we as individuals,
But the human race itself is taken off the cross of our own fear and insanity,
And delivered to a new possibility in this century and in this millennium,
And if we even make the effort,
Whether we see all the consequences and results we'd like to see in our life or not,
We will die with a smile on our face because we will know we kicked ass.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
