Be where your body is. Know that you are reading these words. Observe your mind wandering away into daydreams and nightmares. Bring yourself back to this moment. Be where your body is.
  This is the todays message.  I find it not so easy. Espessially I am doing this exercise when I am playing clarinet. And when I am really there where my body is (feel my fingers on the clarinet and just be where I am) it is a wonderfull playing full of joy and oneness. But this lasts only a short time before my mind is wandering again. And then again I bring myself back to the place where I am. And then the game starts again and so on... I think you all know this game. Love to you Monika

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.

The Black Forest

Good Morning from Maulburg, Germany. I arrived here yesterday.  Martin drove me here from Switzerland and the drive was full of sunshine and meaningful conversation. Christel prepared a  meal of beets from her garden, tomato salad from her garden, and soup. Altogether lovely. We had tea and coffee and nice conversation before Martin had to return to his home in Oberwil, his wife, Gabriela and his little blue-eyed wonder child, Nina, who is learning to speak English. It was a day for gratitude for good friends and good energy, a day of transition from one place to another.

Now is time to prepare for the next seminar, which begins this weekend. I am happy I will see some of you there and we will do deep and astounding work together. The first step is showing up for yourself. If you are unable to attend physically, I invite you to be with us in mind and spirit this weekend. Just think of us here with the angels and the angels will think of you. In this way, you can have your own seminar, wherever you are. The closer you draw to angels, the closer angels draw to you. This is universal law.

This morning I awake to intense green, bright fuchsia and red berries, since my window looks out on the garden. Complete silence filled my inner and outer world. Moments of absolute inner silence are moments when we are living in the beauty of the present moment, at one with all that is. I wish you moments of inner silence today, no matter what is happening in your outer world. I wish you the freedom and courage to live here in the present moment, awake, aware, alive in God's world.

Beloved

Beloved Students, 
Beloved is one of my favorite words. 

Beloved
Be Loved
Be Love
Be
Love
Beloved.

Wouldn't it be nice if we filled ourselves up with our favorite words every day? I am reminded of the song from The Sound of Music, My Favorite Things, which you can read be clicking to the next page (below). Remember that song? It is filled with zest, enthusiasm, positive energy! Just singing it can lift us from our blues. The question is, do we want to be lifted from our blues? On this earth plane, we learn to love our blues so much that we are not willing to trade them for other colors, happy colors. This is not to say that blue is not a lovely color, only that we do not have to live in the blues. We can live in the colors we choose. And this is a very happy thought. So next time you have the blues, sing the Favorite Things song, or make up your own. Dance, clap, and shake those blues right out of your head. Remember your favorite things. Remember the angels. Dance with the angels in your heart and soul. Imagine your space filled with angels, angels of light, angels of all colors, angels of truth and beauty, shining just for you, in all their wisdom, compassion, and true love.
Click here for My Favorite Things:

First Evening of the Oberwil Seminar

It was a great evening. Some of your classmates are attending the seminar, so it is very good energy, and I am so happy to meet them after a year. It is a wonderful group. Tomorrow I hear ti will rain here in Oberwil, so it will be a good time to be inside in the presence of angels. See some of you there this weekend!

Greetings from Oberwil, Switzerland

I am snuggled in a nice bed writing this. Here in Switzerland I stay with Martin, Gabriela, and their nice daughter, Nina, in a house overlooking Lake Zug and surrounded by mountains. I just finished giving a talk this evening. I enjoyed speaking to the people who came. It was fun and always great to be sharing the energy of the angels. I love this job!

I flew into Basel and Christel and Rudy came to pick me up at the airport, and I stayed with them to relax a bit from jetlag, before coming here. This morning I woke up and did my Qigong strength training. It feels so good to the body to do what is good for it. It only takes awhile, then I can move easily through the rest of the day, knowing I have given my body positive movement.

Well, time to sleep, though for some of you, it is time to wake up on the other side of the world. Sweet dreams or sweet awakening, wherever you are.

dream

 it started with this horrible nightmare I had about an evacuation of the town we were living in. I'm not sure exactly why we were told to get on the lined up buses with one bag and leave everything else behind. The chaos was unforgettable Everyone was screaming and pushing and tried to leave with the first bus, even they were many buses standing by.I  told my husband that I noticed other people who clearly didn't do what they were told and just walked back to their homes. He wanted to take the next bus and I actually did as well. It was noisy and I couldn't even think straight. But something stronger kept me back...we stayed and I woke up sweating and very upset.

The nightmare followed me the whole day. But a few hours into the day I realized we stayed there in peace and I did exactly what my heart told me to do. My ego went on such a frantic outburst blaming me to be responsible for any harm to me or my husband. But my heart and instinct told me different. I realized there was no proof for safety at the end of the bus ride. The "egos" nightmare turned during the day into a  positive dream.

I know: thanks to our lessons I was able to analyze my nightmare and was able to understand what happened.



has our ego such a big  influence even in dreams???
ursula

EUROPEAN TOUR SEPT. 15 - OCT. 18

As John Denver sang so well, I'm leaving on a jet plane...hate to wake you up to say good bye....though the point of your school, the point of yet another trip to Europe, the point of all the seminars and readings I do wherever I am....is to wake you up. Waking you up is what angels love best! 

We are all  groggy with thoughts, groggy with dreams, groggy with feelings, groggy with believing our stories, groggy with believing we are no more than these bodies. We awaken gradually from the sleep of the world. We begin to realize that our way of perceiving the world and ourselves is limited, based upon the ideas and beliefs we have accepted as true.

As of now, you all have your new lessons, so you all have another tool to help you wake up from the sleep of the world, the sleep of  believing you are who you think you are. Who do you think you are? Are you willing to see beyond your thoughts?

Some of you I will see at a seminar. I love having students of our school gather together to focus upon Truth. That is so rare in this world. It is rarer than you might imagine. I so appreciate each of you who is willing to take yet another step closer to the Light. Keep in mind...when you move closer to Truth, truth moves closer to you. This is universal law.

And thanks to our recent posters here in Your Open Classroom, Monika, Ursula, Kevin, and me! I know from my own experience that the more open and vulnerable I let myself be here in our school, before God and angels, and in every aspect of my spiritual path, the more I benefit.

I look forward to seeing some of you soon. We will do tremendous work together.  But don't take my word for it, come and find out for yourself.

On Saturday night I'm leaving on a jet plane, love to wake you up to say hello!

All love,
your teacher

 

Some more of Mongolia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3RtyiFDlqE&feature=related

MONIKA IN MONGOLIA

Steckengeblieben! In der Mongolei wie im richtigen Leben heißt das: Zusehen daß und wie es weitergeht. Den Moment nehmen und das Beste draus machen, immer wieder.

Being stuck! In Mongolia and in real life it means: To look  that and how it goes on. Taking the Moment and do the best with it, again and again.
Love is always the solution and I wonder that is not always present in my conscious mind and being.
Monika

Smiling Angel

Your classmate, Ursula, emailed this wonderful smiling angel. She also sent me a postcard with this angel. Ursula saw this angel at the Cathedrale Notre-Dame Reims in France when she was in France with her husband this summer. This angel looks happy the way angels really are! The postcard says that it is the angel Gabriel. Or at least what someone thinks  Gabriel looks like.



LESSON 48 Living in the Present Moment

Thanks for my newest lesson. I am on #48 but it doesn't seem like so much time has passed. I like to think of myself as always a new student. And I do like the pdf form, but getting the lessons in the online schoolroom works just as well for me. I find myself wishing that more students would share their experiences here, but even when they don't, I know they are here, reading the words that are written here. I am presently working on consciously staying in the present moment. For me that means noticing when my thoughts are in the fear of the future, fantasizing, or wrapped up in the past. This is an exercise in awareness. Lesson 48, Living in the Present Moment really hits the spot. Thanks, as always.

WAKE UP CALL!

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000176 EndHTML:0000005630 StartFragment:0000002068 EndFragment:0000005594 SourceURL:file:///Users/Indira/Documents/BLOGGER%20POSTS%207%2F12.doc

The angels gave me a bright and early wake up call this morning. I am house-sitting for my 82 year old friend who is off on a cruise down the Amazon River. How's that for keeping active in your elder years?

Well, I stepped out of her shower onto her marble floor, slipped, and fell, hitting my right hip on the way down, landing on my right elbow, and the back of my lower head hit the edge of the marble shower. Ouch. I felt every blow! My elbow hurt the worst, so right away my attention went there. Have you ever noticed that your attention always goes to the place that hurts the most? This is true of both emotional and physical pain.

I was shocked and stunned. I waited to see if I was still alive and if I could get up. Obviously I am okay, since I am here writing this. My elbow still throbs. I have a big bruise on my hip. The back of my head is sore. But no broken bones. My arm still moves. What a blessing that is.

I felt it like a shock, like a great message from the angels...stay awake! Be aware! Be alert! Because there was no real reason I had to fall. We are always warned about people falling in showers...and as I lay there, I thought, oh yes, this is what they mean!

The universe is always giving us messages to stay awake...maybe not messages this big, but messages just the same. Why? Because the universe loves us. Angels want us to be safe and happy. But they cannot lay out the rug so that we step on it. Life can be over in a minute...my life could have ended that moment...the body is not meant to make such hard contact with hard marble. Bones are meant for feather beds, not marble floors!

And so I am passing this lesson and this message onto you, dear students, because I love you so much. Because the angels love you so much. Take care in each moment of your life. Be careful...that is, full of care for your precious being. As I lay on the floor in pain, but obviously not seriously injured...what I felt was this great love. I felt protected. Any maybe I was. I felt this great shock, which was like love going through me, saying, be careful, listen, stay awake, stay aware, wake up! Wake up entirely! Wake up from the sleep of the world! Wake up now! NOW! Wake up NOW! And stay awake!

It may seem strange to say that such a moment could bring so much love, but it did. It brought love and it brought me an important message. And now I pass this message onto you, dear students! Be careful, listen, stay awake, stay aware, wake up! Wake up entirely! Wake up from the sleep of the world! Wake up now! NOW! Wake up NOW! And stay awake!

Messages are always coming to us from many sources. We must only listen. We must be receptive. We must know that those messages are meant for us and not someone else.

EATING WELL

Just as we do not want to put toxic thoughts into our minds, which create toxic feelings, and often lead to toxic reactions...neither do we want to put toxic foods into our bodies. Both toxic thoughts and toxic foods can lead to stress and prolonged stress is harmful to both your physical and spiritual immune systems. Although eating organically when you can is best, here is a helpful list for foods that are relatively "clean" even when they are not organic. I am not sure if this list applies to countries other than the USA.

"If the cost of buying all organic isn't within your budget, fear not. Check out The Daily Green's list of fruit and vegetables so clean of pesticides you don't have to buy organic. Of course, buying organic is always a good choice for the health of farms and farm workers, regardless of the residue left on the end product. The feature also includes tips for buying, cleaning, storing and using each fruit and vegetable – as well as delicious recipes! Here's a look at the Environmental Working Group's 2011 Clean 15 List:
1. Onions
2. Sweet Corn
3. Pineapple
4. Avocado
5. Asparagus
6. Sweet peas
7. Mango
8. Eggplant
9. Cantaloupe (domestic)
10. Kiwi
11. Cabbage
12. Watermelon
13. Sweet Potatoes
14. Grapefruit
15. Mushrooms

Watermelon Salad

I haven't made this recipe, but it sounds yummy. I have been eating a lot of watermelon here in western New York State. It's so cool and refreshing on these hot humid days. It reminds me of drinking watermelon juice at a restaurant in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) near the Taj  Hotel, with fans whirling over head in the heat of the day. Lovely.

Ingredients

Makes 3 1-cup servings

3 cups seedless watermelon cubes
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion, rinsed
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint, or 1/2 teaspoon dried mint
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a salad bowl and toss to mix. If possible, chill before serving.

Morning in Amish Country

This morning there is time for quiet inner contemplation and peppermint tea with honey. I hope wherever you are that you are also taking time for inner contemplation. You can do this in so many ways. Walking. Writing. Meditation. Or just being absolutely aware as you go throughout your day. Being alone in the stillness is one of the best ways to discover more about yourself. I am always glad when I have the chance to be absolutely alone, especially when that aloneness is nature. Just as we must feed out physical body with nurturing food, so we must we feed out soul with beauty. I love being out here in Amish Country in Western New York State.