Living from the Divine Center

Transcript

Jim: 0:01

Hello, and welcome to this episode of Decide on Joy, a podcast coming to you from Harmony Spiritual Center in Fort Worth, Texas. My name is Jim Koval,

Pjae: 0:11

and my name is Reverend Dr. PJ Stanley. Welcome and thank you so much for being here today,

Jim: 0:17

and this is a podcast about. The basic and not so basic elements of new thought spirituality today. Yes. Our, our topic is living from the Divine Center.

Pjae: 0:30

Yeah.

Jim: 0:31

And so I will just start off by asking what is the Divine Center? Divine Center?

Pjae: 0:34

Yeah. So it's, and I, I, I tell a lot of stories when I'm, when I'm here on Sunday doing it at the talk about me go being out and about and having to be reminded. You know, Hey, this is not who you are. You don't want to behave this way. And it's behave. So I'm reminding myself, behave from the Divine Center. That's the center of you that knows everything. That, that, that, that's a spiritual center. The, the divine to God, George, whatever is always there in the, in the center of me. And sometimes the ego, the physical part of you, the, the logic brain of you says that you should do things one way. But that's not actually the spiritual way, the divine way. And there is a divine center within you that you can tap into at any time. And it's not always, it's not like your mind is always working. So it's always there, but it's not loud that your mind is louder. Mm-hmm. So you have to come remember that the Divine Center is always with you.

Jim: 1:28

I wonder why that is, that your mind is always louder.

Pjae: 1:30

You know, it's I think I was talking about this, I don't know if we were talking about, I can't remember exactly what it was, but it relates to this'cause think about, you know, as that the first thing we're learning as human beings is survival. Survival of the physical elements, you know, the, the saber tooth tiger and the other people that are trying to get your stuff. And so, so that part of you is always alert to danger and the spiritual side is not. The spiritual side is saying everything is all right. And just, you know, remain calm, remain peaceful, and talk from this peaceful perspective. Well, not until we've been here a while, we as human beings have been on the planet a while and we've, we've learned about fire and how to take care of things around us, we can let, we can bring that part of us down because everything is not so scary from that perspective. And we can actually choose behaviors because we're not worried about being eaten before we make a choice. Or the others, whatever other thing, normally. But normally, yes, normally that's how we want to, and I and I, I what we believe in new thought. And it's, it's, it's, it's, I, I know that it's true for me, it's true for anyone that believes this is that spirit is always going to the divine. George is always going to tell you what is highest and best for everyone involved. What we do from the ego's perspective is what's highest and best for me. For me and mine, well, that's not how we're all gonna get along. The, the, the highest and best is always what is the best statement, the best action I can take for all of us involved. And that's, that's where the Divine Center is always talking to you from and asking you to take action from that place.

Jim: 3:13

And what if there is not? Other people involved in your, in your question? Yeah. Or your, your situation, whatever. I guess they're all are in some way, but in some ways not, not always.

Pjae: 3:24

You're right. No, not, you're not, you're, you're absolutely right. Not always, and I think many, I'm just gonna speak for myself and I think that others can relate. The biggest struggles that I have is within me is all of the things that I say to myself. One of the, here's a, here's a, here's a test that someone. It wasn't really a test, but it was an interesting awakening when someone said, you know, put down, you know all the people that you love, just make a list of all the people that you love and you don't have to put it in order. Just all the people that you love. Just put it down on a piece of paper and when you finished it, the person said, is your name on it? And you can see that your name wouldn't be, because we don't think about that. No, we don't think that, that we need to love ourselves as well. We tend to think that that's selfish or narcissistic. But here's what I know, you cannot do what you don't know. You cannot love others. If you don't love yourself. You don't know what love is, so it has to begin with you. But quite often we don't. So. When you're thinking of when you're doing something and you're tired of talking in your mind badly about yourself, oh, you didn't know that was really a stupid thing to do. My God, you're so silly. We say those things all the time to ourselves. Yep. That's not living from the divine. From the divine knows who you are, knows that you, you're a human being and that wasn't the highest and best choice, but you could make another choice and you do that. Yeah, and I've talked about that many times.

Jim: 4:47

Yeah. So how do you. Make contact with this divine center. Yeah. If, if you're feeling not in contact with it. Exactly. I mean, you may, some people may always feel in contact with it, but

Pjae: 5:05

Yeah.

Jim: 5:06

For many people not, I think,

Pjae: 5:08

so there's a, there's the power that we have is the power of choice. And when we talk about, I talk about ad nauseum, I think people are sick of me talking about it, but it is absolutely, I think fundamental. And that is to know who you are and what matters to you. I talk about this all the time, and so you make a decision and a choice to live from the divine. It's not a, it's not something that is automatically what you do. Like if, if, if. If a truck was to bear down on you, you automatically jump out the way or try to save your kid. That's an automatic, but it's not an automatic to treat every, to, to look at everybody as if they deserve your respect and love. And it's not, it's not an automatic, it's something that you decide that you want. And so living from that divine center is a, is a decision. And the more you take action in that way, the more that you live that way, the more you are that way. So it, it takes. A decision that you wanna live that way. And then it takes activities on your part to say, okay, I want to today as I'm you, you do it every day. Today as I'm out and about, I want to notice what I'm noticing. I wanna notice how, what my, where my mind is going. I wanna feel that and change it because you can change things in the middle of the, of the, of the thought in your head. Most times I don't quite make it before it comes out of my mouth, which I'm still working on. But when it does come outta my mouth, I immediately know I didn't want that. I didn't wanna say that. And what can I do? Do I need to apologize? Do I need to just say, okay, do better the next time this occurs. Do better whatever instruction you wanna give yourself.'cause that wasn't the way you wanted to be. So it's a, it's, it starts with a choice and then it, and then it continues into practice. And we talk about practices a lot. Mm-hmm. You know, on the show we talk about meditation and prayer and Right. Exactly. All those practices

Jim: 7:00

are our ways of getting in touch with Yes.

Pjae: 7:03

Just getting in touch and, and then staying in touch. So if you start the day that way, at least, you know, for the first few minutes of the day, and then you just wanna extend those minutes. Yeah. You know, you just wanna extend it, that's all.

Jim: 7:13

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I guess that's always a thing to do to, to. When those minutes have run out, to remind yourself Yes. To get back in that track. Yeah.

Pjae: 7:27

If that's who you wanna be. And that's why it's important for you to know who you wanna be so that you know you're acting out of character for yourself. That is not me. That is not the, the soul of myself, the center of me that I've, that I wanna claim. Mm-hmm. And again, our lives are, we, we get to call our life into existence. We get to say what we want our life to look like. We, we get to say what kind of human being we want to be. And so if it, so at the beginning of every year and just throughout the year, you keep reminding yourself, this is what I value. This is how I wanna show up. And then you allow this divine, or you, you make a choice for you to live from the divine sin so you can show up this way and then you're clear when you don't. Okay, I didn't that, that's not what I wanna claim. I don't like that. I don't care for that kind of behavior from me. Right. And anybody else wants to do it. That's up to them. I'm not judging everybody else. I'm only talking about myself. That's all we can do.

Jim: 8:21

You may be, when you're doing that, you, you may be sort of going upstream against what other people think you correct. Are or should be. Correct? Correct. You

Pjae: 8:34

are. And that's again, Jim, it's a great point because it's, again, it's why, another reason why it's good for you to know who you are, because everyone will have an opinion about how you're supposed to be. And if you listen to everyone's opinion, you will not have your own life. You'll be going around and around trying to please everyone else, including your parents, your teachers, other people that of a author. So I'm doing the quotation fingers. Yeah. Of authority in your life when it's really your life. It's, it's your life and so you get to decide how you want to show up, and yet people will weigh in. But whether that has any impact on you is about you deciding who you are, and you know that that's whatever they say that's foolishness for you. Right. I don't need to buy into that.

Jim: 9:15

Yeah. And, and sometimes people are. Quite actively try and actively get you to, to be more what they think you should be.

Pjae: 9:24

And, and, and my theory on that, I don't know, I'm not a psychiatrist, but my theory on that is that the more. People can get you to do what they want. The more they feel like they're right. It's, it kind of supports their life.

Jim: 9:36

Yes, I see that. You know what I, yeah. Yeah. So they just want

Pjae: 9:39

support for their life, that's all. So they just need more and more people around them to do what they're doing. And it just gives them it feels, makes them feel like they life, what they're doing is a value and is correct. Yes. If more people agree, but in my opinion, I don't need anyone to agree to know what's right.

Jim: 9:54

Yes. Yes. And that, that's, yes. Right. And that's not always the easiest thing to, not to keep in mind.

Pjae: 10:01

Thank you so much for saying that.'cause I don't believe that this, this spirituality that we're involved in actually any spirituality is easy. It's not easy'cause it's a decision. And not everybody will, some people will think, well, there's no such thing. There'll argue with you that there isn't any such thing as that. Well, no there isn't for you. And that is true there isn't for you. But you can't say what is true for me. Only I can say it. Only you can say what's true for you. And again, back to why you wanna be clear about what is true for you and, and how you wanna show up. What is a value to you. And it's only, you can say that. And I've had some values. I, I thought they were value, I thought they were mine, but they were not. They were my parents, right? I was raised this way. They told that this is what good girls do or what good people do. But as you get older, you have to, you don't have to. But if it doesn't quite sit right with you, you have to challenge it. And say, why is that true for me? Not why is it true? Why is it true for me? Is it true for me? No. No it isn't. Okay, good. Let that go then. That's not mine to do. And that's another question that I I think is really great for you to ask yourself, what is mine to do here? That's it. Just ask yourself that question. See what pops up. What is mine to do here? And wherever here is whatever you're in the middle of. Okay. Ask yourself that. Yeah.

Jim: 11:23

All right. We can stop there because I think we can ask yourself that question and we will see you next time. Yeah. Thank you for being here.

Pjae: 11:31

Thank you so much.