The End of Sacrifice

Spiritual Practice | Dismantling, Gentleness, Hypotheticals, Jesus, Memory, Movie-Watching, Paauilo Hawaii, Prayer, Resurrection of the Mind, Sacrifice, Self-Concepts, Series Unwind Your Mind Easter Retreat, Stillness, True Peace, Trust, with Friends

Being in Love Is Practical—The End of Sacrifice

Easter is a celebration of the true resurrection in mind. It is the end of the belief in sacrifice. You can join in the prayer for true release and open up to trust as you take your first steps on this path to the “unknown.” Let miracles light your way and allow the Love to smooth your journey.

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Gold Nugget:

“Most every pathway to God has these splinters of sacrifice in it. Like doing penance, or lent. What are you going to give up for lent? Or when people go into the convent or into the monastery, it is usually described as a pathway of giving-up. You have to give up just to enter the pathway! And then when you get into the pathway you have to give up even more! That is the ego’s belief in sacrifice still coming into the spiritual journey. As if you have to give up things that you love, things that are dear to you, and hope that there is going to be a reward for all of these things that you’ve left behind, that all the other people get to enjoy and you don’t.

We want to be shown that it cannot really be a sacrifice to give up something that you never really had in the first place. You have to be convinced that what you think you have in this world is part of a fantasy, it is part of a trap to keep you from heaven, to keep you from knowing who you are. So, you are not going to be really giving up something valuable, you are just going to have a conversion experience to realize that what you have is what you are and what you were created to be. And what you think you have in terms of the ego, the things of this world that involve possessions and accumulations—the core of what it means to be human—that those things are not actually bringing you peace, and joy, and happiness. Those things are clutched as a defense against the big ‘unknown.'”

Recorded at the Unwind Your Mind Easter retreat on April 4, 2015 at the Center for the Waking Mind in Paauilo, Hawaii

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.