John-Roger's Challenge of the Week

The challenge for this week: don't live in other people's opinions. If you discuss a seminar you attended with friends, five people are going to have five different opinions of what occurred. And each one is going to get uniquely, individually, that thing that they had to have. There is something for everyone in any experience. You have to please yourself.

-John-Roger, DSS

Here is a challenge for you: go ahead and do the spiritual exercises*. See if they will work for you; but, you must work it. And when you work it, it's a fantastic thing. *For more information on spiritual exercises, click here

-John-Roger, DSS

You only get negative feedback when you try to possess. You only get negative feedback when your desires get beyond you and you try to possess. If you relax and let things go, you've got it. Really the only time you can possess is when you let go. So the challenge this week is watch what you are trying to possess. If you have the consciousness of "this is mine," it will probably be taken from you. But if you say this, "I am using this until it can be used in a greater way by other people," then you will probably become the greater people that use it the greater way.

-John-Roger, DSS

The challenge this week is to remain relaxed, no matter what comes at you.

-John-Roger, DSS

Some people will mistake the ego for spiritual qualities. These people are going to stumble and fall. Don't violate your consciousness of charity by rejoicing in their mistake. Instead, as a challenge this week, see if you can help people without picking them up. Say, "I am with you, God bless you, I love you, and I can't do it for you." Encourage them to go on and to complete those things that seem difficult to complete. Support them and lift them. See if you can lift them without doing it for them.

-John-Roger, DSS

The challenge for this week is really quite simple: if you don't know, don't pretend to know. It's very nice to keep this thought in mind. If you don't have the answer, don't pretend that you have an answer. It's really quite simple to keep yourself clear. Just say, "I don't know. I can't relate to that. I don't think I understood it. I don't have the answer." This is safe, safe territory.

-John-Roger, DSS

Challenge time: when somebody tries to burden you down with something that's not yours, just go your own way. If you do choose to do the thing, it is your choice how you do it. If you don't want the burden that somebody is putting on you this week, see if you can very cleverly not do it, but, without inflicting upon them. If it is your responsibility, do it so magnificently that it becomes a joy. And if it's not your responsibility, then don't let people place a burden on you.

-John-Roger, DSS

We can have a little challenge this week. This week, wherever you go, leave your pride home; locked up some place where no one can get it. Save it for another day. Watch how great this week goes.

-John-Roger, DSS

If you're smart, if you're wise, and if you're spiritual, the karma that you create, you disperse by the end of the night. If you take a negative thought over to the next morning, you are on the way to building more karma. This is why we say, don't go to bed with things hanging on your head. Get up and write them on a piece of paper and burn it, if you have to. If you could call up a person and say, "Look, I misrepresented myself and I just want to square it," you're further ahead. But watch out, because this thing called pride is going to keep you from doing it. The challenge this week is watch and see where your pride has gone just before you fell.

-John-Roger, DSS

One of our big challenges is to use Spirit efficiently. To use Spirit efficiently, we have to get this machine called the physical body in line and in order, and get our mind clear, so we can receive of higher knowledge.

-John-Roger, DSS

Think back to when you first came into your own movement of spiritual inner awareness. When people talked about love, you thought, "Yeah, that means sex, go to bed and have conjugal relationships." People were talking about love but no one made an overture towards you. For a little while you may have thought perhaps you weren't all that appealing, and so you felt a little rejected. Then it dawned on you that they were talking about love, not sex. And then you found out that they were talking about an intangible process and the challenge came upon you -- to know more about this intangible process that people labeled "love".

-John-Roger, DSS

At some point you will have to sit down and say, "I will do these spiritual exercises, I will do them for a week, 30 minutes a day, I will do it and then I will know. I won't have to doubt or believe, I will know." This is what I say over and over to people to challenge them. I say, "Have you done this?" They say, "Well, no." I say, "I can tell you no more. If you won't sit down to prove me wrong, then don't call me wrong." People say, "Well, I don't know if these spiritual exercises will work," and I say, "OK, next." My knowing for you won't do it, will it? Your knowing for you does it. This week know things, know them, and become more consciously aware.

-John-Roger, DSS

You have a right to declare your personal and impersonal life just because you have a Soul, and because you are a Child of the Light. And you have a right to declare that you are Divine, and that you're a responsible creator. You declare it. Now comes the challenge. Now that you declare it, can you maintain that? If you can, then you have entered into mastership. And if you can't, you've entered into the fool. So be very careful what you are disclaiming, or claiming, to make sure that you can follow through.

-John-Roger, DSS