DEAREST STUDENTS ♬

I have returned from a successful and rewarding tour in Europe where I was happy to see many of you. Thank you to those of you who took part in talks, readings, and seminars, as well as to those of you who gave your service: Christel and Jutta in Maulburg, Martin in Oberwil, Monika in Mainz, and Johanna in Maibach. 

Be sure to thank yourself if you showed up in any way during this time - even if you were unable to participate, but still stayed focused and centered on God and your spiritual work.

Some of you tell me that you have fallen behind in your lessons. What does this mean, really? If you are truly focused on your path, if you are doing something everyday (hopefully each moment) to come closer to God, to understand yourself, and use your time on earth wisely -- perhaps it means nothing. 

The question is: where and how do you spend your precious valuable time? In the spirit of Truth? Or do you let negativity and fear take over your mind? Do you think you have forever to find God? You don't. You have only this moment. This moment is all you ever have.

Reading your lessons is not that hard. It is simple. It is as simple as reading one paragraph a day. ONE. Is that too much to give to your spiritual upliftment? If you read and contemplate only one paragraph a day, you would be doing at least one thing each day for your spiritual life.

For example, if I go the last lesson I wrote, and choose a paragraph at random - let me see - okay:

"Do not blindly believe clichés. Coming out of unconsciousness means becoming aware of the clichés that limit and control our thinking, and consequently our lives. Mindless beliefs about what we ‘should’ be weigh us down so that we cannot rise into happiness. Societies ideas about what it means to be a success keep us in misery. These ideas keep us comparing our lives and our progress with other people, which only results in suffering. These ideas keep us in competition with each other. They breed jealousy, envy, and contempt. They separate us from others, ourselves, and God."

Now, isn't that a valuable paragraph to read? Isn't there a lot to contemplate in these words? Since some of you are not on Lesson 50, let me try an earlier lesson - okay I went to Lesson 37 and chose at random:

"This lesson is not about shaming and blaming other people for the way they are. It is not about making other people responsible for our inner experience. It is about understanding our inner experience and the way we allow ourselves to be affected by outer situations, events, and people. Surely by now, if you have been keeping up with your lessons, you have learned the freeing truth about accepting responsibility for your own experience. You have learned that you hold the key♬ to your own freedom. You have learned that holding other people responsible for your pain is a sure-fire way to keep yourself a prisoner of other people’s opinions of you."

If you do not read even one sentence from your lesson each day - just one - than do not say you do not have time. Say what is true. You choose not to read your lesson. You choose something else. What is it that you choose?

If your life is authentically happy; if your mind dwells constantly in light; if all your relationships are harmonious; if you see the face of God wherever you look; if fear and worry never take over your life; if negative habits never control you; if you have risen beyond being a mechanical being, reacting to events, situations, and people around you; if you are as free as Jesus was, or the Budhha, or a leaf in the wind  - then perhaps you are living a totally awakened life.

Even Jesus, even Buddha, even every great being that ever has lived, so far as I know, they all continued to walk the path of Truth. They wrote. They read. They taught. They prayed. They meditated. They gave their last breath to God.

They did not sit around and complain that life was too much, too hard, that they had no time for their spiritual life. Remember Jesus? When he went to pray and asked his disciples to stay awake? And they fell asleep? We can read much symbology into this. It could be a whole lesson! But for now, think about staying awake. Think about what helps you stay awake. Then do it. Stay awake each moment. Do not let yourself fall to sleep for even one moment. That might be just the moment you need to stay awake.

Someone I know was recently badly injured, I don't know how badly yet ... when he jumped from the rocks into a rocky sea. Why? He thought he was overcoming fear. He thought he was getting attention. He thought he was having fun. He wasn't thinking. He wasn't thinking at all. He was asleep.

Stay awake! Stay conscious. The only leap into the unknown that you want to take is the leap into the ocean of God. You want to let go of the old familiar ways of being that are so comfortable to your ego  - and leap - leap into God. Leap even though you are afraid. Do not worry. You need no courage. God has all the courage you need. 

This is the point, the secret to spiritual enlightenment  - we must leap even though we do not know what we are leaping into. W must completely let go of trusting the small will and leap into the higher will. We must trust the Infinite, even when we do not know what It is. How can you know until you go? Until you take that dive into the Unknown?

We leave you with these words: As unknown as it is to you now, it will be completely Known when you take that leap.

Morning Tea

Here in Germany the morning is dressing itself in clouds and bits of sunshine in preparation to meet the day. Today I give a "mini-seminar" and some of you will be there.

by Thomas Leininger  www.soul-pics.com

Now I am drinking tea and taking time to write to you, thinking of each of you, wherever you are, asleep or awake. The world is brilliant with lessons to help us wake up when we are willing to look deep into ourselves. The path is not always easy. Easy is for the lazy. Not that it isn't okay to be lazy sometimes. We all need to take breaks from the world. Just be lazy with awareness. Do not harshly condemn yourself for anything. And if you do harshly judge yourself, then do not judge yourself for judging yourself.

Greetings from Mainz, Germany

I arrived yesterday and had a day off today, before beginning readings tomorrow. Some of you I will meet here, for a reading or a seminar. I am staying with your classmate, Monika. We walked in the forest in the rain and my feet turned to puddles, but my woolen socks kept me warm. We saw a fox as we walked through a meadow. When it saw us, it ran into the forest. This is the 3rd fox I have ever seen in the wild. It is always a bit miraculous to me, foxes being such elusive creatures. Miracles abound each moment when we stay awake in the present moment.

Have you ever noticed that fear and self-doubt take you out of the present moment? The present moment is the eternal moment, the only moment there is. The present moment is timeless. Only when we think in time do we become agitated, tense, and unhappy. We contract, smaller and smaller.

You can notice this for yourself. You can notice the way energy contracts into the solar plexus, bringing feelings of fear when you think of fearful thoughts.

When there are no thoughts of fear and limitation, you feel wide and expansive. The energy expands, become wider and wider, dissolving the sense of separation.