SELF STUDY

Monthly Focus ~

LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME, ONE BREATH AT A TIME. LIVE IN THE MOMENT. LIVE IN THE HERE. LIVE IN THE NOW, AND YOU WILL LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST.

There is a statement in the Bible that says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Well, before I ever heard that statement I had a teacher that used to come to me and he would say, “Live one day at a time, one breath at a time. Live in the moment. Live in the here. Live in the now, and you will live life to the fullest.” That’s how he greeted me every morning, and then we would do whatever it was he wanted me to do that day.  And I still look at that phrase, and listen to that phrase, and say that phrase every day: “Live life to the fullest. Live it in the moment. Live it in the now. Live it very present as to, why am I here now? Why am I doing this now? Why am I saying this now? Where am I going with this now? How can I fulfill myself as a spiritual being and as a physical being right now?” That is all very very important.

Be in the world, one day at a time, one breath at a time.

Full Excerpt ~

Why not find a new way of handling your life? There’s a place inside of us where peace resides, where really true Peace, true Stillness, true Loving resides. And if we can begin to learn to live, not just be aware of and go there in our meditation, but live from there every day and every moment of every day, then we can do our life differently; we can enter into the day differently. And that’s a key.

There is a statement in the Bible that says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Well, before I ever heard that statement I had a teacher that used to come to me and he would say, “Live one day at a time, one breath at a time. Live in the moment. Live in the here. Live in the now, and you will live life to the fullest.” That’s how he greeted me every morning, and then we would do whatever it was he wanted me to do that day. And I still look at that phrase, and listen to that phrase, and say that phrase every day: “Live life to the fullest. Live it in the moment. Live it in the now. Live it very present as to, why am I here now? Why am I doing this now? Why am I saying this now? Where am I going with this now? How can I fulfill myself as a spiritual being and as a physical being right now?” That is all very very important.

Be in the world, one day at a time, one breath at a time.

How many of you are living not just today but yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that – judging and complaining about this and that, and carrying all that with you into the day, and now you are taking it into the future and going about all these things in the future that you have to do, and you don’t want to do, and how you’re going to do it, and how you’re going to avoid it? So, are you living right now, or are you living in the past and the future? A lot of us live in the past and the future.

I remember catching myself one time, I don’t even know how this happened but I got into an argument between two teachers at school. I was a student and they weren’t even my teachers, but I somehow got caught up in the middle of this argument. And I walked away from there totally bewildered, totally upset, not knowing what just happened, or why they said these things, and for the rest of the day I was running the  conversation over and over in my head trying to figure out, “Now if I had said this, maybe this would have happened. Well, why didn’t they say this, why did they say that?” Have you ever had those conversations going on in your mind where you’re trying to resolve it, you’re trying to fix it, you’re going to make it so it’s different from what it was by running it over and over in the past? It doesn’t work, does it?

Why not just accept what happened and move forward, and forgive and love whatever needs to be done there and move on? Live today, live right now. This is the moment. This is the precious moment. And if you can live aware, right now in this moment, and live it as full as you can, you will have fulfilled so much of your life and the next moment will be just as fulfilling. Even if you do nothing. Even if you’re just out for a walk observing, and looking at trees and flowers and birds and deer and water, and yet being in that moment to the fullest can truly fulfill so much of what it is you’re looking for.

Your body does have a longing for something – your emotions, your mind, there’s so many different components of the self and they’re all longing and looking for something to fulfill them. If we can bring them into alignment and find that place of stillness where the fulfillment can just flow, they all will be answered, they will all be quiet; and you can walk through life in a much more fulfilled way.

So stop, look, and listen. Stop and see what it is you’re really doing in the moment. Pay attention to what it is you’ve gotten yourself involved with, and is this really important to you? Is this really where you want to be? And make adjustments if you need to. Look around and see, “Where am I? Who am I with? Why am I here? Why are we doing this? Is this fulfilling me? Is this answering to me? Is this where I really need to be?”

And listen; stop talking for a minute, and listen! Listen to what is going on. Listen to the noises around you. Listen to the sounds outward and inward. Is this what you really want to hear? Is this really what you want to be told? Is this really the sounds of life that fulfill you or is there something else that could do that for you?

Make choices. You have a choice. You had a choice to be here today. I hope it was a good choice. But you have choices that you could make every day and every moment of every day.

So I’ll just go back to the very beginning: This pathway is about the path of meditation, about going within, about connecting with our own soul. That’s done by living in that movement of Loving where we love God and God Loves us, and we begin to awaken to the greater Truth; the Truth of Life, the Truth of Loving, the Truth of Soul, the Truth of Spirit. There are two truths that we can follow: the Truth of Spirit, and the truth of the world. They’re not the same.

Find out what truth you’re following and see if that’s the truth you want to continue to follow. And if it is that’s great; and if it isn’t then begin to research and find that truth that will fulfill you. For me that’s meditation, and it’s going inside, it’s connecting to that Loving, and it’s getting into that place of simplicity.

Monthly Focus “going Home work” ~

1. Do two and a half hours of meditation daily, and then listen to the talk by Jim Gordon titled: LIVE IN THE MOVEMENT OF LOVING | 11/12/2017
2. Listen to the meditation by Jim Gordon titled: LIVE IN THE MOVEMENT OF LOVING | 11/12/2017
3. Journaling Exercise: Journal the following statements in bold ~
   1. So stop, look, and listen. Stop and see what it is you’re really doing in the moment. Pay attention to what it is you’ve gotten yourself involved with, and is this really important to you? Is this really where you want to be? And make adjustments if you need to. Look around and see, “Where am I? Who am I with? Why am I here? Why are we doing this? Is this fulfilling me? Is this answering to me? Is this where I really need to be?”
   2. And listen; stop talking for a minute, and listen! Listen to what is going on. Listen to the noises around you. Listen to the sounds outward and inward. Is this what you really want to hear? Is this really what you want to be told? Is this really the sounds of life that fulfill you or is there something else that could do that for you?
   3. Make choices. You have a choice. You had a choice to be here today. I hope it was a good choice. But you have choices that you could make every day and every moment of every day. What choices are you making every day, every moment of every day?
   4. Find out what truth you’re following and see if that’s the truth you want to continue to follow. What truth are you following?