Please take time this morning to read, “What is Salvation,” to contemplate Lesson 233, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:

AWA Description K

I give my life to God today.

Nisargadatta Maharaj said that in order to realize the Self, you need the right teacher. He went on to say:

“Generally speaking, there are two ways: external and internal. Either you live with somebody who knows the Truth and submit yourself entirely to his guiding and shaping influence, or you seek the inner guide and follow the inner light wherever it takes you. In both cases your personal desires and fears must be disregarded. … If you are earnest, whatever way you choose will take you to your goal. It is the earnestness that is the decisive factor.”

Our way is a combination of the external teacher and the internal teacher. We have structure laid out by the external—by A Course in Miracle Workbook for Students, by Gentle Healing Homework Assignments, by Tips from Regina—but most of the time we are left alone with our internal teacher, inner spiritual intuition. Within the structure given by the external, it is the internal we need to submit ourselves to. We submit ourselves to its “guiding and shaping influence” by asking, “What am I to do now?”

Today’s lesson is very clear. An important part of salvation is surrender. We surrender our thoughts, we surrender our actions, and we surrender without questioning the guidance of the teacher. (Note: Nisargadatta does indicate that not all external teachers are trustworthy. Therefore, the wisdom of the internal must guide us in selecting the external.)

It’s important to notice that Nisargadatta said “your personal desires and fears must be disregarded.” If we let our personal desires and fears lead us to ignore the guidance of the teacher, we will remain attached to the ego.

True surrender transcends the personality-mind entirely.

There is a paragraph from The Teachings of Inner Ramana that has been coming to my mind over the last two days. That paragraph says:

“Watch the mind carefully. Notice how it wants to judge my words or judge my methods. Notice how it wants to choose against me and decide what is best for itself. That is the confusion-mechanism. That questioning and doubting feature, which is a core mechanism within the mind, is a separation-creation mechanism that keeps you blind to the truth.”

First, we can ask ourselves if we are remembering to seek the guidance of the inner teacher by asking, “What am I to do now?” Next, we need to ask if we are following the intuition we receive, or are we judging for ourselves whether we want to follow or not?

Yesterday we recommitted to following the instructions laid out by one of our external teachers, A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students. Today, we recommit to seeking guidance from the inner teacher, and we commit to follow the guidance we receive.

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Salvation,” to contemplate Lesson 232, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:

AWA Description J

Be in my mind, my Father, through the day.

Throughout this section of A Course in Miracles Workbooks for Students, we are using this process:

1 – Each day read and contemplate the “special theme” that we are currently working with. Currently that theme is, “What is Salvation?”

2 – Contemplate the day’s workbook lesson.

3 – Spend time in meditation.

4 – Recall the day’s workbook lesson hourly.

5 – Spend at least a brief time with the workbook lesson and/or meditation before going to bed at night.

Maybe you’ve remembered to follow all five steps in this current process, maybe you’ve forgotten part of it, or maybe you decided to skip part of the process because you thought it wasn’t important for you. Today is an opportunity to recommit to the entire process that is requested in this section of the workbook.

I look at it this way: We have been vigilant for the ego. However, we joined this group because there is a calling in us. The calling is to be vigilant for salvation. It’s what we want. That’s why we’re here, so let’s do it.

NTI Luke, Chapter 5 says:

“Old habits must be let go, for old habits will not usher in a new day. With old habits, all things remain the same. But with new habits, all things are possible.

I have come to teach you new habits. You will learn these habits by practicing them as I ask. Remember Me, and practice.

You will catch yourself practicing the old habits, for this has been your way until now. Slipping into old habits does not ruin the new ones. So when you find yourself doing this, forgive yourself your attraction to the old by stepping away from the old and stepping into the new. Each time you do this, you help yourself to unlearn the old and to learn the new.”

So today, let’s remember our desire for salvation and recommit to practicing the workbook lessons in the way the workbook asks us to.

Today we begin a new special theme, “What is Salvation?” Salvation is an idea that has no meaning in truth. Awareness-life-presence is unchanged, so it does not need salvation.

At the same time, attention, which is the moving aspect of presence, has the ability to taste anything it dips into. Since it has dipped deeply into thought, emotion and appearance, it has become confused about what it is. It is like sunlight that shines through a stained glass window. It has taken on the appearance of red and green and blue. However, attention has identified with the appearance, thereby forgetting that it has no color at all.

Salvation is undoing this misidentification. The means of salvation is “failing to support” the misidentification. We do that in two ways:

1. Forgiveness. Instead of believing thought, emotion and appearance, and instead of acting based on belief, we watch thought, emotion and appearance without acting from it. We abide as presence. When we are not able to do that easily, we use inquiry or another forgiveness tool to help us see through and detach from mistaken beliefs.

 

2. Awareness-watching-awareness meditation. Instead of going out into appearance, attention is brought back to its source. When attention pays attention to presence, it sees that it is one with presence and the same as presence. It therefore remembers itself as presence and drops the confusion that it is appearance.

Father, I will but to remember You.

Appearance is full of variety. Therefore, it is tempting to mind and attention. When mind and attention are unleashed, they jump around from one desire to another.

There is nothing wrong with experiencing temporary appearance. Attention was created so that we can experience appearance. However, the grasping energy of desire is a distortion of this ability. I call it a distortion because it is based on a sense of lack. It is based on the idea that I am not fulfilled within my beingness, so I need something else from outside of me to fulfill me.

When we looked at Lesson 185, we looked carefully at our desires. We asked, “Why do I want this thing that I desire? What do I expect to get from it?” We saw that what we really seek is the peace of truth realization. We seek the fulfillment of knowing our Self. That is our true desire.

Today, we remember this again.

If you have 30-minutes for meditation today, and you would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation:

Desire for Truth

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Forgiveness,” to contemplate Lesson 230, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:

AWA Description I

Today is our last day with the special theme, “What is Forgiveness?” If you have time during the day today, listen again to the audio teaching on “What is Forgiveness?”.

Now will I seek and find the peace of God.

The peace of God is not found in thought. Also, thought is not what you are. These statements are keys to finding the peace of God.

The peace of God is not found in thought. – If you observe thought, you will notice there are some joyful, peaceful thoughts, but those thoughts are not constant. All thoughts come and go. When attention is focused on the movement of thought, you experience change. If thoughts are currently joyful or peaceful, you have those experiences temporarily. However, when they are replaced by worrisome thoughts, thoughts of guilt or unworthiness, blame, annoyance, anger, etcetera, you experience loss of peace.

The peace of God is constant. Since thought is not constant, the peace of God cannot be found in thought.

Thought is not what you are. – Today’s workbook lesson says, “In peace I was created. And in peace do I remain. It is not given me to change my Self.”

Peace is what you are.

Today, when you pay attention to awareness during meditation, notice it is perfect peace. Thoughts change, and thoughts come and go, but the awareness they arise in is perfectly open, changeless peace.

Also, as you watch awareness today, notice that you are not thought. You are the perfectly open, changeless peace that thought arises in. If an emotion arises, notice you are not emotion. Like thought, emotion comes and goes; emotions change. But you are the awareness that is aware of emotion. You are the perfectly open, changeless peace that emotions arise in.

To seek and find the peace of God is merely to seek our Self. To know the peace of God is to identify with our ever-present Self, instead of identifying with the moving show of thought.

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Forgiveness,” to contemplate Lesson 229, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:

AWA Description H

Love, which created me, is what I am.

Love is open, all-embracing, perfectly allowing and naturally accepting.

There is no judgment in love. It does not compare. There is no resistance in love. It does not wish for something that is different than what is. Love is not controlling. It does not manipulate. Love is quietly and peacefully present with what is.

Your true nature is love. The ego is not love.

Our purpose now is to live from our true nature, and let go of the ego illusion. I call it the “ego illusion,” because the ego pretends to be you, but it is not. Therefore, it is an illusion of you, but not the truth of you.

Today, while observing awareness-presence in meditation, notice it is love. Notice it is incapable of being anything but love. It has no judgment in it, no comparison, and no resistance. Also, notice it is what you are. This means, of course, that you are love.

Throughout the day today, remember to practice the Loving All Method. If you would like another review of the Loving All Method, read Chapter 12 of The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss again. Notice that when you practice the Loving All Method, you are practicing abiding as love.

Today, I practiced two meditations. First, I practiced AWA Description H (above). Next, I listened to an older mediation audio called “Love Meditation.” It is a fantasy meditation. I found the instructions from Description H naturally stayed with me as I listened to the Love Meditation. There were different feelings and a few thoughts that occurred during the Love Meditation, but as I concentrated on awareness in a relaxed manner, it was easy to see that I am the love that allowed the experience that occurred during the Love Meditation. There were a few thoughts; there were feelings; I am the openness (love) that allowed them.

The Love Meditation

If you would like to do both meditations, I recommend practicing Description H before listening to the Love Meditation. If you do not have time for both meditations in the morning, I recommend practicing Description H in the morning, and then listening to the Love Meditation later in the day.

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Forgiveness,” to contemplate Lesson 228, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 40-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation for today:

Am I the Body?

God has condemned me not. No more do I.

Each one of us identifies with a large number of ideas. For example:

• I am [name, age, & gender].
• I am [career or other role in life].
• I am good/bad with money.
• I am healthy/sick/in constant pain.
• I am smart/stupid.
• I am athletic/in poor shape.
• I am busy/bored.
• I am compassionate/uncaring.
• I am addicted/self-disciplined.
• I am outgoing/introverted.
• I am responsible/a procrastinator.
• I am detail-oriented/likely to make mistakes.
• I am outdoorsy/a couch potato.
• I am artistic/handy/unskilled.
• I am intuitive/confused.
• I am energetic/lethargic.
• I am blessed/unlucky.
• I am attractive/not much to look at.

I could go on all day, because we each carry so many identifications in our minds.

Today’s lesson points out that each of these mental identities condemns us to a limited view of our self. We overlook our truth and believe a limited self-identity whenever we identify with an idea, positive or negative.

If you look at the list above, you will be able to find some ideas that you identify with. However, is that what you are? For example, if you identify with smart, have you ever felt stupid? If you identify as one who is likely to make mistakes, have you ever been praised for a job well done?

It doesn’t matter what idea we identify with. When we identify with an idea, we put on blinders. We ignore our unlimited nature by thinking, “I am [this idea].”

Let’s pay attention to the ideas we identify with. When you notice an idea of identification, pause and look at it with inquiry. Is it true that you are that? Is that constant and unchanging, always you? Or is that a temporary experience that your mind has latched onto? Is it just a mental identity, or is it what you really are?

What are you? What can you find that is constant and unchanging, and clearly you? Can you find ‘you’ that is beyond all ideas?

Here is a message that I received from Holy Spirit in 2007 that further explores the point of today’s lesson:

If You Are Both

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Forgiveness,” to contemplate Lesson 227, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:

AWA Description G

This is my holy instant of release.

What is God’s Will? God’s Will is life-awareness-presence. It is isness-being. It is existence. God’s Will is the truth of all things as they really are.

Today’s lesson says, “I thought to make another will. Yet nothing that I thought apart from You exists.”

NTI Romans calls this other will the wish for “something completely different” than reality. That would be something completely different from life-awareness-presence. If something is completely different from life-awareness-presence, it has no life. Therefore, it does not exist.

Our thoughts have no life. They are the other will. When we remove attention from our thoughts and place attention with life-awareness-presence, we “lay them down before the feet of truth, to be removed forever from my mind.”

Both of our primary practices remove attention (meaning and value) from thoughts. We practice forgiveness (inquiry, rest-accept-trust, right-reason, etc) and awareness-watching-awareness. Both are critical components of “our glad return to Heaven, which we never really left.”

Today we embrace our primary practices. We see they are both important to our “instant of release.” We are grateful to have these practices as part of our lives now.

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Forgiveness,” to contemplate Lesson 226, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:

AWA Description F

My home awaits me. I will hasten there.

There is no reason for us to hold onto unhappiness of any kind. Only our own ideas and the value we give them create unhappiness.

What ideas are you giving value to that create your unhappiness?

Do you think things should be different than they are? Is there an ideal perfection that is not being met? Is someone acting different than you want him/her to act? Should you have something that you do not have? Is your mind full of self-condemnation, or is it highly critical of another?

When you are unhappy, pause and look. What idea is currently present and currently valued as true? Do you value this idea more than the opportunity to know the freedom of truth realization? Or are you willing to release this idea and any value you’ve given it in order to be one step closer to total freedom?

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Forgiveness,” to contemplate Lesson 225, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:

AWA Description E

God is my Father, and His Son loves Him.

Today’s lesson says, “Father, … You have given all Your Love to me. I must return it, for I want it mine in full awareness, blazing in my mind and keeping it within its kindly light, inviolate, beloved, with fear behind and only peace ahead.”

With the realization that this is what we want, we practice giving love (attention) to life-awareness by gratefully spending time in awareness-watching-awareness meditation.

The lesson also says, “Brother, we find that stillness now.”

With this in our hearts, we practice forgiveness today. If we see an idea that someone has done something to us, we pause and notice that we are not affected at all. The mind may be agitated, but we are the presence that is aware of the mind; we are not the mind. If the agitation continues to attract our attention, we use a spiritual practice to see through the illusion of being affected. With right-gratitude for this healing opportunity, we practice inquiry, rest-accept-trust and/or right-reason in order to free ourselves from the illusion of meaning when there is none.