God Is the Present Goal
Opening Session – “The Light Has Come” Online Retreat—God Is the Present Goal
David Hoffmeister shares that putting God first allows us to relax into knowing that nothing needs to be done in form, just in the mind. Let’s let go of personal preferences and prefer God instead. Enjoy this opening session that offers a deeper awareness of trust and faith!
Gold Nugget:
“So, the key element is to be willing to follow the guidance. It’s not enough to discern it and hear it; you actually have to follow it. You have to take action on it! To really show your faith. And then when you take action on the guidance, whoosh, you feel this huge expansion like, Wow, I just said yes and followed the guidance. And whoa, my mind felt like it expanded so much. And that’s how I knew I was onto it. Like, Oh, okay, this is the way. It’s not about aiming for things in form and having form goals. It’s about being willing to listen and follow. And all of us can do that. You know, we all can do this. We can’t let the ego try to dissuade us from this listen and follow.
And then it’s just amazing! And it’s always something that we need to release, the self-concept, something around the self-concept, whatever we believe. We were just on a trip to Florida, and then Svava came down. And she was practicing and got her guitar out. And then suddenly she got a scratch in her throat. And the next thing she knew, her guitar wouldn’t play. And she just had to surrender and release playing the guitar, singing, speaking. She had to release it all and just say, Wow, just being. I want to be in the joy even if I can’t do the things that I expected to do. I still need to just be in the innocence, be in the joy, feel the love, feel the happiness, feel the gratitude!“
Recorded at The Heart of Christ Online Retreat the Light Has Come on January 6, 2023
Recent Posts
I Taught the World to Teach Me
I Taught the World to Teach Me – In this session, David Hoffmeister emphasizes the importance of loyalty to the Spirit, the inner teacher, over personal desires and external opinions. This loyalty stems from truth and a deep connection with the Holy Spirit, not the ego’s demands. David shares parables of taking full responsibility for our state of mind by recognizing that we taught the world to teach us. By keeping this empowering thought in mind, it’s possible to remember that we don’t need to wait for externals to choose to be happy.
Coming Together with the Purpose of Healing
Coming Together with the Purpose of Healing – David Hoffmeister explores the perceptual problem, which pertains to the belief that the subject and the object are different, that the observer is different from the observed, and that the personality-self is different from the world that surrounds it. When we see an issue in the world, it really is just a split in the mind. This belief can result in significant problems such as conflict, climate change, and hunger, all of which can be traced back to the division within the mind. “Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved,” (W-79) and “Let me recognize my problems have been solved.” W-80 By examining the projected world, we often fail to identify the core problem because it manifests in many forms. You may resolve a few problems today, only to encounter more tomorrow. Therefore, the key lies in our perspective, which stems from our interpretation.
Relax, Step Back, and Unwind from the World
Relax, Step Back, and Unwind from the World – David Hoffmeister shares about the importance of placing the future in God’s hands, a concept that requires enormous trust. This trust is crucial as we have been conditioned to learn the past and plan the future. Trust is the foundation of a teacher of God and allows us to relax and feel divine ease. During this profound talk, David also gives an overview of the very first Strawberry Fields Festival in 2009. Jesus tells us to go from nightmares to waking with a transition between happy dreams and gentle waking. This process helps us feel softer and gentler, making the struggle and challenge easier. Enjoy this deep discussion with the participants that goes deep and yet fun.
Opening to Deeper Prayer
Opening to Deeper Prayer – David Hoffmeister begins this 4-day Japan retreat by exploring the concept of undoing the self-concept—a conditioned expectation that obstructs our understanding of the world. The ego arises from the mind’s pursuit of self-improvement, crafting illusory goals that keep the mind preoccupied and detached from its boundless nature. The ego’s game is endless, as it neither begins nor concludes. The purpose of our practice is to abandon the pursuit of temporal goals and relinquish the false identity—the mask of the ego. In doing so, we experience the mind’s all-encompassing nature, recognizing that the world, society, and everything once perceived as external are within the mind. As the mind reaches a state of rest, the external world reflects this peace, becoming more harmonious.
A Path of Gentle Letting Go
A Path of Gentle Letting Go – In this session, David Hoffmeister speaks about Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, focusing on self-actualization as the top goal. This concept is based on the Greek belief that ‘know thyself’ is the ultimate goal of human development. The ego attempts to deny this through hypnotism, mesmerism and imagination, covering the truth with unreal images. Atonement, the correction, is the awareness that the separation never happened.
Teaching the Holy Instant
Teaching the Holy Instant – At the beginning of this talk, David Hoffmeister discusses the concept of choice and the duality of life. We seem to live in a world of duality, where one of the primary goals is to find a life partner. We can see even that is dualistic because even a successful life match involves two, while reality involves only one.