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Whether you join us in the morning or at night, there's nothing better than a sober sunrise. We hope that you enjoy today's speaker. Uh before I get started, I'd mention the question and answer part of the program tomorrow, which is fascinating.

We asked everyone to think up a spiritual question and put them in. And you've seen the boxes back there. And um the questions have been so interesting that um I look forward to that more than any of of the other parts of the weekend.

It's just a um wonderful opportunity and when you're listening to anyone who's doing I know the Brentwood group does questions. Um, I love that format. They get an old-timer to go up and tell a little bit about his or her story and then pick a topic and talk about it for a half an hour.

Then they raised hands in the audience and um they answer the questions and Steve was telling me sometimes Chuck Chamberlain would be there four weeks in a row and I would have loved to been in the audience to ask him some questions. When you hear an answer to a question, you're not hearing the answer. You're hearing what that person sees at that time.

And so it doesn't mean that if someone else answered the question differently that one of them was right and one of them was wrong. They're both right. They're both sharing what they see to be the truth at that time.

And if you ask them the question five years later, you might get an entirely different answer. So it's a very relative thing, but it's helpful to hear someone else's truth and it may help influence your answer to that question. which is why I get a big kick out of uh one of the books in the back that one of our members from Canada sent me down.

It's called I am that. It's a very heavy book. But the format is what fascinated me.

There's a in India there was this awakened enlightened little old man lived in a little village and just stayed there and people who were spiritual seekers would go by and ask him questions and they recorded the questions and the answers over a long period of time and put them in the book. Now, the reason I found it interesting is if you read like some guy from England is there and he goes, "Well, I'd like to know why D." You can't help but form your own answer to the guy's question. You know what I mean?

That's just human nature. Well, if I was there, I'd tell that guy from England and then you read the answer that's in there and you go, "Whoa, I wasn't even close." You know what I mean? It's like, h, and I don't know why, but I get a big kick out of being wrong like that where you just get your mind blown away that there's something so much more true than what I had.

So, it's but it is hard read, but it's fun. All right, that's it. We're on um the lecture that I mentioned, contemplative AA.

I knew everybody would like that. And oh yes, I'm glad we're going to have contemplative aa Plato used to sit around and all the Greeks and Romans and they sat around reflecting on things and um in your package there's um a thing called pertinent passages from the big book and the 12 and 12. And I put I put this in in our first uh weekend here and it was um my best shot at the most meaty sentences in our literature.

This is just my own opinion, but this stuff um I find is worth looking at and relooking at and spending time on. And that's exactly what reflection and contemplation are. They're taking something and then sitting with it.

And I'll just pick one. Um the on page 25 of the big book on the first page here, the central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our creator has entered our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. That's quite a mouthful.

the absolute certainty. And Bill is laying this on on page 25, you know, of the big book. Let me tell you about AA.

Let me tell you, brand newcomer, let me tell you something. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our creator has entered our hearts and lives in a way that's indeed miraculous. I would say that that's worth some reflection.

Holy cow, is that really in our book? I never stopped and thought about it. I I just read it.

And as a matter of fact, if somebody quoted it, I could say page 25. Just like that, page 25. But if I actually sat and went, yo, that's a pretty big central fact.

That's pretty powerful. That is the center of AA members lives. Is this fact the great and Bill will write this way sometimes.

The great fact for us is, and that's probably in here somewhere else. And so this list of things, our offer, a wonderful collection right out of our literature to just pick one of them and sit around for 15 minutes and go, "What happens to me when I just reflect on this? What happens to me when I just sit here and take that all in?" Wow.

Each word, the central fact. Jeez. And then we can look and go, is that the central fact in my life?

Or is the economy the central fact in my life? Or is the war the central fact in my life? Or is she the central fact in my life?

You follow what I'm saying? If it is, switch central facts. and compare the results.

See, you're conducting a spiritual experiment. We're all scientists and there's only one laboratory for all exper uh spiritual experiments. That's you.

They all have to be conducted inside of you. And I think in my talks I mentioned my sponsor. I Yeah, he was blunt.

And uh I think I had about six months. I wasn't buying any of this. I was giving it lip service and I I got the big book and I put I underlined and I put wow and I had a coffee cup and I made coffee stains.

I let a cigarette burn out. And so if you looked at my big book, you'd go, "This guy's really getting into this." And I I wasn't I wasn't buying any of this. I was looking for the money step.

And uh having no luck finding it. And so he knew I was just goofing around and he said, "Look, we got to sit down. I want you to just look me right in the eye and be brutally honest.

I want you to take a spiritual inventory of you." So he started out with, "How much do you pray?" And the answer was zero. So I finally owned up to him and said, "I don't believe in it. I don't pray.

I think it's silly. As a little kid, I learned it's ridiculous. It's just so I don't even in the Lord's prayer, I go." So put me down for no praying.

So I was being totally honest about prayer. So then he said, "Well, how about meditation? This is another big thing in our" I said, "No, I I don't even like the word.

It's not I'm not going to sit and think about nothing. I've got a lot of problems. I'm not I don't meditating is for weird guys and old people or whatever." And I just said, "No, no meditating.

None. None." He said, 'Well, do you go to church or any religious services or any organized spiritual activity? No, I don't even tour cathedrals in Europe.

I don't want to give them the satisfaction of ma them knowing I might be interested in it. So, I I had an attitude, you might say, about all this. And then he said, well, finally, how about spiritual literature?

There's a lot of new age lit. I mean, there's really something for everybody. I said, "No, I like sports, mysteries, political stuff, but not new age." Bill, it's a strikeout.

It's zero. So, he said, "Okay, no praying, no meditating, no religious things, and no um spiritual reading. How's it going?

What does it feel like to be inside of you?" And I, oh, it's awful in here. I can't stand it. I'm afraid I'm through blah blah.

>> So he said, okay, there's a spiritual experiment. 000000 rotten results. So we write that down.

We just conducted a laboratory experiment about 000000. Now I want you to try some things and write down the results. write down the results and I started feeling better.

I started, you know, at first it was a coincidence, >> but then I realized I had to give this credit and I'm the only one that knows. They only happen to me. It's my little laboratory.

Is it different now? And that builds up credibility in these things. And certainly reflecting and contemplating is something to be considered um as part of our daily lives.

Reflecting on things, it's scheduled now with the internet and everything so fast. I mean, you don't have time to reflect on anything. It's been replaced by something else.

And it leaves us without this wonderful tool called reflection. And so that would be one um list of potential things to sit down and reflect on like the one I u mentioned earlier. We've entered the world of the spirit.

What is that? Where is the world of the spirit? What is he talking about?

We entered the world of the spirit. I didn't see a sign. World of the spirit.

Open the door and I've entered the world. What does that mean? Am I in it?

Am I missing it? And suddenly that look at what a small sentence it is out of the 10th step and we allow it to have its impact on us. And now it has a different meaning.

Every time we see that again, it'll affect us differently because we took the time to narrow it down. Not all of chapter 5, just just this or that. And um and on page 164, I mean that 164 is such a wonderful page.

I love it when they close meetings reading that the tail end of that. And while I'm on that, I'm a great student and I love our literature. But I'd like to make an observation about the big book.

If I had to give you a definition of what I think the big book is, I would tell you it's a treasure map. That's what it is. It's a treasure map that will show you how to find a treasure which is conscious contact with God.

It is not the treasure. We don't want to be worshiping the map and missing the treasure. Do you follow what I'm saying?

In some of his letters, um, Bill was really worried that our big book would become biblical in nature. It's a bunch of stuff that some Trumps put together. And right there on page 164, what does it say?

We realize we know but a little. That's on page 164. So the first hundred said, "Well, we put everything down.

We know. How much did we put down?" A little. That means the big book contains a little.

Well, where's the rest of it? If that only contains a little, where am I going to find the rest? Next sentence.

God will constantly disclose more to us. If our house is in order, you can't transmit something you don't have. There's the rest.

There's the treasure. The map led us to contact. The contact reveals all the rest.

So, we don't want to get stuck on the map running around going, "Is this a good map or not? Have you memorized the map? Can you quote the map, man?

If you if you got this map, you got it. No, that's not the treasure. Here's the treasure." And so we want to make sure that our relationship is with God.

And even in the prayers that he made up, the third step and the sevenstep prayer, what does he say about those prayers? You may say something like this. You may, of course, choose your own words.

Well, what 30 years later, they're printed on plastic and revered. You you follow what I'm saying? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them.

I'm saying it says you may say something like this and this has become and I'm and that's great that it's powerful but even the prayers are to help us touch the treasure another. Do you see what I'm saying? We want to use that to go have more revealed.

We want to be just stuck there with some words. We want the words to move us closer to God to become a seeker, whatever you want to call it. So, I'm just giving you a another way of looking at um the greatest treasure we have, which is God, and the greatest map ever designed.

It's guaranteed. One drunk showing another one how to find the treasure. That's what's going on.

One drunk showing another one how to awaken. And so it's right out of there. And so, um, see to it that your relationship with him is right and great events will come to pass.

Sounds like something out of the Christmas pageant or something like that. I mean great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the great fact for us.

What is the great fact? That if your relationship with him is right, great events will come to pass because you're allowing the great events to come to pass because your relationship with him is right. You aren't causing any great events to happen.

You're an instrument allowing the great events to come through you out to help others. So you you see how you can just take all kinds of sentences out of our big book and allow them to come alive inside of you and then five years later go back and do it again and they'll they'll be they'll be like a a hologram. You go I really see this now.

I really see this now. That's the what spirituality is. Chuck called it a new pair of glasses.

He just said, "You you keep seeking and you keep going like that and one day I see the hologram." And so that's why he called spirituality a new pair of glasses. It is a new way of seeing what's already there. If we don't, if the world looks uncomfortable to us, we're seeing it wrong.

We're seeing it from a self-centered perspective and we generated that perspective and we are uh living in the results of that. So his his whole thing was so freeing and so simple that it gets ignored. Simplicity doesn't go well with alcoholics.

I remember when we first came here and they just said, "Well, just don't drink." What? I'm a complicated person. I've been to three shrinks.

I come here and a dummy like you. Well, you got a college degree. Don't drink.

Remember how it felt like an insult that somebody would summarize my whole life and say, "Don't drink." Did it work? Yeah, it worked great. Best advice I ever got.

Two words, don't drink. Well, how about let go? Two words and we go, you know, that's cool, but there's a lot more to life.

We say it and dismiss it. What if we reflected on it? Stay with letting go for a whole day.

Watch yourself let go of everything that happens tomorrow. Whatever it is comes up in your mind. Very interesting.

I'm I'm not going to work on that. Well, what about this? You know how your agenda starts inside?

What about this? Oh, yeah. God will take care of that.

Oh, what about this? God will take care of that. You let go of everything that comes up.

That means at the end of the day, you have nothing you're walking around with. You refuse to get involved in your own life. I love to That's one of my favorite sayings.

I try not to get too involved in my own life. it. Think about that.

What a freedom that is. Well, if I don't get involved in it, it could get all screwed up. Wait a minute.

You've been involved in it all the time, right? How's it going? Oh, it's all screwed up.

Well, try letting go and see if it improves. And you can feel the resistance because it's too simple. I mean to for Chuck to say there's only one problem sounds like a great oversimplification doesn't it when you consider how many problems there really are for him to say there's only one so I give you give it lip service and then you move back to all the problem uh but what if you reflected on it and said what if there is only one problem you you know what happened When you reflect, you're getting an open mind.

You're relinquishing your previous conviction. And h let me see. I'm willing to be wrong and allow this to be right.

That's another reason for reflecting. So that's the list. And that's just a handy thing.

And if uh you think of another one, call me up or call Chris up and we'll add it. But I really I think I found almost everything of what I would call import in there. Amy handed out oh another list and this is um uh contemplative AA and I put down the first thing there is a definition of alcoholics anonymous that Bill Wilson shared in a letter in his later years.

He said, "Upon reflecting about AA, it occurs to me that AA is an utter simplicity which encases a complete mystery." So, we look at that and we go, "Well, that's interesting." Ties in with Keep It Simple, but what's this complete mystery? What is that? We have an utter simplicity and the steps really are simple and we do keep it simple.

Go to meeting, don't drink, do the steps, follow what your sponsor tells you to do. And it really is simple. We have people with third grade educations leading someone with a PhD through our 12 steps and getting wonderful results.

So somehow we've reduced in amazing language spiritual principles that have been around for 2,000 years into these this these 12 steps that took the commandment type language and changed it into a report of action taken by the people that came before you. We did this and we did that. You're not in here.

You're not even in the steps. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol. We don't know anything.

I don't know anything about you. We're just telling you what we did. And if you want what we have, this is how to do it and we'll show you.

So just the fact that they shifted the spiritual outline into a report of action taken is amazing. The second amazing part of that is that the instructions are coming on a horizontal plane instead of a vertical plane coming from a priest down to the congregation coming from the professor down to the students. They're coming from one drunk on a level playing field with another drunk who is the second drunk has totally identified with the first one because he told him his story.

I mean the whole simplicity of aa everywhere else you go for help the person who's giving the help says tell me about yourself. You come to AA, the person arrives at your house and says, "I'm going to tell you about me." And then you relate to that. And what does Bill say?

We gain the complete confidence of someone in less than an hour. Why? Because we suddenly he realizes it's him that's talking to him.

First time he ever heard anybody on this level playing field. He grabs his hand and follows him. His own family he can't he won't trust.

Here comes a stranger walks in, tells him a little bit about himself and he says, "Yeah, I'll follow you to hell." That is another one of the simplicity of our program. So it is remarkably simple and the results defy explanation. They absolutely defy.

And that's what the complete mystery is. And I and I and I'll cover this in the last lecture, but I want to mention it again. Now, God and the universe, whatever you want to call it, all of that is a mystery.

And it'll be a mystery a thousand years from now. And a thousand years from now, the scientists will be saying, "We're this close. We are this close to understanding the entire universe." And then they're going to discover one more like when they found a black hole.

You remember that? What the hell is that? Now they got little particles that behave differently when they look at them.

And now they got a super collider that's getting ready. And when that thing comes out, there will be nothing that is unknown except for this and then we dig into that and then I mean in our in the big book, Bill said uh science is constantly forcing nature to disclose her secrets. You remember that?

And that was 19 4039. And I'm sure back then they said we're this close. All right.

So, one of the problems with the mystery and the human mind is we got to figure it out. And God's a mystery and it can't be figured out. It has to be experienced.

So we let the intellect go and reflect on it, contemplate on it, allow it to happen. Even then, you won't be able to put into words what happened. That's it's it's that hard.

It's hard to describe AA to your friends. Do you ever try to describe? They look at you and they go, "Are you on a diet?

Are you taking youth pills? Are you God? You look younger.

You look happier. What's your secret? We go.

Oh, aa. Really? What do you do over there?

Oh, amazing. Absolutely amazing. Well, what is it specifically?

We have meetings. Really? What do you do at the meeting?

Oh, it's great. It's great. We get a cup of coffee.

We all sit around the table and then we choose one guy to be the leader. and he goes up and um comes up with a topic like resentment and then we each get to say something about it. Then we hold hands, say the Lord's Prayer and go home.

Want to come? And they go, "That made you look like this." And you could explain aa forever and they wouldn't have a clue. Invite them to a speaker meeting with three or 4 hundred people sitting out there and one or two people tell their stories and they'll be walking away going, "Whoa, I get it now." Why do they get it?

Because they experienced it. They felt the presence of God in those stories and they saw all the drunks laughing. How you doing?

Yeah, come on over. I'd be going to your place. Okay.

You going to play golf tomorrow? Oh, yeah. I'm leaving there.

Jesus. And nobody's drinking. Sounds like a cocktail party.

Then they go home and they have experience the mystery of AA that cannot be explained. So when Bill says this in utter simplicity which encases the complete mystery, all of the secrets of the universe are contained in our simplicity. This will bring us to the experience of our own reality.

We will find our true nature. I mean, you can't be offered a bigger deal in life than to discover your true self. You think you know what it is.

You've got a rough idea that you are pure love, but until you experience it, it's still a theory. But part of you already knows this. I experienced it.

I'll never forget it. I was um maybe five months sober, cynical like all of us are just a bunch of grand even you. And I was trying to not pay attention to the meeting, which is what I like to specialize in.

I'd check the clock, see what time it was, and I'd go over here and it was smoking meetings then. So, light a cigarette, put it up, put it in the ashtray, jiggle my feet, and you know, all this stuff. And about 10 minutes into the meeting, a new guy came in, and he reminded me of me because he was shaking so bad.

And he made the mistake of going over to get himself a cup of coffee. And he got the cup up about halfway full. And he started to go back and the freaking cup went all over.

And I could tell that he could hardly wait to get the hell out of there. And I knew that it was so embarrassing. People were looking at him and this and that.

And I bet I just said, "Man, that guy won't be back." And he wasn't back the next night. He wasn't back the next night. He wasn't back the next night.

And I knew that I had pegged it right. And about the fifth night, 10 minutes into the meeting, he came in and part of me went, "Yay." And I remember going, "What was that? What was that?" That just went, "Yay." And then he went over and got some coffee and he could hold it.

And I saw him go over and put the cup down on the table and just look around and I went, "Yay!" again inside there was something inside of me that was so happy that he made it and it was the first time I ever remember being happy on behalf of someone else and it felt amazing and it gave me a clue that there was a part of me that I didn't know much about but I just got a glimpse. I just felt my true nature, just a little tiny bit of it. And of course, we've all seen that grow.

And the fun of watching, as Bill said, families come together, the lights go on in somebody's eyes, listen to them share. I have new guys I sponsor, and sometimes when they share, I just want to cry. It's so beautiful.

to hear what they now see compared to what they used to see it. And so we have this is just taking Bill's sentence. Aa is another utter simplicity which in case is a complete mystery.

This is a mouthful. This is something to be we could just sit and wow how'd he come up with that? Whatever gave him the idea to say those words, I don't know, but let's think about them and look at them.

And so, as we go down the rest, uh, I'll just cover a few of them. The kitchen table has always been something very big to me. And uh I've told this story before about um I misread AA history because I knew that moment at the kitchen table was a big deal when Ebie and Bill sat there.

And in the history book I read, it said that the um things got so bad at Clinton Street that they were in Brooklyn that Bill and Lois were evicted and they put the furniture out in the street and they couldn't even afford to have it put in storage. I concluded that they lost it. I I just thought all that furniture was gone.

And when I went to Stepping Stones about 10 years ago with my sister, I still thought it was gone. You know what I mean? Even though I'm there.

And the gal who works there takes us in the kitchen and she said, "This is the actual table that" And I said, "Do you mean the one that was gone?" And he said, "It was never gone. They didn't lose it." So here's this piece of crap for Micah table. And I sat there like I had found Noah's ark.

I want my picture taken at this piece of crap table. I said, "This is a freaking table. This is where it happened." What happened?

You go read Bill's story. Bill was being confronted and had been confronted with religion and God all his life. And he had concluded, like many of us, that oh, religion caused all these wars.

World War I, I just was over there. Everybody's killing each other. this the God thing.

I heard about it, but I just don't see any evidence. I just I'm not I am permanently not God. I am permanently not going to entertain any of this.

And he didn't entertain any of this until he sat down at the kitchen table with Ebie. Now, what could Ebie have said to completely change his mind in one minute? He didn't say anything.

He just sat there and Bill couldn't figure out how he could be the way he is. What could have caused Ebie to turn into this? What was there?

A light. A completely transformed person sat there and Bill couldn't figure out how it was possible. And Ebie said, "I got God." And Bill was already had an open mind.

He'd already changed his mind because of what he saw. So that's why when I reflect on that table and what happened like that where all of his old ideas were pushed aside in favor of a new one in an instant by the way someone looked. That's a mystery.

It's a miracle. Um, and then these are just some ponder for the sheer joy of it. Just realize how much more fun it is to just reflect on something than to worry.

The hell with worrying, I'm going to reflect on truth exists in the silence. The next one right down there where thought doesn't exist. The silence is something that I'll talk a little bit about right now since we have that word.

Silence has been described, it may be later on, I don't know, as the space between thoughts. There is always a space between everything. Sound is not a steady.

A note is not steady. It's on silent. On silent on silent.

It's a frequency. It sounds like it's steady. And it feels like we think.

But between every word, between every sentence, there's a pause. There's a space called silence. The place to live is in the space.

It would be like living on the black notes instead of the white notes on the piano. You know what I mean? It's I'm just going to be in the spaces.

Now, the space is where all spirituality takes place. the silence, the space, whatever you want to call it. I don't know if this is on there, but I'll pass it on.

Um, I mentioned out in Brentwood. This is a true fact. For whatever reason, our tricky little mind and our mean little ego will allow us to take four breaths without pestering us with a thought.

After four, it goes, "What's going on over there? What are you up to? You trying to get out from under my spell?" And so if you experiment with that where you just go, well, I'm going to check that out and I'm just going to try that one, two, three, four.

Then as you start, you might even get a five, six, and then they catch on. What's going on? What's going on?

What's six? What What are you doing over there? Six.

Six breaths. We have you haven't thought in a while. Anyway, the four is like a free gift.

And for a lot of beginners in meditation, it's our first taste of the space, the silence. And space is how we develop comfort. with rapid thinking and with worrying, we suddenly find ourselves cramped with all this stuff going on.

But if all that stuff were operating in a twice as big a space, it wouldn't seem so it would be like if all of us moved over to this side of the room, it wouldn't be half as comfortable as when we're spread out like this. So four breaths of silence generates a space. If it's done a 100 times a day, it's the same as a 30 minute meditation in the totality of things.

It's just being done in tiny little bites. And that much more space has been created to for us to be in. And that and that's why silence reflect on the silence.

Truth exists in the silence. Um watch yourself watching thoughts. These are all techniques to find out what will be revealed to you in the silence.

What will occur to you? Um, where did what did Bill write? We've been rocketed into the fourth dimension of existence.

That's down the bottom. Is that in the is that what the silence is? The fourth dimension of existence.

In other words, when you see fourth dimension of existence in the big book, what is that? Did you ever stop and go, what the hell is the fourth dimension of existence? Or do you do what I did and just go that's cool and go on to the next paragraph.

That's cool. Yeah. Fourth dimension.

Yeah. Page whatever. Or you stop and go what the hell is the fourth dimension of existence?

And I'm offering as a suggestion that it's the silence. It's the dimension where everything that we can't see on the hologram can appear. And in fact, it's the only place where all of that can appear.

The silence being the now when we have a lecture on the now. So suddenly silence becomes a great place to hang out because that's where all the action is. Isn't that funny that all the action is in the silence?

Action meaning revelations and a new pair of glasses. So when Bill says more will be revealed, where's it going to be revealed? In the silence, it's not going to be revealed while I'm going, "Oh, I'm worried about this." is only going to be revealed when I can go beyond what the hell I'm thinking about into that area known as the silence.

So suddenly silence is a big deal. And when you try to get some, there's part of you that doesn't want you to get it because that'll set you free of your own little ego world. So there's some just thoughts on silence that are in here.

In other words, these are just here to go what? Um, and then think about it. There's no meaning in life.

It just is. You may make up a meaning, but it does not come from life itself. Well, I don't know about that.

And then just start. Let's take this apart. What is the meaning of life?

You know, you you see what I'm saying? And there is none. Well, I think there has to be meaning.

Well, why does there have to be meaning so that I could understand it? But there's nothing to understand. It's a mystery.

I don't like mysteries. I think it could be understood. We just haven't thought about it enough.

There's got to be meaning. Why does there have to be meaning? Does there have to be meaning in a portrait or can you just take it in?

Does there have to be meaning in a good AA talk or is it an experience? Does there have to be a meaning in music? What is the meaning?

What's the meaning in this song? Dennis plays a lot of music and go there 100 people listen to you guys play and we ask them what the meaning. We have a hundred meanings.

We have a hundred different experiences listening to the same song. So we give up trying to find the meaning and just shut up and be quiet and experience the silence. So we keep coming back to letting go of our traditional way of relating to things which is understand the more I know got to know.

got to know. And some of the great spiritual writers go, "Stop trying to know anything and walk into the unknown and enjoy it." Wow. I'm going to be somewhere and not understand it.

How about that? Do you ever do that? I don't need to understand this.

I just need to let it be and sit in it. So we we're we're coming up with you see what happens when you reflect when you take these things. I'm just picking God is the essence of all life.

Stillness is the language that God speaks. Stillness and the divine are one. Silence again.

And then I reflect on things. Be still and know that I am there. Isn't that funny?

Be still and I will appear. You be still and I will reveal myself to you. I think it's being made perfectly clear that everything's going to be revealed in the silence.

So now we got to have a new attitude about silence and go, "Holy cow. I want to exist in the spaces between the notes, between the colors, between everything." So there's two worlds. There's the note and the space.

We want to just shift over a little bit and be in the space. So the same thing happens with a hologram. We're trying to go beyond what's there and it's done while you're being pretty quiet sitting waiting for it to come.

It's a it's a very similar experience to everything that we're talking about. The starting place for all reflection and contemplation is the fact of your own existence. The question to be asked is who are you?

Do you ever ask yourself that question? Who am I? You know what?

Then the answer is I am. That's who I am. One of the things we're you're going to find out is the spiritual world is unmodified.

Life is unmod by unmodified I mean no adjectives. Everything just is. We put the adjectives on things and that's the world we live in.

We actually live in the adjectives. The fact is you had a childhood. That's a fact.

Does anybody here speak of their childhood in that simple term? Yes, I had a childhood. Or do you put an adjective on your childhood?

I had a shitty childhood. I had a rotten mother. I had a and you just you just go right through the whole thing.

A terrible event happened. And the guy next to me is the same event. He said, "What a wonderful event just happened.

It rained and the golfers are cursing and the farmers celebrating." They both put an adjective on it. Rotten rain showed up. That isn't what happened.

The rain showed up. It got rotten when I got through modifying it. So, if you want to look back at your own life, look at the adjectives.

They didn't they weren't supplied by the universe. You put them there. And that's the world that we live in.

So we if we take away all the stuff we put there, there's just the simple fact that you were born and then this happened and then this happened and then that happened. None of it has an adjective with it. It simply is.

So when you look at a sentence that starts with I am, it always is modified. Well, who would you say you are? I just am.

Nobody ever says that. Oh, who am I? Oh, I am a vice president of a painting company which is expanding into three states.

I am the father of three children. I am the husband of this. I am the grandfather of this.

I am a northerner. I am a blah blah. And it just goes on and on and on and you have a complete resume and a complete summary of who you are.

And you never answered the question, who am I? He never went to see that's not who you are. That's just a bunch of adjectives.

The answer is complete in I am. So now I have to reflect on that. What is that?

What? And then as you reflect on that, the answer comes or the experience comes and it's close to a spiritual being having a human experience. The separateness begins to disappear.

I am part of you. I am part of life. I don't have a life.

I'm part of life. There's life and I'm part of it. There's no such thing as my life.

That's conscious separation. And so just reflecting on I am. What?

Where does that take me? Do you see what I'm doing? I'm just free thinking.

Where does that take me? I am and that and see where it takes you. Maybe it takes you to a dead end.

So you read some stuff and you experiment. You seek a little bit and then you sit in I am and see if more gets revealed as to what that means to you or what that experience is. We're only going to take about five more minutes.

Um I like the um second from the bottom. The bottom line of life is that everything is most wonderfully inexplicable. Isn't it wonderful that none of it can be explained and I can stop seeking an explanation and let it be?

I'm going to let go of needing to know anything. You know how freedom that would be? I'm going to let go of needing to know anything.

What a great freedom that would be. Relieve me of the bondage of needing to know. Lovely place to exist.

There's hardly any work involved in any of this. Matter of fact, it's all done by stopping working on things and let them go and then everything will be revealed. The harder we try to get something, the more it won't come.

All right, we've spent an hour trying to set the stage for your own individual reflection. And I hope that you sort of got a feeling of how valuable it could be and how simple it is. It is.

Um so maybe in the months and years ahead you'll take some of these lines or especially these short powerful sentences out of our literature and watch them come alive in your own mind. and see them like you've never seen them before. They'll it'll happen.

Just sit there and watch it for a while and pretty soon all kinds of things will happen in the Big Book. Thank you for your attention. We got plenty of time to socialize, hang out here, do whatever you want.

Thank you all very much. God bless. Thank you for listening to Sober Sunrise.

If you enjoyed today's episode, please give it a thumbs up as it will help share the message. Until next time, have a great day.