152 Paths of Devotion, Prayer, and Clarity, Awakened Chakras, Multiple Paths? Q & A

This is a recording of a Live Q & A which has been edited for clarity, length, and helpfulness.

Because much of these podcasts follow the jnana path of clarity, they are most powerful when listened to in sequence.  However, in this discussion we started with the path of devotion and one of prayer.  We discussed that Ramana felt that Jnana (clarity) and Devotion were two equally important paths with each eventually turning into the other. Bhagavan felt the easiest path was one of prayer.  Let the Divine figure it out for you.  Later we discussed where and how one experienced one's "I Am".  Also, how many paths can one experience at the same time. Another explained the deep meaning to them of the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdeline in terms of equality within society and the masculine-feminine relationships. Etc.

These podcasts are here to support your personal path of awakening whatever that might be. I feel they are most powerful when listened to in sequence from podcast one forward because each is built on the last. Though they, also, all stand on their own. If anything does not resonate, please disregard it and follow your heart. All my podcasts and website are free. Enjoy!

Though I am a psychotherapist, and these podcasts are offered to be spiritually helpful, they are not psychotherapy. If psychotherapy is ever needed, please reach out to a psychotherapist.

www.williamecooper.wordpress.com for more support. You may, especially, enjoy the short contemplations and the resource page which gives you some supportive material.

Transcript

Hello, everybody. My name is William Cooper. Welcome to Awakening Together, Relaxing into Happiness. I trust you're doing well today. This is your time to ask any questions that you'd like about your personal path or simply questions that you've had about spirituality or really anything that will be helpful to you.

So, what's going on? What's going on with you? If you'd like to talk about something, please type it in the box below and I'll see it and we'll talk about it. Hi, Alice. Thank you.

Good to be back. While you're thinking about any questions that you might have or typing them in, I'd like to talk a little bit about the path of devotion and the path of prayer. We've talked a lot about the jnana path, jnana yoga, which is the path of clarity and dissolving those things that dilute us. As we dissolve more things, what's left is our true self, our being. We can see who and experience directly who we are more clearly until it's very clear.

The path of prayer and the path of devotion follow a little bit different path. In the path of devotion, this is good for people that just feel a lot of love. Maybe you wake up in the morning and you're singing, and you feel love and you feel devotion. On this path, you stay with your love and devotion. That's where you start.

And Ramana, you see him over my shoulder in the green photograph. We often go to his ashram in South India. He passed away in about 1950, and he was a big Jnana yoga guru. He was that powerful. He was like he was the equivalent of Buddha.

Very powerful and he's known all over India. Well, he said, the Yana path is equal to the Bhakti path or the path of devotion. And he said you can do either one and they will help you awaken. He also said though that regardless of which path you follow, you'll start melting into the opposite path. For instance, if you start off with lots of love and devotion and you're praying to that which you love and you're connecting to that which you love and your heart is opening and opening and opening, at some point perhaps you'll hit a wall or hit things that are troubling you, and it makes it hard for you to stay in your loving nature.

So at that point, you'll be looking for clarity, you'll look be looking for ways to dissolve those blocks and obstacles, how to let them go, what to do, and that might be more towards the Yana path. On the other hand, if you're following the Yana path, the path of wisdom and clarity, and you're dissolving and dissolving things and letting them go and you're becoming clearer and clearer, well, of course, your heart opens. That which was blocking your heart opens, it dissolves, and your heart is flowing and suddenly you're on the Bhakti path as well. And you're devoted and loving. So, they meet in the middle.

But depending on your disposition, you may want to start with one or both or the other. When I was a child, I would pray and I love God, I He was my friend. That's how I felt as a child. I hadn't been educated to feel otherwise. I was just innocent.

And I would pray to my friend and as far as I can remember now, I'm sure it's not completely true, but as far as I remember, every prayer that I really wanted came true when I prayed to my friend. My childhood heart opened so wide. And I loved my friend. I was so full of love for my friend who listened to me. And my trust grew and grew as we had this conversation through prayer and response.

Love and trust in my childhood heart. So open, so powerful. And that was a bhakti path. Later, life got a little more complicated. I got into philosophy and religion, and I got all confused and troubled.

And I also started confronting some emotional issues that I had. And before long, my heart was closed, I was confused, and I was in pain. At that point, the Yana path was helpful for me. But as things cleared out, which they did and are continuing to clear out, my heart began to open again. So, you may find yourself in there somewhere in the Bhakti or the Yana path.

In India, here's a a stone carving we got. This is a stone carving of Nandi, Shiva's sacred bull. And Nandi is devoted to Shiva. Shiva is the aspect of God for awakening. Shiva's great clarity.

Shiva destroys delusion and obstacles in that way so that you can awaken. And Nandi just loved Shiva. He just whenever there's a Shiva temple in the in South India especially, and here's another carving of Nandi and Shiva. This is Shiva and this is Nandi. And you see Nandi just always just loving Shiva.

But whenever there's a temple in South India with Shiva, there's a Nandi right out front and just so devoted and loving Shiva. That's all Nandi does is just love Shiva. In South India, Nandi is one of the favorite gods. And by gods, what they mean is portal to the oneness, portal to the infinite. You don't pick a god that scares you and shuts you down.

You pick a portal or a god, and all these gods are different aspects of the one. There's only one infinite. It's all one, but it's so infinite that it's nice to have a portal, an interface that you can connect to. And Nandi is the portal of love and devotion. So, in South India, Nandi is so popular.

People love Nandi. There are Nandi's everywhere. Big Nandi's, little Nandi's. They put flowers on Nandi, wreaths of flowers all over Nandi. They paint Nandi with beautiful colors.

They talk to Nandi. They love Nandi. And their loving relationship with Nandi opens their heart so wide, radiant, so much love for Nandi. And through Nandi, love for the infinite. Until the love is so powerful that perhaps they even melt into the infinite.

The bhakti path. And one of the things they do is if they have a prayer like I had when I was a child and they want it to happen, and they want God to hear it, or the infinite to hear it, they go to Nandi's ear and they whisper their prayer to Nandi because Nandi loves them. And maybe Shiva could be a little scary because Shiva is pretty intense. So maybe they are a little scared of Shiva, so they talk to Nandi, and they ask Nandi to tell Shiva. And Shiva ultimately grants their prayer, but they talked to Nandi.

And so Nandi is so loved in India. I suppose in Christianity you have some of that. If, you if you feel like the God of the Bible is, pretty difficult, maybe you talk to Mother Mary or maybe you talk to Saint Francis or you talk to somebody else and you have them talk to God. I think in most religions you have something like that. Ultimately, in the path of devotion, you skip all that religious stuff because it's kind of it can be dicey.

It can be very helpful and positive, but there can be the flip side embedded in it as well sometimes. So, in the path of devotion, you go straight to your love. You find an interface that you love. Maybe you love nature, and you talk to nature. Or maybe you love Nandi, and you talk to Nandi.

Or maybe you love God. Or maybe you love God in the female form, so you find a female form of God, or you love God in the male form or the animal form. Native Americans, often many animal totems. So, the path of devotion, you find whatever you can connect to, and you let your heart open and open and open. And that love that you feel that gratitude that you feel that flow that you feel is the divine.

That is God. There's only one love, and that's God or the divine. Or if you want to go beyond that, the infinite. Or if you want to go beyond the infinite, we'll say beyond creation where we can't even talk about it because it's not in created form, and words only capture created forms. So whatever works for you, as you connect in the path of devotion, your heart opens, and you feel what everything is made out of.

Love, consciousness, awareness. People use lots of words and terms, and you use whatever word or term that you're comfortable with. Could be God, could be nature, could be the infinite, could be beyond the infinite. But what you feel is love. And love is that.

And I'll just use the word God. You feel God. That's the love you feel. What is awakening? Awakening is letting everything go that troubles you and melting into the best that's coming through you.

What is that? That's love. That's peace. That's wellness. That's gentleness.

That's joy. That's happiness. That's who you are. Those are the qualities of your being, and they're one with the infinite. Those are also the qualities of the infinite, and there is only the same thing.

It's all one. There is no distinction. So, whatever you feel in you that's good is your opening into the infinite. That is your awakening. That is your self realization.

That is your melting into oneness through the path of devotion. The path of devotion, as we just touched on, also includes prayer. And my guru in India, you see his picture over my shoulder as well, he's in the yellow. Bhagavan, most powerful human flowing with the infinite that I've ever met, and I've met a lot of powerful beings. And that's not to take away from them.

They're also beautiful as are you, as am I, as are all of us. But his path mainly seems to be the Yana path as well as far as I can tell. He's very wise and very clear, incredibly clear. But he said something interesting and, he said it so many times. He says, you know, the Jana path, consisting of clear teachings where you can see through and let your troubles dissolve and let go. Using methods such as where you sit still, you let the things that are troubling you come up, you watch them, you let them unwind, they dissolve, and they dissolve back into oneness. So, they're no longer troubling you. Or if it comes up during your regular going through life, your regular activity, somebody cuts you off in traffic, you feel anger coming up, you don't hold on to it, you just let it go out of your body, you let it unwind, release, and it dissipates. So he said that is a very powerful path, but it's hard because you feel all your stuff in it. The stuff that we've repressed, we repressed it because it hurts.

And so, when it comes up, it releases the hurt as it's unwinding and we feel it. It's hard. It's intense. We've often jammed a lot of stuff deep inside. 

So, he said, if that's a difficult path, there's the path of prayer.

Find a divine, a portal into the oneness that you are comfortable with, whatever that is. Ask through the portal, ask the infinite to help you out, to bring you to awakening. Let the infinite do it, basically. Let the infinite handle it. Put it on the infinite shoulders.

Sure. Do some things. Move in the right direction. Just don't be so nonchalant or anything. Do what you can but ask the infinite to help you.

Do the things you can do, move forward in the ways you can, and at the same time, let your heart call out to the infinite. Reach out to the infinite and let the infinite give you the grace to complete whatever it is that you are attempting to do, such as your awakening. You take the first step and let the infinite take the other 99 steps. He says that'll be an easier path for many. I understand that.

It's what I experienced as a child. Now with prayer, he also said, the most powerful prayers are ones that are done in love and trust, like I did when I was a child, but also prayers that are coming from deep suffering and pain as you're calling out are also very powerful. Prayers with compassion for others. Very powerful. I think they blend together both paths, the jnana path and the path of prayer, especially as an adult.

Because you pray for something and what I found because I tried, sure my guru is saying it, let's do it. But in the end, you know, the things that are troubling me still were troubling me. I think the oneness that we are does help us. It's called grace. So, it is incredibly worthwhile.

In the end though, I think you need that jnana path also to help let go because, okay, the infinite is helping me, but I still have my issues. They're coming up. Now what? How do I let it go? Well, it's good to know what to do.

And that's what these podcasts are about both paths, but mainly the Yana path because what I found difficult was when I would listen to others and the best teachers, the best gurus, I love them all, but they often didn't tell how to do something. Like, they might say, don't be attached. Okay. How? You know?

Let go. Okay. How? Love. Okay.

How? I want to. So, in these podcasts, they're step by step processes to talk about how. In the end, really, everything is love. If I hold on to resentment, that creates tension and trouble inside of me, and I can't flow so well.

That tension and grudge that I'm holding is actually made of there's only one building block. It's made of consciousness, which is love that I have by my willpower shaped, manifested into a grudge. That feels bad in me, and it shuts me down. At some point, I just look at it and I see it as love, but I also let it go. I I ask myself, okay, why haven't I let it go before?

Well, because I'm right and that person was wrong. And until they apologize, I'm justified. I'm not I'm not forgiving them. They're totally wrong. That was horrible what they did, and it was.

I'm sure some of you have felt that. But in the end, I have to look at that and say, you know, okay. So what? I am love. Why am I giving that up in order to to hold a scorecard?

Why am I doing that? I am love. So that's it. So, I let go and I just am love. In letting go, it's a bit of the bhakti path too because you're opening to love.

The bhakti path is love and trust. It's not enough to love, you have to also trust. To let go completely, don't you have to trust? So, it's both things. Again, how sometimes you ask how?

Well, we talk about that in these podcasts. And so, I see a number of you have written in some questions, which I deeply appreciate, and that's what we're really here for. Now that I've talked a little, you've done it. And let me let me address some of the things that you've brought up, and we can circle it back around if if you want. Pam says, and hi, everybody, by the way.

Hi, Jody. Hi, Jennifer. Hi, everybody. Pam says, that is difficult for someone with religious trauma who sees God as an authoritative punishing parent figure. I have worked through my own issues on that.

For some, it may still be a journey to the divine. Absolutely, Pam. I have a podcast called Releasing Christian Guilt, and I sum up my four years of theological school on that particular subject in that thirty- or forty-minute podcast. Many have found it very helpful. So, if any of you have this, what Pam is saying, just some difficulties with, religious trauma, which unfortunately, so many do have, you might really enjoy listening to that podcast.

It's podcast 87. It is very helpful. And you're right, Pam. That's the reason I did another podcast and what my guru in India was talking about. He said, don't connect to something that's traumatizing.

And, you know, I didn't even know as a kid, as a child, when I was praying, I wasn't involved in all this religious stuff and the punishing God and all that. I had no clue that God was portrayed so meanly and as such a horrible being. And so you find your own portal that opens your heart, your own portal to the infinite and beyond. Maybe nature doesn't conjure all that up. Maybe, you know, Native American ways don't conjure that up.

Maybe the eagle doesn't make you feel bad. Connect to the eagle or a fox or whoever you connect to. You know? It's all one. These are just portals.

Even God is a portal to the infinite. You know, it's beyond. It's beyond all created things. And when we talk about God, it's a being. That's a created thing.

It's way beyond that. What I experience 100% of the time these days is myself as light and love and wellness. And it's a continuum, almost like a rainbow all the way through the human experience, but all the way back past created things into nothingness, but it's a full nothingness. That's what I experienced always. And I used to think, oh, when you experience that, it's like you've got it made.

You're sitting on a satin pillow somewhere. So what? Everything's good for you. I want to be awake. That's what I want.

But, you know, for me, it's not that way. Because as the light is as beautiful as that is, what I just said, as the light expands, it cleans out everything that would stop it. So, I continually feel old stuff, old traumas coming up. Some of my old religious traumas, I I no longer feel them, but I feel others because the infinite won't stop. It doesn't stop.

It just keeps cleaning and cleaning. And so, some days are pretty rough because some of this stuff that I that was so painful that I pushed so far down, now I'm not pushing anything down. I don't I don't have repression. But anything that's still lingering, it comes up and sometimes it it comes up with a vengeance. As you awaken, as many of you probably have already experienced, yes, you you're always one, but you're also one with any stuff that's still unresolved.

You feel it until you don't. But you don't manage it. You don't try to at certain levels of the spiritual path; you do manage it. It is helpful. But at other levels, you don't.

You just flow. Everything flows. It's all one. It flows. Some of it's painful.

It flows. It does melt into the one love that it is, the one peace. But, Pam, I hear you, and I encourage people to follow their heart. And whatever unfolds you, whatever opens you up, do that. Thanks for that great question.

I hope that helped. Alice asks, question. When we sit still and feel the divine in us, when we feel our I am presence, where do I feel that? My heart, my third eye chakra? Where?

What a good question, Alice. Really, I feel that let me start with this. It's wherever you feel it. Wherever you feel peace or wellness or joy or love, because these are all different aspects of the one. Wherever you feel happiness, All these are the infinite.

There's no two. There really is not. I know it somebody's told me once that or asked or observed said, you know, everything you say could be taken as a philosophy. It's like it could be philosophy. And, yeah, it could be.

We're talking. It could be a nice philosophy. And at one time in my life, very early on, it was a philosophy. I thought that's what everything was. I didn't know the difference.

I was like 18. And I studied everything as a philosophy, and I thought if I could understand it and be clear that life would be good. I could let go of things that weren't helpful and know what path to be on and just do that through willpower. I thought that. I guess we all do at some point.

But this is not a philosophy. Everything we talk about for me, it could be a philosophy, but everything that we talk about, I experience directly. It's like the difference between reading a book on swimming and actually jumping in the water. I experienced everything in these podcasts, even if they seem unlikely, are my experience. I don't put them in the podcast unless they are.

That's fifty years' worth of experience and I've called out the things that are so good, but they didn't really move me forward that well. Maybe they would for somebody else. And I've retained in these podcasts all the most powerful things I can find, even if they're I say them very simply. So these podcasts are the most powerful if you listen starting at podcast one and move forward because each is built on the last ones before them, but you can listen to them any way that you want. So, Alice, your question and why I'm saying that all this is a direct experience for me is in my experience, I feel the infinite all through my body and beyond my body.

I see the infinite in nature, and I'm not just talking about me. Many of you out there do the same and so do you, Alice. So, to me, I don't focus on the chakras so much. However, in the pod my podcasts, I have talked about it because some people through history, awakened people have gotten in arguments over what awakening is like, because they didn't realize that some will experience first one aspect of awakening. For instance, if they awaken it through their heart chakra, they might experience love.

While another one experiences deep peace. Another one deep interconnectedness with all beings. Another one, pure oneness through the crown chakra. Others bliss, others tantric bliss, others connect to the creation through your first chakra. So, they get into arguments over what awakening was like.

Well, it's all of these things. It's like a diamond that has so many facets. The infinite is infinite. And you feel all of everything good is the infinite. There is only one good.

It's all different aspects of the infinite. And everything that's quote unquote bad is also the infinite. It's consciousness or love that's twisted through our willpower into a quote unquote harmful shape. The shape of anger, or hurt, or sadness, or depression. And you've heard me say before, consciousness is like water, but it can be frozen into shapes when we put our attention and willpower on it.

Like frozen into the shape of an ice knife. You can freeze water into ice, and it can be a knife that can hurt. We can freeze love into hate, and it can hurt us and others. So, everything is ultimately the infinite, it's just how free flowing, is it? Is it in the form of love, or is it love that's frozen a bit?

So, it's all the infinite, and we'll feel it in different ways in our body. But in awakening, that free flow is often felt through various chakras. However, what took me forever to, experience is I was so captivated by my personality, or my chakras, or energies, or emotions, or thoughts, that my attention was drawn to those. What I missed was the part of me that's aware of all of these things. Awareness is none of these things.

If you're aware of something, you're not the things that you're aware of. Yes, as a human we're in the body, and we experience the infinite through creation, through our bodies, through our chakras, but it's deeper than that. It's also what's aware of all of these things. It's like two sides of the coin. We're both beyond creation and creation itself.

That's what we are in the human form. So, awareness that's aware of my chakras, that's aware of love, that is aware of peace, that doesn't have a feeling, because it's coming from beyond creation. So, the I am, to answer your question, is that too. It's beyond the chakras. How do you how can you be in touch with that which doesn't feel like anything?

That which is aware of everything, but doesn't actually feel like anything because it's not a created thing? Well, in two ways. As it flows into creation, and it goes through your chakras, it does feel like love, it does feel like light, it does feel like peace, and so on and so forth. So, it does take created form, and that's the purest created form of awareness, or the infinite. But the other way to experience awareness is often you sit still so that you're not distracted, and you notice all that you're aware of, your emotions, your thoughts, so on and so forth, your body.

But notice the qualities of that which is aware of all these other things. That's your awareness itself. And it won't feel like anything. But through your intuition, not through your five senses, because the five senses can only handle things you can feel, or see, or touch. Not through the five senses, but through your intuition, you can know this awareness that you are.

And this awareness that you are, as you follow it back, as you notice what it is, as you sit still, you notice it's one with everything else. It's all one big awareness that's flowing into creation, through consciousness, as I often describe it, it starts off beyond creation, and it can't be described because it can't be captured by the five senses and our vocabulary, but it flows into this world. It's what we are, it's what everything is, and as it flows in, the very first thing is it's seen or felt as light, and then it slows down into sound, and then it slows down, and that's where you feel it as bliss, or peace, or well-being, or joy, or happiness in your body. So that's the I am. And the I am is also that which you feel in your body, the love, the joy, the peace, as well as the awareness from which it all flows.

It kind of is all of those things at the same time. It's a bit of a paradox, it's both nothing, that which is beyond creation, it hasn't been created, therefore it's no thing, but it's also everything in creation. So that's the I am. Where do you feel it in your body? You notice it as your awareness, and you feel it through your chakras in pure form as love, happiness, peace, and so on and so forth.

So some people do feel and are connected through their chakras. They'll feel maybe emotional release in their solar plex chakra in their awakening, others in their heart, others will feel deep power through their throat, Others clairvoyance and clear seeing through their third eye. So some will feel all of the above at the same time through their all their chakras, But others will feel all of this or different portions of this all through their body or in different places of their body. So I don't want to put too fine a point on it because whenever I used to hear somebody say something, I really tried to I mean, I tried to put my attention there. I I wanna feel it in my heart, but I don't feel I feel the love, but it's maybe it's in my stomach.

It's not in my heart. Oh, what's going on? It must not be so I don't wanna put too fine a point on it. And remembering all that I just said just now is awakening in creation, awakening through the chakras, through the body. It's things that are created, and at the same time, there's that awareness.

You're aware of what's happening, even if it doesn't feel good in the body. Oh, my body is still tense and tight, and it hasn't opened, and I don't feel bliss, and I don't feel love, and I don't feel joy. Well, I'm still aware of that. All of the things that don't feel good, and that which is aware is truly who I am. And you don't have to do anything for that.

It's always there. You can put your attention there and get used to what you are like there. There won't be a feeling, but again, you can follow yourself back or get used to yourself through intuition. It's a silent knowing, a silent awareness. That is the ultimate I am before it slows down into created form.

The I am, you'll feel all different you'll feel the I am in nature. Some feel it in nature before they feel it within their body. It's all one. There's not an inside. There's not an outside.

At first, it seems like there is, but there's not as it turns out. Pam says the heart is the place of connection. Yes. It is. It's a place of connection.

And, Pam, you can feel the divine through your heart so powerfully. So and so many others can. Others feel connection in other places. They might feel it through touch first, and then their heart opens. Hard to say.

We're all a little bit different because we have different obstacles in our system that are blocking different channels. Otherwise, they'd all be wide open. So as we open in one channel, again, that light, that love, that well-being, whatever it is for you, will come pounding through like a like a beautiful light. And as it spreads out, it will bump into an obstacle. And then you'll watch it, you'll let it unwind, you'll let it release its energy.

You won't get involved because as you already know, if you get involved with it, that's putting your willpower and attention onto it, which is what manifested it in the first place. So you re manifest it and it doesn't release. So you don't get involved in it yet you feel it fully. What do I mean by don't get involved in it? You don't run with it like, Oh, I feel like my neighbor.

I hate my neighbor. Okay. If that's coming up and you don't get involved, you just feel all those unpleasant feelings going around and around, but you just don't get involved in it. If you get involved in it, what you do is then you add to it. Oh, yeah.

My neighbor. And they did this, and they did that. And I was really right, and I can't believe they did that. And, I'm gonna really try to let it go, but you know, in the end, I was right. And that's getting involved in it.

Don't do that. That'll keep it in place. Good question, Alice. I hope I answered it. If not, circle back around.

Pam says the third eye is more for intuition. Yeah. The heart is love. Yes. Unconditional love.

Yes. You mentioned paths. How many paths can one walk? Pam asked. Well, that's a good question because here's what happens.

I'll I'll answer it in a couple different ways. There are so many good ways to go and so many good teachers out there. I've been to India Fourteen times. I've been with dozens and dozens and dozens of beautifully awakened people, teachers. Some have one focus, others have another focus, and then most importantly is where am I at the moment?

What do I resonate with? Now if I follow every teaching out there without a core understanding of who I am and what's going on, I might get pretty scattered. I might just listen to a series of beautiful things and each one I go, Oh, that is so good. And, Oh, that is so good. And it is true.

And I would learn, and I would deepen that way. But it might get me a bit scattered, and it might take me longer. That's what I did. I went through so many different paths. And it was helpful.

What I've attempted to do in this series of podcasts is put everything that I felt was helpful so that people that listen to it sort of have a core focus. It's like learning to paint. You learn the basics. You learn brush strokes. You learn colors.

You learn to paint like the masters paint painted. You learn the fundamentals. And then from there, you follow whatever you want. But you have some things that in your core that make sense to you. You've learned some skills.

On most spiritual paths, these skills overlap. It's not like, oh, the things I have in my podcast, you only find in my podcast. No. But you got to start somewhere. So I've tried to put everything that's helpful and leave out all the other great things that didn't quite lead as far as I wanted.

Again, they might do for other people. Once knowing those things, you might then branch out or do the same with another teacher. Focus on what they're doing. Take that in deeply as long as it makes sense and resonates for you. Once you've done that, then check out some other places, some other teachers.

Or for instance, in my podcast, I talk about a number of different subjects, but I put as much in the podcast as makes sense and will help most people, but maybe it's not exhaustive. And so if one subject really resonates with you and you go, Wow, that is great. What was in this podcast as far as it goes, but I need more. Then just search another teacher that really focuses on that area and follow that deeply. When you've gotten enough, your heart will know it and then possibly you'll go deeply on another path.

But I think there's not a right or wrong with this. At some at one point in my life, lots of paths were helpful, and I just let my heart guide me. I would suggest that for anybody out here. But at another point, I needed to go deeply. I needed to know what the heck is going on because I hear all these good things and they are good, but how do I awaken?

I mean, just listening to this, that, and the other, will that bring me there? I hope so. But it didn't. Later, some things did, but then I had to when I got to the end of that process, I needed to then move on to the next one, the next teacher. And the but I knew the difference.

I knew what to do because each teacher did their job and they took me deeper. So I had more clarity and I was better able to evaluate other things that were before me. I hope that helps and answers some of that question. It's a good one. Hi, Yvonne.

Hi, everybody. Pam, you could put up your follow flashcard once people follow you. Your posit cast will show under teachers. I'm gonna try that, Pam. If you follow me, you can get all of my podcasts, and that will take you to everything I've talked about.

Thank you, Pam. Great idea. So Pam says, archetypes, schemas, old testament versus new testament still inform people's view of god. Yes. They all do.

And but what are we talking about? It's love. There's no everything else is a concept. There really is only love. So whatever opens a person to that, to love, whether it be nature or your dog.

That's God to you now. Or just skip the word God. Just say that's love. That's the infinite. That's who you are.

Let everything else go and just be that and you're awake. That's all I care about. Direct experience. That's it. All this other is helpful, but in the end, awakening is just you feel love, let everything else go.

All that's left is love. You feel peace, let everything else go, all that's left is peace. If all there is left is peace, you start to relax and guess what? Stuff opens up and there is now peace and love. Then there's peace, love and happiness.

Peace, love and happiness and joy and light and infinite and clarity. And so that's the awakening process. So thank you, Pam. I mean, everybody see your your questions and comments are so beautiful. Pam is saying this.

Surely, what you're saying then, only the path of the individual is all that's important, just as Jesus had to walk. Pam, that's so deep and beautiful. That's exactly what I'm saying. That's it. Jesus is just like you and me, no different.

He walked his path, he went into the desert and he sat still for forty days and forty nights. But in bible talk, that means a long very long time. Maybe it was five years, I don't know, ten years, eight years, three years, I don't know, a long time and sat still just like Ramana did. Ramana didn't talk for ten years. He sat in a cave.

Buddha sat under that Bodhi tree. Why do you sit still? That's not the only way to go. You follow your heart. But why do people sit still that do sit still?

Because it's harder to get distracted if you're sitting still. Because when your stuff comes up and it's releasing, sometimes we don't like the way it feels, so we like to run to the refrigerator and get some ice cream. Well, now we've interrupted the process and it didn't release, which is okay. But if you're looking for a release, you you kinda have to sit still so you don't jump into your imagination so much. Or if you do, you recognize it.

You don't jump into a TV show or a beautiful conversation, all wonderful, but they interrupt your awakening. So Jesus did all this just like we do all this. And he said, look, I'll show you how. Follow me. I'll show you.

What I've learned is a good way. He wasn't saying it's the only way. So, yeah, each path is individual just like you say, Pam. Follow your heart. Patricia.

Hi, William. I like to focus on the New Testament, I e the teachings of Jesus. I feel Jesus is the clearest and most awake being that's ever walked on this earth. That's my feeling. So, yes, I I agree, Patricia.

I love the teachings of Jesus. And some of you, on one of these questions and answers asked me in podcast 81 to talk about my experience with Jesus when he came to me. I didn't expect it. I'm like you. It just was crazy.

But when he did come, just full of love, he cared about me. My life did flash in front of my eyes and he joined and he watched it all and he just laughed and laughed and laughed. He loved all the good stuff and anything that to my horror wasn't so good, he just laughed and laughed and laughed. What were you thinking? That's so funny.

Look what we all do. We all do funny things. Really, what I prefer to do is sit still or walk in nature and let anything that's still rattling around come up and turn into light. Kind of what Jesus did in the desert, or Buddha did under the Bodhi tree or Ramana did in his cave. That's what I like to do.

So I I at one time, yes, I went to theological school and I learned Greek and I did all that, but that's where I was forty years ago, and I do feel connected to my friend Jesus because he is a being that I do talk to. And he does talk to me. But basically, these days, it's not like that so much because we're more or less one. And you don't talk I feel his heart. There's no conversation needed.

You know? Jocelyn says don't need words when you feel his heart. Yes. Thank you, Jocelyn. Exactly.

So let's see. Pam says, is it you believe in equality and the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene and how that was interpreted, what we can learn. I have not studied the bible either, but this has been my awakening in terms of the divine masculine and feminine energy and what is missing. It's beautiful, Pam, and that's your path. It's beautiful.

Pam goes on to say, not so many books for me, but lived experience back to the divine through this knowledge. That's following your heart and following your path. Every person has their portal, their path, and this is yours, and it's meaningful for you. So as long as it's meaningful, I would continue to pursue it. Perhaps it's already done its work or perhaps there's more to be done.

I don't know. Jocelyn, I feel like I've traveled so many different paths as well, and I feel all of it was relevant to my awakening and where I am today. Had to fully explore all those things. That's what I did, Jocelyn. And Jennifer says great questions for everybody.

Yes. Great questions from everybody, and thank you so so much. I look forward to talking to you next time. Take care. Bye.