What's so beautiful about it
is it's so relaxed
and it's so easy
and it's so natural.
I remember Gary and I
we were in Mexico a while back,
I think Jennifer Hadley invited us down
and we were having a nice lunch,
and Gary was saying,
"I'm so grateful
just to be able
to have a lunch with you
and just have a natural conversation."
And he's talking about the Boston Red Sox
and his life,
you know, playing guitar,
and all these things,
the passions, the passions.
We live passionate lives.
We have to let that come out.
That's a part of the window dressing,
and the Spirit can use that.
The Spirit, you know,
we didn't come together and just,
"Om," for the whole hour and a half.
We enjoyed the meal.
We enjoyed each other's company.
You know, let's enjoy every holy encounter
in a natural way,
and letting it come across.
I remember growing up and hearing
stories of "A Course in Miracles" groups
where people would get into an argument,
and instead of the one
where Bill's ripping out the page,
it was ending with,
"I'm not here and you are not here
and we are not having this conversation."
And I used to think, "Oh, God."
(laughs joyfully) Talk about a top-down, (laughs)
where Jesus is always bottom-up.
He's using all of the egoic passions,
all of the egoic thoughts and structures,
all of the egoic wants and desires.
He's saying, "I got it.
You know, I want you to have some fun.
I know that you have an ego pattern has to be undone."
And he says,
"And I know the best way to do it,
and it's through fun,
it's through joy,
it's through happiness."
It's not through an asceticism of going out and,
Jesus talks about some of those
in the "I Need Do Nothing" section,
"Fighting against sin."
You know, that doesn't sound actually
like a very fun life.
If you're fighting against sin every day, wow.
And He says,
"Your way will be different."
A holy relationship is given you
as the means of awakening.
Well here we are.
This is our holy relationship.
And then he even goes so far as to describe
what a holy relationship is,
because he never leaves you hanging.
He says, "You and your brother are together."
And that's still a way of talking about the oneness
in terms of duality.
"You and your brother are together."
Let's be happy together.
Let's be joyful together.
Let's sing a happy song.
Soon we will be having a happy dance.
To me, it's so practical but it's so natural.
And I loved, years ago, in the 1990s when
I would go to one of my students' house
and I would be there and everything,
and one student was raised Catholic,
she was in the Course
and her husband was Jewish.
And he was kind of like on the periphery,
listening to everything that was being said,
and very Orthodox Jew
coming closer and closer,
feeling all the love,
and just it's so inspired.
And then he'd said to me,
"David, come in and watch
this basketball game with me."
And I said, "Okay!"
And we go and we're sitting on the couch
and the other students would be like,
"How could you go to this guy's house
and watch a basketball game with--
he's not even a Course student. He's Jewish!"
And all this stuff and everything.
And I'm like, and then they said,
"And how can you treat his wife so different?
You have these deep, probing,
kind of conversations with her
like it's, everything."
And I said, "You know, it's, it's all involuntary;
it's just that she has all these questions,
and he has questions too,
and he asks them at his own rate."
And he comes to me
and we have fun
sitting there laughing,
watching a basketball game, in joy.
It's about sharing the joy.
It's not about the metaphysics.
We don't need to be having
deep metaphysical conversations.
And, as Gary and John and James know,
when you travel a lot, you're,
you're not meeting people that are interested,
on the road, all over the place.
You don't go into restaurants and,
"Okay I was pondering if time is real or not."
You know,
the waitresses don't come up with that.
You have so many opportunities
to let the Spirit pour through you
in a natural way.
Of being friendly, being kind, like Ken was.
And doing it in numerous situations
that you can't even imagine
and letting them all be
orchestrated by Jesus.
So there's an ease about it.
It's not an awkward thing.
You are not trying to promote
a thought system.
You're trying to live a thought system.
(singing of lyrics as music plays): "Sharing the joy, shining the light,
singing the bliss and soaring in Christ.
Sharing the peace, shining the truth,
singing and soaring in You.
Joined in one purpose: To heal what never was.
Peace is our purpose, forgiving and living in love.
In love, in love, in love..."