2002-7-9 05:04:00
My Friends,
Below is the transcription of the last session of the 2002 Gathering. It is hard to believe but the whole transcript is 77,491 words, the length of an average novel -- and that's not counting several sessions that were not transcribed.
I will have the whole thing available on a CD and will shortly give you the details on it.
JJ
This audio begins with the group singing together. The outpouring of love energy is something to be heard and felt. Typing out the songs can't do justice to the beauty of the group.
Rick:
"Everybody has signed the plaque now? Did anybody forget to sign?"
JJ:
One more thing; we have the banner up with the signatures on. Some of us have signed it from the last year but if you haven't signed it yet go ahead and sign the banner also. That's a good idea. It will get too cluttered if you sign it each year so we'll just add the years with our name. If you signed last year put 02 on there or something.
We have a little bit of olive oil left. We got a few more little jars so those of you who didn't get any oil see Artie.
Artie:
"We've got about 6 or 7. They're a little bigger and not the same bottle but they work so if you have any loved ones that need healing or whatever."
JJ:
Is that the last signature for the plaque, Rick? Everybody has signed it, right? So what we ought to do is have a contest and the winner gets to keep the plaque for a month.
Rick:
"What we've done so far is we left the first one in McCall. You can go back and get it any time so somebody gets to hang on to these things. Susan kept last year's. We're going to leave this one-it's got everybody's name on it who was at the Gathering-leave it with Robin. (applause)"
Robin:
"You know I worked for a few months putting everything together for this. It was really a labor of love. I'm really glad that you all came and that it worked out really well. But I don't really feel like I should keep this plaque because there is another person here who serves us continually, just about 20 hours a day, to keep the Keys list going. I think that that person needs this plaque because my labor was short. Hers is ongoing and will continue to go on so Diane would you do me the honor of keeping this for me? Please? (applause)"
(Diane graciously accepted.)
JJ:
Thank you Robin. That was really sweet and fit in really well with what I'm going to talk about. Every gathering I talk a bit about soul contact-because it's such an important subject-and try to give a little different dimension or twist on it each time because it's possible that a little different play on words and a little different view on it will inspire a person to keep on moving forward until he achieves that contact. Isn't that right, Rob?
The other night we talked about winding up the little airplane until the point of tension is reached. You have to reach a point of tension to achieve success in anything. One of the prime ingredients in achieving the tension of soul contact is a general love of humanity, a love that goes beyond the selfish love of self.
A lot of average people, when they get married, they pick a mate because of what the mate does for them, not because of what they can do for the mate. They pick friends for the same reason. But when the person approaches discipleship he loves because it feels good to give out love to fellow men, it feels good to serve, it feels good to go beyond self. We've seen a lot of that today and Robin gave a great example. She has given this plaque to Diane. A lot of people would think, "That's going to look nice in my living room, it's a good conversation piece." But instead she gives it to Diane as an act of love and Diane accepts it as an act of love so that was really great.
One of the most important things that we can do then is to develop what is called the pure love of Christ. The pure love of Christ is a higher octave of love than the normal sense. The fact that love in the normal sense, as people define it, has degrees or ingredients of selfishness in it -- in the fact that I love you for the fact of what you can do for me. But in the pure love of Christ there is no thought of self. There is only the thought of giving it out. When it is given out you actually do benefit a lot from it even though it's not selfish.
The person benefits a lot more by unselfish love than he does by selfish love because with selfish love you don't really get that much back because the other party senses the selfishness and wants selfish love back. When the selfish love is interplayed it plays itself out and it only lasts for a period of time then everything begins to fall apart in the relationship. With the eternal love of Christ an eternal stream is created which flows back and forth and never ends. It continues to grow as our awareness and our consciousness grows until we attain a fullness of the consciousness of God.
The Book of Mormon gives an interesting parable about the love of God. It talks about a man named Lehi who had a vision along a path that's end is at a tree whose fruit was white above the whiteness of any other fruit. The fruit was symbolic of the love of God. As Lehi was progressing along this path a cloud of darkness fell. As it fell upon him he had a hard time figuring out where the path was. He couldn't even see the path because of the cloud of darkness. Many people who were with him wandered off onto strange paths and got lost because of the cloud of darkness. So Lehi wondered, "How can I proceed?" Then he saw a rod of iron and he grabbed a hold of that rod of iron and somehow he knew that the rod of iron led to the tree; that the rod of iron would take him through the darkness until he arrived at this tree of life whereon was the fruit most desirable than any other fruit because it represented the pure love of God.
So Lehi grabbed hold of this rod of iron and the rod of iron took him to the tree. The rod of iron, we're told, is symbolic of the word of God. Some people say that just means the scriptures but it means much more than the scriptures. Remember where the name of God is? It's on our forehead. It's within us.
When we look within we find the true word of God. When we look within and feel the spirit of God we can then proceed along the path even though we're in darkness because without the spirit of God within us it is dark. We don't know our next step. We don't know where to go. Remember when we talked about if we follow the highest we know we will always know what our next step is. If we don't know what our next step is we must look within and see what it is we are supposed to do. When we do that one thing and we do it right our next step will be revealed to us. Sometimes it will be a big step. Sometimes it will be a small step.
Whether big or small it's equally important that we take that step. We can take that step even in darkness, even when we can't see with our physical eyes and arrive where the fruit is, where the tree of life is. We can get there by following the inner spirit. The inner spirit is stimulated by the love of our fellow men. When we share love with our fellow man it stimulates the word of God within us so that we have a sense of what the tree of life is like because the love of God is even greater than the love we share here among us.
When we are able to make it to that tree of life we make it by holding on to the iron rod which is revealed to us as we follow the highest that we know. As we do this we can make it to the tree and partake of the fruit. So Lehi did this. He followed this iron rod and he made it to the tree. As he and several others made it to the tree they partook of the fruit. When they partook of the fruit he noticed a river of filthy water. On the other side of this river was a large and spacious building. In this large and spacious building were people dressed in fine and beautiful clothing.
These were looking at the people who had partaken of the fruit and they were laughing and making fun of them and telling them that they were ridiculous. Then Lehi saw that several who had come and partaken of the fruit were ashamed because people were pointing their fingers at them and making fun and mocking. Even though they had partaken of the fruit of the love of God they were ashamed and they wandered off onto strange paths and were lost. But Lehi said that he ignored the people who were pointing their fingers in scorn and making fun of him and he continued to eat of the tree and he was satisfied.
This is an interesting parable because it illustrates so much truth. When a person does the highest that he knows he begins to move ahead and he begins to feast upon the love of his fellow man and upon the love of God, there are those who will point the fingers of scorn. There are those who will make fun.
There are those who will accuse the person of being a new age quack or a Christian quack or some type of weirdo or freak or whatever they want to call them. The person will be ashamed and he will withdraw. Maybe it will be his family members pointing fingers at him and saying, "You're not going to go do that weirdo stuff, are you?" Maybe the weirdo stuff is that which leads him to the tree of life where upon he can partake of the love of God. So the person who partakes of the fruit must be able to withstand scorn, pointing fingers, family, friends, and everyone that may think he's a little strange. We know Rick's the only one who's really strange. (laughter) The rest of us don't have to worry. Just joking Rick.
I know, for instance in my family, they all think I'm very strange. I was telling somebody earlier, that none of my family will read my book or even take my book. When I force the book upon them and say, "Here take it. It's free" then go visit them the book is nowhere in the bookcase to be seen. Even my own son -- I gave him a book but when I go visit him it's nowhere in his bookcase. Many of my friends are active in orthodoxy so they're very wary of me because I'm a strange character to them.
So this is one of the things we must withstand. We must withstand people pointing their fingers, pointing us out, pointing you out as being off the beaten path. The path toward the true love of God is not always easy. But you notice, if you ever watch a movie where you really feel love manifested, like Titanic. At the end of Titanic the guy goes through tremendous friction to be able to have the woman of his dreams then he gives his life at the end and you feel so bad and you feel taken in by it.
Wherever there is a lot of love manifested, like you feel in a good story, there's usually a lot of sacrifice and a lot of difficulty crossed. Then after the difficulty is crossed the love is manifested. Titanic is a good example. They went through a lot of difficulties. They even sank with the ship and survived that. He gave his life to save his loved one at the end. You just start choking up when you see something like that even though it's fiction and in a movie. A good story can remind us of the true reality and the true sacrifice it takes to manifest that which is eternal and important.
Paul told us that charity endureth forever. Charity, of course, is a little bit of a mistranslation. The original Greek is love, love endures forever. He says, "Though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels and have not love, I am nothing, though I give my body to be burned." Though he does all things and sacrifices everything he has, if he doesn't have love he is nothing.
If we don't have love we can pretty much toss soul contact out the window because the Holy Spirit is love. The Holy Spirit vibrates with love. When the Holy Spirit comes to us -- remember soul contact is the door or the window between spirit and matter -- it opens the door to all the higher vibrations. So when the door is open and the Holy Spirit comes in, you will feel the love of God and that will be a very joyous feeling. It will make you feel like weeping when you feel it because it is very powerful. It is what is written in the song, the fires of love. The Holy Spirit is truly a fire of love. God is a fire of light, a fire of love, and a fire of will. It is written that fire is the will of God. There's fire involved in all the aspects of God. Love is also a consuming fire.
Before one can have a fullness of joy one must partake of the fruit of the love of God. It is impossible to arrive at that without the love of mankind. An interesting scripture was when Jesus was asked, "Who is going to be on your right hand and on your left hand when everything is said and done?" He said, "Those who are found on my right hand are those who when I was in prison, they came to me. When I was hungry they fed me. When I was thirsty they gave me drink. Those who will be on my left hand will be those who when I was in prison they did not come to me, those that when I was thirsty did not give me drink, and those who when I was hungry did not feed me." People would say, "Lord, when were you in prison? When were you hungry? When were you thirsty?" He answered back, "Whatsoever thou doest unto the least of these my brethren you do unto me."
In church they used to preach that part often. "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren you do to me." The idea conjured up in the church about who the least of the brethren were fellow members of the church but I got to thinking who really are the least. The least of the brethren are those who you think least of. "A Course in Miracles" makes an interesting statement on this. It says, "Think in your life of the person who aggravates you more than any other person in the world." It says you know who this person is. (laughter) When you read it you think, "Yea I know who that person is!" All of us have one person in our life that aggravates us more than any other person in the whole universe and we know who it is.
It says, "This person is your savior." In other words he is the least of your brethren. This is the least of the brethren. Whatsoever you do unto the least of your brethren -- the person who aggravates you and is the thorn in your side more than any other person that is what you do to Christ. He has Christ within him even though it's very hard to find. We have to peal off layers. Even though it's hard for us to see that person has Christ within him as much as we do. Maybe more than we do. You never know. He might look at us and think we have a lot bigger problem than he does. Some people might say things like, "This person is selfish and irritating and mean and how can I see Christ in such a person?"
You see Christ in a person by overlooking the personality.
Reflect now on married people. Did anybody see the show, "The War of the Roses?" At the end they both fell from this balcony and they were both dying. The last thought that Kathleen Turner had was giving her husband one last stab. That's how angry they both were at each other but when they first met they were in love. How could they go from being in love to being so hateful that in their last dying breath they wanted to injure each other even more? How could they go from that?
The thing is that when they first met they didn't see the personality; they didn't see all the ingredients in the personality. Because they didn't see all the ingredients in the personality they were able to see the Christ within. Now they later became that aggravating person that was talked about that is their savior. But in the beginning there was nothing to overlook because when you first fall in love with another person the personality is completely invisible. You see no personality. You only see that you love that person and you want to be with them forever. They make you feel wonderful and you just love him to pieces. That's because you're looking on their soul. Then what happens is the two people begin to reveal their personalities, their faults, their imperfections and they start looking, not on the soul, but they take their eyes off the soul and look on the personality and they see all kinds of things to aggravate them.
No matter how good the person is, when you look on their personality they will aggravate you--even Jesus Himself. When the Jews looked upon the personality of Jesus rather than upon His soul, what did they do to Him? They crucified Him because they thought that He was the most irritating guy they'd ever seen. They couldn't imagine anybody more irritating than Him because they were looking on his personality. The Apostles, like Peter, James and John, they looked at the same person but they saw something different. Why did they see something different? Lorraine?
Lorraine:
Inaudible.
JJ:
Right, they looked on the soul of Christ rather than on His personality. John the Baptist could have looked on His personality. He wanted somebody like him that was a strict vegetarian and ate milk and honey, lived in rags and lived just about like a Buddhist monk. Christ was not that type of person and because John did not look upon the personality he wound up accepting his cousin for who He was and what His mission was.
So we can at any time, at any time in our relationship with any person, no matter how aggravating, if we tune out the personality, just like we tune out a radio station, if you tune out the personality and only tune into the soul you will feel the love of God in relation to that person. That doesn't mean that you aren't aware of the faults of this person but you tune them out.
So what do you do with the faults of the personality? You realize that the Spirit of Christ is struggling to come forward but it's having difficulty because of the personality vehicle it has to work with. When we look at this idea we can take the most irritating person and he will be our savior, the moment we realize that he's the least of the brethren and whatsoever we do to him we do to Christ. It's a challenging statement but anyone who has been through some difficult marriages has a lot of practice at such a thing.
As a matter of fact, all of us have had difficult relationships whether it be family, whether it be lovers, whether it be marriages, whether it be business partners. There are a lot of difficult relationships that surface in all of our lives. It gives us a lot of opportunity to practice this principle. All of us have an irritating person in our lives that will give us really good practice in overlooking the personality and looking upon the soul.
Robin:
"When I think about that statement I think about the people we see on the street and the children who go without food. Is that them also?"
JJ:
Yes but they're probably not the least in your opinion. We see the beggar on the street and it is good to help the person who is on the street without food and that's one of the things that Christ mentioned. "When I was without food you came and helped me." But he's still not the least because when we see the beggar on the street we don't know anything about his personality. We might think he's a pretty nice guy who's down on his luck. Then you go home to your spouse and he does something to irritate you and he's a lot lower in your mind than the beggar on the street. (laughter)
Generally it will be somebody close to you who will be the least in your opinion of all the people of the Earth. A lot of people out there would trade their spouse for the beggar on the street. (laughter) Robin fortunately has a good spouse. I don't think she'd trade him off for anything.
Every once in awhile people get lucky. Because of the laughter you can tell people have been through a lot. When we joke about marriage and how difficult it is for all of us at one time or another we always get a lot of laughter. People identify with that. It took me a couple of marriages to get it right. A lot of us have to go through several of them. A lot of us never get it right through our life. Maybe we'll come back again and do it another life. For a lot of us marriage is just a big learning experience. Sometimes you learn more through a difficult relationship than you do through a good relationship. Quite possibly a good relationship is a reward for us than a learning experience. We deserve a break every once in awhile from tough learning, don't we?
Audience:
"If you are married to somebody who is the least of your brethren (laughter) is it better to stay there and overcome the irritation in order for growth or would it be the highest that you know?"
JJ:
Just because he's the least of your brethren doesn't mean you have to stay with him. You have to obtain contact your soul on that. It'd be hard and even wrong for me to advise you one way or another because that's something you have to search internally. If you decide it would be best for your individual progression to leave, that's not hurting his free will in any way.
Audience:
"How long should we -- I mean in talking about being with someone that's really irritating -- in order to overcome that we need to work on it. If you come across someone who is irritating should we try to work on it or should we just go the other way?"
JJ:
Well, in a relationship, if you figure the relationship has nowhere to go then I personally would end it and find a better relationship. But that doesn't mean that the next relationship or the next person you work with or the next kid that you have is going to be a piece of cake to work with. You're always going to have someone in your life who is difficult. So if you get rid of your spouse and get another spouse your troubles aren't going to be over. Sometimes the next spouse may even be worse. Even if your spouse is the greatest person on the Earth there are other difficult people you're going to meet.
Audience:
"What if you meet someone, a friend or whatever who is just an irritating person. Should you run away from them or do you stand there and try to calm your feelings about that."
JJ:
I try to avoid people who irritate me. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But if there isn't any way to avoid them I try to look upon the Christ within them and say, "This person has the Christ trying to manifest." I'll treat them nice and kind and like I would with somebody I really liked but I'm not going out of my way to spend time with them, only the time that's necessary.
Audience:
"I had a husband who was the least of my brethren and I read the Course in Miracles where it said that you can love anybody regardless of how they treat you so I tried so hard to love him even though he was really mean. I said, "It's okay, you can say those horrible things to me and I'll love you anyway." The Course in Miracles caused a dichotomy in me because it's not really right to stay in a hostile environment. If you're in a hostile environment and you're constantly saying, "I love you. OUCH. I love you too. Ouch." It's not going to work. What I finally came to the conclusion of is I will love you from a distance. I still love him. He's a good guy. I see the Christ in him from a distance. You stay there. I'll stay here."
JJ:
Even Hitler had buried within him a soul where the Christ dwells yet we certainly didn't want him to win WWII so he could be over us, did we? The best thing to do was to get him out of the way where he was harmless. There is nothing wrong with avoiding people that irritate you or that are awkward to deal with. This is the principle behind the gathering. Those who have a high state of consciousness enjoy being with others of like minds. Like gathers to like as the scripture says. When like gathers to like, there is greater joy and peace but there are times when light must go with darkness for a period of time. When this happens the light shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not. So among your friends who are dark you may be a light that shines among them and they don't see you for awhile for what you are but you see them for what they are. You see that they have a soul that is covered with darkness and it needs to be manifest.
Audience:
"It may not be your spouse. It may not be someone you can just walk away from. It could be one of your children."
JJ:
That's true. It could be anybody. It could be your boss. Again, the key is to see the Christ within them. Realize there is the Christ within them and focus on the Christ within them and let the negative energy that they send to just pass through you. Just visualize it passing through.
Audience:
"That and your children aren't going to hurt you. When you're getting away from somebody because they're hurting you and you're in a hurtful relationship, harm is one thing. Irritation is another."
JJ:
Have you watched these talk shows lately? I saw one the other night where a little 12 year old kid was beating up his mother all the time.
Rick:
"It's one thing to love your puppy dog but you don't have to like it when he piddles on your carpet."
JJ:
I saw a bumper sticker awhile back. It said, "The more people I meet the more I like my dog." The great part about a dog is when you open the door he is happy to see you no matter what type of personality you have.
Audience:
Inaudible.
JJ:
Right. Hitler had dogs and his dogs probably thought he was the greatest guy in the universe. I bet the dogs were all over him when he got home. They probably even melted his heart. He probably patted them and thought his dogs were great and treated them good. The dog is kind of a symbol of looking on the soul. The dog sees nothing wrong with you. He only sees the good part of you. If we could take that to a higher level and us just concentrate on seeing the good part in each individual it would be amazing how much better response we'd get out of them normally but not always.
Sometimes when you look upon the soul of another person and this person is just determined to aggravate you, it's like there is a handful of people who react negatively to love and acceptance. To this handful of individuals, the more you accept them and look upon the pure love of Christ and don't respond negatively to them the more they will come at you and attack you. They will get more and more fierce until you have to get out of their presence. Have you ever met anybody like that?
So with some people giving love and acceptance is like throwing water on a vampire. It enflames them and gets them all bent out of shape. But to the average person who has had some contact with his soul it will completely change him around.
I remember I was selling advertising one time -- I used to sell advertising on the phone -- this guy answered and he started chewing me out for calling and he was really rude. I was really pleasant and said, "Okay." I hung up and five minutes later he actually called me back. He said, "You were so nice to me that it made me feel terrible that I treated you so rotten. I'll buy an ad from you." We don't get calls like that very often. Sometimes it does affect the other person when you see the Christ within them and see the best within them. The funny thing about people is everybody thinks they are a decent person. Lorraine talks about her ex-husband and he's the most irritating guy she can imagine yet how do you think he looks upon himself? He thinks he's a nice person.
If you've ever read the book by Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People, it starts with an interesting story about a guy who was on the most wanted list -- "Two-gun Willy" or something like that. The police were chasing him and they had him cornered and he was perhaps the most wanted guy in all America and the most hated guy in the country. The papers portrayed him as the most evil character you could imagine. When they had him cornered and he just had a short period of time before he was captured he started writing a letter just in case he was gunned down. He wanted the world to know something. He wrote in this letter that he thought he was a good person, he never wanted to hurt anybody and he only wanted to do good all his life. The way he wrote it he portrayed himself like he couldn't see anything wrong with him. Yet he was the most hated man in America at the time.
Dale Carnegie pointed out that this may sound odd to us to hear this letter from this killer, this most wanted man that everyone hated, but he said everybody feels that way about themselves. Everybody feels that they're a good person. Sometimes we put ourselves down but inside we think we're really pretty good. Most people feel that. He says everybody, no matter how bad they are, no matter what they've done, they think they've done the best with their life that they could've done. Therefore, he said, you must be very careful how you criticize or how you look upon the other person because they think they're okay. He said if you want to win friends and influence people we must play upon that idea. Play upon the idea that they are a good person. Look upon them as a good person then they will start responding as they are a better person.
From my experience I agree with Lorraine. It may not work with everybody but it will work with a large percentage of people. There is a small percentage of people that make a science out of being aggravating and take joy in aggravating people. When I worked as a fireman for a couple of years, one time a fellow worker kept doing these really aggravating things. I just kept ignoring him. We had a kitchen where we made our meals and he tip over my plate. I'd say, "What's your problem?" I'd pick it up and be very patient with him. This went of for 3 or 4 days and I kept thinking, "What's this guy's problem. He's doing such weird things around me." Finally he came up to me and said, "I've been doing an experiment with you. I've never seen you get angry at anybody. I wanted to see if you could get angry so I've been doing everything I can to aggravate you. You ignore it. I don't understand it."
I said, "I didn't realize you were trying to make me angry. I thought you were being a little weird." That made him more irritated still. He was irritated that he didn't make me angry but where he failed my first wife was able to succeed. (laughter)
There is always somebody who can irritate you. Every once in awhile somebody can say those certain right words that make you feel like strangling them. When you hear those words, that's the time of the real test. That's the time to really examine the person's soul.
We have a great group here. I feel like I can look on the souls of anybody here. Everybody is a good decent person. Perhaps if we knew each other well enough it could be difficult for us. Perhaps I may be difficult for all of you if you knew me very well and knew all the quirks of my personality. That's one thing about meeting in this way. We don't have a lot of personality to overlook. One person I knew told me I had no personality so maybe I'm easy to overlook. Who knows.
Audience:
"What about the concept that the people who irritate you the most are the people you need to learn lessons about yourself from? People are mirrors of you. The aspects of people that are the most irritating to you, if you really look inwardly, it's irritating to you because you see yourself in them. So they're really a good lesson."
JJ:
That's a really good point. This is a reason we should be very cautious about being judgmental. Oftentimes when we're judging another person we're only seeing a reflection of ourselves. Lorraine, you've openly admitted that you've had a difficult marriage. Did you find quite often that when you were criticized it seemed that he was describing himself?
Lorraine:
"You know, I have a degree in Sociology, specializing in counseling, so I'm the last person who wants to admit that I have made this mistake. I have a degree in counseling so I analyzed this man upside down and every way I possibly could. I don't think he fits into the regular mold because he was the one who would only be happy if I was irritated. His M.O. was to find whatever weakness I had and just keep hurting me until I was hurt. Then he could be happy. But I can say that it is true that we do hate in other people what we despise in ourselves. That is true but he was more than that."
JJ:
There are some people like that. Misery loves company is a true statement. There are some people who are miserable and they're not happy unless they make you miserable. Then when they make you miserable they seem to have a little gleam in their eye. It's kind of sad. There aren't a lot of people that way. Maybe 5 or 10 percent of humanity will go that route. Most people are pretty decent people.
It is true about the reflection. This is why we must be careful. Oftentimes you as an observer dispassionately look at two different people, and they're complaining about each other, oftentimes you'll see that they're complaining about something that's inside them. That they're really projecting. This happens again and again and again. I've known many people who criticized me for different things and I think, "I don't think I'm that way but I think he's that way." We see this quite often. I would say 50 percent of humanity fall into this trap of taking that which is within them and criticizing it within others. This is an important thing to overcome. The question is how do we know whether or not we're criticizing because of the reflection of because it's really something in the other person.
The key to it is developing the power of discernment through the mind. Remember the emotions do not know how to control and regulate themselves. The lower has to be controlled by the higher. The emotions, when they are controlled by the mind, can then use the discernment to know whether or not he's seeing a reflection of himself or something that is real. Then the mind reflects the soul energy. It takes the soul energy to regulate the mind so the mind can be accurate. Each lower sphere has to be regulated and controlled by the higher. Any more questions on this?
Audience:
"To me, part of the intent of seeing the goodness in others or the Christ in others is so you yourself can see and love yourself and see the Christ within you. If you can see it in others it's easier to see it in yourself. Self love is what lifts us up to be able to truly love God."
JJ:
There's a lot of truth in that. You can't see it in yourself unless you can see it in others.
Audience:
"I have a comment to make. It's true. I used to say I wasn't able to love another human being until I was first able to love myself. I swore by that and gave many a seminar on it but I've changed my mind since then. I think now it's only possible to love somebody else if I have truly been loved. If you think about it you don't know how to love until you've experienced it. Once you've experienced being loved, then you know how to do it because you know what it feels like and you know what it looks like. So I don't think it's true anymore that you have to first love yourself because you won't know how."
JJ:
The answer is found again in the middle way. It depends on where you are on the balance. If you're in the balance where you're just giving all the time-there are some people who are always giving and they never take care of themselves. These individuals need to step back and say, "Wait. These other people are important but I'm important too. I'm one of the sons or daughters of God so I need to take care of myself too." That person needs to step back and love himself also and realize that he needs his needs taken care of as well as taking care of the other person's needs. We've all known people like that. They're always running about helping everybody else and everything in their personal life is shambles. This is one extreme that needs corrected by self love.
On the other hand, the bigger and more common problem occurs as most people have too much self love and they're not running around helping their neighbors. They're only looking after themselves. If we balance more in this direction then we need somebody to come and love us. Eventually a person loves us that will stimulate us and make us think, "I need to look beyond the self and be loving and giving like this person." It depends on which side of the spectrum we're on.
We're all a little more one than the other. None of us are in perfect balance. If any person on the Earth reaches perfect balance with all his energies, do you know what will happen to him? He will disappear. He won't even be here anymore. So if anyone tells you they've achieved the perfect balance of energy ask them why they're still here.
Let us now say The Song Of The 144,000 together.
Since we've said so many OMs we'll just say one OM at the beginning and one OM at the end. Leave a space of silence in between as you visualize what's been said.
Together, JJ & the Audience say:
"O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M"
Together, JJ & the Audience say the First Stanza of The Song Of The 144,000:
"We thank you Father that you have revealed to us your protective universal light;
that within this light is complete protection from all destructive forces;
that the Holy Spirit of Your Presence permeates us in this light,
and wherever we will the light to descend."
JJ:
Visualize the light manifesting. The light is universal and is everywhere but we don't always perceive it so we visualize the light manifesting to us. Then you can visualize it descending to those you love and know who are in need of greater light and guidance. It may be your family, your children, your friends as you say wherever we will the light to descend. Finally you visualize it descending wherever there is a need for greater light, wherever there is a receptivity for it.
Together, JJ & the Audience say the Second Stanza of The Song Of The 144,000:
"We thank you Father that you fill us with your protective fires of Love
that within this love is complete protection from all destructive thoughts and feelings;
that the consciousness of Christ is lifted up in us in this love,
and wherever we will the love to be enflamed."
JJ:
Notice that when we say 'the protective fires of love' oftentimes in relationship you feel that you are distant to love. When a relationship becomes difficult and you say this stanza you will often feel the protective fires of love beginning to burn within you again. If you say it with the person you're having difficulty with he or she will experience the same thing and you can be one in the soul again. You can visualize this love descending upon all those who are willing to receive it.
Together, JJ & the Audience say the Third Stanza of The Song Of The 144,000:
"We thank you Father that you are in us and we are in you;
that through us Your Will is sent forth on wings of power;
that Your Purpose is accomplished on earth as it is in heaven;
that through us Your Light and Love and Power is manifest to all the Sons and Daughters of Mankind."
Together, JJ & the Audience say:
"O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M"
JJ:
It's been great to be here, my friends. I remember when we first started talking about this Robin wrote me and said, "There's only three people signed up. I'm really nervous." I said, "I think they'll show up." We're glad you all came. Robin is no longer nervous. She's just tired now. (laughter) We're going to go eat then when we get back anyone that wants books or cups can get them. We'll just lounge around the rest of the night and enjoy each other's company. I enjoy watching you guys associate with each other. It looks like you're really enjoying each other's company. Little groups gather of 4 or 5 here and 4 or 5 there. Artie just pointed out that several are enjoying each other too much. (laughter) So we'll go eat and meet back here to enjoy the rest of the day. Artie and I are taking off first thing in the morning so we'll probably have to say our good byes this evening unless several of you are up very early.
Thank you very much.
Copyright © 2002 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved