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The Spirit of Peace in Africa

 

Look at whether or not you are being self possessed, involved in your own thoughts of self importance, being demanding in your approach towards others. Look at whether or not you can let go of that approach and do what will be more harmonious to what is really going on, in the bigger sense.
– John-Roger, DSS

This article is taken from a seminar John-Roger gave during a trip to Masai Mara, Kenya, Africa in September 1989. It was first published in the New Day Herald in January of 1990.


I’ve talked before about how Spirit can converge inside a person and how you can sometimes move inside of yourself to assist in creating that convergence point. Here, in Africa, there have been times when we have had the chance to move to that convergence point where the Spirit and the body are meeting with the mind and emotions and causing some shifts in awareness. Some of you were aware of the convergence of Spirit within yourself. Some of you were involved in your own self importance or your own gains and you are missing a lot of what could be here for you.

Being self possessed will not move you to your convergence point. If you’re going to move to the Spirit within, you have to give it up. You have to give up being self important and self possessed and you have to look to the larger perspective of what is really going on.

On this trip to Africa, we are involved in sending the Light and sending peace to the situations we encounter, the places, the people, and the animals. Some of you have been able to extend your Light and peace to the animals beautifully and others have been waiting to find out if you could do it… instead of just doing it. Waiting to find out if you can do something is being self possessed with your own importance. You are — we all are — more like the wires between the telephone poles; we are just opening up the communications and then the voice that goes through the wires really has nothing to do with us. In much the same way, you open your heart and your consciousness to the situations, people, animals, whatever you encounter; and then it is the Spirit of peace that goes through you to do the work.  That’s what we are doing in Africa. That’s what you can do each day here in Africa and throughout your life.

In Africa, we send the Light to the animals — whether that is a lion, hyena, vulture, zebra, or other — in a way that might seem a little strange to people. It is sort of, “I send the Light to you and to all of your kind; and to all of those who would eat of you and to all of their kind; and to your children and to all of their kind; and to the children of all those who would eat of you and all of their kind; because that’s what God did and that is what’s going on.”

It occurs to me that we humans might be the lowest form of animal life here because we tend to make moral judgments on everybody, including the animals. And all the great spiritual teachings say, “Don’t make moral judgments.” Selection and participation is our prerogative. Judgment is not. When you think in terms of judgment, you might realize that the jury isn’t in yet. It’s been out for a long time and will be out for an even longer time. It may not get back in for thousands of years. But you can participate. You can participate with the land by way of something that blesses the land that blesses you that blesses other people.

When I am traveling, key words that are very powerful words, like one-word affirmations, come into my mind and become astoundingly fertile inside of me. Sometimes I feel like I want to stop everybody and tell them the word that is inside of me. But I know that no one will get it like I get it, because it came to me, so I use it to nurture and fertilize myself inside and to reach out in Spirit and bless what I encounter.

As we sit in this peaceful, quiet night in Africa, we have to be careful that we don’t look to the environment to do for us what we are unwilling to do for ourselves. It is easy here, to be in touch with the profound sense of life inside of us, to be aware of Spirit and the Light. And we can do that anywhere at any time. It is a sense of the “rightness” of things just the way they are. If you stop to reflect on it or question it or ask yourself, “Am I making a difference here?” you have lost it and you are back to being self possessed and too self important. Then you are sending the Light to impress someone next to you. And that’s not very admirable.  Of course, if it comes to sending the Light to impress someone or not sending the Light, please, impress someone. Because some of it will get by you without your impression on it and that will be a pearl of great price.

The silence of Africa is really beautiful, isn’t it? You can experience that silence inside of you, wherever you are. It is peace.

There have been times on the trip where there have been some interesting experiences and times when a number of you have felt alienated and lonely and separated. You know if you have had those feelings. Over Kitich, there was a great big temple; it was a magnificent one; it is in the ethereal realms. How many of you felt different when you were there? You see? Everybody felt something. But very few stopped to ask the question, “What is this? What is going on here? What is the larger perspective? Is there something here that is greater than I am?” When you are too self possessed about how you feel, you can miss the greater perspective. You can miss what is really going on.

When you can look at animals and trees and land and say, “This also, I am,” then you start to establish the harmony and peace and balance that is necessary because the earth of this country is really crying out—not just this particular state of Africa, but even through the peoples. It’s not crying out for more cars and more televisions, but it is crying out for a harmonious forwardness. It is crying out for equilibrium and a balance in utilization. And that is, really, what we all cry out for within ourselves.

In all things that come to us—whether it is on this trip or in your life—you have a choice of whether you will get caught up in being self possessed, upset, angry, demanding—or whether you can get out of your own way and see the larger picture. It’s attitude. It matters very little what other people say or do; what matters is what you do with what they say or do. If you can breathe Light and bring peace and harmony to whatever comes toward you, that can be a magnificent thing. If you can take that ability home from this trip, it will have been most worthwhile. If you can develop that ability at any time, in any place, it will be most worthwhile. It would really be hoped that everyone would be enriched to some measure by our being here, that Africa would be the better and greater for us having been here… and that we, also, would have been better and greater for having been here.

In a few days, we’ll be going to see the gorillas. People are having considerations and concerns about that and wondering if they will be able to handle the physical part of that trip. What’s happening, though, is that, while you are wondering about all that, you are not enjoying right now and you are not gaining the experience of converging and moving on yourself at this point. If you do that, if you move your convergence point of the Spirit and the body together, when you come to the next place (seeing the gorillas), you will be seeing it from another reality and your body will respond and there will be no considerations to be dealt with.

Tonight, we could hear the hippopotamuses making all sorts of noise. I thought, “They’re coming right through the camp. We’re parked in their path and they will go right through the tents, one after the other.” I was just above my body when that thought came to me, and I made a crash landing back in again. I thought I’d better get this body out of the tent before they came through. So I was limping along, trying to get going, and I came out of the tent and there was a Traveler, standing there and it looked as though he’d been waiting for me an hour. So I thought, “Well, it’s his responsibility anyway,” and he guided me to an area where I felt safer. I found out, once again, that the Traveler will do that. Wait for you, patiently and lovingly, and guide you to the best place for you. Sometimes the Traveler does it physically; inside, that Consciousness is always there.

You know, that Traveler consciousness is also in animals, because we can seem to connect to them; there has to be something that allows us to connect and since they do not have the reasoning that we have and they are on an instinct pattern that’s different than ours, there has to be something that can connect and bridge us from our humanness to their animalness. And that is and has always been the Traveler Consciousness. It goes through all things. The Christ Consciousness goes through human beings.  The Traveler bridges across from the elemental kingdom right up through and into the Christ kingdom.

When we were with the elephants, when we called in the peace and Light and sent it to them, they responded magnificently. They stopped and were quiet as though to acknowledge, to thank us for what we were doing… and then they returned the favor to us and we became astounded. Some of you who weren’t there can feel self-possessed now and feel left out and alienated and separate—or you can say “Thank God you were there to do that; thank you for representing me; thank you for letting me be a part of that action now.” Then you are not separated. Then you participate as if you were there.

When we travel, we represent many people who cannot travel. And even on this trip, some of us have had experiences that others have not had. There is no need to feel separation. When you are involved in being self possessed or self important, it’s hard to see beyond your “no” or nose… into your eyes (ayes) or “yesses.” Be willing to do “yes.”  “Yes” means you participate; you involve yourself and you stretch out to see the bigger picture. As you sit around this fire tonight, here in this camp site, it’s either hard or it’s easy. If you focus too much on the little discomforts, it could be hard. If you expand yourself to include the larger sense of what is going on here, it’s easy. It’s joyful.

And when you have had an experience, there is something wonderful in sharing it because you are saying, “We are all one, we are together in this higher consciousness; if you didn’t get to experience this, here, drink of my cup of experience. You will gain the experience through our attunement.” When you can move your convergence point to receive, it can become as real as though you were there.

For about 25 years now, I have worked almost totally in the field of moving people’s convergence points. Saying the same thing many different ways. Moving into physical action to shake people around. Taking them to different geographical locations so they can get a different perspective on themselves through other cultures and environments. Dragging you out to the African wilderness. Seeing if the animals can do it for you. Or more appropriately, seeing if you will allow any or all of that to reflect to you and assist you to move your convergence point to Spirit and to keep moving with the Spirit so that you can experience more of the kingdom of God.

I’ve been trained by everything around me to just admire and respect what is going on even if it may be contrary to what I grew up with. I’ve been able to do that because to do anything less is to deny what is going on and to deny the Spirit and the perfection of what is. I never once thought that the hippos tonight in the river should come up on the land so I could see all of them. If I saw their eyes or their ears or their nose, I thought, “Wow! I have seen the whole animal.” I haven’t, not really, but I have that experience inside of me. Maybe you haven’t seen the whole hippo until you have seen it open its gigantic mouth. Maybe you haven’t seen one until you have seen one roll over on his back with his feet out of the water, and dance with his feet in the air, and the feet look pink. Maybe that’s when you’ve seen a hippo. Maybe you never see a crocodile until you see Fantasia.

I’ll give you a new way to look at the animals that might be interesting. When you look at the animals, look at them as though you might have been that. That might disturb some people; and others might understand how they could have been that. And others might say, “There is a part of me that’s like that right now.” If you can move to that point inside, you will have empathy so very, very fast that you won’t have to spend years learning something about a creature in its own environment. You will know, instantly, in one movement inside, what that means, what that is. The convergence point of Spirit will move to that and you will know it.

As I was talking, I looked down over some people’s heads and a firefly came up as though to say, “Don’t forget, even the smallest of things has its Light.” And as we admire that, let’s also admire the Light in the biggest things and in each other, in our thoughts, our ideas, our creations, in everything.

Make peace with yourself. Make peace with the vibrations of other people inside of you. Look at how you handle your “not peaceful” situations. Look at your thinking that helps set up separation, anxiety, isolation, and keeps it going. Look at whether or not you are being self possessed, involved in your own thoughts of self importance, being demanding in your approach towards others. Look at whether or not you can let go of that approach and do what will be more harmonious to what is really going on, in the bigger sense.

Take time to heal yourself on all levels of your existence and let that just go out to the trees, grass, river, water, animals, birds, fish, whatever… into the clouds. Know that this jigsaw puzzle, this plane, won’t be complete until every one of us has put our part in the picture. If we hold back our particular part waiting for the other parts to be there before we commit, when on earth will the puzzle complete itself? We have to be more willing to throw our pieces forward. We have to be more willing to put the puzzle together from the inside out, not waiting for it to be finished from the outside. As we are willing to put our pieces forward, other people can see where they fit; and as they put their pieces in place, more can see the great tapestry of magic as it weaves itself together. Sometimes, you spontaneously see how the pieces fit together and then you see the beauty in the pattern; that’s a blessing. But when you can see the blessing in everything, you can also see how the pieces fit together. It works both ways. Once you have seen the tapestry and the blessings, bring that awareness to you continually; keep seeing it; keep recognizing it. Keep aware of your presence in that tapestry and your part in it, and keep in mind the larger pattern, also.

If you see a flaw in the tapestry, just know that there is more work to be done; someone hasn’t put in their piece of the puzzle yet. Part of your job is to let yourself so shine that others want to become part of the puzzle, that others want to participate, they want to put their piece of the puzzle in place. And what that means is that not one Soul will be lost; not one piece of the puzzle will be missing. It will complete itself in perfection.

When you go to bed tonight, take a few minutes before you go to sleep and open yourself to the awareness of thankfulness that you are who you are with everything you have to work with, whether you call it good or bad or right or wrong, including everything you’ve demanded and haven’t gotten, everything you think you’re going to get, everything you know you’re not going to get…. everything. And as you think of all the aspects of your life, just say to yourself, “Peace, be still.” Let it be a statement but as a commandment to you and all things around you, that you and they come into the peacefulness. As it becomes your beingness, it will start to influence others around you. It will start to influence the environment around you. In the most irritating, upset moments, remember to say, “Peace, be still.”

Remember the six magic words I gave you years ago? God bless you. I love you. Now we are adding three more: Peace, be still.


WATCH A MOMENT OF PEACE WITH JOHN-ROGER IN AFRICA

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