Off to the Big Apple

Sitting at the airport in Long Beach, I finally have a moment to reflect on all that has happened since our return from Australia just a few months ago. So much has happened since our return. There is a palpable feeling of excitement in the air as things begin to pick up pace. Personally, I have begun to get settled in Orange County and am loving living down here with this beautiful community. It has been a real joy getting to know everyone within the ashram.

We are heading to New York City for a week, in the third installment of Louix’s 2007-2008 World Tour. There are a lot of exciting things planned for this trip, including a television interview, a Darshan at artist David Grey’s Chelsea Gallery, some sightseeing at the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, as well as a day-long retreat on Staten Island. The itinerary is packed to the gills, and it should be a really eventful and awesome shoot.

I have never been to New York so this will be an especially memorable trip for me. I have always wanted to go, and I cannot think of better company or circumstances to get me there! This whole adventure has been such a blessing that sometimes it seems surreal. To think that six months ago I was living in San Francisco, working as a yoga teacher, with no plans to pursue my filmmaking dreams, and now I am the director of a big-budget documentary feature! Not only that, but I have been embraced by the most openly loving group of people I have ever met and invited to share their spiritual journey, through all of its ups and downs. The trust and intimacy with which they live their lives inspires and astounds me.

The most impressive thing that I have seen in my brief stay at Prema Drala Ashram is the grace with which the community members handle both the everyday and large crises that happen to all of us. Situations that would send me running for the hills are handled with a calm and detachment that make it seem almost easy. I even find myself able to adopt this attitude, much to my own amazement! It is true that while life in an ashram does get more challenging as the responsibilities and energies intensify, at the same time a genuine sense of serenity also increases, so overall things just become quite surreal as you find yourself in difficult situations that often make no rational sense to the mind, yet feel at peace with the situation and able to remain calm. This ability is something I have been searching for my entire life.

So, as we move on towards the halfway point of this adventure I find myself quite in awe of everything I have seen, and eager to see what lies on the horizon. I have always had faith in God, but my experiences lately have clarified and expanded that faith from the realms of abstract mental conceptions to a real feeling that I can rest in. It is hard to explain, but I can say that it feels amazing. This is not to say that there haven’t been moments where this all has been too much and I needed to do a quick freakout, but if you compare that to the months of fear, anxiety and depression that I used to experience not but a year or so ago, I’d say that’s a pretty big improvement! It certainly feels like it.

Well, that’s all for now. I wish all you crazy cats out there in the ethers much love and light, and I look forward reading about your own journeys through the maze of life.

All My Love,

Bill

Faesha’s Story

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A Day at Kata Juta

I was on my first retreat with Louix in the Northern Territory, Australia on 6th of November 1998. We got up at 4:00 am that morning and, after breakfast, I eagerly boarded the bus and van awaiting us. After a short trip we arrived at Katu Juta (the Olgas) which means ‘many heads.’ This refers to the dome-like, mountainous pillars of un jointed rock in the area. As my feet touched the ground, I felt the sacredness of this ancient land. I’m sure everyone else felt the same, for we all walked in silence and reverence. We walked till we reached an open, rocky valley where we sat to watch the sunrise; there we meditated. I felt Spirit in and around me in every breath, I felt myself one with God as the wind echoed through every cell of my being.

As we walked upward and onward insects and animals came to greet us and guide us through rugged plains.  My partner (while on the retreat) Wendy, began having visions of the Grandmothers—the Aboriginal ancestors who had lived there and guarded the area centuries ago.  She cried and cried as she remembered. Wendy felt she could not go on, so one of the women Ria, volunteered to stay with her, and we continued. 

We walked upward through the Valley of the Winds till we reached a peak, where there was a clearing. And, yes, it was very windy.  I held onto my hat all the way up! It was becoming quite hot, even though it was still early in the morning. We often stopped to marvel and feast our eyes in awe at the rugged, untouched beauty of this holy mountain of the Aborgines; God’s sanctuary.

Suddenly Louix called out, ‘Look! God is looking at us. Quick! Get your cameras out.’ Excitedly, I jumped up, got out my camera, and took a photo. The sky was clear and blue, I could not see anything strikingly different. Once the photos were developed, I saw the first photo of many I have taken since that day where Spirit manifested through the photo as light—rainbow light! In the “God Looking at us” photo you can see the light pouring out of the sky and images in spirit form that came to ‘pose’ for the photo. Awesome!

After taking the photos we walked on a little and Dria commented on how this place felt like a womb. After she spoke these words, I looked around, we were surrounded by rich chocolate coloured mountainous boulders. The trees were greener and everywhere the stones shone in the light of the sun, I felt soft and nurtured, it felt very much like being in the womb of Mother Earth. Then Louix announced that we would perform a ceremony there. The winds suddenly stopped, there was complete stillness. While Lord Sananda spoke through Louix, a dark, heavy cloud appeared above us, we heard loud roars of thunder and it started to rain. He told us that we were there to open a vortex that had never before been opened. And he told us that the vortex called ‘The Vesica of Pisces’ lay thirteen kilometres below the surface of the Earth.

Louix asked us to form two intersecting circles.  There were twenty-two of us—eleven people gathered in each circle. Louix guided us through a meditation in which we joined the two circles to become one circle, wherein the vortex, ‘The Vesica of Pisces’ was opened. Then the dark heavy cloud disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared!  The sun shone upon us, and we were completely dry in less than a minute.

While we were performing the ceremony I was holding Richard’s hand and I could feel his whole body shaking from the huge amount of light pouring through his body. I opened my eyes and looked around the circle and all the other men in the group were shaking too. I wished that I could have the experience of that much light pouring through my body that it would rock me off my socks or at least off the ground beneath my feet. About three months passed and at times while meditating I too began to shake from the intensity of light and love pouring through me. I got exactly what I asked for. What a blessing.

The opening of the vortex also opened our hearts.  As I looked around at each of my brothers and sisters in the circle, I had a deep sense of remembering them—some more than others. I knew that we had come together again and again to work in Love and service to The Beloved. Then Louix went around the circle and hugged each person and as He did He cried and wailed as Love flowed through Him into our hearts, He stopped crying when He moved on to the next person, but as soon as He embraced the following person He cried and wailed again. He shared with us later that, in that moment when He hugged us, He could see the I AM presence in each of our hearts. We hugged each other, too, with tears of joy and love. Then Louix positioned His heart over the opening of the vortex and, after a while, He told us that we had been given permission to lie on top of the vortex if we wished.

When I placed my heart over the vortex, I felt excited but I did not expect to see or feel anything. However when my heart touched the sacred ground, I could see what looked like a moon deep within the Earth, and I felt a magnetic pull drawing me into the moon-shaped vortex. Indeed, it was a sacred moment. I often visit that place in my morning meditation.

On the way back to the bus I reached out for a drink only to realize that I left my drink bottle close to the ceremonial ground, so I asked Louix if I could return to get my bottle. As I walked back I asked God if I could take a stone with me, I felt a strong ‘Yes.’ I asked God which stone I could take, I reached down to the ground and picked up three stones. Why was I guided to pick up three stones when I asked for one? Was I guided or was it my ego? I felt guilty and uneasy as I walked back to the bus. I kept asking God for clarity, then it came to me that each one had significant meaning, each one had something to show me about myself.

The first stone represented the Spirit of God that manifests in everything and is everywhere, all I have to do is to trust God, He has a plan. The second stone represented the womb, the sacred place, the inner chambers of the soul that I entered in the opening of the vortex, and the third stone represented the world of illusion. I walked in the scorching heat for about ten minutes and then the path before me, the trail that led to the entrance of the Olgas disappeared. I walked in a circle, looking in all directions without a sign of the path. I walked to the top of a hill, I thought I would be able to see the path from above and then I saw the ring top of a can, and I knew I had been led there to pick it up. As soon as I did this I turned around and saw the path. By this time all my chakras were wide open, I could feel them spinning wildly, I felt like my body was going to explode from the amount of light spinning in and through me, I felt very hot and in love. I walked on and met up with one of the members of our group John, he came back to find me. He apologized for coming and he told me he felt responsible for keeping the group together and safe just as he did centuries ago in this sacred land of the Aborigines.

In truth I was so glad to see him, I was still feeling like I was going to explode, and I did not know what to expect. By the time we got to the entrance of the Olga’s I knew I had to throw one of the stones back, it was the stone that represented illusion. When I look to find love, happiness or God outside of myself I create the illusion. I got the message so I was able to leave the stone behind. As I turned around to throw the stone a large lizard suddenly appeared as if out of nowhere. John and I looked to each other, we waited a moment and left in silence.

I kept the two remaining stones with me, I even kept them under my pillow at night when I slept. I wanted them to collect as much energy from the retreat as possible. A few days later we traveled to the site where a large meteor had crashed into the Earth thousands of years ago. It created a deep circular valley in the Earth, and there Louix led us through a meditation. After the meditation I offered the green stone, the one that represented manifestation and Spirit, to each person to keep with them for an hour a day; to take from it the gift or message the stone offers and to impart their presence, their energy onto the stone. When the first person returned the stone, I notice that it had a brown stain or spot on it. I passed it on to the next person and when it came back to me it had another stain, by the time the stone had gone to every person it had become completely brown! One morning I awoke and I knew I had to give the now brown stone to Wendy, she was thrilled and as we hugged she told me she also felt the stone was meant to go with her. The third stone that represented the womb, the sacred site where the vortex was opened is still with me.

In the three weeks on retreat I experienced or witnessed healings, revelations, and heart opening experiences that would change my life forever; my search for God had ended, I found what I was looking for in myself through Louix, my Guru.

Rose Italiano
On retreat with Louix Dor Dempriey

Close to Pranananda

I had the opportunity to be able to provide body work to Pranananda during his recent stay. It is inspiring just to be in His presence and to be so close to Him was awesome! During the session I had experiences that attest to the level of divine current that flows through Him. In touching Him my own body became a conduit for the same current and at times it was so intense I struggled to stay conscious. My hands and forearms buzzed with energy during the session and this persisted after the session had ended.

Pranananda uses His body to draw out non-love from those around Him. When I was working the tension out of His body I felt tension from my own body disappearing! The day after working on Him my own body was free of aches and pains.

Pranananda’s feet are very soft and totally free of tension. As a reflexologist this is very rare as a person’s illnesses/issues are reflected in their feet. I have never come across anyone else with such tension free feet. His feet also carry enormous amounts of current (shakti).

In His presence I could feel the love radiating into my whole being. I have visited Pranananda in the US and had the opportunity to be in His presence for a number of weeks. I have felt pain and worries all lifted from me. Sitting in the plane on the trip back home I have always experienced my body feeling very light and pain free. So if you ever get a chance to be in His presence take it, especially if you can get a hug too!

“There was so much love in the room!”

I felt so blessed and honoured to be able to serve my Beloved Guru, Sri Pranananda (Louix Dor Dempriey) at the Evening Event in Melbourne on December 17, 2007. And what an evening it was!

Gathered there, that beautiful night, were a group of such open hearted souls. These spiritual seekers came from all walks of life; families with their children, business men in their suits, a new father with a babe in his arms, a woman in her eighties, a woman very soon to give birth, and others just curious to discover who Sri Pranananda is. All of them, however, were transfixed on the Holy Man, listening to the soothing tones of His voice, gazing into His face which was in rapture.

One by one they came onto the stage to look into the eyes of Divine Love. A few simply smiled as they received their blessing, some leaned eagerly forward to hear a special message, and many openly wept their gratitude. Others were near ecstasy as they allowed the current of light to move through them. There was so much love and reverence in the room; the air was thick like nectar. One could also feel the presence of many other beings—angels, spirits, deva’s—there was magic everywhere! The whole experience was heightened by the harmonious and stirring sounds of singer/musicians “Sacred Earth,” who played long into this special night.

Thank You Prananandaji for the way You touch the hearts and lives of so many. The memory of this miraculous evening will remain with me always

Lynda Hansen
(Melbourne, Australia)

A Prayer for Kenya

Let us hold in our hearts this day, on the 24th of February, in the Year of our Lord 2008, all the people in all the tribes in Kenya. And let us see the people in this land—in the heart of Africa, the very birthplace of civilization—as one tribe, one family… a family of God, a family in love. Let us radiate our love to these peoples and to this land, and see the madness dissolving: anger, rage, and hatred turning to love, compassion, kindness, sweetness, friendship, camaraderie, sisterhood, and brotherhood. See the exchange of weapons and offensiveness, right this very moment, being replaced by embraces, caresses and gazes of adoration, compliments….

As the mystical phoenix rises, now, in this Year of Rebirth on Planet Earth and throughout the whole Cosmos, it is not only natural, but necessary, that all the ways of old must die and fall away. That is all that is happening, the last desperate cries of separateness. Of course it would begin there (Kenya), in the very heart and origin of the human race.

And, like Christs among all people, may the crucifixes these ones are carrying now lessen the burdens and the experiences of ones to come, as the falling and dying away spreads through lands far and wide… as it must, in order for this phoenix to rise up and out from the demise of its former self, its no-longer-useful self.

Let us bless and thank and anoint these souls in Kenya for paving the way for others. Let us also speak to the souls walking in the forms of ones with maddened minds, and acknowledge them and bless and thank them, and let us take heed from their experience and their suffering, too. From the madness we are witnessing now in Kenya, let us each call forth, claim, and commit to a new and unprecedented level and promise of transformation within ourselves, this very day, this very moment, and from henceforward, so that others may not have to suffer so much, if at all.

We can be—and are—the harbingers of a New Way. It was never God’s intention for His/Her children to suffer. Through our deepening surrender and acceptance, others will not have to, and the suffering in Kenya can end. Each one of us individually has the power to achieve this—for a whole nation, for a whole race, for a whole world. All it takes is One.

So heinous and so intense is what humanity is witnessing in this sacred land of Kenya because it is the microcosm of a much larger (Cosmic) event taking place. The current strife in Kenya is the amalgamation and concentration of the entire collective consciousness on Earth. In short, this global transformation has begun in the epicenter of the human race and will now spread outward.

So, let us channel and direct the energy of surrender—individual, personal surrender—of free (separate) will to God, replacing that separate will with a deep, dauntless, and unabiding acceptance of Divine will: for our personal lives, for our families, for our vocations, for our earth, for our world, for our existence, and for our future. And let us be strong and unwavering in our promise and commitment, so that the suffering and the madness may end, for indeed it shall… indeed it shall.

What we are witnessing are the growing pains of a human race that is verily molting its own shell. Let us hold these ones, and all ones in this same experience, with great tenderness and compassion, as we hold ourselves and would like to be held in this way by others, as we, too, are in the process of recreating, redefining, and rebirthing ourselves as the phoenix.

Let us call upon the angelic realm to descend upon Earth, like never before, and upon all their mighty legions, in their full power and presence, to guard, guide, and protect each and every soul embodied who must walk this same walk—however that may look—into the very tabernacle of God’s heart.

So powerful a time is this on Planet Earth, and so rapid is the transformation and acceleration now occurring. We must be steadfast, sincere, pure and chaste, ardent and dauntless in our commitment to becoming greater and greater love, in our commitment to surrendering all which no longer serves our souls’ highest good, in our commitment to loving and serving our fellow sisters and brothers and all God’s creatures.

And so, finally, we send this blessing, with our deepest love and compassion, to you, beloved Kenya, as epicenter and wayshower for this burgeoning divinity of the entire human race. We bow before you and we stand strong alongside you—as you shall for us, everyone and everywhere… as we are in this together, in our own time and place—for truly are we One in the heart of Love.

As we partake of prasad (holy communion, blessed offerings), and when we break bread at every meal, let us all know that we are, through this act, transmuting and purifying the dross and the madness that has laid siege upon the sacred land of Kenya. By so doing, shall we here and now reduce the amount of like circumstance that would have taken place in other lands, other countries, other tribes.

Through your sacrifice, beloved Kenya, heart of the world, may we all find peace, harmony, unity, and oneness, and love for self and one another—as equals, as divine, and as God loves us.

Let us see this blessing permeating and having permeated the land itself, and all of the elements, as well as the people… and it shall continue to do so, for this is an open and expanding vortex, not a one-time event. Our continued thoughts and prayers will continue to amplify this blessing, and it will radiate out, continuing to cleanse and transform, encompassing the entire world and the entire Cosmos.

I encourage everyone to really become more and more disciplined, more and more pure and chaste. It is so vitally important, more so now than ever before. Be very discerning, be very exacting as you look upon your life and see what needs to be let go: what habits and disciplines that are weak and need strengthening; which inauthentic ways of being need be released and/or transformed…. Please, please—I beseech you—do this now, and do it every day. Now is the time. The gains you will make are beyond comprehension; and resisting this way of being will, likewise, bring incomprehensible pain and suffering—incomprehensible. Really, there is no choice, for one who is wise.

And do this not out of fear, but with great passion and excitement. This energy of Rebirth that is available and radiating unto and through all of Creation this year is so purifying, profound, and all-transforming. To simply watch it go by would be, itself, the greatest of tragedies. Take hold of it, befriend it, romance it. Let this be the first and greatest year of your life. So much wonder lies before you, before each of us.

Take heed to My words, and take them seriously. Be the demonstration, be the example for others. Let God’s grace take hold of you and sweep you away, that others may be inspired by your life, by your transformation. Let the following words be your mantra, your Mission Statement:

“Take me Lord, for I am Thine, and Thou art mine.
Take me, Lord; I surrender.
All that I am, all that I was, all that I shall ever be,
I give unto You.
I do hereby surrender my free will into Thine,
to live and reign as One.”

- Louix Dor Dempriey

Enlightenment – An Interview with Louix Dor Dempriey

(The following excerpts were taken from an interview granted to a college student who was doing a research paper on Enlightenment.)

What religion are you affiliated with, if any?

BSP: I am affiliated with all religions. All religions were spawned from absolute Truth, through pure hearts who heard the word of God. I AM that Truth and I AM that word. Thus, who I am, and what I speak and teach, predates all religions, and, yet, includes the best of all of them.

What caused you to seek the path of Enlightenment?

BSP: What causes a drop of rain, when it falls from the sky, to return to the sea? I was born with an innate knowingness of God, and the hunger was there from birth. At some point, it became very clear that the trappings of the world offered no true satisfaction to Me. No matter which career I chose, what endeavor I did, there was always a piece missing. I knew that piece was God. And, eventually, that hunger took hold of Me in a way that I could not turn My back on anymore. In truth, I was not seeking Enlightenment, I was just seeking total union with God. I knew nothing about Enlightenment, nor did I think that I was eligible. But what I did know was that I was destined to merge in, and with, the heart of God. And I made a decision, around the age of thirty, to pursue that, at all costs to Myself. No matter what, I had to have it.

What does it mean to be enlightened?

BSP: Enlightenment is a point whereby individuals have transmuted and cleansed more than fifty percent of their karma. At that point, they are freed from the labyrinth of Separation, in which all humans live. It is then that they are God-realized or illumined (these are both synonyms for Enlightenment), and they live as one with God.

Another way of describing it is that an enlightened being has more than fifty percent of his or her consciousness as being love-based. One who is not enlightened has more than fifty percent of his or her consciousness that is still fear-based. A consciousness that is mostly fear-based is ruled by a force, a gravity, that holds you in fear. You may have moments of bliss, moments of ecstasy, moments of rapture, epiphanies and revelations—when you have experiences of profound love and ecstasy. But, because most of your consciousness is still fear-based, that ‘gravity’ eventually will pull you back into a life that is ruled by fear. If you were illumined, the exact opposite would be true. Because most of your consciousness would be love-based, there would be a gravity that would hold you in a love consciousness. In this scenario, you would still have moments—because you are in a human body, living in the world, and interacting with people—when anger would come up or fear would come up or sadness would come up. But, eventually, the gravity of pure love would pull you back into love without your having to really do anything, because you would have crossed that threshold. And that is the meaning of Enlightenment, as well as the differentiation between one who is enlightened and one who is unenlightened.

What does Enlightenment do for you?

BSP: A better question would be to ask, “What do you do for it?” Beings who are enlightened have one motivating factor in life, and that is to serve and help other people. The meaning of Life, itself, is to be in service to a Purpose which is greater than the self. All enlightened people know this and live this.

If someone is enlightened, does he or she retain it for the rest of that lifetime?

BSP: Yes. Enlightenment is a benchmark—a turning point—in the evolution of a soul, and it is the destiny of every soul in existence. All life, all creation, moves in one direction, and that is back unto the Creator. So, no, it cannot be undone, and it cannot fizzle or fade—absolutely not.

What happens to a person who is enlightened, after death?

BSP: The same thing that happens to an unenlightened person, after ‘death.’ First of all, there is no such thing as death, so that renders the question as being rather moot. The only thing that changes when you finish your incarnation is that you are no longer contained in a corporeal form. You are already immortal; you are already an eternal being—everyone is. And you are already part and parcel of the fabric of every cell of creation—every plant, every person, and every object (animate and inanimate, living and dead). When you finish your earthly embodiment, you simply drop that one form. But you are still part of everything, constantly evolving, growing and expanding into greater and greater love.

Does an enlightened person reach a certain state of being and then seek to help others become enlightened?

BSP: Yes. In fact, that is all enlightened people do. That is their vocation.

Do you believe that people have to go through chaos and destruction, or much pain and suffering, before they can seek the path of Enlightenment?

BSP: They do not have to go through chaos and destruction, pain and suffering. However, it just so happens that most everybody does. There have been very, very few exceptions to this, over the course of history. Look at it this way: Suppose you are a ball. And when God drops that ball, that is when you enter Creation. Now, if a ball is falling, when does that ball begin its ascent? The answer is simple: when it hits the ground. This explains the nature of human evolution on Earth. It is when you have hit rock bottom in your own selfish pursuits for sense gratification—for all the material goals and gains, at some point in a given lifetime (and it is not this lifetime for everyone)—that the ball begins its ascent. And in this third dimensional world of polarity, of duality, that does entail much chaos, destruction, pain, and suffering because all pain and suffering is caused by resistance to God’s will. Resistance to God is the sole source of pain and suffering. Therefore, one does beget the other.

Do you believe an enlightened person can tell if someone else is enlightened?

BSP: This is often, but not always, the case.

Is there anything beyond Enlightenment?

BSP: There are as many levels within the realm of Enlightenment as there are within the realm of Separation. Thus, when ones cross the threshold of Enlightenment, they still have an enormous amount of evolution to experience. In fact, long after you have become illumined (perhaps years and years later), when you have finished refining and purifying all the distortions in your consciousness, you just continue refining the refinements.

You can attain full God-realization, and still continue to expand because God is a quantity that is always increasing. Even though God is the consummation of all the love that exists in all of Creation, that God-head (the totality of God) is also constantly increasing because all of outer Creation (all the aspects or particles of the God-head) are also, each one, constantly ascending into higher vibrations of love, on their journey back into the God-head. Thus, at any moment—even one minute after the ‘Big Bang’—if you put it all back together again, God would be larger than its original mass, because each of those separate pieces would have increased. This is why, once you attain God-realization, you continue growing into greater Love, because so is God, Itself.

What are some of the qualities that an enlightened person possesses?

BSP: Unconditional love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, a deep level of acceptance, understanding, wisdom, insight, intuition, kindness, and caring… and the list goes on.

Is pain and suffering an individual perception that really has no relevance to our existence?

BSP: Well, it is an individual perception, but it has tremendous relevance to your existence. It is of vital and crucial importance in your life. Pain and suffering is a wonderful thing because it is the barometer that measures your level of resistance to God. Now, interestingly enough, when most people experience pain, they immediately try to numb it. They get pain killers and all kinds of medications. And, if it is emotional pain, they seek distraction. This is why human beings are totally consumed with the vocation of gratifying the senses: sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling, prostitution—anything they can. It is to numb the pain of feeling separate from God.

It is better if you let yourself feel that pain of being separate from God, because it is that very pain that eventually creates the hunger for God. The hunger for God is what creates the Awakening, which creates the seeking, which creates the merging—and then the union—with God. Thus, as you can see, pain and suffering has tremendous relevance to your existence. It is one of the greatest gifts you can ever have—and ever know. Remember also: A heart at peace knows no suffering, regardless of circumstance.

How do we inform others about Enlightenment, if they know nothing? Should we inform others, or do they have to seek the path of Enlightenment on their own?

BSP: You are informing others right now. Now, should you inform others? ‘Should’ is a non-existing word. It is an illusion. ‘Should,’ ‘try’—those words do not exist; there is no such thing. What you ‘should’ do is just ‘Be Love.’

Do people have to seek the path of Enlightenment on their own? Absolutely. That is an individual journey. The return to God is wholly the responsibility of the individual. The awakening of the dormant, or slumbering, consciousness is like a time capsule in the heart and mind of every human being. And on that one given day, in one given moment, somewhere in the evolution of a soul, the bubble bursts and an individual becomes ‘the Seeker.’

Do you know what it means to be in a state of ‘Nirvana?’ If so, what does it mean?

BSP: I know what it means to be in a state of Nirvana, because that is the state in which I live. What it means, simply, is that no circumstance, no person, nor any event has the power or ability to move Me or tempt Me out of the space of unconditional love. I live in pure love and pure joy all the time. I still have certain feelings and moods. There are some things that I find distasteful, and there are certain behaviors in people that I may not like. But I have never stepped out of seeing someone as pure love, (out of) seeing through the eyes of pure love, or seeing the absolute, God-filled vibration of every cell of Creation in every single moment, period. In other words, you have cloudy days and sunny days, and you are affected by them as cloudy and sunny. Because I live in a state of Nirvana, when it is dark and cloudy and rainy, I still fully see the sun behind the clouds, and I experience the sun, even though I am experiencing the clouds and the rain along with you.

Do you believe chaos and destruction is caused by God, and why do we perceive it this way?

BSP: The only thing that is caused by God is love: the creation of love, the giving of love, the sharing of love, and the blessing of love. God is a river that is constantly flowing with pure, unconditional love. Why humans perceive God as the cause of chaos and destruction is because human beings live in the illusion of being separate from God. Thus, they have this natural chip on their shoulders, which speaks: “God, you abandoned me; God, you hurt me; God, you did this to me.” People live in victim consciousness, so they blame God for everything and give God credit for next to nothing. But that is one more testimonial of God’s unconditional love—that God keeps loving and giving anyway. Even for people who have renounced God, or say that they do not believe in God… Is not God still inflating their lungs after every exhalation, and do not their hearts continue to beat? Neither one of those has an ostensible power source. So it is the Creator that continues inflating the lungs and beating the hearts. There is no greater testimonial as to the level of God’s unconditional love for His children.

Do people have to reach Enlightenment before they receive the gift of eternal life?

BSP: No. Everyone is already eternal and immortal. When you attain Enlightenment, what changes is that you now have the experience of your own inherent divinity and immortality. Couple that with the knowing that it is the dharma and destiny of your soul—you have no ultimate say in this process or outcome; it is going to happen anyway, because of you and/or in spite of you—and you, like most, would immediately come to the realization of, “Why not just do it now?”

What happens to those who have not achieved Enlightenment before they die? Do they have to come back to this world?

BSP: You only have one true, full incarnation on Earth, and that is the one in which you are now living. What you understand to be your past lives are lives that your soul experiences vicariously through others, to prepare itself for its one journey on Earth. Furthermore, if you do not realize God in your one lifetime on Earth, you continue vicariously through (what you understand as) future lifetimes, assuming and absorbing the experiences of others as part of your evolution. The journey to God-realization has to be achieved on Earth and through human incarnations. In other words, if it is not done in your lifetime, you still have to work through the human factor to realize God.

Now that poses an interesting subject, because many people find great comfort in believing “Well, I can just come back and finish.” If you truly knew you only had one chance, you would really make the most of it. People waste a lot of their lives. They either glorify themselves over all these wonderful things they did in the past, or they procrastinate by saying, “Well, I can just do it in my next life.” Luxuriating and indulging in past lives and future lives are excuses people give themselves for not making the most of their one, true life on Earth—the one in which they are now living.

Why, might you ask, does what I just said seem to contradict what has been taught by other Masters, mystics, sages—and even some religions—with regard to past lives and reincarnation? There really is no conflict. The world was not ready (until now) to hear of this one, Higher Truth. Humanity needed to see and experience the cost of laziness, procrastination, lack of caring, and trying to pass the responsibility onto others. The state of this world now shows it.

It is only by your adopting full responsibility for all of Creation—knowing that you are God, and that everything and everyone on this planet is you—that the Miracle of miracles can happen, both in your life and in this world. “It’s all up to me” must become your life mantra. Act as if you are the only person on this planet—because you are—fragmented into seven billion pieces (people), as well as all the plants, animals, objects, and events. It is all you. All it takes is one. Jesus proved this. Gandhi proved this. That one is you.

It is only by truly knowing and believing that this life is all you have, that you will finally know and experience the precious sacredness of life, appreciate the gift that it is, and then act accordingly in treating it with love and respect.

If a person has achieved Enlightenment, does that mean he or she does not have any karmic debts left to pay? And do karmic debts have to be paid in order to achieve Enlightenment?

BSP: Karmic debts do have to be paid in order to attain Enlightenment. That is the journey and the process—the purification of the self. You are made as Pure Love, in the image of Pure Love, and you came into the world with a promise to be only love, to learn of love, and to spread love. Furthermore, you are responsible and accountable for every single creation of yours (and there are four levels of creation—thought, feeling, word, and action). And you promised that all four levels of your creation, in every moment, would be of pure love. So, for any time that you create anything that is less than pure love, your soul already had a promise that it would clean it up and restore it to pure love. Now, if you do not take responsibility and accountability, and make restitution and clean up your mess, then the universe acts on your behalf, with your promise and agreement, to do that for you. And that is the understanding of the Law of Karma. The Law of Karma is the Law of Balance. The universe is always in perfect balance, in every moment. If you are fully accountable and responsible, you can balance the karma yourself and not have to have things happen to you. You see, the physical plane is the densest plane of Creation, and the last place anything appears.

Any time you step out of love, you automatically know it—everyone knows it. The heart is the seat of the soul, which is the seat of your own divinity, which is the seat of your own omniscience. The truth is that the heart knows everything in every moment, and, when you think, feel, say, or act anything outside of pure love, you know it. In the private and still of your night, you know. And you have a choice to go rectify that situation and restore it to love, or to be a victim, and then have the universe do it for you. And that is the understanding of why karmic things happen to people, because they do not want to be responsible to sow only seeds of love.

If a person has achieved Enlightenment, yes, he still may have karmic debts to pay. I said, earlier, that attaining Enlightenment is when you cross the fifty-yard line, when you have transmuted and purified more than fifty percent of your consciousness back into unconditional love—the vibration of God. So, theoretically, one may still have up to forty-nine percent remaining to transmute, to purify.

If that is the case, then what about the karma that we are healing from past lives and this lifetime?

BSP: I have already spoken about past lives. There is just you—the totality of you. The principle is the same. Karma is karma. You acquire that which you need as part of the journey to God-realization. Past, present, future—it is all the same. You are created by God as pure love. You enter into the illusion of Separation. And the purpose of every soul’s journey on Earth is to reunite and merge with the Creator, as Pure Love. It is to discover love, remember love, purify into love, become love, and spread love that you were born.

Surrender

One of the most enigmatic concepts in life is that of “surrender.” The object of nearly every aspirant’s pursuit, surrender is THE key to union with The Beloved. Ironically, it is also that to which the greatest resistance is shown. Many people falsely believe that surrender is an action. It is more a state of being, the “result” of right use of will and pure-motivated actions. In short, it is achieved through obedience to Divine will. Surrender is an ongoing process, not something you do only once. Therefore, rather than giving a word or phrase to define surrender, it is much more effective for Me to share some of the distortions in the human consciousness which prevent surrender from happening, along with a proper course of action for ones to take.

I will cut to the chase and begin by giving you the solution: Rather than trying to fit God conveniently into your life or your ‘week-at-a-glance’ calendar, fit your entire life and existence into God’s. You are a subset of God; God is not a subset of you. You are a physical extension of God, a manifested aspect of the entire Godhead. If, for a moment, you would see God as the brain of the co-creative relationship you two have, and yourself as the hand… Does the hand tell the brain what to do? Of course not. The brain directs the hand. And so defines the relationship between God and His children.

“You and I are one. You are part of Me. You wove into form, to fulfill My plan on this planet, as part of Me. We do not function apart. Your job, when you take form, is to remember that. Do whatever it takes to come to the realization that you are an extension of Me. An appendage. You do not have a separate mind. You do not have a separate will. You do not have separate desires—you never did. Those are demons and illusions that you have given yourself permission to have, to pacify your feelings that you are separate from Me.”

You might say to Me that this is so obvious and trite; however, if that were true, then why is there all this talk about (the illusion of) ‘free’ will? “I can do whatever I want, because God gave me the gift of free will.” Well, first off, let us call a spade a spade and dispense with the poetry. ‘Free’ will is no more than ’separate’ will. It is a divine dispensation, for the expressed duration of your living in the experience of separation from God, whereby you are given the freedom to use the full power of God any way you like. What a gift! What humanity has forgotten is that it was given as a homing device. Paradoxically, most everyone uses free will to travel further from God. How? By using it to gratify the senses. Why? To numb the pain of feeling the separation.

What is imperative to expose here is the source of all human wants and needs. Desire is the great disease of a separate consciousness. It is the very essence of Separation. To desire anything, you must inherently believe that you are separate from the object of your desire and that you actually need said object of desire. How, then, does one achieve the state of surrender? Let go of all desires. Give them back to God. To be truly surrendered can only mean to be truly desireless. Every cell that is occupied by the self is one less cell that can be occupied by God.

If you are trying to fit God’s plan into yours, you will always come up short. God already knows all your needs—even before you do. It behooves God to continuously provide for all your soul’s needs, since you are responsible for manifesting God’s will on Earth and then caring for these creations of Love. God would never keep anything from you. God wants you to have everything. God placed all the wonders and riches on this planet for you to enjoy. Earth was created as a playground for the gods. Awareness of, and trust in, this truth is all that is needed to allow God to use you as an instrument. Every dream God has for you, God is doing everything to bring to you. The real question is, “What are you doing to allow that dream to manifest?”

Somehow, along the way, a belief came about that God created the bounty of the material plane as an instrument of torture. Distorted religious teachings about renunciation and poverty as spiritual ideals only served to add to this discordant thought form. People corroborate their distorted beliefs by observing and misquoting the lives and teachings of ones such as the Buddha or Mother Teresa. These ones did not preach of the need for poverty. Their message was about detachment. Many confuse renunciation for detachment. Renouncing the material plane is no more than a vehicle for attaining the highly evolved state of detachment. It is a means to an end, rather than an end in and of itself. It also happens to be a very successful vehicle. Once a consciousness lives in that state, then the pleasures of the material world take on a whole new meaning and experience. It is from the place of not needing them that God’s material gifts can truly be enjoyed.

There are the many who cry out, “Yes, but what about my dream?” To this I say: From whence do you think your dreams came? In order for you to even have a dream, God had to have that dream first, because God put the dream in you. Why not let God care for God’s dream, living and growing inside of you. I can promise you this: The most fantastic and grandiose dream you have harbored for your life is the size of a breadcrumb compared to the smallest of God’s dreams for you. The limitations within the human consciousness cannot fathom what could only be conceived through a Mind and Heart wielding the infinite capacity to love. The “catch” is that you can never fully realize and live God’s dream for you until you turn in your own. Many think they have, but this is just one more self-delusion to add to the mix called “life lost in the labyrinth of separation.” Put another way: Into whose hands would you rather entrust your dream: a) those of one motivated by fear, unworthiness, and selfish desire, or b) those of One whose entire existence and power is devoted to serving you and revealing your divine magnificence?

What I am describing is the ultimate win/win combination. Anything you give up, which your soul needs you to have, will automatically come back to you, albeit in an even more free and beautiful way. Why, then, are people so attached to their dreams and desires? The answer is simple: lack of faith. You cling to your desires and dreams for fear that, without them—and your efforts to protect them—you will have nothing. Society helps by polluting your minds with axioms such as, “kill or be killed, survival of the fittest, look out for number one,” etc.

Why do so many dreams not manifest? Lack of trust in God. Why do so many people distrust God? Because they feel that God has not manifested (what they think are) their dreams. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? God came first—and must come first, always and everywhere. There is a third reason why so many dreams do not manifest (the first two being lack of trust in God to fulfill His dream in you, and the fact that many “dreams” are sourced by selfish desire instead of by the will of God). The third reason is that few come to the altar of God with an empty chalice; instead, they come with chalices filled with attachments, expectations, demands, and personal agendas. How can God possibly fill your chalice with riches of mind, body, and soul if your chalice is full? You must come naked to the altar of your Lord in order to truly receive your divine inheritance. Release all your desires, terms, and conditions. How can God serve you if you have Him all bound and gagged by all the conditions you place upon how, when, and where He will provide for you.

Speaking of agendas and perpetrations, it is time I expose one of the most subtle and insidious of them all. What most cannot see, and refuse to admit to themselves, is that they come to God as the “lender of last resort.” What I mean by that is: Most come to God after they have tried every other conceivable means of achieving and fulfilling their own personal desires. When they finally give up, God then becomes an option to consider. In other words, many finally turn to God so that they can get what they want. Fortunately, because of God’s infinite and unconditional love for you, “God does not care how you come, only that you come.” How many can honestly say that you come to be with God just because you love to be in His company? To feel the touch of His embrace? His gaze of adoration? Asking nothing in return. Wanting nothing.

There is an even more dangerous attachment than ‘attachment to personal desire’ and that is ‘attachment to prophecy and revelation.’ The temptation to get attached to prophecy is huge… “But Mother Mary said–,” “St. Germain said–,” “Four different psychics said–,” “It is in my astrology chart.” The list goes on and on. Without even knowing it, you begin aching, hankering, and waiting for “it” to happen. Beneath these attachments is the belief that something outside of you will bring you fulfillment. Dwelling on the past and attaching to the future are two of the main preoccupations of ones who will do anything to avoid being ‘present.’

Every seed of God’s will needs to be planted in the physical plane. Revelations are seeds planted in you, which then begin to gestate and grow. And they take you on initiations, because the mind attaches to them and starts interpreting them. When God gives you a revelation, receive it and drink it in with gratitude. Take it into every part of your being, and then give it back. Just give it back. Trust that it is in there now, growing. It will do what it needs to do. Avoid any temptation to hold onto it or make something out of it. God gives you His dreams to be their steward, not their owner. Accepting this truth gifts you with a sense of inner peace. By surrendering to the ebb and flow of creation, you are instantly in union with God.

Why is there such an all-pervasive resistance to surrender? There are many fears, lessons, and layers through which one must pass. It is a lifelong process. However, at the very core level of human existence lies the single, greatest fear: the loss of identity. Given a voice, this deep, unconscious fear speaks: “If I give back every single piece of me, down to the very last thread connecting me to the earth, then I will not exist. There will be none of me left. I will not even know who I am. I will have nothing to call my own. I will have no reason, no purpose… I will just be a blob, a void. Like wallpaper.” It is that thread to any sense of personal identity to which a consciousness clings most.

In actuality, there is some validity to this fear. You will eventually lose what you have always known to be your identity. However, the identity of which you are letting go, the one to which you have become so attached, is the one which was formed by all the many parts of your separate self. It is understandable that you became attached to them. The distorted ego personality was all you knew. The resistance to letting go is so great because most are only looking at half of the equation. Once the identity has been dissolved, what remains is not ‘nothing,’ it is, instead, your Divine Self—your divinity—radiant and whole. It is more than a fair trade. Surrendering your life and very existence unto God, to receive His dream for you, is equivalent to trading in a paper airplane for a Lear jet.

This gets to the core of it all. What I am speaking is the ’surrender’s surrender.’ How far will you go for God? Would you give up, as Abraham did, your firstborn son? Would you give up your dream for a house—or a lover—if you knew that it was fulfilling God’s wish and was endearing you to God? Would you give up your life itself, as Jesus did? God says, “Do this for Me. That is all I ask, and so many blessings will shower upon humanity and yourself in so doing. Will you do this for Me?” Very easy it is for ones to say ‘yes’ while sitting in church or in a prayer circle, but how about when theory becomes reality?

True power is accessed through surrender. The more you surrender the personal will, the personal desires, the sense-gratifying, selfish needs and wants, the more your divine power and God’s divine power take hold of you in absolutely astounding ways. The key is to ache for God—to feel, know, and become more of God—inside and outside of you, with absolutely no conditions or expectations placed upon Him. Then accept, with joy and gratitude, whatever that looks like in your life and however that might manifest.

What is surrender? “Here but for the grace of God stand I. Use me according to Thy will.”

- Louix Dor Dempriey

José Miguel Contreras – By Divine Right

José Miguel Contreras is a Canadian rock vocalist and guitarist, who performs as the lead vocalist for the indie rock band By Divine Right. In the mid-2000s, Contreras began producing and mixing albums for other Toronto-based artists, including The Meligrove Band, SS Cardiacs, Spitfires & Mayflowers, The Bicycles and Lily Frost.

His exciting blend of driving melodies, thoughtful lyrics, and an open-hearted approach to his craft, places this artist in a league of his own. Inspired by the joy of self exploration and the quest for beauty in all forms, José invites the listener on introspective and provocative journey into his personal world of soul music.

http://www.myspace.com/bydivineright

The Pearl (5:25) – Sweet Confusion (2004)
Track One (2:10) – Nude Combinations (2004)
Track Seven (4:17) – Nude Combinations (2004)

Richard Niebaum

Richard Niebaum got his start in Kansas and now lives with his wife and two children in Chicago, Illinois. There he teaches high school, writes, and continues to pursue his love of music and composing.

Inspired by a guitar-playing babysitter and weary of piano lessons, Richard began playing guitar at age 8 with a $26 toy instrument. He went on to accompany his parents’ bluegrass/gospel ensemble of friends, spent a few years playing in rock ‘n’ roll bands, and ended up in music school at the University of Kansas.

Unconventional to the core, Niebaum took his guitar out of standard tunings while completing his degree and found a style and sound all his own. He has written and performed on two self-produced albums and appears on the highly acclaimed “GUITAR fingerstyle 2 – A NARADA COLLECTION.”

http://www.richardniebaum.com/

Percolator Bridegroom (4:03) – Little Tantrums (1992)

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