Notes from Marianne Williamson’s lecture (Thursday, February 7, 2008 — NYC)

Jewish proverb: “Sad is he who dies whose song is not yet sung.” Russian proverb: “Our job is to be positive because we are the passion bearers”. The secret of life is to inhabit what your life is like right now (whether you are young or old) … Don’t miss this! Be sure to notice: This is a perfect moment. Be happy. Notice those moments when you are happy now. Spiritual growth means realizing you don’t lack anything. Notice where you are now. Where you are right now means you (in this moment) hold the key. It’s to your peril (bad for your future) if you are not living in the moment. The Universe has planned this as a moment to educate you — be sure you get it! The Course in Miracles: It’s not up to you whether you learn, but whether you learn through joy or pain. Asian culture says life is a spiral — what we don’t get, comes back around. The reason we like the story of The Titanic is because we are on the Titanic — the next few years, we’d better wake up! We must repudiate the patterns that got us to this point. Nuclear attack? Change the probability vector. Werner Erhard says: Live out of circumstances, or live out of a vision. Carl Jung: The big problems are unsolvable, they can only be outgrown. Al Gore — he broke through. You always have the choice: Are you going to get bitter, or are you going to get better? the quote from Carl Jung at the beginning of her new book on midlife: “the evening of our lives”… “Wholly unprepared, we embark upon the second half of life …we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false assumption that our truths and ideals will serve as before. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning — for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will in the evening become a lie.” line from a Bonnie Raitt song: “Life becomes more precious when there’s less of it to waste.” MW told how she bought a recent Joni Mitchell album/CD, and her first reaction was “Joni Mitchell’s voice is destroyed!” (deeper, wiser) Then she thought “she hasn’t lost her voice, she’s found it!” We (all of us) are not who we used to be. Your spiritual beloved is what completes you. The John Mayer song “Your body is a wonderland” … MW: Your soul is a wonderland. MW: We were all born carrying a promise — how can we make the world better — we must do something before we pass into eternity. **At a certain age, when the “revolving door” comes around again — and we reflect on mistakes we’ve made in the past — we must ask ourselves, will we get it right this time, or forever get it wrong? There is a greatness inside each of us — everything you’ve gone through has prepared you for this moment. When people are young, they are energized by adrenalin. Now, older, nature has you slow down, so you can be contemplative. (It’s not “worse” or a “decline.”) The concept of death coming on forces us into an appreciation of life. We must deal with this. MW: “If an issue is ‘up for you’ (on your mind), it’s ‘up’ for a reason.” talked about Ekhard Tolle/Oprah **Forgiveness isn’t easy, but it is imperative. Any lack of forgiveness blocks the flow of love. Al Gore’s stolen election — MW: we should have all gone to Washington to protest. Instead, we just stood on the sidlines and watched it happen. Al Gore himself told people not to go to Washington in protest. We must refuse to participate in a repressive system. Personal anger blocks your power. MW talked about doing an incantation from A Course in Miracles for three days, feeling love, feeling love, feeling love … and she flips on the TV, and the first person she sees is George W. Bush at the Republican Convention … must love even him, even if you disagree with 99 percent of what he says. Moral outrage is “a female thing” … the mama bear protects her cubs. Female hyaenas surround their cubs so they can eat, and keep the males from getting to the food. MW: Humans are not doing as well in preserving their young! Being angry doesn’t help. Great athletes don’t have time to indulge in emotionality. We all the problems on the planet, we don’t have time to indulge in this. Barack Obama is the only candidate who makes nuclear nonproliferation an issue. The only reason you have problems (marital, etc.) is because your ego is trying to block you from addressing the important problems on the planet. If you meditate, your time goes slower — so don’t say “I don’t have time to meditate.” Course in Miracles: You must respect and accept people for where they are — don’t say how people “should” behave — don’t have the audacity to judge other people. **Course in Miracles: the best way to reconcile with our parents on a spiritual level is to recognize that “your parents are not your parents” — if you recognize yourself as a child of god — you recognize these biological people as people who are doing the best they could. You may be putting effort into getting away from them and experiencing friction because you recognize they are not your source. **There is no serious spiritual work that does not require daily prayer and meditation — and always focus on the morning. Without morning meditation, you go out into the world with “yesterday’s stress” — and the stress of the world (though exposure to the news) Prayer and meditation burns off fear. If you pray and meditate every day, you will know when you hear the voice of god — whether you go out and change the world or you “stay in” and nurture your children. **There is always a descent into darkness before the ascent into light. You can’t “skip” it. Dark Night of the Soul — you can’t skip it. MW spoke of a woman she met whose husband died young, leaving her with their young children. People told her to “get over it” quickly. MW: No. This “get happy fast” mentality is wrong. You must deal with things. The happiest life has sad days. **Relationships: you can’t see the wonderland in another person until you see it in yourself. **To see the bad experiences in the world — once you’ve been through suffering, you emerge a different, deeper person — with a different capacity to love. **When we are open to experience, we no longer take anything for granted. Innocence leaves, but love remains.?