Jacquelyn Eckert, Author at Awakening Together

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 193

September 1, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 193. All things are lessons God would have me learn.

Our current goals:

Widen the horizons of our vision
Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
Intensify our motivation for freedom

The main point of today’s lesson is of the utmost importance to those who truly want to heal the mind (i.e., undo conditioning that is based on false premises).

The lesson teaches that all distress (all upset) is because of unforgiveness. The key word in that sentence is “all.”

Most people who study A Course in Miracles accept that some upsets are due to unforgiveness, but few accept that all upsets are due to unforgiveness. If you really want to heal the mind, this is a teaching you must accept, because where you decide this lesson does not apply is where your mind will not heal.

As today’s lesson stresses, “[Unforgiveness] is the content underneath the form. It is this sameness which makes learning sure, because the lesson is so simple that it cannot be rejected in the end. No one can hide forever from a truth so very obvious that it appears in countless forms, and yet is recognized as easily in all of them, if one but wants to see the simple lesson there. … How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, …? Does pain seem real in the perception? If it does, be sure the lesson is not learned. And there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind …”

This is where the lesson gets very exciting to me.

First it says, “Morning and night, devote what time you can to serve its proper aim, and do not let the time be less than meets your deepest need.”

I often used to journal twice a day, morning and night, just as this lesson recommends. The purpose of journaling was to look at my mind and practice forgiveness.

What is forgiveness?

It is letting go of every thought process that causes even the tiniest feeling of upset in you.

How do you let go?

Through one or another form of self-inquiry. Through right-reason. Through rest, accept and trust. These are all tools that are used to let go.

I love that the lesson says, “do not let the time be less than meets your deepest need.” That means, take all of the time you need to make sure forgiveness is complete. Forgiveness doesn’t always happen fast. That’s okay. Speed is not the issue. Genuine release is what is most important. (According to the Book of Mark, Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray three timesbefore he felt complete.)

I also love this:

“Each hour, spend a little time today, and in the days to come, in practicing the lesson in forgiveness in the form established for the day. And try to give it application to the happenings the hour brought, so that the next one is free of the one before. … Let no hour cast its shadow on the one that follows, and when that one goes, let everything that happened in its course go with it.”

This is how you become a master of forgiveness, a master at reprogramming the brain so it is based on truth instead of based on falsehood. You look at each upset. You don’t let any slide by.

Today’s lesson recommends a really good practice. Since most people let many upsets pass everyday without looking at them, it is a good idea to pause each hour, look at the upsets that occurred in that hour, and practice forgiveness on them. Eventually you will become very sensitive to even the smallest upset, and you won’t be able to wait until the end of an hour to practice forgiveness, so you will practice it immediately. However, in the beginning your body is not well tuned to your purpose of forgiveness. Its sensitivities are dormant, and you are likely to miss hundreds of opportunities to practice forgiveness if you do not actively pause and look regularly.

Several Gentle Healing participants have told me that this group takes a lot of time. Yes, it does. But as this lesson points out, this is the purpose of time.

The way that I got to the current state of healing that I have achieved is by making healing my fulltime job andthe most important thing in my life. It is what everything else is about. If you really want to achieve healing, your commitment cannot be less than this.

When healing is a priority in your life, something in you is motivated toward the tools and practices that help you heal. It isn’t something you have to do because someone outside of you told you to do it. It is something you are intrinsically motivated to do.

That doesn’t mean it’s always easy. It isn’t. There can be great resistance during this process. But remember what NTI said. The means for overcoming great resistance is great willingness, and great willingness comes from remembering what you want.

Footnotes:

This is a sample day from my 2005 forgiveness journal.
This is the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as told in NTI.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 192

August 31, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 192. I have a function God would have me fill.

Our current goals:

Widen the horizons of our vision
Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
Intensify our motivation for freedom

The false self is nothing but thought. It isn’t a self at all. It has no life. Only awareness-life-presence has life. Only that which has life can be a genuine self. However, when the attention aspect of awareness-life-presence becomes engrossed in thought, it appears that life and thought are one. This creates the illusion of the false self.

In order to claim awareness-life-presence as our identity, we need to release the illusion that we are thought. A good way to release the illusion that we are thought is to observe thoughts without getting hooked on them.

Let me demonstrate:

Let’s imagine I am in a work relationship with someone. I am working with this person on an important project that has many challenges. We are working on one particular challenge that needs to be resolved before we can move to the next set of challenges. A deadline is looming. I begin to notice that my co-worker isn’t doing his part of the research. My mind begins to tell me that we are going to fail because he is avoiding his share of the work.

As someone who is embracing my true identity, I say to myself, “I see that thought, but I don’t know what is supposed to happen here. I don’t know what is going to happen here. My only role is to do my part and watch the rest.”

With that, I ‘unhook’ from thoughts that were asking for attention.

That’s how forgiveness works. Forgiveness doesn’t deny thought and it doesn’t believe thought either. It acknowledges the presence of thought, but doesn’t give it meaning.

Reason is the ability in the mind that enables humans to make decisions using logic. In the example above, I used logic to convince myself to let go of a particular line of thinking. This use of reason could be called right-reason.

Today’s lesson talks about how we misuse reason. It says, “Without [the kindly light of forgiveness] we grope in darkness, using reason but to justify our rage and our attack.”

The purpose of reason is to enable us to make decisions that are in our best interest. But when we misuse reason, “what we think we understand is but confusion born of error. We are lost in mists of shifting dreams and fearful thoughts, our eyes shut tight against the light.”

We need to return reason to its proper function.

The Yoga Vasistha is a Hindu text named after a Vedanta sage, Vasistha. A quote from The Yoga Vasistha says, “So long as one does not subdue the mind with the mind, one cannot attain Self-knowledge.”

That quote points to the importance of the proper use of reason. We can use reason to justify our attachment to thought or we can use reason to unhook from that attachment. The latter is using the mind to subdue the mind. It’s how we practice forgiveness, which today’s lesson describes as the “function God would have me fill.”

Here’s something important to know about the right use of reason. When you use right-reason, thought may argue that you are using reason to deny the truth. In the example above, it might argue that I am denying the truth that my co-worker is a lazy butt.

It’s important to remember what today’s lesson says, “Forgiveness represents your function here. It is not God’s creation, for it is the means by which untruth can be undone … the means to let illusions go.”

In other words, right-reason is not the truth itself. It is an illusion used to release a greater illusion. So if thought argues that right-reason is not true, realize that’s okay. Letting go of the greater illusion is the current task at hand. That brings us closer to truth.

Right-reason is the means to right-dreams, “a kind so close to waking that the light of day already shines in them, … and leaves the world a clean and unmarked slate on which the Word of God can now replace the senseless symbols written there before.”

“The way is simple. Every time you feel a stab of anger, realize you hold a sword above your head. And it will fall or be averted as you choose to be condemned or free.” You make the choice to be condemned or free through your use of reason. You will use it to justify thought or to unhook from thought. The latter is the choice for freedom.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 191

August 30, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 191. I am the holy Son of God Himself.

Our current goals:

Widen the horizons of our vision
Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
Intensify our motivation for freedom

We have spent several days focusing on awareness-life-presence. Awareness-life-presence is our essence. It is the essence of all things.

Today’s lesson asks us to take one step beyond focusing on awareness-life-presence. It asks us to claim awareness-life-presence as our identity. We are to claim our essence as what we are.

The lesson tells us that the cause of all problems is the denial of our true identity. In other words, the cause of all problems is identifying with thought. You can see that’s true, if you want to. Look back at your memory. Every time you have acted mean or unjust with another person, it was because you identified with the thoughts that were in your mind at the time. If the thoughts said, “She’s lying to me,” you reacted as if your friend was a liar. Etcetera.

Because identifying with thought is the cause of all problems, identifying with awareness-life-presence is the answer to all problems.

How do you know if you are identified with thought or awareness-life-presence?

You know which you are identified with by how you give attention and how you act.

Today’s lesson calls identifying with thought “a game you play in which Identity can be denied.” And then it says, “You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you.”

The last line of that paragraph reminds me of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The highest interpretation of that rule is to live from your identity as awareness-life-presence. Or, as we said in lesson 187, be enlightened now.

There is a big difference in the way identification with thought acts and the way identification with awareness-life-presence acts. For example, let’s imagine that a friend asks me a question, and I answer truthfully, but my answer isn’t what she believes. She becomes angry and says, “You are a liar!”

At this point, defense thoughts are likely to be triggered in my mind. If I am identified with thought, I will say whatever the defense thoughts are telling me to say. If I am identified with awareness-life-presence, I will silently watch the show of defense that is happening in the mind, but I will remain in my seat as the watcher. Those words will not pass my lips. I also will not give them the energy of belief and agreement. I will stay seated within as watcher, merely observing and waiting for this temporary energy to pass.

The lesson says, “Look about the world, and see the suffering there. Is not your heart willing to bring your weary brothers to rest?” The lesson could also ask, “Are you ready to rest? Are you ready for the peace of God?”

Focusing on awareness-life-presence is an important first step, but we fall short of living our truth if we continue to speak and act from identification with thought. It is time to go beyond simply focusing on essence. It is time to live from it. Live as it. Living as awareness-life-presence is embracing truth and accepting it as what we are.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 190

August 29, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 190. I choose the joy of God instead of pain.

Our current goals:

Widen the horizons of our vision
Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
Intensify our motivation for freedom

I feel like I am whispering a great secret that most of the world does not want to know, a secret for which I can be slain, when I say:

You do not have to suffer.

There have been several times when friends were suffering, and I tried to help by letting them know they could let go of the idea that caused their suffering. Each time my friends have retaliated with attack. It was as if I was attacking them when I let them know how easy it is to be free of suffering, and so they attacked back.

I suppose I was attacking them. I was attacking their attachment to suffering without realizing how much they still wanted it. It was like trying to take a worn out stuffed animal from a child before the child is ready to give it up.

You may think you don’t love suffering, but are you sure you’re right? The best way to find out is to answer this question for yourself: Do you suffer over anything ever? If the answer is ‘yes,’ then you are still clinging to that worn out toy.

Just like everyone else, I used to believe that suffering was the natural outcome of certain circumstances. Gradually I let go of that idea. The final stronghold for me was the belief that I had to suffer because of extreme physical pain. I came to see even that is not true. All suffering is caused by thought that we choose to believe, and there isn’t another cause of suffering at all.

Each time I pointed out to friends that they could let go of suffering, and they became angry with me, they always indicated that their form of suffering was special. Thiers was the special circumstance that validated suffering. This is a clue that points to a thought in the mind, a thought that this lesson is helping to uncover. The idea is that suffering is more real than God (than truth).

That belief is in your mind if you suffer. I know, because I uncovered it in my own mind. The ego clings to that idea, because that idea protects the ego thought system. It seems to confirm that the ego thought system is truth, and the teachings about truth are merely idle fantasy. The worn out toy that you cling to when you suffer is the false self.

Here are a few things that today’s lesson says about the choice to suffer:

“Pain is a wrong perspective.”
“Pain is but witness to the Son’s mistakes in what he thinks he is.
“Pain is a sign illusions reign in place of truth.”
“It is your thoughts alone that cause pain.”
“There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression.”
“No one but yourself affects you.”
“The world may seem to cause you pain. And yet the world, as causeless, has no power to cause. As an effect, it cannot make effects. As an illusion, it is what you wish.”
“Pain is the ransom you have gladly paid not to be free.”
“Pain is illusion; joy is reality.”
“Pain is deception; joy alone is truth.”

The attachment to suffering is a deeply held attachment. This is why my friends felt attacked when I pointed out they did not have to suffer. If you’d like to be free of that attachment, here’s what you can do:

When you suffer, look to see if you can see your choice to suffer. The choice could be a very simple decision. It could be as simple as the decision, “I can not be happy with this.” Look for what you believe must be different.

As you look for your choice to suffer, you may find several little things that you can change your mind about when you see them. For example, you might be able to quickly let go of the idea that you have to suffer if it’s too hot, or if the husband is late to dinner, or if there is traffic on the highway, etcetera. Each little change of mind is important, because you are reversing the decision to cling to suffering.

Either now or eventually, you will come to the choice to suffer itself. This will appear as a belief, something that you took as absolutely true. It may feel impossible to let go of it when you see it. My recommendation is that you acknowledge it as a belief rather than a truth, and give your willingness for it to be healed. Let grace take care of the rest.

In other words, demonstrate your willingness to let go of the belief in suffering by changing your mind with the little things, and give your willingness with the apparent bigger things. This is how the attachment to suffering will be undone.

If you’d like to hear the story about how the attachment to suffering was finally undone for Regina, you can listen to this audio.

Letting go of the attachment to suffering is not a little thing. It is letting go of a critical defense in the ego thought system.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 189

August 28, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 189. I feel the Love of God within me now.

Our current goals:

Widen the horizons of our vision
Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
Intensify our motivation for freedom

Yesterday’s Course lesson told us, “Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light within you is sufficient. It alone has the power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within.”

Today’s lesson gives us more specific instructions:

“Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.”

Our job is to let go of “all obstacles that you have interposed between the Son and God the Father … And with this choice we rest.” That’s it. Nothing more. The Course calls this “simplicity.”

The Course is clear that we remove the obstacles, we rest in awareness-watching-awareness, and “do not make demands, nor point the road to God by which He should appear to you. The way to reach Him is merely to let Him be. For in that way is your reality proclaimed as well.”

Our thoughts are blocks to our awareness of what we are. You cannot hold onto ideas about what you are—necessarily, ideas about what this one you think you are can and cannot do—and know the truth of being. You have heard it said “Ye are gods.” This is a true statement of our nature. Thus, it must carry with it the understanding that as such, we have no limits.

Why do we insist on claiming limits for ourselves? We enjoy kicking this idea around as theory, but our fear keeps us from seriously embracing the truth of the statement. As gods, we are responsible for what we see—who could keep your heart’s desire from you?

When we are asked to “be enlightened now,” our clinging to our habitual conceptions of ourselves twists that directive into a milquetoast entreaty along the lines of “do the best you can.” We are not humans trying to be a better humans. We are gods pretending to be human.

What this paragraph does is invite us—the prodigal son—to return home. Note that in the story of the prodigal son, no one came bounding in to save him from the life he had chosen. It was by his own choice that he returned.

We are made slave by choosing our own mantel. This lesson entreats us to throw off the mantel—acknowledge we have chosen confusion and renounce it. Acknowledge we are confused about who we are, who God is, what is good, what is bad; acknowledge that we cannot reason our way back to sanity or understanding.

The only way back home is to simply offer ourselves unto God (Truth) and ask to be shown our truth. We do this by resting in the silence—not just during sitting meditation, but during our day, in the face of the proffered answers of the thinking mind, despite our confusion about who we think we are or how we think the world works. Turning to these tactics keeps us wrapped in confusion.

We are not being asked to sit in the corner of the room and do nothing. We are being asked to ask our hearts for guidance–ask as if we were little children, who really don’t know. We don’t know what we are, what we should say or do, or what is in our own best interests. This lesson is just reminding us that we need to quit pretending that we do know and surrender to that which does.

As we are reading this week in NTI John, Chapter 10:

“I Am the way, and the thoughts that came before were not. You spent many years listening to the thoughts that came before Me, and they have given you nothing. I Am the way, because I Am the Light, and the Light is the way to Life. Open to Me. Listen to Me. Tune out all other voices by letting go of all other thoughts. The time has come to listen only unto the Light.

How is it that I Am known? I Am the Light, and so I carry with Me the characteristics of the Light and only the characteristics of the Light. You will not find fear in Me. You will find only Love. You will not find attack and war; you will find only peace. You will not find guilt or accusation; you will find only sweet forgiveness that sees that which is meaningless as meaningless and asks it to take on no meaning. You can trust My Voice, because you recognize it as yours, and you know it is yours. I Am the Light, the Light of which you are. We are one and the same, and you are Me. And so you know Me, and you recognize your desire to remember Me as all that you are.”

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 188

August 27, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 188. The peace of God is shining in me now.

Our current goals:

Widen the horizons of our vision
Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
Intensify our motivation for freedom

Why wait for enlightenment? Although some like Eckhart Tolle or Bryon Katie might have a big blow out awakening experience, many more of us are awakened or are awake on a moment to moment basis when our heart is open with the Love and Truth of us out pouring from us. As today’s lesson says, “Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all.”

Perception gives way to vision once we start to look within. When we just step back and watch the mind as dispassionately as we can, we are training ourselves to be the witness to the ego’s fear based thoughts.

The thoughts you think with the thinking mind are not you or yours. We have just identified with them. They fade away and are undone when we withdraw ownership from them and withdraw focus on the outside world and our thoughts about the world. And with the relinquishment of fear based thoughts, we realize the truth and freedom that comes is an enlightened moment.

This relinquishment is facilitated with awareness-watching-awareness meditation. Today’s lesson says, “The light within you is sufficient. It alone has power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within. They know the way. For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside yourself, become the holy messengers of God [Truth].”

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 187

August 26, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

LESSON 187. I bless the world because I bless myself.

Our current goals:

Widen the horizons of our vision
Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
Intensify our motivation for freedom

Today’s lesson begins: “No one can give unless he has. In fact, giving is proof of having. We have made this point before. What seems to make it hard to credit is not this. No one can doubt that you must first possess what you would give. It is the second phase on which the world and true perception differ. Having had and given, then the world asserts that you have lost what you possessed. The truth maintains that giving will increase what you possess.”

You give always. That is what love does. What you would witness you extend. The analogy to increasing thoughts or ideas by giving them away is apt. As ACIM indicates, not only do they increase in this way, but they grow in strength in the mind of both giver and receiver. This is wholly true of inner wisdom. As you draw from the knowledge and strength of the truth within you, you increase the strength of the recognition of truth in all minds. Awakening is, indeed, the spreading of the light in the one mind.

Even in this world you can see the practical nature of this lesson. As a peace maker, you see how peace increases as you give it. As a love giver, you see how love increases as you give it. Indeed, even fear increases as it is given. This is fundamental to our nature.**

Let’s talk about giving and receiving (or giving and increasing) in terms of the familiar phrase that means and ends are always the same. If you wish to become more articulate, how do you accomplish that? Do you read more books? Do you listen to more articulate people? Well, yes, but without employing what you have learned, do you become more articulate? No. If you want to learn to speak Spanish, will mere study without speaking teach you to speak Spanish? No.

You give of yourself by demonstrating what you have learned. Now is the time to employ what your heart has remembered. You give in the face of loss in order to demonstrate your very real knowledge that loss is impossible/not real. You love in the face of hate to demonstrate that hate is impossible. You stride forth in faith in order to demonstrate that fear is not real. All the theory in the world will not prove these things to you. As you give these traits away, you will come to understand that they truly belong to you to give. As the lesson says, you cannot give them unless you have them already.

The lesson tells us to “Protect all things you value by the act of giving them away.” At its core, the lesson is teaching us to be enlightened now, in every moment, as a means of giving what you want to keep.

How do you do that? Let me give you a few examples:

Someone says something to you that feels like a strong insult. Be enlightened now. Don’t be defensive. Relax. Be present. Be still. Be open. Watch the energies inside of you, but don’t become involved with them.
You find out that a friend has been taking money and other things from you, a little at a time, so that you hadn’t noticed. Be enlightened now. Instead of seeing your friend as guilty or betraying you, notice that you are unharmed.
You go with a friend to her elderly mother’s house to help clean the house. While dusting some collectables, one slips from your hand and breaks into dozens of pieces. Be enlightened now. Watch the energies that may arise inside you, but don’t become involved with them. Apologize to your friend and her mother. If they seem upset, turn to intuition for guidance.
A friend feels he needs some money. You’ve had lack thoughts lately too. Be enlightened now. Help your friend by giving him some money, and realize you are always taken care of.

In this way, you come to learn that the only thing lacking in any situation is what you fail to bring to it. This is what St. Francis demonstrated in his prayer:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

“O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” Amen.

**Inner Wisdom led me to the idea of fractals as a way of demonstrating what this lesson is teaching, explaining that: “everything shares the same fundamental nature and that nature is exactly the same no matter the scale.” This is known in fractal geometry as “self similarity.” When I did a little research on fractals, I was struck by this phrase: “a fractal tells a story of the processes that created it.” Fractals are created by feeding the sum of an equation back into the equation in an endless loop. This produces repeating patterns that appear everywhere in the universe.

Here is a 15 minute Ted talk about fractals if you care to further contemplate the analogy:

8/25/2019 ~ Movie Watchers Discussion Group: Seven Years In Tibet

August 25, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Listen to the recording

Rev. Jay McCormick led this group discussion about this month’s movie, Seven Years In Tibet.

This biographical war drama set in Tibet in 1944 after World War II, prior to and leading up to China’s invasion of Tibet in 1950 stars Brad Pitt and David Thewlis as two friends mountaineering in British India. Due to their German citizenship they are imprisoned by the British in a POW camp. They manage a daring escape from the prison, and cross the border into Tibet, traversing the treacherous high plateau. While in Tibet, after initially being ordered to return to India, they are welcomed at the holy city of Lhasa, and become absorbed into an unfamiliar way of life. They meet the 14th Dalai Lama, who is still a boy, and becomes their tutor! During their time together, the main character Heinrich becomes a close friend to the young spiritual leader.

Release date: 1997, Running time: 2 hr 16 minutes

Link to Play sheet for the movie: Read it here

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 186

August 25, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 186. Salvation of the world depends on me.

Our current goals:

Widen the horizons of our vision
Take direct approaches to uncover the blocks that keep our vision narrow
Lift those blocks, however briefly, in order to experience the sense of liberation that comes when the blocks are removed
Intensify our motivation for freedom

Today’s lesson is a reminder of how important the purpose of awakening is. The salvation of the world depends on our awakening. Although most people may not realize it consciously, they want us to awaken.

Is this true?

Yes, most definitely. Although most of the world may not consciously know it, the heart and soul of each person values awakening more than any other human accomplishment. How do we know that?

As one example, who is more revered in the hearts of most people, Jesus or Caesar Augustus? Both lived at the same time. Most people know at least a little about each man and his accomplishments. Who is loved more? Who touches people’s hearts and minds more?

You see, even though people in general are not consciously aware of it, everyone knows awakening is the most important thing a person can do in a lifetime, and everyone celebrates awakening when it is achieved.

Today’s lesson encourages us to accept awakening as the role given to us by God. Some people may think it is arrogant to think that our individual spiritual paths have such monumental importance, but this lesson points out that is confusion regarding what arrogance is and what humility is. According to the lesson, arrogance is any thought that says awakening is not our God-given function. It could be the thought that I am not worthy of awakening, or it could be the thought that there is something else I want to do. Any thought that denies awakening as my role in this lifetime is arrogance.

Humility is accepting my role with all of my heart, all of my soul and all of my mind.

Today’s lesson asks us to listen to God’s Voice that He may “reveal to us what He would have us do.” That means, listen to the part of you that is always coaching you toward awakening. It speaks to us all through the day. We just need to tap into it, so that we hear its instructions in every instant and can choose to follow them every step of the way.

There are two things that will help us hear (or feel) this Voice within us:

First, we must want to hear (or intuitively feel) this Voice over the personal thoughts in the mind.

Second, it is helpful to ask for this Voice’s guidance. Because the Voice speaks to us all through the day, we want to ask for its guidance all through the day.

A good message that helps us learn to do that is “The Purpose of Surrender” from The Teachings of Inner Ramana. That message encourages us to ask within, “What am I to do now?” throughout the day. It says that this question is a fully inclusive question, which also includes, “How shall I see this?”, “What am I to hear?”, “How shall I respond?”, etc. In other words, when we use the question “What am I to do now?” we are asking inner spiritual intuition to guide us in every aspect of our day.

Today’s lesson says, “He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives.” This means that inner spiritual intuition will provide guidance for every situation we find ourselves in. In NTI Acts, the Inner Voice says:

In each circumstance and every situation along the way to Me, I am there with you, offering help and guidance. Never am I not there. Never can you make a mistake that will drive Me away. But it is also true that you can only hear My Word and accept My Help if you are willing to see that the answer to all things is Me.

If you choose to limit the circumstances in which I may help, My Help is limited. If you choose to solve your problems on your own, My answer remains unheard. Always, I am with you, able to help. Always, without exception, I am there. But you must be willing to know Me and accept Me in order to receive Me as yours.

Yesterday we inquired into our desires to discover what we truly want, and then we asked for that directly. Today, let’s remember to ask for guidance from the One who knows how to lead us to what we truly want. Let’s let that One guide in every detail of our life.

Kate Brennan ~ Giving Up Kate!~ “Taking Every Opportunity” – 8/25/19

August 25, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Kate shares her experience as she goes about the business of giving up her ideas about herself and the world on her journey toward purification and awakening. Kate shares with wisdom and humor and allows us a glimpse into the beautiful and sometimes messy blossoming of life examined with an eye on Truth.

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