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Elizabeth Lesser On Oprah's Soul Series

By Kate Loving Shenk

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 17Dec2008 Word count: 1219 Viewed: 351 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Elizabeth Lessor is co-founder of Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY and author of "Broken Open" and "The Seeker's Guide."

Omega is a Mecca for Spiritual Seekers all over the world who come there to commune with others on the spiritual path. Everyone there has a commonality: they are seeking community and connection with one another and with the larger whole.

When Oprah asked Elizabeth Lesser to define spirituality, she said that it is a state of complete fearlessness, detached from all worry and anxiety.

Elizabeth used Michael J. Fox as an example of such fearlessness because he said he welcomed his illness, Parkinson's, and if given the choice, he would choose to become ill again.

The lessons he learned were that valuable.

Elizabeth and Oprah covered three topics: Death and Dying, the Law Of Attraction and religion, and the AHA experiences Oprah, Elizabeth and those listening and watching the program had as a result of watching the entire Soul Series.

Elizabeth was the person who compiled exercises for "A New Earth Webinar," and these can be accessed on Oprah's website.

Here are some examples of "The Awakening Exercises" that Elizabeth put together for the world wide audience:

1) Take any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and give it your fullest attention.

Choose one or two activities that you do routinely, (such as washing dishes, or walking from point A to point B), and bring your fullest attention to these.

2) Listen to the voice in your head. Ask yourself: Am I the thoughts that are going through my mind?

Or am I the one who is aware that these thoughts are going through my mind?

3) Become aware of your breathing. Feel the air flowing in and out of your body. Feel your inner energy field. All that you ever have to deal with and cope with in real life--as opposed to imaginary mind projections, Is This Moment.

Ask yourself what "problem you have right now, not next year, tomorrow or five minutes from now."

Ask yourself: What is wrong with this moment?

In reality, the moment is perfect, but it's my thinking that makes it less than beautiful.

4) Give up the waiting as a state of mind. When you catch yourself slipping into waiting, snap out of it! Come into the present moment. Just Be, and enjoy Being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything.

When someone says, "Sorry to keep you waiting," you can say, "That's all right. I wasn't waiting, I was standing here enjoying myself."

And so on, an exercise for each chapter of Tolle's book.

Elizabeth continued in Oprah's interview, by saying that all humans are afraid and insecure but we all think we are the only ones experiencing the fear.

So much time is wasted in trying to be perfect.

Elizabeth said, "The soul is the river of energy which animates who we are. When you follow this river of energy, it's almost impossible to go wrong. This flow can lead you to your own greatness if you follow it with an open mind."

Oprah asked Elizabeth what her "Broken Open" experience was.

Elizabeth cited her divorce because of the shame and terror she felt surrounding the experience. She felt like she lost her financial stability and learned that what you resist, persists.

She learned to stop fighting and judging the experience, and in the process, learned to go through it, healing into wholeness.

She learned that the divorce itself wasn't the problem, but the acrimony causing disharmony was what harmed everyone involved.

The greatest gift you can give your children in any divorce is to co-parent cooperatively and authentically, she said.

Religion and the Law Of Attraction (LOA) was the next topic.

Oprah said that when her one time minister told the congregation that God is a jealous God, she had an instant awakening.

She thought to herself, "I thought God Is Love."

Wait a minute, Oprah thought. Is God jealous or is God Love?

And thus she began the process of thinking for herself.

The LOA is one part of the spiritual journey. Elizabeth said that LOA is the faith that whatever happens is meant for your growth in this (and all) lifetimes.

LOA is choosing a vibrational frequency that harmonizes with a higher frequency and vibration, such as love, joy, transcendence and peace.

The last of the great human freedoms is choice in how you respond to the circumstances in your life.

Each circumstance leads to the next lesson in your evolution.

Universal energy is present for you to use in order to allow you to become a better person.

Set your intention, and show up fully. Pray to be used for a power greater than yourself.

Don't pray for things.

Elizabeth said that Jesus came to show us Christ Consciousness, because He was a Revolutionary.

When we get stuck in dogma, we are blinded to the prophets of our time.

Death, dying and grief was the next topic.

Elizabeth said that grief is a badge as to how much we loved.

In our society, we get three days of bereavement (if that) and then, back to work, full speed ahead, without time to fully be with the sorrow and the memories.

Oprah and Elizabeth discussed the custom of wearing black for a full year, allowing "time" to move through the loss, to be alone and to sit with it.

This slowing down and sitting with the pain frightens people. Many are driven to the doctor for a prescription for anti-depressants.

We can prepare ourselves for the Big Deaths in our lives by fully participating in all the little losses in our lives.

An example of a little loss, according to Oprah and Elizabeth, is no longer being 20 or 30, when we were considered to be "Babes."

Now we are considered to be Wise Ones by all the "Babes" we commune with!!

The last topic was the AHA moments people experience as a result of watching the Soul Series.

One person described a shift in her consciousness as she listened to Eckhart Tolle describe living fully in the present moment, without labeling experience or making assumptions about it.

My own personal AHA experience was listening and watching Jane Bolte Taylor discuss and describe her stroke. I also read her book, "A Stroke Of Insight."

Then I contemplated my own mother's stroke, and found great peace in the realization that my instincts about my mother's experience as she was having her stroke was right on.

First of all, she appeared to be free for the first time in her life.

She appeared to be experiencing a spiritual transformation.

Yet people all around me were saying or thinking, "How terrible that your mother had a stroke."

And I was with her when she died, and was touched by such a love that for a period of several days, I felt no judgment or resentment towards anyone.

I was in a broadened, boundary-less dimension.

I was touched by a loving spirit, the stroke and eventual death of my dear mother.

Secretly, I rejoiced in the great beauty and grace of the Universal Energy.

And I knew that there is nothing to fear.

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