When I was coming down here I thought, “J-R, what are you going to talk about today? For the last thirty or forty years you’ve been giving thirty or forty hours’ worth of information, and you haven’t really repeated much except to say Merry Christmas.” So, once again, Merry Christmas. And then I thought that nowadays there often is no “Christ Mass” in Christmas. Christmas has become a financial organization that your children use against you to plan the rest of your year together.

And when the children are very nice it’s a pleasure to give all you can to them. I think by now most of you have read “The Gift of the Magi,” the story about how a husband and wife each sacrificed to give to their spouse, and found out that what they gave to their spouse was now no longer usable because of the sacrifice. And sometimes I get Christmas presents that are like that. Somebody doesn’t like it or somebody else wants something else—and I think at that point the spirit of deception sets in. And there is a Spirit of deception. Everybody plays in it, so you should be aware of it. It’s part of being human.

At some point, those of us who are following the Christ are going to recognize that we have a very big family, because once you become brothers in Christ you become sons of God. And the people that say there is no son of God and that they are not following the Christ are actually following their own thought pattern—which is going to take them to the grave anyway.

Some people look at Christmas as, “I didn’t get as many presents this year as I did last year.” Well, you’re older. You should be more satisfied with the present you get. One Christmas when my friend Claire was a little girl, I was talking to her, and somebody was bringing Christmas presents in for me. She said to me, “Where are my presents?” I said, “Here, these are your presents.” And she just hugged me and said, “Oh, come on, quit joking.” When we all see the one we love, there’s nothing we wouldn’t do for them. And that opens the doors to the kingdom of heaven inside of us.

But you don’t have to take your heart and put it on your sleeve—that’s going to cause you some hurt and upset. It works this way: When you’re really young, you ask a girl who will ask her girlfriend to ask somebody else to ask the guy if he likes you. It can get more convoluted if he likes you and twenty-five others. So I tell people to be smart and keep your heart back where it belongs, and just extend your arms. You can hold people, you can touch them, you can just be with them.

So then we do Christmas by looking to see what kind of money we have and how our credit card is, and then we head downtown to buy presents for ourselves, to give to somebody else, thinking they’ll like that because I like that. That’s really one of the wrong ways to approach gift-giving. People say, “Well, what do you do?” Generally, I give dollar bills, and everybody knows that I am sort of a tightwad. So they don’t know what they’re going to get. And yet to those you love and respect and admire you always give something extra — and that’s what the Christ is doing to us right now.

Give that something extra and you will feel it. It will come into your heart, and it can make your heart feel like it’s jumping. Maybe you will feel like it’s starting to race a little bit. What is it doing to us? Re-chemicalizing, realigning our consciousness, re-chemicalizing the body into the spiritual form by which we’re going to be known. We can start to do it here, and therefore we can have heaven on earth. But can you have heaven on earth out here with other people? Not usually. Usually we’re looking at other people from a “superior” position. It’s much better to have everything come from the inside out. As soon as you start depending on something from the outside, somebody has got you and is holding you in the wrong area.

Here’s the bad news about that: There are more outer pressures out there available to us than there are pressures inside of us in the physical body. And we still don’t even know everything about the physical body. They’ve been after cancer for years, and have they cured it? Sometimes you see a person who outlives cancer. But what does that mean, that they just outlived death? Then they get hit by a truck. If you’re going to go, that’s it, it’s going to happen.

So I have a vow of poverty. I don’t get money, I get my expenses. I don’t own anything. This ring that I have on my hand belongs to the church. So does this tie, this shirt, this coat, these pants, shoes, socks, underwear. I’m wearing them, but this does not mean possession is nine tenths of the law. I’m ready to give them back if anybody wants them from the church administration.

Spirit is moving very gently in the room right now. Really sweet. Allow yourself to participate in it. Release the worries about the future, from the past, from this morning or towards this afternoon or tomorrow. Some of you ask, “Will I get the present I want?” Produce the presence you want, and then you can get a present to go along with it.

Insight seminars has a wonderful section called victim/accountability, or responsibility. You find out what it is about you that puts you in these places where you get kicked in the teeth psychologically—such as, what is it about you that you have lack? What do you really need to find to make yourself feel full? Ice cream? It makes your stomach feel full, but I doubt if it will fill your eyes, because the eyes always are hungry. Some people go after artwork and they buy beautiful paintings like a Mona Lisa or an El Greco or a Rembrandt. I’m not sure that after World War II was over the Nazis gave back all the artwork they took. And I’m not sure were going to get it back unless somebody goes out exploring for gold or something else and digs into it. I think that might be one of the reasons why we keep looking for weapons of mass destruction—because we know how well people can hide things.

Are you hiding the Christ? He said in this book, referred to as the Bible, “Suffer little children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of heaven.” What is he saying there? Children are innocent. And don’t stop them from coming to me. And where did he say the “me” was? He said, “My kingdom is with my father.” The kingdom of heaven is where He resides—and where’s the kingdom of heaven? Inside of you. You’re a living temple for the living God.

I don’t think anyone on the planet can say with a great deal of integrity that they know why and how we breathe. They can tell you how we breathe, mechanistically. But when you go to sleep at night who breathes you? When you wake up out of a startle, who is it that did that? Did you do it? You say no, I don’t like that. I want to sleep all night long. Quit complaining about the sleep you get and that part of your consciousness will release wanting to sleep all night long, and you can start sleeping all night long. And some people tell me, “I haven’t slept all night long.” I say, “wow, how long were you in bed?” “Eight or nine hours.” What did you do? “Well I got into bed read a little bit.” Don’t do that. “I watched TV.” Don’t do that, because then in the middle of the night, out of the unconsciousness comes this parade of images that you saw earlier. They come up and go around in your head. One of the reasons you can know that’s happening is the helpless feeling—or a feeling of hopelessness, similar to feeling, “I can’t get out of that.”

Everybody gets out of everything. When you want to? I doubt it. We all will settle for tomorrow if we can have it for today even though we wanted it yesterday. And yesterday is gone and we didn’t get it. Right now is the moment of fulfillment—and it is always right now. That right now is past, and now we’re in a new one. Does it take some sort of anarchistic approach to learn how to do this? Yes. You have to be willing to look at yourself, to look inside there and see what isn’t perfect and let it be just fine with you.

Be just fine with you. You say, “Yeah, but I don’t like that.” Move. You say, “No, I got here first.” You’re arguing for your limitation. Christ is expansion. It’s forgiving—and forgiving from the heart.

Why do we pray to God, give me this, give me that, give me this, give me that? Either you’ve got false hope going or you’re getting some of the things you ask for—because we don’t do things without a payoff. Even the payoff of being a victim is that you get victimized and then you’re right. Even though you really missed what they took from you, you’re right. And some people will do that rather than do loving.

Don’t lose track of where your joy comes from, because you could hear a song out here, and one person likes it and the other one doesn’t. Where’s the difference if they’re hearing the same thing? Inside. So if somebody doesn’t like what you like, you have to compromise. Listen to the first part of theirs and the last part of yours. Then everybody will be miserable. Or just say that this particular song won’t be in our relationship. Say that yelling at each other will not be in our relationship—or tell them if you want to yell at me, go far enough away so I can’t hear it, and then yell. Or go in the car and turn on the radio really loud and roll up all the windows and yell.

This is about you going inward—and if you want to find me, go there. If you can’t go there get a picture, or if you can’t do that, get a DVD and if you can’t do that, come to a seminar. Why is that the last one? Because that’s the way it works.

And yet at the same time we all know that in the process of giving information, the more senses that we can touch and reach, the more chance you have of getting it. And you can sit here in this room physically with all of us and not get what’s happening—because you think the words have to be a certain way. Many many years ago I said it doesn’t matter what I say. I can say, “Ham and eggs, ham and eggs, ham and eggs, ham and eggs,” and the spirit will move upon you because it’s anchored through here. How do I do that? You have to be lucky enough to catch it—but it seems to favor those who are prepared.

And so we say let’s prepare you. How? Use everything for your advancement, upliftment and growth. So we look to the churches and temples and cathedrals, man-made objects that say, “This is where God lives. This is the house of God.” You should see the house of God. God is in this room as us, with us, being with us, because that’s how big He is.

Everybody wants a little bit more. They want God to give them a gift. You’re alive and you’re breathing—there’s His gift. Well how about the rest of it? That’s your experiences and your karmas and anything else that’s rolling at you. That’s for you to use. Why? God is responsible for His creation and you’re responsible for yours. Because as Jesus said, “Ye are gods.”

The spiritual scientist learns the information, experiencing it and ingraining it into their consciousness, and producing it out into the world. One of the greatest scientists that came onto the planet was Jesus Christ. And he demonstrated and showed people continuously.

Many people who have been asleep since the time of Jesus are still asleep. They didn’t have a resurrection. A lot of them said that we live again or we live in another place. Egyptians embalmed for that. Some people who were of the Hebrew faith wanted to be buried facing the holy city of Jerusalem. Many years ago, I was flying with one of my teachers from Salt Lake City to San Francisco and she turned around and grabbed hold of my hand and said, “Oh, my God! I just saw the new Jerusalem, and it’s ready to come down.” I said, “Do you think it will be out here or someplace over Reno?” She looked out and said, “No it doesn’t look like that.” I said, “No, it will be new.” She described it to me in great detail.

And later on her health improved. She saw a true vision of something, and whatever she called it was fine with me because it was her vision. I never went around trying to disprove it or make her wrong. I didn’t see it, but if she could, that was good enough for me. I just stayed very close because if she saw it, and it was being prepared to be dropped down, then maybe we could get out of the way if it was going to come down on us. Then many years later I saw it while I was over Jakarta in Bali. And I thought, “Wow, this new Jerusalem is going to come down all over the planet—because it seems ridiculous that God would choose just Jerusalem.” Even though it’s a holy vortex, there are others like that.

When initiates get together in a room, we open a vortex of energy. The same thing happens with ministers, and the same thing happens when you serve people. The vortex opens. I used to have a lot of trouble with the idea that Jesus is the only begotten son of God, when the Bible says you are all Gods. We’re not sons—we’re already developed.

To all of you people around the world that are listening to us, God bless you each and every one. And may God shine His Light fully within your heart. May you be forever blessed. May you see that what comes your way is always your blessing. If today didn’t work out too well, do tomorrow a little differently. If you don’t like the job you’re in, start looking for another one. Keep expanding and keep growing because that’s the way it’s been set up for us spiritually.
Baruch Bashan