Jacquelyn Eckert, Author at Awakening Together

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 176

August 15, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Review Lesson 176

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.

Review Lesson 176:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(161) Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(162) I am as God created me.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 175

August 14, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Review Lesson 175

Review Lesson 175:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(159) I give the miracles I have received.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(160) I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 174

August 13, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Review Lesson 174

Review Lesson 174:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(157) Into His Presence would I enter now.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(158) Today I learn to give as I receive.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 173

August 12, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Review Lesson 173

Review Lesson 173:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(155) I will step back and let Him lead the way.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(156) I walk with God in perfect holiness.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 172

August 11, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Review Lesson 172

Review Lesson 172:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(153) In my defenselessness my safety lies.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(154) I am among the ministers of God.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 171

August 10, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Review Lesson 171

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:

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:

Begin each day with the prayer above. Let yourself feel how much you want your practice to be individually guided from within.
Spend a few minutes with the day’s review lesson, silently being with the words for that day’s review, and then feel for what you are to do next. A few possibilities are:
1. You may feel to contemplate the review lesson and write what comes to you during contemplation.
2. You may feel to review the tips from the lessons that are reviewed on that day.
3. You may feel to practice self-inquiry through journaling regarding some thoughts in your mind.
4. You may feel to go directly into awareness-watching-awareness meditation.
5. You may have a feeling to practice the review lesson in some specific way throughout your day.

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 the 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.

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 170

August 9, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 170. There is no cruelty in God and none in me.

A skunk does it. A snake does it and family members will even do it. What’s that, you may ask. We defend ourselves from fear with attack.

You have all probably heard Jacquelyn tell stories about when she, our Mom and I were living together on my property and contemplating turning the property into a spiritual community. In our process there were many lessons learned. If you listened to Jacquelyn, her stories consist of how Mom and I were mean to her and would gang up on her. Mom and I always seemed to be in a state of disbelief when Jacquelyn, totally unprovoked, would verbally attack one or both of us. I suppose the reason we didn’t kill one another and grace would drop in to save was because we all had a sublime intent to create a community for the purpose of awakening.

I remember one evening in particular when Mom and I had just sat down to dinner. Jacquelyn came into the room and said something that appeared at the time to be harsh to Mom. I heard it as if someone had leaned over and whispered into my ear, “This has nothing to do with you.” I am quite sure without the grace, I would have sensed fear and defended Mom via an attack on Jacquelyn (maybe we did gang up). Just like the skunk and the snake do, I would have become defensive and attacked out of my fear. I know this because this scenario habitually played out many times as the three of us struggled to get the spiritual community set up.

To give up the habit of attack we need the desire or the grace to give it up. We resist the urge to attack by practicing rest, accept and trust when energy arises that would seem to advocate a need for attack. Our lesson today tells us fear is protected, not escaped when we use cruelty as a means to protect ourselves. Today’s lesson also tells us , “You make what you defend against, and by your own defense against it is it real and unescapable.” Every defense if truly seen is an attack. Jacquelyn was right. We thought we were merely defending ourselves, but in reality we attacked her because we allowed fear to become our safety and protector of our peace when we turned to it for solace.

If in the moment you hear a call for defense and Grace doesn’t come and whisper in your ear to drop the cruelty of attack, then lets be prepared to release this cry for defense. Again, lets give up the habit of attack and defense. Let us rest, accept, and trust that all defense is foolish and be released from what our lesson calls abject slavery. This is within our grasp with this simple practice of rest, accept and trust. With this practice, our lesson tells us, “Now do your eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through them. [Now] there is no cruelty in God and none in me.”

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 169

August 8, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

LESSON 169. By grace I live. By grace I am released.

The lesson begins, “Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. … 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.”

This paragraph suggests all we need do and all we can do to hasten our awakening. Just as we have been told, the sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the atonement for himself. This paragraph reiterates that prescription. We must do our part. Our part, accepting the atonement, is looking beyond the illusions of the world to the truth. When we have given up all value we would perceive in the world and its offerings, we have cleaned the alter and welcomed the presence of Grace (True Self or True Nature).

Similarly, NTI 1 Corinthians 2 encourages us to become the empty shell. “That which has opened itself to the Spirit of God by becoming as an empty shell has made a statement unto the mind that is its own. It has said, ‘I know I am not this thing I thought I was, as this thing cannot be my truth. So I put aside that which is false, that I may be open to receive only that which is true.’”

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.

The lesson tells us, “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.” NTI 1 Corinthians, Chapter 4 reminds us of our part:

“Do not make the mistake of forgetting who I am when you do know. I am you. I am your truth. When you forget to remember what you know, you pretend to be what you are not. When you pretend to be what you are not, you believe what you think, and you think you are different from that which you are. I ask you to lay your thinking aside. And with it you lay aside all pretending that isn’t truth. This is to make yourself an empty shell. An empty shell is not the absence of you. An empty shell is the absence of delusion, which you are not. In the clarity of your emptiness, free from the delusion of false thoughts, you are free to hear your real thoughts. These are the thoughts that you recognize as Me.”

Thus, we have our part to do by preparing ourselves to accept awakening. Let that be our only concern. Grace will do its part when we have prepared the way.

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

Join us for our Awakening Together Satsang with Suse Wicks, August 18, 7:30 pm ET

August 7, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert will interview Suse Wicks for our Awakening Together Guest Satsang on August 18 at 7:30 pm ET. This is our second Satsang with Suse Wicks. Our last Satsang interview with Suse can be found at this link.

When asked for her latest biography, Suse wrote: “This expression best reflects my sharing:

Seeking confirms that one feels a loss, something missing, a separateness that needs to be fulfilled. Seeking is the search and belief that something has to be better than what is or something better is attainable. That is why the position of a seeker is endless. Everything that is appearing in every nano second is always whole, complete and pure just as it is. One has to make this discovery for oneself. Living life with no explanation is living life as unconditional love.”

Suse’s email: susewicks@gmail.com

Suse’s Blog- susewicks.blogspot.com

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 168

August 7, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

Lesson 168, Your grace is given me. I claim it now.

Steve Ford described his awakening experience to Rick Archer in a Buddha at the Gas Pump interview in this way:

“I stood before God—Omnipresent Reality—with the true intention; I handed over my thinking in a prayer position, and there was a point where as I let go there was a slight sense of sadness, a slight sense of disappointment that I had with myself having to give the Creator my thinking back, because it felt like I’d done nothing with it. I felt very sad. I felt, “I’m sorry, but take the thinking back, because I’ve not done much good with this.” I felt I’d disappointed God. …

At that point, the mind began to open. It was a point where I’d let go of the tension of identification. Now, I didn’t know that at the time, but what I did was … I totally didn’t identify with the mind, because I knew mind was not real. … And at the point of knowing it is not real, it was still the scariest thing to let go of. So, letting go of that, I felt where I disidentified with it—where I let go of attachment to it as a reality principle—it started to open. Because the mind, when you are attached with it, becomes contracted. It’s like an energy, a tight contraction. And of course, when I was no longer attached with it, it just began to open up.

As it opened up, it went beyond the coordinate that I’d set on it, which is the egoic mark, the control you have on mind, the idea you have. And so as it began to open, it went beyond the idea of who I was as a mental construct, and so beyond the mental construct of who I thought I was. There was a fear. A fear of, “Oh, what’s going to happen here?” But I was so broken, so completely broken, [Note from Regina: This happened at a point when Steve was feeling complete desperation and failure in his life] that I just stayed with it. I thought, “Let’s just do it.”

It dissipated. I describe it as birds flying out of a tree. It felt like my thoughts just dissipated. All of the thoughts in my mind just flew away like a flock of birds. And just at that point, there was this opening. The thoughts went and the mind just became this blank screen, and there was this perfect observation of blank screen.

I remember, for the first time in my life, coming to know peace of mind. … You know when they say, “The mind is the sky and the thoughts are clouds.” It really is! That is exactly how it was. Suddenly, there was this infinite sky of mind, which became… It’s like a projection screen. But what is observing that is this pure awareness, this pure consciousness.

And at that point, I realized, “Ah! I’m not mad. I’m not dead. I’ve not disappeared. I am observing this. And I’m observing from this undifferentiated awareness. And the mind became the perfect reflection of what was observing, which was nothing. Emptiness, you see?

This happened! [He snaps his finger.] There was no thinking!

At that point, I remember suddenly being pulled into a deeper idea, which was an emotional idea, because we have layers of thought. We have the thought that is very abstract [points at the head], the thought that is emotional, and we have the thought that is very physical, the body. I didn’t know this then, but this is what happened. So suddenly there was a pull to a deeper aspect of contraction within my body. You see, the mind opened up, so suddenly there was nothing to keep me from entering what I call the heart area. Suddenly there was a pull, and I felt myself as formless consciousness coming down into my heart area. And as I was going down, I just stayed with formless consciousness. There was no egoic “I” anymore, no mental construct of doership anymore. … As I was going into the heart, … suddenly the heart begins to open because I wasn’t doing anything with it [Comment from Regina: There was no longer a doer trying to keep the heart from opening.], … and as it begins to open there was a pain, but it was a clean pain. A pain where there was no suffering, because suffering is in the mind, you see. …

As I felt this pain, it was like the pain of the world. … This voice came from nowhere; it was like a voice from within this. It said, “You’ve been running away from this all your life.”

And I understood then, I’d been running away from my heart opening. I had remained in what I knew all my life. Suddenly, I am going beyond what I knew. I’d done that with the mind, but now on this level, the emotional level, this was on a much deeper level. The emotional attachment we have for things is much deeper and is much stronger, you see. [Said with a look of seriousness.]

And then it opened up, and all there was, was a void. Going beyond the emotional contraction of my identity, there was just this void. It was absolutely black.

I don’t want to appear too dramatic. I don’t want to frighten anyone. But for me, I then was facing this very dark void. And then this void was pulling me in.

As I was being pulled into this vortex, this void, there was another voice came in. It said, “You’ll either go mad or you’ll die.” And I consented. I said, “Okay.” Not verbally, but in my innermost. Intentionally, I said okay. And I was pulled into this vortex, this very dark vortex, and as I got pulled in, it just felt like the whole thing opened up, and as I got pulled in there was a point where I truly did not exist; for no time! It was like a [claps his hands together once]!

As soon as I got pulled in, I could then see From. And at that point, there was a point of absolute death, complete death of attachments. There was no attachment anymore to the mental structure or the emotional structure, so much so that everything had opened up and it truly reflected what was directly observing. And the void, in fact, was a reflection of the absolute. [He smiles.] …

I could see. I could see, basically. And I could see from a completely, completely different reality base to what I was before. Totally.”

I shared this description of Steve’s awakening, because today’s workbook lesson asks us to, “Request Him now to give the means by which this world will disappear, and vision first will come, with knowledge but an instant later.” We are told, “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.”

We are asked to ask God to awaken us.

Steve says in his interview with Rick Archer, “This is something you can’t just go and do. It has to do with timing, to do with pressure. In that moment, what was going on inside of me, I was falling apart. There was absolutely no sense of authenticity. … I just thought, “Okay. I’ll let go of my thinking.” And for some reason it worked. … I could tell someone else, ‘Go, get on your knees now and hand over your thinking. It will just go away and you’ll be fine,’ and it just doesn’t work that way. Because then the ego says, “Right. I’m going to get it now.” [Note from Regina: The ego’s perspective is getting. Steve’s intention was letting go, even to the point of death.]

As Steve points out, it may not work if we ask today for God’s grace of awakening, because it may be the ego that is asking. If one feels completely ready for the death of the ego, the time is right. If the ego wants awakening for itself, the time is not right.

So, what do we do with today’s lesson? My recommendation is a day of deep contemplation and sincere prayer. Read Steve’s description and contemplate it. If you like, watch his video. I will post it below. Read today’s Course lesson and contemplate it. If you have The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer, read Chapter 7 and contemplate that. If you feel drawn to some other video or book, then trust your feeling and contemplate that. Get as deep into your sincere heart as you can today, and pray the prayers that are sincere for you.

Here is the link to the Steve Ford interview. If you do not have time for the entire interview, start at 44 minutes and listen for at least 15 minutes.