Kathy Smith explores the quotes from Experience Your Perfect Soul and shares from her contemplation of them.
Listen to the audio
A universal assembly for true discernment
Kathy Smith explores the quotes from Experience Your Perfect Soul and shares from her contemplation of them.
Listen to the audio
Rev. Kelly Barber discussed “Deciding how and when to use my time”.
The reading was from Way of Mastery. Kelly did her own reading
Today we begin our fifth review period. The review introduction says, “This time we are ready to give more effort and more time to what we undertake … that we may go on again more certain, more sincere, with faith upheld more surely.”
There is a beautiful prayer in the review introduction, one you may want to read at the beginning of each day of this review period:
Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still, and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word, and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a little child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him.
So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, You will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us.
And then we are asked to contemplate this thought as we review lessons 151-170:
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
Here is my recommendation for this review:
Trust whatever comes to you. Remember you have prayed for guidance to lead your practice. Remember that guidance is always individualized to fit each person perfectly, and then trust the guidance that comes to you each day of this review period.
For your convenience, I will provide links to my tips for each lesson that is reviewed throughout this review period.
“Let us raise our hearts from dust to life” as we let intuition guide our individual practice throughout this review period.
And now for Review Lesson 171:
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
(151) All things are echoes of the Voice for God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
(152) The power of decision is my own.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception. When you think that you attack in self-defense, you mean that to be cruel is protection; you are safe because of cruelty. You mean that you believe to hurt another brings you freedom. And you mean that to attack is to exchange the state in which you are for something better, safer, more secure from dangerous invasion and from fear.
How thoroughly insane is the idea that to defend from fear is to attack! For here is fear begot and fed with blood, to make it grow and swell and rage. And thus is fear protected, not escaped. Today we learn a lesson which can save you more delay and needless misery than you can possibly imagine. It is this:
You make what you defend against, and by your own
defense against it is it real and inescapable. Lay down
your arms, and only then do you perceive it false.
It seems to be the enemy without that you attack. Yet your defense sets up an enemy within; an alien thought at war with you, depriving you of peace, splitting your mind into two camps which seem wholly irreconcilable. For love now has an “enemy,” an opposite; and fear, the alien, now needs your defense against the threat of what you really are.
If you consider carefully the means by which your fancied self-defense proceeds on its imagined way, you will perceive the premises on which the idea stands. First, it is obvious ideas must leave their source, for it is you who make attack, and must have first conceived of it. Yet you attack outside yourself, and separate your mind from him who is to be attacked, with perfect faith the split you made is real.
Next, are the attributes of love bestowed upon its “enemy.” For fear becomes your safety and protector of your peace, to which you turn for solace and escape from doubts about your strength, and hope of rest in dreamless quiet. And as love is shorn of what belongs to it and it alone, love is endowed with attributes of fear. For love would ask you lay down all defense as merely foolish. And your arms indeed would crumble into dust. For such they are.
With love as enemy, must cruelty become a god. And gods demand that those who worship them obey their dictates, and refuse to question them. Harsh punishment is meted out relentlessly to those who ask if the demands are sensible or even sane. It is their enemies who are unreasonable and insane, while they are always merciful and just.
Today we look upon this cruel god dispassionately. And we note that though his lips are smeared with blood, and fire seems to flame from him, he is but made of stone. He can do nothing. We need not defy his power. He has none. And those who see in him their safety have no guardian, no strength to call upon in danger, and no mighty warrior to fight for them.
This moment can be terrible. But it can also be the time of your release from abject slavery. You make a choice, standing before this idol, seeing him exactly as he is. Will you restore to love what you have sought to wrest from it and lay before this mindless piece of stone? Or will you make another idol to replace it? For the god of cruelty takes many forms. Another can be found.
Yet do not think that fear is the escape from fear. Let us remember what the text has stressed about the obstacles to peace. The final one, the hardest to believe is nothing, and a seeming obstacle with the appearance of a solid block, impenetrable, fearful and beyond surmounting, is the fear of God Himself. Here is the basic premise which enthrones the thought of fear as god. For fear is loved by those who worship it, and love appears to be invested now with cruelty.
Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from? Love has not confused its attributes with those of fear. Yet must the worshippers of fear perceive their own confusion in fear’s “enemy”; its cruelty as now a part of love. And what becomes more fearful than the Heart of Love Itself? The blood appears to be upon His Lips; the fire comes from Him. And He is terrible above all else, cruel beyond conception, striking down all who acknowledge Him to be their God.
The choice you make today is certain. For you look for the last time upon this bit of carven stone you made, and call it god no longer. You have reached this place before, but you have chosen that this cruel god remain with you in still another form. And so the fear of God returned with you. This time you leave it there. And you return to a new world, unburdened by its weight; beheld not in its sightless eyes, but in the vision that your choice restored to you.
Now do your eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through them. Now your voice belongs to God and echoes His. And now your heart remains at peace forever. You have chosen Him in place of idols, and your attributes, given by your Creator, are restored to you at last. The Call for God is heard and answered. Now has fear made way for love, as God Himself replaces cruelty.
Father, we are like You. No cruelty abides in us, for there is none in You. Your peace is ours. And we bless the world with what we have received from You alone. We choose again, and make our choice for all our brothers, knowing they are one with us. We bring them Your salvation as we have received it now. And we give thanks for them who render us complete. In them we see Your glory, and in them we find our peace. Holy are we because Your Holiness has set us free. And we give thanks. Amen.
The sole purpose of today’s lesson is to encourage us to give up attack.
First, the lesson helps us look with clarity at why we attack. It’s because we are afraid, and we think we can protect ourselves through attack. (Note: Our attack could be acted out, like raising our voice with someone, or it could be internal, like thinking attack thoughts about someone.)
Second, the lesson points out that when we attack, fear is protected, not escaped. This is the same teaching as in The Untethered Soul. It says, “You’re locking your illness inside yourself, and it will only get worse … if you protect yourself, you will never be free. It’s that simple.”
Finally, the lesson recommends that we save ourselves “more delay and needless misery than you can possibly imagine” by giving up attack.
Attack is a habit, and like any habit, it isn’t easy to give up. However, we can give up attack. I am writing this as someone who has successfully given up that particular habit, and the habit of attack was as strong in me as it is in anyone. In fact, this workbook lesson was my least favorite workbook lesson, because I thought I was cruel. I thought cruelty was at the base of my nature. It wasn’t. There is no cruelty in my nature, and there is none in yours. All attack comes from attachment to thought.
How do we give up attack? First, we need the desire to give it up. Once we have the desire, we follow-through by doing our best each and every time the energy of attack arises in us. If we keep trying, eventually the habit of attack dies.
Remember, when you give something your attention and belief, it is increased. When you take away attention and belief, it dies. This means the more you give in to the energy of attack, the more the energy of attack arises. As you begin to resist the urge to attack by watching the energy with a centered state of mind, it weakens. If you keep up the practice of resisting attack as the observer, that energy eventually dies.
The desire to give up attack has to come first. It needs to be a heart-felt desire, not merely another thought. One way to evoke a heart-felt desire to give up attack is to pay more attention when you do attack. Pay attention to how you feel when you attack. Pay attention to the general energy that is occurring in the relationship when you attack. Is this the feel you really want in your life?
It’s important to look at attack with reason and to ask, “Is this what I want?” We attack because we think it serves us. We need to realize it doesn’t serve us. We want to be infused with the joy of God, not the feelings of attack.
It is also helpful to inquire to discover what is at the root of our attack episodes. For example, let’s assume we’ve done a root cause inquiry and found our sense of unworthiness at the root of one episode. Whatever we give our attention and belief to is energized and increased. Or as The Untethered Soul puts it, we lock that illness inside of ourselves, and it will only get worse. Is that what we want to do, energize and increase our sense of unworthiness? If not, we need to learn not to give in to it.
This is one example of how the movie, Little Buddha, was important to me. When rage would rise in me, and I felt the urge to attack, I would remember Buddha sitting under the tree watching all of the fury that Mara threw out at him. Buddha didn’t give in to those energies, and he didn’t run from them. He silently watched them. He watched them with the awareness that the energies were not his nature. He watched with the knowledge that he wanted to be free (purified) of those energies.
It’s important to realize that there is no cruelty in you. Attack is not a part of your nature. It’s an effect of attachment to thought. Learn to abide as your Self, the centered watcher, and the impermanent energy that was born through belief and involvement will die. Patience, compassion, wisdom and love, which are your nature, will arise naturally in its absence.
Here’s a 14-minute synopsis of the movie, Little Buddha. The inspiring scene that is mentioned above begins at 10 minutes and 30 seconds:
Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world’s most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning, yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift.
Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real.
Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God’s Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home.
We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as One has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind that recognizes truth’s effects on you.
Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say “God is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is.
We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God’s has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state.
This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means.
All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time was ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity. We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done.
For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation’s script in His Creator’s Name, and in the Name of His Creator’s Son.
There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them?
Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God.
Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure. And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while.
The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who see the light that lingers in your face. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth?
Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace, and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has been given us.
Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. Yet in the world, what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him?
By grace I live. By grace I am released.
By grace I give. By grace I will release.
Today’s lesson begins by telling us “grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance.” And then it goes on to say, “Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table” for it.
Yesterday, we looked at Steve Ford’s experience of grace. We saw his readiness demonstrated by how he allowed the experience to complete itself, even when the ego threatened him with madness or death if he were to continue. Even to that he consented. He was fully ready.
What we are doing now is preparing ourselves for the same state of readiness. Each time we see the ego in others or ourselves, we have an opportunity to prepare ourselves. Each time we feel upset, we have an opportunity to prepare ourselves. Each moment of paying attention to awareness is another moment preparing ourselves. We are in the stage of preparing the mind to consent to awakening when grace comes.
There is an interesting paragraph in today’s lesson. Let’s look at it together. It says:
“We have appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as One has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, …”
This paragraph appears to make three contradictory statements.
1 – The time for your awakening has already been set and written into the script.
2 – Your soul-mind has decided when your awakening will be.
3 – Through your willingness, the awakening experience can be hastened; it can come sooner rather than later.
Which is true? Can they all three be true?
NTI says, “This play has many endings, like slits cut in the script, where one can choose to step out of the play.” Maybe that is true; maybe there are many possibilities.
To be perfectly honest, I don’t know what’s true. I don’t know anything about how awakening comes about. And this is the perspective I encourage you to accept as your own.
You see, the mind likes to believe ideas. It gets its identity from believing ideas, including believing spiritual ideas. It wants to decide what it believes about awakening, and by doing so, it subtly claims that idea as ‘mine.’ Each idea of ‘mine,’ strengthens the ‘I’ that is the ego. After all, ego is simply identification with thought.
Therefore, I encourage you not to adopt ideas about awakening. I encourage you not to make spiritual beliefs a part of your ego belief system. Instead, prepare your mind to accept the journey into the unknown, which is the journey of awakening, by getting comfortable living with not knowing now. Abstain from all schools of thought.
In fact, today’s lesson seems to encourage our decision to ‘not know’ when it says, “There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand.” And then it lets us know that, “When your revelation to your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood.”
“Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done.”
What is our part? Preparing ourselves to accept awakening. Let that be our only concern. It is the ego that becomes over-concerned with finding ways to be helpful. Helpfulness occurs naturally as we prepare ourselves for awakening.
So then, our part is this:
~ self-inquiry, which is inquiring into the ego thought system in order to see its ideas are not true and in order to see we are not the false-self, which is made through identification with thought.
~ Self-inquiry, which is glimpsing awareness many times throughout the day & spending more concentrated time in awareness-watching-awareness meditation
~ surrender, which is discerning between intuition and ego, and then following intuition instead of ego
According to our bylaws:
“Voting shall close fourteen days prior to the regular or special election meeting. The candidate receiving the highest number of votes up to the number of Trustees to be elected shall be eligible to serve on the board. Results of the election shall be published to the current Member Board at the election meeting and provided to the membership immediately thereafter.”
In other words, the results of the election will be shared with the Member Board of Trustees at their next meeting on July 17. I will notify the nominees regarding the results immediately following the meeting. I will share the results with members as part of the Daily Update email the next morning, on July 18.
A total of 61 members participated by voting in this election. I totaled the votes and provided them to Barbara Deurwaarder, our Secretary of the Board of Directors, who verified the results. Although the results were very close, two new members have been elected to the Member Board of Trustees. I look forward to sharing more information with you on July 17.
~ Regina Dawn Akers, President-Minister
God speaks to us. Shall we not speak to Him? He is not distant. He makes no attempt to hide from us. We try to hide from Him, and suffer from deception. He remains entirely accessible. He loves His Son. There is no certainty but this, yet this suffices. He will love His Son forever. When his mind remains asleep, He loves him still. And when his mind awakes, He loves him with a never-changing Love.
If you but knew the meaning of His Love, hope and despair would be impossible. For hope would be forever satisfied; despair of any kind unthinkable. His grace His answer is to all despair, for in it lies remembrance of His Love. Would He not gladly give the means by which His Will is recognized? His grace is yours by your acknowledgment. And memory of Him awakens in the mind that asks the means of Him whereby its sleep is done.
Today we ask of God the gift He has most carefully preserved within our hearts, waiting to be acknowledged. This the gift by which God leans to us and lifts us up, taking salvation’s final step Himself. All steps but this we learn, instructed by His Voice. But finally He comes Himself, and takes us in His Arms and sweeps away the cobwebs of our sleep. His gift of grace is more than just an answer. It restores all memories the sleeping mind forgot; all certainty of what Love’s meaning is.
God loves His Son. Request Him now to give the means by which this world will disappear, and vision first will come, with knowledge but an instant later. For in grace you see a light that covers all the world in love, and watch fear disappear from every face as hearts rise up and claim the light as theirs. What now remains that Heaven be delayed an instant longer? What is still undone when your forgiveness rests on everything?
It is a new and holy day today, for we receive what has been given us. Our faith lies in the Giver, not our own acceptance. We acknowledge our mistakes, but He to Whom all error is unknown is yet the One Who answers our mistakes by giving us the means to lay them down, and rise to Him in gratitude and love.
And He descends to meet us, as we come to Him. For what He has prepared for us He gives and we receive. Such is His Will, because He loves His Son. To Him we pray today, returning but the word He gave to us through His Own Voice, His Word, His Love:
Your grace is given me. I claim it now. Father, I come
to You. And You will come to me who ask.
I am the Son You love.