Thanksgiving and Giving Thanks

The Mindshifters group has been meeting for five years now. I realized today as I ran “last minute” errands to prepare for the Thanksgiving meal tomorrow, that I am very grateful for many things in my life and that the Mindshifters group is near the top of that list.

There are no adequate words for the gratitude I feel for the people who have given of themselves as teachers. People like Dr. Michael Ryce, Guy Finley, Yahem, Meher Baba, Krishnamurti, Gary Craig, Dr. Scott Walker, and many others who have dedicated their lives to learning what it takes to become a different order of human being, and then shared that knowledge so that others may find their own paths.

When I look back at the past ten years of my life, I cannot imagine how I would have gotten through the changes, challenges, losses, injuries, successes, new relationships and “re-directions” I have experienced, if I had not had these teachers and their lessons to help me. I know only that I would not be where I am today, and I would not be able to be as grateful as I am today, if it had not been for people who have dedicated their lives to learning, growing and teaching.

I am also very grateful for the many people over the past five years who have taken the time to attend the group. I am especially grateful to those who attend the group on a regular basis and give of their time and emotional energy to help make the discussions so productive and helpful. I am grateful for the many people who have shared testimonials about how the group has contributed to them making significant, positive changes in the way they experience their lives.

I am grateful for the loving and supportive attitude which is expressed by almost everyone who attends the group, and by ALL who attend on an regular basis. The expressions of Love, support, respect, tolerance and compassion are truly powerful. It is these qualities, expressed by those who attend the group on a regular basis, which facilitate the healing that is referred to in the testimonials.

Thank you one and all for making me a better person and supporting each other in being more of what human beings can be. Thank you for learning to be more response-able, more aware of your nature as Love, and for being willing to extend that Love to others rather than insist that others “make you feel loved”.

I wish to take this time to honor each of you for the work you are doing to make this world a better place, by being a different order of “human – being” in the world.

We come from Love, we are made of Love, we are Love. Everything else is false.

An Interpretation of The Beatitudes from the Ancient Aramaic

This Tuesday the Mindshifters group watched a video of a new set of interpretations for The Beatitudes, by Yahem from www.wayofmastery.com

Our Tuesday night Mindshifters group is dedicated to the work of Dr. Michael Ryce because he offers practical tools for improving one’s life in terms of emotional states and relationships. I continue to work to keep the focus of the material presented in this group to Dr. Ryce’s work, and any other practical tools for understanding how the mind/body energy system works and how to improve our experience of life. It is from this perspective that I would like to share some of the quotes and highlights from this video about The Beatitudes.

Yahem begins by stating in the Ancient Aramaic, a phrase which Yeshua would have often used as a greeting. He stated that it translates as an invitation to open one’s self to the Divine and to being penetrated by the Divine.

He then talked about how words in the Ancient Aramaic were more important for their vibrational quality than for the specific meaning that each word carried. This is important because the meaning of the word was determined as much by the mental state and level of understanding of the person who received the vibration, as it was determined by the word itself. So that if thirty people heard the same phrase or paragraph being spoken, there could easily be thirty different meanings taken from that same phrase or paragraph.

Yahem talked extensively about how The Beatitudes are more like a practical form of yoga than just a set of ideas or instructions or religious beliefs. He highlights the idea that “Beliefs don’t work. What works is staying open to the moment.”

He repeatedly talked about how disturbance is a blessing. This is so because when I am disturbed by anything, I am being given a chance to bring a new presence to energies which once defeated me. The way to do this is “to make a home in the breathing Unity” and to soften the places within me which want to go tight and become rigid and defensive.

“All suffering is rooted in my contraction into the illusion of separation. All healing is but a correction and a remembrance.” (that there is no separation)

The first Beatitude encourages us to make our home in the breathing Unity, and let the fertile soil of the Queendom birth our clear guidance.

The second Beatitude encourages us to allow our inner pain to surface and to soften what has been rigid within us.

All grasping outwardly is driven by a lack of embracing and integrating what is already within us.

The whole of creation has been arising and falling away within you. Your heart is breathed by the presence of the Divine and through you the Divine is made manifest.

Restored are they who have been planting peace with every breath.

You need to dig deep to find the primordial oneness that is breathing you now.

It is a blessing when beings push you out of your comfort zone and you become disturbed, because you then become aware of a tightness and contraction within you which was hidden from you before the disturbance. This is an opportunity to return to the breathing and soften what is tense or rigid within you and integrate that part of you that has been newly discovered, with Love and acceptance for all parts of yourself.

This ties into the directive to Love your enemy. This is important because they have given you the gift of disturbing something within you that needs to be Healed. It is also important because, only by generating the feeling of Love within you, and extending it to the other can you Heal that within you which gave rise to the disturbance.

When you withhold your Love from anyone, you must automatically withhold it from yourself first. You are the one who suffers and is denied Healing when you extend anything less than Love to anyone or anything in your awareness.

I highly recommend this DVD for its power and beauty. Available through www.wayofmastery.com

We come from Love, we are made of Love, we are Love. Everything else is False!