SELF STUDY

Monthly Focus ~ Stay Awake. Stay Present. Pay Attention.

Be responsible in your actions of thoughts and feelings. Pay attention to how you allow these thoughts and feelings to run you, to rule you, to push you around. Take charge of them, understand them, and bring your thoughts and feelings into alignment, into balance, into working together rather than working against each other and against you. Take responsibility for your actions and your reactions.

Full Excerpt  ~

The things that we share with you about, that you’re to pay attention to, are very simple. Loving and Accepting and Forgiving (LAF). It really is very simple. And we keep saying it over and over and over, and it starts with you. Love and Accept and Forgive you. Then, if you need to, do it with others. But really and truly, if you will truly move into that place of Loving, Accepting, and Forgiving of yourself, most everything is done. Literally, it’s done. Because once you’ve forgiven yourself, you’ve really forgiven the other.

Be responsible in your actions of thoughts and feelings. Pay attention to how you allow these thoughts and feelings to run you, to rule you, to push you around. Take charge of them, understand them, and bring your thoughts and feelings into alignment, into balance, into working together rather than working against each other and against you. Take responsibility for your actions and your reactions. Remember, that’s the law of the land. Actions and reactions create karma. Be in action; better than to be in reaction. Reaction begets karma very quickly. 

So, take responsibility. When you go into reaction, stop for a moment and see, “How could I do this differently? Or maybe I just do nothing right now. I don’t be in action or reaction. I just be still and move through the situation and be free of it.” 

I’ve seen people create a mess taking action and I’ve seen people make a mess taking reaction. So pay attention. All that is very simple except for one part of it that’s so hard. You have to stay awake. You have to stay present. You have to pay attention. “Why am I doing this now? What did I just say? What am I saying? Why am I reacting this way with this person? Why am I reacting this way with myself?”

I remember when I was much younger and I would do something and I’d say, “Jim, you’re so stupid!” Well, that’s a good thing to tell yourself, isn’t it? (Laughter) And I remember one day catching myself, and I thought, “Wait a minute. Nobody’s telling me I’m stupid. Why am I telling myself I’m stupid?” And then I started paying attention to when I was doing that, and I stopped, and all of a sudden I liked myself better. Where before I was in a little bit of a resistance and anger and frustration with myself. And I realized the source of it was this action of me saying, “I’m stupid.”

So, what do you tell yourself that makes you feel good or bad, happy or sad? What is it? Pay attention. That’s why I was always saying to people, get a little journal, a little book that you can carry around with you, and write down these statements that you tell yourself. Oh my God, you’re going to be surprised! If you haven’t been paying attention, you’re going to be surprised. And you’re going to wonder what little devil is inside of me ever talking like this?

At first, I wanted to blame my dad. One day I asked him, I said, “Do you think I’m stupid?” And he said, “Jim, I would never say that. No, I don’t think you’re stupid.” And I said, “And have you ever said that I’m stupid?” And he said, “Well, if I have, I’m sorry, and I’ll never say it again, but I don’t think I have.” And I thought that was a good answer because he didn’t know, and there’s a good chance he might have but doesn’t remember.

I was just trying to find out where did I get this from? Who gave this to me or how did I develop this? I never found out the source of it, but I learned to pay more attention to my words and what I was telling myself. And it’s amazing what we can do to ourselves. We undermine ourselves all the time, and then we blame it on somebody else. “Well, they. Well, the rules.” It’s us! We’re the greatest underminer. Stop looking outside yourself and pay attention to what’s going on inside.

Are you your own enemy? You might be. So pay attention, and start changing your ways. Start changing the way you talk to yourself, you share yourself, you love yourself. And the greatest way to do that is in meditation. And the greatest way to really get loving going is to just look inward and upward and say, “God, I love you. I love you, and I open to receive your Loving.” That is going to stir so many things awake inside of you.

Monthly Focus “going Home work” ~

1. 1. Do 2.5 hours of daily meditation, and listen to the talk by Jim Gordon titled:  Ending The Game
   2. Listen to the guided open-ended meditation by Brian Yeakey titled: Wake Up
   3. Journal and do the exercises and answer the questions:

• • • Get or make a little journal, a little book that you can carry around with you.
    • Pay attention to your thoughts and feelings, and write down all the statements that you tell yourself. 
    • What do you tell yourself that makes you feel good or bad, happy or sad? What is it?
    • When you’re aware of your reaction with yourself and/or others ask yourself these questions and journal your reflections: “Why am I doing this now? What did I just say? What am I saying? Why am I reacting this way with this person? Why am I reacting this way with myself?”
    • What can you tell yourself, how can you love yourself, and share yourself in ways that bring you into the Loving with yourself and with God? 
    • What are you Loving, Accepting, and Forgiving inside of you?

Contemplate the following statements by Jim: 

• • • So pay attention. All that is very simple except for one part of it that’s so hard. You have to stay awake. You have to stay present. You have to pay attention. 
    • Stop looking outside yourself and pay attention to what’s going on inside.
    • Start changing the way you talk to yourself, you share yourself, you love yourself. And the greatest way to do that is in meditation. And the greatest way to really get loving going is to just look inward and upward and say, “God, I love you. I love you, and I open to receive your Loving.” That is going to stir so many things awake inside of you.