Those who are initiated in MSIA are given names of God that are charged from within, from the spiritual consciousness that can charge that connection. And people participate in the spiritual exercise by chanting and also by listening and watching. Spiritual exercise is an opportunity to listen for what is the divine nature and the divine presence, which can come through as a vibration, and to present ourselves and make ourselves available to that.
Typically, we’re going to be challenged in some way by our attachments and materiality. So as we are attempting to clear our awareness so that we can be conscious of what is in the Spirit and the presence of God, we’re going to be dealing a whole lot with what is in the presence of our mind and our emotions or the twitch in our eye or the pain in our back or whatever else it is. These things are often external, so it can be the noise we hear next door or the thought about the bills we have to pay or something that we don’t want to do that we think we have to do. Those are just some of the things that get into the consciousness at the time of spiritual exercise.
Don’t let things like that detour you. If they come up in your mind during s.e.s, that’s a good opportunity to place the Light with them. But know this: the Light is so powerful in what it does that it does it instantly. So as you let things that come to mind be placed into the Light during spiritual exercise, you get to go free, as these things are not of the Spirit of who you are.
This is one of the blessed opportunities of being in the consciousness of the Spirit and the Light. It will take what we bring to it in our darkness, in our negativity, in our frustrations, in our ignorance, in our confusion; it will take all of that and lift it and clear it from us. What does it ask of us? Patience. A whole lot of patience. A whole lot of doing spiritual exercise over and over and over, along with letting go and letting God. A trust that there is something going on that is between you and God. And it’s a direct experience.
The Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness is legally registered as a church, but we don’t have an edifice. We do have a very beautiful place where we have our offices, which is called Prana. We have a lot of beautiful things around us, and most important is that we have beautiful people. One of the most special things about what MSIA does is that it brings the best out of people, which is the Soul. But as we partake in all the things that MSIA offers, it’s good to remember that this is really about getting into the consciousness of our Soul, which is our divine nature. That’s what it’s all about. If you can manage that some way, somehow, just do that. You don’t need our permission or anything written, spoken, or done. Just do that.
We are, in some way, those children who are calling out to God, who are looking for God in some way, and we may not be sure how that’s going to work. So we present ourselves in spiritual exercise, and we ask for whatever assistance can be given to us. And then we let go, which is really to be at the mercy of God. I see it as a process of surrender, where it’s not about my long list of “Okay God, here’s what I want from you. Here’s what I need from you. Here’s this situation in my life. Would you take care of this person? Would you make them better? Would you make them give me the job or do what I want?” That’s a small God. I’m looking for the God that, at the very least, makes us shake in our boots so that we get out of control. We’re already not in control, anyway, but we realize it, and we can’t help but be taken over by that Presence so that we have an experience that’s awesome, so awesome that it’s questionable whether anybody has ever seen or heard it and lived to tell about it. There’s something about us as human beings, as personalities, that we can’t contain or behold that experience, but we’re still working on it, working on the ability to get a look and get going in that direction.
There’s no fee to become an initiate. There are some things that are involved in your becoming an initiate and remaining an initiate once you have been initiated, so we ask people to subscribe to the Soul Awareness Discourses. But even if people come to us and say, “Look, I’m in a position where it’s really hard on me financially to pay for those Discourses,” we have financial arrangements we can make, and a person just needs to contact the MSIA office. When it is spiritually clear to do so, we have given the Soul Awareness Discourses to people.
I also like to invite people who want to have the Discourses given to them to go out and ask for some help. I see guys on street corners at stop lights, asking for money, and I think that in the course of a day, a person could probably get $100 to give to the church for their Discourses. But I know people who would say, “I’d never do that. That’s begging. That’s too uncomfortable.”
What if you got down on your knees and said to someone, whether you knew them or not, with the truth in your heart, “Look, I really want to do this thing that will help me to know God. Will you help provide that for me?” What is the value of getting to know God? It has to be priceless, but not in the sense that you don’t give anything to have it. So what is your part? How much do you put forth? If I’m willing to give everything, then I’m certainly willing to put up a hundred dollars as part of my commitment to the value.
If people make the money the issue, they may also make all kinds of other things the issue. So it isn’t just the hundred dollars or any of the other things that are involved with what we do. The issues can be the test of your dedication. Let’s see if you’re going to let some silly thing, some mundane thing that has nothing to do with this spiritual work of Soul Transcendence, stop you. Sometimes it’s a silly thing like the way we dress or what we look like or the people who are involved in MSIA. If you have an issue with any of that, I’d suggest you go to God and ask, “Why did you bring these people here? Can’t you get better specimens than this?” That would be fine with me, but I’d also be fine with whoever God brings into this because I have a complete trust that who’s here and what’s going on is directed from the Spirit and into the Spirit.
And everyone who reads this — and certainly anybody who is an initiate or studying to become an initiate — is directed to find out for yourself because this is a self-determination process. You have to determine this directly from your experience. Nobody can do it for you. And if you attempt to not find out for yourself — in other words, if you just believe it — that won’t work for you. It’s going to trip you up. You need to have the experience.
One of the keys of the process of initiation is endurance: hanging in there and trusting that there is something still waiting for you that hasn’t happened in this world. And it’s really not about what we do in this world. As an initiate, you are directing yourself out of this world. You don’t get to receive in full whatever you’re doing as an initiate until after you die.
Some people may think it’s one of the greatest schemes going, that we hold out the proof until after you die. But what I tell you is that you don’t have to wait until you die. Find out right now. Get ahold of the experience inside of you. What I know about that is if you get ahold of it completely, you won’t stay here physically. So if you’re back in your body, there are still some more things for you to work out. It’s done mostly through your continuous practice, patience, and endurance.
I deal in initiations. That’s my primary focus as a Traveler. And in trying to estimate in some way how much I learned from John-Roger, I know that I learned a lot, more than I can say or even realize. He set the pace and the direction for this Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. And he’s always set it firmly into the Spirit. What you can always count on is that when you get into the Spirit and have the experience of who you are, then you get to know that God knows, which is that “you are the Beloved in whom I am always well-pleased.”
Baruch Bashan.
Editor’s note: This is from one of the Internet Seminars that John did last year. Internet Seminars are done monthly. It’s a wonderful way to touch in to the Traveler’s energy, no matter where you live.
For the dates and times of the upcoming Internet Seminars, go to www.msia.org/live.
