CD Twelve. There's a great teaching story about two young boys in a village who wanted to

Transcription

1 There's a great teaching story about two young boys in a village who wanted to fool the village wise man. The whole community revered and honored this wise man. So a very typical teen thing, they were thinking we are smarter than him. We'll find a way to fool him and the whole community will know and then the community will look to us. So one says to the other ok here's what we will do. We will get an appointment with the wise man and we will let everybody know that it will be a public appointment and meanwhile I will capture a live bird. Then at the appointment I will be holding the live bird in my hand behind my back and say to the wise man 'Wise man is the bird I am holding alive or dead?' If the wise man says the bird is alive I will quickly crush the life out of that bird and present the dead bird, thus proving him wrong. If however the wise man says the bird is dead then I shall just present the bird and we will fool the wise man So they gained the appointment. They told the whole community. The whole community shows up for this meeting and the boys standing respectfully in front of the wise man, one with his hands behind his back holding the bird. They very 259

2 respectfully look at the wise man and said wise man tell us, is the bird we are holding alive or dead? The wise man looked very gently and compassionately at these young boys and because he was a very wise man he just said to them 'The life you are holding in your hands is yours.' Isn't that a great story? The life you are holding in your hands is yours. That's really the truth. The life you are holding is held in your hands. It's the truth. The life that each one of us is holding and experiencing is controlled by what we do and what we choose. Now we've done a lot of work here, so again I want to say welcome back and good job to come back because you are ready now to move into the acceleration steps So we went through the empowerment steps. You did all the early work of discovering a dream and deciding for the dream and paying attention to your longing and your discontent and your dream continues to unfold and be shaped and developed in this living document you are working with where you have written down your dream. Remember you don't just write your dream down and that's the end of it. You are keeping this living document with you. You are making sure that there is no future language in that dream. That it's a present 260

3 tense, this is the life I am living and that it's a very clear blueprint that's being impressed into your mind as you reread and then reform and then lift up and lift the frequency of this written document that is the life you are choosing to live Now we went through the whole process of building a bigger deserving, testing our dream and then we took a very good look at the different things we can do that actually toxified the possibility of this dream going forward. We explored how it is that we learn to notice and then befriend our fear. We began to explore the possibility that if we want an expanded life we have to move into an expanded state through giving. We understood the practice and the process of expanded circulation. We recognized that good seed will not grow in toxic soil and so we have begun the process of an expanded deepening forgiveness practice so that there are no balls and chains on our lives holding us back from the ideas and the answers that can really take us forward and help us discover how to deliver the dream we are holding So we went through the discovery phase. We went through the empowerment phase and now we are ready to move into the acceleration phase. In the acceleration phase are two wavelengths that you will bring to bear upon your 261

4 dream that you will absolutely find as you practice these will move you in the upward spiral of becoming. They will move you in this ever upward spiral. Remember, the universe is a spiral universe. Your DNA is a spiral. There is a pull of becoming everywhere present throughout the entire universe. This 'more', this pull of the next, this pull of the greater, freer, fuller expanded expression of life. It's everywhere present in the universe and you feel it in you, the seeking for that life that is your life to express freer, fuller more expanded, more creatively And as you say yes to this, which is why you do dream building, why you do the work that we are talking about, you get happier. You find more creativity. You find more opportunity. Your whole life begins to move in a new arc. And once you do that, again it's what Jesus called the pearl of great price. You have this experience. You would trade for it. When your life begins to expand this way everything else pales compared to a life that you wake up in the morning and several times during the day the natural feeling of being in harmony with your own life essence is that this natural feeling rises up in you. I love my life. I love my life. Jesus called it the stream of living water that rises from the center of your own being. He says when you drink from that water you don't thirst again. Now quantum physics has another name for this. There's different names throughout 262

5 all the different traditions but the bottom line is it's life and life abundantly. That's what this work and this opportunity and these practices bring you and where it takes you So now as we move into this phase, the acceleration phase there are two wavelengths. Two practices that you are going to bring into this good field that you have created. A field where you are not letting fear dominate you but you recognize the fear as the border of the reality I have known where there is a lot of circulation and whenever you find anything toxic, a weed, you just pull it out and you wish well for everybody you have ever known. It's a practice and you are doing that Ok. That creates now the opportunity for you to do these two practices, that you will find over time actually put you in the stream's center. It's almost as if you move into a jet stream where your thinking will change, your recognition of opportunities will change--it does not create more abundance in your life. It creates your awareness of the abundance that's here. Because as you become aware of the abundance that's here your ability to access that abundance--and remember the first stream of the currency of abundance is ideas--so your ability 263

6 96 97 to tune into the ideas that are the answers to the questions you have and the steps you need to take comes from the frequency of your own awareness So we have done the work now to prepare to make ready, to make welcome what it is that you need to know in order to take the steps that are yours to take Gandhi said the voice for truth speaks to every person on the planet every single day. The voice for truth. Now, the voice for truth, meaning the voice that has whatever it is that you need to hear. The voice of this inspired insight, inspired wisdom. The voice of the intelligence of the universe is available to every single one of us. I heard it once said that the voice for truth speaks to all of us every single day and it's as loud as our willingness to listen. So it's as if wisdom is everywhere available but my access to that wisdom has to do with my willingness to hear, my willingness to know So what we are talking about here really is your intuitive capacity. This is an intelligence system you have that is non-linear. It doesn't come from your five senses. It's beyond your reasoning mind. It's natural, it's native and it's one of your intelligence systems that most of us have not been trained in. Most of us 264

7 have been trained to use our reasoning mind and that's based on conditions. It's based on information from the five senses. That's important information. Of course you need that information but it's not all the information and its' not all that's available to you. And in fact, if you want to become a really great dream builder, someone who moves through acceleration and is not bound by the constrictions or the containments of ordinary life, then you will learn to use this intelligence system that's in you to be guided because this part of you knows way more than your reasoning mind knows You know this. You can think of times when you have known something, something simple. It's not always the big huge things. You know all kinds of stuff that came to you non-linearly. So you are heading out for the day and you hear or you think take the umbrella. Then your ordinary reasoning mind goes take my umbrella? It's blue skies. I'm not taking my umbrella. And you argue actually, you use your reasoning mind to argue with the insight, with the native knowing that really is coming from your intuitive capacity You know this. You've had experiences with this. You say I'm not taking the umbrella. Three hours later the weather completely changes and there's a 265

8 downpour and you say to yourself I knew it. How did I know to bring that umbrella? But I did know to bring the umbrella, I just didn't listen. You probably have many stories, if you go through your memory, of times when you knew something. It didn t come from the linear mind and because you'd learned to value your reasoning mind more than your intuitive mind you didn't do, something protect something, recognize something that you really could have if you had trained this part of yourself So what I am suggesting is that every great dream builder, every one who has done something that we call extraordinary has learned to value, access and appreciate the part of themselves that is the non-linear knowing The composer Puccini said this 'The music for this opera was dictated to me by God.' He said that he heard the music and he simply copied down the notes. The musician Brahms said this 'Straight away the ideas flow in upon me directly from God.' He said 'I relaxed, I listened and the ideas come.' Now of course these two musicians are using the word God for the place of that stream of wisdom. You can use any name you want to; the universe, you can use spirit. Whatever word is comfortable for you. But here's the point, there is an intelligence system that you 266

9 have. It's called your intuition. It makes available to you the wisdom, the knowing that's in this universe Now if you think of the law of mathematics there is not one problem you can take to the law of mathematics for which there is not an answer. It doesn't mean you will know the answer but you know that no matter what problem you take to the law of mathematics there is an answer. It's really not different in terms of dream building. You start with the premise that there cannot be a possibility without a path. You cannot dream something up for which there is not a way to get there. Now you may not know the way. You may not have the resources you may not have the contacts or the education or all kinds of things that might be required. But there is a way to create anything you want to create because by definition if the mind can conceive it, the mind can achieve it So let me remind you of the story of Thomas Edison, who would get quiet, would listen, meditate. He had learned a technology for accessing that inner wisdom; that stream of ideas that were always in harmony with the questions he was asking. He learned to use his intuition. He would sit, as you remember, taking catnaps. But they weren't really catnaps. He framed important questions. 267

10 Questions that mattered to him about the thing he wanted to create. Now you too can learn how to frame good questions. It was Einstein who once said 'If I had only one hour to solve a life and death matter, meaning his life depended on it, he would spend...he said 'I would spend fifty-five minutes framing exactly the right question because once I got the right question I have my answer in five minutes.' Now what does that mean? The right question. That's why you write your dream down. That's why you keep your dream really in focus. Because part of what you want to know is what s the step I should take today. What do I do today that would facilitate the forward movement of the dream I am holding? Now, learning how to discern your own intuition, recognize that voice from all the other voices or that knowing from all the other things that are in the field of your awareness is a practice. There's all this information. It's like the five senses are like these five lane highways of information just pouring into your brain. And you see circumstances. You've read things in the paper. You understand what's going on in the economy. You have a history. You have whatever's in your bank account. All of that information is in the field of your awareness and it's in the field of facts, or form

11 So you are not denying facts or form but you are recognizing that there is another frequency. Just like if you have on CNN, NBC is right here or CBS is right here or whatever the channels are that are broadcasting wherever you are. It's a different frequency. If you want to change the picture of what you are seeing you pick up the remote control and you change the frequency. We are talking now about you changing the frequency of the noticing and the amount of attention you give to this particular access you have to another stream of information which will help guide you in the steps you need to take today. Absent this, you will work from a very low amplitude of your own power. You have this power. It's the stream of inspired insight. It comes through your intuition. It knows exactly things you can never know with your linear mind So how do you know the voice from all the other input? People often say to me well how do I know this voice? How do I recognize this voice? So here's what I would say to you So imagine right now that your phone rings. You pick up the phone. You have no idea who it is. Say you don't have caller ID. So you have no idea who it is on the other end of the line and your phone rings and you decide to pick it up. I mean it 269

12 could be a telemarketer, it could be family, it could be friends, and it could be somebody from your past. You have no idea who it is. So you pick up the phone and you say hello and you hear the voice on the other end saying to you something and calling you by name and saying hi and then saying something to you Now imagine that the voice on the other end of the line is somebody you love deeply, somebody you have a great relationship with. It's your spouse; it's your friend, but somebody very close to you. So you are going through your day, the phone rings, you decide to pick it up, you have no idea who it is and you say hello and you hear this voice that comes from the person that you care deeply about. Are you likely to recognize that person's voice even if they don't say hi it's George or hi it's Mary? Of course you are. You will recognize that voice And how will you recognize that voice? Because you know them. Well how do you know them? You know them because you got interested in them. You paid attention to them. You invested some time in developing that relationship so you now recognize that voice. It's not different in this regard. The voice of this stream of inspired insight, the voice of your own intuition has a resonance to it. It has a 270

13 frequency to it. There's a tone to it that if you are interested you will get to know and you will pay attention to and it starts with a decision. That I have an intelligence system that is required for my forward movement; for me to bring about my dream, to collapse time, to facilitate the transformation that occurs in a metaphysical universe. Remember the physics always work and part of that is the intelligence of the universe downloaded through the lens of an individual into time. That's your opportunity but it's also you requirement, that you call from this higher wisdom this greater knowing and bring it through your own awareness So know this. You are going to do some things today. Even if you decide well I don't want to make any mistakes. Gosh there's this higher wisdom, this greater knowing and I've been operating mainly from my reasoning mind. I've been trained to do that. So I don't want to make any mistakes. I am just going to stay in bed and pull the covers over my head. Remember, what you created was a day in bed with covers over head. So you are going to do some things today. You are going to practice making some decisions listening to also this intelligence system. You start to notice even when little things start to come to you like take the umbrella and you go hmm, well. Just try on being a little more respectful of that 271

14 part of you that seems to be the voice of your intuition and what will happen over time--you know you aren't going to do it perfectly. Just like anything you are going to find your way. But toy with this. Experiment with this. Have some fun with this What you'll find over time is that you begin to know this voice more and more and more. And I will tell you some things about it. Whether you hear it as a voice or you feel it as a kind of a nudge. I don't know all the many ways you will discover access to that part of yourself, but I know you will. And what I know about the voice, when you hear a thought come through your mind of course it sounds like your voice but it is carried with wisdom and when you hear that it is never frantic. Your ego, my ego, at times gets frantic, gets worried, gets anxious, gets all of those kinds of thoughts will begin to move through the mind. You can choose to energize those thoughts or starve those thoughts. You either feed them or you starve them. So you are learning to discard those thoughts that are not helpful. Transform those thoughts into something much more helpful. Learning how to change the frequency to a channel or a vibration that is in harmony with the dream you say you want. Now as you make a decision to practice listening to and following the voice of inspired insight, you begin to recognize that that 272

15 wisdom is not frantic. It knows there's nothing to get frantic about. It's wise. It will speak to the circumstance that you are in and offer a step to take, always, always As Gandhi said, the voice for truth speaks to every person on the planet every single day and is as loud as our willingness to listen So this voice is described in the Old Testament. The scriptures in the Bible are really stories of the unfolding awareness of the human from being in the Adam consciousness or state, where we fall asleep, to who we are as divine beings who fall asleep to who we are as divine beings with the capacities to create as a cocreator with the infinite and then the journey through all the many different characters which are in essence different parts of ourselves coming to be awakened in the full personhood of the Christed mind or the one who is fully awake to the full potential and accomplishes what ordinary people call miracles as a common ordinary practice. Then we find of course Jesus saying to you and me know these truths. It will not only set you free but you too shall do these things and greater things still

16 So here we are. In the Old Testament, discovery that there is a capacity in us that is of a higher knowing than ordinary knowing. That story emerges in the story about the Prophet Elijah. So Elijah believed in one presence, one power, one life which was not too popular at the time of his day. So things are happening and it's a rough time for him and he has to flee for his life. So he goes to Mount Horah. It's there that we find one of the most beautiful and really compelling descriptions of what it means to be in communion with this voice. So Elijah has spent a night in the cave and then in the morning, this is what is says, there was a great and mighty wind splitting mountains and shattering rocks by the power of God. But God was not in the wind. After the wind, an earthquake. But God was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, a fire. But God was not in the fire. And when the fire died down and the wind was gone and the earth had stopped shaking, Elijah in that stillness heard a still small voice and he knew that in that still small voice he had heard the voice of God. God had not been in the howling wind or the cracking of earth or the crackling of fire. So Elijah finds his voice for that stream of inspired insight not in the midst of those spectacles but in silence. He comes to know God in the still small voice

17 Now many of us kind of expect this wisdom or whatever it is to kind of pop up like Zeus hurtling thunderbolts. But the truth is this wisdom is always present. It may not knock you on the head. Many times people I've worked with say you know I am just praying for a sign. I want to see a sign and there are signs everywhere. But they are not aware of the signs they are seeing. So this is a practice now of being willing to just start by knowing everything that can be known is known. It may not be known to me but it is known. There can't be a question without an answer. By definition. In the mind, the mind of the infinite, the mind of this universe everything is known. Great people, people who live from greatness have learned how to generate in themselves an awareness that anything they need to know can be known. They learned how to ask and shape important questions. The transcendentalists were asking important questions. They would frame questions, spend time framing questions, ultimately leading themselves to the experience of the transcendent; that part of themselves that was wiser than their ordinary mind. They could access information and ideas and answers So part of this is learning what it means to take time to get still. We will never develop a relationship with that knowing if we don't have a stillness practice. It 275

18 doesn't take a long time and there's many ways to get to that part of yourself where you have real free flowing access to the part of you that is wise, that is that stream of divine or inspired insight There is a great story I heard once about Tiknaht Han(?). Tiknaht Han is a revered, honored Buddhist monk from Vietnam, a prolific writer. He told a story once about being in Plum Village, which is the community place for his work in France. The community lives there and they spend time together. It's a community. It's not like a gated community but it's protected by fences and a lot of people come there and even spend time there learning the meditation practices that Tiknaht Han has been so revered for teaching; awareness practices, mindfulness practices He tells a story about one summer when his five year old little niece came to stay for six weeks. Because she was in the community many of the people watched over her during the day as she would play and he would go to his meditation room and meditate. He said he was in his meditation room one day when he heard this knock, knock, knock at the meditation room door. So he went to the door and he hears his little five year old niece and she says 'Uncle Monk, uncle 276

19 monk. My friends and I are very thirsty. Will you give us something to drink?' So he goes over to the refrigerator. He opens up the refrigerator and there he pulls out a jug of homemade apple juice that he's made the day before. He puts four glasses on the counter, one for the niece and one for each of the three friends and he pours the homemade apple juice from the jug into these glasses Well the first three glasses came from the upper portion of the apple juice and they were pretty clear. The fourth glass came from the bottom of this apple juice so it was murky. It was pulpy. So the older friends quickly grabbed the three clear glasses, leaving that murky pulpy glass of juice for the five year old. She looks at that and she goes 'I don't want that apple juice! That's dirty apple juice.' He goes 'No honey, it's not dirty apple juice. It's good apple juice, probably better apple juice for you. It has all the apple in it. It's good apple juice. Drink that apple juice.' 'I don't want that apple juice! That's dirty apple juice.' So he says 'Well have it your way.' So he goes back to his meditation room and he begins to meditate He said about a half an hour later he hear this kind of a little commotion in the kitchen and then knock, knock, knock at the meditation room door. 'Uncle Monk, Uncle Monk. I am very thirsty and I am only a little girl. I need your help to get 277

20 me something to drink.' So he goes out again and he says 'I did help you. I did give you something to drink. I got you that apple juice. Drink the apple juice.' She goes 'I don't want that dirty apple juice. I don't like dirty apple juice.' He looked over at the counter. The apple juice had been sitting in the glass for about thirty minutes. All of the sediment had drained to the bottom of that glass, leaving the upper portion crystal clear. He says 'Well look at the apple juice now.' She goes 'What happened to it?' He goes 'It just sat still for thirty minutes.' He said at moment his niece turned around and she goes 'Oh, Uncle Monk. Now I know why you sit still so much.' I love that story. I love it because it reminds me that the wind and the waves and the earthquakes and all the many things that happen in life seem boisterous and seem loud and often it's difficult for me to hear from that part of myself that knows the truth. I get caught up in the facts at times. But it is a stillness practice that helps that sediment drain down so that I have more clarity. I am more available to this stream of inspired insight So today you are going to make many choices. The power that you have in choice to shape your life is a phenomenally powerful thing. Way more than most of us 278

21 recognize. Everything is created twice. Remember that. Everything is created twice, first a thought and then a thing. So where you put your interest, where you put your attention, energy flows. You can choose to pay attention to the knowing even if you don't yet have a relationship with that voice for inspired insight but you can pay attention to the idea. I have an intuition. So remember the story of the foot lamp. It's that recognition and that knowing that this intuition, this stream of inspired insight is like a lamp unto our feet. It shows light upon the next step we are supposed to take. It's a lamp unto my fight and a light upon my path So when you ask the question here's my dream, what step could I take today? Something will begin to occur to you. You are going to make a choice anyway so go with the highest guidance you've got. Go with that which seems most inspired, which seems most in alignment. Now sometimes that voice will tell you something you need to let go of. Sometimes it will tell you something you need to gain hold of. Sometimes it will tell you whatever it will tell you but your practice is to bring a silence practice into your life where you even spend a few minutes a day listening and you might find that right after you've written your morning to be pages. How you want to be that day. Instead of starting your day again with 279

22 your to do pages you start with your to be pages. You want to be compassionate. You want to be aware. You want to be insightful. You want to be in touch with and in harmony with your dream. You are going to bring it forth. If one advances confidently, so you are confident in how the laws of the universe are working. Part of the laws of the universe are access to the information system that gives rise to your all knowing about the steps that you are to take. But you are the one, the only one, and I am the one, the only one for myself, that can choose to pay attention You know what it's like when you pick up the phone and there's just all this static. You say call back. Let's get a better line. Let's get a better connection. Well it's not different in listening to the voice that you want a good connection. So you want to look at and begin to notice that sense. When you do hear the voice, when you are in touch with that intelligence system there are some conditions that you have put in place that have made that connection stronger. Whether it may have to do with what you are thinking, what you are watching on TV, what you are not watching on TV that you tune in the dial. You really want to recognize that you have a choice about what signal strength you have in terms of your own receiver. You can choose to amp it up by noticing that which causes you to feel more alive; 280

23 that which causes you to feel more integrity with yourself; that which is in harmony, in essence, with your own soul's purpose. You may have known for a long time that it's time to stop smoking or it's time to do something and you've known it but you haven't put your behavior in alignment with what you've known. Obviously I am not saying you need to do anything different than what you are doing except to follow what you do know My friend Michael Beckwith says act on the good that you know and that's a beautiful way to say it, that not only knowing the good but acting on the good amplifies that in your life. You will find as Emerson said, that God plays with loaded dice. You are going to have surprise support. You are going to see providence move to. You are going to see all sorts of things, as Thoreau said, begin to occur in your life that never otherwise would have occurred because you are now in a whole new stream or a whole new frequency and everything that is compatible with harmonious with and relevant of that frequency becomes available to you. This is one of the great things that will happen in your life as you begin to recognize, honor--revere actually--your own intuitive faculty

24 There was a woman I knew who was out of work. I mean it was a tough time for her and she was struggling. She had been out of work and so she said I need help and she had tried everything she knew to find a job. So she started asking for help from the higher mind. She was saying you know, I gotta get an answer here. What should I do? So she started hearing go to the singles potluck. There was a singles potluck at her church and she started hearing go to the singles potluck, which she would then say back to that voice I don't need to go to the singles potluck. I need a job. So she would go busy doing her things and looking in the paper and making phone calls and every so often when she would get quiet she would hear go to the singles potluck Friday Finally Friday came and it was getting time and she had been so frustrated and disappointed she did not feel like going to a singles potluck. But since she had tried everything she knew by her linear mind, everything she knew that made sense, everything that seemed reasonable and none of that was working, she thought maybe I just need a break. So she thought ok I will go to the singles potluck. By the time she got ready the potluck had already started and when she got there people were already sitting around all the different tables. She looked around the room and she didn't think there was even a spot. Then in the back this 282

25 elderly gentleman raised his arm and there was one spot next to him. So she went there and got some food off the buffet table and came and sat down. They began to converse and he asked her how she was doing and she said oh I'm doing fine. Back and forth the conversation went and he said so what do you do? She told him what she did. She said but I am out of work right now. I am looking for work. He said really, well do you know...and then he named a software package...and do you know this and do you know that and she said yes. He said this is amazing. He said I told my friends before I came tonight was that the one thing I needed to find was someone who knew...and then he listed exactly the qualities, the attributes, the talents, the skills that he had described, asking her if she had these and she was a perfect fit Now she would never have known that Oh I know I am going to apply for a job at the potluck. The voice didn t tell her go to the potluck. Go a little late. You will be able to sit down in one chair, there s going to be a man there who has a job that would be a perfect fit for you. That intelligence system knows everything. As it turned out not only did that turn out to be a good position for her but she moved into a much larger role than she had ever had in any of her work experience before and it was much more lucrative. 283

26 Am I saying that every single time you follow that voice some great major thing is going to happen? No, probably not. But what I am saying is that you begin to build a familiarity with the part of yourself that is wise, that is intelligent, that is of the intelligence of the universe. You don't ignore your linear awareness or your reasoning mind but you balance it with this faculty in yourself that is of a higher order that gives you information that you cannot find with your reasoning mind So pay attention to your nudges, that's what I call them. Those little sort of nudges. Particularly if you notice that one has come back like three times. You say wait a minute. Do this. Pay attention here. Whatever it is, if something has occurred to you three times that doesn't quite make sense it's at least worthy of your honoring it enough to give it a chance. Just at least try it on and over time, just like you get to know a person, just like you develop a depth of relationship, just like there's a whole free flow of ability to relate together, you will begin to have the ability because you've developed it. It was there all along but now you have developed it. The ability to have access to this intelligence, to this knowing, to this guidance that is actually required for you to become a great dream builder

27 So while Michael Beckwith will say act on the good that you know, one of the things that I have felt guided to remind myself over and over and over again over the years is go to the edge of the light you see. So here's the foot lamp casting light on my path. I need to take that step. Not just know that there's a step to take, there's no real power in hearing your intuition and not acting on it. It's actually more entertainment. It's not insight unless I act on it. So in acting on the good that I know or go to the edge of the light that I see. And as I go to the edge of the light I see, more is revealed. But I am the one who has to go to that edge. I am the one who has to take that step. I am the one who has to try it on and so are you. 1: One of my favorite movies is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He is in search of the Holy Grail and I just love the movie. It's symbolic for each one of us searching for that chalice of life itself. But at one point Indie knows that the Grail is across a great chasm and there's just no way physically to get across. It's like the Grand Canyon. You can't get across there. There's no way for him physically or in the reasoning mind or in ordinary ways to get across. So he is right there and he is standing right there and there is going to be a big earthquake and if he doesn't go now he is going to lose his opportunity forever. He senses that even 285

28 though this huge chasm between him and the place he has to go, if he is willing to take a step there will be a magic bridge that will appear Now all of his five senses are saying absolutely do not step out there. He can't see the bridge but he is told that if he will take the step the bridge will appear. And so the voice of inspired insight says take the step. But literally he can't see where he is going. So he has to believe in this invisible power. He has to believe more in the invisible power that feels right to him than what he can see and bring in with his five senses. That's part of the gift of dream building that who you are when you started out to build the dream is not who you become when you reach this dream. You become so much more in the process. You grow in the process. You operate on more than just your five senses So here is Indiana Jones. He is standing on this side of the chasm and he is told to take the step and to take the step means that you have to shift your weight. You have to be really willing to give yourself into it. You see, that's part of the dream building practice that s really essential. It's not about well I'll stick my toe in or maybe just get my foot wet. It's like really going for it. Really putting your whole self in. So he takes a step and in that step the bridge really does appear. But it 286

29 doesn't appear all the way across. It only appears where he is standing. So every step he takes is another step in faith. Every step he takes is another step in faith. Actually I find that to be the exciting part about where you are right now and each one of us is in our process of dream building, if we are really doing that So remember when you were just longing for your dream? That feels pretty safe. Ok I can do this. Then when you are testing your dream that's again a phase that feels pretty safe. But then there is a moment when you commit to your dream. You say I am going to do this and I am willing to change the way I'm thinking, the way I am doing things. I am going to change my life. I am going to change what I have experienced or known or created up until now and I am going to let myself feel a bit uncomfortable. In the interest of growth I am going to take myself out of the frying pan, out of the comfort zone and I am going to find a greater living. I am going to do this. Now, saying that, thinking that is a big phase--but now doing it is of a much higher amplitude and you don't just do it once. You bring it into a practice as your new way of being. So of course you've seen the movie or know the story. Indie of course makes it clear across that chasm. But again it wasn't in the absence of fear and it wasn't in the presence of knowing exactly everything to do. 287

30 It was in the belief that he was of a high and good purpose and that what he really wanted was on the other side of that and that he would find a way through So obviously I am not suggesting you take steps into deep chasms physically. But it's a metaphor. It's a metaphor for your willingness to trust. and do it in small ways at first till you begin to build a stronger trust in what Gandhi found, what Puccini knew, what many, many, many, many other people, what Edison found, what Einstein knew. I could spend the rest of this hour telling you people after people after people. But their names aren't important. It's your name that's important. That you know this. That you find this So I want to close this lesson with a story about a fellow who really wanted the greatest good in his life but he kept choosing to operate from his own knowing. It's a man who lived in a house downstream from a big dam. A storm was brewing. A storm so big that it threatened to actually break the dam. Water was rising up in the upper part of the dam. Authorities got very worried and the dam was starting to show signs that it actually could break

31 So when the authorities determined that the dam probably would break, they sent out the National Guard in jeeps, who went up and down the riverbank telling everyone they had to evacuate. So the guy who came in the jeep, the National Guardsman, said to this man you have to evacuate. Grab some things and come with me. I am going to take you out of here. The dam is going to break and your house is going to flood. The guy very casually said oh that's ok. God will save me. The guard says buddy you've got to get out of here. He said no. I am not leaving. I am not evacuating. Go save other people. God will save me. So pretty soon the dam did break and the water rushes downstream and fills his house So as the home is starting to fill this guy climbs up to the second story and before long the water reaches the second story. This guy goes out on his deck. Now the National Guard has called in other helpers in boats. So they are going along the river that has now risen high as the second story house rescuing anyone who hasn't yet evacuated. So they come in and say come here buddy. They toss him a rope and come on we are going to get you in the boat. We will get you out of here. Very casually he says nope. Nope. That's ok. God will save me. They just could not get him out. He refuses to evacuate. So they decide that they are going to help other people and they leave. 289

32 So the water continues to rise and now this guy is on the roof of his house. He's just clinging to the chimney and a helicopter comes by. The helicopter drops a line with a harness so that he could hook himself into the harness and escape the flood. They area screaming buddy, buddy come on. Come on. We are here to save you. He just tosses the harness aside and says nope. That's ok. God will save me. And the river rises and he drowns The next scene shows him in heaven. He is at the gate and St. Peter is there and the man says I have to talk to God. So St. Peter takes him and he gains entrance to the Presence of God and this man says I can't believe it! Here I was one of your faithful servants. I was sure you would save me. I was so sure you would save me and you didn't. Why didn't you help me? The Presence of the God simply looks at him compassionately and says what do you mean? I sent you a jeep. I sent you a boat. I sent you a helicopter So of course we would feel sad for somebody who operated from what one might call blind faith that did not recognize that the real help is right here also and it comes through many different ordinary ways. The important thing is that you 290

33 and I then personalize this story. Like ok, so what are the jeeps, the boats...what are the helicopters in my life which are the signals that come from this intelligence system that ultimately has only my highest good? There is that in you that is connected to life itself because you are this life. You cannot even make your heart beat, remember? You can't take one breath on your own. Life itself is seeking ever freer, fuller expanded expression in and through the lens of each one of us and that insight, that inspired knowing, that intuition is the stream of intelligence seeking to make itself conscious in you that you might apply all of your resources, all of the faculties that you have been given to bring in coordination to the efforting of the dream you have; to the bringing it about. It collapses time. It makes things easier I remember one time going to the symphony. I was with a friend who was best friends with the first violinist. We went to the symphony and of course it was just wonderful but as they were getting ready something happened that really struck me. The symphony was tuning up, so there was this huge cacophony of sound and all of these many different sounds going on. If you've been to a symphony you know what I am talking about. So imagine all these different cacophonies of 291

34 sounds and the conductor come out and he's going through the notes and standing there So all of a sudden just very casually the conductor picks up his conductor's wand and very gently on the edge of his music stand he goes (three taps), just a very gentle tap and all of a sudden everybody right in all this cacophony of sound everyone brings down their instrument and listens. Then of course one thing after another and then the concert starts and the symphony is done and it was magnificent. But afterwards, because we went out with the first violinist, over the time we had together I said to her so explain how with all that sound everybody stopped immediately when the conductor did that small tap, tap, tap. She just looked at me and she said oh we are always listening for it. And I went oh! That's a clue That's what we can do. In the cacophony of our lives, all this stuff going on. We've got kids, we've got parents, we've got stuff to do, we've got our jobs to handle, we've got all these things. We can always be listening for that tap, tap, tap; that inner knowing, that stream of inspired insight. And you will find as you begin to 292

35 practice this you will trade everything for knowing that you have the availability to the answers you need--and you really do. 293