A message channeled during a group session on March 3, 2024, by Rev. Jeff Munnis about our intimate connection with the Divine, and how the greater we are at being with ourselves, the better we are at being with others.

Transcript

It is one thing to know that we are a small spark of a light that is a much bigger light, a much greater light with both energy and clarity, but part of understanding that is to go deeper and know that our most essential part of us, that most intimate part of us is connected to the most intimate part, the most essential part of God. There are so many things that flow through us because of this intimate connection. We might experience it just as the life force that is within us, but there is more. There is more in the consciousness and the capacity within us. Sometimes we feel like there is so much to learn, so much to know, or knowledge that must be acquired. But all of those true forms of knowledge, all those deep forms of wisdom are really there primarily to unlock what already exists within us. So, learning to work with this capacity, learning to work with this essential part of our being is something that should be easy and flowing, something that is ever-present. There are cares in this world that get in the way of that flow, that get in the way of that awareness. They call our attention to other aspects of our material life, and they’re not to be denied or ignored. They’re not to be seen as useless or unhelpful. There is an ordering or an alignment that brings them into focus for service to that most essential part of us.

Having presence and knowing the presence of God are two sides of the same coin, meaning that one’s own presence is magnified by our awareness of the presence of God. We meet the presence of God in practicing our own presence, and the reverse is also true, that in recognizing God’s presence, we become even more present to those around us. But we have to ask ourselves sometimes why we need so much practice. What is the practice part of this process? And the major part of this practice is letting go and withdrawing all projections out into the world, understanding the boundary that exists between us and the world. And like all boundaries, it’s a permeable boundary, meaning things pass between us and the world and from the world to us, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a container for ourselves or a container for the things that we care about. Those things reside in our consciousness and are there constellated in such a way to be of help to us. But when we open ourselves to this understanding, when we realize that we have these capacities, they are activated within us. It’s like feeding them a bit of energy that awakens that capacity. And even though it’s something that already exists, even though it’s something that is there, our material experience of that spiritual capacity follows that pattern in ourselves where we feel that we are the one instigating that capacity, that we are the one controlling that capacity. But the truth is, we are not instigating it. We’re not controlling it. We are actually becoming aligned with it and one with it. Even in our limited capacity, we would say that there are moments into which we can expand our awareness and expand our understanding, our knowledge, but also our presence, trusting that presence is one of those first steps of letting go, knowing that we don’t have to look somewhere else, knowing that we don’t have something else to find, but simply to be with ourselves, and in being with ourselves, we are better at being with others. And “being” is the key word. Our being-ness contains the capacity to hear and to listen. Our beingness has a capacity to see, and when we tap deep into this sense of being, our capacity to speak is also changed. These are subtle changes. One doesn’t wake up one day and suddenly espouse wisdom at every moment of the day, but one has a restful, open, listening capacity to each moment, whether it’s in the checkout line at the grocery or sitting in a chair drinking a cup of coffee, wherever we find ourselves, we find ourself in a moment that can expand, and the material aspects of our existence recede away from us. They are still present because we are still in our bodies, but those needs are detached from our true needs. Those needs we find to be not so essential. We connect deeper to the life force that is our essence.

As we move through the world, our capacity to carry this consciousness, to hold it in the present moment grows. But it’s not a burden. It shouldn’t be seen or felt as something difficult or wearisome. It also has a capacity for joy, the capacity for a full and robust sensual experience of all kinds—for the taste of the food we eat, the emotions that pass through us, our sight that can perceive the deeper beauty of all creation. All of these things are enhanced by our awareness. They are not something that we can drill down to, intensely focus on, they come about in a more effortless manner, a more effortless process. We train ourselves to relax, not in the sense that there is a relaxation muscle that has to be flexed, rather it is a training of letting go, of having a different aliveness in our bodies. It is much like a resting feeling, but with an alertness that retains all of our capacity to respond, to feel, to see the world in which we live. For some of us, we express that as an eternal moment, an eternal now. For some of us, it is just the present moment where we become one or experience a unity of being. That unity of being can become so strong, that as we look at the world, we realize we approach a different understanding of the Divine.

There are many phases that we pass through this journey toward the Divine. We see many faces of the Divine, just as there have been many expressions of the Divine described by others in the world. Ultimately, we will see face-to-face. We will, with a pure heart, have a capacity to perceive and see God, not just in the world around us, but in every human being, no matter how difficult or strange, and no matter how weak or dis-abled or broken we might feel ourselves, you will see the divinity in that disability, in that brokenness. We will see it in ourselves in such a way that we are reassured of the life within us, reassured of the purpose that we carry with us into this world, reassured that we have all that we need in every moment, reassured that there is not anything to fear. When we have faith and trust, we’ll learn to have that same faith and trust in ourselves.

And I am here for you.

(A.R.: In learning to rely on God or that light, the perception is that that is gifted, is it enough to just create a space for that gift to find me? Or do I call on an outside source, a representation of God, or God’s names, one of God’s names? I feel like I would like a practice for my specific make-up, my system, if you will. I feel like, you guys know me a little better to give me advice that might be specific to my energetic, neural, psychic, psychological system to move me forward on this path to be able to directly connect with Source. Sometimes I feel like I stop, and I go in and I sink down, and . . . oftentimes it feels like. . . ) You were going to say something like, “It feels like mud.” (Yes. Or it feels very empty or it feels very lonely. Alone. I feel alone a lot. I know that there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s also very different from the sense of oneness that I sense sometimes in these sessions or when I’m in the presence of other great beings or a group of people coming together.)

What we are trying to say to each other is that, from where we sit in this material existence, the process feels like it is effort on our part that brings the Divine or a sense of oneness to us. And what we are trying to say is that that Divinity, that Oneness is already here, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t approach that Divinity with our words or with our language, because those words, sometimes being very special words, can awaken in us that vibration or that resonance that helps us feel and acknowledge the presence that is already here. So, it’s alright to call out to what you feel is representative of that for yourself, whether it be the present moment, whether it be Love or Buddha or Christ, or some figure that you are familiar with that awakens that same awareness and receptivity within yourself. If there is a path that fits you, it’s something that would come from you, meaning that as you identify each thing that feels resonant—a name, an object, a sound, an image—any of those along the pathway can be used. They can be used in meditation to return to those images or those sounds or to that understanding. It can be the same as a prayer to the Virgin Mary or to another entity like Krishna or Shiva or even to those sentient beings who have been moved along their path by the Buddha—all of these ways are valid as long as we bring a reverence and respect for what they represent within ourselves. And that is a key element of the process that we are describing, meaning that what is relevant to us is what we recognize to be true within us, and when we recognize what is true within us, it helps us recognize the truth of all of creation, all of the universe, if you wish to use that word, or all of what is the unity of being in God. So, having that practice and relying on that practice is good. It’s something that can hold your process, just like a ritual in a sacred ceremony might hold those who are present. It helps hold the awareness or even the focus in the room. It helps hold the framework for understanding. It helps hold a way of seeing and hearing in the moment that expands into us in a way that we recognize what is outside of us and what is inside of us is connected. When it’s dark, when you feel alone, this is immediately preceding a different sense of presence. You can stop in that moment. You can stop in a feeling of emptiness, a sense that there’s been this vastation or this opening up where there is a vacuum into which nothing exists, but that is a bit of an illusion because there is something that fills every part of every being in every space and time. There are things that are always present that we can never see and feel. There is an energy that is always present that we can neither see nor feel. And so, that feeling of being alone, knowing that there is a place beyond that being alone—it has been described by some mystics as being “alone with the alone,” meaning you are so close to that feeling of unity or united in oneness with that feeling—that that’s the preceding experience. That’s the preceding experience that many have described as the experience of Christ on the cross where he feels forsaken, that he has been so emptied that the only thing that can fill him is what is Divine. And that emptying means that even for him, and for every teacher or guru, incarnation of God, avatar, avadhoot [a human being who becomes Divine], however you want to describe them, that means that whatever concepts, whatever ideas they have had about that unity of being, at the moment of that ultimate realization, it is as if everything they have known up to that point no longer exists. It’s no longer relevant. It’s no longer anything that we can think about it. Our encounter with it is so powerful that no one can really describe what it means to be face-to-face in that moment. And we use language like “face-to-face,” or language like emptiness, or language that says the Divine or cosmic consciousness or different things, but ultimately it is beyond a description that is based on a material world and a material mind that we have in this plane of existence. So, if you can find some trust in that feeling of being in the mud or in the dark or being alone, maybe the understanding that you are on the edge of that experience can be helpful. And know that it is already there within you. So, it’s not like you’re going to experience something that you don’t already have intimate connection with. It’s not something completely new that’s going to overwhelm you. It’s something that you’re going to, in a way, feel like you’re sliding into. That it’s something that you just kind of sit down and slide into the same way that you slide into a chair or slide under the covers in bed or find a comfortable posture when you’re sitting on the floor—that it’s going to be that kind of comfort along the way. (Thank you.) But don’t worry about the language or what you say or do to bring that experience to yourself. Every prayer is a valid prayer. Some might be more effective than others, but even the ones that we don’t feel are effective are steps on the path for us toward that resolution. And we can see each of our experiences, the things we feel, the things we think, the passion or the other emotions that we feel are steps on that journey, if we can somehow let them teach us. And if we get it wrong one time, we’ll get it right the next time, and we’ll all go forward together in a way.

(M.C. - Thank you. Thank you for all of your words and channeling, Jeff. Probably this doesn’t have an answer. You may have just answered it, but my sister-in-law, she was my sister-in-law, is weighing heavily on my heart. She has five kids—she had five kids with my brother—and she’s very, very ill. I remember Carolyn Myss saying, someone had asked her once, “What are the best prayers?” And, that’s what I’m thinking, “What are the best prayers that I can say for her and for them?” This happened so quickly, and I’ve been praying what I think of as sending lifelines and love and prayer. And I know that no one can tell me if that’s working. You just made a comment that prayers work, and I believe that but, I guess I want to know that. . . It’s crazy. It’s a crazy question if prayers are working.)

It is crazy. For our material minds, the way prayers work, it does feel crazy. It does feel like we’re making effort that’s hard to measure or hard to see the effect, but it is there. It is a matter of consciousness. And in our own longing for someone else, so often, it’s hard for us to separate what we might perceive as comfort for the kind of comfort that they need to perceive. So, understanding that sometimes our prayers are simply for truth to be present, for love to be present, for us to be a good witness in the moment because by calling on those elements of our own existence, we are creating a space for a healing to occur. We are creating a space, not necessarily where the body is mended or the heart doesn’t feel broken, but simply a space where there is the fullness of an experience that everything that is powerful about love and truth can be experienced by everyone that is present. And that’s a key word: We have to be present. We have to be in process with each other. There has to be a mutuality between each of us who pray for each other, but also between all of us and God, and for God and us. So, it is powerful to trust the truth. It is powerful to trust in love. Those are sufficient to themselves. So when we are praying for that love and truth, what we are saying is that whatever it is that brings the alignment, whatever it is that brings the unity of being to the consciousness of everyone present, whatever that is, we are hoping and praying that we can be a part of that experience for the person for whom we can’t really do very much at all because their experience, in some ways, is their process of karma, their process of learning. We don’t want to prevent them from learning what they must learn through their experience, so our prayers are especially powerful when we’re not attached to an outcome, we are not attached to a certain kind of result because we’re leaving everything in freedom. So, sometimes our prayers need to be a prayer of, “Please, let me give freedom, as much as it is possible for me to give.” because it is only in freedom that we can truly love another human being. And unconditional love means that we leave them in freedom, and that our love is expressed and present regardless of any outcome, regardless of any condition, regardless of our ability or inability to do anything. It is simply the truth of our love in that moment in freedom. And that’s the most powerful combination that you can give to anyone who is ill or is suffering, whether it’s physical or mental. We know that all of those forms of suffering have their roots in our spiritual being. So that freedom, and that love, that truth that are all joined together in that moment, is the most effective. And if we can accept ourselves as a conveyor of that, which we should, and accept others as a recipient of that, which they will, then we slide into that same kind of zone that we were speaking of earlier where it’s something that we’ll feel comfortable when we get there. We’ll slide into it. We’ll be fully present. And that is the space in which healing occurs. And we’re not responsible for that healing. We’re there to facilitate the healing, but the results belong to God. (Thank you very much. That was helpful. Thank you.) You’re so very welcome.

(G.B.: I have a question. Hi everyone. I am understanding the more this sensitivity and openness to Spirit grows, the process of maintaining boundaries, as I’ve talked to you and Stelli about, and hearing your answer to others, also understanding that respecting the freedom in others, also our own freedom, also not taking responsibility on for someone to be at a point that they are not with their own sensitivity, but what I would like to know is if I choose to become more sensitive in this way and closer to Spirit and listening to God, what is my responsibility when it comes to, like, do we have a responsibility in the choice of expanding this consciousness to others?)

All of your responsibility rests with your own engagement. Others might come to you. Others might ask for help, but one thing that might need to be understood at a different level is how much of this is your choice. So, there is an element of freedom for you to choose, but that element of freedom rests largely on the side of being able to deny the truth, meaning that you have the ability to turn your back on what you receive or what you care to apply your awareness to. However, the entire universe moves in the direction of truth, in the direction of love and light, and those own you already. So, you’ve already been chosen. Did you have the freedom to become chosen? In a manner of speaking, yes, but in a manner of speaking, no. So, how you come to grips with the different elements of the choosing and being chosen is part of your journey. And, you do have agency. You do have freedom. At the same time, you are a creature, meaning that you have been created out of something this is Divine because God does not create except out of God’s own being. So, there is that element of truth to every aspect of what you do. So, the journey is understanding how to navigate those realities for you, knowing that you are this Divine light, this Divine essence. Knowing that you have these deeply-rooted capacities for experience, for wisdom, for alignment with the truth that you can have agency with. One of the big conundrums or puzzles of existence is that there are certain types of freedom that exist inside of obedience, where there’s a different kind of freedom that’s actually greater than the kind of freedom that we have on our own. So, one of the things that’s difficult for us, again because of our material mind, is that we get caught up in trying to untangle that paradox rather than allowing ourselves to experience all the different ways that that paradox is manifest in our lives. So, in those moments of control and agency, we learn something. In those moments where we lack control and agency, we learn something. When we know something or when we sit in ambiguity and lack of knowing, we also increase our capacity of awareness and understanding. So, that’s your journey. Trying to solve that puzzle in a linear and logical fashion, you can do that or try that, and you’ll learn a lot, but that’s not really the point. I think what you’ll find, eventually is that there are some of those things that you have to accept, and some of those things you have to be active with, and there are some things that you just have special knowledge and you have to sit and witness everyone else struggling in the same process. And you can be there, and leave them in freedom and watch them grow, and you’ll grow right along with them. And it might seem strange to say this because it feels like we leave people alone all the time, but the truth is we all have so many attachments to the way we believe that the world is or the way that we want the world to be that we soon find that it’s really about letting go and being present and then letting each moment, each opportunity unfold in freedom. (Thank you.) And if you want to just kind of play with the idea of a conundrum or a paradox, you can think of it like Alan Watts described it as the truth standing on its head to get our attention. So, there’s something of truth even in all of those contradictions out there, sometimes we have to figure out a way to either stand on our head to see it or turn it right side up in our own understanding. (Noted. Thank you.) Thank you.

(M.C. : I was wondering if you’ve ever had anyone in your presence, while you’re channeling Jeff, have pain that leaves them. I feel like that’s happened to me.) Can you say that again? I didn’t hear part of it. (While I’ve been sitting here, I’ve had some pain in my shoulder, and while you were speaking, I started rubbing my forearm, and now the pain is gone. I’m just wondering if that’s happened while in your presence. People have had like spontaneous healing.) Not that have come back and told me just like you did. I think that that has happened before. Stelli, you might know or remember that there have been people that said that they’ve had things clear up in some way for them before. But as specific as you just said, I don’t ever remember having that revealed to me anyhow.

(Stelli: M.C., maybe you’re feeling my, I’ve been typing so fast, I keep rubbing my forearms. I wonder if you’re just feeling me.) (M.C.: I don’t know, but it’s pretty remarkable.) The consciousness that we’re sitting in right now is a shared consciousness of everyone that’s present. And everyone is in some way contributing to our experience.

(Stelli: A.R. has her hand raised. A.R., is that because you resonated with the feelings or you do you have another question?) (A.R.: No, I just wanted to respond to Mary’s question. I just remember coming back after travel and having caught Covid and coming to our Spiritual Growth and Transformation group with Jeff on a Wednesday night. And it seemed like as soon as I spoke that I had Covid, something came and moved something in my lungs, and it was almost like the turning point at which I felt like my body could start to heal from that exposure. I just wanted to offer that. At the time, it felt like a strange experience, but since you bring it up, M.C., I just want to say that that has happened with me.)

I have no doubt that this is a very powerful group. I think I feel this group more than any other group that we have been in. There’s certainly an openness here in the order of what I spoke of earlier about allowing ourselves to be open. That’s very deeply felt in this group.

(Stelli: Is this a good place to end? Is there anything else on anyone’s heart right now? Or, Jeff is anything else that you’d like to say?)

I feel like it’s important, we haven’t really asked for this previously, but I think it’s good to keep each other in our prayers as we go along. Our capacity as a group to be a healing presence for each other I think is very high. So, it’s helpful for us to approach these sessions, and even our own individual prayer or practice sessions, with a reverence that acknowledges the power of what is here and what is within us. I feel encouraged for us to in our own practice to be prayerful and reverent toward everyone here and for us as a group as a whole.