It started out like any other day. A morning shower, a cup of hot tea and off to my computer to start my daily routine.  Webster defines "routine" as something repetitive, usual, or activities that are rehearsed. The ego is attracted to the comfort of predictable events. Surprises that fall in the category of the unknown often cast a shadow of fear when viewed through the lens of the ego.

As the curtain opened to reveal my day, I would soon discover that it would be anything but routine! First came a desperate sounding voicemail from the partner I share my California dental corporation with. She was pleading for me to, "Call me, we are in trouble!" As I listened to her trembling voice, the fax machine rang with a message from my offices.

Thirty years ago; I elected to treat underserved children that no one else would see. The state Department of Social and Health Services pays for their treatment and this is our main source of income. The survival of my company and over 60 employees and doctors depends on this income from the State. The news my partner had for me that morning was that our main source of income from the State for thirty years was now in jeopardy of ceasing.
 
My only means of financial support was now at stake. How could I provide for my family? What would happen if my company went under? These questions pinned me up against the wall of my mind. What should I do? Why is this happening now? Will someone please make this go away? My mind and the emotional reaction to my thoughts created a terrible wrenching in my stomach.
 
I do know this...knowing why something happened is useful for future learning. Knowing what to do is more important. It is the first step to a way out. But first I needed to sit in the middle of the pain. I needed to tell my wife. I noticed my emotional body reacted by creating a knot the size of a football in my stomach and chest. My arms and legs were drained of any energy giving blood as the fax message increased in weight to the point I barely could grasp it.
 
Suddenly, the familiar ring of my cell phone broke the silence.  I saw the flashing name of my partner's cell phone. At least I could connect with another person who was sharing this experience. The husband of my partner was on the other end. He informed me that she needed an emergency appendectomy. He said that she would be OK, but out of commission for a couple of weeks. I consoled him and told him to have her heal and that I would take care of everything.
 
It hit me that I would have to handle this entire situation of economic disaster by myself.  As I was reassuring him "I will work on this situation", my phone vibrated which meant I received another call while on the line. "Mom" flashed on the cell phone window.  Intuition bubbled up through my throat that even my routine daily phone call from my mother would be different today. I pressed, "Call Mom."
 
An 85-year-old trembling voice holding back tears answered the phone. "Linda died yesterday from Multiple Sclerosis." Her fragile voice announced the death of a childhood   friend.  The knot in the stomach now grew numb as the little voice in the head frantically searched for some way to make sense of what was happening. Within five minutes, I received two blows that knocked me against the wall.
 
My legs had no strength to lift me from my chair. I watched the ego flash, "What are you going to do?" "Sorry, no data! Out to lunch!" Like a lump of clay, my arm, which felt separate from my body and brain, seemed to move towards the keyboard. It pressed the Warrior Spirit inbox on my email.  "Please God, send me an email of what I am supposed to do right now!" Something, anything to help me ease the pain.  I need to remember to breath. I clicked on Warrior Spirit messages as they always lift me up.  Hey, a message from a dear graduate and long time staff member. Thank God!
 
So many positive affirmations and hundreds of "Thank you for a life changing program!" I collected them in a special folder to remind me of my work.  As I scanned the message the knot in the stomach now expanded beyond my skin and seemed to fill every corner of my office. The words were clearly from someone upset with my method of teaching. The words hit heavy in my heart. I always hold any feedback on my teachings as valuable; yet today in this ego fragile state, I noticed how hard it hit. Guess I needed something different.  "I wish I didn't open this one up now. I wish . . ." "Lay down, and just keep breathing," a voice deep inside me whispered.
 
Electronic messengers riding the energy waves of voicemail, faxes, emails and text messaging appeared to hold the power of stimulating my human system to a point of deep depression.
 
I know that I am not alone. I have it on good authority that many of you out there are going through a lot of change and turmoil. Is this good news or bad news? Have you noticed an increase in uncomfortable events or situations in your life? Hard times, challenging economic depression, loss and despair seem to be increasing. Everyone with whom I associate share similar stories. What is happening? So much suffering?  Too much pain.  Everything seems to be stirring up and it is happening to each of us as well as the whole Earth.
 
My teachings are forged from the fire of experience. And most of my learning experiences were preceded by extreme pain and ego fear. How can I speak on a new world and a new way of being if I am not willing to go into the fire myself? We are human.  Our physical reality asks us to move about and experience all of life. How can we experience without feeling all of it? Wisdom is not simply knowing. Wisdom is knowing what to do with what you know. This means taking action.
 
Sometimes we do not know what kind of action to take. When it is not clear what to do, ask your heart. Ask, "What will you have me do with this?" And then the next step is the most important, let go of when and how you expect to hear the answer. The ego often will attempt to take over and set a timetable and incorporate fear into the translation that arises. The ego identifies with your mind and your story. It is limited and fragile and is constantly on guard to what is threatening and painful. It can literally disguise Spirit's gifts and direction with decorations of distraction and unease. It could provide the most terrible of consequences for following your Spirit. Remember that faith is not belief. Beliefs change, they come and go. Faith is knowing and not to be grasped by a mind that remains in the routine of predictable and comfortable circumstances.
 
My programs are not routine. My teachings invite you to experience that which you have been running from. By making friends with the shadow, by moving into your fear with Spirit to guide you, you move into faith and allow your soul to guide you. Intuition is the guidance of the soul and you can hear it when your mind is calm. The pain from life circumstances tells you that you are close.
 
The world is changing. And it is changing rapidly with increased intensity more than ever. There are those who predict cataclysm, environmental disasters, and the extinction of the human race. Ask your soul if you would be born into a world so that you could suffer and then die through the ignorance of ego domination? Ask your soul if you have a sleeping power within you capable of igniting your passion to take action in the face of adversity. The human will was given to us to evoke great change. And we are on the doorstep of this world change.
 
When I consciously chose to become a teacher thirty years ago, I asked for guidance. I was led to many masters and studied our human system, the brain and the wisdom of many great teachers who went through the fire of life. They forged a path for those who seek to change the world.
 
I want to share some facts with you that could give you a handle on what is happening. This information often helps me remember who I am versus my small story personality that my ego identifies with. My intent is that it will do the same for you.
 
Any mother knows that the contractions felt during labor grow in discomfort and pain as the baby approaches. The point at which the pain is the most intense is just before the baby is birthed. I have witnessed first hand several of my children coming into the world. Both mother and I focused on the knowledge that the pain was a "sign post" that something wonderful was about to happen. The pain becomes noble and part of a beautiful process. In one instant the mother's wincing facial features of extreme pain were immediately transformed into the blissful gaze of loving eyes.  The baby is now the focus and the experience of pain is now just a memory.
 
If one was to expand this example to the whole world, you would say our earth is going through a major contraction that rivals the pain of birth. Is this bad or is this the natural process for change? This is a judgment call by the mind that perceives it. We can focus only on the pain and ask ego-based minds that identify with fearful predictions and you will undoubtedly spiral into a very dark place.  Your beliefs dictate your reality. And it has been my experience that much of humanity has a limited perception of fear.
 
If we see through fear, we will see change as a negative and difficult ordeal that can only lead to suffering. We will read the newspapers and notice "How bad things are." And remember that what you focus on will be the stage your life is played out on. If you resist what is natural, you will suffer. Whenever you become frustrated or disheartened, remembered the words of Gandhi,
 
 "We must be the change we want to see."

Personally this means that I must attempt to the best of my ability to practice and demonstrate more than teaching my message, I need to live it.  

Yes there seems to be an increasing focus on the predictions that things are going to get worst.  All one has to do is type in the year 2012 on the web and observe the many views of all kinds of predictions. Please remember that the darkest moment of night occurs just before the light of dawn. That the darkness is nothing more that the preparation of light that is coming.   For something new to come, something old must end. It is our perception, not the darkness that causes fear and suffering. It is our view of the unknown that we are resisting. The history books are full of people who walked through the fire of change. They took a stand at a time when preaching love and acceptance was rewarded by fire and crucifixion.
 
Ilya Prigogine, who won the Nobel Prize in 1977 in Chemistry, gave me a quantum shift in my perspective of discomfort and pain. When I studied his discovery on how physical organisms evolve to a higher level, my world changed forever. He discovered that for living organisms to evolve into a higher order they must go through a perturbation process. This simply means that violent reactions often accompany the transition from one state into another. This is true of all biological life when it takes an abrupt and quantum jump in evolution.
 
If you observe the vibration of a fertilized human embryo before it divides and grows, you will see something miraculous.  Every part of the cell and its contents increases in vibratory frequency until it looks like it is going to break apart! And then something completely unpredictable happens. The cell pops and divides from one cell into two completely identical cells. Then the whole process repeats itself again and again. Now   two cells shake, vibrate and pop again not into two, but four cells. This goes on and on until you end up with a human being. You could say that your cellular structure and entire body and its organs, including your brain sprang forth from a creation that rivals one of natures most turbulent and violent series of changes.
 
If it were possible to interview a water molecule floating in a pot of water sitting on a warm stove, it would probably share that life seems to be comfortable with not much change or drama. Now if you want to play God, just turn up the heat and watch the little water molecule and its little water ego react to that change. It might tell you that it is
experiencing opposition, bombarding resistance from other molecules and feeling extreme discomfort.  Everything is speeding up and increasing in energy. It could possibly blame other water molecules on the other side of the pot for the outside heat that is causing all the trouble. It could look for a way out, or answers to relieve itself from the increasing and agitated discomfort it feels.
 
As the heat rises, so does the molecules desperation to find an answer that will relieve the pain. And there reaches a point when enough heat is applied, the water molecule finally bursts into a new gaseous form. Not all the liquid jumps into this higher order at the same time. Some go before others. This new era and dimension of enlightened water molecules called steam seems to be invisible to those still vibrating in the pot. But eventually, all of them rise into this higher order of gaseous existence.
 
Now if you were lucky enough to find that same molecule and interview it again, you might ask, "What is your experience of heat?" In this new tranquil state, it might share its wisdom of the transformation and how necessary it was.  It would probably write a book on "The Leap of Water Molecule Faith." It has a greater understanding of the experience now that it is on the other side.
 
What if it was part of a grand design by the creator that we cannot explain what we are not willing to experience?  This is the very foundation of my centerpiece program, the Leap of Faith. If one wants to have what they never have had, they must do what they never have done. And this often will invite extreme perturbation. It takes great courage to defy your mind's identity with your ego story. You have to have faith. You have to eventually surrender to a greater power that has been sleeping in your DNA.
 
As the oyster feels the irritation of a grain of sand against its soft tissue, so do you have the opportunity to take your grains of sand of despair and embrace them. Within the physical DNA of the oyster cells, lies a sleeping potential that can only be awakened by the discomfort of irritation. Once activated the oyster now has the power to transform this irritating grain of sand into the beautiful pearl.
 
Yes, if you look around the world and at your own life, you could easily state that there is suffering. There is darkness and the contraction point is increasing. And like that water molecule, there will be a maximum contraction point, called, M.C.P. It will happen in this lifetime. Keep in mind that the difference between suffering and freedom is a matter of perception and not outside influences.  M.C.P. also stands for Maximum Choice Point!
 
With this being said, my dark day that was filled with physical pain and suffering became my invitation to live what I teach. I spent moments asking for guidance. I allowed myself to feel while noticing the thoughts in my mind's theater of doom. The process of allowing the thoughts to pass through without attachment, like clouds in the sky moved me not away from my pain, but certainly detached me from the notion of suffering.
 
And then out of nowhere, a light appeared from the Spirit of my ordinary day. A gratitude for life. I became thankful for what is so versus what might be so. I heard a voice. Not in my head, but deep in my heart. Not in words, but the place called our soul. My intuition told me to listen beyond my physical discomfort. And then the voice rose up to a vibration that was audible in my head. The voice sounded like a man I recognize so well teaching a program called Leap of Faith. It sounded like me.
 
Shouting to my perturbating mind a question I have asked many berserker students over the years. "Once again my old friend, will you take this Leap of Faith?" And once again within every cell of my body I answer Yes to this pain, to this story. I answer Yes to the darkness and the shadows of the unknown. I answer Yes to the mystery and trust that my Spirit has a wondrous adventure no matter how hot God turns up the dial.  I answer Yes with gratitude to that Fax, voicemail and heartfelt contribution from a graduate.  As I wait for the next piece from Spirit to direct me, I hold you all in my arms and am comforted to know that you share this earth with me.

Bless you,
Jeff

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