How To Sail Through Stormy Seas

Spirit Speaks episode with myself and Carel-Piet Van Eeden: A fascinating and enlightening conversation about how to deal with sailing through Stormy waters. We talk about Forgiveness, anger, and how we engage with others. We also talk about the process that evolved from the making of the CD, In The Hands of God, and the word for poem, Lord, Help Me Walk the Way That’s Right.

Transcript

It's a joy to be here with Spirit Speaks with my brother,

Friend,

Father,

Coral,

Pete,

And Eden.

It's so good to see you again.

I needed to talk to you today,

Father.

It really becomes one of the highlights of the week to connect here.

It's beautiful to see you again as well.

Well,

We were just talking before we started recording here about the fact that in the hands of God,

Started nine months ago,

And it's interesting now,

It's just about ready to be born.

It's close.

We have the In the Hands of God website now.

As we were talking about it,

I also realized that there's so much that needs to be learned from each project you do.

There's so many lessons you learn.

I've been learning and learning.

We have found that even having more in-depth conversations about what's going on with you and me and Stephen,

Kind of really adds to the whole thing because it is kind of all part of the quote unquote project,

Right?

Most definitely.

And just as you think that the project is full and complete,

We have another discussion and it just opens up a whole new world and a whole new realm of understanding and light,

Which is phenomenal experience.

Thank you.

And I also pray that when people hear you as a father with a Benedictine white robe monks in South Africa,

Realize how they can relate to people and not have this image they may have of priests that might be something that's very different,

Possibly judgmental or possibly when they see them,

They're going to relieve their guilt or the terms sin and so much.

And I think you have such a comforting presence that I think it comes across and I really enjoy being able to have these conversations that are kind of communions that go into spirit and how spirit speaks through us.

And it was interesting this morning,

Our dear brother friend,

Brother Stephen Melilla,

Who is very,

Very religious and knows his saints well,

Brought up a post that I found very interesting because I've been going through some challenges with kind of stormy waters and a lot of anger out there and sometimes stress that's ready to be bursting through the walls and the flood gates.

And I think I shouldn't be feeling this because I had three great projects really moving along beautifully.

I had a book that just came out and an audio book released,

But instead I'm kind of going into overwhelm.

So I didn't feel so bad when I saw Stephen's post today,

He quoted a Saint I'd never heard of and it was an interesting quote.

Do you want to read it?

And we can talk a little bit about that.

Sure.

I've got it here.

It is by Saint Faustina and it says,

I know well that the greater and more beautiful the work is,

The more terrible will be the storms that rage against it.

And that brings up some very interesting points because when we feel like we're in the grace of God or doing God's work,

I mean,

Number one,

We can't get self-righteous about it ever and it can slip in without knowing it.

And so then we'll get tested and trialed.

There are trials that will come up that will really try to get us in a way,

I think back on the proper path.

And I've been going through that and I think there's so many who are,

And I wrote this this morning actually,

After reading that interesting quote,

Which kind of surprised me because sometimes we don't look at that.

We only think,

Okay,

We're going to do what's good and not that there'll be challenges to it.

Before I read my poem,

What's your take on that quote?

So it is a very good reminder for us all that with the work that we are doing and the way that I see it is that we are doing light work and we are extending the light of God.

And when you reach into new areas where there has been darkness,

It takes time for that light to penetrate and that it's work.

It's not easy necessarily.

So you do get resistance in whatever way that that happens.

Although it is not necessarily resistance in the sense of something trying to stop you,

It is like putting your hand through water.

So you feel the layer of water and then your hand goes through.

And it's just that layer sometimes that we experience as negativity or people standing up against us,

But it is in reaction to the higher vibration that we bring forth.

And I always try and look at the reason for that resistance.

So if you study neuro-linguistic programming,

It tells you that the map is not a territory.

So whatever you see the world as is not the world.

You see the world through your own filters and your own prejudices.

And so when we work with people who then have these almost,

I want to use the words violent reactions against us,

It's not about us.

And it is maybe they discomfort at the energy that we have there.

But most of all,

I have realized it is driven by fear.

And once you can acknowledge that and you can acknowledge that they are maybe in a space of anguish,

Of fear and the reaction to that is aggression,

Then the whole picture changes.

And there's been so much fear prevalent in ways that we don't even know because when we're dealing with how we can get through storming waters,

We just sometimes for me,

I go full speed ahead.

I'm just going to go ahead.

And then we don't realize that,

Well,

Okay,

We can try to do that,

But these are stormy waters and we have to have some realization that,

Hey,

This is still stormy waters.

So again,

We're brought back to that.

And I read a,

And I'm paraphrasing here because I don't have an appr to have to work with God's will.

And so the reveal,

What needs to be revealed is coming up,

I think very intensely now for me,

I maybe because I'm saying that prayer and,

And with you,

When you have more light,

More is revealed.

You know,

When you have more light and shining in the darkness,

You'll see things and we all have our shadow self.

And sometimes the stuff we've buried for a long,

Long time will be revealed.

I've seen this when there's long retreats or meditation groups and things will come up with people that we never would have imagined in them.

You know,

I've seen this Zen settings that it's like,

All of a sudden it gets pretty strange after two or three days.

I'm like,

Whoa,

Okay,

This is coming up.

How do you deal with it?

And how do you heal it?

And then how do you turn it over to God at the same time,

Dealing with it yourself?

You know,

Interesting points,

Because,

You know,

I like to turn things over to God.

Obviously our CD is called in the hands of God,

But that doesn't take our own responsibility out of it either.

You know,

Number one,

It says responsibility to remember to try to do God's will.

But we as servants of God have to,

At the same time,

Do the best we can do to enact God's will.

So that's a challenge in these times.

It is definitely a challenge.

And it's not something that we always get right.

And it's,

I think that's part of our lesson is to always try and recognize that everybody has their own challenges.

And more than that,

To recognize that everybody has their divinity inside of them.

So a practice that for me is quite beautiful is as you meet a person or as you greet a person to just silently acknowledge to yourself,

I am greeting God.

I love that.

And you know,

When more and more people are bowing to the God and the other one,

They do a namaste,

They're recognizing that God's self in them.

And you have studied a keto.

And I'm sure you recognize that even in the partner that you're about to go in the ring with,

You know,

That you do that,

I'm sure first,

Don't you?

Yes.

So I keto,

When you start to train with somebody,

You bow to them.

And you say the words on a guy she must,

And that means please teach me.

Wow.

That's a fantastic follow up to just recognizing the God on them bound to the God in them.

But please teach me.

I've never heard that before.

Yes.

So you bow to your partner,

You ask them to teach you even a,

An instructor would bow to a complete beginner and say,

Please teach me because you can learn more from a beginner than from seniors most,

Most of the times.

And afterwards you bow again,

And you use a very formal way you say,

Domo arigato gozaimashita,

Which means that thank you so,

So very,

Very,

Very much for basically putting your hands or your life into my hands.

Wow.

Yeah.

Wow.

That is so powerful.

That's so beautiful.

And you know,

You can learn in Tai Chi and I think probably a keto too,

That,

And one of the things I remember from learning some not only Tai Chi,

But the basis of karate,

If you do not give someone to push back something against that they will push and have nothing to push against and they'll fall forward.

And it's only when you're trying to have something you're pushing back against that you then can get a full blow sometimes.

You know what I'm trying to say?

That process of what you go through.

Yes.

We have the founder of Aikido,

Morihei Ueshiba had some beautiful sayings.

So he wasn't only famous for the fact that he started Aikido,

But he also had what they call doka sayings of the way.

And one of it was,

If your attacker wants your hand,

Give him your hand.

Then you move the universe around him.

And that I have found is so powerful with people whose egos are on high alert.

And part of my nature is if I'm encountering sometimes people with big egos,

I used to just try to deflect their ego by not recognizing their ego or by not feeding their ego.

Yet by what you're saying,

And I found is oftentimes true,

It can be much more effective to recognize that this is the ego.

Just as you would say,

You extend their hand to them.

And then once you do that,

They feel like,

Okay,

That person recognized that I don't need to engage in that part of a fight or a battle because it's been recognized.

And it's very wise for these times you can learn so much in that practice.

I've often said Akito and Tai Chi is moving meditation.

And it teaches you because you are in that mindset,

How to carry your meditation into your daily life.

And with these words you're sharing,

Father,

Those are very,

Very powerful.

I want to share the words I wrote this morning after Stephen's wonderful quote that he shared.

And what I've been going through too,

And what I'm seeing and sensing,

I wrote the dark clouds in this life,

Accent,

The coming of a new light.

Amidst the struggles to get by,

There are blessings we can find.

We can choose to focus on the good that still survives,

The power of our inner strength and the reason we're alive.

Through these times that are tough,

We can still reach that space that is timeless in our being.

And that transformation that takes place,

There's a shift that brings a presence that helps us when we pray.

The miracles of love are our greatest saving grace.

And the dark clouds part and the golden sun breaks through,

And it brings understanding and the compassion that renews.

As we bow in deep gratitude to God and his angels that stand by and help us in these challenging times and lend a hand to you and I.

Lord help me walk the way that's right.

Oh,

I was going to go into the next poem and maybe I should,

Because it was a poem and it kind of leads into that.

This is from our In the Hands of God.

And this I wrote last summer,

Actually,

Lord help me walk the way that's right.

To follow your precious life,

Guided ever with that grace,

To follow that bright inner light.

Let me learn to find the time to show the kindness so in tune and sharing love so profound that it helps us to find a higher ground.

Lord let me walk the way that's right with your footsteps as my guide.

Be your spirit.

By your spirit may I be healed.

By the gift to forgive that sets us free.

And may I share these words that come in silence from sacred dawn when I commune my Lord with thee.

For yours is such pure energy and the power so profound all creation is embraced with that depth of love,

The depth of love we find.

So that's the two I put into one here.

It was supposed to be just one,

But it was the two,

One from today and then Lord help me walk from last summer.

Which has turned into one of the most beautiful songs and with a very,

Very powerful message.

And very interesting,

We had the mass reading today was about Jesus losing his temper and cleaning out the temple where there were people selling cattle and doing and money changes.

And Jesus went into a holy rage,

You can almost say,

And he made a whip and he chased those people out.

And he then said he will break down the temple and in three days rebuild it.

And of course with us being in length that was referring to his crucifixion and the resurrection.

And the first words of the poem just reflect cleaning the space that like Jesus did in the temple and for us our spiritual temples,

Our bodies,

Getting them clean and more than that,

Cleaning our minds from all these thoughts of ego,

Of status and of judgment.

I think that's a big thing.

And to me that every one of those things creates a little store where it tries to sell its goods.

And when it's full of those things,

We can't live in the grace of the Lord.

And the poem is such a powerful,

Powerful prayer in asking the Lord,

Please help us cleanse ourselves.

And then once that happens,

And again,

It's not a once of thing,

I mean,

It's constant,

Not a struggle.

It's a constant exploration.

And once that happens and we become more and more aware of all these illegal squatters in our minds and in our temples,

Then the world changes the way it reacts to us.

And it doesn't always react in the way that we expect it to.

We've seen it these past couple of weeks.

And yet when we look back,

We see why.

You know,

That said,

I wonder if I can find it.

I read a beautiful quote from Alan Cohen this morning.

And it was so beautiful that said exactly what you were just saying.

It's so funny.

This is by a quote from Sally Kempton.

It's impossible to defeat an enemy who has an outpost in your head.

Beautiful.

Which is kind of what you were saying.

So if you,

Number one,

Haven't someone who's an enemy and you let that be a battle and it gets into your mind and you are going and you know that feeling that happens when something doesn't feel like it's right.

And you will have this inner dialogue back and forth trying to figure it out or even try to prove to yourself that,

Hey,

This wasn't right.

You know,

But that's when that outpost in your mind then takes some root.

And so you have to go even deeper to unroot that,

Which takes things such as light.

Yes.

Prayer.

Yes.

Forgiveness.

And sometimes over and over forgiveness and then figuring out,

You know,

Reveal what needs to be real.

Why did that come up?

What part of yourself allowed that outpost in your mind to take root?

Which is part of the deeper practice,

You know,

As someone who is working with God and a light that these things are things that we have to,

As guardians of our own temples,

Be very,

Very aware of.

And just by saying,

Clearing out those stalls,

Boy,

You know,

That goes so deep because I mean,

What in us in those stalls set up those stalls?

We go back to where and why did we have to create that,

You know?

And it can go very deep.

It can go very deep.

When you go to that place,

How do you resolve and solve those outposts that might come up sometimes in life in your mind?

So for me,

One of the biggest things you mentioned forgiveness is that there's nothing to ever forgive.

So it's not my place to forgive anybody other than myself for making bad decisions or doing things that didn't turn out the way that I wanted it to.

So the forgiveness part,

Once you accept that it's not up to you to forgive,

Then a lot of that power goes away in the negativity that it brings with.

And then the stalls coming up,

To me,

It is an unlearning of who we are or unlearning of who we think we are.

And it's not necessarily that they keep on coming back.

In my mind,

It is actually our consciousness expanding and then realizing,

Okay,

There's this row of stalls that I now have to deal with and let's deal with them.

And as we deal with them,

Our consciousness expands more.

And then we see,

Oh,

But there's another row.

And sometimes some will come back into the middle and we can deal with them,

But it's not just a static thing anymore.

And people are responding to that beautifully.

And I think a lot of people are realizing that it is an expansion of consciousness and expansion of awareness as the light grows in us,

If we allow it to.

And you can also,

Of course,

Get caught in that idea of let's see how far I can grow.

And then ego comes back into play.

And then we return to ask the Lord,

Help me see the way that's right.

Well you brought up some important points in that.

And I guess I do want to address that very important point about forgiveness because I know it's true.

And yet always it's so powerful with so many people are doing Hono Pono Pono,

Which is asking for forgiveness.

But on many ways it works.

But again,

I do agree with you.

We aren't necessarily forgiving others,

But forgiving ourselves.

And when you put it in that perspective,

It takes out again,

The ego of feeling superior that you need to forgive someone else when you just need to forgive yourself.

And there's a lot of elements.

I mean,

There's so much in forgiveness.

It's a very,

Very deep process that goes on and on.

And it's interesting how when we realize we're forgiving ourselves that we are,

You look at that point,

If we are all one,

As we forgive ourselves,

We are forgiving the others as well because part of our energy is part of the energy that is there as well.

When you point your finger at someone else,

Three fingers are pointing back at you.

And so that practice is very,

Very deep.

And I don't think I'll go into the guilt that some people feel being Catholics and feeling like they were born in sin,

Because that's another whole chapter we could do in this book because that goes real deep as well,

Doesn't it?

We could actually do a whole project on that.

Yes.

On guilt.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean,

There's so much now when you are in this process of evolvement and seeing consciously being aware of wanting to evolve and become more aware and activate that awareness,

You still have to really use all the tools you have to clear out those stalls.

There's many ways to do it and not everyone could do with the anger that Jesus did that.

Because again,

We may not have the understanding to do it in the right way with our anger.

And there's many things we couldn't deal with in the way that it was done by Jesus.

And that goes another deep,

Deep,

Deep subject of how do you set up boundaries and how do you correct what's wrong and make it right,

Except by going into your inner self and doing that inner work.

Right.

Definitely.

And righteous anger for men,

I don't think exists because if you get angry in righteousness,

And it's one of my biggest challenges is I get righteously angry,

But that thing makes me judge people.

And in the same sense,

If it's not up to me to forgive somebody,

It's also not up to me to judge anybody.

Oh,

Good point.

Very good point.

Yeah.

And judgment is very prevalent in our society.

And I was raised with it.

I was raised in Beverly Hills High School.

There were judgments and glamor and issues all around me.

And it was all done again,

Based again with the ego.

And judgments are really,

Really a difficult thing because that brings up separation.

And when you bring up separation,

You're doing the us and them thing,

Which again,

Will cause people as they are evolving,

They'll notice that you're doing on some subtle level that,

Which will get them upset as well.

You are subconsciously even judging them.

They can sense that,

Right?

But I don't think we have the time to go into all of that today.

I'm in Maui and you're in South Africa and it's much later there than it is here.

12 hours time difference.

So I appreciate you taking the time late at night to have this conversation on how spirit speaks in so many fascinating ways.

And especially through you,

You bring up such very,

Very interesting points that give me food for thought,

Which I will digest carefully and consciously.

As long as it doesn't give you indigestion.

Well it's a pleasure,

My friend.

And God bless you for the work you do and for your insights and spirit speaks through you.

And I appreciate you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you.

And thank you,

God.

Have a beautiful day.

Aloha.

Reviews

I’m very grateful I found you on Easter. Listening to a handful of your talks on Easter helped me get my serenity back. Which I had lost for at least a few weeks. After your talks, I was able to transition into my favorite mantras and I am back to my quiet mindfulness meditation. The last 2 1/2 days has brought me much needed peace. I have a feeling listening to your talks will keep inspiring me to look within.