Metamorphosis – Rev. Aimee Daniels & John Adams
This video features the Sunday “talk” only. Watch the full service on our Facebook page.
DESCRIPTION
This time of year renewal and rebirth are happening all around us. For something new to emerge, there is a change of form that needs to happen. Personal change is often preceded by a seemingly dark and trying period in our lives. Join us as we explore the profound insights this can offer as a catalyst for transformation and spiritual awakening.
SUMMARY
John Adams discusses the significance of the calendar and the current time of year, particularly Easter Sunday. He reflects on the natural rhythms and cycles of life and how they align with spiritual practices and holidays. Adams then delves into the story of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, highlighting the moments of isolation and surrender that can occur in our own lives. He emphasizes the importance of holding space for each other during these vulnerable moments. Adams also discusses the concept of “don’t know mind” and the power of surrendering to the unknown. Donna Pitz reads a passage from Roger Thiel’s book, emphasizing the necessity of change for personal growth and evolution. Typhanie Monique Collier performs a song about embracing change and letting go of old patterns. Finally, Reverend Aimee Daniels speaks about the process of metamorphosis and the willingness to be reshaped into something different. She discusses the stages of crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, and encourages listeners to embrace change and cultivate their state of consciousness. Daniels concludes with a poem by Mary Oliver and a prayer for transformation and divine guidance
TRANSCRIPTION
John Adams (00:07):
Oh wow, that was amazing. Thank you so much. Tiffany and Greg really hold the center of our music ministry here. I know we’re used to seeing Paige a lot, but it’s really Tiffany that’s really helped us right from the beginning. So thank you. I’m so glad you’re here today. So I’m going to talk for a few minutes and then I’m going to turn it over to Reverend Amy and she’s going to bring us home. And to start off, I just want to talk about two big things. One is the calendar and the other is this time of year that we’re in and the calendar, the reason why I want to mention that is because today happens to be Easter Sunday. If you are at all a practitioner of Christianity or know people or have family or that may perhaps that’s the religion of your upbringing.
(00:56):
And I think it’s really interesting when we think about all the different things that are happening this time of year. It’s not just in Christianity, but it happens in many spiritual practices, many religions, and I don’t think that’s by accident. We are in this cycle of living on this planet and I just feel like I’m standing in, this thing is in front of me. We live on this planet. We have these cycles, these rhythms that we’re used to. We come into like the solstice when the sun starts to come back and the days start to get longer. And we have this time of coming out of winter into spring, and these rhythms align with these spiritual practices, these ceremonies, and these holidays and these events. And it’s not by accident. These things land there because this is in our DNA, it’s in our bodies, this natural rhythm of living on this planet.
(01:46):
And I think that that is significant and we’re going to celebrate and talk about that a little bit today. So whether you are an Easter person or not, there is a wonderful thing that’s happening here and now that is just part of our ancestry, it’s part of our history and this idea of metamorphosis that we’re going to talk about today, this idea of birthing something new, moving into this newness, this metamorphosis is reflected in these traditions. And I want to talk for just a few minutes and I’m not going to go too deep into it, but I’ve been reflecting this whole week as I’ve been thinking about what am I going to talk about is this moment of the story of the Nazarene Jesus of Nazareth. The Nazarene who had at this time, going back a few days was the story goes that he was in the garden of Gethsemane.
(02:38):
He was having this supper with his closest friends and followers, and it was, although we know it now, they didn’t perhaps weren’t sure of it at the time. It was called the Last Supper. And after the supper was done and all that transpired, Jesus moved out into the garden of Gethsemane and everybody else had fallen away. They had either fallen asleep or moved away and he had this moment of being alone. And in that moment, he knew what was coming right in the story. We know the story. The story is that he was going to be arrested and then eventually killed a crucified. And it was done in a very dramatic and public way to try and demonstrate to people that he wasn’t who they thought he was, that he wasn’t this prophet or this son of God or whatever. They were trying to show that it’s just another person.
(03:30):
And they were doing it in a very dramatic way. And he knew that this was in front of him and he had this moment of just being alone and nobody was around. And I think in the story that he was also even unsure that spirit was with him, that God was with him. It’s like, where is God in this? And I think that what we can take away from that for ourselves is we come into those moments when we’re in this world where we’re having this human experience, we come into those moments that are like, the stakes are really high. I’m having this health issue, but it’s not just a health issue. I have to find some kind of healing. I have to, and I have to go through this experience of whatever this is or if it’s a job thing or a money thing, I have to find some money. I have to get a job. I have to bring money into my household. I’m not kidding around anymore. This is real. This is as real as it gets. The stakes are really high. And that moment in that almost crisis situation, we can feel very alone. Yes, people are around and they’re praying for us and holding vigil, but then they go off and they text their friends and they’re doing the grocery shopping and they’re living their lives and we’re still there.
(04:48):
We’re still in that. And we have to find that place within ourselves and even ask, where is this spirit? Where are we feeling into this? And this is a sense of isolation. We are emptied out in that moment. We come into a place of surrender that place of we’re having this human experience and our human experience has its limitations, right? I can’t lift 5,000 pounds and I can’t run 20 miles an hour. We run into these limitations. And even in these crisis moments, we run into my mental processes, my human understanding reaches its limit and I’ve done everything I can to try and fix it. And we’re asked to stretch even more and stretch beyond that.
(05:43):
And this is whereas Byron Katie says, we find ourselves enter ending every sentence with a question mark rather than a period. We’re like, what is going on? What is happening? Why is this happening? What is the meaning of this? Where is spirit in this? Roger Teal says, we are able to rest in the never ending enlightenment of don’t know mind, the never ending enlightenment of don’t know mind if we think about it. I like to think about it this way. This is an easy metaphor if you think about it like a string of numbers. And we go from negative 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 9, 4 to zero, to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. If you think about it as this range of numbers, and we’re down here in negative eight, and I do my human thing, I do my affirmations. I hold the mental equivalent, I do all these things that are mine to do, it brings me up.
(06:42):
But at some point I have to stretch even beyond that and just allow that. I don’t know. It’s a moment of pure vulnerability. I just have to let go. I have to surrender into what is. And in that moment, we’re completely reset. We’re brought to zero. We are emptied out. We are in this moment of complete just surrender and vulnerability. And as a spiritual community, we know this because we’re meta physicians, we have this insight, we have this teaching. We’re very blessed to have it. And so what we can do for each other is hold space. We create, as our mission statement says, we create that safe space, that safe place where we can come together and be in that completely vulnerable place. And we have all of us around us to hold space for each other. That’s what we do. And it isn’t about trying to fix the person or to show off our spiritual acumen or make great quotes from signs of mind.
(07:50):
Those things are wonderful, but it’s really just being with each other. Maybe I’ll get you a cup of tea, you need a ride somewhere, great, but it’s just holding space so that you can be in that sacred space of vulnerability. And it’s uncomfortable. I know it’s not a great, we don’t like being in that space. I get it, but there is a power to it. Roger Thiel says that on the other side of fear is our power. So we move through that and this resets everything. We’re in that empty space and spirit comes rushing in and it unfolds in a way that we could never have forecasted in prosperity teaching, we talk about this as like go home and clean out your closets or make space for the new. It’s the same thing. We’re making space for something new to come rushing in. This is the cocooning. We as a community holding each other in that vulnerable space, we are creating the cocoon for something new to birth forward, for something new to be brought forward. It is that moment that we enter into that is the starting place of metamorphosis. It is a very beautiful space. And yet
(09:20):
We come into it alone and we accept. We come into it as an acceptance of what is and an acceptance of the souls and the energies around us, holding us in vigil, holding us in that cocoon, holding us in love. And then something wonderful really happens. So I’m going to turn this over to Donna for our second reading and then Amy will continue this.
Donna Pitz (10:07):
Hello, my name is Donna Pitz and I’m one of your licensed spiritual practitioners, and I use the pronouns she and her. The second reading is from This, life is Joy by Roger Thiel.
(10:21):
Change is a necessary vehicle for every person’s evolution and awakening. If things remain forever the same in our lives, there would be no impetus for growth, no challenges to evolve our awareness, no resistance to increase our strength, or to develop our capacities. Earnest homes has written the following nature, will not let us stay in one place too long. She will let us long endurance and go together. The experience necessary to the unfolding and the advancement of the soul nature demands change and order that we may advance when change comes. We should welcome it with a smile on the lips and a song in the hearts
Typhanie Monique Collier (11:53):
Know better that clings on like a me whisper lies in we and I won’t let ruin my. I can an old pattern drawing the lives and from away, I’m scared that I won’t get it right, but feel won’t rule my heart. Tonight I can change, I can change, I can. I can
Rev. Aimee Daniels (15:29):
Want you to imagine the sun is just starting to rise and it’s full of colors in the beautiful way that it often is. And inching its way across a garden path is a small caterpillar. And this is a curious caterpillar. It has a longing for transformation. And one day it finds itself in a cocoon and it feels kind of snug in there. And although
(16:05):
The caterpillar knows it’s transforming, it’s also scared because it doesn’t know what happens after it comes out of the cocoon and then its wings start to form and it begins to poke out of the cocoon. But it’s still scared because it doesn’t know what’s beyond that cocoon. And it’s not sure its wings are going to be strong enough to carry it. Yet despite its fear, it breaks out and it flies and it experiences incredible freedom with its new wings. And our becoming is like the caterpillar emerging from the cocoon. It’s the metamorphosis, which means a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one by either natural or supernatural means. And so are you available to be reshaped into something different? That’s the energy we really want to embrace, the willingness and the courage to allow life and spirit to reshape you into something different.
(17:26):
And as John said, there is a period of waiting that’s true in life. Sometimes we’re just waiting for whatever is meant to be to emerge. We have to wait on the Lord and we need to be curious about it. But what I know is that you will know when you know. And that’s kind of hard for us to accept because we can be control freaks. No, right now, I prayed about this right now. I want it to happen right now. But sometimes the waiting is what gives us strength. And even a dark night going through a difficult period, it can really give us a lot of information about what we want, about what matters to us, about what we choose to make important.
(18:16):
And so whatever the feeling is that you’re going through, when that happens, you simply want to welcome it. That’s what Pema TRO tells us is that whatever’s happening, we just want to stay. Just stay with the feeling that’s happening. It’s going to pass. Like everything in life, it will pass. But just when we sit in our meditation in particular, at least I know this happens to me often. If something is troubling me, that’s where my mind wants to hang out. And what Pema chore would say is just sit with it. Just relax. Don’t struggle against it, just let it be. Acknowledge it and it won’t move away. Roger Thiel and his book that John and I are both apparently quoted from, we’re doing kind of a yes. And today I am like, can you tell me what you’re actually going to say because I’m not sure.
(19:16):
But he tells a story about Elizabeth Kubler Ross. You may know who she is. She wrote the book on Death and Dying. She’s credited with being the founder of the hospice movement in the United States, and she was living in Virginia. She was apparently quite controversial because in the eighties, she wanted to start a home for children with aids. And remember those of you who were around then how fearful people were about AIDS at that time. You didn’t speak about it. I had a colleague at work who died. We didn’t speak about it. We couldn’t say why he died. We weren’t allowed to talk about it. So she was very unpopular. And she went out of town and someone burned her house down. And what came out of that, and she literally lost every possession that she had, the whole thing, the whole house, everything. And what ended up happening is she moved to Scottsdale, Arizona where her son was.
(20:13):
She was in her late sixties at the time, and it ended up being an incredible blessing for her. So it appeared that this terrible thing was happening and there was something beautiful that came from it. And so we never know what things are for. We may be cocooning ourselves right now. And we’ve gotten through that phase. And the good thing about being in the cocoon is it gives us time for inner reflection. But then it comes time that we’re supposed to peek out of the cocoon. We’re supposed to grow our wings and our inner self, our scared self might be saying, Hey, it might be worse out there. I don’t want to break out of this cocoon, but our spirit knows differently than that because it might be better. Whatever’s in the future might be better. We just don’t know. And even if you’re pursuing a dream, you might feel fearful to spread your wings.
(21:14):
You might be saying, Hey, can I really do this? Can I embrace what’s happening right now? Do I have the courage to pursue what’s speaking to me? And sometimes the best we can do is just put one foot in front of the other, like the path will appear when you take the step in this life from this life is joy, which Donna read to us by Roger Thiel. He says, change is the necessary vehicle for every person’s evolution and awakening. And I love what Ernest Holmes said When change comes, we should welcome it with a smile on our lips and a song in our heart. I don’t know about anybody else, but sometimes I don’t want to have a smile on my face and a song in my heart.
(22:05):
But we need to embrace change. And so think for a second about your relationship with change. Do you struggle with it or do you enjoy it? And it might be both sometimes. Sometimes it might be like this, change is the greatest thing ever where sometimes it might just feel sad because something changed in your life. You lost someone or you lost something. But change is going to happen no matter what. And sometimes we need to be willing to just go for it. Can we embrace the changes of our lives? Or are we going to just struggle to accept them? And we know through our teaching that we can change our lives? Louise Hay said, within every challenge lies the opportunity for new growth and possibility. Marianne Williamson said, change may be uncomfortable, but it is in the discomfort that we find our greatest opportunities for growth and renewal.
(23:05):
And so I think what we want to get curious about in our evolution is are we welcoming the change? Are we welcoming the change? And I’m a geek. So I woke up Friday morning thinking about Easter weekend. It was a strange thought to wake up with, but it was like, oh, today is good Friday. And I don’t feel that related to my Christian upbringing anymore, but I’m like, okay, well let’s think about what Good Friday means, right? And just to put a frame around this, like metaphysically the crucifixion and the symbolized the process of overcoming limitation and awakening to a higher spiritual truth, that’s what it metaphysically means. So Friday, the crucifixion, we know the story. And what really struck me as I sat with this Friday morning is how present Jesus was to what was happening to him. Metaphysically, crucifixion means surrender of the personality to the higher mind.
(24:16):
We might call it Christ consciousness so that the higher mind can be expressed. But what did he do in the story? He did two things that really struck me. The first is he’s on the cross and he prays. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. So he accepted what was happening and he forgave the people around him. I know if that was me, I would not be present enough to do that. I’m just going to own that. And the second thing he did was he said, into thy hands, I commit my spirit. He trusted that his spirit was eternal. He trusted that he was going to move beyond this human experience and that he was going to be free in his spirit. And then what happened? Saturday? I thought nothing happened Saturday. But actually when I went down my metaphysical rabbit hole on this one, he was buried in the tomb.
(25:18):
That’s what happened Saturday. Metaphysically being buried in the tomb means a high state of consciousness where one grows in character, vitality and substance and improves their understanding. So the tomb is like the cocoon where we’re building our consciousness, where we’re building our strength. And then on Sunday, we have the resurrection metaphysically. That means the restoration of the mind and the body to its undying state. So oneness with spirit, if you will. And resurrection is not a future state. Resurrection can happen in this very moment with a recognition of oneness. And in our lives, just very practically resurrection can look like us. Overcoming our challenges. It might look like personal growth. It might look like spiritual awakening. And sometimes we only see those things in hindsight, right? If we’ve been through a tough time, then later we look back and go, oh, I’m different. I’ve changed. And hopefully in this teaching I’ve changed in a good way.
(26:31):
And so we need to make space for something new. We need to let go of old patterns, beliefs, habits, attachments, all the things we talk about all the time. I release and I let go. And we want to cultivate our state of consciousness. That’s what we talk about all the time here. And that begins with surrender, as John talked about, surrendering to what is surrendering to the flow of life. Just trusting that at every stage there’s a purpose for your evolution. Every stage you’re going through, there’s a purpose. And cultivating our faith, right? How do we do that? Prayer, meditation, visioning. Minding your thoughts, studying journal. We got a whole list. But are you committed to doing this every day? Do you have a practice where you do it every day, visualizing what you want, not what you don’t want. Affirming your desired state. My favorite line, dwelling in possibility.
(27:35):
That’s what metamorphosis is about. Dwelling in the possibility for your life and building your inner resilience, getting stronger, right? I know that my spirit is bigger than anything that’s happening here. That’s the truth I know. And whatever this is that’s going on, it doesn’t define me because I know that more is possible for me. And getting really clear on three things, I just want you to get clear on three things. One, get clear on what matters to you. Get clear on what matters to you. It’s so important, such a key to being happy in your life. It really is getting clear on what you want. What is the desired state? If you gave yourself permission, what would that look like? What do you want more of in your life? Could just be having fun. It doesn’t have to be a big huge, I want to change the world thing, but just getting clear on what you want, and then get clear on your beingness. Get clear on how you want to be. Get clear on who you want to be and how you want to show up in the world.
(28:52):
That’s really the invitation of Easter. It’s to embrace your spiritual nature. And I’m going to close with a poem and then a prayer. And I would like to ask Willie and Jeffrey, we have a little gift for everyone who’s here in the room, and it’s a butterfly, and I want you to take ’em home and stick it in a plant or something where you see it all the time and it reminds you that you’re the butterfly, right? That more is possible for you. Oh, look, Jefferies watering them. You got to love that. And you can take one for a friend or two, anyone who has plants that they might want to stick it in. But just to remind you, you’re the butterfly. That’s who you are. That’s your spiritual nature. So this is the journey by Mary Oliver. One day you finally knew what you had to do and began though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice.
(29:57):
Though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles mend my life. Each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do though. The wind pride with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough and a wild night and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little as you left, their voices behind the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds. And there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do, determined to save the only life you could save. So I invite you to turn within in this moment, and I’m so grateful in this moment, to know the presence and power of God. This spirit which is greater than all that is expressing in as in through all things, the truth of your being. This spirit, the spirit of love and grace and possibility and renewal, this energy of life itself, joy itself, happiness itself, goodness itself,
(31:40):
That I am one with that each one of you are one with this joyful goodness of love, which is spirit, this eternal presence. So from this place of oneness, I just speak a word of transformation. I just know that each person hearing my words is saying yes to that which is calling them. They’re greater yet to be. And I know that God’s got each and every person. I know that the way is made forward. I know that all is already well. That spirit is guiding and directing you, that you are shown the way forward. And I just claim divine confidence, divine confidence in your good. And I just know that inner strength is getting stronger, that the sense of love and peace within yourself is deepening. That your inner resilience is growing, and I know that spirit is smiling on you and that you smile back in the joy of embracing your good. This is what I say yes to. I know that this prayer is fulfilled, and so it is. Amen.
Typhanie Monique Collier (33:13):
Thank you Reverend Aimee Daniels and Reverend John Adam.