Today’s movie is a documentary. I feel it’s going to be life-changing. We need to know what we want. We need to find that desire inside of us. There seems to be a split desire. There seems to be the Spirit’s thought system and the ego’s thought system. Every day we want to align our mind and say, “I want God more today than anything else” and I choose the Spirit’s thoughts above all else.

Of course, that takes a lot with the many distractions in life. The many things that seemingly want to pull us away. But it’s not the world doing it to us. It’s ourselves. We want to be pulled away from God. We want to be distracted away from God.

We are responsible for what we see. We choose the emotions that we experience. and everything that happens to us is our choice. So we have to be very firm in what our conviction is in what we truly want.

I was saying to Nana this morning, I remember when I very first got A Course in Miracles. It’s a big book. So you’re like, “How the hell do you get through this thing?” I would open the book, and often it would open up to the setting of the goal section. I thought, “It’s actually so simple.” There’s such a simple practice. To say, What do you want to come of this? What is the purpose? Are you choosing peace above everything else? Because that is the compass for everything.

We need that strong conviction inside of us. Jesus says, when you don’t know what the situation is for, then you pray for peace. Okay, I want this to be peaceful. It may not look peaceful in terms of form, but it will be in your heart. It will be within you. It’s an inward journey. We can’t expect the outer to be some spectacular thing. It’s actually within you. So, no matter what comes, you’re not affected by it. Whether you seemingly see it as being a good situation, or whether you see it as a bad situation. You just stay within peace as Jesus demonstrated through awakening of Christ Mind.

If you look at it, there were many Bible stories, many situations that he found himself in, and we think, “well, that seems pretty challenging.” And yet his demonstration was always peace. Because he knew that he was peace.

It wasn’t all of a sudden that he was just walking on water, and that every day was just this incredible day. He was actually being confronted many, many times, and questioned as to who he was. Yet he always responded from peace. A man cannot do that. But the peace within the Spirit is the demonstration that he knew that he wasn’t a body any longer.

That was actually his whole demonstration, as he was seemingly within the body. Then that couldn’t be understood. So his final mission was the resurrection. “Okay? You still believe I’m a person, I’m a personality telling you things that you can argue with or you can agree with. But that’s not my teaching. My teaching is that I and the Father are one. This still isn’t being seen? So okay, now there’s the seeming death and then there’s a resurrection to show everlasting life.

He had a very clear goal, by all standards that’s a pretty good goal. “Okay, I’m gonna resurrect for everyone that’s my goal. There is no death. Did you get it?” And we’re all still saying, “Can you just go over that one more time for us, please? What exactly, was the goal?”

So that’s incredible to know that this is you. To know that the power is within you. So this movie is really going to demonstrate that. It’s gonna be quite deep. I think it’s gonna be quite challenging. There’s gonna be two ways of looking at this movie. If you see it on a human level as human beings going on a journey, it will seem like hell.

Probably most human beings can’t do what they did. That’s factual. So we have to see it as spiritual. You have to see it as an awakening. They are going to the highest point in the Mind. That’s what it’s going to be. It’s metaphorical for us to show, “Okay. no matter what comes on my journey, am I willing to continue to say yes to God and basically say no to the ego?”

Am I really setting that goal on God, that my life is for God only? It’s not for pleasure, it’s not for pain, it’s not for any illusions, delusions of this world. It’s not to bring God into your life and set up your own goals, things that you like and want.

I listened to a monk the other day and he said. “God, thy will be done. And if my will gets in the way, disappoint me because I don’t want anything to do with it. Make it so obvious that I am so disappointed because I only want your will and nothing else.”

I think we have some confusion when we set a goal.
People say to me, “But you can still have fun.” What do you mean by fun? “Well, we can just do what we want, and then we just forgive it.””Really? Was that your goal when you prayed to do whatever you were doing?” “Is this for the higher good for everyone? Is this for the higher good of yourself? Is this enhancing your spiritual journey?” Or is it reconfirming a body identity?

Jesus is quite clear on these things matters – I will not value what is valueless.
That’s a good way of looking at it, is this going to bring me eternal life? Or is this just some pleasure within the dream?

“I’d like to go out with my friends tonight” or whatever it might be. Of course, to the ego this seems like sacrifice. But it’s actually, do you want a prayerful life with God? Is God your sole purpose or is it delusion? Or is it sometimes we have to act these things out to see them. That’s suffering.

 

Truly, is our life for God?

Whatever is not for God will show itself and we have to keep saying, “no” to it. We have to say, “no that’s not why I am here. I am here to represent Him who sent me.”

This documentary is about climbing the most challenging mountain in the world to go to the highest peak. We’re going to have 3 characters who are absolutely determined. They’re the best climbers in the world. This mountain has every difficulty that a mountain climber will face. They have to take all the gear up because there are 3 or 4 different climbing faces. They have to lug all of this gear up there with them to be able to face everything that they have to face.

It has to be a full commitment to get to the top. That’s the goal. It’s the same with the spiritual journey. It has to be a full yes, to reaching the top to oneness, to see perfection.

Until we reach the point of one-pointedness, singularity, single-minded then we’re climbing the mountain. This is actually beautiful, because now we’re talking about the most difficult mountain in the world and using it to see our mind. Before this point many teams have tried but know one has ever made it to the top. Because it’s just so hard. It’s relentless. This is what the ego say’s to us “Oh it’s to difficult” but are we going to listen to that voice?

There’s the number one climber in the world and he is going to lead the team. He chooses his team and he chooses what he perceives as the best. Where everyone is going all-in on this journey and they are going to face everything. Even for them it’s like, woah, this is a lot. This is everything.

I always remember this from David Hoffmeister with the times I’ve been blessed to be with him on my own and we would talk about things and I always said to him, “Listen, I’m not interested in you creating a better life for me or telling me what I want. I need to know what this is all about. He said, “It’s gonna take everything.”

It’s going to take absolutely everything. You have to be like an Olympian for God. He said, “If people knew what I had to go through to face the ego, they would just give up.” So that’s why there’s no need to talk about it. But you will have to face everything. I said, “Thank you. Bring it on. I’m not here for anything else.” And again the prayer comes back to that.

 

The Gift

With these three men, can you imagine it? “Oh, by the way, we’re just about to climb the most challenging mountain in the world.”
“Yeah, I’m half in.” No! In their mindset it’s, “I have nothing else.” They’re like, “Let’s do it.” When this question’s asked, I’m saying, “Well, who’s joining me? Who’s up for everything or who’s up for half measures?”

That’s what we’re doing. As I said humanly, it’s probably not possible. It’s not possible for any of us to do this. They’re going to have to face everything. But the incredible thing is that there is going to be so much healing.

Jesus woke me up this morning at 4 am. I was sitting there, and he started talking to me about setting the goal. He said, “Yeah, the ego has a goal for you.” I said, “So what’s that then?” He said, “Loss. That’s the ego’s game, loss.”

That’s what the world is. Seeming “ones that you love” disappear. We call it death. People come and go in your life that seemingly mean something to you, and then they don’t want to know you or the die. So it’s all about loss. Parents go through a loss with their children, once we were so close and now they couldn’t care less really.

We can literally lose anything. Everything here is perishing and it comes all the way back down to our own death. It comes down to one day this body will be in the ground. Everything that I’ve built up. (Laughing) Everything I’ve worked for will absolutely mean nothing. The houses and all of it, whatever you’ve got, it doesn’t make any difference. Whatever you have got, nothing in this world, or whether you’re a billionaire, you’re going in one direction and you’re playing the loss game, aren’t you? We all play the loss game.

That’s the ego’s goal for you, “oh, well, we’re just going to navigate through loss and then eventually you’ll be dead.” (Laughing) You lose everything. But guess what you get to come back into Maya again and play is all out again and try and remember God again. Or we can now make another choice. So that’s one choice.

We say, okay then, What’s the other goal?

Everlasting life. Love beyond measure. A perfect peace. A healed mind that sees nothing outside of itself that feels joy and knows forever that it’s absolutely loved beyond measure. It’s the end of doubting. No more doubt. You literally realize you’re the light, and you’re not the body. Jesus says, “Actually, the body’s outside of you.” That’s what he says. The body’s outside of you. Which means you know the line, “That’s all you’ll ever be is as God created you, and that’s what you are, that’s all you are ever going to be.” So, thank God, there’s actually no mountain to climb. It’s already been climbed. You’re already looking at the top.

There’s a perfect view for you.

There’s nothing to strive for any longer. There’s nothing to strive for in this world. You don’t have to strive to be liked, to be loved, to get anywhere because you’re already loved. That’s the gift. The only trial that comes is the trial that we put ourselves through by believing in death.

 

You could see this movie as overcoming death. We could say this is a mountain of death.

They’re going to put themselves into extreme situations and they’re going to overcome them no matter what. You’re going to see three characters that have absolutely said yes to awakening- 100%.

Are they going to waver? Oh, my God, yeah. Are they gonna be frightened? Yeah, absolutely. They’re gonna be like, “What the hell am I doing?” We’ve all thought that on the spiritual journey. We still do think it. Hold on a minute now, what exactly am I doing here? What is this? What am I doing with this life? I’m losing everything. Yeah, there’s nothing here for you. There’s nothing we’ll ever value. I will not value what is valueless.

Jesus says, Yes, it will feel like everything’s being taken away from you. Yes, form will be taken away from you. Yes, it will be. Absolutely. Thank God. Everything meaningless will be taken away from you- yes. You will be left with everlasting joy and remember your place in Heaven. So we’re setting the bar really, really high. Yeah, there are going to be injuries. There is going to be everything you think you’ve “got.” I’m just preparing everyone.

Nana:
It can be intense when you watch the movie, that was my experience when I watched this documentary. I felt like I went on the journey with them. It felt like going deep, deep, deep, deep in the mind. Why this movie is amazing is because it shows the conviction, it shows you the commitment, it shows you the vigilance you need for awakening.

Sometimes we act as if awakening is our favor to God, as if God wants it and we are just like, “Okay, God, you want this. I’m gonna do it for you.” But we have to realize that this is for us. This awakening is what we want, what we need in order to experience perfect happiness, and to remember who we really are.

We are not doing it for God. We are not doing it for Jesus. Reality is reality untouched completely. So we have to realize why we are doing this and what this really is about. It’s not a favor to something or someone. It’s for you, for your state of mind.

Okay, no one asks us to climb a mountain (unless you really would love to do that, or if you’re drawn to it, and you have the skills.) No one asks you to. But the way I see it is as a spiritual movement. The things in form are actually all the thoughts the characters are facing. It seems like they are facing the weather. They are facing the “how”- how to climb, how the mountain is structured and everything they are facing seems to be in form. But you can see it is a metaphor for awakening. All the things that they are facing we are to face in our minds. Everything that they are facing is thoughts we are to face. If you look at this movie that way, you will find the strength, and there are some injuries there, there are some emotions, some experiences, but again, it’s a spiritual experience.

What I also love about it is that it’s a collaboration between the three of them. Jesus says that awakening is a collaborative venture.

There is so much trust and they are so in tune with each other. They are so aligned with each other. In the setting the goal section, Jesus says, once you are clear about the goal, you can trust that whomever is involved in the situation will play their part perfectly to achieve that goal for the mind.

So in this movie there is this goal, and there is so much trust, and there is so much faith that my brother is going to play his part perfectly.

Even when things get intense and they have no control over what’s gonna happen, they have no control over the decision that the brother is gonna make. But they are like, “Okay, you make the decision. We are gonna trust. But we have this goal. We want this. We are all-in. Now it’s up to you to make the decision to go all-in as well, and then we will move forward from there.”

That’s what awakening is. Awakening is not hiding something away from our brother.

 

Awakening is a full commitment

What was coming to my mind is sometimes people are like, “Okay, I have this situation, and I feel this is guided. This is a step that was guided and this feels a bit challenging but I’m gonna do it.” They take the step and the outcome seems to be uncomfortable for the personality. They stop and say, “I don’t understand. I took this step, and this is what happened. Why is Holy Spirit doing this to me?”

We’re like undisciplined children, in a bad way. We have to realize that we have to take responsibility for everything, whatever is showing up in front of us. It’s not the Holy Spirit doing it to us. It’s us doing it to ourselves.

It comes from our belief. So when something gets uncomfortable for the personality self, instead of saying, “Oh, my God, why is Jesus punishing me? Oh, I have to make this sacrifice,” say instead, “No, I want awakening. I’m not doing this for Jesus. This is what I want. This is for my peace of mind. This is for remembering my true identity. I’m gonna take this step. I’m gonna take this step in full awareness that I want to take responsibility for everything, for every outcome that comes from this step. No matter what’s gonna happen, I’m gonna face it because it is my lesson.”

This is a Mind Lesson

We put it on Jesus all the time, “Why is Jesus doing this to me?” We’re like children, and it doesn’t feel good. We are so scattered all over the place. Our mind, our thoughts are scattered, and we just blame Jesus. We just blame God, or universe, whatever you want to call it. Instead of doing that, our choice is to say, “No, this is my lesson. This is showing up in front of us, and this is an opportunity to learn the lesson in my mind, to take responsibility for the correction.”

There is so much confusion about sickness. The other day someone reached out to me and said, “Okay, if someone practices the Course and they get sick. Why do they get sick? They are practicing the Course, why do they get sick? And it always stops on the body level. Why does he not have a healed body?

We have to realize what is the goal of the Course, what the Course is leading us to. What is the goal? The Course is helping us to practice in every moment and it’s a state of mind, its transcendence. It’s realising that you are not in the dream, in the first place, you are not this body, in the first place. So if you realize that you are not in the body or in this world at all, you’re not this character, why would you bother healing or not healing the body? Why would you bother with that? We are asked to go so much higher, and we have to know, we need to accept what it takes to go that high. This movie is so amazing for that. To me it transcends the sickness, it transcends the body, comfort zones, everything. They set the goal and they move forward. They don’t know anything about outcomes. They don’t know whether they are gonna reach it or not, but they are like, “We don’t care. We still want to go fully in. We don’t care about the outcome. We surrender.”

It’s so, so beautiful. With every obstacle that they face they are like, “Okay. We don’t know what’s gonna happen. We don’t know what is the plan. We don’t know what is the fate, or whatever you will call it. We surrender that desire for the specific outcome, but we are ready to go. We are ready to surrender. We are ready to wait. We are ready to trust. We are gonna give everything to it.” This is the attitude we need to have on this journey. We can’t really play victims on the awakening journey. Why is this awakening so difficult? You play the victim as if you are the victim of the spiritual journey.

 

The value of setting the goal

It does not have to be difficult, and I think my lesson through this travels is, it’s not about traveling. Jesus constantly says to me, “It’s not about traveling. It’s about your goal. It’s constantly getting clear, constantly reminding yourself and constantly remembering what is the goal?”

Is the goal to be liked? No. Is the goal to make sure that others like you? No. Is the goal to make sure others perceive you as kind? No. The goal is God and there is nothing else. Everything is for healing, and there is nothing else.

So whatever is happening, whatever is unfolding is for healing. We have 2 choices. Either we play the victim of the circumstance, or we take the lesson and learn it. We say, “This is for my healing. Okay, how can I see, how can I make a decision for God again?” Everything reflects our mind, but we oftentimes use that reflection to beat ourselves up. “Oh, my God! If I have this pain, this must mean that I projected this heavy guilt on my body, and I’m so guilty, and I’m so wrong and I did some things wrong and something went wrong instead of using it.”

Jesus says, “You are responsible for the correction. Accept the correction. Be vigilant to hear me again. You forget, it’s not a problem. Remember me again in every moment. Remember your goal again and again and again.” That’s what we are responsible for. We are responsible to turn our mind again and again and again to the peace of mind, to God, to love, to transcendence, to eternal love, eternal life. That’s what we are responsible for. We don’t need to beat ourselves up for ego thoughts, or whatever is reflected to us. It’s our choice how we see it.

That’s why, as Ken was sharing, Jesus didn’t just walk in the beautiful gardens, seeing butterflies and flowers all around him. At the end of his life the body was crucified. But the state of mind was different. State of mind was shifted. State of mind was transcended. That’s what we are aiming for. We are not here to heal the bodies. It can be a byproduct, and it’s a nice symbol. But that’s not the goal. The goal is to dis-identify from the body and to realize, “I’m not this at all. I’m not this frail thing that can be hurt by anything, by a mosquito, by wasps. I’m not this. I cannot be hurt. What I am is pure light that can’t be touched because it’s the only thing there is. There is nothing else.”

We can approach this movie from this place that this is teaching us something about awakening. This is teaching my mind something about awakening, and this is showing me something helpful for my mind that will help me wake up.

As Ken was saying, there is nothing else, there is no other goal. There is nothing to achieve in terms of jobs, in terms of money, in terms of even relationships. There is nothing to achieve. Your only purpose, our only purpose is to focus on God, and everything else will be shown that it is meaningless. It’s not even that everything will be taken away. First of all, everything will decay and fade away on its own. No one is really taking anything away from you. But if you really, really commit to your awakening, you will see that those things that fall away and fade away do not have any value at all. It’s not a loss.

Jesus says in the Course, the only thing that you are afraid to lose is loss itself. Not the things that you value, but loss, the sense of loss, the belief in loss itself. That’s the only things that you are truly afraid of. There is nothing else to lose, because there is nothing that has any value in form. So what a relief!

Your only focus is to focus on Jesus, focus on the Spirit, focus on guidance, and there is nothing else. You will be told all you need to know.

You are not here to be concerned about fixing something. You are here to be concerned about being the light of the world, being the bringer of light, being the bringer of blessing, the bringer of a message of love, a reminder of God.

The only way to do that is to focus fully on God. Come back to Him again and again. I think this Movie has such beautiful lessons right from the beginning. We will pause whenever we feel to pause, whenever there is something to emphasize. There are such beautiful lessons to be learned, like commitment and fully going in. There is so much strength in that. If you really give yourself, open your mind to this idea of, “I want to give fully to this. I want to give everything over to Jesus. I don’t want to hold anything back. I want to give everything. I want to fully go in and fully commit.” There is so much strength in that. Then you feel strength. Then you feel the presence. Then you feel guidance. Then you feel clarity.

The value of setting the goal is stability, the clarity of mind and the strength, the power that is of you, that is of God, and that is ever present. That’s the value that it has.

The Victim Story

Ken:
Something you said Nana, I liked, with the movie, it shows that they haven’t got time for their victim story. They haven’t got time to keep going over that and saying, “this happened to me in the past and I’m forgiving this, and I’m forgiving that.”

They are put in such a position whereby the only way is up. So they really have to let go of that victim story, and every day be in gratitude to say, Thank you. And that’s what they’re having to learn.

When you’re in this sort of extreme situation like they are, they haven’t got time for mind wandering. They haven’t got time for mindlessness. It’s just every step counts, every step counts to the goal. Really challenging things come and there’s no people pleasing. There’s none of that. There just moving in this direction.

That’s actually an incredible thing. That’s actually how the victim story gets undone. Just drop it. Just actually drop your story, and go for what you actually want. All these seeming healing opportunities will literally just fade away by your desire for something else. By your desire for something higher. Otherwise we’ll be forever healing our victim story here because it just manifests itself and it will be endless. It’s to go above the battleground.

I have to find the place where I have had enough of the victim story and I will watch that it’s not affecting me any longer. I am not that. So we can see that as they’re climbing higher, it’s like, it’s meaningless. That’s the incredible thing. All of that time that you’ve spent on it. Probably most of us have been in psychotherapy, done all these things that spent hours talking about this stuff. How I was a victim, or yes, I was to blame, or they were to blame, this is terrible… Jesus says, this need not be.

They’re really in this “need not be” attitude. Then, okay, how do we go higher? For me, that’s the mighty companions that I want in my life.
They turn up and say,”Let’s go higher together.” “Okay, well, let’s go.” “Oh, my God, whatever it’s gonna take.”
“Yeah.” “Hey? Listen. I want to express my victim story. But once I’m done, I’m done with it.” “Okay, cool. Let’s just move on, then.” Right, boom done. Let’s just keep going and you’re like, “yes, this is exactly what I want.”

Then you call it forth in your mind, what you want, and then you have the witnesses to that. Which is incredible. Which is then amazing. Then it’s really inspiring that you’re all moving in the same direction.

Nana:
Yeah, I think that allows them to say, “Oh, this need not be. We don’t need this.” Because, obviously, when you climb on this difficult mountain, if they put any foot in the wrong place, everything will fall apart. So they need to empty their mind completely. That’s a beautiful thing, that strength that comes from realizing that you want this goal, that you want God.

That allows you to say, this need not be, because I want only God. I’m not going to accept that thought because I want God. I want love. I want to know myself as love. We’re not gonna buy into that ego story. Because that’s what Jesus is teaching us. Set the goal and see what comes to you, see whether it is in alignment with that goal or not. If it’s not in alignment, it’s false, it’s not needed. Let it go.

So, the first step is to really pray, “I want this goal and I want to realize the value of that goal.”

If you are clear about that in your heart, then everything else will be clear as well. You will let the ego thoughts go so simply without any effort.

They take like physical steps on the mountain, and every step they take physically is a metaphor for our prayer. Their every step is our prayer, every prayer we make. Pray. Pray. Pray …

They have to be so intuitive. You can say, “Well, they have a worldly goal, climbing a mountain, but the guy says at the beginning, ‘It was like an obsession. I couldn’t let it go.'”Jesus can use that. And then, when you have that deep, deep determination, then you end up transcending these body thoughts. You end up transcending this victim story.

They went fully in, and then you can’t help but transcend. They are in such extreme conditions, in such cold, but they are like, “No, we want that goal. My eyes are fixed on that, and I don’t care what happens here. I’m just going to go wherever it takes. I’m going to do it.”

This is the attitude for awakening

Ken:
So for us. It’s like, keep your eye on Christ. This is the only goal Christ mind. Every step is a step towards Christ.
Every step that they take. You see it as your own mind moving into the love of God. Into your heart, into your mind, into your soul to be fully taken over by your one goal and to remember who you are. So that will be what we want to achieve. That’s our goal. That’s our shared goal to absolutely see the Christ. To know you are the Christ. That’s what they’re gonna do. See these 3 characters as your mighty companions, and they’re not talking about climbing the mountain. They’re saying. I want to know the Christ and no matter what it takes, I’m going there.

This actually can’t be outside of you. This is the reflection of your own desire. This is so cool, you know this is incredible. Often we get confused. “oh, it was outside of us. It was them.” No, if you see it, it’s actually your own desire.

I’ve got to find that inside of myself, and that’s what Jesus is saying, find that desire inside of you. You’re going to witness these characters with this desire, which is your desire for love. Wow! That’s just so incredible.

So yeah, without further ado, let’s get up that mountain.