I felt so moved reflecting on the participants in the next Soul-Centered Series these words for the first night flowed through me. Since the program doesn’t start until October 11th, and I am feeling these words on September 21st, I know they won’t be the words I speak when we get together, but I wanted to share them.

The inspiration behind the Soul-Centered Series is to create a space where like-minded people come together and look in the direction of what Sydney Banks pointed to in his teachings.  At the heart of what he shared, Sydney Banks was pointing to the mystery of our beingness. No one can put that experience into words, but each one of you has your own inner knowing of what that is. And we can come together with the benefit of learning from students who learned directly from Sydney Banks, the people who were personally impacted by him, and be impacted by them.

This is a program that has no emphasis on the external. Its sole focus is to look within for the experience of a deeper connection with your True Nature. This does not mean your experience of life won’t be impacted. Living with greater inner freedom and a deeper connection with your spiritual heart will impact every area of your life. That is a given.

This also does not mean that you can’t ask how or application questions. Just know the direction being looked in is understanding more deeply who you are.

Some people I spoke with about the program were concerned that there were different levels of understanding among the participants. They seemed to think that they wouldn’t get as much from the program if new people were participating. This didn’t make sense to me. From my perspective, not the right perspective, just how it looks to me, if you come to the conversation with forty years or more of exploration as some have in this group or if you are brand new, each one of you is a valuable contribution to the whole. Your beingness is all that matters. And to the degree that you come to the group with an open mind and an open heart that is the degree to which you will experience the impact. No one else can limit that or take that away from you.

Also, there are no stupid questions or irrelevant reflections. Any judgments that come up inside of any of us are a reflection of our own misunderstanding and disconnection from our loving nature. I say this with the purpose of creating a container of love. It doesn’t mean that people won’t have judgments arise, but let’s all take responsibility for recognizing them for what they are — our own narrow state of mind that has temporarily identified with limited concepts that aren’t true. And the person who suffers is the person with judgment.

Regarding the visiting teachers in the program, they are all my mentors. They have all impacted me greatly on my personal journey toward a deeper understanding of who I am. I love their authenticity, honesty, approachability, and love of the work. The intent of this program is for you to have the experience and be in the presence of each one of them pointing in their unique way to the heart of what Sydney Banks shared. Someone said to me recently that they felt like 3 Principles teachers don’t go far enough when it comes to spirituality. They felt they hold themselves back. That is not my experience. What I know is they are committed to only sharing what they know experientially. None of them are perfect in this area, myself included, but I experience them as rigorous and ruthless in not sharing intellectual concepts and spiritual ideas. And they are masterful in revealing the ordinariness and closeness of our spiritual nature.

And how can anything shared not be spiritual? Everything is spiritual. Spirituality is right there. It is not reserved for peak experiences although we did have plenty of those the last time the series was offered.

That is what I love so much about looking to our True Nature from this understanding. It is practical. It is commonplace. It is not heady. I know that in other non-dual and direct path teachings like Advaita Vedanta there is a concession made and self-inquiry is used as a technique to help quiet the personal mind with the intention of annihilating it. This is not that path. This is the path of love — impersonal love. Sydney Banks refers, many times in his talks, to look for a beautiful feeling. I don’t believe he is pointing to an emotion. It seems to me he is pointing to the experience of connecting with your True Nature and the experience of impersonal love that comes with that. A love that does not come from any condition. A love that has no attachment or source in anything outside of you. The love that is you. That is the direction we are looking in — out of your head and into your heart.

Thich Nhat Hanh said the next Buddha may be a sangha. The next Buddha may take the form of a community, a community practicing understanding and loving-kindness…And the practice can be carried out as a group, as a city, as a nation. I love this recognition of the power of a group coming together and lifting each other in consciousness. In my heart, this is such a community where the group wisdom opens each one of our hearts more fully. There are no rock stars or celebrities. There are no VIPs, just one divine being sharing the perceived multiplicity of our human experiences.

My commitment to you is in service to this. I am not more wise or better. I am your servant, here in service. That is what uplifts me and helps me to remember who I am. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity.

I encourage you to participate whole-heartedly. I encourage you to be unabashedly you. I encourage you to be kind to yourself and to one another. I encourage you to leave as many preconceived notions you can at the door and instead see through the eyes of your heart, listen with the ears of love, and speak the truth of your soul in all its glorious technicolor and personal permutations that allow the divine to flow uniquely through you.

To learn more about the Soul-Centered Series that starts October 11th, 2019 click here.

Rohini Ross is passionate about helping people wake up to their full potential. She is a transformative coach, leadership consultant, a regular blogger for Thrive Global, and author of the short-read Marriage (The Soul-Centered Series Book 1) available on Amazon. You can get her free eBook Relationships here. Rohini has an international coaching and consulting practice based in Los Angeles helping individuals, couples, and professionals embrace all of who they are so they can experience greater levels of well-being, resiliency, and success. She is also the founder of The Soul-Centered Series: Psychology, Spirituality, and the Teachings of Sydney Banks. You can follow Rohini on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and watch her Vlogs with her husband. To learn more about her work go to her website, rohiniross.com.