Why Are You Here?

Roger Teel presents his talk, Why Are You Here? When we step back from the whirlwind of our lives—from the continual flow of thoughts, activities, goals, demands, and distractions—ultimate questions are given room to emerge. Ponder "soul questions" like, Why am I here? Why did I choose to be on Earth at this time? These questions invite us to explore more deeply, and the insights will shine a guiding light upon everything we allow to fill our days.

Transcript

There was a 12th century priest who was also the abbot of his monastery,

A mystic,

And later made saint,

And that was Bernard,

Saint Bernard.

Now you thought Saint Bernard was the dog who dispensed spirit through the little keg,

But no,

There was a saint prior to that,

Saint Bernard,

And he always had a sign hung above his door.

Bernard,

Why are you here?

He wanted to go out into the world absolutely clear about his ultimate purpose,

And I'm bringing that to us today.

For all of us,

I ask,

Why are you here?

Why are you here?

It's an opportunity to get in touch with the ultimate purpose at the heart and soul of all of our lives.

So to begin with,

I think it's important to discern why we're not here,

And the best way to discern that with profound clarity is to imagine that you're breathing your final breaths before leaving the body,

Temple,

Obviously moving your consciousness into a highly expanded state of awareness,

And it becomes clear in that kind of moment that you're not here to climb all the ladders of success that are dangled before us like a carrot dangled before us,

That that's not why you're here,

Climbing those ladders,

That you are not here to,

You weren't here to make all this money in your life,

It's not about the money you had or you lost or you now have,

It has not been about the possessions that you have acquired,

The toys,

The houses,

Whatever they may be,

It also becomes clear in a moment like that that your life wasn't about competing really.

We're wired up in our society that it's all about competing,

That it's all about winning,

Besting others,

But in a moment like that you realize,

Was that really what I was here for?

No,

Nor was I here just to beat the system.

For many that's their biggest endeavors,

How can I beat the system,

Whatever system it is.

Recently I read that the curmudgeon W.

C.

Fields,

Who was also overindulged most of the time,

Was seen ironically reading the Bible one day,

Coursing through the Bible and his shocked friend said,

Why are you reading the Bible?

He said,

I'm looking for loopholes and we're not here just to look for the loopholes in this life,

There's something deeper and more profound.

We in that moment will realize that we're not here also to achieve a kind of status or a prestige that our importance is over-ranked,

That we're not here for that,

We're not here.

The ego loves the idea that we're going to be important and wants to cling to that,

But we begin to realize that's not our deepest purpose and in that space,

As we're close to moving into another dimension,

We'll probably also get it that we weren't here to earn God's love either,

That it wasn't about that,

That love was omnipresent,

That we weren't here to be saved,

That that's a theological strategy and ploy,

But that we've always been in the embrace of an unconditional love,

Behold I've loved you with an everlasting love and we'll get that.

So none of that is why we've been here.

Now there will be those who would suggest that we're all here to move forward on our own unique path of expression,

And that's a plausible possibility for that,

For our purpose,

Because we are all unique.

Some of you are even more unique than others,

And so being unique,

There has to be an inherent drive in us to fulfill more of that uniqueness,

Just as the acorn feels the drive to express the unique oak that is a part of its own essence.

Ernest Holmes,

Our founder,

Suggested that each one of us is an adventure that the Creator dreamed up,

An adventure the Creator seeks to have,

That life is experiencing itself uniquely as you,

Which begs the question,

Then,

Are you showing God a good time on this life,

If that's so?

In fact,

Dr.

Holmes said,

God has need of you,

Else you wouldn't be,

You would not be.

And so there is some clarity in that,

That we're here to fulfill and to express more of our uniqueness,

And yet I want to suggest today that there's an even more foundational deep purpose that we all share,

An ultimate purpose,

And that when we grasp that purpose and activate it and energize it in our lives,

Then everything that we're about,

The dreams,

The goals,

The personal callings,

Is lifted to another level of excellence and power and impact,

That that's the superior purpose that has the capacity of animating everything in our life,

Amplifying everything in our life,

Providing direction where there seems not to be.

In the Bible it says,

Who knows but that thou art called to the kingdom for such a time as this.

It's been pretty clear to me in my spiritual studies and inner growth that when the great Master teacher said,

In my father's house are many dimensions,

He was giving us a template for the ongoingness of life.

He was helping us understand that this is merely a room in the mansion,

This dimension,

And that when we transition,

When we move on,

Leaving this body,

We'll move into a more rarified dimension,

And more rarified and more rarified beyond that,

Each imbued with its own particular lessons,

Each a certain kind of school for us to experience.

So we're in this dimension which has been variously described as very dense,

As very thick,

Mostly because it's imbued with the sense as consciousness is seeking to evolve,

It's kind of stuck at a place where it has come to believe in separation.

The subject-object split works with us.

It's always life that is different than me.

And from that sense of separation,

Despite the fact that we are a part of a unified field of life,

A unified spirit,

The ego gets stuck in a sense of separation.

And out of that separation emerges deep and sometimes toxic fear.

And so many people on the planet are leading fear-based lives,

Born of the training that we have had through our senses and our cultures in separation.

Separation from God,

Separation from Source,

Separation from one another,

Separation from all of creation.

And we walk in this bubble of a sense of separation,

And out of that,

Dr.

Holmes,

Our founder,

Suggests emerge all of the ills that we face personally and collectively.

We are here to learn this lesson,

And to accept this purpose,

That we're here to let love lead us out of separation,

And out of fear.

As it's written,

Perfect love casts out fear,

Casts out fear.

It transcends it.

So we're here to be in this world,

But not of it.

And the way we're not of this world,

In its divisiveness,

Its rancor,

Its toxicity,

And its fear,

Is to love,

Serve,

And remember God.

That nothing that's going on can finally subvert or block that.

And that we're responsible,

Every one of us,

To be that activity.

Not to wait for it to change,

The world to change,

But to be the change we wish to see in the world,

As it has been said.

And yet this is a glorious purpose,

Because as I've suggested,

Everything is uplifted.

You may,

Today,

Be hurting.

I know there are some of you there.

You may be struggling,

You may be down.

What I want you to know is that if you can hook onto this,

And open your heart,

And find a way to serve,

And remember that you're not alone,

You're going to grow.

Things are going to shift,

And it won't be like you're just waiting for things to change for you to feel better.

You're going to start energizing something within you that's going to start transforming it all.

With all my heart,

I invite you to claim that for yourself,

So you don't have to suffer,

And you can begin to see life shift,

And it will.

And there are plenty of practitioners to help you in prayer around that,

Right here.

Or maybe you're just sort of feeling numbed,

Just drifting,

Listless,

Maybe purposeless.

Maybe you had a big change in your life,

And what's life now all about?

I invite you to the same elixir.

It's time to love in a deeper,

Richer way.

To love your path,

To love your potential,

To love life,

And to find a way to serve,

And see new purpose emerge for you.

Now what I know when I say love,

Serve,

And remember,

I think it needs a little more strategic energy to it,

Or clarity to it.

In terms of being able to love,

We have to first of all free up.

Free up.

We have to free up the congestion and the blockages in our hearts,

Because we take on a lot.

We take on judgments,

Biases,

Prejudices,

Blocks to our loving,

And it begins with emptying that.

We must empty that.

We take on anger,

Self-pity,

Victimhood,

And in order to do this love,

Serve,

And remember lifestyle,

We've got to empty that stuff.

Be willing to give it up,

Because we're opening up to something greater that can flow in and through us.

What is the time for you to forgive?

High time.

If you really want to see the power of loving,

Serving,

And remembering at work in your life,

You've got to let that stuff go.

Forgiving yourself,

Forgiving others,

Remembering that nothing anyone ever said or did has the power to permanently diminish you.

So imagine releasing that,

And being free,

And clean,

And open.

And then,

Having freed up,

You can take the next step to link up.

And that is to trust that it's safe to open your heart.

And that you can link up,

You can actually seek to make deeper,

Richer connections in your life.

Maybe in existing relationships,

And most certainly in new ones.

That you link up,

And you bring new energy to those.

Having cleaned out the junk,

You can link up purposefully.

And then in so doing,

You can light up life around you.

That's why the great teacher said,

You are the light of the world.

Don't wait for it,

Be it.

You are the light of the world.

Let your light so shine that others may see.

When we serve,

It's important to understand that our service must be at a level of equality with whom we're serving.

Ram Dass wrote a book,

How Can I Help?

,

And he also points this out.

That if we're serving from a sense of superiority,

Helping somebody who's less than,

And seeing them as less than,

Or incompetent,

Or incapable,

Or not enough,

And we're going to lift them out.

We're not really serving.

But when we work with ourselves,

And shift our perspective to see them as the face of God.

Fully competent,

Fully capable,

Fully beloved,

Fully whole.

And we honor them at that level.

And in fact,

Thank them for the privilege of serving.

Then we become a conduit for good to come forth.

And so that's how we light up this life and this world.

By serving and remembering God at the same time.

That it's God serving God.

And it becomes a beautiful and a wonderful thing.

I'm jazzed about this because it's time in our world that more of us take responsibility for our personal universe.

And that we become together a wave cresting out in the ocean of a shift in consciousness.

And I know that sometimes it has to get darker before the light is purely seen.

But we can be that light.

Every one of us.

If we take that shared purpose to love,

Serve,

And remember,

Then our unique purposes and callings will be taken to an ever higher level of impact and effectiveness.

I want to close this with a beautiful overarching illustration.

I've followed this young lady for a number of years.

And I'm so impressed with her.

Her name is Maggie Doyne.

Maggie Doyne.

It was back in 2005.

She was 18.

And she writes,

I was 18 and I didn't know what I wanted to be or do.

Didn't know who I was on the inside.

I thought that by traveling the world outside of New Jersey,

Where I was from,

That I'd know more about myself and the world and be able to figure out my path and my direction.

So Maggie set out on travels.

Fourth country in on her travels,

She found herself in Nepal.

In a little war-torn village in Nepal.

There had been a civil war going on.

And to her horror and shock,

She saw refugee little children out breaking rock to create gravel so they could sell that gravel for a few rupees and get a little something to eat.

She was horrified by that.

And then her eyes locked on one particular little girl with shining sparkling eyes named Hima.

And here's a picture of Hima taken by her in that moment.

This little girl looked up at Maggie and said,

Namaste Didi,

Which means hello and blessings sister.

Her heart flew wide open.

There's no way Maggie could walk away from that child.

She took her in,

Fed and housed her and then paid the seven dollars it took to get her into school.

And then that child became another child and another and another and another.

And then a year after being there,

She convinced her parents to wire her life savings,

$5,

000 she'd made babysitting,

Wire that to her so that she could purchase a piece of land in Nepal.

And so then in 2007,

Just two years after being there,

Along with one other person,

She spearheaded the creation of the Kopila Valley Children's Home for orphans and started her work.

She also created her Blink Now Foundation to resource her work.

And then in 2010,

Five years after being there,

At the ripe old age of 23,

She opened a school which today teaches more than 400 children in that area on a sprawling campus that includes a women's empowerment center and a health center.

Amazing.

In 2015,

CNN gave her the Hero of the Year award.

The Dalai Lama gave her the unsung Hero of Compassion honor.

She's been featured on a New York Times magazine cover article.

But she's just a simple young lady who decided that she would follow her heart in the deepest,

Most powerful way.

In 2022,

She wrote her book Between the Mountain and the Sky.

And here's a picture of Maggie Doyne with some of her kids.

What a radiant,

Beautiful soul.

I want to share some of her words.

The biggest misconception is that humanitarianism is inaccessible.

That it's not something everyone can do.

But inhumanitarianism is human.

And it's just about caring for human beings and treating everyone as your family.

Everyone can care about humans and especially about kids.

We can all be kind and help each other.

And she has some lofty advice,

This not even 35-year-old.

She tells us,

Keep your heart open.

Love more.

Love each other.

Love yourself.

I wish that all people remembered every single day that we are one human family.

That we're the grown-ups in the room and we get to decide how our children and future generations will live on this earth with every decision and action that we make and take.

Maggie Doyne,

Who let loving,

Serving in a sense of the spirit,

Propel her in a magnificent way.

And that's available to you and me to uplift our lives,

To help change things.

There's probably a thousand people in this room.

Of course,

As a minister,

I always see bigger numbers than they tell me are here.

But I choose to believe myself.

All of these points of light,

Going into your personal universe,

Realizing,

Oh that's,

I'm here.

I am here to love,

To empty out,

To free up.

I'm here to link up,

Not hide out.

And I'm here to light up life around me.

And somehow when I just have the courage to do that,

The courage and clarity to do that,

Everything else is going to fall into place.

And everything I aspire to do will be magnificently blessed.

Hear that,

I invite you to be that.

Let's have a prayer together.

To love,

Serve,

And remember God.

We are each a point of transformational energy.

We let go of thoughts of littleness,

Of not being capable,

Certainly of being unworthy.

We let that go.

All the trappings of a lower consciousness we are emerging out of,

Like the butterfly out of the cocoon.

This day,

May our hearts warm.

May we let go of all that is clogged up the circuits of love.

Feel it happening.

You can let that stuff go.

Yeah,

You can.

It's a new day.

There's no accident that you're here.

Sense your heart opening.

The spirit within saying,

Welcome home,

My child.

You wandered into separation,

Got caught up in fear and hurt,

Of trying too hard,

Of pushing and forcing.

Welcome home to who you are.

Love in action.

A luminous light being.

Welcome home.

Receive strength.

Feel it flowing into you.

Receive comfort.

Receive new energy.

Let your consciousness soar beyond former limits.

Soar into my possibilities,

Which are endless and magnificent.

For thou art my beloved child,

In whom I am well pleased.

So may we know together this day that we're exactly the people we need to be.

More than our past,

More than our circumstances,

More than the limits anybody might place upon us.

We are just the people we need to be,

For we are emanations of God life.

And now we plug back in.

Letting our hearts warm,

Our energies well up,

Our vision is expanding and life is moving afresh within us.

And I affirm it is guiding us,

Leading us forward on this day into our greater yet to be.

And I know it's wondrous.

It's a beautiful experience and it's a great gift to the world.

We simply,

Humbly yet compellingly seek to be and to love,

Serve,

And remember God.

And in this consciousness we speak our word,

Embracing in consciousness that peace can never be destroyed,

That peace is a spiritual reality that is present everywhere upon our planet.

And no matter what circumstances or fearful actions ever transpire,

That this peace survives.

It's imbued with love and high and right action.

And we affirm this and stand with this this day as we make it manifest in our own personal universe.

Ah,

It's good and very good.

May we rejoice and give thanks and now just let it be and become.

And so it is.

And Amen.

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