The title of the February 19th webcast with John Morton was “Rest and Rejuvenation in the Beloved Within” and, indeed, we did experience that and more at this awesome class!
The webcasts with John Morton are a public program offered by Peace Theological Seminary and College of Philosophy (PTS) at 2101 Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica, CA. On February 19th, our MC was Alexandra Roberts and she opened the event with a prayer, calling us all forward into our hearts, and invoking an ancient name of God, Hu, which we chanted in unison. Such peace.
Next, John Cawley read two of the poems from his book ‘A Summer of Quinceaneros,’ one called “Why Wait to Love Me?,” and the other “Pine Cone Gift.” John uses wonderfully descriptive language to extend the sense of Spirit during a summer on the coast of Maine.
We watched a couple of video clips to prepare us for the class — a Moment of Peace from Asilomar with John-Roger, and the other from a trip to Japan with John Morton. Then Paul Kaye, President of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA), introduced a video clip from GodIsYourPartner.tv, in which several people shared their experiences of tithing. Next Rick Ojeda, subbing for Jsu Garcia, announced that there will be screenings of the film Spiritual Warriors in South America and on Easter weekend.
Alexandra then introduced John Morton, who was welcomed with a warm round of applause. He mentioned that people were tuning in to the webcast from places like the Congo and Belgium. He also cited his source for the evening’s class — a new book by Drs. John-Roger and Paul Kaye entitled The Rest of Your Life: Finding Repose in the Beloved . John spoke a little bit about rest, and all of its benefits, asking the group to respond with some of the qualities that rest brings, like health, peace, joy, freedom, harmony. He added that rest helps us to get more of these qualities in our lives.
John covered such topics as: being responsible to get enough rest; letting go and letting God; relaxing and being patient; coming awake with the quality of restfulness. Then he asked if we were willing change how we respond in life in order to get some rest. Using the Introduction of J-R’s book as inspiration, he led us through a short exercise in following the rise and fall of our breathing.
We viewed a J-R video excerpt, this from his travels to Australia, in which he describes Sahaj Yoga, the yoga of Breathing. Then John Morton quoted Psalm 46: “Be still and know that I am God.” He added that pausing in the stillness can bring us consciously present. This was followed by Paul Kaye leading us in a meditation with the Beloved.
Then the Questions and Answers session began. From Belgium someone asked, “What does it really mean to act in the place of Christ?” From Mexico, the question was “How can I know if I am letting Spirit guide me?” A participant in the Brentwood Room asked “How can I learn to say ‘No’ to impulsive decisions, for myself rather than for others?” Someone in Washington asked how to distinguish between her own intuition and psychic influences around her. A mother asked, “How can I support my daughter, who is not happy with her life?”
In all his answers, John was loving, patient, kind, and kept pointing the way back to loving, stillness, pausing, breathing, and gentle care. It was all I could do to stay in the here and now. Then John spoke the ending phrase, ‘Baruch Bashan’, which means “the blessings already are” and soon Alexandra came back to the microphone, gave a few announcements, reminded us to be careful driving, and the evening came to an end. I felt as if repose had sneaked in while John was talking, filling the corners of my heart with roses.
The next Internet webcast will be an Easter Eve Seminar with John Morton on Saturday, March 22nd, at 6:30 pm PDT. Join us at www.msia.org/live.
To watch an archive of the “Rest & Rejuvenate in the Beloved Within” webcast class with John Morton, go to www.msia.org/archives.
