Breathe In, Breathe Out

FRI., JULY 30, 1993, 9:51 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

As you settled yourself, relatively, into a meditative posture you remembered the standard commencement of such a practice: become aware of your breathing… breathe in, breathe out. Though this meditation that We do together is somewhat different… more active… it still should have this quality of awareness… awareness of that which is spirit and that you don’t acknowledge during much of each day. Symbolically you take in from Me, and you give forth to others. Like breathing, it is a natural, on-going process, even when you are not aware, but I do like and encourage awareness.

Air, and the oxygen in it, is life giving and life sustaining. So, too, are My words and Teachings to you. You take them in, and you send them forth in some other form. Now you can see where the analog is shaky here. You take in air, extract the oxygen from it, replace that with carbon dioxide (your waste product), and send this forth, which is not of value to others… except plants, of course. The likeness improves when you note that you rarely use all of the oxygen in one breath, so some of it comes back for others AND the CO2 is necessary for plants, and without these there would be no human life.

You and Lenore had an interesting (and expensive) conversation with a young physician yesterday in which you took in a lot of what he gave forth, in thoughts, diagnoses, and prescriptions. You weren’t very forceful in your put-down of medical science (and you needn’t have been, in that circumstance), but it was worthwhile for you to listen to one who is still imbued with the values of science in dealing with human health problems. You “breathed” some of his “wisdom” in, and exhaled a good bit of it, along with some of your own interpretations. Perhaps it was even worth the cost.

A few weeks remain until classes commence again. My theme for today certainly applies in these settings. You must breathe in with each class, learning individual names and what the group is like. Then what you breathe out can be more meaningful. Part of the dissatisfaction with the Survival course experience is that there is virtually no opportunity to breathe in, with any fullness. Basically, you just see faces many of which show forth little interest (until the songs and poem). It is good to breathe in a few compliments that do come subsequently, but you have My permission to give up that assignment, even as I do like what you say about spirit, even a bit about Me.

Your talk with son John Patrick was not as complete as I intended. With copies of the Teaching I offered you I want you to talk with him again, breathing in what he is saying about his situation, while letting him breathe in what I have said, to and about him and his life in the near future. It probably should be in some nighttime hour, so that interruptions are less likely.

It is a beautiful day in this heartland country, and it is proper for your spirit to breathe in this beauty, as you and Lenore did last evening. The beauty of this earth can be as nourishing food to your spirit. It is harder to come by such food for the spirit in crowded urban areas, which is another reason to appreciate that you are here, with these opportunities. Breathe them in with regularity and some vigor, that they might affect and improve what you breathe out.