SELF STUDY

You were searching the world for treasure, but the real treasure is yourself. 

If you are tempted by bread, you will only find bread. 

What you seek for, you become. 

I will never leave this House of Light. I will never leave this blessed Town. 

For here I have found my Love, and here I stay for the rest of my life. 

If this world turns into a sea of trouble, I will brave the waves and steer my mind’s ship to a safe shore of Love. 

If you are a seeker looking for profit, go on and may God be with you, but I am not willing to exchange my Truth. 

I have found the Heart and will never leave this House of Light.

Poem by Rumi

Monthly Focus~  “Be born again in the Spirit”

Jesus said that we have to “be born again in the Spirit”, a second birth. To me, that’s waking up and realizing that we are Divine. We are Soul first. We are Spirit first. Not this body, but Spirit. 

The way that we wake up is to go inside, to go inside each day, to sit quietly, to become peaceful and still, and to hear that still small voice of God inside, that Sound Current, that call of God through the Holy Spirit that is ever calling us to come back Home. But because we’re so distracted by the world and all the sensual, and physical, and material things out here, we really don’t hear it. It’s ever present, it’s ever calling, but we don’t hear it because we are ever listening to the outer sounds, not the inner.

If we will sit quietly and be still and begin to listen inside, we can begin to hear that still small voice within, that Holy Spirit, that Sound Current that is calling us Home, calling us awake, and we can be born again in the Spirit. In that birth is a very sacred moment, a very sacred time, a very sacred awakening.

Full Excerpt ~ Jim’s talk is after Brian’s meditation (Christmas Presence And Communion Part 1)

You might begin to look at your own life, your own meditation, your own celebration of this holiday, and see what it is for you. If it isn’t that joyful experience, it isn’t something that brings you into the Loving and into the enthusiasm of this holiday, then go inside and connect into that place of Loving – Loving God, sharing with God that Loving, and allowing God’s Love in. Allow your own being to be filled more and more over this next year with Loving, with Joy, with the Peace that is God’s presence, and see if, as we come closer to the next Christmas in 2005 (2022), if you don’t yourself find yourself more vibrant with the Spirit of Christmas, with the Spirit of the Divine birth. Because that’s what meditation is all about, it’s about the celebration of the Divine birth within us.

What did Jesus say but, “If you are going to enter into the kingdom of heaven, you must be born again of the Spirit”. That’s the Truth. You can’t enter into the Kingdom of Heaven in this body. There’s no way that you can take this body and enter into the Kingdom of Heaven in it, but you can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven in this body of Spirit. 

It is about being born again in the Spirit, that for me, Christmas is all about and is a real demonstration of that birth. And that each of us have our birthing point where we can be born into the Spirit and begin to live more in the Spirit and utilize the physical for experience and opportunity of sharing what we experience in that birth and the life as we grow into the Spirit, but no longer is the physical the main focus. 

Once you’re born in the Spirit, you begin to truly live more a spiritual presence, a spiritual life. It is in that meditation process, that practice of meditation each day, of going inside and connecting back to that place where that birth takes place, and allowing that birth to take place inside of you, that you begin to experience the Divine that you are.

Now, when Jesus said, “You must be born again of the Spirit,” he wasn’t saying that right now you are not a spiritual being, but he was saying that you have to wake up into the knowing of yourself as Divine – to wake up, to be born into the Spirit again. Because the Spirit, the Soul of us, for a long time has been caught up in this downward and outward focus into the world, and we have lost sight of where the Soul, our Self, really came from. We have forgotten who we are. We are Divine. We are Spirit. We are children of God. We have forgotten where we came from, and we do not know how to get back where we came from because we forgot where we even came from. So how do we know how to get back there? How do we know that there’s even a place to get back to?

Jesus said that we have to “be born again in the Spirit”, a second birth. To me, that’s waking up and realizing that we are Divine. We are Soul first. We are Spirit first. Not this body, but Spirit. 

The way that we wake up is to go inside, to go inside each day, to sit quietly, to become peaceful and still, and to hear that still small voice of God inside, that Sound Current, that call of God through the Holy Spirit that is ever calling us to come back Home. But because we’re so distracted by the world and all the sensual, and physical, and material things out here, we really don’t hear it. It’s ever present, it’s ever calling, but we don’t hear it because we are ever listening to the outer sounds, not the inner.

If we will sit quietly and be still and begin to listen inside, we can begin to hear that still small voice within, that Holy Spirit, that Sound Current that is calling us Home, calling us awake, and we can be born again in the Spirit. In that birth is a very sacred moment, a very sacred time, a very sacred awakening.

If we look at the life of Jesus, we begin to see that his outer life was really an outer reflection of our inner process. Just as I began to realize that my outer process of Christmas celebration, and the decoration, and the gifts, and the food, and all of that is really just a reflection of my inner process that I do every day, so Jesus lived this outer life, demonstrating to us what the inner really is all about.

So, here we have his birth into the Spirit, he was born again of the Spirit, if you will. Where was he born? He was born in a cave. His parents left their home and went from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and it’s at that place that Jesus was born. He was born in a cave, with animals around him, and he was laid in a manger. 

Well, for eons of time, in mystical tradition on the inner pathway the cave is about the inner region, about going within in meditation. A cave is in the mountain, and this is the mountain. We must go into the cave in order to experience the birth of the Christ, of that Divine part of our being that Jesus represented to us.

Each of us must sit down and go into the cave, and where the cave resides is here, at the seat of the soul, the third eye, the spiritual eye. If thy eye be single and open, your body shall be filled with light. So, the first process is to go into the Kingdom, go into the cave, go inside and there begin to wake up to that inner Light, that Divine presence within you. 

As you do, you will find that you give birth to yourself by waking up to your own Divine presence, and you begin to experience that second birth. The Divine in you begins to wake up. The Divine in you begins to realize Its true essence. No longer is it distracted by the mind and the elements of the world below it, but rather it begins to recognize something about itself, separate from the mind, separate from the physical creation, and it realizes that it is separate, it isn’t one with this creation, and it begins to hear that call. It begins to feel the pull of that Divine Love that is calling the Soul Home. It begins over time in meditation each day to begin to look, to see, “where is that tug coming from? Where is that call coming from?” As it begins to look, it begins to see that Divine Light. The Divine Light. Not the light of the world, but the Divine Light that is there in the cave.

Just as at the time of the physical birth of Jesus with the star shining into the City of Bethlehem and over the cave, so the Divine Light is ever shining in us, towards us and in us, but we have to recognize that Light, we must see it and know it for what it is. Not look into the light of the world, but look up and see the Light of the Divine, Light of Loving from God, and begin to follow after that Light.

Monthly Focus “going Home work” ~

1. 1. Do two and a half hours of daily meditation, and then listen to the talk from: Christmas Presence and Communion (Part-1 Meditation) by Jim Gordon (his talk is after Brian’s meditation in Christmas Presence And Communion Part 1)
   2. Listen to the guided meditation by Brian Yeakey from: Christmas Presence and Communion (Part-1 Meditation)
   3. Journal focus for this month ~ We all celebrate the holiday’s differently… However, on the Path of Sound and Light, we are all waking up to the Truth of who we are as a Divine Child of God and returning Home into our Oneness in God. Reflecting from that perspective and on Jim’s sharing…

• • • What does “Being born again in the Spirit” mean to you?
    • How are you living, and what does that look like in your daily life: “more in the Spirit and utilizing the physical for experience and opportunity of sharing what we experience in that birth and the life as we grow into the Spirit, but no longer is the physical the main focus”? 

Contemplation Meditation exercise: Contemplate the following statement by Jim Gordon, and then enter into Meditation.

• • • The Divine Light is ever shining in us, towards us and in us, but we have to recognize that Light, we must see it and know it for what it is. Not look into the light of the world, but look up and see the Light of the Divine, Light of Loving from God, and begin to follow after that Light.