10-12-2006

Ellaeenah was asked by a group member to speak of Christmas and Faith

I was reading JF’s transcript after I returned from my holiday, where he was telling Sohrab there are several who are ‘mediums’ and yet completely powerless. I stopped transcribing there and wondered what does powerless mean for me? What did it mean for me earlier and what does it mean for me now? I realized my greatest growth in power, has been my ability to look at myself as a ‘flawed’ individual. And then I understood what JF said: there are several here, who are mediums, who have been caught in the trap: they refuse to openly acknowledge their flaws. I’ve seen that happening. When you cannot openly, not to yourself, but openly acknowledge that you are flawed, there’s no inner power because in order to stop others from ‘seeing’, you begin to play games.

Why are we ‘human’? Why have we taken human form? What is the Christ, the Christmas, that is within us? Each Christmas we have to look within and we have to decorate ourselves; we have to put ourselves upon that Christmas tree, flaws and all. There is no other angel upon that tree, except for you. And that’s the faith… that come next Christmas, I will be flawed but I have the faith and the strength that I will be a little less flawed. And then, when I put myself on that tree, I put myself up there with my strengths and my flaws because that’s what makes me an angel.

But if you are unable to publicly acknowledge your flaws, if you are playing games with yourself right now and feeling what JF seems to have picked up: that now I’m a medium, I have arrived somewhere, then first of all, you have no faith in yourself and secondly, this is the end of the road for you, because the day you say that ‘this is it; I have no imperfections; I have conquered it all’, that’s the end of the road; there’s no more road, no more road to have faith in.

So why fight our flaws? Surrender to them, yes. So what does that mean? It doesn’t mean giving in. It means for us to know that it’s a flaw. Ask yourself: is it a flaw you wish to work on at present, because it may not be. We have such a plethora of flaws to choose from, so I may not choose to work on that right now. So ask, is it one I choose to work on? And if yes, then each time for you the anxiety arises, when each time a phone call comes from your son or something goes wrong for J and that whole anxiety arises; first remind yourself: this is something I have chosen to work through. In this instance, how do I work through it? What am I feeling right now? I’m feeling extremely anxious; I’m scared J’s meeting will not go the way he wants it to go. And then surrender to: I command the universe that the meeting goes the way it is meant to go; not the way J wants it to go. The exam should not go the way R wants it to go, the way J wants it to go, but the way it must go. If you have that strength of faith, then that will be the day you will conquer this flaw because what is your anxiety? Your anxiety is that the result will not be the one you have envisaged. So the faith has to be not in the fact that the result will be the one you want, but the faith that the result will be the one it has to be. You can see the shift and it’s tough; it’s tough when it has to be our children and it has to be our partner, it’s tough. But, that’s faith. And there will be several times you will really try and work through this but the anxiety will not leave you. Then you must have faith that the next time around, it will. So what if it didn’t happen this time for you? So what! You’ll still be the angel on top of the Christmas tree. No one can take that away from you.

It’s not having faith in Sai Baba, it’s not having faith in the universe, it’s not faith in anything or anyone but your own ability, your own strength, your own power to grow. And when you have that faith you don’t need to be blind to your own flaws; you don’t need that. We play games to be blind to our flaws because we do not have enough faith in our strengths. Very often, we don’t even know if we have strength. But if you have only one strength and a million flaws then that one strength is enough to overpower all the others, but only if you know this strength and have faith in it: faith that you will conquer, that we shall overcome.

So this Christmas, S, give a gift to yourself. First sit down, make a long list of your flaws, and then make a very short list of your strengths. Believe me, that list always turns out to be shorter than the flaws, however hard you may try. Take the 2 lists, make them into a little cone, put it on top of your Christmas tree. See the kind of Christmas you’ll have then. Every little gift, every little bell and every little star that you put upon that Christmas tree, make it something that is YOU. This is my ability to love. This is my radiance. This is my foul temper. This is my lack of self-nurturing. Decorate it with YOU because that’s what’s Christmas is about; it’s not about celebrating the birthday of one man because eventually, that’s what he was: a man with great power, great strength, great influence but a ‘man’. How different is that from you and me? He was human, I’m human, so are you. He had strength, I have strength, so do you. He chose to radiate his power world-wide. I choose the same. Do you? If you do, there is no difference between you and the man you call Jesus Christ.

Flaws do not stop your growth… you do. However much you grow, your flaws will be with you like very loyal, faithful friends. They will never hinder your growth, never. But you certainly will use them as obstacles. And every time you use your flaw as an obstacle, ask yourself why. Why do you not want to be as large as you can? Why do you not want to be as big and powerful as you have the potential to be? Why do you find it so difficult to claim that Jesus Christ and I are equal? Y, how is Sai different from you? How? Do you know why you worship him? Because he worshipped himself. He didn’t kick himself every time he lost his temper. He didn’t kick himself every time he was intolerant. He worshipped himself. How, then, can we not worship Sai? How can we not worship him? He never once considered himself a flawed human being. Did that mean he was playing games, like many in this room do? Not at all! He knew it all! But he knew he was far more than his flaws and he chose to focus on that ‘far more’.

That is faith! What do you choose to focus upon? It doesn’t mean that you are blind to your flaws. Can you get that difference? That’s why worship we JF; that’s why we worship Sai. They were as human as we are. It is so easy for us to claim that they had more power than we. Not at all! There is not one miracle performed by Jesus Christ that you cannot do, if you have the focus and the faith is self; not one miracle. But he had faith.

R, if I were to ask you to pick up this chair and put it out of this room, would you be able?

Yes!

You don’t doubt it at all, do you? If I asked this to a person who had no hands and no legs, would he have the same faith? Would he say ‘yes’, like you did? You are JF and he is Ruki and taking the chair and putting it out of the room is the miracle. That’s the difference; that’s the only difference. Why do we want to worship other men, other people?

I was on this trip and we visited a lovely temple. Beautiful temple, architecturally. There is sculpture of a ‘kalpavriksh’ on the ceiling. You have to stand under it and make a wish. The priest there was assuring every single one that the wish is granted. There was not a person who left that temple without standing there; not even me. Why? It is so much easier to have faith in that something out there, than in yourself.

We constantly play little games with ourselves and with others because we just don’t want to be the angel on our Christmas tree. We don’t want to be that! It’s not that we can’t be it; we don’t want to be it.
And it’s time to ask ourselves WHY because 2007 is about being that angel and if you don’t take this moment now to ask yourself: Why? What is stopping you from being that angel? 2007 will come and go and you will remain powerless. Being powerful does not mean telling tall tales. Being powerful does not mean making people believe that you’re powerful. Being powerful does not mean talking about all your abilities, your healing powers, the things you see and feel, etc. Being powerful is knowing: I AM POWER. It’s not about holding a channeling, it’s not about a meeting, it’s not about a workshop, it’s not about a class; it’s about none of these. There’s a common saying: those who can’t do, teach. The next time we hold a workshop we should remember that; it will be a very humbling experience because as soon as you have a workshop or a meeting or a channeling, somehow it makes you feel: I have arrived. I just know so much more than everyone else. So the next time you feel you have arrived, tell yourself: those who can’t do, teach. (Laughter)

It’s time for us to stop playing games; we know each other too well to do that anymore and I think we should have enough faith in ourselves, in our bonds, in our relationships, to know that we don’t need to be this painted façade; that it’s OK for the real you to shine forth in all its glory. It’s OK! There’s no one judging you but yourself. There’s no one condemning you but yourself and if someone is judging you, turn around and embrace that person because if someone’s judging you it’s because they cannot see ‘themselves’. They are blind; give them love so that their eyes, their vision, will open. A person with vision never judges another because the first thing you see in your vision, is YOU. How can you judge another after that?

My name means ‘star’ in Persian.

Make a star. Then be the star that you are; BE that. You’re always trying to hide from yourself. You’re always wanting someone else to be up there and you down there. That’s not faith. Faith is knowing that you are the only star in the night sky. There are no other stars; only reflections of you.