It's Wednesday afternoon as i write this sermon.  This weekend, with what i consider a fairly strange coincidence, i am spending the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia--the home of Thomas Jefferson.  And i had nothing to do with the plans.  It just so happens that Charlottesville is also where Dave Mathews gained his fame.  Go figure.

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Anyway, because i have put everything on the line, i thought i might as well go ahead and go all the way.  So, here is my last sermon before world peace.

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The goal after "World Peace" is "enlightenment".   And believe it or not, "enlightenment" is not as difficult to achieve as some would like to make it out to be.

No, "enlightenment is easy", you simply have to believe in the "genuine goodness" of your being, or soul.  Most everyone should be able to find the goodness of their soul, but . . .

But, if you cannot find the goodness of your soul, and come to believe in that goodness, then this is what you have to do.

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You have to learn Forgiveness.  Forgiveness is a subset of the virtue that i refer to as Friendship.  Forgiveness and Friendship are teammates--one just happens to be the captain.  Break down the word Forgive and you are being told "before you give".  Before you give, you should be genuine, or pure.

If you cannot learn to "forgive yourself", you will never be able to "forgive someone else" and you will never be truly enlightened..

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Now, lets go back to the three Qualities of the Bagavad Gita:  (1) Purity; (2) Passion; and (3) Ignorance.  Now, somewhat like me and my history, i am sure most of my followers can find sometime in their past when either "passion" and/or "ignorance" dominated "purity".  At least, i hope that most of my followers had such eperiences.  

Well, you have to "forgive" yourself of those past "exceptions" if you want to become enlightened.  Whatever they are.  The past is the past.  But that does not necessarily mean that is the future.  The future is up to you--the past is the past.  And the goal for the future is to be pure with your goodness, keeping passion and ignorance at bay.

Many people before me says that it is easier to achieve "enlightenment" when you are young--before you have mess everything up for yourself.  I have come to believe that it is easier to achieve enlightenment when you are older--when passions are much more tempered and hopefully ignorance is not an issue.

Regardless, enlightenment is available, you just have to want it.

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I am not sure, which of the above that you have to do first.  That is, goodness before forgiveness or forgiveness before goodness.  But you do need both if you want to achieve enlightenment.

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Have a good week ahead!   

And please forgive me for all of my sins.

Over and out now until World Peace.