What is the Second Coming?

Our new special theme opens by saying, “Christ’s Second Coming, which is sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes, and the return of sanity.”

Christ’s Second Coming is awakening to consciousness. It is the stage of true perception or seeing the real world. It is sometimes called “enlightenment,” yet it is not the final awakening.

Here is how NTI 1 Corinthians describes this stage:

What is received when all that is false has been let go is only that which reflects truth. This, which is received as truth, shall fill you with new eyes and a joyous heart. In this way, you will be ready to point the way, for you will no longer be fooled by that which is false. You shall have a taste of truth. It is upon this recognition, which is the completeness of recognition within time, that you enter the fourth and final earthly phase of the path of truth with Me. …

NTI describes four stages of the spiritual path prior to the final awakening to truth.

1. The search for truth, which is really one’s search for his/her spiritual path. This is a phase marked by reading lots of books and listening to many different spiritual teachers. It is an outward-focused search.
2. Purification, which is when one begins the serious inner work of looking at false thinking, beliefs and conditioning and letting them go. This is a phase of healing perception.
3. Merging into one, which is a phase of discarding the personal will and following spiritual intuition until no separate will can be said to exist anymore.
4. True perception, which is the last earthly phase. This is the phase when the person lives as one with spiritual intuition and with all things perceived. You know yourself and everything as Christ-consciousness. It is what A Course in Miracles calls the real world and the second coming of Christ.

And God Himself shall wipe away all tears.

Today’s lesson says that “God’s world is happy. Those who look on it can only add their joy to it, and bless it as a cause of further joy in them.” The lesson also says, “unless I judge I cannot weep. Nor can I suffer pain, or feel I am abandoned or unneeded in the world.”

In other words, all suffering that we experience is caused by our own decision to see with individual thinking instead of with spiritual intuition. All suffering is a symbol that we need to accept the atonement, the correction of misperception.

As our special theme says:

Christ’s Second Coming,
which is sure as God,
is merely the correction of mistakes,
and the return of sanity.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

Loving Consciousness Description Z

What is the Real World?

Our special theme says, “As we look upon a world forgiven, it is He Who calls to us and comes to take us home, reminding us of our Identity which our forgiveness has restored to us.”

In the excerpt from The Experience of No-Self by Bernadette Roberts, which we contemplated yesterday, Bernadette wrote, “The onset of this second movement is characterized by the falling away of self and coming upon ‘that’ which remains when it is gone.”

Similarly, Ramana Maharshi said, “Not letting the mind go out, but retaining it in the Heart is what is called ‘inwardness’. Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as ‘externalization’. Thus, when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine.”

What do you see when you contemplate these three quotes together? Can you see that “Identity,” “that” and “Self” are all the same, even though Bernadette calls that “no-self”?

Spend time with this contemplation before continuing with today’s tip.

Only an instant does this world endure.

The lesson says that today’s thought “is a thought which can be used to say that death and sorrow are the certain lot of all who come here, for their joys are gone before they are possessed, or even grasped. Yet this is also the idea that lets no false perception keep us in its hold, nor represent more than a passing cloud upon a sky eternally serene.”

I quoted Ramana Maharshi today, while looking at the special theme. Here is more of that same quote:

When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain and the sense organs, the gross names and forms appear; when it stays in the heart, the names and forms disappear. Not letting the mind go out, but retaining it in the Heart is what is called “inwardness”. Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as “externalization”. Thus, when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine.

If you contemplate today’s workbook lesson along with this quote, you will see that letting our attention go outward towards the world and thoughts is the cause of suffering and illusion. Alternatively, keeping our attention inward leads to joy and truth realization.

Today is the last day with our current special theme. It is a good time to review the work that you did with this special theme, and reach a helpful conclusion.

The work you did included:

• Listing some of your perceptions as you looked at the world, and then labeling each of those perceptions as fear or peace.
• Selecting one fearful perception and inquiring into it.
• Using a form of writing recommended by Adyashanti, called “meditative self-inquiry,” to discover what you need to learn about the selected perception and then to ask how you can teach what you need to learn in order to learn it.
• Determining which phase of awakening you are currently in—purification, merging or waiting—and then based on that, what your primary function is now.

What summarized lesson can you take from all of this work? How do you put it into practice? Is there something you can do to remind yourself so you do not forget to put it into practice?

Answering these questions will result in some form of ‘inwardness’ that is fully right for you now. It will be your guidance—your current step—and “exactly what to do to be restored to Heaven and our true Identity.”

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

Abandon Release Description F

What is the Real World?

Our special theme speaks of two phases of awakening. The first is “quiet eyes” and “a mind at peace.” This is the mind that sees the real world, which “is a symbol, like the rest of what perception offers.”

The second phase of awakening occurs when God takes “His final step, and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it goes, and leaving but the truth to be itself.”

Contemplate the teaching in our special theme alongside this description from a Catholic contemplative, Bernadette Roberts. It is from her book, The Experience of No-Self:

Within the traditional framework, the Christian notion of loss-of-self is generally regarded as the transformation or loss of the ego (lower self) as it attains to the higher or true self in its union with God. … Thus there is no longer any sense of “my” life, but rather “our” life—God and self. In this abiding state, God, the “still-point” at the center of being, is ever accessible to the contemplative gaze—a point from which the life of self arises and into which it sometimes disappears. But this latter experience of loss-of-self is only transient; it does not constitute a permanent state …

Because this was the limit of my expectations, I was all the more surprised and bewildered when many years later I came upon a permanent state in which there was no self, no higher self, true self or anything that could be called a self. … In main, I am convinced that the contemplative life is composed of two distinct and separate movements…

The first movement is toward self’s union with God … wherein the emphasis is on interior trials and dark nights by which the self is established in a permanent union with God, the still-point and axis of its being. In this process we discover that self is not lost; rather, a new self is revealed that functions from the deepest, innermost divine center.

Following this first movement is an interval during which this union is tested by a variety of exterior (not interior) trials whereby this oneness is revealed in all its enduring depths of stability and toughness against all forces that would move, fragment, or disturb its center… [It is] actually the preparation for a great explosion—a quiet one, however—that ushers in another major turning-point. … [A] point is reached where the self is so completely aligned with the still-point that it can no longer be moved, even in its first movements, from this center. It can no longer be tested by any force or trial, nor moved by the winds of change, and at this point the self has obviously outworn its function; it is no longer needed or useful, and life can go on without it. …

The onset of this second movement is characterized by the falling away of self and coming upon “that” which remains when it is gone. … The immediate, inevitable result is an emergence into a new dimension of knowing and being that entails a difficult and prolonged readjustment. The reflexive mechanism of the mind—or whatever it is that allows us to be self-conscious—is cut off or permanently suspended so the mind is ever after held in a fixed now-moment out of which it cannot move in its uninterrupted gaze upon the Unknown.

Eternal holiness abides in me.

Today’s lesson speaks of our holiness, “which is far beyond my own ability to understand or know.” The lesson says, “Illusions can obscure it, but can not put out its radiance, nor dim its light. It stands forever perfect and untouched. … And I can know my holiness.”

Today, contemplate where you are in the process of coming to know the eternal holiness that abides in you.

• Are you in the purification stage, which is primarily involved with noticing false thinking, beliefs and conditioning and letting them go?
• Are you in the stage of merging, which is primarily involved with perfecting your abidance with the right-mind (spiritual intuition)?
• Are you in the stage of true perception, where merging has been perfected, and now you wait quietly for God to take His final step?

Also, based on where you are in this process, what is your primary function now?

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

Abandon Release Description E

What is the Real World?

Our special theme says, “The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His purpose. Now He waits but that one instant more for God to take His final step, and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it goes, and leaving but the truth to be itself. That instant is our goal, for it contains the memory of God.”

NTI Matthew, Chapter 11, says:

The search for truth is not truth itself, so do not stop there. Many have heard the call to search and have accepted it, but then they have stopped, thinking themselves complete. You are not complete until you are Truth, so do not stop at the call. It is your beginning, but it is not your end. To find the truth, you must walk until your end.

The “memory of God” is the realization of truth as our Self. The real world is the sign that truth realization is near. It is the end of the bridge, but it is not yet the shore on the other side of the bridge.

For me, that means that my commitment to spiritual practice must be complete. Some people may reach the experience that A Course in Miracles calls the real world and feel awakening is done. If they feel awakening is done, they might stop spiritual practice.

Certainly, some types of practice will fulfill their purpose and no longer be needed. A purified mind doesn’t need the practices that purify the mind. But a mind that hasn’t reached Self-realization should continue to open to Self-realization through practices like awareness-watching-awareness meditation.

When a devotee asked Ramana Maharshi about the end of Self-inquiry, Ramana responded that the end of that practice is “to know the truth that the ‘I’ is not different from the Lord …”

I love You, Father, and I love Your Son.

Today’s lesson is the recognition that “senseless journeys” are futile. The only meaningful journey is the journey toward Self-realization, and the end of that journey is sure.

Today’s lesson is a loving commitment to spiritual practice. We could see “I love You, Father, and I love Your Son,” in this way:

Focused awareness on awareness is the doorway to Infinite Awareness. I love watching awareness (the Son), and I love journeying toward Infinite Awareness (the Father) by remaining in awareness.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

Loving Consciousness Description Y

What is the Real World?

Our special theme says, “The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His purpose. Now He waits but that one instant more for God to take His final step, and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it goes, and leaving but the truth to be itself. That instant is our goal, …”

That instant is our goal. That is why we are on the spiritual path. That is why we do the practices that are part of Gentle Healing. Truth is the goal that lives in our hearts.

Today, take some unhurried time to review what you have written this week regarding your selected perception. As you read, notice your desire to follow the guidance that has come through your writing. Focus your attention on that desire. Through loving attention, it will expand. Sit in awareness and quietly be with your desire to follow guidance across the bridge to truth realization.

Forgiveness is the only gift I give.

Our lesson says, “Forgiveness is the only gift I give, because it is the only gift I want. And everything I give I give myself. This is salvation’s simple formula.”

Today is a day of realizing how deep our desire is to let spiritual intuition guide “the way I live” as “I accept the Atonement for myself.”

What is the Atonement? Atonement means “reparation for a wrong,” with reparation meaning, “the action of repairing something.”

In this case, wrong perception is what needs to be repaired. Wrong perception is the block to the real world and the block to truth. We accept the Atonement for ourselves by doing our part to heal wrong perceptions and by allowing the miracle to do its part to bring healing to completion.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

Loving Consciousness Description X

What is the Real World?

Our special theme speaks of the real world as a world that “arises from a mind at peace within itself.” It says the “real world signifies the end of time, for its perception makes time purposeless.” Then it goes on to say, “The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His purpose. Now He waits but that one instant more for God to take His final step.”

In our last special theme, we learned that spiritual intuition is the bridge from our false self to our true Self; we need to surrender to spiritual intuition for as long as the false self continues.

Since the mind is good at lying to us, and we could be fooled into thinking we’ve transcended the false self when we haven’t, our current special theme gives us another clue to pay attention to.

When we perceive the real world, with “no cries of pain and sorrow heard—when “No danger lurks in anything”—we have reached the end of the bridge, and spiritual intuition is no longer needed. It’s purpose has been fulfilled. God will take the next step to transport us from the end of the bridge to truth realization. Until then, spiritual intuition is needed to guide us.

It’s helpful to have this clarity, because it keeps us from fooling ourselves. As long as we have any fearful perceptions, spiritual intuition is needed.

The Holy Spirit speaks through me today.

Today’s lesson says, “We teach today what we would learn, and that alone.”

Over the last two days, you have discovered something that is helpful for you to learn. When you have fully learned something, a change occurs. Until a change occurs that signifies the learning is complete, you are still learning.

Teaching is a way of learning. However, there are many ways to teach. You can take time in the Sanctuary, weekly or just once (if there is an open timeslot) to teach what you need to learn. However, NTI Luke, Chapter 9 says, “I may have you teach without a single spoken word.”

Let’s allow spiritual intuition to guide us regarding how we are to “teach” in order to learn what’s most helpful for us to learn now. Let’s use Adyashanti’s method of writing to discover the best way for us to teach what we are learning regarding the selected perception we are looking at this week.

1 – Write or type this question: What’s the best way for me to teach to learn _______________?
(Fill in the blank with what you need to learn now.)

Note: You may also do this by speaking into a recorder.

2- Write about “teaching to learn” as if you are teaching someone else everything you know about that. You can use resources like NTI Luke, Chapter 9, to help you gather your thoughts about this topic.

Follow Adyashanti’s advice by writing all the way to the edge of what you know about this topic, and then wait for something else that you know is true. When that next true word, phrase or sentence comes, write it down. Stay with this process until you come to a conclusion that feels like guidance for you.

Note: Be sure to write without a limited view about what “teach” might mean.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

Abandon Release Description D

The Holy Spirit looks through me today.

Today’s lesson says, “Christ asks that He may use my eyes today, and thus redeem the world.”

Earlier in Gentle Healing, we studied The Code. We learned that the thoughts we believe make the world as it is. This is why forgiveness is so important. By releasing our belief in untrue thoughts, which are received into our minds through The Code, and by abiding as our peaceful unaffected Self, we send peace and wisdom into the world instead of fear and attack.

With this in mind, let’s make forgiving the untrue and realizing truth our top priorities. With these as priorities, we give a gift to the world and ourselves.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

Loving Consciousness Description W

What is the Real World?

Our special theme says, “Only happy sights and sounds can reach the mind that has forgiven itself. What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack and murder?”

Yesterday, you were asked to practice inquiry on a fearful perception—a perception that leaves you feeling affected. If you did this, it’s highly likely that you found mistakes in your thinking, since the only thing that can leave you feeling affected is belief in thought.

A “mind that has forgiven itself” is a mind that recognizes itself as unaffected awareness. (In this context, “mind” is synonymous with awareness and consciousness. It is like the first definition of “mind” in my dictionary: “the element of a person that enables them to be aware…; the faculty of consciousness…”)

A mind that recognizes itself as awareness has no need for mistaken thoughts.

A mind that recognizes itself as awareness sees the real world.

Today, we will take another step toward forgiving our self. This step has three parts:

1 – Read this article by Adyashanti. It is taken from his book, True Meditation.

How I Discovered Meditative Self-Inquiry

2 – Write or type this question:

What do I need to realize about ___________________?
(Fill in the blank with the selected perception you have been working with.)

Note: You may also do this by speaking into a recorder, if that feels most effective for you.

3- Write about your selected perception as if you are teaching someone else everything you know about it. Include everything you discovered as you inquired into this perception yesterday. Follow Adyashanti’s advice by writing all the way to the edge of what you know about this topic, and then wait for something else that you know is true. When that next true word, phrase or sentence comes, write it down. Continue writing until you hit another boundary, and then wait again. Stay with this process until you know that you came to a conclusion, one that is recognized in your heart and soul as the completed answer to your question.

Note: If you are speaking into a recorder, pause the recording after speaking to the edge of what you know; wait until the next true word, phrase or sentence comes, and then start the recording and begin speaking again.

I want to give us plenty of time to be thorough with this, so other than a brief comment on tomorrow’s lesson, I will not write a tip tomorrow. My next tip regarding our special theme will be two days from today. That gives us two days to explore the answer to our questions.

My body is a wholly neutral thing.

People usually see the body as who they are, but today’s lesson points out that we are not the body. We are “a Son of God”—that is, we are unaffected consciousness.

The body is a neutral thing, which means it is open to interpretation. If we listen to the ego thought system, the body is “I”. However, if we listen to spiritual intuition, it is “of service for a while and fit to serve.”

As Ramana Maharshi said, “Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”

Hence, Self-realization is the purpose of the body. Your body is perfect for this purpose, and that is true regardless of the current condition of your body. The reason the body is as it is now is to help you reach Self-realization. If there is a thought that the body is an obstacle to Self-realization, realize that thought is ego’s interpretation of a neutral thing, and then shift to spiritual intuition’s interpretation instead.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

Abandon Release Description C

What is the Real World?

Our special theme says, “The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes forgiveness blesses …”

What does that mean?

To me, “eyes” implies looking, seeing and perceiving.

We learned from our first special theme that “forgiveness” is recognizing yourself as the unaffected Self.

So, that sentence means that the real world is perceived when we know ourselves as the unaffected Self, and we look out on the world from that knowledge.

With the help of spiritual intuition, we have each selected a perception in which we do not see our self as unaffected. It isn’t helpful to start telling ourselves, “I am unaffected,” when there is probably a deep-seated belief that we are affected. Instead, it is more helpful to look carefully at the belief that we are affected.

It is time for inquiry.

Through Gentle Healing, we have learned about several types of inquiry including root cause inquiry, Byron Katie’s “The Work”, Diederik Wolsak’s “Choose Again” inquiry, and Inner Ramana’s self-inquiry. Use any of these methods, a combination of methods or your own inquiry process in order to learn what you fear regarding the selected perception. Set a goal of being able to honestly explain your fear to another person in a dispassionate way by tomorrow.

Note: According to my dictionary, dispassionate means “not influenced by strong emotion, and so able to be rational and impartial.” That doesn’t mean that you will repress any emotion. Emotion might be present, but your description will not go off into stories that are influenced by that emotion. Your description of the fear will be “rational and impartial.”

All fear is past and only love is here.

We learned previously that the past is only thought. Today’s workbook lesson says, “All fear is past,” which means all fear is only thought.

Today you will look to discover thoughts you believe that also cause you to believe you are a vulnerable affected self. These thoughts are obstacles to the vision of the real world. As today’s lesson says, “Can the world seem bright and clear and safe and welcoming, with all my past mistakes oppressing it, and showing me distorted forms of fear?”

We celebrate the opportunity to be free of an obstacle as we go in search of our mistaken beliefs today.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

Loving Consciousness Description V

Helpful Resources for Today’s Practice:

Guidelines for Root Cause Inquiry

Byron Katie Worksheet

Instructions for Doing The Work

The Choose Again Six Step Process

Inner Ramana’s self- inquiry

What is the Real World?

Our special theme says, “The real world is a symbol, like the rest of what perception offers. Yet it stands for what is opposite to what you made. Your world is seen through eyes of fear, and brings witnesses of terror to your mind.”

Yesterday, you made a list describing the world as you see it. Take a look at your list. Label each perception in the list as fear or peace, whichever feels most correct for the specific perception. When choosing between fear and peace, look at how you feel when you perceive the world in that way. Your mind might want to argue that a specific perception isn’t peace, but it also isn’t fear. Trust that any perception that isn’t peace is fear, even if it doesn’t seem that way to you.

Complete this step before continuing to read.

Notice how many of your perceptions are labeled as fear compared to the number of perceptions that are labeled as peace.

The labels help you understand why you see the world the way you do. If the majority of your perceptions are fear, you live in a fearful world. If some of your perceptions are fear and some are peace, you live in a somewhat stable world, but certain circumstances are fearful for you. If all of your perceptions are peace, you see the real world.

A happy outcome to all things is sure.

Today’s lesson says, “God’s promises make no exceptions. And He guarantees that only joy can be the final outcome found for everything. Yet it is up to us when this is reached; how long we let an alien will appear to be opposing His. And while we think this will is real, we will not find the end He has appointed as the outcome of all problems we perceive …”

Look at your list again. Ask spiritual intuition to select one fearful perception for you to work on. Sometimes the mind’s reaction to intuition’s choice is resistance. It might feel like, “I don’t want to work on that one. I’ll pick an easier one.” Those thoughts come from the “alien will” mentioned in today’s lesson. Ignore those thoughts, and choose to work on the one selected by spiritual intuition.

Today, whenever the selected perception arises, repeat today’s lesson to yourself. As you do, realize that a happy outcome is delayed when you cling to your conditioned way of thinking. Give willingness to see that your way of thinking is wrong. Tomorrow, after a day of giving willingness, we will look more deeply at our selected perceptions.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

Abandon Release Description B