SELF STUDY

Monthly Focus ~ 

“We are Soul. We are a child of God. We are that Living Loving Essence of God in this creation. And in all of creation we are that Living Loving Essence of God. And it is for us to stop, to pay attention, to wake up to that truth and to begin to live that truth on a daily basis. 

One of the things that truly shows and demonstrates the quality of the soul is taking action. Loving is an action. Forgiveness is an action. Responsibility is an action. Moving into your life and being creative, productive, is an action. Being caring and reaching out and being empathetic, not sympathetic, but empathetic with others is an action of the soul.”

Full Excerpt ~ Jim Gordon

Action is a very, very key point in this spiritual journey. How many of us live in reaction? 

Well, when we’re in Spirit, when we’re in our soul, when we are living in the Realms of Spirit, we live in Oneness. There is no duality. There is only Oneness, and so there’s only action. There is not reaction. There’s only action that the soul is taking every moment of every … well, you can’t say day because there is no day there. But, in every moment we are ever in action in God’s Loving, we are ever in action in God’s awareness, we are ever in action with God’s creativity, and we are a part of that action that God is expressing of God’s self.

And in Spirit, it’s easy to be in action because it is a natural rhythm, and flow, and movement of our soul and of God’s Loving. But when we come down into these creations in the lower realms that are separate from God, we go into a place of duality. When the energy and consciousness of action comes into duality, it splits just like everything else splits. We have up and down, we have right and wrong, we have so many different qualities of duality. And so it is with action. The other side of action and duality is reaction. Reaction creates greater separation, where action can bring us more and more into that flow of the oneness within ourselves.

So how many times a day do you catch yourself in reaction? How many times a day are you living in and out of reaction? For many of us, it’s a lot because that’s how we were raised. We may have been raised in families that were constantly in reaction with each other. And what happens when there’s a reaction? You want to protect yourself, you want to defend yourself, you want to attack others, you want to prove a point, whatever it might be. Look and see what you do with reaction and see if reaction takes you more into that place of Loving, into that place of Spirit, or does it take you further away? I’m not going to answer that because I think it’s pretty obvious, but you may have a different answer than I do, and I would rather you find your own answer and see how you want to pursue living in action or in reaction.

Action truly is a movement of the Divinity within you, of being ever active and in Oneness with that flow of the Divine within yourself, to be in that movement of Loving. And that’s the important factor here, that we as souls are ever looking for that Loving, that Oneness, that harmony, that expression, that peace, that movement of liberation. Action can lead us into freedom, where reaction creates a greater bond into separation and bondage, bondage into this creation, bondage into this realm of separation from the Truth. Action will take you into the Truth itself.

So begin to pay attention in your daily life. Where are you taking action in your life and where are you going into reaction? You would think it’s very obvious, but you’ll be surprised if you really begin to pay attention how many times a day you’re living in reaction, you’re moving in reaction, you’re letting other people’s reactions stimulate your reaction. You might even take rejoice in how you can go into reaction and cause everybody else to go into reaction. “Wow, that feels good. I got them right where I want them, in the same pain and separation from the self that I’m in. Now we’re all in it together. That makes me feel so much better.” Well, there are people that do that every day.

How many times a day do you live in action? Do you choose to be in action? Do you take action in your daily life? Well, taking action has a great movement of Spirit within it, and it takes us onto the avenue where responsibility and judgment reside. When you’re taking action, you’re not going to be in judgment. When you’re taking action, you are going to take responsibility. You’re going to take responsibility for your thoughts and your feelings, your actions, and your reactions, just like we talk about so much here. And that’s really important – to take responsibility for ourselves and what we do with our own beingness.

We are Soul. We are a child of God. We are that Living Loving Essence of God in this creation, and in all of creation we are that Living Loving Essence of God. It is for us to stop, to pay attention, to wake up to that truth, and to begin to live that truth on a daily basis. 

One of the things that truly shows and demonstrates the quality of the soul is taking action. Loving is an action. Forgiveness is an action. Responsibility is an action. Moving into your life and being creative, productive, is an action. Being caring and reaching out and being empathetic, not sympathetic, but empathetic with others is an action of the soul.

When we can begin to live in that quality of action, of the truth of who we really are as the Living Loving Essence of God, we truly begin to move in a very different way in our life. We find peace, we find joy, we find a harmony inside of ourselves, and we find so much more. But when we live in reaction, those qualities go out the window and we live in a very different space, in a very different way.

I think most of us all know what reaction really feels like. We know it when other people react to us and we know it when we react to others. Why not now, begin to really look and pay attention and take responsibility and find a way to let go of the reactions and move more in action.

Action can be as simple as listening to someone and giving them a chance to talk and to share and to say their truth without yourself going into reaction and all of a sudden starting to create a conversation inside yourself of what you’ve got to tell them because they’re wrong. Why not let them be in that wrongness that you’re claiming for themselves? Let them find out for themselves what is their truth rather than you trying to dictate to them their truth? Why not just be in the action of listening and accepting and allowing?

If someone comes up and says, “Here’s what’s going on for me,” and they say nothing more than just share that with what’s going on for them, listen. But if they also indicate in that, “and do you have any understanding that maybe I don’t have, or could you give me clarity or what would you do in this if it was you?” Then share with them your truth. That’s an action. That’s not a reaction because they are inviting the conversation. Don’t share from your confusion or your reaction to what they have said, but rather go into your own truth and your own loving and your own experience of what they’re saying and how you have handled or taken action in that experience. If you don’t have a reference for that, then be truthful and say, “That’s a good question, and I don’t have an answer for that myself. So if you find out one, let me know what you find out, and if I find out one, I’ll let you know. But until then we’ll just walk down the road together and figure this out.”

So a key for action is paying attention. Paying attention to your thoughts, your feelings, your actions, your reactions, the words that you speak, the words that you think, and what you feel like in all of that. What are the feelings that come up with all of that action and reaction and responsibility? 

We often move in feelings more so than in thoughts. We’ll hide, we’ll defend, we’ll run away, we’ll move into fear, and we will live in reaction if our feelings are disturbed, stirred and we don’t know what to do with them, we don’t understand them, there’s no clarity about them.

But if you begin to take action in your thoughts and in your feelings, you can begin to regroup and redirect the flow of that energy, of that consciousness, of that expression within yourself. And all of a sudden you get a thought for every feeling and a feeling for every thought, and everything starts to come together and move together and flow together. That’s a key to inner healing; is to have a thought and a feeling that have harmonized in harmony with each other. 

Monthly Focus “going Home work” ~

1. Do two and a half hours of daily meditation.
2. Listen to the guided meditation by Brian Yeakey from Understanding God Through Action
3. Listen to the talk by Jim Gordon titled Understanding God Through Action
4. Journal focus for this month ~ Taking Action

• • Begin to pay attention in your daily life and make a list of where you are taking action in your life, and make a second list of where you are going into reaction. 
  • Would you rather be in reaction or in the Loving? If the answer is Loving, journal what action/s you can take to get into the Loving and out of reaction. For example: being honest with yourself and with others, letting go of expectations and attachments to your desires/wants/needs, let go and let God by meditating, doing LAF: letting go of control, fear, protection, and defense, etc.
  • What action/s can you take to demonstrate the quality of your soul (see contemplation quote below) in your daily life or in a situation or with a person you’re in reaction with? List all the ways you can express your soul’s loving through action.

      Contemplate the following … 

• • One of the things that truly shows and demonstrates the quality of the soul is taking action. Loving is an action. Forgiveness is an action. Responsibility is an action. Moving into your life and being creative, productive, is an action. Being caring and reaching out and being empathetic, not sympathetic, but empathetic with others is an action of the soul.