Question and Answer Session with David Hoffmeister

Spiritual Practice | Accepting Correction, Addictions, Anger, Attack Thoughts, Beliefs and Concepts, Bringing Illusions to the Truth, Conflict, Dark and Intense Emotions, Duchesne Utah, Fear, Grievances, Guidance, Healing, Health, Hypotheticals, Playfulness, Sacrifice, Salvation, Series Tabula Rasa Mystery School 2017, Sex and Sexuality, Sickness, Spiritual Journey, Suffering, True Forgiveness, Unwinding from the World, Victimhood

David Hoffmeister holds a Q&A session with the students on day two of the Tabula Rasa Mystery School (a 30-day residential program held at the Living Miracles Monastery). He opens the session by reminding the students that there may be extreme emotions to face during this month, but with willingness and an open mind everyone can expect many miracles and synchronicities to carry them along.

Questions and topics include:

1. Do the 12-step program and the Course go together?
2. Can we go backwards on the spiritual journey?
3. Is being gay an abomination?
4. Paramahansa Yogananda and eastern philosophy.
5. Abuse and victimization.
6. Sickness.

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Gold Nugget:

“We have an intuition. We have a higher power; we have a Holy Spirit, a Spirit within, call it whatever you want. And the only way we are going to let go of this addiction to these hypothetical thoughts is to be guided. So you see how the Spirit works with us, with what we believe in. ‘Oh you believe in hypotheticals? I can work with that.’ Spirit calls them symbols. ‘I’ll give you instructions. I will tell you where to go, what to do. I will help you seem to unwind from this deep investment you have in linear time. It’s an addiction. But I will use what you are addicted to and turn it in a new way. Instead of winding you in tighter and tighter and more stressful and more stressful until you feel suicidal or depressed or afraid, I will take you, with the same symbols, and unwind you and unwind your mind out of this vice called ego.’

So there is a fear of sacrifice, there is a fear of loss. When the mind flipped over and believed that linear time was real and eternity was just a fantasy, it was way out of touch with reality, it was definitely psychotic and now we have to go the reverse. We have to let the symbols be used in a way that relates to us and that we start to feel more of the goodies! We start to feel better and better and better. Happier and happier and happier and that is convincing us that we are being unwound from something, to a point where we can just let it go in one instant, in one leap. It’s not always going to be a matter of process. It’s just when the mind is so addicted to hypotheticals it can’t be just ripped out.”

Recorded at the Tabula Rasa Mystery School on May 2, 2017 at Living Miracles Monastery in Duchesne, Utah

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.