About Awakening to Gratitude
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The history of the human race records how smart we can be and how destructive we can be....how cruel....how sublime.
Why so cruel? How so sublime?
Hello, everyone, Welcome to the Modern Mystic.
Each week I come to share Concepts of our Spiritual Nature and explore the Greater Purpose of our lives as lived here on Earth and beyond. I’m fascinated by Spiritual Ideas that speak to the needs of both Body and Soul. For the most part they are just good old common sense Ideas and are Laws of Life that have come through to us from Teaching of all time.
These programs focus on the Spiritual Good Sense that was so powerfully reiterated again in the Teaching of the One we know as Jesus....while including Inner Wisdom in all Spiritual Teaching from all Great Teachers, ancient and modern.
Many of these ancient Spiritual Disciplines are unknown to modern seekers....many are greatly misunderstood or misinterpreted....but all, when better understood and put into practice, will help to usher in the era of Peace and Harmony so badly needed.
All Spirituality was and is intended to raise the Consciousness (speed up the vibration of the Energy) of the human mind...to improve and evolve the way Life is lived on Earth.
The first step in raising our human consciousness is to embrace a non-judgmental, peaceful attitude toward all Life.
Thus, I have dedicated these programs to Peace and to the Prince of Peace...and to all the Great Ones who come and teach us and encourage us in the Way of Peace...
I Bless everyone who has ever labored for Peace....
I Bless all who encourage Peace as the Way of Life for the Souls who embody here.
Won’t you join me again today as together we say:
LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH AND LET IT BEGIN WITH ME!
One day in the near future, and I think 'sooner rather than later'....most of us will decide to look to 'God' (or to the Higher Mind of Universal Godness) for Answers....and in the Process will begin to allow our “Soul Mind” to help us solve any human situation.
We are reaching a point where our help comes from giving recognition to this Inner Presence....and by inviting It to enter in and assist our human efforts every step along the way. We will find....if we haven’t already, that it’s a simple matter of allowing the Christed Energy of the Soul (embodied Energy and Mind of the Holy Christ Self) to share our lives.
It’s time to stop trying to do everything by our human selves. It’s time to understand that allowing the expansion of Christ Energy will improve, not only our lives, but the Life of the planet. For in doing so, we help to “leaven the loaf of human consciousness” from which we all eat.
Many of us are ready for a New Approach to Life. And there are many directions in which we might go....however, since the Prince of Peace guides this work, I keep us focused on all Aspects of 'Christness'....especially on Christ Peace.... for within that Level of Peace are all the Attitudes needed for a well balanced life.
Today I speak about an attitude of AWAKENING TO GRATITUDE. I’ve spoken many times of the consequences of heedless thoughts, feelings and actions.
Today I want us to look at the good that comes from our constructive thoughts, feelings and actions.
And suggest that we consider every good deed and grateful thought as a Prayer....
if we like, a Prayer for Peace.
Let’s let every kind and good feeling, every action and every considerate word we speak be a Prayer of Gratitude that we Consciously send Heavenward.
Prayer is often relegated to certain moments of our day. Prayer is, by its very definition, considered a Specific Way to petition God. But as we see ourselves as both Body and Soul....human being and God Being....then we begin to see everything we do as an action that man and God are doing together.
If we look at it that way, we can turn everything we do into a Prayer, giving thanks for all the goodness that flows from the Greater Godness of Heaven, to Body and Soul on Earth. We see how it is we are Partners in moving Powerful Energy from Heaven to Earth.
And we are grateful for that knowledge.
So today’s thoughts focus on the Energy of Gratitude.
It is written in many places that our Gratitude opens the Doors of Heaven and that makes a lot of sense. For we all know how much it means to us when someone shows their gratitude for something we have done.
Just imagine, now, the Burst of Heart-felt God-Power that pours forth from the Supreme Being in Response to our Gratitude.
Our small Spark of Gratitude releases a small Wave of Energy.
But God’s Gratitude explodes outward and greatly expands the Christ Energy into the Universe.
It is so simple.
And the Simplicity of how Light expands in the Universe fools us....as our human minds complicates everything cosmic....taking simple Ideas and twisting them, often destroying their beautiful Meaning and Purpose.
God-Life is not complicated.
And so our lives can be a Prayer-in-Action....as we are living and praying.....doing it simply, moment by moment.
Those of us who are focused on Peace, need to be aware that
every moment of our lives is a Prayer for Peace....
as we think Peace,
as we feel Peace,
as we act out Peace
and speak only Peace.
We have become a Prayer for Peace.
There’s no excuse for the unpeacefulness of this planet. There’s no excuse for war on this planet. Every single person has the power to end war by 'living Peace'.
We all have the Power to expand Light by our good thoughts, feelings and actions.
We have the Power to expand Light by our feelings of Gratitude.
For surely we, especially in this country of America, are grateful for all we have here that makes our lives so comfortable...
surely we are grateful for the Peace we have in this country....
and surely we understand that we have a human/Soul Responsibility to ask God to expand Peace in this and in every country.
Do we understand that our Gratitude for Peace will raise the Vibration of the Planet, gradually, day by day.....each day making war less possible .Making anything less than Peace impossible.
Can we understand that this is the only way the darkness of war and hate and human mistakes will disappear?
We know that when we 'turn on the Light', darkness is no more....
it didn’t go anywhere, it just ceased to exist.
In the Consciousness of Peace, the human consciousness of war is no more.
And everything constructive is possible...including health and financial security for everyone.
The Answers to mankind's problems appear....and all 'lack' disappears....as we begin to KNOW WHO WE REALLY ARE ....which means Awakening to and Activating the Soulness, the Christness within each one of us, allowing Godness to function here on earth.
The bright side of our lives is that many of us are feeling a new, positive Spiritual Dynamic at work, all around us. We are learning to face our human situations with the conviction that even pain, can mean something positive.
Today there is world wide dissemination of Spiritual Information available to help us.
And today, we are free to read and study it.
We are free to explore and to personally discern the Truth of God in our own life experiences ....
free to grow in Knowledge about our Christ Self and I AM Presence.
And today, if we choose to do it, we can grow beyond the ever present Earth dramas of endless confusion, pain and conflict. We have unfettered use of our Free Will....
we have free choice to be or not to be the 'fullness of the human/Soul Partnership' on Earth
We are free to be whatever else God has in mind for us to be in Heaven.
I have often meditated on these Ideas. Some of the thoughts for this program are taken from Essays I called....“Awakening to Gratitude”. They were written many years ago when I was working through a health situation and needed to keep my mind focused away from the distress of the moment.
I knew there were many people far worse off. And that would set me to thinking of all the reasons I had to be thankful to the God Power I knew was active in my life.
One particular Essay focused on the health issue...and I began by writing how thankful I was to still be alive...
how grateful I was that I had made it through another day and night.
Speaking to my I AM Presence I wrote, “I’m not waiting until I understand the reasons for this pain. I thank you now for Life and for helping me grow through this experience. I know in time I will understand all things...I give thanks now for the health that will, in Your Good Time, return to this body. I put pain out of my mind as I thank you for the Gifts of Love and Healing....for the Gifts of Life....not only for today but for all my yesterdays and all my tomorrows.”
At another time I wrote, “Thinking of mistakes I’ve made, I am eternally grateful that You have never given up on the human-me and for knowing my human/Soul efforts are always guided to the fulfillment of some Divine Plan.”
On another page I found, “I am grateful to know some of the Laws of Life...to know that I can ask for forgiveness and for Heavenly Assistance for myself and for others. I am grateful to know that Love lives within my physical form....that all the Love I humanly long for, is the Christ Love that flows within me. I am Grateful I know I am always filled with Christ Light all the days and nights of my life.”
Another time I had reason to be concerned about a financial situation and in the wee dark hours of one night I sat and wrote.... “I gratefully acknowledge all the good that has ever been done for me all the days of my life....and I am grateful for the Solution to what feels like a human crisis today....for I know the solutions to this “money problem” are even now are being lowered into my life...I am grateful I know that every problem can be solved with enough Christ Light.”
I have shared these personal expressions of Gratitude to illustrate how a Feeling of Gratitude can be a Powerful Force in our lives. I believe the history of my life would be very different today, if I had not had the Understanding that all can be resolved with enough Christ Light.
And Peace in the world....and the problems in America and elsewhere....these can be resolved with enough Christ Light flowing through us into the 'problems'. Most of us have so much to be grateful for.
And the Power we call God, knowing our hearts, hearing our words and feeling our Gratitude, is already at work
enfolding all that is less than good here on Earth with “enough Christ Light'.
Here is a formula for achieving Peace on Earth
and a Solution to all problems in America and throughout the world.
We are to remember that :
WE ARE MORE THAN WE HUMANLY APPEAR TO BE
THAT THERE IS A PEACEFUL, NON-WARRING WAY TO LIVE
THAT IT’S TIME WE UNDERSTAND THIS AND BEGIN TO APPRECIATE EACH OTHER....BOTH HUMANLY AND SPIRITUALLY.
THAT IT’S TIME TO STRIVE FOR AN ACCEPTABLE MODE OF INTERCHANGE AMONG ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH...THAT IT’S TIME TO KNOW WHO WE REALLY ARE.
IT’S TIME TO UNDERSTAND OUR INDIVIDUAL HUMAN/SOUL IMPORTANCE IN THE COSMIC SCHEME OF BOTH MAN AND GOD.
IT’S TIME TO EXTEND A GIFT OF COMPASSION, NOT ONLY TO OUR FELLOW MEN AND WOMEN, BUT TO OURSELVES AS WELL
IN DOING ALL THIS, WE WILL BE AMAZED HOW QUICKLY WE CAN HAVE PEACE IN OUR FAMILIES....PEACE IN OUR BUSINESS...
PEACE IN OUR GOVERNMENT....PEACE IN THE WHOLE WORLD....THE END OF WAR AT ALL LEVELS OF OUR LIVES. REMEMBER: ALL THAT IS NOT LOVE AND CONSIDERATION IS WAR........
SOME DAY, WHEN WE ARE ALLOWED TO READ THE RECORDS OF OUR LIVES, WE’LL BE SADDENED AND ASHAMED TO SEE HOW MUCH TIME AND ENERGY WE SPENT NOT BEING GRATEFUL FOR ALL THAT WAS GIVEN US....AND FOR ALL THE TIME SPENT WARRING WITH EACH OTHER.
BUT, NOW WE HAVE LEARNED NOT TO DO THAT....NOW WE FEEL GRATITUDE FOR THE PEOPLE IN OUR LIVES....NOW WE LOVE AND NOW WE CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO ALL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD....
NOW....THAT LOVE AND THAT CARING WILL CHANGE US FOREVER.... FATHER, WE ARE GRATEFUL WE DO NOT LIVE ON THIS PLANET ALONE!
It is possible for everyone of us to approach Life with more Peace and more Gratitude. I truly believe that the day comes soon when EVERY human mind awakens to the Truth of it’s Soul partner. On that day we all re-connect to God, and in a minute, we know WHO WE REALLY ARE....and from then on the Awakened Human-us will have a Divine Partner ready to assist in the human/Soul journey. When this happens Spirituality becomes the Way of Life on Earth. The human lets the Soul leads the way. Ill-health and unhappy financial situations will be a part of our human past....for gratefully, we will be living in the time designed for us by our Souls....beyond the need to humanly suffer.....thanking God for Wisdom and for Grace.
I have received letters and phone calls from some of you who have asked me how I pray. I’ve talked about this several times in the past, but today, I will take my thinking out a bit further. There are many who don’t know any formal prayers.....still others who don’t know how to make up their own prayer....and there are those who are afraid to pray, fearing they may not be praying correctly. There are those who are actually afraid of God, and those who are angry with God. And wouldn’t be caught dead, praying.............
I believe there is no one right or wrong way to speak to God or to pray as we speak to a particular aspect of Deity. What is important here is our Desire to connect with the Supreme Power of the Universe....directly or through One of the Great Beings Who manifest the Christ Energy.
Our Desire opens a Connection, allowing our thoughts to flow through on that Desire. And what do we say to God....how do we say it? Perhaps we say it best when we just pour out our Love and Gratitude,
when we put our fears and concerns in Higher Hands....
when we pray for others,
when we pray unselfishly.
I believe our prayers have the greatest chance of being fulfilled when we are focused on what God desires for us and from us....rather than on what we want from God.
There are many powerful prayer formulas....every organized church has them....and we can learn them and use them if we wish to do so. Some have great power in Heaven, if for no other reason than that so much energy has been gathered around them....for example, THE LORD’S PRAYER IS very powerful and would benefit any one of us if we prayed It daily.
Then, there is this thought about prayer.
When we KNOW WHO WE REALLY ARE....WHAT OUR UNIQUE PURPOSE IS....HOW WE ARE DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO THE POWER WE THINK OF AS GOD, we realize that our every good thought, word, action and spoken word has to be a prayer We know this because, we, the human/Soul partnership, we are using the Energy of both Body and Soul as we pray for greater good. When we live in that mind-set, everything we do is “in sync” with what God wants done. And it becomes easy to see everything we do as a Prayer that fulfills the desires and needs of God.
Today, as part of our meditation I wish to share a Prayer I found in a little book written by Iyanla Vanzant....I love Iyanla. Everything she writes validates my Beliefs. This prayer she calls “A PRAYER FOR PEACE. But first:
LET’S TAKE A MOMENT TO GET AS QUIET AS POSSIBLE....WE’LL REINFORCE THE WALL OF WHITE LIGHT AROUND OURSELVES TO CREATE OUR QUIET PLACE....AND AGAIN FILL THAT PLACE WITH LIGHT FROM OUR HOLY CHRIST SELF.... SEEING THAT OPALESCENT LIGHT FLOWING INTO US FROM THE CHRIST SELF DIRECTLY ABOVE OUR BODIES.....KNOWING THAT CHRIST LIGHT IS THE HEART LIGHT OF ALMIGHTY GOD....
NOW AS WE OPEN OUR MINDS TO THE HIGHEST INFORMATION CHANNELS WE PRAY THIS PRAYER FOR WORLD PEACE
ASKING THAT EACH OF US BECOMES A CHANNEL FOR PEACE TO DESCEND TO EARTH
Iyanla addresses God this way.......
Precious Lord of the Universe:
Today I am laying down all weapons of anger and attack in my thoughts, words and my actions.
Today I am laying down the grievances and upsets that have led me to attack others and brutally assault myself.
Today I am laying down all thoughts of criticism and judgment, all words of destructive defensiveness and all acts of vengeance and violence against myself and all others.
Today I ask that you cleanse me of all thoughts and words of aggression, so that I may take the necessary steps toward being peaceful in my own heart and offering that peace to the world.
Today I ask that you remind me how important I am in ensuring the active Presence of Peace.
Today I am opening my heart and sending forth the Light of Love to all world leaders.
Today I am opening my mind to the creation and experience of a world where aggression and violence sleep forever.
Today, I am opening my eyes to be aware of everything I can do or say that will promote the Presence of Peace
Today, I realize that Peace begins with me.
Today I humbly surrender myself, every thought I think, every word I speak, everything I do, to the creation, maintenance and advancement of Peace.
Today I ask for Peace, I invite Peace in, and I dedicate myself to promoting Peace in my every experience.
Let the Light of Peace reign in me!
May the Presence of Peace reign in the world,
Let the Power of Peace shine forth through me!.
Let it be so!
AND THERE IT IS....repeating so much that I’ve been saying in these programs about our relationship with God. My intuition has shown me the Human/Soul Partnership and given me Ideas that come as thoughts, sometimes in visions....sometimes, they are written in bright Light across the screen in my mind. I’ve spent my life putting into practice meaningful bits and pieces of many Ideas of various philosophies and religions, and writing Ideas that demonstrate the Power of Peace within each one of us and our responsibility to awaken to that Power.
There are so many thoughts to share. There are the Insights gained through the study of ancient Spiritual Wisdom, much of which has been abandoned and is all but forgotten. For example there is so much to know about the Spirituality contained in the design of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx.
There is fantastic information being revealed in astrological maps of earlier times. With the computer skills available to us today we can probe back, back into ancient skies and study the configurations that give credence to what the mystics have been saying for thousands of years....
for example, new research offers support for Ideas that confirm the Star which informed the Magi of the birth of the Christ.
Ancient astrology and astronomy, once the same discipline, tell us that mankind was aware of a sun-centered solar system.....that the Pyramid’s astrological dimensions relate to the sun, which to ancient civilizations was a symbol of God and was symbolized by a star....
God, from the most ancient of times, has been symbolized by a star....our sun is a star. And ever since modern science pushed aside Spiritual Mythology and put in its place scientific astronomy, we educated Western people have been lost in space....
looking for scientific Ideas and reasons for what we see in the Universe ....looking to define the Universe itself....and science has left us without a viable creation myth. And thus we have become, an almost godless people.
Gratefully, God has hung in there with us. Gratefully there have always been a few Souls on earth who kept the Flame of Truth burning....and now science and technology are having to rethink some of their godless ideas, as science itself is beginning to prove what the mystics have said all along. I am fascinated by bits of information that speak to me about our Spirituality, ancient and modern. I see our relationship to A SUPREME BEING....and UNDERSTAND OUR PURPOSE ON EARTH.
In this mental, academic age, it’s easy to get hooked on information ....or get sidetracked and buried in endless information that fills our heads but leads us nowhere Spiritually.
There are many approaches to Spirituality I could take in which to cast my Belief System about WHO WE ARE AND WHAT OUR PURPOSE IS.
I have chosen to stay, for the most part, within the most basic Teaching of the Great One known as Jesus....
believing I’ve been asked by Him to do this....
and to do it in as simple a fashion as I can devise.
I do this knowing there are those who cannot believe any of this about a Soul evolved enough to embody the Christ Consciousness. However, science is now showing us that the entire solar system announced the Birth of One who was capable of anchoring the Christ Energy on Earth.
One we call, Jesus, did just that....
teaching us, we must do the same.
So, while we are counting our Blessings and giving thanks to God, let’s be grateful for new information....some of it coming in around ancient astrology that is validating many disputed Spiritual Ideas.
For example, the ancient skies describe the changing cycles....the change from Aries to the Piscean cycle....from the Piscean to the Aquarian today.
Two thousand years ago, in the Piscean cycle, the people of earth witnessed the descent of the Christ Energy to the Earth.
Two thousand years later, that Christ Energy is alive and well. and validated by Cosmic Information written in the skies.
So you can imagine there’s so much I would like to say about all of this....and I do recommend that any of you who are interested in these Ideas find the modern books on these subjects....much is being revealed, bringing new understanding and correcting much mis-understanding, about many historical Spiritual issues.
I allow myself only minimal time here to tiptoe into the waters of historical investigation about the Spiritual Issues that are interesting to me. I realize the importance to stay focused on Spiritual Issues...the most important being our human/Soul relationship.
It is so important not to scatter our Energy where it will not serve the immediate need. The Great Beings Who direct this part of the Universe need us in this hour...thus we give priority to LEARNING WHO WE REALLY ARE AND WHAT OUR COSMIC PURPOSE IS ON EARTH....doing it by working to develop personal Inner Peace.
If ever God needed us, we are needed now. And for most of us it only means adding a Spiritual Dimension to our daily activities....expanding our thoughts about God and mankind..... and then offering our services to Great Souls, who are giving all They are allowed to give to help us.
This isn’t just philosophical prattle. We have a responsibility to GROW UP and evolve the human/Soul Partnership. And through that connection, draw the Greater Power of our Christ Self and I AM Presence down onto the Earth plane.
In this simple, practical way we become the Channels for Light to flow onto the earth and into the lives of all who live here....it is a simple, natural flow of Energy.
We can believe in and be grateful for Conscious Minds, God Minds, directing the evolution of “our Universe”.
And believe and be grateful that there is a Level of Godness that is serious about the constructive evolution of this planet.
And believe and understand that we, Body and Soul, need to get serious about it too.
And finally, let me share this bit of personal philosophy with you.
The fast track to all we need, to live constructive lives on Earth and in Heaven, is to remember to put God first....asking not what God can do for us, but what we can do for God....
this is the Key to the Kingdom.
As we live in this Mind-set, we find that all things are then “added unto”, in perfect Divine Order.
LJC
11/26/01