The Wizard Of Oz

Aloha,

I'm Rev.

Cindy Palos,

And I wanted to talk about The Wizard of Oz.

Oh,

What a great story.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

I was really influenced as a child by watching this movie,

And I still am amazed by it.

You know,

There's this longing expressed in the song,

Somewhere Over the Rainbow,

That resonates so well.

Of course,

Judy Garland did a beautiful job singing that with her pigtails braids there,

With her dog,

Toto,

And she just faced some hard challenges.

Her dog that she loved was going to be taken away from her.

So she went and sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

There's got to be a place where we don't have where we don't have these problems,

The bluebirds fly.

And of course,

That song was done over by Brother Iz,

Who was from Hawaii,

And it reached so many people,

It became one of the biggest songs ever recorded from Hawaii.

And he combined it with a beautiful song.

Also,

He did it with a song called A Wonderful World.

You know that song,

What a Wonderful World?

So there's a couple of elements that are so basic that happens in fairy tales,

Of course,

And in movies that are so classic.

Now,

The whole story and theme has such an esoteric and significant spiritual meaning to it.

When you have problems,

We start thinking there's got to be a place,

You know,

Somewhere,

There's got to be a place where bluebirds fly.

And the birds fly and the birds fly there over the rainbow,

Why can't I?

So and then rainbows,

Of course,

Have such a beautiful meaning and feeling.

And so with her intense hope to find that place,

She does.

Dorothy finds her place over the rainbow,

And she follows the yellow brick road.

And yeah,

What a journey the yellow brick road was,

Right?

She meets her companions and then she also finds that there's the wicked witches.

There's a good witch and there's a bad witch.

So even in heaven and over the rainbow,

Even over the rainbow,

Which reflected what was on earth,

And if you follow it,

The wicked witch actually was played by the person who was going to take her dog away.

So we have that same conflict,

Even over the rainbow that arises.

But what does she have to do?

She has to do the hero's journey.

She has to go find the right key to overcome her problems.

And so she follows the yellow brick road to see the great wizard.

I love that scene where she goes off with her wonderful companions who need something,

You know,

You got to have a heart.

Yeah.

Got to have a mind.

You know,

You need courage.

So they join her to find their answers.

They need their answers.

The Wizard of Oz must have the answer.

And the optimistic voices.

I love that song where they sing,

You know,

Step into the light,

You know,

Let the doors to Oz open.

And it seems so wonderful when they find the land,

The Emerald City.

So beautiful.

It's so heavenly.

And they're finally going to meet Oz.

Oz,

The great wizard who has the answers and can give them everything they want can be given to them by the great wizard.

But the smart dog Toto pulls away the person who's manipulating Oz and it's just a man.

But he tells them he still can give them what they want.

He gives them a certificate,

But he gives them some wise advice besides the certificate.

He says,

You know,

You already have this.

You already have a heart.

You already have a mind.

You already have the courage.

You know,

The lion needed courage.

The lion did have courage to face Oz.

You know,

There was a heart.

There was a heart in the Tin Man with his love.

And there was a mind in the Straw Man.

Such a beautiful story.

But we can learn from that story,

Can't we?

We always think we can have more than we want somewhere over the rainbow.

We think there's someone that can give us what we don't have.

You know,

We are unfortunately told by many,

Many people,

Especially people who sell things,

That we need what they sell to be what we want to be.

That we need what they have.

We need that certificate to prove that we've got what we need.

And we go through these journeys to have to convince ourselves that we are good enough,

That we have that heart,

That we already have that mind.

We already have that courage.

Because it's there inside us.

And once Dorothy got her answer,

She was able to take that balloon and get back to where she was.

And she realized it was all just a dream.

Or maybe it was a dream,

Or maybe it wasn't a dream,

Right?

I think that we all wish that there was a place over the rainbow where there were no problems and the birds fly over the rainbow.

And I think there is some truth to that.

I mean,

I live in Hawaii,

And a lot of people consider this to be paradise.

Heaven on earth.

Yet I've been here 33 years,

And I can tell you,

There are many,

Many,

Many,

Many things that are not what we think of paradise or want to think of paradise here.

And there are many problems that we have here that we never escape from if we came here to escape.

Because the only answers to what we want to solve is right there inside us.

Now I've been meditating for 55 years,

And I know that along the way,

I still fall prey to thinking,

Gosh,

If I had this,

I could do that better.

If I did this,

If I did this,

Then I can maybe be that.

And here's what I've been finding lately,

And it's a hard lesson.

And I want to share it with you,

Because maybe you can avoid the pitfalls of hard lessons.

I've been saying a prayer for a long time.

Lord,

Reveal to me what needs to be revealed so I can heal what needs to be healed.

Now,

As I've said this sometimes,

The revelation has been,

Most often lately for me,

That the people I gave power to,

That I was turning my energy over to because I thought they could give me something I didn't have,

Really were not giving me what I thought I could get from them.

And that by allowing them to control my energy and me,

I was losing a part of myself that knew better what was the truth inside myself.

And I don't blame them because I allowed them to teach me the lesson that I needed,

Which was something I had to,

Again,

Turn back into myself and find I didn't need them for.

So I see this happening in quite a few people on the spiritual path.

And when a lot of people I've known through the years have gone and tried to find teachers,

They have been many times disillusioned by the gurus or the teachers.

And they found,

Just like the Wizard of Oz,

That the Wizard just had a very,

Very big,

Impressive face,

Lights,

And people really thought this wizard was the answer.

But the answer really has always been there inside you.

And it's a painful thing sometimes for people who have given a lot of money and time in their life to thinking that this other thing was going to give them what they need.

We all want that,

Right?

We're going to spend time and give a lot of ourselves to have the other person give us what we need.

Now,

Other people certainly can,

Yes,

Give us advice and help us.

But when we really turn our whole power over to them,

And then they want us to do things that may not be in alignment with our higher selves or with our values,

If there are maybe little things along the way you give up,

You might not notice it.

But somewhere along the way,

You might go,

I don't really feel like that's the right thing to do.

Or maybe that's really not my path.

That's their path.

And they were just trying to use me to gain more power.

Do any of you relate to that?

Can any of you on this path said that's happened to you?

Because I've known a lot of people in the path that have thought that if they did this,

Or if they did that course,

Or if they get this certificate,

Or if they got that,

If they only had this or that,

You know,

And sometimes they think,

Well,

If I pay more money and get a bigger thing,

I'm going to get a better thing.

And I can certainly understand why you think that,

My gosh,

Some of these marketing tools and things that they're selling now are pretty impressive.

And I'm not saying you won't get something,

You will.

But most everything you get is going to point you back to dealing with something inside yourself.

And you'll click your heels three times,

Your little red slippers,

And you'll turn in a circle and say,

There's no place like home.

There's no place like home.

And as you say,

There's no place like home,

Where do you go?

You go right back there inside to your real home where the bluebird of happiness is waiting in your own backyard.

And you see what you have maybe in a different light now,

Maybe in a different perspective.

And you may be content with what you've got and what you have from that higher perspective.

And that,

That my friend,

Might be the greatest gift that you can find.

And it may take a lifetime or it may just take a short period of time till you wake up to realize some of these things.

I know some of this takes a lot of courage because a lot of people in the spiritual path have been very hurt and have been looking for something,

Always something more to ease that pain and that hurt.

And I was confronted with this many times along my path,

But something in me wasn't ready to be healed.

Something in me thought,

No,

I could do this and get that.

Or if I get this,

Then I'll be happy with that.

But you know what?

It doesn't,

It doesn't always work that way.

You know,

I've known many,

Many,

Many,

Many people who have in Beverly Hills where I was raised,

They had everything that many people would only dream about in a lifetime.

I mean,

Multi,

Multi-million dollar homes and parents that were famous.

That was when I was in Beverly Hills High School.

And you know what?

They were very unhappy.

Some of them got Ferraris when they turned 16.

Some of them,

Actually,

I knew a lady that got a Rolls Royce when she turned 16.

And believe me,

These were not happy people.

Because your happiness isn't based on what you get.

It's based on what you are and how content you are inside with where you are.

So why not just find that inner place within?

That place you already have right there inside your soul that is connecting to the greatest source of all love and all light and all happiness that's right there within you.

All you have to do is stop and meditate and be still and believe.

Just believe that you have this greatest gift,

That greatest love of all,

That greatest love of all right there inside you.

It is there inside you.

All the great teachers have told you this.

Buddha,

Christ,

Muhammad,

All the different masters.

They knew this.

They knew that after their path led them there,

That that was what they found inside them.

But it wasn't until as Buddha finally found that he was willing to stop and just give it his all and not move from that Bodhi tree until he got enlightened.

And then,

You know,

All of a sudden he was there.

You know,

All of a sudden it was always there.

All of a sudden he achieved that place inside that he was able to be awakened and see the morning star.

And we are the same,

Right?

We are not different in any way from that.

And if you were to just really be ready to just stop and be enlightened,

You would be enlightened.

But sometimes we need to follow that yellow brick road until like Elton John said in one of his great albums,

Goodbye yellow brick road.

Somewhere along the way you go,

Ah,

Yes,

That's way,

That wasn't what I thought it was,

You know.

So goodbye yellow brick road,

I'm back.

Let's just do a little,

A little trip inside on the other side of the rainbow.

Let's just breathe in and breathe out and just let yourself feel anything you're feeling and scan your head and your mind and your jaw and your ease and your eyes and let light fill all parts of your head.

All the light there,

Let it shine bright,

Bright,

Bright.

Allow the light in your throat,

Creative chakra to be full of that beautiful blue energy that you have right there in your creative center.

Allow yourself to come down into your heart of hearts and feel the love that you've always wanted right there inside of you.

Breathe it in,

Breathe deep,

Be aware of how wonderful that unconditional love is inside of you.

Ah,

Feels so good.

Allow yourself to feel the beauty of this wonderful spot.

Breathing in and allowing the love there to grow and grow and glow with a wonderful light and let that light come down into your third chakra and let it circulate around,

Calling in the light there.

Ah,

And coming on down to the feeling second chakra and fill that whole energy with the gift of who you are and your true feeling self that's so pure and good and loving in that peach light.

And breathe in and come down to your root chakra.

How good and beautiful is that ruby red light in the base of your spine and allow that light to go through you and down and out your feet,

Feeling your thighs and your knees and your calves,

Feeling with light and allow that light to go all the way up into the top of your head and out into your beautiful lotus chakra.

Oh,

And feel that lotus blossoming and alive and allow it to go through your crown chakra and up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up over the rainbow and hundreds of feet and back down,

Bringing that rainbow of light to surround your entire body in front of you,

Behind you,

In front of you,

Down through you,

On either side of you.

You are a rainbow,

Beautiful,

Pure light and love and protected now.

Bathe in this wonderful rainbow energy of who you are.

You are the rainbow.

You are the I am that I am.

You are the other side of the light from the source of all meant to be here right now.

Just let's dwell in this light of who you are and allow yourself to feel that light and be that light.

Breathing in,

Breathing out and now just let yourself be aware that you are the true source of your own happiness.

When you are connected to your true soul,

Your true spirit,

Your true beingness from all that is that center of all light,

That source of all unconditional love,

That gift that everyone really wants and it's free right here and now for you if you accept it.

Will you accept the love and the light that you are?

Then if you accept it,

You know that you have what you need to get by.

And if you share this gift of light and love in your beingness and in your life,

You are able to spread that light and love for free in everything that you are and that you do.

And that will then bring that light and love of happiness back to you a hundredfold,

A millionfold.

So let's take that light and love that you experience that you are right now.

Let's send it out to the world and allow that light to circle the entire planet.

Breathing it in and sending that light to surround all of the entire planet with love.

See that light joining the world as one,

As all the pockets of darkness and strife and the clouds get dissipated by that wonderful light from the source of all that God that we have there within us.

Breathe it in and allow that energy to come back and say,

Thank you God.

Thank you God for giving me the greatest gift of all.

Your love,

Your light,

Your beingness,

Your gift of being alive here and now.

And now if anything has come to you that you feel you want to write down or make a note of,

You can do that.

As we slowly come back to that center there within you,

That beautiful space of light and love that you are.

I thank you for taking this time to be with me,

To following that source of all light and love,

The path beyond the rainbow that comes right back to where you are right now.

Much love and light to you always my friend.