What’s Happening in the Sanctuary ~ Thursday, June 1, 2023

May 31, 2023

All Times are Eastern Standard Time – – – – See helpful links below

7:30-8:30 am – Loving Consciousness Meditation – Rev. Rhoda Makled
This program provides an opportunity to be in a community with others who will to love consciousness more than the objects that appear in consciousness. The Loving Consciousness Meditation is a practice that came from Michael Langford and is intended to be practiced in an undisturbed setting. These meditation practices are a core teaching here in the Awakening Together Community. Come join us as we discover what Loving Consciousness means for each of us.

2:00-4:00 pm – Gentle Healing Year 3 – Rev. Susan Telford
Rev. Susan guides a group of committed students through year 3 of Gentle Healing who would like to make consistent, gentle progress toward genuine peace, joy, and love. This group meets weekly on Thursdays at 2-4 pm ET and all members are committed to specific assignments and practices between group meetings. This class is based on The Seven Steps to Awakening.

6:00-7:00 pm – Gentle Healing Year 3 – Rev. Cyndi Krupp
Rev. Cyndi guides a group of committed students through year 3 of Gentle Healing who would like to make consistent, gentle progress toward genuine peace, joy, and love. This class is based on The Seven Steps to Awakening.

[Read more…]

What’s Happening in the Sanctuary – Tuesday, May 30, 2023

May 29, 2023

All Times are Eastern Standard Time – – – – See helpful links below

7:30 am – Loving Consciousness Meditation with Rev. Rhoda Makled
This program provides an opportunity to be in community with others who will to love consciousness more than the objects that appear in consciousness. The Loving Consciousness Meditation is a practice that came from Michael Langford and is intended to be practiced in an undisturbed setting. Rhoda Makled facilitates this program on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 – 8:30 am ET by gently leading participants through the Loving Consciousness Meditation. These meditation practices are a core teaching here in the Awakening Together Community. Come join us as we discover what Loving Consciousness means for each of us.

9:00 am – Heart Explorations: Embracing the Whole Show – Facilitated by Anne Blanchard
During our time together, we will explore what it takes to live from an open, undefended heart. Naturally, any true exploration of living from the heart necessarily entails taking a deep and sustained look at what prevents us from keeping our hearts open. Grounded in the knowledge that the essence of us, our true nature, is the very lovingness within us all, we will explore how to recognize and release egoic energies by cultivating open-hearted awareness practices which support us in directly experiencing our true Self. By leaning into willingness, steeped in self-honesty, and with a consistent dash of courage, we endeavor to open to whatever life brings, as it brings it, that is, on life’s terms. In so doing, we trust that everything – absolutely everything – is here for us to use for healing, for purification, and for learning to live from the heart. We look forward to supporting each other in our individual explorations of how we truly embrace the entirety of this show we call life.

5:30 pm – Discussion of Be As You Are by Ramana Maharshi – Lina Luckway
This new weekly program will be facilitated by Lina Luckway. She will be reading and sharing from Be As You Are by Ramana Maharshi.

Be As You Are is a treasury of Ramana Maharshi’s knowledge. The book collects conversations with the many seekers who came to him for guidance, answering the questions sought on the road to enlightenment. Self-realization is the vital quest we must all pursue before we can attempt to understand the world.

Ramana’s method of self-inquiry is to dissolve the belief of separation from the Self, his insistence that there is a direct path to awakening and that enlightenment can be attained by anyone is in strong focus. Ramana puts everything in clear and simple words, and Hindu terms and Sanskrit words are also explained. There is no need to be familiar with Hindu scripture before reading this book.

Let’s get together, read and discuss the essence of Ramana Maharshi’s teaching Be As You Are, and see what insights and delights unfold.

6:30 pm – Early Insights- Facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert & Connie Poole
The pair will play Regina Dawn Akers’ Early Teaching videos and invite those in attendance to contemplate those teachings along with them.

Regina’s recently completed YouTube playlist featuring the “meat” of her early teachings is a treasure trove of insight into the practices and understanding that illuminated her path to awakening. Regina compiled the teachings by trimming down her early teaching audios to highlight the core components of the guidance she received early in her journey.

Because these teachings are so helpful, Jacquelyn and Connie plan to slowly review them by playing one or two of them each week and contemplating them in a group format.

7:30 pm – Silence of the Heart – Lin Castaldo
Lin Castaldo will be sharing a new half-hour program on the 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th Tuesdays of the month from 7:30 – 8 pm ET. She will be exploring the book Silence of the Heart ~Dialogues with Robert Adams. “Robert Adams (January 21, 1928 – March 2, 1997) is an American Self-realized master and a direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi. This book is dedicated to the teachings of Robert Adams during his Satsangs from 1991-1993. If you are a sincere seeker, and if you find the all-important heart connection with Robert, your life will never again be the same. Doors will unlock, and magic will happen.”

8:00 pm – As I Am – Marisol Landin
Join Marisol as she dives deeper into self-acceptance. She will share her journey toward compassion and love within the human condition. This will be a practice of forgiveness, love, and trust as we all welcome the Light within together.

Enter the Sanctuary or see the complete listing of speakers.
All Times are Eastern Standard Time – See helpful links below.

How to Enter the Sanctuary

Awakening Together Internet Broadcast: Listen Live on AT Radio

What’s Happening in the Sanctuary ~ Monday, May 29, 2023

May 28, 2023

All Times are Eastern Standard Time – – – – See helpful links below

7:30-8:30 am – Being Aware of Awareness Meditation – Facilitated by Anne Blanchard
This program provides an opportunity to be in community with others who will to find that place of no place, that attention to our natural attentiveness, that innate humanness that can often be overlooked. Anne Blanchard facilitates this program on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7:30 – 8:30 am ET by leading participants through gently guided Being Aware of Awareness meditation.

5:00-7:00 pm – Consistent, Gentle Healing Year 1 – Facilitated by Rev. Michele Hojnacki
Rev. Michele guides committed students to make consistent, gentle progress toward genuine peace, joy, and love using the Gentle Healing Curriculum. Year 1 is based on A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students and other non-dual teachings. [Read more…]

5-28-23 Weekly Gathering: “You Cannot Stop the Waves, But You Can Learn to Surf!”

May 28, 2023

Weekly Sunday Gathering with Rev. Kelly Barber

Title: “You Cannot Stop the Waves, But You Can Learn to Surf!”

Description: Often as we navigate our way through difficult times, we are filled with resistance and a sense that something “has gone terribly wrong.” This is one way in which things are not as they appear where an upheaval is a blessing in disguise.

Reading: Joy Bedford read Chapter 5, “Intimacy with Fear” from When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron.

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What’s Happening in the Sanctuary Sunday, May 28, 2023

May 27, 2023

All Times are Eastern Standard Time – See links below to join us in the Sanctuary

9:30 am – Contemplating Poetry Using Lectio Divina – Rev. Susan Telford
Rev. Susan Telford will be guiding us in learning the contemplative practice of Lectio Divina using poetry.

In each session, Susan will read a poem, drawing from a wide range of poets, including Rumi, Hafiz, David Whyte, Mary Oliver, John O’Donohue, and many others (including her own work), then guide participants through the four steps of Lectio Divina.

Susan shares that this direct practice is a beautiful way to connect with Inner Wisdom and obtain clarity.

10:15 am – Weekly Gathering – Rev. Kelly Barber
Title: “You Cannot Stop the Waves, But You Can Learn to Surf!”

Reading: Joy Bedford will be reading excerpts from “The Places That Scare You” by Pema Chodron.

11:30 am –Weekly Fellowship Time – Joy Bedford
This is the time when Awakening Together fellowships as a community. We share what is on our hearts and minds from the recent homily or anything else that is truly inspiring us.

12:00 pm – Giving Up Kate! – Rev. Kate Brennan
Rev. Kate reads and shares her journal, contemplation, and experience of applying the teachings of Gentle Healing.

12:30 pm – God Through Audz – Audrey Whitehead
Join Audrey Whitehead for her new program God through Audz where she will read from Helen Hamilton’s, Dissolving the Ego. Audrey will share, if prompted, in dedication to discerning for Truth and invites others in attendance to listen deeply, for all answers are within, and succinct, soulful sharing is encouraged.

This will be a weekly ongoing half-hour program in the Sanctuary on Sundays from 12:30-1 pm ET/10:30 am MT.

1:00 pm – Sacred Inquiry – Rev. Shawna Summers
Rev. Shawna demonstrates the art of Sacred Inquiry in real time. Join her as she follows the guidance, questioning each layer that the thinking mind throws at her in an attempt to hide the wisdom that is inherent in us all. She is learning to go deeper into beginners’ mind with humble and honest curiosity. This is an evolving process, as she learns to feel for the vibrational level of each thought, exposing the source. She invites all listening to join her in their own Inquiry to experience the strength of this powerful spiritual practice. The original inspiration for this half-hour came from Adyashanti’s book ‘Sacred Inquiry’.

1:30 pm – Freedom Practice Sangha – Facilitated by Anne Blanchard
This will be a time of sharing our inquiries, insights, and challenges, listening to others, or just knowing that we are in community as we find that undefended place within ourselves that longs to be free.

2:30 pm – 4:45 pm Awakening Together Radio Broadcast during the break.
This is the time designated as a break so that our Sanctuary Director may have the time to rest.

5:00 pm – The Mighty Companions – Revs. Glen Ganaway and Yolanda Mapes *Recording
Revs. Glen Ganaway and Yolanda Mapes, who are interfaith ministers, share a delightful, funny, and inspiring hour of A Course in Miracles. Come join in on the fun, the laughs, and the music while unlearning the ego through the lessons and chapters of ACIM.

6:00 pm – Enlightened Leadership: Building the Foundation – Facilitated by Revs. Jacquelyn Eckert & Rhoda Makled
The Tao Te Ching (The Way), written by Lao-Tzu (Old Teacher), is a guide to enlightened leadership. While most people believe effective leadership lies in knowledge and power, the Tao teaches it lies in emptiness, stillness, and presence.

Awakening Together’s President-Minister, Jacquelyn Eckert, and Vice President-Minister, Rhoda Makled share from the Tao as they contemplate its principles in order to fully embody them.

7:00 pm – Deepening Into Clarifying the Teachings Together – Facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert
During this program, we will listen to a portion of each previously recorded “Clarifying the Teachings” program. Afterward, we will spend time contemplating and teaching ourselves what is most alive for us at the moment. We may also spend time practicing what Regina is teaching. And…we will start at the very beginning.

Bring your journals, openness, and curiosity as we explore what is most alive in us and ready to be seen. We hope you feel inspired to join.

9:00 pm – Movie Group – Facilitated by Joy Bedford
Wonder Woman 1984 is an action, fantasy, and adventure movie based on the Superhero character Wonder Woman. Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) lives quietly among mortals in the vibrant, sleek 1980s — an era of excess driven by the pursuit of having it all. Though she’s come into her full powers, she maintains a low profile by curating ancient artifacts, and only performing heroic acts incognito. But soon, Diana will have to muster all of her strength, wisdom, and courage as she finds herself squaring off against Maxwell Lord and the Cheetah, a villainess who possesses superhuman strength and agility.

Wonder Woman 1984 was chosen as this month’s film because of its fun, spectacular demonstration of the wish (desire) for something to be different than it is that never leads to lasting happiness. Those who know the Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament, or “NTI,” may remember that Holy Spirit uses this description of the wish/desire to separate from our True Self/Divine/God and to make up our own kingdom, and what a mess that makes…a painful delay to awakening to our Glorious Divine Nature.

Witness Wonder Woman’s temptation to change what is. Notice her resistance to saying “no” to personal desire…ego…thereby letting go of the dream in her mind and choosing Divine authority in service to awakening. Explore whether she trades one world-focused path for another or if she chooses service to the awakening.

Other themes in WW84 include the vital necessity of self-honesty and that “greatness” is not what the ego thinks it is.

You can find this movie on HBO Max, HBO Max Amazon Channel, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Redbox, TNT, and DirectTV.

Here is the playsheet that Joy made for us to contemplate this movie with Inner Wisdom: Click Here

*Sanctuary closes at 9 pm ET/7 pm MT.

All Times are Eastern Standard Time – See helpful links below.

Enter the Sanctuary or see the complete listing of speakers.
All Times are Eastern Standard Time – See helpful links below.

How to Enter the Sanctuary

Awakening Together Internet Broadcast: Listen Live on AT Radio

What’s Happening in the Sanctuary ~ Saturday, May 27, 2023

May 26, 2023

All times are Eastern Standard Time. Look below for helpful links.

1:00 – 3:00 pm – Self-Inquiry Dyad Practice – Facilitated by Yvonne Unger

The practice is intensive, direct self-inquiry. The format is partner-assisted contemplation, commonly referred to as dyads, which means two.

The day is Saturday and the time of the practice is 1 to 3 PM ET. You can join for either the first hour, the second hour, or for both depending on the time available in your schedule.

What do you want? What do you really want? What is the aim of your spiritual practice? What is the purpose? What is your purpose? We ask because we embark weekly to practice in the sanctuary, and have a direct experience of the truth of what we are. The very good news is that you cannot, not be the Truth of what you are. Truth doesn’t go away because we don’t know it, can’t see it, or don’t presently experience it.

If you are interested in exploring your own blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, to the Truth of what you are, you are warmly invited to join us.

No prior experience is necessary. An introduction and overview will be given at the beginning of each hour.

Enter the Sanctuary or see the complete listing of speakers.
All Times are Eastern Standard Time – See helpful links below.

How to Enter the Sanctuary

What’s Happening in the Sanctuary ~ Friday, May 26, 2023

May 25, 2023

All times are Eastern Standard Time. Look below for helpful links.

7:30-8:30 am – Being Aware of Awareness Meditation – Facilitated by Rhoda Makled
This program provides an opportunity to be in community with others who will to find that place of no place, that attention to our natural attentiveness, that innate humanness that can often be overlooked. Anne Blanchard facilitates this program on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7:30 – 8:30 am ET by leading participants through gently guided Being Aware of Awareness meditation.

3-4 pm – Nisargadatta Maharaj: Contemplating “I am That” – Facilitated Yvonne Unger
In this program, we contemplate the teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj together. “Between the banks of pain and pleasure the river of life flows. It is only when the mind refuses to flow with life and gets stuck at the banks, that it becomes a problem.” – Nisargadatta Maharaj

While the impetus for this program was born from the power and the clarity of the practice of the Minister Preparation Program curriculum, “The Teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj,” in which his pointings were contemplated, the desire is to share in this practice with all at Awakening Together regardless of any prior familiarity with the teachings of this Indian Master. So whether you have taken the MPP class or are brand new to these teachings, you are warmly invited to join in and see how Nisargadatta speaks to you.

Enter the Sanctuary or see the complete listing of speakers.

All Times are Eastern Standard Time – See helpful links below.

How to Enter the Sanctuary

Awakening Together Internet Broadcast: Listen Live on AT Radio

What’s Happening in the Sanctuary ~ Thursday, May 25, 2023

May 24, 2023

All Times are Eastern Standard Time – – – – See helpful links below

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What’s Happening in the Sanctuary – Tuesday, May 23, 2023

May 22, 2023

All Times are Eastern Standard Time – – – – See helpful links below

5:30 pm – Discussion of Be As You Are – Facilitated by Lina Luckway
Be As You Are is a treasury of Ramana Maharshi’s knowledge. The book collects conversations with the many seekers who came to him for guidance, answering the questions sought on the road to enlightenment. Self-realization is the vital quest we must all pursue before we can attempt to understand the world.

Let’s get together, read and discuss the essence of Ramana Maharshi’s teaching Be As You Are, and see what insights and delights unfold.

6:30 pm – Early Insights- Facilitated by Connie Poole
The pair will play Regina Dawn Akers’ Early Teaching videos and invite those in attendance to contemplate those teachings along with them.

Because these teachings are so helpful, Jacquelyn and Connie plan to slowly review them by playing one or two of them each week and contemplating them in a group format.

7:30 pm – 500 Days Contemplating NTI – Facilitated by Revs. Kelly Barber, Joanne Schneider, & Rhoda Makled
This bi-monthly program was formed to facilitate the contemplation of the “500 Days with NTI” curriculum together.

Revs. Joanne Schneider, Susan Bacon, and Rhoda Makled host the program on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month from 7:30 – 8:30 pm ET.

In this program, together we engage in the 500 Days with NTI program designed by our founder and the scribe of The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament (NTI), Regina Dawn Akers. Regina developed this free self-study spiritual curriculum for people with very busy lives. If you don’t have a lot of available time, but you are serious about spiritual awakening, this may be the curriculum for you!

500 Days provides daily exercises that you can do as you work, socialize, clean house, do yard work, work out, play, etc. It’s a course that goes with you wherever you go!

8:30 pm – Contemplation of Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament – Joy Bedford
Join us to contemplate The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament. We’ll be noticing what arises and surrendering beyond resistance, if we are willing for this (and there is no judgment if we are not yet willing), as we explore NTI with Holy Spirit’s guidance.

The Sanctuary closes at 9:30 pm ET.

Enter the Sanctuary or see the complete listing of speakers.
All Times are Eastern Standard Time – See helpful links below.

How to Enter the Sanctuary

Awakening Together Internet Broadcast: Listen Live on AT Radio

What’s Happening in the Sanctuary ~ Monday, May 22, 2023

May 21, 2023

All Times are Eastern Standard Time – – – – See helpful links below

5:00-7:00 pm – Consistent, Gentle Healing Year 1 – Facilitated by Beverly Neal
Rev. Shawna guides committed students to make consistent, gentle progress toward genuine peace, joy, and love using the Gentle Healing Curriculum. Year 1 is based on A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students and other non-dual teachings. [Read more…]