SUMMARY: ONLINE TEACHING
Sunday, April 25th, 2021
Sharon welcomes us all, and announces a change in our online scheduling. The Online Teachings will meet the first Sunday of each month going forward, starting next week, May 2nd. The Earth Balance work has concluded for now, although we as individuals will continue to work with the elements going forward.
Net of Light Meditation,
Nadia from Belgium
Sharon introduces Kate from California, Peggy from Alabama, and Tinaz from California for a discussion.
Sharon: “The Grandmothers say that what we need the most is to remember how much the Grandmothers love us. The Divine loves you, without reservation… a deep abiding love that extends forever. As soon as we recognize how much we are loved, then it is effortless for us to give it away. It brings great joy for us to share that love.
“Today we will talk about how working with the Grandmothers has helped us to get past our limitations, and to get to that place of the One Love…To get to that place where we see the God in each other, which is the joy of our lifetime.
(Sings:) “I am one with the heart of the mother,
I am one with the heart of love,
I am one with the heart of the father,
I am one with God.”
“The Grandmothers ask us to admit, and to accept, our oneness with God. We are not separate. We are one with God.
The guests then reflect on the question: What was the conditioning that we experienced when we were younger, about our connection with God?
Peggy’s experience was one overshadowed by guilt and shame. She grew up with a nondenominational church religion, with a military father. She felt small and insignificant on the planet, and received the message in church that we were sinners, unworthy, and it was because of our great separation and unworthiness that Jesus had been killed. She said she would cry herself to sleep for weeks when she was young, because she felt responsible. It was a difficult introduction to the spiritual world. (laughter from the group)
Sharon: Thank goodness we didn’t have to stay in that place!
Kate’s conditioning was that of an angry God who required certain behavior to give love. She got the message when she was very young that she was not good and that she had to behave a certain way in order to be approved of and loved by her mother and father. At about age three and a half, she had her mouth washed out with soap for saying an expression that she had said innocently. She felt sure that she was bad; as she trusted her parents as being in complete truth. To this day, she struggles with feeling unworthy of love. But she has experienced a profound shift through the work with the Grandmothers.
Tinaz’s conditioning was that of a loving, if distant, hands-off God. She grew up in India and in the Zoroastrian faith. She was given the message that God loves everyone, but God helps those who help themselves. There was a lot of pressure and emphasis on being “good”. I decided to be “good”, though I found myself resenting that pressure when I was older. The concept of being one with God was not there. There was definitely a distance between the self and God. What a gift this has been, she says, to be with the Grandmothers. The books, the meditations, the songs, the casting, the Gatherings… It has felt like coming home.
Sharon: This is why the Grandmothers came, so we could have the feeling and understanding of coming home … the feeling that we are enough, just by being. We don’t have to prove ourselves, or do anything. Our very being is full of the presence of God, therefore it is Good.
Sharon asks: What has really helped you, what has been practically useful to you in the Grandmothers’ work, in terms of breaking through the old conditioning?
Tinaz : For me I think of the meditation of “The Pitcher and The Cup” (Book 1, page 167). It makes me feel so loved and accepted. It helps me a lot. Also, the Empowerments, the internalizing of the Divine is a wonderful experience.
Sharon: With each Empowerment, the love goes deeper into your body and your mind.
Peggy: The most charged events for me have been the Gatherings. Coming together with my grandmother sisters and brothers, connecting with love, and claiming our Oneness with the Divine. This is expressed through doing the Sufi dance at the end of the Gathering. There, I can feel something special hitting at a deep level, feel it in my body and experience.
Sharon explains the Sufi dance is a dance with two concentric circles, an inner and an outer circle, where the circles face each other, and move in opposite directions. At each person-to-person point, we look into each other’s eyes, placing our hands on each others’ heart, and sing “All I ask of you is forever to remember me as loving you“. Sharon says this blows away the sense of separation, and helps us to experience we are One in love.
Kate continues, With the Sufi dance there is this energy flowing from heart to heart. It opens people’s hearts to what is most important, which is to understand and know that “I love you forever.” This is all that really matters in the end.
Also Kate felt a breakthrough during the Empowerment ceremony, when asked: “go within and look at your hearts desire, and if there is anything you want, you can have it. Just ask.” It felt so moving and loving. The shower of love and the tears that came from me. This was an idea that I had never believed was possible, not having overcome that feeling of lack of worthiness entirely.
In my work with the Grandmothers, I also have the amazing experience of tapping into stillness, calm, wellbeing, peace, and love… the complete connection, allowing the connection to the Divine, and connection with each of you, in that God space. The most beautiful place I have been able to tap into this loving “one with God” feeling is when I reach out to another person, in love. I feel such joy in being able to help another and to give.
Sharon adds: This is so important: truly living the Grandmothers message. For more than twenty years we had a Grandmothers’ circle in Laguna Beach, which we jokingly called “the Mother Ship.” One of the original women from that group has recently become very ill and suffered a great deal. The circle of the grandmother group came in around her, helped her, found her a place to live, and supported her. She went from a place of fear and great suffering, to being ecstatic. She went from terror to joy, knowing how much she was loved.
When we give to someone else, they receive … but we receive even more.
We will finish with The Pitcher and the Cup meditation, as a way to receive and give. (A Call To Power, page 167).
Sharon recommends we all go the meditations. They are there for you, to speed your evolution, to make you happier. [You can find the meditations written in the back of the books.]
Bless you dears. See you next Sunday! (May 2, 1 pm Pacific time)