Soul Awakening

Roger Teel’s talk, Soul Awakening, explores the deeper essence within each person, beyond external identities, beliefs, and circumstances, and calls for a reconnection with the divine source. He emphasizes three key practices: communion (inner stillness and connection), compassion (living with an open heart), and contribution (sharing one's gifts with the world). Through personal experiences and spiritual wisdom, he encourages listeners to embrace transformation, follow inner guidance, and live with love and purpose.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

Transcript

My topic today in this springtime energy is soul awakening.

So I'm just going to get right into what I want you to know today.

So if you just open up,

Take a breath and sense something I'm about to tell you.

There is a deeper you.

There is a deeper you beyond your experiences,

Your circumstances,

Your deeds,

Past or present.

There is a deeper you,

Deeper than your opinions,

Your judgments,

Your beliefs,

Beyond your roles,

The identities you may have assumed,

Beyond your physical vehicle,

The body.

There's a deeper you beyond your personality traits,

Beyond your strengths and faults,

Beyond your successes and your losses,

Beyond what anyone has ever said about you.

There is a deeper,

Truer you.

And this deeper,

Truer you is made in the image and after the nature of the Divine,

Of the all-originating Source.

And our true freedom,

Our true empowerment is delving into this deeper you and clearing the way that more of its magnificence,

More of its light,

More of its beauty,

More of its genius can flow to the surface of our consciousness and then out through our lives into action.

This is what I mean by soul awakening.

And I believe that soul awakening is the most important process of any lifetime.

Any lifetime.

It calls us out of hiding and it frees us to live out the greater story of our lives,

To explore the depths of our wild and beautiful nature.

Now I think of it like this.

Our being before soul awakening is like a seed tightly closed.

And the husk and the shell covering the seed represents our usual surface world consciousness,

Our worldly consciousness imbued with so much fear,

So much sense of limitation,

So many false ideas about ourselves,

So much striving,

So much struggling,

So much competing,

So much of that.

And yet there is inside of that the kernel of our being that like that plant holds the template of a greater life expression than we can ever fully comprehend.

That's that kernel.

That's the soul essence in you,

The eternal spiritual self.

And so what happens in this life is that turning point choices and experiences begin to happen in our lives.

They show up in our lives and they often shake the husk,

Shake the shell,

Moving it more and more toward transformation,

More and more toward that moment of cracking open,

Thus awakening ourselves and activating that sacred identity and destiny within us all.

So in soul awakening,

The core of your being and mine moves back into oneness with the universal heart.

And we begin to discover that the true essence of us is nothing less than God seeded within us.

Now as we're coming toward Easter,

It's wonderful to remember the words of that great master teacher who came here to awaken the soul essence in every one of us,

To tell us who we really are,

That one who could see beyond the appearances of the people around him,

Who could see beyond their identity and what people have said about them,

The scorned or the righteous,

And he could see the light.

And he said,

You are the light of the world,

Let your light shine.

And he said,

I,

And whenever he spoke of the I,

He spoke of the I am,

He said,

I and the father are one.

The I am and the father,

The all originating source,

The eternal love and the creative energy of this universe,

One.

And the things that I have done,

You will do,

And greater things shall you do.

This is why Paul would later say,

Christ in you,

Your hope of glory.

When I love that our founder,

Dr.

Ernest Holmes,

He nails it when he wrote,

To practice the presence of God is to awaken within us the Christ consciousness.

Christ is God in the soul of man.

God in you,

Christ in you,

There's a deeper you.

Finding it is what life's about.

Living from it,

Accessing it,

Listening,

It's what life's all about.

In this time since retiring,

I've done some studying and I've enjoyed studying at a couple of large conferences with a wonderful Franciscan priest,

Father Richard Rohr,

A brilliant,

Brilliant mystic,

Author,

Prolific author.

He has the Center for Contemplation and Action in Albuquerque.

And how it is that he has not been excommunicated is really beyond me.

He really,

In my estimation,

Represents what Christianity was supposed to be and what the energy of the great teacher really was about on this planet.

And he says some things,

A lot of things,

But there's some passages I want to bring onto the screen for us to see.

And so he said,

We worshipped Jesus instead of following him on his same path.

We made Jesus into a mere religion instead of a journey toward union with God and everything else.

And this shift made us into a religion of belonging and believing instead of a religion of transformation.

His message was about transformation.

The transformation that occurs when we move into a soul-awakening posture in this life.

The transformation that occurs when we see that it's all love,

When we realize there's a deep peace which is at the same time the strength of our being within ourselves.

There's a transformation that occurs when we realize that yes,

We are in this world,

But we are not of this world.

We are of the higher.

And we can indeed create heaven on earth.

On earth as it is in the mind of God.

So I want to offer you three practices for this glorious,

Glorious process,

Which is why I think we're all here on this planet,

Whether we know it or not,

This process called soul-awakening.

Three C's.

Not an acronym.

I can do more than that.

Three C's.

First of all,

Communion.

Communion.

Now,

We're not going to pass out the wine and the bread,

But I'm talking about the real essence of communion,

Which is to connect within.

To become still and know.

Know.

Know this deeper you that I'm inviting you to sense ever more fully today.

Jesus would often become,

Despite the elevation of his consciousness,

Overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed by the human condition that he faced and dealt with and tried to offer healing light to.

And so he would say to his followers,

Let us get apart a while.

Get thee apart a while.

And they'd go to a mountain or onto a boat on the sea or into the desert.

And he would pray because he knew he needed to reconnect.

He needed to get still.

Still all the din of the noise of the conversations of his day.

And go to that something,

That light,

That love,

That connection with what he called the Father within.

He needed to reconnect and recharge and so do we.

So do we.

Our world is noisy and chaotic and sadly quite toxic.

So we need the same thing.

We yearn for sacred moments.

What I know is there are so many lives that are overfull and overburdened.

How about you?

Are you among them?

Overfull,

Overburdened.

And we yearn for these sacred moments when we can sense the deeper something that is rooted in reality,

Not the temporal flow of conditions and circumstances.

That we can sense something and we can put our roots down into that something.

Sacred moments that strengthen us beyond anything else.

Sacred moments that reconnect us with the joy of life.

That cause us to remember that life is good.

No matter the shifts and the changes and the challenges,

Ultimately it is good for it is God.

Those sacred moments that can give us the peace that passeth all human understanding and the strength to move forward in an elegant and a spiritually poised way.

And the other thing that this soul awakening gives us amongst all of this good is that it brings us into soul revelation and divine guidance.

And what a way to live when we realize that there is this inner knower that far exceeds the knowledge or the wisdom of the thinker.

And we go to that deeper reservoir and we listen or we're available to it.

So we commune and we get still and we shut out all the noise and we sense something deep within us and we sit at the feet of the master within us and are available.

And the more we do that,

That availability allows that cellular revelation to prompt us,

To nudge us and to inform us of the higher path that is available all the time for us.

Wherever we are in our journey.

I've thought about this quite a lot in preparing these ideas and I can see so many times in my life when this deep knowing welled up within me that I needed to make a certain choice or do a certain thing.

And here's what I know and I bet you already understand this.

Anytime we're privileged enough to have that deep knowing and that guidance come up,

Almost immediately the intellect and the mind goes to war against it.

And part of it says,

Well that doesn't make sense.

Here are all the reasons why I'm not going to do that or I shouldn't do that.

What are people going to think?

And I've spent all this time building up all of this and now you say change and I can't.

And all of this stuff comes up and pretty soon we have effectively steamrolled over that gift from the deeper essence.

And I'm sure that the deeper self in us,

Thank God,

Is quite patient and says,

Okay,

Well maybe next time.

Next time.

Maybe there'll be a willingness.

But I can see that somehow or another there have been those strategic moments on my journey and I bet yours as well,

When I really said,

Okay,

I don't understand why.

I don't even understand what this will be.

But I'm willing.

I'm willing to say yes.

And let it unfold.

Because we come to a place,

Which I think is true wisdom,

When we understand the brilliance of the deeper reality within us,

The deeper self.

And we start actually honoring it and following it rather than denying it and delaying it.

One of those was in 2017 for me.

Everything in Mile High Church was going amazingly.

We were about nearing our 10th anniversary of this beautiful sanctuary.

All the programs,

Everything was going wonderfully.

It was just exhilarating.

And I would go into my quiet times and that deep wisdom would say,

That's all well and good and it's now time for you to shift.

It's now time after over four decades in the form of ministry you have been expressing for you to do it differently.

And for you to open up to elements within yourself that you don't have room for on this path.

And boy did I fight it at first.

I thought,

I'm getting into therapy,

Something's off here.

But I stuck with it.

And though I had no idea where it was going to lead me,

I finally said,

All right,

All right.

This is the way,

Lead me on,

Lead me on.

It's like that voice said,

This is the way,

Walk me in it.

And so I made the toughest decision I think of my whole life.

And that was to quote rewire,

As I like to call it,

And to step out of this kind of ministry and turn it over to the impeccable hands of Dr.

Michelle and Reverend Josh and the board and all of you and explore my life outside of this.

And it's a rich journey and it's still unfolding.

And here's the thing you have to know when you listen deeply to your soul revelation is that you're not going to understand it right away.

You'll understand it only looking back,

But you keep walking.

And then all of a sudden you get more and more clear about,

Oh,

That's it.

Oh,

That's what it was.

That's why this was right for me and important for me to surrender and accept.

And that's still unfolding,

But it's a rich and beautiful thing.

Now I will tell you this,

I cherish my years here and I love you and I love this church.

And Erica and I watch nearly every Sunday from our new home in southeast of Phoenix.

And we be here quarterly at least to see family and hang out with you guys.

You do need close supervision,

You know.

But more and more,

There's so much going on within me and I've got my own little ministry,

Roger Teal Ministries,

And I'm working with groups and individuals.

But more than anything,

I'm steeping in something more and learning.

And my soul knew I needed that in this lifetime too.

So what does your soul need in this lifetime that it's not getting a chance to experience or to bring forth?

Commune.

Just get still.

Just be still.

Remember,

There's that mighty presence of the Living Spirit there.

Create an intentional,

I invite you,

Create an intentional space for opening to your depth.

And then you'll be ready for the second C,

And that is to more fully dedicate your life to compassion.

To live with the warm heart and to practice the warm heart.

And to notice how quickly we humans can let our hearts close and be cold.

And to use that as inspiration to again remember that the greatest healing agent is love.

Nothing exceeds the healing agent of love.

And we are all embodiments and channels and expressions of that great thing called love.

Active compassion.

It's one of the greatest teachers.

How to walk on this planet amidst all the bruising and the challenges and whatever comes down our unique pathways and still keep a heart of compassion.

Quite a walk.

And yet that's why we're here.

It's from the depths to realize that our souls are about love and are instruments of compassion.

Now,

It's needed in this day and age,

Especially in this country,

Isn't it?

It's most definitely needed.

Now,

When I put out a call for greater compassion right now,

What I want you first of all to know is that compassionate living does not mean moral neutrality.

There will be times when we must discern injustice,

If we do,

And speak it out and do whatever we feel called to do to appropriate action.

There's room for that in a compassionate life.

Most definitely there's room in a compassionate life.

And we are always still called to the highest vibration of which we are capable.

We are always still called to compassion and to open heart living.

Now I had a great opportunity to experience and be in the presence.

I feel so grateful to have been in the presence of the Dalai Lama three times in the work of an organization I helped co-found called the Association for Global New Thought.

We held three synthesis dialogues where we brought various social,

Spiritual leaders together to deliberate on answers for humanity.

And then mid-week,

The Dalai Lama would arrive and we would share it and go to a higher level with it all.

And then the third one,

I was asked to interview him for Our Science of Mind magazine.

And it was published in the January 2005 edition.

And recently,

As I continued to unpack my study,

Which is an amazing job,

I came across my only copy of that magazine.

And I re-read it and I was again so deeply touched by His Holiness how He would constantly refer to my friends the Chinese.

So on the one hand,

He's lifting up to the world the genocide,

The spiritual and human genocide going on in His homeland of Tibet.

And yet He also knows the importance of compassion for the Chinese,

My friends,

The Chinese.

In the article,

He talks about an elderly monk that He loved who finally was released from a Chinese gulag and allowed to come be with the Dalai Lama.

And He asked,

What was the greatest danger,

The Dalai Lama asked the monk,

That you faced while in captivity?

And he said,

Oh,

I faced many great dangers,

But the greatest was the times when I was tempted to lose compassion for my captors.

So you see,

We're called to something more,

While at the same time,

At one level in the world,

We're about creating the highest we can imagine as a life and as a society,

As a culture.

And we speak to that.

But don't forget that the greatest gift you can give,

The ultimate healing agent,

Is love.

And that's primarily who you are.

And that's what you came here to give,

Love.

Third C,

Contribution,

Contribution.

So it is when we open our hearts in compassion that we realize that our ultimate calling is to contribute.

I didn't always know that.

In my younger adult years,

I was a very driven young man.

Some who worked with me knew that.

I was very driven and I demanded a lot of myself.

And sadly,

I think I demanded a lot of other people until I finally realized that the perfectionism that my dear father instilled in me wasn't really the way to walk in life.

Life isn't about perfection.

It's about progress.

And I was able to kind of enter my own recovery program around that.

But I still was very driven to accomplish.

And I began to realize that it was,

Yes,

About the things I wanted to bring forth or see happen,

But it was also about proving myself.

And I said,

Wait a minute.

Why should I be so hell-bent on proving myself?

There's got to be something more.

Well then,

When I experienced the massive heart opening that I've written extensively about and talked a lot about,

All of a sudden I realized,

Ah,

Now that in this experience,

I realize I'm not here to go after anything.

I'm here to give.

I'm here to contribute.

And gang,

Every one of us,

We're here to contribute.

We're here to contribute our open hearts.

We're here to contribute our joy,

Our unique talents and gifts.

We're here to contribute.

But so often our orientation is,

I got to get.

I got to earn my stripes.

I've got to achieve approval.

I've got to get this worthiness.

I've got to achieve our society's addiction to acquisition and accumulation and consumerism.

And I've got to have all the toys that everybody else has.

And I've got to have people say that I'm worthy.

And all of this that we get caught up in when what we're here to do is find ways where our light can shine.

Every person here will have opportunities when you leave to,

Through your compassionate heart,

Contribute.

It may well be in the offering that comes up.

And beyond that,

It can be in the people you meet,

The waitress if you go get brunch,

The server.

It could be somebody you meet on the street.

It could be a call you receive or a call you make.

But when our lives reorient to the giving flow,

How can I give myself away?

What you realize is you're not able to be depleted because your deeper self is pure abundance in spirit.

So the more you seek to give,

The more it expresses,

The more it flourishes.

And that's why it says,

Give and you shall receive.

And it's not to receive.

It's to give and the receiving takes care of itself.

So how is it that your life might be enriched?

Where the orientation to shift,

To contributing,

Out of a deep respect for God's presence within you that knows no limits,

No scarcity,

And only wants to flow into expression.

You're a holy instrument of God.

I want to close with a reprise of a true life experience in this person's life that really touches me.

A young Air Force captain fighting in Vietnam jumped from a helicopter near Khe Sanh.

He was shocked to see a live grenade roll nearby.

He instinctively reached out to pick it up and throw it away from his squad,

But it went off in his hand.

And it severed his right arm and both of his legs.

So there he was,

A left arm and a torso.

And he couldn't see any future for himself.

And as his body slowly recovered,

This young man just went into the depths of depression,

As we can certainly understand.

Dark places,

Fear,

Angst,

Anger,

Discouragement,

Hopelessness,

Despair.

Until one sleepless night in that hospital,

He says something happened that would change it all.

A soul awakening.

Here's what he wrote.

I had a spiritual encounter and God seemed to transmit a message to me saying,

Look,

Your brains aren't in your legs or in your arms.

Your brains are in your head and you've still got that.

And you've still got a great heart.

And you can still believe in me.

And you can still believe in yourself.

And you can still believe in life.

And the message concluded,

Never give up,

Never give up,

Never,

Never,

Never give up.

And so that young captain came back to life.

A soul awakening.

The true essence of his being finally allowed to move forth,

New light,

New power.

He found a way to move productively back into life and to make a difference and to contribute so much of what remained for him to give from his essence.

And the day would come when he would be wheeled into the Oval Office and administered the oath from the President.

The oath of office as Administrator of Veteran Affairs,

Overseeing a $19 billion budget and over 200,

000 people.

And when his appointment came before the U.

S.

Senate,

It was confirmed with a unanimous standing ovation.

They don't happen often.

A unanimous standing ovation.

That man was Max Cleland.

What a beautiful demonstration of the power of soul awakening.

Commune.

Compassion.

Contribution.

We're all here to be authentic and fearless ambassadors of universal truth and unconditional love.

We're here,

Each and every one of us,

To bring the light and wisdom of the soul into a world that's aching for social transformation.

It's time for soul awakening,

Gang.

To join together in serving the unfolding story of the unity of all humankind in God.

Let's take this to prayer.

We allow a sacred stillness to descend upon us.

A stillness with a deep attentiveness.

To the depth of our very spirit.

Where we cease to be separate individuals and experience being individualizations of the holy light and love of the One.

Sense this.

We each have such an interesting,

Powerful journey.

Sometimes beautiful,

Easy,

Glorious,

Other times difficult,

Heart-rending.

All the while the deep self rests in smiling repose,

Waiting for a time such as this.

Wherein the caress can be felt.

The guidance can be realized.

The heart can fly open.

The spirit revealed.

Know with me.

I give thanks for this moment.

For I sense that the clouds are parting.

And the light is shining.

I know that I am because God is.

I know that I am the breath of the Spirit.

I know that the Divine has fashioned me out of its infinite love.

That knows no limitation of any kind.

I know this love.

I know that I am loved.

And I am here to love.

And I know that it is well with my soul.

For I live,

Move,

And have my very being in the Eternal One.

So I go forth with a new joy.

As Cody sang,

I get these vibes now.

I got them.

It's the realization of how good my life is.

And that my life can never be defined by my history.

I am God-life ever unfolding in action.

And I go forth now to live consciously.

Realizing that I live on the surface of life.

But my dwelling place is the depths of the heaven within me.

And from this place I learn,

I grow,

I create,

I share.

And I truly live.

Oh,

Infinite Spirit.

Thank you.

For the gift of the integrity of my being and the eternal journey before me.

Ever in the presence of your divine abundance and care.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I go forth now to impart of the good that is vested in me.

I am strengthened.

I am renewed.

It is indeed the springtime of my being.

And I'm just so grateful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

As we let that or something like this anchor within us,

How blessed we are.

And we take a moment as a collective consciousness to speak a blessing for all the beings on the planet who are struggling or suffering.

Whether it's in Southeast Asia or any other part of the globe.

We bless them and know they too live,

Move and have their being in the all-providing Source.

And we give thanks that that light does shine.

And hearts do open.

Healing is unfolding.

So for this and for more than words can say,

May we be grateful.

I know I am.

We let it be and become.

And so it is.