In today’s audio channeling we are all advised to work on shedding our belief systems and being open to those moments of awakening, when what we experience changes us. Remember to stay awake! That’s the key.
Have a wonderful week!
Here is Jeanne’s message for today, channeled most humbly. May it be helpful and informative.
Constant reawakening is necessary if one is to take a deepening journey, if one is to make a life that is truly fulfilling, taking in all aspects of self. Constant reawakening is necessary to truly evolve.
How do we do that?
Become more familiar each day with the inner self, with the layers of the true self beyond the outer layers, beyond the person you are or strive to be in the world. Worldly success will only come, in a meaningful way, if one acts from the heart—keeping in mind both the deeper truths of the human condition and the higher potential of all human beings.
Seek within the self to fully grasp and understand the different parts of the self. Pay attention to your true voice, the one that you know is speaking the truth but that you often elect to dismiss and do as you please. This often leads to failure, disaster, or trouble that you would not otherwise encounter. In order to listen and act on the advice and knowledge of the true self, one must be prepared to forego what the ego or needy self desires. It requires maturity and discipline if one is going to tame the human beast and learn how to act and react from a deeply private and truthful place.
It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to study the self in a deep and meaningful way. It’s okay to say, “No, ego-self, not today. Today we need to say no to the pulls of the outer world and just be calm and introspective. Today we need to be okay with what is. It’s okay to be alone today.”
A process of constant monitoring of self, weighing inner and outer needs, and remaining constantly aware of which part of the self is making the decisions in life will lead to constant reawakenings.
Who is making your decisions today? Slow down, take a minute to listen and find out, then decide if it’s the right voice, for the right reason. Act more frequently from your heart, for yourself and your world. That is how to constantly reawaken.
Written by Jan Ketchel and including a channeled message from Jeanne Ketchel.
Recently, while reading one of my favorite books, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, one that I dip into quite often, I came upon the chapter regarding the need for a teacher or master in order to maintain a proper spiritual practice. According to Buddhist tradition everyone needs a teacher, for how can you know you have reached the true nature of mind if you are not guided in some way by someone who has gone before?
I have never liked the idea of a master and I just could never personally accept the idea of a guru. But as I read this chapter I began to worry that I might not actually be doing my studies to the fullest. As I read a little further, however, I learned that the Buddhist teachers would often speak to the old masters who appeared before them in visions. They sat and spoke for many hours on end, listening to these masters who had lived in ancient times, in one case described as the second incarnation of Buddha. Eventually, these teachers begin to sound like the masters. They channel them. The author describes his own students coming up to him after a talk, telling him he spoke with the voice of his own teacher, long dead.
I laughed when I read this, my worry about having a teacher immediately melting away as I realized that I have had a teacher for the past ten years, a very good one: Jeanne! She has been most present—receptive, challenging, confrontational—pushing me to evolve. I have indeed been her pupil and gone through many stages of growth with her gentle and sometimes not so gentle prodding. I suddenly felt so much better, experiencing a real aha moment. For some reason, I had not fully grasped this idea before. Although I have always called her my teacher, in this moment I got it. She is my guru and as much as I have never liked that term, as much as I could never imagine myself aligning with a guru per se, I now acquiesce to the fact that she is indeed my master teacher.
I began to ponder the idea that we all have a master teacher or guru somewhere in our lives. We may not recognize this teacher in those terms, because the terms themselves don’t really matter. But what I also finally realize is that I did indeed need a guru of some kind to help me get where I am now. I was so caught in an old world that it seemed it was the only one that existed and I could not have gotten out of it without some help. And, I still need a guru to teach me how to continue evolving.
In The Tao of Physics Fritjof Capra writes on page 88: “A Bodhisattva is a highly evolved human being on the way to becoming a Buddha, who is not seeking enlightenment for himself alone, but has vowed to help all other beings achieve Buddhahood before he enters into nirvana… not simply to enter nirvana, but to return to the world in order to show the path to salvation to his fellow human beings.”
When Chuck read this statement to me the other day we both immediately recognized Jeanne as a Bodhisattva. Her messages from the very beginning have stressed that she is present to help others to awaken to the truth that all things are energetically interconnected and alive. This is her mission and that of her group.
Today, I explore with Jeanne this realization that struck me as funny at first, but then as fascinatingly true, that she has been my guru for the past ten years, and an excellent one at that. I am deeply grateful for all I have learned as her pupil. I have stayed connected to her through many uncertain and painful moments of self-discovery and awakening. Through it all, she sat calmly as I made my way back to her again and again asking for help. Over time I learned that she always had the answer, in some form. And indeed, as I evolved, I learned to channel and now her voice flows through me quite easily, though I had to go through many seasons of doubt.
I truly believe that she is available as a Bodhisattva to others as well. Several people have told me that she guides them and I am so happy whenever anyone reveals this. I know how good a teacher she is. And since it is her mission I can only hope that others will find the strength and innocence to reach out to her too.
So, I ask all of you to investigate the possibility that you may already have a teacher in your life. Perhaps one that is very much alive, or perhaps one you speak to as I do Jeanne, in quiet moments of inner work and study.
The Buddhists, Hindus, Shamans, Quantum Physicists, and others agree that what we consider reality does not, in fact, exist; that it is illusion created by our needs, desires, and fixations, and that true reality is an interconnected web of energy. We are all part of this interconnected web of energy, one nature. Within this framework we all have access to the masters, teachers, and gurus who are just waiting to guide us to understand energy and the oneness of all things; the Bodhisattvas who are ready to help us understand also how everything we perceive as real is not really there.
I have learned through my work with Jeanne to dissolve the world of solid objects into flowing energy. Through the practice of meditation I have more deeply grasped what I have learned over the past ten years as her pupil. And each week, as I write this blog, I am challenged once again to accept Jeanne as a Bodhisattva and appropriately express what she teaches.
Today, I ask her to offer us a teaching along the lines of recognizing or finding a teacher. I know that we all have access within; that we don’t have to look too far outside of ourselves. So, I ask Jeanne: How can we all recognize the voice of our true teacher? Can you also offer some guidelines on setting a practice in place with the teachers we already know and trust? As our world changes rapidly now, I believe we need to connect with our inner and outer teachers and guides more than ever. There is a pressing need for spiritual practice based on energetic interconnectedness. Because the truth of nature is that we are all the same.
How can your readers recognize their teacher? How does one begin to listen?
Here is what Jeanne says:
As you know, Jan, often the best moment to access your spiritual advisor is at a moment of despair, collapse, calamity, at the moment of breakdown when an old self is breaking apart. At such a moment, when the old rules you have set for yourself just cannot uphold your world any longer, you are open and ready for contact. However, breakdown or abruptly painful moments are not the only time one has access to the beauty of true life. In a moment of joyful enlightenment the way is cleared as well. In moments of clarity, in brief seconds of “getting it,” whether it be a personal issue finally falling into place or a universal issue finally making sense, at such moments the energy of each one of you is attuned and in alignment with all energy.
These moments of enlightenment are brief, so fleeting that it is almost impossible to hold onto them, profound though they may be. It takes a whole string of such moments, for the most part, before one learns to grasp onto them as the most meaningful moments in a lifetime.
How often, I ask each of you, have you had such moments of clarity, whether blissfully delivered or painfully presented? And how have you dealt with them? Have they faded away, been forgotten as you have gone back into reality? I ask that you each make a note, mental or otherwise, of all of these moments in your life, the moments of magic, of mystery, of clarity and of enlightenment. How many times have you, in fact, already been prodded awake in your life?
I guarantee that everyone has had more than a few such moments. However, so used are you to sleeping through life that the cloak of slumber quickly snuggles you back into the illusion of normality and you forget that you have experienced oneness with all things.
The first challenge to the self in your quest for a teacher is to become alert to your wake up calls. Become a student. Note how these wake up calls come to you and how you have received them in the past. Recognize them as wake up calls and train your awareness to become more alert by reminding yourself throughout each day, to remember, remember, and remember this: I am a being who is energetically connected to all other energy; alive or dead we are all the same. Remember this always: We are all the same energy.
In putting together your moments of awakening to the greater picture of the self as energy you will eventually string together enough moments to build a practice upon. A practice must be in tune with your everyday world. No matter what your situation you can begin a practice, because the practice is within. You carry the tools of your practice always with you. The first tool is awareness. And this is what you will hone as you remember. But you will also hone it by utilizing it daily to gain new moments of enlightenment. Even a simple instruction to the self to notice how the events and signs in your world seem to line up is a way to begin. What are you being shown each day that you have been missing?
Placing your attention on a new means of being in your life, by remembering your moments of awakening while asking yourself to stay awake for a little bit longer each day, should work to further you on your path.
Do not worry so much about who your teacher may or may not be. A teacher will not reveal him or herself as such. It is not how a true teacher works. He or she will never say: “I am your teacher.” This is something that you alone will discover when you are ready to realize it.
I interrupt the channeling as a moment of enlightenment occurs!
Yes, I concur with you Jeanne. Although I have spoken of you as my guide for ten years now I have sort of relegated you to an inner place, a guide related to my inner work, but now I more fully recognize you as my master teacher. I have achieved a big moment of enlightenment today, at this moment, as you help me to more fully grasp that my inner world and outer world are one. You have been asking me to more fully integrate them, to awaken to the fact that I must live outwardly what I have learned inwardly. This is another big aha moment. I thank you and ask if you have anything else to teach us today.
Jeanne continues:
A teacher will be of your own discovery. Only you will energetically be able to align with and determine the process and the teacher that will awaken you. This may take some trial and error, but the end result will be enlightening!
I ask that you begin to more fully accept yourselves as energetic beings. It is difficult to face your death if you consider it the end of the self, if you consider the self only as flesh, blood, bone and organs. But, if you consider the self as only energy you will have a far greater opportunity to push ahead to accepting death as life. They are one and the same. Keep in mind that you all die a little each day as you forget those moments of awakening; you die energetically.
In pulling yourself into alignment with energy you gain life; you gain the awareness you need to navigate through the lifetime you now inhabit with far different insight than in past lives. If you are truly ready to evolve, the concept of the self as energy will not puzzle you for long because you will experience it. Then you must be open to the truth of such an idea as the one true fact of life. That is how you will discover who your teacher is.
In conclusion: Practice remembering. Practice remaining aware.
Do not be angry or disappointed if you can only hold onto a moment of awareness. It is enough for that moment. But then ask the self to notice the next one. Do not give up. Eventually you will wake up more fully. And each day, and even each night, you have the opportunity to do it again!
Stay connected to the idea of everything as energy and you will have learned the beginning teachings that all Bodhisattvas must learn. Start with that!
Thank you to Jeanne for this lesson today.
Most humbly offered,
Jan
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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Dear Jeanne,
This seems to be a time of transition for many. Whether by choice or fate it seems that many of us who now reside upon this earth are being asked to confront deep issues, to become unanchored from our habitual tendencies, to flow without resorting to the familiar, to choose to be groundless. I see this time as not only transitional but transformative. I feel we are being asked to change, though not to simply settle down again into new habits but to keep changing.
If we are indeed to transform we must accept that transformation never ends, that it is an ongoing, eternal process. I feel that this is a time when most of us are being asked to choose acquiescence to our truths and face the unbending intent of nature, which is infinite in its evolutionary tactics.
Can you offer guidance as we struggle with disciplining ourselves to bear the tension of our choices to change, as we struggle with still wanting the familiar while we know full well that we are going on this ride of transformation?
You are always in this position, My Dears. You are always being asked to evolve, though through much of life the moment of awakening leads to naught. For many people now upon that earth, for those who are ready to gather their energy in a new way, acquiescence is a tenable process. For others it is not so easy. And for yet others it will not be the goal of this lifetime.
If you are being pushed in a new direction and you choose to allow the energy of that direction to guide you, you will be well placed for growth. Keep in mind, however, that you must allow yourself to be guided as much as possible. You must allow your path to appear before you each day. In some manner you must allow your world to open up before you without your say so, without your control or your decision making to factor in. In other words, you must allow yourself to be led.
This will of course not be easy. Your fears will arise to caution you, to hold you in place, to convince you that you must maintain the status quo. Just remember, the status quo will still exist even if you depart from it for a moment or two.
Your world will change if you want it to—and it may change even if you don’t want it to—if you are in a position of transformation, if you are at a juncture in your personal life, consciously so or not. You may be presented with a life changing choice at this very moment. You may be frightened of taking the first step that will change your world. You may be wondering if you are crazy to dare such a step.
Keep in mind that the world outside of you will still exist. It will go on as it always has. But the difference will be you. If you choose to acquiesce, to allow yourself to flow with the changes being presented, you will not only be different in the world, but you will enter a parallel world that will exist alongside the status quo, the old world. You will be riding upon a new vehicle of energy that will allow you to perceive differently. This is when you will notice that, although you still live in that known world, you are also in quite another.
The first step is the most difficult to take. This is when the pull to return to safety and complacency will attempt to overshadow your awakening moment. This is when you will have to fight the old comforts. This is when you will have to keep throwing the old blankets aside that will be tossed at you in an attempt to bed you down again with your old fears.
Remember that fears are just that, fears existing only in your mind and ready at all times to sabotage your awakening. You must be in a strong position to face them. You must not do anything foolhardy. You must choose wisely, intelligently, and pragmatically, even while you must choose daringly to change. You must remain focused on changing the self, taking your attention off others, asking the self to allow for growth that will transform you and unite you with your spirit.
It is now a time of spirit, of creativity, and unbridled energy of evolutionary potential. This means many different things to many different people. If you are restless in your work, it may mean it is time to finally change your job, your work environment, your office, or even simply to change your desk and chair.
If you are struggling in your marriage, partnership or relationship, it may mean that you must look to your inner self for the truthful answers to what to do to change your situation, for how to make it better, for how to make it work or for how to transition with grace, patience, loving kindness, and compassion for yourself and your partner.
If you are facing a great challenge or life threatening situation the energy of now asks you to slow down, to feel your way through your situation with quiet mind and quiet heart, to listen calmly to your truths, to not act hastily but to allow for right action to come from your heart-centered self, to allow your inner awareness to guide you.
To bear the tension of transition is what life is always about. You could not have even entered life if you were not well prepared to undertake the tension of the moment of birth, for you would not have survived that initial onslaught. One must accept the journey as it comes, in little awakenings and big ones as well.
Are you being urged to awaken now? If you feel the push, the pull, the needle pricking you, if you hear the knock on the door, the call from the outer world or the call from the inner world, it is a good time to slow down and pay attention to what you are being shown or asked to do.
Is it right for you to take this step, to make this change at this time? If you choose not to, when will you have this choice again? What does your spirit want to do? What do your fears want to do? And who do you want to listen to this time?
Your question, My Dear Jan, proposes that positive energy is available now and this I advise is so. But I also advise patience, thoughtfulness, practicality, and planning, knowing full well that change will institute a whole host of other changes, many of which will not be known and this is when you will be confronted with the old fears and desires to return to the comforts of the old self and the old way of life.
If you elect to glibly step out into a changing world be ready for the turmoil that is sure to come, for change does not happen easily or lightly. It comes with force and it asks you to stick with it, to, yes, bear the tension, to be patient, to be wise, to be focused and disciplined in action, thought, and deed. It also asks you to thoroughly commit to the path that leads you into the unknown, for that is what is ahead. And what is the unknown but the vastness of potential, of possibility, and of self. This is where you are all headed in the end anyway, into the unknown.