AWAKEN THE SLEEPING GIANT
Conference Call #8
What It Means to Awaken the Sleeping Giant
Philip Burley
February 8 and 9, 2006
Conference Call Number: 712-432-3000
Bridge Number: 261644
[no longer active]
Good evening and welcome everyone! This is our eighth Awaken the Sleeping Giant conference call. Our next conference calls will be on Wednesday, February 15 and Thursday, February 16, 2006. Please look for the content of tonight’s meeting in your email.
In order to establish unity and oneness in spirit, let us begin by speaking out our names and cities in unison. On the count of three, please speak out your name and city three times: One, two, three…
Thank you.
Announcements
At the end of tonight’s prayer, I will remain on the line to meet everyone informally so that we can share questions and comments. We have done this three times now, and it is an excellent opportunity to create a community/family reality among us. Please stay on if you can.
I will begin tonight’s call with some of your correspondence. This one contains a very deep and meaningful testimony to our prayer work together:
Dear Philip,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I placed approximately two hundred flyers out at the Expo, and about one hundred were taken. Hopefully, many of the people taking the flyers will do the prayer. Also, I have distributed them to the meditation group I belong to. One lady is going to have her middle school Christian Doctrine students do the prayer.
Two weeks ago, before the meditation group knew about the prayer, I was given a beautiful message from one of the participants. She saw Mother Mary behind me placing a crown on my head. From the crown were tentacles weaving all around my body. She said the tentacles were reaching out from the hands and feet toward people throughout the world. Mother Mary was smiling and there was a glowing light all around her.
I immediately knew the message was for all participating in your prayer program. I was a symbol for all those involved in praying for the United States. Mary was letting us know that the prayers are being heard and extending throughout the world. I received the message, but Mary was letting me know that she is placing the crown on all participants.
Mother Mary is definitely happy with your work, Philip, and your commitment to help our country. She joins her son in blessing you. May participation in this project continue to grow and flourish.
Love and blessings,
Lori L., Southampton, MassachusettsThis next letter brought tears to my eyes:
Dear Philip, my name is Sara F. and my mom is Lisa O. I am 9 years old. My mom told me about the Awaken the Sleeping Giant prayer and conference calls, and I decided to participate in them too! I love it!!!
I stayed on the phone extra long on one of the calls, and I never got a chance to say hi, so hi.
Best wishes,
SaraDear Philip, I was not able to come to the session tonight, as I have an established session with a group that has been working together for over two years with the purpose of Ascension in this lifetime. I wanted to share with you that our group leader, a channel of The Cosmic Christ, told us tonight that Jesus had told her that he would like us to join your group on any Wednesdays that we are not scheduled with the group, and that he had asked you to do this project. So I just wanted to share that with you. …many skeptics question people who claim to have been given a mission, so I wanted you to have this confirmation to share in the event that anyone might ask you. ...Bless you for your clarity and willingness to do this important service.
Live In Light and Love,
Sharon M. S.As you will hear, this next letter also confirms plentiful help from the other side:
Thank you, dear Philip, for such a beautiful talk followed by a joyful exchange last night.
I am glad that you added the "protection" part to the prayer. The reality is that there are many angry people who are praying for the destruction of America. I have read that after the onslaught of hurricanes last year, some people were rejoicing and saying that this was the answer to their prayers as they prayed that America may be destroyed. This is the power of their intent. So, in truth, America is being assaulted by a lot of powerful negative energy. The power of [positive] prayer and visualization is real, but unfortunately, the negative [thoughts are real] too.
How can we succeed, then, to turn this energy battle into a good outcome for the nation? I see only one way: the power of positive prayer and visualization of those who pray for the protection and prosperity of this nation has to be stronger than the ones who pray for its demise. It's not a battle of bullets and warships; it is coming down [to] a battle of the light against the darkness.
All of us are bearers of light. We have a mission to shine our light as brightly as we can through our sincere prayers, meditations, and visualizations. In fact, we do not have to "fight" the darkness. When the light shines strongly, the darkness will dissipate naturally, on its own. That is why the more people who participate [with us], the better. The more visualizing with a clear intent, the better. (I am thinking of the Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer when I use the word "intent").
Thank you again for initiating all this and being a rallying point for all those of us who wish to help.
Much love and blessings to you,
DorisHere is another inspiring letter:
Dear Philip, I just have to share this beautiful experience with you and the group. A bald eagle joined me Sunday night while I was doing my prayers for America! That was pretty incredible!
At first, I saw an eagle’s eye; it was gold in color. (When I looked up "bald eagle" on the internet, I saw that his eyes are indeed golden yellow.) Then I saw his head, and it was also gold in color! The rest of his body was white with golden tones. It was a giant golden bald eagle—our beautiful symbol of freedom. Then I sensed that it was inviting me to fly with him. As we flew over America, I saw other eagles join us covering the map of the U.S. with beautiful white light. What a beautiful gift that vision was.
My meditations are normally not very visual, but I sensed that it was a special symbol given to me to confirm that our prayers are indeed being heard, and that there are indeed many divine beings from many kingdoms who accompany us during our prayers.
Blessing to you and all the Awaken the Sleeping Giant participants,
Martha L.-D., San Antonio, TexasAnd finally, from Arizona:
Dear Philip, each telephone talk brings with it a wonderful energy of great peace and love. This is the energy the world needs right now. It is such a privilege to be encompassed by it and then to radiate it out to the whole world. Our outer lives are important to us, but our inner lives are important to the whole world. We do well to pay close attention to both, using our inner world to create peace in the outer world.
Blessings,
Carol B., ArizonaTonight’s Quotes:
The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.
James Madison, Fourth President of the United States of AmericaMay the prayer in your heart always be to know Self and to recognize truth. May the being that you are in the higher heavens be reflected in the person that you are on earth. May the light always shine on you.
Sent by Martha L.-D., San Antonio, TexasOpening prayer:
Dearest Heavenly Father, we celebrate again tonight the fact that we live in a land where we have the freedom to pray and assemble for spiritual purposes. For such freedoms, thousands of our young men gave their lives in the long span of American history.
Guide our time together that we may learn and grow closer to you and our real selves. Reveal through our inner awareness just what that real self, that real nature, is. Then help us to live it out, so that we realize the full potential and the possibilities you have endowed us with for eternity.
Let us awaken fully in this lifetime to become actual human beacons of truth to shine for all to see, that all may see you in us and be drawn to awakening to their full potential. This is the highest meaning and purpose of our lives. Jesus knew this fact, and therefore endeavored with everything in him to realize your existence in him and oneness with you.
We are beholden to your ever-enduring love and care, and it is with deepest gratitude that we bow low before your majestic, most humble Fatherly presence tonight as we explore together what it means to Awaken the Sleeping Giant.
All this I pray in the name of Jesus the Christ and all the masters who are but extensions of your holiness. Amen
Opening Talk
What It Means to Awaken the Sleeping Giant
I want to speak tonight on "What It Means to Awaken the Sleeping Giant." I am a person, who—when doing something of a serious nature—does not like to deviate from his goal. I have observed that this is the underlining attitude in all who undertake a serious and worthwhile cause, and this is certainly why we are told in the Bible to endure in the unfolding of our spiritual life, with the imperatives of: Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks.1
Genius is One Percent Inspiration and Ninety-Nine Percent Perspiration
Thomas Edison, who did not invent the light bulb but brought it into practical and safe use, labored endlessly until he discovered the exact filament to put in the bulb to make it work. Edison was on a mission and took it ever so seriously. From 1877 to 1880, Mr. Edison and his assistants tried around 3,000 experiments to perfect their light bulb design. By the end of 1880, Edison had produced a bulb that lasted 1,500 hours. Edison coined the words, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration,"2 and we have him to thank for sticking to his vision until it became a reality that today lights up billions of light bulbs around the world.
The Wright brothers would not be the famous dual inventors who brought the airplane into existence if they had stopped with the first aircraft they built which flew on their first-best flight for only fifteen seconds and covered three hundred feet. No, they went on experimenting until, behold, they flew for hours and into the history books.3
Jesus himself did not fold in the face of an impossible task of taking up the cup of suffering through his crucifixion. So vivid and heavy is this scene in biblical scripture that it reads, "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."4 This passage obviously, literally means that Jesus was so intense in staying the course, in keeping his resolve, in being one with the Father that he sweat profusely as he prayed that dreadful night in Gethsemane. He would not, did not, let God or himself down but persevered to the end, and he is still continuing through two thousand years of human history.
These three admirable, diverse, and unrelated examples of human accomplishments demonstrate that success is not brought about by scattering one’s energies or by diluting one’s efforts with extraneous and unnecessary concerns or actions. If you want to pierce a steel wall with a blowtorch, you cannot do it by moving the searing blue flame about. No, you have to hold the flame in one place and then the metal will melt and a hole will be made in an otherwise, seemingly impenetrable, formidable wall.
1King James Bible: 1Thessalonians 5:16-18, Website Link
2Home Science Tools, The Gateway to Discovery, Website Link
3Home Science Tools, The Gateway to Discovery, Website Link
4King James Version of the Bible, Chapter 22, Verse 44, Website Link
Human Freedom: The Obtaining of It and the Maintaining of it Begins in the Human Heart
How does this apply to the Awaken the Sleeping Giant prayer project? You and I are involved in a project for God. This is not something that was just dreamed up. It came from above through the direct intervening action of the master, Jesus Christ. This single factor alone moved me to act and to continue to act. It is a privilege, but more than that, it is a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to make a significant contribution and difference in the world and in ourselves. In this eighth week of praying, it is not a time to let down but to understand even more clearly what we are doing and why we are doing it in seeking to awaken the sleeping giant of America.
We are America. We are all citizens equally. There are no greater or lesser Americans. There are no important and unimportant Americans. As citizens of the United States, we are recognized by our Declaration of Independence as being endowed by God "with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."5
As we all have heard so many times over the years, these privileges of being an American citizen come with a price. Freedom comes with a price, and that price is constant vigilance that these freedoms are not taken away or invaded! But where does this constant vigilance and freedom need to exist first and foremost?
Human freedom, the obtaining of it, and the maintaining of it, begins in the human heart. I don’t care whether you are successful in the worldly sense or not. Whatever such success brings to your public image or your pocket book or billfold, unless you are free in your heart, you are not free!
5Declaration of Independence, Website Link
Live up to Our Highest, Most Awakened State of Existence in God
Many wealthy persons have collapsed and died, not from the weight of their wealth, but from the weight of a guilty conscience. In their private lives, they were plagued by thoughts, feelings, and actions that caused them to be enslaved to addictive behavior with overeating, drugs, drinking, extra marital affairs, pornography, gossip, a great tendency to be critical and judgmental of others, and on and on. While they may have been free in their bodies, they were not free in their minds and thus not free in their hearts. All of this leads to greatly inhibiting thoughts and feelings that affect the whole body and, most especially, the human physical heart. Of course, my example does not pertain just to the wealthy who live a life of conflict; it pertains to all of us.
And that is my next point: Before we began this prayer project to Awaken the Sleeping Giant, I saw our nation in a dream as a giant sleeping. This image, this symbolic representation of America as a giant, may cause us to see the giant as an object outside of ourselves, so much so that we do not realize that it represents all of us. When we do not live up to our divine nature in God but rest in complacency, we may experience gradual decline in the spiritual part of our lives.
Further, we may tend to look at the institutions that comprise the foundation of any working nation as the culprit, saying to ourselves that they have fallen asleep in representing, leading, and serving the nation, resulting in the angel’s warning in my dream that our nation is a sleeping giant. But the truth is, we are all guilty and all responsible for the decline of this nation when we do not take personal responsibility to live up to our highest, most awakened state of existence in God. And I don’t care what your religion is, when it comes to the basic principles of all faiths, they all esteem virtue, service, sacrifice, and holiness as means unto the end of finding one’s true, eternal, divine self and God. At the same time, religions universally eschew wasting life, abusing others and self, wasting time and money, being self-centered, being selfish, and more.
Awakening the Sleeping Giant is an Inside, Personal Concern
So we can see that the case of the sleeping giant is not an outside concern. It is a personal, inside concern. If we want to place blame for the decline of a nation exclusively upon the backs of its leaders we can, but it is dishonest to do so. After all, leaders, like us, are just human beings. They are not without the possibility of failure or wrong thinking or wrong action. Even though they play a different role than others, they are human beings. As such, they are as vulnerable to all of the shortcomings and downfalls that the rest of us are, though at times some of them would like us to think otherwise.
They and we all have to transcend our earthly human nature to bring forth and attain our divine nature, the God Presence within us, as the temple of God. After all, scripture clearly tells us that we are made in the image and likeness of God.6
We are all accountable as to how we use our life’s energies. Ignored or misused, these energies can and do anesthetize us; they put us to sleep and cause us to become indifferent to our life as well as the lives of others. The drug addict, at his worst, epitomizes exactly this situation. But all of us are in need of examining our lives as to where we are not using our life’s energies to our betterment, or even to our detriment. I dare say, most of us do not clearly know our divine nature but succumb many times to just the opposite nature. To illustrate the point, I include here something very revealing about us as human beings and about how we should live. This information is found in a quote by our fourth President, James Madison, authored by him in the early 1800s:
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.7
Madison’s point is well made: Angels, being pure in heart, know how to correctly love under all conditions and therefore know how to govern themselves and others with this love.
6Gen. 1:26 - Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." Website Link
7Federalist no. 51, Website Link
A Study of Our Divine Nature is the Key to Awakening
A study of our divine nature is the key to awakening from being spiritually asleep to living up to our fullest potential: The last four months of 1994 were a living hell for me. I was at the height of my career. I had many successes under my proverbial belt. Then it happened! I woke one morning late in September with a sore throat. To make a long story short, it did not, would not, go away no matter what I did. I was deeply worried that I might have some fatal disease. I languished for lack of energy, for not only was my sore throat bothering me, my morale hit an all-time low. I lay on my bed or on the couch for weeks, unable to sustain any energy level long enough to do much of anything. I was desperate and frankly, afraid.
Of course, I started praying from the beginning. I also saw four doctors over a span of three months, but they could not solve the mystery of my illness. I continued to pray. I did eventually find a person who discovered the source of my problem, but his cure did not take hold immediately, if at all. I still languished, and I still rose each day with a sore throat. If his "medicine" actually healed me, I will never know, and here is the rest of the story:
I finally became so exasperated and frustrated that I told Heavenly Father, "I want to be healed by Christmas day!" And I meant it.
That night I had a dream of a huge, deeply blackened, roaring three-mile-wide tornado on the horizon to the west, heading for our house. I was filled with paralyzing fear, but then I became so enraged at the idea that this evil looking thing, this tornado, was going to destroy my house that my rage turned into action, and I shouted at the top of my lungs, "Stop!"
Immediately the tornado died, and the skies became filled with a great span of golden sunlight set against the backdrop of wide-open, beautiful blue skies. In a second, the scene went from potential tragedy to supreme happiness. The next morning I woke up, and my long enduring sore throat was gone completely, with not a trace of it to be felt. It was Christmas morning! And it never came back again.
While my healing may not be labeled by some as miraculous, it does bring up a most important point about proper self-love and self-empowerment: God lives within us. Do we really believe it and live our lives as if this were so? God is all-powerful and all capable, and when we look at ourselves as less than powerful and all capable (in a heavenly way) through the presence of God in us, we are not living up to the image and likeness of God within us!
When I found I had no sore throat on Christmas day, I rejoiced greatly for two reasons: First, at last I was healed! Secondly, I knew that through the dream, my Heavenly Father was trying to get me to realize that I am master of my body and soul by virtue of releasing his power in me through absolute trust in him. My commanding the tornado to stop released this powerful God Presence from the core of my soul, which, in turn, pervaded every cell and atom of my whole being and radically transformed my body from one of illness to one of being completely healed and healthy.
More on Our Divine Nature and Bringing it Forth
I recently wrote someone who was worried and depressed by circumstances in her life that seem to inundate her with feelings of impossibility. In part, I wrote:
Tell the universe what you want and don't veer from it. What you put out in your intention is what will come back. Set dates and hold to them as if everything is happening just as you want it to happen. ... There are many wishful thinkers and hopeful souls. But those who set their minds to win are those that win. ... Energy follows strength, conviction, determination, clarity, decisiveness, boldness. But energy also follows weakness, lack of conviction, non-determination, confusion, indecisiveness, and timidity. I learned in recent years to be the one to count on me, to believe in me, to promote me. I do not wait for others to say, "Great work, well done, good choice, Philip." No, if such information does not come from within, it gives any of us very little conviction or, therefore, drive to do and to be a success. ... Move with faith and determination and the universe moves with you.
The woman wrote me back expressing much gratitude for helping to clarify her own thoughts and feelings. All I was doing was seeking to awaken the sleeping giant in her. I can take little or no credit, for it was Heavenly Father who taught me—as in my tornado dream and on other occasions—that we are most successful, most empowered when we believe in God within us. We can and must release his powerful, loving, wise presence from within that is held captive behind the prison bars of fear, guilt, misguided love (including hate), and often an inferiority complex—the four so-called demons that psychology also recognizes as four principal trouble-makers in the realm of personal emotions.
All problems, psychologists tell us, can be traced back to one of these four root causes as being the source of human suffering. And the more one examines their problems at their root, the more they will find that this is so.8
It has become self-evident for most of you participating in this prayer undertaking that, for you, the real awakening that matters most and that is taking place most obviously is right within you. And no matter how much we pray for others, our best efforts will not cause anyone to wake up, though it may cause them to look inside and begin the process themselves. For while we pray for our people under the grace of God, it is as each one stirs and awakens by personal choice and effort that change for the better comes about.
Focus on the Space Within the Cup and Not Upon the Cup
A wise living master explained to his students the reason for suffering by using a cup as a metaphor. I thought it was brilliant because it explains not only why we suffer but also how we can rise above our suffering. The master explained that our earthly life is like a cup; its uniqueness, its shape, texture, color, size and so on is our earthly self, our mission or dharma in this life on earth. It is strictly earthly and important for this time while we are in a body on this plane of existence. He went on to explain that within the cup is a space, and this space is our real self, our eternal, limitless, God-presence self. While this space interfaces with the cup and its function, it is not limited to the cup but is a part of unending space. In other words, this space partakes of the infinite spirit of God. When you focus on this inner space within the cup instead of limiting yourself to focusing only upon the cup, then your life changes, and you are living in the full and extended reality of your true self.
To me, this story illustrates becoming aware of one’s infinite potential, the giant within, or God within. We have to awaken to this in order to bring forth the amazing, beautiful, infinite beings that we are. It is to this existence within that we are called and how we awaken the sleeping giant. Since God is the source, there is simply no other higher or better answer to what it means to awaken the sleeping giant. This is the goal of each one of us and for all people everywhere.
"Greater is he [God] that is in you, than he that is in the world."9
So why we suffer, in essence, is because we see ourselves as the cup and not the endless spiritual presence that we are inside, extending out into the universe in all directions from the cup. We identify with this body and our earthly life destiny and not with who we are in spirit. Herein lies the making of our own personal entrapment.
8Prayer Can Change Your Life, Experiments and Techniques in Prayer Therapy, by William R. Parker and Elaine St. Johns, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632, Copyright 1957, pg 60
9Bible - 1 John 4:4 – King James Version, Website Link
Watch the Giant that You Are Awaken as Never Before
You are not your body. And if you watch very carefully, you will find that you are not your thoughts or feelings either. You are that "he" in the words, "He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world." You are the everlasting, silent, all-loving, all-encompassing, ever-compassionate, all-knowing being, with a capital "B", who is light and life itself.
Focus here in your life with all your might, in all earnestness, and you will awaken to what Jesus awakened to, your own Christ presence. Jesus was the man. Christ was his infinite, eternal, unconditional loving nature and being.
Awaken now to who and what you truly are. And when you pray, pray from your vast, endless self whose abilities are gigantic and whose nature is humble and always wanting to serve more than wanting to be served. When you pray, do not pray small prayers but pray mighty prayers (not necessarily in a loud voice).
Never pray out of weakness or negativity, but pray with strength and in loving receptivity. Then watch how your prayers are answered. Pray from the very center of your emotions or heart and keep always in mind that you are directly connected to the Source of all life. Pray so, act so, and watch the giant that you are awaken as never before.
Prayer to Awaken the Sleeping Giant
Closing Comments
Thank you all for attending this eighth in a series of prayers for our country. Let us all keep the promise and remember to remember to attend to our sacred prayer duty, first for ourselves and secondly for others and our country of the United States of America.
God bless and good night.