Well, tonight is sort of my coming out of the closet night. I'm confessing to my beliefs about 2012 tonight. I've been giving hints for the last three years, but tonight I'm coming out of the closet. Well, several years ago, I—about, I guess, maybe 11 or 12 years ago, I had a heartbreak, and I was so depressed, and I was very, very sad. And then I began to read my first Thich Nhat Hanh book, and for several months, I would see 11:11 several times every day. I had no idea what this was all about. I never experienced this sort of synchronistic thing before, and I didn't know if anyone else was experiencing this. It was not until years later that I started seeing people writing about their experiences. There's even a book now called 11:11.

But at the time, I was so innocent about the whole thing. When I looked within my heart to ask what the message was, what I came up with was it was sort of like encouragement from my spiritual friends, invisible spiritual friends, and encouragement from the universe to help me get through the times that I was going through to make sure wasn't going to kill myself or anything like that, to say to me that no matter how much I think my life is just not on the right track, everything is in perfect alignment, 1, 1, 1, 1. That is one of the meanings, and that I am part of the oneness, that I am integral to that. I'm a unique and special part of that. Each one of us is that way. None of us is left out. All of us have our unique and special and important place to play in this unfolding of history and the human story.

Well, three years ago around the time of the Winter Solstice of 2006, all of a sudden, out of the blue, I felt this sudden surge of energy in my whole body as if it was like some sort of knowing or knowledge I was downloading into my system, and in that moment, I just began to be so joyful because the knowing was that we are in a very powerful time in history, and the knowing was that—I mean, I had heard of the number 2012, like somewhere someone was saying something about that. I didn't really think much of it. But in that moment, it just struck me that there was something real and significant about that and that it was only a few years away and that this is a very powerful and important time.

Well, normally I'm not given to that sort of thing. I'm not into that. To me, that was really weird. But it was such a powerful experience I could not ignore it, so after that I took some time to meditate some more so I could clarify what this was so that it wasn't all jumbled with my own ego or my own jumbled thoughts or whatever. I wanted to be as clear as possible. So once I cleared—I did writing meditation, and what came forth was the great shift has begun. The great shift is beginning. And I wrote a whole page about it, and it's on the e-mail I sent out. There's a link to it. And also if you were at the Winter Solstice, it was also in the program. I don't know if any one of you went to the Friday thing. You can read it there.

And I just wrote from that deep place, but it is so different from what I was used to. I did not really out up to writing it, so I put it on an anonymous website as an anonymous person, and I just put it out there just in case someone needed to hear it somewhere. But this month, I decided, now it is just three years before 2012, three years, and it is three powerful years, three intensive years, three accelerated years. So it's time. So now I asked Cornell to change the description to say Brother ChiSing rather than just Brother or anonymous or whatever.

I've no idea what will happen after coming out of the closet about this. I don't know if that means that the sangha will dwindle to nothing or whatever or some weird 2012 backers start coming to sangha. I don't know. I'm just coming out of the closet on this and just trusting. And I'm not given to some of the weird stuff that some people are saying about it. That's not really the point.

To me, it is a spiritual wake-up call. It is an opportunity to really relook at where we are in history right now. It is just an opportunity to say, "What if? What if we have a chance in the next three years to make a major difference in our lives, and our community, and in our world? What if?" And what if we just acted as if we could? What if we could be fully enlightened than three years or at least a little enlightenment? What if? And what if we acted as if we could?

So that is what I feel like this is all about, and you know, the Winter Solstice of 2012 is very symbolic. It is 12-21-12, and the number 1 to me is a number about unity, and the number 2 is diversity. Unity and diversity are both important. And originally, unity comes first and out of that the diversity. The primary center is oneness from which the diversity arises, but in our last several thousand years of human history, we have really kind of reversed some of that, and we have kind of made difference more important than oneness. So 12 to 21 and now back to 12. And we're having the opportunity now to re-reversed that back to the original intention of the universe, which is that all these diversities and differences are within the oneness. So we're coming back to that oneness.

And also what is interesting is 11:11 that I had seen several years ago, I discovered recently that the exact time of the solstice on 12-21-2012 is at 11:11 universal time, which is so amazing to me, and I just find that so encouraging. I believe that we are at a time in history—and it doesn't mean everything is going to change instantaneously in one day. I don't think that's—I think that's kind of foolish to think that, but it is just the symbolic date to say that in this time of history for the next several years, we have an opportunity to completely change things, to bring it back to divine order, and I believe that we are at the cusp of the next part of our evolution as a species. You know, I think we are now called Homo sapiens sapiens, and I think the next turn of our evolution is to become Homo luminous, humans of the light, of the inner light, the infinite light, the divine light.

And like I said last week, we are being called to choose planetary priorities over personal preferences. That is what we are all being called to do, to really see what is serving the whole of the planet and not just being all so self absorbed in our own individual ego trips, but to open our heart to our oneness, to the largeness of who we really are.

When I was in Australia, I saw a lot of interesting signs that were telling me that I was on the right track. In fact, it was because of some of the signs that I really believed that I needed to go to Australia to the Parliament of World's Religions, because at the time I wanted to go a few months ago, but then I decided not to because of the finances.

But a few weeks before the Parliament began, I began to see—I like turn the TV on, and it would be a commercial about Australia, and I would turn the radio on, and someone would be talking about Australia. And then I would open a book, and it would be talking about a person who lives in Australia who did such and such. And it was just funny, and then before really needed to make the final decision whether is going to go, Cornell just out of the blue forwarded me this e-mail about the Parliament of World's Religions. I don't know why you did that, but it was just like the last straw.

Okay. I guess I need to go. And I called my friends I knew who were organizing a trip to go there from the Methodist group, and I said, "Is there still room for me to go along with you, and how much is the price now?" And then he gave me the price. I said, "Oh my goodness. That is just too much. There's just no way." But because of all the signs, I did meditate on it on it in the next day what came to my mind after meditation was to ask that person, "Can you ask the dean of your university if they would be willing to pay for the whole trip ahead of time for me and then let me just pay incrementally afterwards? I can do that, but with all that money at the same time, it is just too much for me." So he got back to me a few hours later, and yes, the dean approved.

So that was another sign for me. Like okay. I meant to go. And once I arrived, I really felt like yes, I was meant to be there. I flew from Dallas to Los Angeles, and then my flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, that flight was on Qantas Airlines. Guess what the flight number was? 108. For me, 108 is a very sacred number. It is a sacred number in Hinduism, in Buddhism, and it is sacred number in India, and I have been saying the number of 108 recently it a lot also.

And I think I told you this a few weeks or months ago. I was driving on the highway, and the car cut in front of me, and I looked at the license, and it was something-something-108. I thought, oh, that is kind of interesting. How humorous. And I was thinking it was just coincidental and humorous, but the next car that cut in front of me right after that was also something-something-108. And then I thought, okay. I'm listening. Universe, I'm paying attention now. But it just made me smile.

And so the fact that my flight from LA to Australia with 108 was just another confirmation from the universe to say that I am meant to be going to Australia. And once I was there, there were so many signs it showed me that yes, I was meant to be there. And what's interesting to me was with my flight from Sydney to Melbourne, Australia, where the Parliament actually was, the flight number wasn't 108, but when I looked at the ticket, it said, "Sequence number 108." And my gate was 108, so it was very odd to me.

But anyway, the sequence number meaning I was the 108th person to check-in at that counter that day, and so it was just very interesting to me. And then there were a few other numerical signs also around the 108 and the number 8 as well, but I don't want to get into all of that. I just wanted to share that with you just to let you know that this is not something special with me, that these are just signs for me because maybe I just need that encouragement right now to know that I am right on time and that I am on the right track.

But really that reality is actually true for every single person, no matter how much challenge yourself, no matter how much suffering you might've gone through, no matter how much doubt or uncertainty has shattered your life at some point, please be encouraged and know that you are exactly where you need to be right now. You've gone through exactly what you needed to go through to be who you are right now and to become what you're meant to become in this time in history, and everything that you are learning and experiencing is all part of this crazy, messy, perfect plan of becoming from baby Buddhas to fully mature Buddhas.

Since this time is the time of Christmas and Hanukkah and the Solstice and Kwanzaa—and actually for this particular year, it is also the time of the Muslim new year, I wanted to share a little bit about the teachings of Jesus actually. I'm looking at the time. I probably need to wait on that one. But I will just share this one little bit. Through my Buddhist practice, I've come to have a greater understanding of the teachings of Jesus. Through meditation, now when I read the Scriptures after meditating for so many years, it is just easier to understand the deeper meaning. And sometimes they are unique meanings, not necessarily the actual intended meaning of Scripture, but sometimes there is a meaning that is for you or a meaning that is a unique angle on the meaning.

For example, when Jesus broke bread and shared his cup with his disciples on the last day before he was crucified, he said, "Take. Eat. This is my body. Drink. This is my blood." When I was meditating on that Scripture a few years ago, the insight that came to me was, oh, when Jesus said, "This is my body," most of the time we thought it was pointing to the bread or to the literal cup, the drink. But what if he was saying, "This," referring to the verb, action sharing and giving, giving, feeding others. This action of giving and sharing food and nourishing others through our lives, that is the divine body. That is the divine essence. That is who we really are. Who we really are, the Christ of who we really are, our Buddha nature is this activity of sharing and flowing with the abundance of the universe and of love. That is just one little a sample, and I could give you several of different, special unique understandings of the Scriptures because of meditation practice.

So in this very powerful time in history, I just want to encourage you to take the next three years seriously. Really put your whole heart into your practice. Really allow the revelations to come and the insights to come so that we can take all of the ancestral wisdom of Jesus and Buddha and Mohammed and anyone else, all the Native American ancestors, everybody, Sikhs, the Jews, the Hindus, and bring light, bring them to light or that they are no longer dead, old words, but become alive with new meaning for today. That is what we are about, so we are not trying to become the same thing, you know? We are not all trying to become Buddhas this year. We just want to become Homo luminous, humans of the light, and we express that light through many different ways, and we bring that light to shed upon our understanding of our ancestral wisdom as well.

Well, there's a lot more want to share, but I will save it to share over the next several months. Thank you for your practice, and thank you for sharing. Remember that I am just a cheerleader, and you are the real football players. Thank you.