Beloved One, On Easter morning my friend Isira Sananda will be sharing Love's Presence at our April 8th Easter morning session during the Blue Mountains retreat (which extends from April 4th-8th).
We will be celebrating Love's Divine Oneness in a way that honors the Spirit's use of all the symbols of the world in peace and love and harmony. Eastern symbols and western symbols, including languages and traditions and music and practices will be expressed and shared. Easter celebrates the remembrance of our Original Innocence, and together we Awaken in Love: Giving Divinity and taking nothing personally.
We will begin the Easter program, our final day of the retreat at 7:00 amIsira will share at 8:30 - 10:00 amIsira and I will answer questions and we will have our closing celebration from 10:00 - 11:30 am
Click the link below to register for the Blue Mountains retreat:Weds 4 April -
Sun 8 -- April Blue Mountains Retreat
BLUE MOUNTAINS RETREAT - WEDNESDAY, 4 APRIL ARRIVAL FROM 2 PM TO SUNDAY 8 APRIL NOON. 4 NIGHTS INCLUSIVE ACCOMMODATION AND MEALS. Includes: accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner, teas etc.,
About David Hoffmeister (from Raj)
THE VOICE FOR GOD "Everyone hears it and yet recognizes it not"
David Hoffmeister is a passionate and deeply committed ACIM disciple. Even more, his life is a shining demonstration of a healed mind. This is why there are always so very many people who come to his blessed gatherings of love.
IF ENLIGHTENMENT IS WHAT YOU ARE SEEKING - TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE A MASTER
During the past two years David has taught and shared with like minded people in Argentina, Colombia, England, Chile, France, Germany, Austria, Peru, New Zealand, Canada, and Spain in the last two years. Now it is Australia's turn to experience this remarkable man and disciple of A COURSE IN MIRACLES.
"Every encounter I have is a chance to get to know me in the truest sense. What I am always teaching is that there are no private thoughts and no private minds. I make myself available to answer questions and to facilitate the expression of the Holy Spirit, which comes through many people, not just myself. And so there is a great feeling of joy. My purpose is to experience peace. You have to be open to your own healing." David
The teachings from David are inspired by the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ. They are reflected in reading material such as the Bible, A Course in Miracles (ACIM), Christian Science, the Urantia Book, Disappearance of the Universe and other books. They offer a roadmap inward to Heaven, through forgiveness, as taught in A Course in Miracles.
Ask and it will be given to you Seek and you will find Knock and the door will be opened to you
From David…
"We want to be so thorough in tracing "specific personal choices" back to the false belief that underlies them all, that there is the opening for the grand moment that seems to change everything and yet is changeless, this Instant.
The teaching I share is that enlightenment is available this very moment. And anything in one's mind that stands in the way of that recognition of enlightenment right now must first be questioned, and then seen for what it is - illusion.
Please don't get into comparing who is enlightened and who is not. Enlightenment is not personal. Just consider these ideas and the holiness of the intention to be clear. Just say and mean: "I want peace! I want it more than anything else.
I'm going to drop all my masks. I see that in order to drop them, I'm going to have to look at them. I want to see the masks for what they are. I want to discern the false from the true — to be right-minded. What a precious opportunity this is!"
Can you think of anything more important than looking at one's own mind and examining the obstacles to this recognition? Is there anything that even comes close to that? This is a very precious opportunity! "
I am happy to share some thoughts about the way I `arrived' at feeling the complete contentment of this Present Moment. The form of the inner journey seems different for everyone, though there are commonalities that give a hint of the same Purpose that unites us all.
For everyone the journey involves an undoing, an unlearning, or an unraveling of beliefs and concepts and assumptions about everything. As the mind is emptied of concepts it becomes obvious that nothing of form and appearances can be assumed to be true, and yet trust in a Wisdom not of this world grows stronger and stronger in awareness until a State of Certainty of Identity emerges.
For me I can say that it began with a sense of curiosity about the meaning of life. Questions about purpose and healing and direction and death and unrecognized beliefs flittered about my mind and kept recurring over and over like a music play list. Most of my childhood and teen years held enough worries and concerns and hobbies to keep my mind distracted from this curiosity, but after I entered university studies the questions about the purpose of everything could not be kept out of awareness.
I used time in a truly helpful manner during 10 years of university studies by literally questioning everything I believed and questioning everything I had previously assumed to be real and true. I was able to release thoughts that told me I should just pick a role and play a part and grow old and die, and I knew in my heart that there was something amiss with the world I perceived.
Though I did not know what had distorted my perception of the world or how to escape the picture of conflict, I knew that freedom and peace and love and joy were what I hoped to experience and live.
When my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer and I watched him wither away to appear like a walking skeleton, and then I experienced his death, my spiritual journey to `Know Thyself' got a jump start and kicked into full speed ahead. Questions that I had never given myself permission to ask came flooding into awareness, and the answers and insights came flooding in as well.
Before I began graduate studies I had found a trustworthy gateway Home - a tickle in my heart that seemed to be Guiding me ever more rapidly inward, developing and strengthening my trust in the Intuitive Spirit, and unfolding before me the steps leading beyond the thinking of the world.
As I followed the tickle I found books that accelerated the opening of my mind, I met people that witnessed to my desire to be truly free, and I experienced glimpses of the deep peace and love that passeth the understanding of the world. Suddenly every relationship was a golden opportunity to heal, every upset was an inroad to unconscious false beliefs, and every opening of my heart was a Homecoming celebration. I was being called out of the thinking of the world to the Kingdom of Heaven within.
After two years of immersing with A Course In Miracles, often for eight hours a day, I began hearing the Voice of Jesus speaking clearly and specifically in my mind, instructing me in the ways of mastering His teachings on forgiveness. I received directions of where to go and what to say and do, lessons in discerning right-minded thinking from wrong-minded thinking, and I was told specifically what was most helpful in terms of the use of time, resources, effort, and money. This opened the way for the next phase of my mind training which was letting the Holy Spirit speak through me. It was one thing to listen and follow the Voice for God.
The next phase required willingness to allow the Holy Spirit to speak using the voice of David, and I was Given numerous assignments to practice this willingness. Jesus guided me to travel throughout the United States and Canada and speak where I was invited to speak, although the entire process felt more like being `spoken through.'
At first I took small trips to New York and Michigan. In the Summer of 1991 the trips became much longer as I set out on my first 5 ½ week journey through the Southwest of the United States and up through the Pacific Northwest (including a visit to Salt Springs Island in Canada) before returning to Cincinnati via Wisconsin and Michigan.
During the first long trip and during all subsequent trips I learned to place complete faith and trust in Jesus and the Holy Spirit to provide for my physical, emotional, and psychological needs. The development of trust was essential for me in order to release my past conditioning and beliefs about survival and safety and protection and planning.
I was learning to be God-dependent by placing my single Purpose out in front and letting the Spirit guide and direct each teaching-learning situation and every holy encounter along the path I walked. In some respects it felt as if I was living out a dream or a fairytale because each day there were so many synchronicities happening and so many apparent `solutions' appearing before any `problem' could even be defined or imagined.
The invitations and offers of help extended throughout the range of the human experience spectrum, from places to stay to food to transportation to books and music to help digging out of a snow storm and emergency road service and towing. I started traveling with no savings in the bank and no worldly investments or organizational support, only feeling impelled to share all the love in my heart and trust that everything I needed to fulfill my function would be provided by Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
After several years of living and traveling in this way I began to meet friends who wanted to share more time being around me, asking their questions and closely observing the way I lived my life to gain insight into the principles and teachings I held dear.
These friends and I began living in spiritual community, and though the names and faces have seemed to change throughout the decade that would follow, this deep feeling of community has remained with me ever since.
Now I experience this community feeling always and in all ways in my heart whether the body of David seems stationary or in motion, alone or in a small group or among hundreds of people. The Purpose I was Called to extend has stabilized my perception of the world, and a feeling of sameness pervades everything and everyone I look upon.
It is very much like a lucid dream that is very happy and calm. The serenity comes from being aware of the dreaming and not taking any of the signs and symbols personally (as if they were actual things existing in and of themselves). The unshakable peace comes from a detachment from appearances and an unswerving dedication to shared Purpose that is continuous.
Everything that seems to come into my awareness I see as Given from the Holy Spirit and Jesus. Being Source-dependent has dissolved away all sense of lack, and thus my attention is never drawn to the images of the world for the purpose of `getting' anything. The images are freed from past egoic intentions and therefore free Now to be used by the Spirit to inspire and bless and comfort in the Plan of Awakening.
There is no question or curiosity about the timing of events and no need to figure out the meaning of the world. There is no one and nothing of the world to fix or change. Being Present allows all things to be exactly as they are.
Seeming plans and logistics and details are Given as they are necessary and helpful, though there is never an emphasis on future outcomes or goals. All that is Given comes safely and surely, and each seeming step feels obvious and natural.
In 1996 I was guided to a small house in Cincinnati, Ohio to use as a quiet retreat and also as a base for launching on subsequent travels and hosting friends from around the world. Immediately the name that was Given to the house was `PeaceHouse' and the house became a symbol for always abiding in peace of mind.
The ideas and love and joy I experience in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit I share on the Internet and at many, many gatherings as time passes by without its touch upon me. As of the printing of this article I have shared at gatherings and stops and visits in 19 countries around the world and in countless holy encounters and Course In Miracles groups as well. The invitations have kept coming and so I go wherever the Spirit Guides in response to the Inner Invitation to join Given by Christ.
The gatherings I share are always very open discussions. As I go to the gatherings I have the willingness to show up in mind and to be truly helpful. I have no agenda and no clue what will be asked or if there will even be talking or not.
Instead, I make myself available to answer questions and to facilitate the expression of the Holy Spirit, which comes through many people, not just myself. People come from so many different backgrounds, cultures and languages. Sometimes I don't even speak the language, but translators show up and it seems like the Holy Spirit is orchestrating the whole thing just for me to share this state of joy and peace and happiness. I'm there to join with everyone.
Those that show up in my gatherings are showing up calling for help. I would say that the Holy Spirit is extremely practical and meets every questioner with what could be most helpful. There is no formula and there is no set answer that can be given across the board because people's consciousness and awareness have such a range.
But when I'm showing up, I truly show up to be only helpful and the Spirit flows through me. I experience joy and so does everyone else in the room. So typically, by the end of the gathering, there are lots of hugs and kisses, sometimes tears, and always a feeling of lightness and joy.
Every encounter I have is a chance to get to know me in the truest sense. What I am always teaching is that there are no private thoughts and no private minds. So the experience that I have when we gather together is of our sameness. We share the same Spirit. This is a feeling more than a group of concepts. It's still always an adventure for me to meet my Self over and over in many delightful ways. I like the spontaneity of the encounters. I like the sense of innocence that we experience together.
I always share in gatherings that there is nothing off limits. This offers a sense of openness that enables everyone to express whatever they're feeling in the moment. This is how we know ourselves. We take the lid off all our feelings and emotions. We bare our soul, and we realize we are not judged for baring our soul. People who I've met along the way feel like they can talk to me and unburden their soul no matter how shameful they feel about it.
I extend what is Given to share and thus remain aware of the I AM THAT I AM. Giving all to all is what having means, and our Heavenly Father's Kingdom is what One Mind has and what One Mind is. In the "process" sense, the more that is shared with those who seek indeed offers more to share. This is, however, the sharing that seems to occur on the horizontal plane and seems to involve the body and words and computers and smiles and hugs, etc.
Yet beyond all "process" and "level" metaphors and symbols, the experience of forgiveness is very, very, very simple! It is a Perspective that is glorious to behold, filled with gratitude and joy, for it is incapable of perceiving any differences at all. Another way of saying this is that forgiveness is devoid of any judgment of specifics, for the Perspective simply sees the false as false, or the falsity of all images.
I share this Perspective with all, for it is the only Perspective that can be shared. There is but one Dreamer of the dream, and in this Perspective all perception is already Healed.
I have no "schedule" to fit anything into. The present moment leaves no "room" for the ordering of "events, situations, and happenings." I watch a stream of past images and simply listen and follow what is Given Within, and that is the Source of all happiness, freedom, peace, and joy!
The PeaceHouse is a symbol that represents a light, happy, and very reverent state of mind. It is not special or sacred "in and of itself," for nothing exists apart from God as a separate entity "in and of itself." Yet in serving the Holy Spirit's Purpose, everyone is welcome and greeted very warmly. All are included in the Spirit's Purpose.
All are reminded of Who they Are. The Presence of God is always very apparent to a mind that is willing to receive that which God has Given forever. Teaching aids appear in many forms, and words, music, books, tapes, videos, DVDs, Cds, pamphlets, web pages, etc. serve the Plan under the Guidance of the Holy Spirit. The world is filled with "parables of hope," and this describes the PeaceHouse and the Awakening Mind ministry that were Given to extend our shared Purpose.
All is offered freely, for there is no cost to anyone. Only gain, using the "process" metaphor, is possible. The desire of the heart is all that is really required.
The Holy Spirit uses time and all the things of time to undo the belief in linear time and the separate sense of self. There is no set form, though the lesson is always the same. Forgiveness, the Perspective, is the only lesson that can be learned. Seeing the cosmos as a single tapestry is Healing, for ideas leave not their source and there is no objective material universe apart from mind. This has been called having dominion over the world, for there is no threat in images once the Dreamer is aware of dreaming.
The Communion of Silence dawns as Mind Awake. Love has no opposite. There is no choice in Being. Mind reaches to Itself, It does not go out. Within Itself It has Everything. Mind is Whole, Singular, Unified, One. The horizontal "personal perspective" dissolves in the Vertical as darkness vanishes in the Light. God is the only Cause, and nothing exists outside the Mind of God.
The world is causeless and therefore without real effects. There is no "brother," be it "self" or "other," "attempting" or "trying to reach" or "striving" in Silent Communion, for All is One and recognizes Its Oneness.
There is no "enlightened person," for the construct of "person" is impossible. There is no "communication" between persons, for there is only One Mind which knows no "betweeness. " Union is not the illusion of two-getherness, for Union is wholly of and in One Divine Mind. There could never be a "joining" of fragments, for the assumption of fragmentation has no foundation in God. Communion transcends the suggestion of "parts," the belief in fragmentation.
Father and Son, Creator and Creation are the only Real Relationship. What is the Same cannot be different, and What is One cannot have separate parts. Communion is the deepest experience of Awe and Gratitude and the Vision of Christ which lifts and replaces the veil of perception forever. An experience that ends all doubting is the experience of Silent Communion.
When symbols merge and have no distinctiveness the time for words is almost over. Words are but symbols of symbols, twice removed from Reality.
They were made as labels for attack thoughts or illusory fragments. As the impossibility of fragmentation dawns, the Name of God safely replaces all symbols. Oneness is Supreme Happiness, and as Silent Communion deepens, there is no need for words or labels.
Divine Communication is a continuous Song of Thanks that Creation sings to Creator, Who returns the Thanks. There are no levels, no layers, no categories, and no differences in Oneness. There is no problem to be solved in the Acceptance of Atonement, for the truth is true and nothing else is true! I thank God!
Spiritual community is a state of mind, and the Purpose of Atonement is witnessed to when the Purpose is held dear. By inviting Christ into one's heart one beholds the symbols of the forgiven world in a unified Purpose.
The Communion of Silence Calls, and the mind emptied of illusions and fantasies is made ready. When Jesus broke bread and drank wine with the apostles in the upper room he reminded them: "Do this in remembrance of me." In every holy encounter and within the holy instant we include our very Being in the Communion of God and Christ and Their Eternal Dance.
I am coming to Australia upon invitation, which I happily received and accepted. Our journey together now is not the way of the cross - it is the Way of the Heart. Sacrifice and deprivation are behind us now, and Joy is the abundantly Given choice available for Awakening.
Love waits on welcome and acceptance, and this is now the focus. This tour of Australia will mirror the mind's journey to the remembrance of God's Love. We will begin on the Gold Coast and journey upward toward an Easter retreat and resurrection celebration high in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney. We ascend as One Self, the Living Christ.
In 2007 I have been hearing the theme: `Make no compromise.' The Communion of Silence Calls, and as the year unfolds I feel Called to yield ever deeper to the Call. I have stepped back from many of the functions I have extended in Purpose over the last 16 years, although I still feel a Calling to travel for some of this year.
It will be a year of witnesses to the Silence of Holy Communion. The hush of Heaven holds my heart, and our joining comes in reverence to our Creator. I think of the brothers that joined St Francis and the sisters that joined Mother Teresa and the apostles that joined Jesus in the quest for remembrance of God. There is much to celebrate this Easter and every moment of every day! Arise in Christ, as Christ, forever Christ as One Self in God's Love. Arise and rejoice that Innocence is invulnerable and unassailable, and that the time of true Freedom is at hand. Now is the time.
My friend Isira will be joining the retreat in the Blue Mountains for a day and sharing the Light and Laughter and Divine Love of the One. This Oneness transcends the roads that seem to approach It. Truth is a pathless experience that knows no opposite, far beyond the symbols of the world. Beyond east and west, male and female, young and old, beginner and advanced, you are worthy of the experience of Love Beloved Child of God.
I invite you to join in at any time, at any place, in any part of the tour - and rejoice with us! Join in the discussions along the way. Share your experiences and raise your questions. Meditate and pray with us. Share a meal with us. Climb the mountain with us. Dance and move with us. Stretch with us and expand into the Identity Which God created Forever One. This is an experience of the Awakening Mind. Everyone is included.
I hope to see you in March and April.
In Love and Gratitude,
David
This Christmas, Simplify
3 days ago
