My heart is full of gratitude and joy today as I start sharing my experience offering and participating in Soul Awareness Seminars. I have to go back in time to tell you how it all started.<\/p>\n
Twenty six years ago my brother introduced me to the MSIA teachings during his Christmas visit to Cali, the city where I was born and where I was living at that time. He recommended that I subscribe to Soul Awareness Discourses and buy the Journey of a Soul and Inner Worlds of Meditation books. He also shared about the Ani-Hu and the Light\u2014how to ask for it, how to send it to people, situations or circumstances. I learned the concept of \u201cfor the highest good of all concerned,\u201d and, now that I think about it, this was my first Soul Awareness Seminar.<\/p>\n
The MSIA teachings were only available in Bogot\u00e1 and Medell\u00edn, so I patiently waited for the next seminar or workshop to participate in. Three months later, I was in Medellin participating in a Spiritual Exercises retreat. For me it was like being in heaven. It was quite an adventure, and the first thing that I asked the Spirit was: \u201cI want these seminars in my city.\u201d Rinaldo Porcile and Jaime Vela were my first mentors\u2014two loving guys, ordinary people like J-R, full of love, manifesting the divine essence that we all have.<\/p>\n
I came back to Cali with an application to fill out and send to Bogot\u00e1 so Rinaldo could take it back to Los Angeles for approval. I read in the application that I needed to include a black and white picture, and I struggled to find somewhere to get the photo, because in the one hour photo studios they used only color. I ended up going to a professional photography studio to get it that same day.<\/p>\n
While the photographer was taking it, I said to myself, \u201cWell God, if it is for the highest good [as I was taught to say], please, I need the pictures for today.\u201d and I was inwardly chanting Ani-Hu\u2026Ani-Hu.<\/p>\n
In the afternoon when I came to pick up the pictures, there were a lot of beautiful models in the room waiting for pictures to be taken. I asked for my pictures and the person at the counter asked me to go see the photographer because he needed to show me something. He said, \u201cWell I\u2019ve been in this business for decades and I\u2019ve never seen this. The film was ruined but the only picture that was good was yours\u2014in the middle of the film. The entire film was exposed to light. Why is yours perfect?\u201d I responded: \u201cGod knows that I really needed it.\u201d This was my first experience of the miracle of the power of the Ani-Hu.<\/p>\n
My journey started. I was reading my Discourses until one day I received a call inviting me to an MSIA introduction in a hotel downtown. I was told that I could invite my friends to the seminar, so I picked up the phone and started making phone calls, inviting a lot of people. My surprise was huge when I got to the hotel and all my friends were there (19 in total\u2014I\u2019ll never forget that number). I started offering a seminar every Tuesday. In English they were called home seminars; in Spanish, we called them \u201cMSIA reunions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two of my friends in that first hotel meeting, Mary and Jeannette, went to a party afterward and were so happy and full of energy that they called the next day and asked me, \u201cWhy are we so happy? What happened in that meeting?\u201d They told me they wanted to experience more of that joy, and they hosted seminars in their homes for years.<\/p>\n
That is the foundation of our Soul Awareness seminars\u2014our encounter with the Spirit, the joy from our souls, the simplicity of the tools that J-R teaches.<\/p>\n
The guidelines \u201cTake care of yourself so you can help take care of others; Don\u2019t hurt yourself and don\u2019t hurt others; and Use everything for your upliftment, learning, and growth,\u201d and the basic tenets \u201cOut of God comes all things; God loves all of its creation; and Not one soul will be lost\u201d were presented over and over every Tuesday for years. We did not miss a day. It was our date with the Spirit and we were always learning\u2014and not just from J-R. We were learning from people\u2019s sharings as well.<\/p>\n
Our seminars could have from 10 up to 60 people attending. Great souls dedicated to service supported the seminars, and every Tuesday we introduced the teachings to new people. Our community grew in the love and Light of the Travelers. The Spirit was present and manifested in many forms.<\/p>\n
In these home seminars, we learned the concept of Spiritual Exercises. Since the first place where we hosted them was a gym, I used to tell our guests, \u201cWell, the same way that you exercise your body, you need to exercise your soul.\u201d Chanting the Ani-Hu created that empathy and love as a community and as a group, and we took care of each other in a very loving atmosphere. One night we started chanting, but we were not in good harmony and the seminar leader asked us to stop and sing it from our heart and our soul. What came out of our mouths was so loud and funny that we were not able to chant. We laughed and laughed before we moved to our next step and listened to the Golden Temple meditation by J-R. I remember that a lot of people told us that they were stressed out, and the laughter was the best medicine that night! Just what they needed.<\/p>\n
At the beginning, I have to admit that my ego was present on certain occasions, thinking, \u201cWow, the seminar went so great today.\u201d Then as I offered more and more seminars, I learned that the Spirit was in charge, that it was not me or my personality; it was God speaking thru me. I learned to be present with the Spirit and to listen to my inner guidance. Some days I prepared a meditation and had the seminar ready, but at the last minute after playing \u201cOur Song of Love\u201d and chanting the Ani-Hu, something guided me to change it. At the sharing, I listened to a person saying, \u201cThank you so much for this meditation, it is just what I needed today.\u201d That was for me to let go and let God run the show.<\/p>\n
I was blessed to have this opportunity to serve others, to experience the Spirit present in our seminars creating that beautiful energy, that sacred place for all of us to get together in the name of God. It is good to do Spiritual Exercises by yourself, but when you do it with others, it brings present to the room Christ\u2019s premise: when two or more gather in my name I will be there.<\/p>\n
We had the opportunity to put situations in the Light and get the blessings that God has for us. We were miles away from Los Angeles, but in our hearts and souls we were so close to the Travelers that it was unbelievable. There was so much devotion. We would not stop doing our seminars. There was an earthquake one night and we were all there with candles because there was no electricity. Not even Mother Nature could stop us.<\/p>\n
Eventually, our group of ministers contributed and worked to rent a place and name it \u201cLa Sede\u201d (the headquarters) to host the Soul Awareness seminars and do PTS classes and workshops. It is our little Prana in Cali. I offered seminars there until November 1998, when I moved to Miami.<\/p>\n
One of the things that I missed the most when I moved here was the seminars. We had the PTS classes, the online seminars, and the Masters class, but we did not have our Soul Awareness Seminars. I thought it was impossible with the driving distance, until a number of ministers and seminar leaders from Colombia moved to Miami. They loved the close encounters with the Spirit in seminars, and we put our intention and our energy into offering them. We announced our intention during our ministers meetings, and now we are hosting a seminar every Wednesday at 7:30 pm at the home of Luis Mario Agudelo and Marybell Castaneda (who also used to host seminars in Colombia). We\u2019ve already had four seminars!! What looked impossible is a dream come true. We know that here in the United States we have to drive a long way to attend, but it\u2019s worth it. I am blessed to be part of this wonderful energy. We asked God for this opportunity to serve, and it is manifesting. We\u2019re now even starting to test out people participating in our seminars via Skype.<\/p>\n Any seminar leader can attend and offer a seminar, and the one that has the calling from the Spirit does it. The great benefit is that you one day have the opportunity to serve others, and the next time you are participating being served by another leader. I feel that we are setting up the foundation of a great community in Miami.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve had people attending for whom this is their first MSIA seminar. The experiences they shared were profound; we who had been ministers for years were amazed. My dear friend has attended two so far, and after the second one she texted me early in the morning to thank me for the invitation and to share the benefit that she received from participating in the seminar.<\/p>\n I also had an opportunity two weeks ago to minister to a hairstylist whom I had recently met. When I went to her for my hair cut and treatment, we started talking about books and I told her how to download the Journey of a Soul book on MSIA\u2019s website. She\u2019s already finished reading it and told me that she is ready to be part of the home seminars\u2014and she has offered her home to host them as well. It was a very special moment for us. I hugged her like I had known her forever. We were just the two of us in the house but I could hold the Light the whole time and share from my heart what I love the most about MSIA! For me this is another way to host a seminar, sharing the teachings when the Spirit gives us the opportunity.<\/p>\n I would like to invite all seminar leaders to set the intention and open the space to get together as a community to expand the teachings. I know that we have busy lives and there may be a week or more where you will not be able to participate, but if we work as a team, others will hold the energy. God bless us all and God bless John-Roger and John Morton for their love and dedication to guide us back home!<\/p>\n
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