You Are Worthy of Taking the Leap

Spiritual Practice | Atonement, Desire, Healing, Idols, Leap of Faith, Paauilo Hawaii, Resurrection of the Mind, Salvation, Series Unwind Your Mind Easter Retreat, with Friends

Clarence & the Leap—You Are Worthy of Taking the Leap

Join David Hoffmeister during this inspiring talk on answering the Call of your Heart. If you want to experience the leap into Spirit, make the commitment now! You are not choosing a situation or agreeing to a specific assignment, but opening to a state of mind. You are answering the Call to transcend the world. This is the relinquishment of a belief in a separate self with separate interests. David reads from Clarence Steves’ Sermon on the Mount, a speech purely from the Spirit: “Never accept the suggestion that you are a ‘loving person,’ or a ‘good student.’ Love is never personal, nor are there ‘good students.'”

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Gold Nugget:

“The first psychologist that came on the ‘scene’ was William James. He wrote a paper called The Varieties of Religious Experience—an interesting title for the first psychologist to put on his paper. I think he was quite interested in what it is that triggers mental health. Where does it come from? I think that revelatory experiences are so impactful that what seems to come out of them is almost like a comet streaking through the night sky. The head of the comet is where the brightness is. It is just flashing through the sky. Most comets have a tail and the tail is what we call religions in this world or spiritual practices. All that is, is the tail and yet it still seems to have a helpfulness. We are inspired. We are inspired by Clarence’s words. We can feel there is a Presence behind them. I think also what it is, is from that experience life starts to be experienced as very involuntary. In other words you don’t have any future goals. The Presence itself is everything and you are not concerned with form, thinking that it is important which pathway you take or even which words you share. It is involuntary. It just comes easily and naturally from the Spirit.”

Recorded at the Unwind Your Mind Easter retreat on April 10, 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.