Michael Beckwith | Meditation, Prayer & Visioning: A Roadmap to Spiritual Awakening

The nervous system holds thought forms of anxiety and anxiousness. And oftentimes people, they want to meditate or they want to pray, but their body and their subtle bodies are working against them because the nervous system is holding fear and worry and anxiousness and anxiety. So when you begin to pray affirmatively and coming into a deep resonance, a deep feeling of your oneness with the presence, whether that be love, beauty, intelligence, abundance, whatever the case may be, it starts to re qualify your nervous system so that the nervous system starts to hold the frequency of love or unity or connection. And then, of course, that affects the whole body temple, and then that affects all of the subtle bodies. And so that effect in prayer is immediate.

Welcome to the Radical responsibility podcast. I'm Dr. Fleet Mahl, and I'm excited to guide you on a journey of authentic transformation. In each episode, I'll bring you insights from leading experts to explore trauma recovery, mindfulness practices, positive psychiatry, psychology, and innovative breakthroughs in health, wellness, and life optimization. This is a space for real conversations that inspire meaningful change, helping you find alignment with the person you were always meant to be. Let's get started. What if meditation wasn't just a practice, but a path to awakening? What if prayer wasn't just words, but a force that could rewire your entire being? In this episode, I sit down with the legendary Reverend Michael Beckwith, who a visionary leader in spiritual transformation and meditation. We dive deep into the wisdom of ancient traditions, Zen vipassana, Tibetan practices, and how Agape's own teachings are helping people break through limiting beliefs and step into higher states of awareness. Reverend Beckwith reveals how meditation builds the foundation for awakening, how affirmative prayer shifts your entire nervous system, and why true wealth is found in contribution and service. If you're ready to tap into something deeper, you won't want to miss this conversation. Let's get started. I am thrilled to be here today with Reverend Michael B. Beckwith. Welcome, Reverend Beckwith.

Fleet, it's my joy to be with you, brother. Always.

It's so great to see you again. We had the opportunity to have a conversation like this some three or four years ago, and I've really been looking forward to connecting again. So, Dr. Beckwith, you know, I'm hesitant to ask you to try to encapsulate this in just a minute or two, since we have a lot to cover today in our conversation, but it would be great to start with a little bit of your origin story if we could. And you've been a leading voice in spiritual transformation, guiding thousands toward deeper awakening for many, many Years. I'd love if we could start with maybe a personal moment. There was something that. It really shifted things for you. A challenge, an insight or breakthrough that propelled you toward a spiritual path and meditation as a central practice in your life and then the teaching career that you've manifested.

Absolutely. Thank you. When I think about origin story, I always have to go back to when I was a senior at usc, psychobiology major. My path. I was go to med school, actually. And I was having a series of inner experiences that at the time I labeled pathological. Hearing an inner voice, having vision, tremendous lucid dreams, astral traveling. There's a lot of stuff going on. And so at that particular time in my life, I thought I was losing my mind. And it culminated with a lucid dream in which I was killed. In this dream, it was very painful. Two men held me down. One stabbed me in the heart with a knife. And the pain physically was excruciating, emotionally was excruciating. And I died. When I woke up, I could see that I was surrounded by this. Such beauty. Everything was glowing and glimmering. And the love that penetrated my being was beyond anything I experienced. And I could see 360 without my eyes. After that, I couldn't get back in the box I'd been living in up to that moment. And I went on research to discover what had happened to me. And that's when I bumped into the mystical teachings of Jesus. I bumped into Gautama, the Buddha, the Upanishads, Dhammapada, Walter Russell. A lot of individuals fueled my zest to discover what was going on with me. And so that's a very short, brief cliff note of an origin story. And then a little while after that, I was sitting in our living room and I said out loud, I said, okay, what do you want me to do? I was having these great expanded awareness. I said, what do you want me to do? Like that. And the phone rang. And it was a woman on the phone that I went to high school with. And she told me that she'd been thumbing through her high school annual and she saw my picture with my phone number and that the presence of God within her told her to call me because she was going through a lot of troubles in her life. So she called me, and I began to. At this point, I didn't have any degrees.

I didn't.

I wasn't a spiritual therapist. I wasn't a minister. I was just. People just liked hanging around me. And I began to counsel her, and she began to Tell people about me. And people would call, listen to me, send donations. And then I discovered there was something called a spiritual practitioner, spiritual therapist. And I said, oh, that's what I'm supposed to do. And I began to walk that path. So I gave you many years in a couple abbreviated stories of having insight and then integrating insight into a level of embodiment within my being.

I know that various forms of meditation have been part of your path as well and your teaching. And many people tend to associate meditation primarily with Eastern traditions. But of course it's been a central part of the contemplative Abrahamic traditions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. And I know the New Thought movement that you're part of is not in particularly associated with a particular denomination of religion, but it has some relationship there too, and so seems like some kind of practice to at least initially go inward and make a deeper relationship with ourselves. And our mind is central to spiritual journeys. So you've created an incredibly robust trans denominational community at the Agape Spiritual center for. So I'm wondering what are some of the ways that you've integrated the spiritual practices and meditation methodologies from the various traditions you've explored into what you now offer at Agape?

Well, our foundational practice at Agape is meditation. Obviously what arises out of that is affirmative prayer and life visioning and things of that particular nature. But we definitely incorporate the deep mindfulness and the stillness that we get obviously from the Buddhist tradition, the yoga traditions, to open ourselves up to a deep sense of self awareness. They used to call us also the Sufi end of the New Thought movement. Because of our celebration of joy and ecstasy and bliss in music and dance and movement. We also participate with pramayama. It's also a part of our spiritual practice at Agape. So there's been a nice weaving of the different traditions into the practice of meditation. I teach my own version of the Pasna meditation. And so every single service that we have at Agape is always preceded by silent meditation before we go into the message and the music and the celebration and the fellowship. It's very integral. So all of the different traditions and different cultures of the world have their particular entryway into the sacred silence and the sacred solitude and the sacred stillness. And I think based on my exploration, there's just been a. An amalgamation of them in a way that fits our community and very powerful. I. I think I still believe that meditation is primary, is the primary transportation to true transformation. And so that underlies everything that we do at Agape International. I'm Just in my last week of teaching a five week meditation class. Meditation, Evolution of Consciousness 2.0. So every year I teach it for hundreds of people. A couple of times a year as well. Yeah.

So I want to explore the other methodologies you've developed. Affirmative meditation and life visioning. But first I'd like to explore our current topic a little further with you. As you mentioned, you know, the silence that allows us to connect deeply with sacredness, with the divine, or just with the depth of our own being. What is it about silence and entering into deep, transformative silence that has such power to get beyond the superficial level of our experience, into the depth of our experience and really connect with something meaningful and even divine or sacred?

Yes. When we give ourselves permission to become still and quiet and go into the noble silence, we begin to be able to tell the difference between the noise of the world. I call it oftentimes the sea of mental garbage. It's the social milieu of thoughts and opinions and points of view and agendas that people have on us. Our mind gets hijacked by fear, worry, anxiousness, materialism. So when we go into the silence, we're able to eventually observe all of that noise and realize that's not who we are, that's a part of the content of our awareness, but it's not who and what we are. And when an individual is able to tell the difference between the content and their real identity, I like to say that's the beginning of waking up. You're waking up from the intoxicated sleep that these thoughts, thought forms, beliefs, opinions, points of view are our identity. They are not. They're just things passing through our awareness. And so stillness, silence, introspection, contemplation, observing, all of that allows us to ultimately break free as identification. And then we're waking up and we're actually participating in our own unfolding. And I think that it's extremely necessary because there's so many things that vie for our attention. And many of the things that vie for our attention are not good for us. They're destructive. They keep us away from our real self. So stillness, silence, solitude, extremely important.

So you mentioned how we tend to identify with the content of our experience. All the thoughts and storylines and emotions and narratives and so forth, all the things coming and going in the space of our mind and our sense perceptions. And that seems to be one of the primary obstacles to waking up is our strong identification with that. And, you know, we all start off, the human condition is such that we all start off in a Very vulnerable situation as infants. And we need to develop some kind of sense of self to navigate the world. And we build out of whatever is available to us. And we cling to it pretty tenaciously. Because if that's not who I am, who the heck am I, Right? And so as in your experience, as you guide students and they begin to maybe loosen up that a little bit, that can be kind of scary. Especially, you know, some of us, our overall sense of identity is a little fragile or tenuous anyway, sometimes due to life experiences. So how do you guide and support students to gradually sort of begin to let go of that, what they've known is who they are for, you know, decades or more, and begin to open up to something that's a little less defined and spacious and yeah, you're absolutely right.

From the time we were in utero, even before, you know, we're imprinted by the ways of the world. Parental, societal, religious fantasies. And we had to develop a way to cope with all of that, all of these imprints and defend. So the ego obviously assists in protecting that limited, temporary identity, how we've humanized ourselves. And so what I seek to have people do is become aware that you are aware of the static or the content passing through. And obviously, in the scientific terms, there's something called, you know, the observer effect, that whatever you become aware of, you change at a subatomic level just based on observation. So I invite people to have an intention to wake up. We're sleepwalking. We're in intoxicated sleepwalking of content. Have an intention to wake up. And then as you begin to observe, the content begins to change. Because you're not resisting it, you're not fighting it. You're not trying to make it go away. You're just observing it with an intention to wake up. So then the content, which are thoughts and thought forms, which are units of mental energy, begin to change. They begin to disintegrate. They begin to become transmuted through observation. And little by little, an individual has a tremendous insight or it happens incrementally. Individuals become more aware that they are awareness. They're not their body. You know, they're not the experiences that they've had. They're not the content. They are awareness. And that creeps up on an individual. Sometimes it's dramatic, but oftentimes there is the letting go that which isn't so. So that which is so becomes more prevalent. And so that happens incrementally through the practice of meditation. For some people, there's A dramatic opening. And so the idea, as I try to teach people, you're not trying to become a good meditator. I mean, become a good man, that's a good thing. You know, learn how to meditate. But you're actually trying to wake up. You're really not trying to just be a good meditator, you're actually trying to wake up. Because people don't quite understand that there's really no good or bad in meditation. They're just different states of it. So that's kind of how I approach it.

Well, following up on that good meditator notion just for a moment, in terms of sort of meditation, I don't know, technology, if you will. You've been somewhat describing the path quality as well. Then it's sometimes it's incremental and sometimes people have major openings and you had some fairly profound openings at the beginning of your life that set you on this path. I think when people hear about such experiences or even have glimpses of such experiences and sometimes maybe want to go right there or go right into sort of the fruits of meditation without having really trained the mind or stabilize the mind somewhat. And I'm wondering if how you see that and in your. You mentioned you teach kind of your own version of vipassana, that training of the mind, such that the mind is stable enough to then go through that process you were describing, however incremental or sudden at times it might be, but that there's a structure to have that experience, to hold that experience right.

I appreciate everything you're saying. It's absolutely true. Because everybody has a tendency to want to jump to the fruits or jump to some great awakening or something to that effect. And most of the time it's not like that. You know, I think in the Japanese language is the word kinsho, you know, which means it's the slow burning away, cleaning up the filters. And you have a transformation that sometimes it's like a thief in the night. You don't even know you've changed until you start getting feedback from the world or other people are the fruits of love or compassion or forgiveness or patience start to emerge in you, and you realize, oh, I'm different than I was last year. And sometimes people do have a satori moment where it's like, oh my God. But I train people basically to one, establish an intention to wake up and then place your attention on the intention until sometimes that intention actually can carry a feeling. And then I invite them to have simultaneous awareness. Of course, I'm taking them through this on their breath, because it's impossible to breathe in the future or the past. So the breath becomes an anchor point for the present. So an individual is embracing their intention to wake up. They're aware of the breath, and then they step. Then we load in. This is the first time I've ever meditated. Whether an individual is a veteran or a newbie, it's always the first time. Beginner's mind, childlike nature, however you want to describe that. And then I invite them to go into deep, lowly listening. But not with your ears. Your awareness produced the ears, just like your awareness produced eyes. So we have a spiritual faculty of hearing the inaudible and seeing the invisible. So I invite them to go into a deep listening with their being. So they're able to catch what I call the perennial broadcast of let there be life, let there be beauty, let there be joy, let there be abundance, let there be intelligence everywhere. So they're sitting with those things loaded in intention, attention, breath. This is the first time in deep listening. And that becomes a place by which they're holding a practice. And two things occur. Obviously, there's the letting go of the mental debris that happens. But also the subtle bodies are becoming more stable and more strong to carry more of the cosmic energy. More of the energy, it's becoming stronger, little by little, by little. So if someone does have some kind of insight or an opening the temple, the subtle bodies can hold the energy. It's not going to fizz off. It's not going to, you know, like a wire that can't carry that kind of energy kind of fizzes. And, you know, it won't do that. You'll be able to hold it, you know, and notice that you are becoming more you. It's not that some foreign thing is coming. You're actually peeling away the layers of content to see that who you are, you know, even before you incarnated on this planet.

You know, I love what you said about the primordial broadcast, which is quite different, I take it, than the broadcast we often, in our ears. The what about me Broadcast.

Right.

Also, I really appreciate what you said there about the development of the subtle body such that it can hold this energy. Because otherwise sometimes, you know, we start to develop, especially if we do any retreats or a lot of. We develop, you know, we start to accumulate some spiritual energy of itself. But then usually we just leak it off as fast as we can. Because we're not used to holding it. We don't have a structure for it, even Though, as you mentioned before, we're not just the body, but it seems like an embodied approach to practice can be helpful in that the body, mind, spirit are all on a spectrum. So as we connect with the breath, as we connect with an embodied kind of presence that takes us from gross body, the subtle body, and we start to kind of build that inner architecture of the subtle body, the awakened subtle body that can then really be a vehicle for our continued development. I wonder if that resonates with you.

Oh, absolutely. Oftentimes what happens is some people may have, like a tremendous opening, but as you said, it disappears really fast, or it just becomes a memory of something that happened years ago, but they haven't embodied it. Now. A structured practice, you know, allows you to slowly be able to build up those subtle bodies so you're able to hold the energy. So if you have a moment, it doesn't just become a memory of something you tell your friends about. You know, three years ago, this thing happened, you know, and I saw the light or whatever it was. It's like exercising, you know, and you're building up something subtly, but it's still being built up, and you're able to hold it. You're able to hold more of the cosmic wattage, so to speak, because your filament, your instrument, is stronger to hold it. So it becomes ultimately a way of living. You know, it's not a destination to get somewhere called enlightenment. It's more of a way of life that has tremendous fruits of patience and kindness and compassion and love and generosity and creativity. And then if a tremendous, magnificent moment happens, it gets integrated into your practice. It's not one off, you know, it's integrated.

That's extremely helpful. You really kind of laid out the classic path of meditation and meditative development so beautifully, and it would resonate across traditions in many ways. Within that foundation, then you've developed what you call affirmative prayer, and then also the life visioning process. I wonder if you could kind of walk us through both of those.

Well, obviously, when we talk about affirmative prayer, we are not talking about begging and beseeching some kind of reluctant deity, you know, to give us anything. We're beginning with the awareness. Our life, of course, is never separated from the divine. You know, we're one. We have a. There's a real unity with us and the Presence, by whatever name you want to call the Presence. And so in prayer, we're having. We're opening ourselves up through gratitude, being very grateful that we are awake and alive. That and just being grateful is A prayer. But just being grateful makes you available to the grace and the bliss that's happening everywhere. You become available to it. So we become grateful. And it helps us begin to recognize. That there is a life of beauty and a presence everywhere. The meditative portion of the prayer is we feel one with life. We feel one with God. We feel one with the essence of life. And from there we speak the word. To have a realization of what we're saying is true. We're not trying to make anything happen. We're trying to make something welcome that's already happened. We're already one with God. We're already full to overflowing with abundance and joy and creativity and intelligence already here. But we're speaking the Word in an affirmative prayer. To have a realization of what we're saying is. So it becomes an inner feeling nature. And then we give thanks that it's already done. And then we release the Word as a law. Knowing that it can't come back void. It comes back fulfilled thereof. And it happens immediately. I mean, immediately. The immediate ramifications are you start to produce tonic chemicals of the body. Your immune system becomes stronger. There's a greater coherence of the brain. You know, just in prayer and in meditation. So affirmative prayer, we're affirming that which is already true. Until we have a realization. And not just a belief, not just a philosophy or a hypothesis. But we actually are praying to have a realization. So that we feel that connection of whatever it is we're praying for. So that's affirmative prayer.

So in the same way you talked about before. You talked about. As we connect with the observer, consciousness with awareness. We get to identify more with that. And you said that we know that the observer. The act of observing. Actually changes what's being observed. You mentioned before. And that gets it kind of in the quantum theory and so forth. And so in this case with affirmative prayer. The power of affirming our own divinity, our own sacredness. The reality of who and what we really are. Actually has real physiological power to it. A subtle body as well as. I mean, it does begin to change our nervous system. And. Yes, I wonder if you could talk about that. It really is transforming us at the subtle level. As well as sort of the grosser level of our neurophysiology. And changing who we are through the power of that intention. The word, the affirmation of these truths. Because it seems so powerful, what you're describing there.

It's absolutely true. I like to say you're recalibrating your Nervous system. The nervous system holds thought forms of anxiety and anxiousness. And oftentimes people, they want to meditate or they want to pray, but their body and their subtle bodies are working against them because the nervous system is holding fear and worry and anxiousness and anxiety. So when you begin to pray affirmatively and coming into a deep resonance, a deep feeling of your oneness with the presence, whether that be love, beauty, intelligence, abundance, whatever the case may be, it starts to re qualify your nervous system so that the nervous system starts to hold the frequency of love or unity or connection. And then of course, that affects the whole body temple and then that affects all of the subtle bodies. And so that effect in prayer is immediate. Now, the manifestation of some other things that a person may want to bring into their life may take a period of time, but there's an immediate effect that's now obviously registered with brain coherence technology and the measuring of Auric fields and that, you know, biofeedback and things of that particular nature. You can see scientifically that when one goes into prayer, you know, all of these different things change, you see, and if one can do that on a regular basis, then the body of their affairs begin to change as well and how they relate to the visible world begins to change. Prayer is very transformational. It is not begging, pleading for something to happen. It is waking up to what's perennially happening. But we've cut ourselves off of it by having a limited perception of reality. So it's actually expanding our perception. So prayer is very powerful.

But before we talk about life visioning, just one more follow up question there. You know, you're describing this coherence that develops and it's like a palpable resonance and coherence. Heart, brain coherence, heart, gut coherence. Whether it's more gross level of our neurophysiology, or at the subtle body level, which is all interconnected. So this is palpable and it seems one of the real struggles that humanity is facing now. So many people feel lonely and isolated and disconnect. There's so much anxiety and loneliness and even suicidality being endemic. And so when you begin to experience that level of coherence within your own being, it's almost like you're not alone anymore. I mean, and some people might visualize that as a higher power or a guardian angel or a deity, and others might just see it as the more subtle or true reality of themselves. But there is a quality of having a home. Yes, by finally having a home and not Being alone. I wonder if you.

Oh, absolutely. What happens is you discover you can be alone, but you're not necessarily lonely. You know, oftentimes people are addicted to excitement. And whether it's 150 channels on your television or being around people, even if you're not saying anything meaningful, you know, people become addicted to excitement and external. And when that's gone, people feel lonely. And so if you develop some level of practice, you end up bumping into an awareness that you are definitely by yourself, but you're not lonely. There's something else, another character, another frequency arises within you. You know, I like being alone. Personally. I love people too, you know, but when I am by myself, I'm not longing to be with anybody or to go and speak to anybody, or stand in front of a crowd and teach or anything like that. I love being by myself. It's so sweet and wonderful just to be alone, to watch the thoughts pass, to see what arises in terms of creativity, you know. And then I love people too. So it's not that I'm reclusive, but I just. When I'm alone, I love it. When I'm with people, I love that. But definitely there is a kind of a pandemic of loneliness in the world where people are concerned. And a lot of that are a lot of the after effects of the pandemic. The lockdown of healthy people. The first time in human history that ever happened and people didn't know how to handle it. It created a kind of a scar tissue, Sam, scar of the soul going through that. Fear, doubt, worry, the projection of worst case scenarios onto the future. And people are healing from that. And then you have the language coming up about mental health being a very dominant language. And then you have contagion and people don't realize you're not just contagion. Colds are just contagious, thoughts are contagious, you know, so you have a large groups of people feeling have gone through this particular experience. Then the anxiety around it. Those thought forms aren't staying in a person's house. Those thought forms go everywhere. So you have this contagion of, of people being anxious and worried and wondering what's going to happen next. You see? But there's also a contagion that happens when small groups of people are meditating together. You have spiritual groups like yourself, you know, that come together in community and meditate. That's contagious too. That changes whole neighborhoods.

Absolutely.

States and cities. And so I think what we're telling people right now is they can be alone without being lonely. But if you have some level of spiritual practice and intentionality, you have an insight into that, an event that takes place in your awareness where you incrementally or suddenly know, oh, I'm not alone. Oh my God, I'm surrounded by such love, such peace. A presence is here, you know? Yeah.

Beautiful. As you were speaking, I was thinking of the New Testament. Two or more gather together in my name and then to the Holy Spirit in that way.

Absolutely.

So another social malady that's epidemic today both for individuals and society, is a sense of meaninglessness and purposeless that leads to all kinds of tragedies and a lot of violence and things we're seeing. And so your life visioning process, as I understand it, has to do with helping people rediscover their life purpose, or even their soul's purpose, if you will. So I wonder if you could talk about that now.

Right. That is a transformational technology for that exact vision reason. Because of what you just said. There is the appearance of so much meaninglessness in the civilizations of the world. You very rarely hear a visionary be president of the United States or run a particular country. They're basically always focused on the bottom line of the gross national product, some kind of level of materialism or power. And so people grow up in their particular countries and there's no grand meaning other than we got to get more stuff, whatever that stuff is. And so after a while, that plays out in a person's heart and soul. So we are all shocked from the eternal presence called by millions of names, life itself, God, love, beauty, intelligence. And we have a purpose of reflecting and revealing that presence according to our uniqueness. And everyone, I believe everyone has the same purpose, to reveal the face of divinity or reveal the face of love, intelligence, whatever, however people want to describe this ineffable life. But we all have different missions, we have different ways of expressing that. Because one of the things that this vast presence does never repeats itself. There's nothing repetitive in the entire cosmos. Two rocks aren't the same. Two blades of grass aren't the same. Two flowers, two individuals, two animals. There's nothing the same. So diversity and inclusivity is built into this whole gestalt of life. So we're all unique. So the life visioning process begins with going into meditation and cultivating a feeling of love, total love, unconditional love. And so I'll take people through that process in different ways, and then we're aware that universal presence called by whatever name you want to Call it by law answers every single question that you ask. If you ask a disempowering question, what's wrong? Who's to blame? Why me? You'll get a series of answers that will take you down the spiral of negativity, of excuses, of things that have happened and the woundedness and why you are the way you are. But if you ask a higher order of question, such as, you know, what is it within me that is seeking to emerge right now? What gift do I have to give to the world before I leave it? You know, what contribution am I to make? What is the vision for my life as this present sees it? If you ask questions like that, you're going to begin to get answers intuitively, subtly, sometimes very gross for some people, that will lead you into a path of participating in your own unfolding. So the life vision process begins with meditation in a field of love. And then I invite people to ask the question, let's use the word God for a moment. What is God's idea of itself as me? That's a vision, you know, God doesn't make meaningless acts. This presence is full of meaning, of love and beauty and intelligence.

Great.

It's no meaningless thing. What is God's idea of itself as my life? Or what is it that's within me that is seeking to emerge now as a contribution, as a gift to the world? Because we didn't come to the planet to get anything. There's nothing to get. We came to the planet to give, to share, to shine, to glow, to radiate, to contribute. We didn't come to get. There's nothing. There's nothing in the world that can make us happy. Zero happiness and joy is intrinsic. We have to give it, we have to shine it through some kind of creative act or generosity or service. So we ask, what is it? What am I to contribute? Or what's trying to emerge? So we sit in that space meditatively for a while to activate the spiritual faculty that's been stunted because we've lived so much in the five senses as. And everything we can see and taste and touch and hear and smell is real. People have actually forgotten that most of life is invisible. We're mostly invisible. We think everything that is real is what you can see. So when we ask that question and we go into deep listening, we start to activate the faculty of a real seeing and real hearing again, not with eyes and not with ears, but that which created the eyes and ears. And we start to catch insight. And then from there we ask the question, what is it that I must become in order to manifest the vision that's beginning to articulate itself? That's our growing edge, is not a judgment exercise, it's an awareness exercise. Because we start to get guidance as to where we're called to grow. Are we called to grow to be more forgiving, to be more loving? Are we called to grow, to develop certain skills, some talents that we've allowed to go dormant? You know, we start to be asked the question, and from within our own soul, answers will come as to what we must become in order to manifest the vision? Third question is, what do we already have that can be in service to the vision? Why is this important? There's a scriptural law that says to he or she who has more is given to he or she who has not, even that which they have shall be taken away. Now, that law is not personal. It's just saying that if you walk with the feeling of having and being, you open up door, more comes to you. But if you're walking around feeling that you don't have, then you're using the law in reverse, and then what you have is taken away. So we ask, what is it that we have that can be in service to the vision? And we start becoming aware of resources that we have that maybe we thought were inconsequential. They weren't important talents that we can develop. There may be all kinds of resources around us that we're not even thinking about that can be in service to this vision that we're now beginning to articulate. So now we're starting to walk with this feeling of having something. The next question is, what are we willing to let go of that no longer serves us? Conversations, other habits, you know, we know these things, but sometimes we hide them from ourselves. And then we become willing to let them go. I mean, there have been things that we needed in the past. There may have been a certain defense mechanism that really protected us. When we were going through some abuse as a kid, we had to have a coping mechanism, how to survive until we could become strong enough to look at it in the face. What do we no longer need right now? What can we let go of that doesn't serve us? We ask that question, we start to get answers, and then we finally come into the feeling, tone of willingness. Where there is willingness, there is a way. When there is willfulness, you create a vibrational wall. Willingness provides the way. Willfulness creates a wall. So you come into the state of willingness. You don't have to know how to do all this stuff yet you just have to be able to describe the vision, notice where you have to grow, embrace what you have become, willing to let go of what doesn't serve you. And this prayerful feeling, tone of willingness, we become the vibrational match to the unfolding of a vision. So it's transformational because, for instance, you know, the beginning stages of metaphysics, new thoughts, is visualization. Visualization says, you know, be very specific about seeing what you want to manifest, describe it, feel that you have it, walk as if you have it and you will manifest it. Problem with that is oftentimes people are visualizing something that has nothing to do with their soul's growth. It's something they got from society or a commercial, I gotta have this kind of car to be happy or something to that effect. And plus, whatever they're visualizing is limiting. It's a limit. It's from limitation anyways. From a. Is from the person's limited paradigm anyway, or something that's already been done. But it's a good step, it's a very good stage in metaphysics to learn how to visualize and to re enchant the imagination. But visioning is not saying what we want. It is asking what's within us and wants to be released. As Robert Browning would remind us, we want to release the inner splendor. It's a different focus. It's not I want this, I want to manifest this. It's what is it within me that wants to come forward? So that's the short version of the vision process and somewhat of the process of it that becomes a technology. You know, all of our ministries here have a vision group in which they are constantly available to what's next seeking to emerge in their particular department or ministry. And people use this process now it's crossed lines. It's in corporate America. Boards of trustees are using it, businesses are using it, individuals are using it. It's become a transformational technology that's a part of the tools of growth and unfoldment.

Well, it's certainly a beautiful process. I wrote down the steps and incredibly powerful. And I love the distinction you made, as you were describing it, between willingness and willfulness.

Definitely, because people can be willful. It's a lot of the ego strength, I'm going to make this happen. And it creates a vibrational wall because with that willfulness, you're actually saying, I don't have it, I want to make it happen, I don't have it. So willingness, it's more feminine. It's more allowing. Yeah.

So in a moment, I'd like to invite you, if you'd be so kind, to lead us in a guided practice of whatever you're inspired to offer. But first, one last question. I know that your work is situated within a broader social vision. And I think very much you're within the sort of Gandhian, Kingian social vision milieu. And from our last conversation, I think, early on is growing up as a black man in America, you touched in on, you know, the natural angry response to the injustice that was there, and you were led into a more transformative pathway. But I know you're still very involved in wanting to bring greater sanity and blessings and transformation to the world, not just to any individual, but a larger social vision. So I wonder if you could just touch in on it. That could be a whole nother conversation, but I wonder if you could just touch on that a little bit.

But, you know, we're definitely influenced by and embrace liberation theology, which is a dimension of mystical Christianity in which we're to be earthly good as well as heavenly bound, that we're to make a difference on the planet. That true compassion is oftentimes actions that you take around social justice or, you know, like, for instance, we're involved with the fires that just happened in Palisades. And we've had different groups in our community meet to help people move through that, but we also put them in the direction of where they can get help. We've also donated to places that are doing real work. You know, so whenever something happens, we always ask as a community, what is it that is ours to do, to be in service of humanity? We're not going to cloister ourselves up and say, and not see what's happening in the world. So we're always asking that question, what is ours to do in this particular event, tragedy or circumstance? So we carry on one hand. We're, you know, unity Vedanta, you know, absolute, non, dual oneness with God. At the same time, all of that takes an action. You know, it's karma yoga, where the true practice of unity is in actually doing service. So we have programs in our community like Sacred Service Saturday, where we every year have a Saturday devoted to. We contact many of the nonprofit organizations that we can in Los Angeles, and now it's in other states and countries as well. But it started off just in Los Angeles, and we flood these places with volunteers. We have all of our congregation go to these places and sign up and do real physical work or whatever needs to be done. In these nonprofits, not to proselytize, not to get people to come to Agape, but just as an act of service. And then what happens is many of the people from Agape end up being permanent volunteers in these places. And many of those people in those places come to Agape. They say, who are these people? They're not asking for anything. They don't want anything. They're just coming to serve. So there's definitely a part of our dharma is to be of service and speak. And we call a thing. When something's going on in the world that's not right or not in harmony with justice. We talk about it not with a blaming vibration, but with an articulation of this is what's going on. This is what's out of alignment, you see? And holding a vision for something better.

Beautiful. So, Reverend Beckwith, if you would, I'd like to invite you to leader centered practice, whatever of your choosing, whatever you're inspired to offer. Okay.

Why don't we do just a brief visioning process? So I invite everyone to. If you're not in a lotus position, just put your feet on the ground. Have your back erect but not rigid, just erect. You're alert today. Let's have our hands on our lap, facing upward as a sign of receptivity. Our thumb and forefinger touching as a mudra of going beyond ego perception. Just take a deep inhalation. Bring your shoulders up to your ears. Release. And I want you to bring to mind a moment in your life where you had an encounter with unconditional love. Oftentimes, people remember a grandparent, even a pet, someone that just got you. Someone that loved you and understood you for no other reason than you were you. It wasn't because you won an award or did something great. They just loved you. Now, if you can't strike the mystic chord of memory and remember such a time, imagine what it would feel like. The brain's not going to know the difference. Just imagine what it feels like to be totally loved and supported. Not because of a merit or demerit, just because you're you. What does that feel like? To be loved? Now allow for the breath to be a talisman of remembrance that every time you breathe is an amplification of the feeling tone of unconditional love. This love is small in comparison to the love of the living one that is love itself. Loving you always. But we're incrementally growing into our awareness of how deeply loved we are now from this state of unconditional non agenda Love. Let us ask a question or two. Ask inside of your own awareness, if you like the word God, which is a presence that is never an absence. God is not a guy in the sky. God is a presence of love and beauty and intelligence, pure awareness of itself everywhere. What is God's idea of itself as your life? So you would say, what is God's idea of itself as my life? Just ask that question, what is God's idea of itself as my life? And let the answer come intuitively. Everyone has different ways of receiving wisdom and guidance. Some people get a gut feeling, an insight, an intuitive hit, something they may see or hear inwardly. Where does God's idea of itself as my life? Or you may want to ask this. What is seeking to emerge through me right now? What's seeking to emerge through me right now as my contribution to this world, in my neighborhood, my city, my state on the planet? What's trying to express itself through me now? Again, you're setting something in motion. You may catch something intuitively or direct, knowing your purpose is to reflect and to reveal the infinite. But you're asking now, what's God's idea of itself as my life? What am I to give and share? What is my niche? And by asking this question, you're setting something in motion that will come to you whether you're in the formal vision process or whether you're daydreaming or whether you're going to sleep at night, whether you're dreaming. You set something in motion that's going to answer you. Thirdly, what is it that I must become in order to manifest the vision that I'm beginning to articulate? I'm beginning to see it? Must I become to manifest it? What is my growing edge? No judgment, just awareness here. What do I have in my house, in my consciousness that can be in service to the vision? What resources do I have? What inner and outer resources do I have that can be in service to this vision that's now articulating itself through me? Just become aware. You asked a question. There will be an answer. Now we ask, what is it that no longer serves me, that I can now let go of? What can I let go of? It doesn't serve me anymore. Perhaps something served me in the past, doesn't serve me now? Habits, conversations, even people I hang out with, where it doesn't serve me anymore? Just awareness. Don't do anything with it. You're just being aware of what bubbles up. You're being aware of the vision as it is coming forward for your life. You're becoming aware of what you must become to manifest the vision. You're becoming aware of what you have as resources. You're becoming aware of what you're willing to let go of now doesn't serve you anymore. And now feel into the frequency the vibration of willingness. There have been times in your life where you had to be willing to do something that you may not have known how to do it, but you became willing anyway. Feel what willingness feels like as you're breathing into willingness. Be willing to catch and anchor the vision. Be willing to become the next stage of your own unfolding. Be willing to become what's necessary to manifest the vision. Be willing to hold the feeling of having resources to be in service to the vision. Be willing to let go of anything that doesn't serve you anymore. And now from here, we enter into a prayerful moment. I'm extremely grateful and thankful and appreciative for life itself being itself as me. I live in the vibration of gratitude. I'm beginning to breath by breath, recognize there's a vast presence that's everywhere in its fullness and that by means of me is seeking to express itself. I recognize the presence, that blade of grass pushing itself through the cement, the trees bowing in our divinity. I recognize this presence and now feel so at one with the presence. I can say I am with Thou Art, and Thou art what I am. And the very word that is being spoken is a law unto itself that only knows its own unfolding. I speak it for each and every individual tuning in to this magnificent summit of transformation on meditation, knowing that right where they are, the full presence of life, is that this divine Presence is moving through them in such a way that is dissolving every hindrance, obstacle, obstruction to these beings rising up and being the next stage of their own unfolding, anchoring the vision of their life as it is now, describing itself to them in a language and in a way that they can understand. This is the word that I'm speaking. It's a vibrational frequency of celebrating that it's already done, yet we are yielding to it that it may be done through us. I feel this in my bones and give thanks for it. We just settle in the awareness of gratitude, lowly listening, thankfulness, and an ever increasing awareness that our life taken on more of our cosmic and soulful meaning. Now, what is ours to do? Let it be evident. And so it is. Amen.

Amen.

Believe that was a brief vision process.

Oh, it's amazing.

I would have people just take out their journals and just jot down any keywords that came and then later on they'll notice things will come to them based on the questions that they've asked. You did it.

Oh, thank you so much. That was incredibly powerful. I just feel, you know, radiating with a sense of sacredness and purpose and love and gratitude and beingness. So thank you so much. Thank you so much Reverend Michael B. Beckwith, the founder of Agape the Agape Community and the Life Visioning Process and Affirmative Prayer. And thank you so much for the work you've been doing for many, many decades now and that you continue to do and really wishing you and your community all the best. I know many in your community have suffered from the recent fires in Los Angeles area and sending many blessings your way.

Brother Fleet, thank you so much for all that you're doing to help expand people's consciousness. Thank you for the invitation to be here with you today. It's my joy our pleasure as well.

Thank you so much. Thank you for joining me on the Radical Responsibility podcast. Remember, real change happens when we commit to our growth, face our challenges with compassion, and stay open to transformation. If you found this episode helpful, I encourage you to subscribe and help us spread the message of healing and personal empowerment. Stay grounded, stay present and stay true to you. Take care. Of.