Facilitated by Tom Conway & Connie Poole
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The Original Step Two Teachings, Quotes #214-265 (Recorded in 2012)
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Tuesday Jan. 2 ~ Daily Contemplation ~ Lesson 347
Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is
The weapon I would use against myself,
To keep the miracle away from me.
Father, I want what goes against my will, and do not want what is my will to have. Straighten my mind, my Father. It is sick. But You have offered freedom, and I choose to claim Your gift today. And so I give all judgment to the One You gave to me to judge for me. He sees what I behold, and yet He knows the truth. He looks on pain, and yet He understands it is not real, and in His understanding it is healed. He gives the miracles my dreams would hide from my awareness. Let Him judge today. I do not know my will, but He is sure it is Your Own. And He will speak for me, and call Your miracles to come to me.
Listen today. Be very still, and hear the gentle Voice for God assuring you that He has judged you as the Son He loves.
Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 347
What Is a Miracle?
Our special theme says, “The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand.”
There are two points from today’s selection that I would like to contemplate. First, let’s look at faith.
Bernadette Roberts wrote, “Indeed, it is because Truth is unbelievable that man needs faith—faith, which is beyond belief.”
What is faith? Faith is trust or confidence in something based on spiritual understanding rather than proof.
I have learned that faith is better than seeking proof, primarily because we cannot find proof until we have walked the journey and experienced it for ourselves. As Bernadette also wrote, “Complete understanding can only come at the end of the journey.” That’s because complete understanding comes from direct experience.
Every phase of the journey that still lies ahead is not understandable and not provable from the perspective of where we are now. This is why we need faith. We need faith that there is truth or higher seeing beyond our current way of seeing in order to motivate us to continue the journey. Without faith in something beyond our current knowing, our journey may stall.
A hiker keeps up the hike because there is still something to see that hasn’t been seen yet. It’s as the old song goes:
The bear went over the mountain,
the bear went over the mountain,
the bear went over the mountain,
to see what he could see.
Faith is trusting there is something to see that hasn’t been seen yet.
The second point I’d like to contemplate from today’s selection is this: “because to ask for it implies that the mind has been made ready…”
It is wonderful to ask. In my Buddha at the Gas Pump interview, Rick Archer commented that when I asked for something, I received it. It’s true. All along my spiritual journey, as I became ready for a particular phase of the journey, I found myself asking for it, and then that phase of the journey would begin. Of course, I didn’t always know what to ask for. I just knew I was ready for whatever was next. For example, just before The Teachings of Inner Ramana came, I asked for something that would take me to the next step. Just before a massive phase of purification started, I asked for something that would take me higher into love. In fact, the entire spiritual journey began when I asked for truth regardless of what it is.
Asking is grand! I like to begin each day’s contemplation by asking to see whatever is most helpful for me to see now. I begin each meditation by putting the meditation in the hands of Ramana and asking that it be whatever is most helpful for me now.
When we ask from a state of readiness, Grace responds. It is as NTI Revelation says:
You will never be asked to take a single step alone, but you must always be willing to take the lead by deciding the purpose and calling it out to Us.
Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me.
Today’s workbook lesson demonstrates asking when it says, “Straighten my mind, my Father.”
Of course, the words themselves are never the prayer. The prayer that moves Grace is the heartfelt readiness and faith that is at the foundation of the prayer. Until one sees for herself how hurtful judgment is, genuinely tires of the judging mind, and has faith that it is possible to be free of judgment, she will not ask with the dynamism that moves mountains. (Ref: Mark 11:23)
How do we prepare ourselves for a sincere prayer?
We simply be where we are on this journey now to the best of our ability and pay attention to everything. As we do that, we are naturally prepared for our next step. When we are ready for our next step, we will feel it, and we will ask for it sincerely.
Meditation Options
The Original Step One Teachings, Quotes #1-213 (Recorded in 2012)
Monday Jan. 1 ~ Daily Contemplation ~ Lesson 346
Today the peace of God envelops me,
And I forget all things except His Love.
Father, I wake today with miracles correcting my perception of all things. And so begins the day I share with You as I will share eternity, for time has stepped aside today. I do not seek the things of time, and so I will not look upon them. What I seek today transcends all laws of time and things perceived in time. I would forget all things except Your Love. I would abide in You, and know no laws except Your law of love. And I would find the peace which You created for Your Son, forgetting all the foolish toys I made as I behold Your glory and my own.
And when the evening comes today, we will remember nothing but the peace of God. For we will learn today what peace is ours, when we forget all things except God’s Love.
Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 346
What Is a Miracle?
Our special theme says, “Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. And each is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.”
This reminds me of the opening of the Book of John in the Bible. It says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. …
Once I looked up the word “word” in the dictionary to try to get some clarity on this passage from John. As I read the definitions of “word,” they seemed not to apply until I came across this definition:
an utterance
I looked up “utterance,” and found it to be the expression of an idea.
With that, I looked back at the opening paragraph of the Book of John and saw this:
In the beginning was an utterance—an idea expressed—and the utterance was with God, which is life, and the utterance was inseparable from life. It was with life in the beginning. Through utterance combined with life all things were made manifest; without utterance nothing was made that has been made. In the utterance was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. …
From that understanding of this scripture, I came up with this formula:
Life + Utterance = Manifestation
To make this simple, let me express it this way:
When we give expression to an idea by believing it and giving attention to it, it becomes infused with the life of our awareness, and it becomes manifest in some way. This is universal, divine law. It is the Third Principle of God, the creative principle.
With this little bit of clarity, let’s look back at today’s selection from our special theme:
Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. And each is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.
We’ve already seen that the “lily of forgiveness” is our choice to abide as unaffectedness, which is also the Loving All Method. Each time we abide as unaffected—each time we practice or live the Loving All Method—the expression of that choice becomes a silent utterance fed into the creative principle (the Word of God, the universal altar to Creator and creation) and results in a perfectly pure and joyous manifestation. These manifestations are often called Grace.
Grace shows up in the world in innumerable ways, in any way that is helpful in the moment. Grace is usually seen as a miracle, but Grace is actually the effect of the miracle.
The miracle is the shift in perception from seeing one’s self as affected to seeing one’s self as unaffected. This miracle, the lily of forgiveness, fed into the creative principle, creates its likeness in manifestation, because all ideas manifested through the creative principle manifest in the likeness of themselves.
Today the peace of God envelops me, And I forget all things except His Love.
Today’s workbook lesson says, “Father, I wake today with miracles correcting my perception of all things. … I do not seek the things of time, and so I will not look upon them. What I seek today transcends all laws of time and things perceived in time. I would forget all things except Your Love. I would abide in You, and know no laws except Your law of love.”
In other words, today we do not seek to fix, change, get or avoid things or circumstances in the world, because we know that judgment, as well as thought and action based on judgment, goes into the creative principle and creates like itself—more to fix, change, get or avoid.
Instead, we awake today with the realization of how divine law works. We understand that our safety and the world’s safety lies in our unaffectedness. It lies in living the Loving All Method, because when the safety of the Loving All Method is fed into the creative principle, it manifests like itself, thereby manifesting true safety as Grace.
Our way of being is a more important choice than most humans ever begin to imagine. The miracle today is that we accept this as true, and because we accept this as true, we put more effort into being the Loving All Method.
Be Loving All.
See yourself as that,
instead of as a person.
Being Loving All is forgetting “all things except God’s Love.”
Meditation Options
12/31/17 – Experience Your Perfect Soul ~ pages 164 – 167
Kathy Smith explores the quotes from Experience Your Perfect Soul and shares from her contemplation of them.
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12-31-17 Weekly Gathering: “In the World, but not of It”
Topic: “In the World, but not of It”
Description: Rev. Carrie Christiansen looked at how the Loving All Method facilitates a joy and freedom that allow us to fully engage with our worldly experience without feeling trapped in or by it.
Reading: Rev. Rebecca Gibson read from Ch. 12 of The Most Rapid Means to Eternal Bliss – The Loving All Method, by Michael Langford
Sunday Dec. 31 ~ Daily Contemplation ~ Lesson 345
I offer only miracles today,
For I would have them be returned to me.
Father, a miracle reflects Your gifts to me, Your Son. And every one I give returns to me, reminding me the law of love is universal. Even here, it takes a form which can be recognized and seen to work. The miracles I give are given back in just the form I need to help me with the problems I perceive. Father, in Heaven it is different, for there, there are no needs. But here on earth, the miracle is closer to Your gifts than any other gift that I can give. Then let me give this gift alone today, which, born of true forgiveness, lights the way that I must travel to remember You.
Peace to all seeking hearts today. The light has come to offer miracles to bless the tired world. It will find rest today, for we will offer what we have received.
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