The White Wing Report

Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith

Michael Bernard Beckwith is the founder and Spiritual Director of the Agape International Spiritual Center in Los Angeles, California.

The Agape Vision

Michael Bernard Beckwith’s dream of what eventually became the Agape International Spiritual Center began with a vision of a community based on love, spiritual truths, and service to encompass all denominations. In 1986 Michael’s vision became a reality. Today the Center has over 10,000 members in the LA area where it is located. However Agape influences millions of spiritual seekers worldwide.

"Agape" is Greek for the type of love that is unconditional. The goal of Agape’s work is “love in action, love made manifest in our beautiful world,” says Michael. Michael tells the story of the creation of Agape in his book, “Spiritual Liberation-Fulfilling Your Soul's Potential.” It was not all easy. It involved huge amounts of trust and prayer on the parts of many of the initial members.

Today Michael influences those on their spiritual journey through Agape, his University of Transformational Studies and Leadership and his many books, television, and radio appearances. Perhaps most well known after appearing on Oprah when the movie “The Secret” came out, Michael has also co-founded The Association for Global New Thought and participated in a panel at the Parliament of the Worlds Religions in Spain in 2004. Among his many awards for his spiritual work are The Martin Luther King Peace Award and The 2004 Africa Peace Award. The world has responded very positively to Michael’s teachings. Michael Beckwith has hit a spiritual nerve and truly is one of the great spiritual heroes of our time.

1. What is The Best Spiritual Advice You Were Ever Given and Who Gave it To You?

"On the subject of advice, there is an old saying that goes like this, “The worst vice in the world is advice.” There is truth in this statement because very often when giving advice the tendency is more to teach and tell rather than to guide individuals to the discovery that the answers are already within them, that through their choice-making—whether conscious or unconscious—they harvest the results of those choices.

"So in the spirit of your question, I received inspiring guidance from one of my first spiritual teachers, the late Dr. Homer Johnson. He encouraged me to go “upstairs.” What he meant by this was that although the life challenges we face are primarily in the physical or mental life structures, the solutions are always spiritual. They are found within, in our spiritual practices and inner work. Whenever I found myself in confusion, in a conundrum, whether it be in the area of relationship, or finances, and so on, he would say to me, “Michael, you’re an ‘upstairs boy.’ Go upstairs and harmonize yourself with your inherent wholeness and it will guide you. You won’t be able to solve your problem with mental might or by trying to analyze it.”

2. What is The Best Spiritual Advice You Can Give To Help People Today?

"That’s easy: Refer to question number 1!

"Okay…I’ll add a little to that. It’s good to remind ourselves on a regular basis that rather than trying to solve our challenges we can instead choose to evolve beyond them. We’re fully equipped to do this by aligning our consciousness with the evolutionary impulse of the universe for the purpose of expanding our perceptions, our points of view, which provides us the wisdom and clarity to make skillful choices that benefit both us and our world. We can ask ourselves, “In this challenge, what quality am I being asked to evolve so that it no longer has any power over me?” This is exactly what I not only teach in the Life Visioning Process (LVP), but practice in all areas of my personal life and in guiding the mission of the Agape International Spiritual Center. With such a shift of our focus, we become candidates for revelatory moments that allow us to see a way where previously there appeared to be no way."

3. What is Your Vision For 2010 and Beyond?

"In my interactions with individuals, both in the U.S. and abroad, I’m observing that that which we designate as being “spiritual” is increasingly becoming more integrated into our everyday activities. Not only on a personal level, but also in the workplace, in entertainment, the sciences, even some television programs, movies, and in advertising.

"The collective consciousness is evolving into an understanding that spirituality is not simply about our religious affiliation, but how we live our life once we’ve left the church, mosque, synagogue, or temple. The ego is bending its knee before the understanding that there is an overarching Presence governing our world through cosmic law, that we live in a friendly universe united as one on the altar of our common Source. Becoming a beneficial presence on the planet is replacing living life on the “me plan”; it’s uprooting the ego’s authoritarian sway and making room for the realization that globalization refers not only to economics, but to the great web of Existence."

Michael Bernard Beckwith Quotes

"My philosophy for living is simple: Life is love in action"

"...each soul has a unique romance with the Spirit."

"You are at a choice-point in every moment of each circumstance, each activity, spoken word and thought"

"We are on the planet to be and express the Divine Love of God that is alive in every fiber of our being, waiting to be released through us onto our world. Living as love is a way of life that brings heaven on earth."

"Regardless of what has happened to you in your life, regardless of how young or how old you think you might be, the moment you begin to think properly, this something that is within you, this power within you that's greater than the world, it will begin to emerge. It will take over your life. It will feed you, it will clothe you, it will guide you, protect you, direct you, sustain your very existence. If you let it!"

"...we are not on the earth to be mere problem solvers, to live life having just enough to get by, mistaking this for non-materialism or spiritual living. Nor does it mean that we drown ourselves in consumerism so that we may remain anti-bored until we die. What I am talking about is accepting the abundance of joy, love, harmony, creativity and enlightenment that is our divine inheritance as beings made in the image and likeness of that which we call God.

"When I think about the stands that I take, whether it’s for peace or for every boy and girl on the planet to have enough to eat, or for everyone to have proper medical care or shelter or access to education, I am actually describing a vision of a world that works for everyone. The world changes as individuals are able to describe a vision and walk in that direction."

"Spiritual practice leads to insight and revelation."

Contact Agape: www.agapelive.com

White Wing Entertainment