Well,
It seems that we've come to our seventh and last of the talks in this special e-course.
And talk number seven is called Walking the Path to a Peace that Never Dies.
But before we get into that,
I want to ask you,
Can you remember some time,
Hopefully recent,
Where you went back and read some book that you had always loved?
You heard a talk and went back and listened to it again because something in you at least suspected that there may have been more mentioned,
More ideas that resonate that you were able to catch with the first passage.
That's what I want to help you understand,
That we have these moments where we are suddenly aware of the fact that I know I read that book before,
Or I heard that talk before,
Or I read that quote and I felt something,
But I've come back to it and I can feel something more extraordinary.
I can see something that I couldn't see before.
I can hear something I couldn't hear before.
How do you think that happens?
And the answer is,
If you can see it,
It proves everything that we're talking about in these special talks.
The first time you hear something,
Read something,
Feel something about the truth,
It stirs that part of you waiting to be stirred by it.
And when that part is stirred by God,
It steps into the next level of its possibility.
So that when you go back,
It isn't you anymore listening,
Reading,
Studying.
It's something new that's been born in you because of your first initial work.
That's endless.
I promise you there is no end to that process.
It is eternal and it is immortal and it lives in you.
So remember that.
Go back.
Make notes if you haven't already.
Find the parts of this course that corresponded to something that you sensed or felt,
That you knew there was more to it,
And go back and let that moment prove to you that within you is more than you will ever be able to think about,
But that can only be realized each and every time you embrace the possibility that it represents,
And it does.
So let's look at our last topic,
Walking the path to a peace that never dies.
I'm going to tell you a story.
It's one of my favorite stories because it basically incorporates and embodies all of the principles that we've been looking at together into a single story and,
If you will,
A single conclusion.
A sports reporter for,
Let's say,
A large newspaper,
Was assigned to cover an international marathon hosted every single year by a particularly large city.
And from past experience,
He knew that thousands,
Literally thousands of people,
Would turn out to do what?
To test themselves over that grueling 26-mile course.
He had also seen 10 times that number line the streets to cheer the people on because they wanted to participate in the only way they could,
Which was as an observer,
To share in the experience.
But as this was like his umpteenth time that he'd been asked to cover the race,
He wanted to do something new.
He had already interviewed most of the likely winners more than once and he knew their backstories all too well and he decided that,
Given that history,
That he was going to cover the race from a different angle.
This year's story wouldn't be about the one who wins,
But it'd be about the person who finishes last.
So as always,
The day of the big race comes and he gets out there and he watches all the pomp and ceremony,
Including the usual confusion surrounding the runner's registration booth.
But not too long,
Thousands of people are wearing brightly colored jerseys with paper numbers pinned to the front and back of them and they're all lined up for the starting gun.
And then,
Boom!
Bang!
They're off.
It was only a little more than two hours later when,
I might add,
Setting a record time,
The first contestant crossed the finish line to the deafening cheers of admiring fans.
And as the minutes and hours,
Literally,
Ticked off the official clock,
More and more men and women made their way into the arms of family and friends who had cheered them along,
All waiting there for them to finish.
Slowly the throngs of people who had lined the streets faded back into the city's background,
Running their homes enriched and exhausted with the events of the day.
The sun was setting by the time the last group of runners came walking,
Some of them limping across the finish line.
And the reporter,
He wanted to go home too.
It was getting dark.
A chill was in the air,
But he knew the race wasn't over yet and nor was his work.
It was still a couple hours later when he spied the last contestant,
Making her way to the final checkpoint.
Her body fairly shouted the pain that she was in and clearly every single step was a struggle.
Standing there,
A wave of compassion swept through him.
For a moment he doubted the wisdom of his earlier conviction of interviewing the last runner.
And yet he was drawn.
Something about what he was seeing,
What he was seeing in the mirror of his own mind about her character,
Drew him to want to talk to her and sure enough,
Even though she was already suffering without being asked what was it like to finish dead last,
He walked up to her and asked her if she wouldn't mind if he asked her a few questions.
And at first due to the dim light cast by the city street lamps,
He doubted his own eyes.
As she got closer and closer to where he stood,
It looked like she was wearing a big smile across her face.
Soon enough he could see that in spite of the occasional involuntary grimaces of pain that she was in,
In fact,
Somehow she was happy.
In spite of being partially bent over with exhaustion,
We've all seen what these runners look like.
Her eyes were bright and something about her spirit was standing there upright undaunted.
And he couldn't help but feel strangely drawn to her.
Grabbing one of the sponsor supplied sport bottles with water in it,
He jogged over to the spot she was there and handed to her offering his congratulations.
Thanking him for his kindness,
She took a long deep swallow and then another one and then a moment later as she caught her breath,
He introduced himself as a reporter and asked if he might trouble her with just a couple of questions.
And as to his surprise,
She showed no hesitancy at all.
She said,
Well,
Of course,
What would you like to know?
Doing his best to make eye contact with her,
He hoped that she could see he sincerely wanted to understand how she was feeling.
At this point,
It was actually important to him knowing the kind of question that he was about to ask that she realized he was not sitting there judging her performance,
Not at all.
He was sincerely interested in the whole thing.
And he said to her,
Did you know that you're literally the very last person to finish this race?
Yeah.
She said,
That's pretty much what I expected.
Well,
No,
He said,
That's what I mean.
I mean,
The reporter said,
How do you feel?
How does it feel?
Again,
Trying to convey through his eyes at least that he really wanted to understand her feelings.
And he continued,
Do you have,
I don't know,
Any regrets that out of the thousands who ran this race today,
Not one of them took as much time as you did to reach the finish line?
She looked down at the ground for a moment and his heart went out to her because the last thing that he wanted her to feel was that he was belittling her or her efforts.
But the next moment she looked back up at him and her eyes smiling again,
She said something to him that he would never forget.
She said,
No,
I don't feel bad,
Not really at all.
Do you know why?
He said,
No,
I don't know why.
He said,
I'm at peace with myself.
He said,
I'd like to know what you mean because I think all of my readers would like to share your experience here today,
Let alone know something of this peace that you're talking about.
And she paused for a moment,
As we should do,
Take a nice deep breath so we can all catch the meaning of this story as I tell the end of it.
She collected her thoughts and she came as wide awake as she should and said,
I'm at peace because I ran as hard as I could for as long as I could.
So you see,
I have nothing to regret.
Besides,
She continued,
Her eyes flashing a kind of mischievous glow,
I'm pretty sure I'll do better next year.
Now that's not just a motivational story.
It is a spiritual tale that tells of the possibility that each and every last one of us holds within our heart,
Mind,
And soul.
Where if we will do all that we can,
As best we understand it,
And in every moment that that understanding comes to us in the shape of an awareness of ourselves,
That if we run the best race we can,
Even if we finish last,
Meaning even if we can't be and do who it is that we know we should be and do in that moment,
Even if for some reason we fall flat on our face,
Not finding the freedom that we hope to,
But rather find ourselves feeling more a captive than ever before,
Of a consciousness we were never aware of before,
Even in moments like that there is a peace that passes understanding.
Why?
Because that peace is already a part of your immortal self.
It waits for everyone who will walk that divine path,
Make the journey to the divine,
Because the fact of the matter is you can't fail.
If you do all that you can in every moment of the day to finish the race,
To do the best you know how to do given what you are given to do it with,
You have succeeded and you will know you have succeeded in a manner that your own imagination can't even grasp.
That's the beauty of a spiritual life.
The gradual but definite realization that you are created to awaken,
That you are meant as a man or a woman to realize that which can be realized in no other way and that is through your work to become an active present fulfillment of your own possibilities that only the presence within you can give you and show you how to fulfill.
I hope that you've learned something from these talks.
Everything depends upon what we are willing to do in every given moment of our life where life brings to us the possibility of understanding something a little more,
A little deeper,
A little truer about ourselves.
Be well.
