When you call the Traveler, you’re not refused. If you know how to call the Traveler, that’s all you need. But if you don’t do it, that brings up a question you might ask yourself: What’s really important to you?
Sometimes, for whatever reason, people don’t call on the Traveler. For example, they may not keep up with the information level in the Discourses. (Discourses are set up so that you read one Discourse a month for twelve years—so for those of you who are in your first year, we keep you going for a while.) And all along the way there’s lots of information available to you, and lots of other opportunities that come forward through our Seminary. We have classes, some of which you can take by correspondence or email, or you can take them through a local facilitator. If you don’t know a local facilitator, you can apply to be one, and then you can take responsibility for holding the class in your area. What’s fun about that is you’re first in line. As a facilitator you can decide which class you want, and that’s often how classes are created.
We also have someone locally who takes charge of fielding requests and information, called the MSIA Representative. And there’s an opportunity that comes forward after about two years of Discourses. If you’re working with the information and applying the information, and if you made it known to your Traveler that you are interested in initiation, you can apply to be initiated—and I qualify. John-Roger still qualifies and he still fields the information about initiation. He handles all kinds of things even though in large part he’s passed on the responsibilities of the various organizations that he’s established over the years, which include the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, the Institute for Individual and World Peace, Insight Seminars, Heartfelt Foundation, University of Santa Monica, Peace Theological Seminary and College of Philosophy, and Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens.
Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens is a place in Los Angeles where we have our headquarters. It has become a spiritual day spa, a place where you can come for the day and have a spiritual focus. We have a labyrinth that is a replica of the one in the Chartres Cathedral in France. The kinds of experiences that are available at Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens will help people to realize who they are inside. So it’s kind of like a formula. If you sit in a particular posture, if you breathe in a particular way, if you focus on what’s true for you in your loving consciousness, amazing things happen.
But even though all of this is available, there’s something about this world that has a way of getting us distracted. It’s called “lazy.” What is lazy? I think in one way you could relate to it as, “I’m relaxed. I’m at ease. I’m kicking back. Taking it easy. Not doing too much. You see, there are all these things going on that I’m dealing with and so I’m justified, and I have a really good explanation for why I’m not doing what’s here to do.”
And in a way this is kind of nice. I’ll tell you something about it that you may not have considered: It’s completely allowed and permitted. On a really hot, sultry day, something about the weather outside zaps your energy so that you really don’t feel like doing much. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that, but I have. And then there are days when it gets really cold, and you don’t necessarily feel like going outside. That’s another kind of laziness, where you just don’t feel like moving or doing. You feel more or less like not doing.
The Traveler does not inflict. So if you have an attitude or approach where you “don’t want to”—for whatever reason—and so you don’t, you’re really allowed to do that as much as you like, because there’s another part of how this works—and that is called freedom. There’s no “have to” in any of this, so it’s always done by choice.
If you want to partake in something, then you really need to find a way to make it happen for yourself. Put your self in line in some way. Let me tell you what I consider is the remedy for laziness. Maybe no one’s ever proposed that for you, but there is a remedy. It’s something like this: Get somebody else to do it for you. If you can get somebody to take care of it for you, why not?
Now to me this is where the genius of God and spirituality comes in. Just consider that we’re inclined to be lazy in some way, and that’s similar to being spoiled. Spoiled goes like this: “I want what I want when I want it. Now.”
Does that sound familiar? I have a fair dose of that myself, and I notice that others seem to have it too. So here’s the perfect design:
There is someone else who can do it for you—if you know how to set that up. But how would they know what to do for you if you don’t in some way let them know what you want them to do? Even your finest servant needs to get some information. And every once in awhile he’s going to check in. “Well, how would you like your eggs? You want them the same way?” Think of what would happen if you said, “Don’t ever ask. Just bring them to me.” How is the servant supposed to respond? He might say, “Well, I brought them to you but you rejected them and you were upset with me because I didn’t bring them the way you wanted. But you said just bring them to you. So I did.”
There’s got to be some exchange in this. So if you’re going to have your servant serve you, then there needs to be some information so that the servant knows how to serve you. We have this program called God is Your Partner. The information is in there as well. And there’s a beautiful new printing of our book called God is Your Partner that contains very pertinent information about how all that works. It’s something like this: If you’ll invite God to be your partner, and you’ll demonstrate that you’re willing to have that done, then someone else can do it for you. So you need to allow for it, and in the allowing is a process that’s very much like surrender as you completely let God do you. The process is done for you and it was already done for you in the beginning. And now you’re just collecting. You just say, “I’ll take that.”
See how easy that is? It’s like somebody bringing around hors d’oeuvres on a tray. Usually they come up and offer them to you. And even at that point there’s a choice. Do you take what’s on the tray or do you pass? So God is not the kind of partner who stuffs it down your throat. That would be a form of infliction.
There are similar things in the world, like gravity, that work regardless of whether you like it or not. It will just be done, and then you find out how well you deal with it. But the Spirit really does ask for you to reach out and take it in some way, or indicate that you want it. So that’s a conscious awareness, a vigilance, a form of discipline. I just call it “showing up,” which is a primary ministry and spiritual action in my life. I realize if I’m going to partake in that, I just need to show up and present myself.
If you have the willingness to do, then the ability to do will be given. It’s a matter of your willingness. If you don’t have the willingness, then where’s the ability? It’s waiting for your willingness to choose back, and to act upon your choice. Baruch Bashan
