Episode Transcript
We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships we may wish for better. Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Ann O'Hare, and this is the Spiritual American. Hello everyone and welcome to the Spiritual American. My name is Dr. Ann O'Hare, and I'm your host, and today we will be experiencing the Still and Silent Home in Spiritual Knowledge, one of the main principles is that I start to understand that I'm a soul and that my nature is peace. And you'll hear me talking about that a lot 'cause that's the fundamental sentence or the fundamental thought that I am using to generate a different awareness of myself and a feeling that goes along with being me. We know what the other feelings are, so we're trying to generate this new feeling. It's not really new, it's really my essence, but I have to bring my attention to it. So I'm a soul and my nature is peace. The other question that we might ask is, where do I come from? Or if the soul doesn't die, and you know, where does the soul go? Where does it come back to? I'm not gonna answer all those questions Exactly. I. Because different traditions have different explanations for that. What I would like to do is talk about the awareness or the level of consciousness that we can generate that is the level of consciousness where the soul is completely still, and I'm gonna call that the still and silent home. In the Bible, be still and know that I am God. There's other. Other traditions talk about stillness a lot. This principle is in, I believe, is in all religions. But we're gonna practice it today as a meditative experience. So just a little bit of intellectual understanding. So what does it mean the still and silent home? Silent means no sound right? I mean, we can understand that there's no sound, but it also means still. Like, I'm not moving. There's no movement within me. There's no movement. It's not just the body. The mind is not moving. The intellect is not moving. There's an igniting of a being awareness. An awareness of being. I am still and I am here. I'm alive. I'm here. I exist. There's never a time when the soul is not aware that it exists. There's a self-awareness of consciousness. So I am the living consciousness and I'm gonna now bring myself into an experience where I'm not expanding into anything else. I'm not expanding into thinking, I'm not expanding into feelings. I'm not expanding into movement. I'm not moving. I'm just being, and what does that do for me? Well, what it does is it gives the mind a rest. It gives the intellect rest, and it gives me a chance to experience what it feels like to be incorporeal, like a soul without a body. What does that feel like? Any of these exercises is not dangerous. You're not gonna gonna die, nothing's gonna, nothing bad's gonna happen. It's just an exercise in attention and experience. Internally, I am offering this idea and I'm going to try to experience it. So what are the benefits of doing this? Like I said, you're giving the intellect a break. You're giving the mind a break, and also you're starting to show yourself that you maybe don't have to be so externally focused. If I'm able to be still and be clear that I exist. Maybe I'm wouldn't be so afraid. I can tell you that my experience is that practicing this meditation, many of you probably have heard me say this, but after just two weeks of practicing this, anger had been greatly reduced, pretty much gone, and it just disappeared. I didn't try to make it go, it just disappeared. So what happened? I'm going to say that having experiences of being distinct from my body, distinct from the mind, distinct from movement, distinct from sound, distinct from any of the attributes that come in life here, that I actually am distinct and I'm still, and I'm aware and I exist. That experience begins to calm down emotional states. I believe that all emotional states are based in fear. And that if I know that I'm alive, when all this is gone, what do I have to be afraid of? I mean, I'm trying to make it a little bit of sensible, like a little bit of logical also. 'cause that's what I like. I like it to be logical. I don't like to just say, you know, believe it. No, don't believe it. We're gonna try it now, but don't believe it. Do it and then see if it works. So we're gonna practice now. We're gonna practice doing this still and silent home, and why do we call it home? Interesting. It's somewhere that I can, it's an awareness that I can return to no matter what's happening. This may bring up thoughts of what does it mean when we die, where do we go? And things like that. That's something that I think that there are many, the heart has answers to that as well, but I don't wanna answer that for anybody else. I think each of us has a chance to create that kind of context for ourself. Who am I when I go from here, what's gonna happen to me? You know, we have the freedom to create that context for ourselves. But the idea of being still and being distinct and being okay, distinct from the body, distinct from the thoughts, distinct from the mind, and to be okay is very valuable and very practical and enjoyable also. So let's practice and we'll give it a chance. So, by the way, practical and, and you know, feeling good, it feels like home, right? It's practical. I feel good. I feel happy there. That would be home. So. So let's practice together. So sitting quietly, try to let your thoughts of the day, just pass for a few moments and just tell yourself just for three minutes, four minutes, we're going to experience something new, something different. Take a gentle breath in and exhale, relax the body. Bring your attention gently. To the center of the forehead right here. Imagine there's a small, tiny point of light, a sparkling star in the center of the forehead. That star is the soul. I am the soul. I am the living being. I am. Living light unlimited consciousness. I am pure consciousness. I, I am a unique living being, and my nature is peace. My nature is peace. So let the feeling of peace fill your mind. Looking at the star and feeling the peace. I am the soul. My nature is peace. I am peace. Peace. Let the nervous system begin to experience the gentle impact of this message of peace, the feeling of peace. And now listen to the silence. There's a gentle, familiar silence within. Just listen to the silence and then gently imagine that your energy is being drawn inward into the point in this environment of silence. All my energy is being drawn into the point, and I am suspended and still. In this beautiful world of light, this still world of peace. I am peace. I am absolutely still, I'll experience this for just a moment. Absolute still, I, I am absolutely still. I exist. I am here. I, I am still. Listen to the silence, silence, peace, and stillness all together. This is the silent still home. The home of the soul now as I prepare to come back into expanded awareness. I just notice the feeling of rest. The body has received, the mind has received, all the functionings within me have received a rest, and now I prepare to come back bringing my energy up a little bit more. Moving my fingers and toes a little bit, bringing my energy forward into my face, into my waking consciousness. And then we're back. So when I do this exercise I don't wanna talk, you know, because the nature of the soul is silent, is peaceful, is still. Those three experiences, we have a word for it. In the Brahma Kumaris we say, om Shanti. Shanti. Om means I am. And Shanti means peace. But Shanti also means stillness, and it also means silence. So Shanti, I am being of peace. Being of stillness and a being of silence. So practice this. This video is actually in the description below. I would recommend please, you know, practice this. Give your nervous system, give your mind a break, give your intellect a break, and show yourself that you actually are a soul, that you actually are distinct from all this other things that are going on, so I will leave it there. Remember, our slogan is Heal, Empower, and Serve. And until next time, take care.
