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You are here: Home / Archives for Regina Dawn Akers

Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 155, I will step back and let Him lead the way.

June 23, 2017 By Regina Dawn Akers

Today is another opportunity to contemplate the calling we received yesterday, because more than one day is needed to commit deeply to demoting self-will in favor of service to truth.

Today’s lesson tells us why we should make this commitment. “There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. You do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet.” And isn’t this something that we all want?

“To let illusions walk ahead of truth is madness. But to let illusion sink behind the truth and let the truth stand forth as what it is, is merely sanity. … accept the truth, and let it go before you … Step back in faith and let truth lead the way.”

As we contemplate this commitment, it is also important to contemplate the warning that comes in today’s lesson. “Walk safely now, yet carefully, because this path is new to you. And you may find that you are tempted still to walk ahead of truth, …”

Let today be a day of contemplating our willingness to demote self-will in favor of truth. Amen.

Filed Under: GentleHealingTips-Year1

Am I the Body? – Meditation by Rev. Regina Dawn Akers

June 22, 2017 By Regina Dawn Akers

Find a place where you will be undisturbed. If it is comfortable, put on headsets or earbuds.

Relax, and enjoy this meditation.

Am I the Body? – A Meditation

The music played during the meditation was Tibetan Healing Sounds #1 provided by Soft Music and Yoga.

Filed Under: DevotionMeditation

Tips from Regina – Lesson 154, I am among the ministers of God

June 22, 2017 By Regina Dawn Akers

Today’s workbook lesson is a calling. All are called. The question is, who will answer?

In order to answer the call, there are certain requirements.

  1. We must let go of judging of ourselves. This includes letting go of judging if we are ready for service, if we are worthy of service, and what our role of service should be. This means that an emptying out needs to occur. We need to let go of who we think we are, what we think we want, and what we think our strengths and weaknesses are. We need to be open and willing, and nothing more. Anything that we add to that, like ideas about what our service should be, will likely come from ego.
     
    I am reminded of Eckhart Tolle’s story. He experienced an awakening, and then he spent the better part of the next two years sitting on a park bench in London in a state of bliss. And then guidance began to come. He was guided to move to the west coast of the USA, although he did not know why. So he went. Later it unfolded that he wrote a book, The Power of Now, and his role as a teacher began.
     
    If you look at Eckhart’s story, you can see that he did not pick his role. He also was not searching for his role. He was happy just to be. When the first step in his function came, which was to move, he moved. At that point there was no more to it. The feeling came to move, and so he moved.
     
    Are we willing to have no ideas of our own? Are we willing to simply be here now, following whatever prompts there are in the moment, without planning what our part will be?
  2.  

  3. We must be willing to say ‘yes,’ even though we have no idea how we will succeed. Today’s Course lesson says, “And that one Voice appoints your function, and relays it to you, giving you the strength to understand it, do what it entails, and to succeed in everything you do that is related to it.”When you receive your guidance, it is likely you won’t know how you will accomplish it. You may not have the knowledge, skill, resources or money needed. That’s not your concern. A part of how you will learn that there is something bigger than your little self is to say ‘yes’, and then watch how everything is provided. It’s such a marvelous experience! But it is an experience that can only be had if you say ‘yes.’
  4.  

  5. You must realize that your service is for you. It doesn’t matter if you are made a teacher, a writer, a musician, a bookkeeper, a housekeeper, an event organizer, etc. You may be able to see how your function serves others, but what is most important is that you notice how your function serves to awaken you. Where are the opportunities to let go of your way of thinking? Where are the opportunities to increase trust? Where are the opportunities to let go of self-will and increase surrender? Whatever form of service you are given, your awakening is its first purpose. Always remember its first purpose, and let your function do its job on you.
  6.  

  7. You must also realize that your service is not just for you. Its first purpose is receiving for your own awakening, but its second purpose is giving. All energy is a flow, and in order for a flow to be effective, it must continue to flow. So you will receive from your service, and then you will give. And you will continue to receive, and you will continue to give. This is the flow.It is important to realize that you do not decide how you will give. A trick of the ego can come at this stage. Even if you were careful enough to let go of judging yourself (#1 above), to say ‘yes’ (#2) and to see your function as for you (#3), the ego may try to trick you at this point by convincing you that you are now mature enough to know what is best; now you can decide what to give and how to give it. This is a very common ego trick and one that is to be watched for. It is the ego trying to reestablish itself in your mind. Keep in mind that the way to successfully give is to continually repeat steps 1-3 above.

Today I ask that you contemplate what I have shared above. Everyone has a function to be fulfilled. As today’s lesson says, “He needs our voice that He may speak through us. He needs our hands to hold His messages, and carry them to those whom He appoints. He needs our feet to bring us where He wills, that those who wait in misery may be at last delivered. And He needs our will united with His Own, that we may be the true receivers of the gifts He gives.”

You may already know your function, and you have delayed saying ‘yes.’ You may not yet know your function, but it may come to you soon. Or it may not be time for you to know your function yet. Regardless of your specific situation, a deep contemplation of today’s workbook lesson will prepare you to fulfill your role, whatever it may be.

Filed Under: GentleHealingTips-Year1

Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 153, In my defenselessness my safety lies

June 21, 2017 By Regina Dawn Akers

In Chapter 1 of The Untethered Soul, Michael Singer writes, “… the mind talks all the time because you gave it a job to do. You use it as a protection mechanism, a form of defense.”

Is that true? Is the mind a form of defense?

Let’s watch it for a day and find out. As you watch, some forms of defense you might find are:

~ Thoughts attacking someone who threatens your psyche or gets in the way of what you want (even if it is just the position you want in traffic)

~ Mentally practicing a conversation with someone in order to achieve the outcome you want

~ Thinking about how you should look, be or act in order to be liked or respected by others

~ Thinking about what you can change, manipulate or control in order to achieve the outcome you want

~ Thinking about how you can avoid any feeling or circumstance that you find uncomfortable or painful

Today’s lesson tells us, “You are its slave. … You do not realize what you have done to sabotage the holy peace of God by your defenses.”

Is that true? Are we slaves to the mind’s defensive chatter?

Let’s watch that too. Can you decide to let go of defensive chatter and then move through the day in relative peace, or do you find yourself listening to defensive chatter again?

Try this today: Whenever you notice the mind is chattering as a form of defense, look at what the mind is saying. Notice it. And then slowly say to yourself, “In my defenselessness my safety lies.” (Or you can say, “Peace lies in defenselessness.”) Take a breath and let go of the chatter. Move into a state of openness, acceptance and intuitiveness. Remain there. If you notice that you’ve slipped into being focused on mental defenses again, repeat this practice.

If a situation arises today that needs to be resolved, approach it differently. Instead of going to the mind’s defenses for answers, ask questions and remain open for intuition’s guidance. For example, ask, “How should I look at this?” or “What should I do now?”

Filed Under: GentleHealingTips-Year1

Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 152, The power of decision is my own.

June 19, 2017 By Regina Dawn Akers

Over the last two days we have been contemplating Michael Langford’s theatre analogy along with Lesson 151. Today’s workbook lesson looks at a difference between the theatre analogy and our experience with the world. In the theatre analogy, people are born in a theatre and mesmerized by the film, but they have nothing to do with creating the film. As today’s workbook lesson points out, we are each “co-creator of the universe.”

Today’s lesson begins, “No one can suffer loss unless it be his own decision. No one suffers pain except his choice elects this state for him. No one can grieve nor fear nor think him sick unless these are the outcomes he wants. And no one dies without his own consent.” And it continues by saying, “And it is only here salvation is.”

Just like with Lesson 151, today’s lesson is clear that “what is false is false.” That which we co-create through the power of our decision is not true and it does not change truth. However, our decisions are the source of the illusion that we find ourselves so mesmerized with. We learned this when we studied and contemplated The Code.

Lesson 152 says, “Nothing occurs but represents your wish, … You may believe that this position is extreme, and too inclusive to be true.”

Over the next two days, we will look at this lesson in a very practical way. We will watch for decisions that we make that shape our individual experience. Many of these decisions seem unconscious until we watch for them, and then we see that they are made both consciously and repeatedly.

Here are few examples of the types of decisions you may see yourself make as you watch for the decisions that shape your experience.

I don’t want to do this.
I hate … (traffic, this heat, mean people, stupid people, myself, etc.)
I will never be able to …
I don’t have enough …
I’m tired of this.
He/she is … (annoying, wrong, stupid, lazy, etc.)
I’m so … (stupid, lazy, ugly, etc.)
I have too much to do.
They think … about me.
This situation is unacceptable.
I’ll be happy when I get …
I’ll be safe when I get …
I won’t ever … (understand this, be able to do this, get to go there, etc.)
No one ever pays attention to me.
This always happens to me.
This is too good; something bad is going to happen next.
This isn’t fair.

As you watch for the decisions you make, notice both the decisions and how those decisions affect your experience. Ask yourself, “If I made a different decision about this, how would my experience be different?” Look both at the circumstance and your emotional experience to see if you can find at least one way your experience would be different if you made a different decision.

Filed Under: GentleHealingTips-Year1

Help Spread the Word About the Awakening Together Fall Retreat

June 18, 2017 By Regina Dawn Akers

If you would like to help promote the Awakening Together Fall Retreat and if you use Facebook, you can share a post about the Awakening Together Fall Retreat.

Direct Link to the Post

Thanks for sharing in Facebook and helping to spread the word!

Filed Under: Old News

The Audacity of Lies by Chris Celine

June 17, 2017 By Regina Dawn Akers

Child of God. Child…innocence…new. To carry the acceptance that you are a child. To carry the acceptance that everything is new and innocent is to allow yourself to turn away from the jaded “knowing” identity that the ego likes to portray. There is a belief that being smart is somehow an advantage. Smart in a way of being savvy, being on top of things, knowing how things should be and how they work. That state of mind is not true, but it’s very painful. It gives you a rush for sure. It gives you a high of an idea that you are “with it” somehow, and you’ve got it under “your” control.

And, in that for many, it’s an addiction to the “knower,” loving to be the “top dog”, to be the one who knows and who runs the show and that others think you are, too. And, it is such a trap because the true knowledge of Love has no knower. The true knowledge of Love is offered by Love itself and is completely not your making. The knowledge of Love is beyond the centuries, beyond comprehension within the world of separation. And by the time that you are available for knowledge, you have already come to a place of humility that says “I really don’t know anything”.

Only Love can lead the way in Truth. And then you accept so much more deeply that you are a Child of God…that you have no need to be on top of anything, because there’s nothing to be on top of. But what hangs out right behind that wanting to be on top is fear. The fear of being found out that your knowing has really no worth. Not because you are not up to par, but because you went down a wrong road. You went on a road of proving, winning , getting and being right. It’s just a painful, painful place. And Love keeps calling to change directions, recover into the Child of God.

Drop in, drop down. To be able to look at any circumstance and recognize I made that up. I made it up and only Love can reconcile what I made up. So, it’s a constant coming back to Love, to not knowing, and accepting that you are the Child of God. You’re innocent. You’re new. And the relationship with the Divine stays in that perfection until you disappear into the Light of God where you truly exist. It’s a painful life to try to prove anything. To carry that addiction…it’s a prison that’s self-made. And all the ego wants to do is convince that you should try it again, that you just missed the mark a little bit and you’re going to do it better next time, you’re going to figure it out next time. And, it never does. Thank God it never does!

You can come back. Only Love is real. Only Love exists. And everything that’s running in the mind is pain and battle. Come home. Come in and become your True Self. Sink into your True Self. In Love. Affirming constantly that only Love is Real and that there is no problem. The problem is thinking that you know something. That’s the only thing in the way of peace, harmony, connection. How can you connect with anyone when you’re living in a false identity that wants to prove worth?

It’s like being in a crowd of people and shoving people out of the way to get to the front of the line. And then you realize that while you were shoving everybody out of the way, there went your opportunity of connection, of Love, of offering Love. The easy way is “I don’t know. I just don’t know”. You don’t know what any situation needs to look like, what it’s for, what’s to come of it. Allowing the mind to be let go and let it unfold in its beauty…in its learning.

In this moment, of just affirming that only Love exists. Nothing else. There’s nothing to latch onto. Nothing to have to have or prove or figure out. Just resting in Love. Allowing. Affirming that this sanctuary is filled with Love because it’s truly all that there is. And the more that you accept and ask “show me that Love. Let me enter into that realm of loving vibration. Teach me how to love”. Paying attention is part of that. And learning to pay attention to what is most helpful.

[sings]

Sister, brother
Pay keen attention
Move very, very slowly To not mistake your path.

Sister, brother
Keep your feet on the ground Be careful with your pride
Be careful with your vanity.

Sister, brother
Go very, very slowly
Be careful with the traps Of life on your path.

Sister, brother
Journey with attention Sincerity in the heart
To walk blessed on this earth.

Pay keen attention. This is not a finger wagging. This is straightforward helpfulness…to pay keen attention. When do you pay keen attention? You pay keen attention to what the thoughts are that are running moment to moment. “What am I believing in? What are my words that I’m speaking that are coming from my mind of my thinking I know something”. Pay keen attention.

What are the words for? Are they to be of service…to love? Or are they to bring a sense of worth to the self? Or to prove something that you have or you are. Pay keen attention. Go very, very slowly so that you’re aware of what you’re offering. Moment to moment.

The high that comes with believing that you personally have an offering that someone else needs. Be very, very careful. Because helpfulness…to be truly helpful is to offer Love, is to offer service. But, there’s no high. There is an awareness of connection. There is Love through the offering. But as soon as the mind in its trickiness says “I’m going to get something out of this. They’re going to think I’m really…boy, I’m talented. I’m smart. I know spiritual stuff”.

Whatever it seems to be. It’s to be very aware of that ego addiction to being the knower in whatever way that it comes out. And it’s so easy to be the knower. It really is because all you have to do is find others that you see as messed up or not engaged in some way that you think they should be engaged. Whatever the assessment is, it’s made up, and it’s really the insanity of the mind that is revealing itself in that way. Letting go and pay keen attention with sincerity in the heart. To be blessed on the path of Love.

Here I Am

Declaring the love within my heart
Here I want to affirm the Love of our Divine Mother. I’m here to learn to Love eternally
Here in this school of Love,
I sit in gratitude to all Divine Beings.
Within the Light of our Divine Mother
Forever I will praise the Truth of all Divine Beings And never to aggrandize myself.
I’m small with the knowledge
And the size of Love that I’m aware of.
But within this Light, I enter into
The great Love of all creation.
To Love together with all beloveds,
All of us together, praising God.
Here within this power, we give thanks
To our Divine Mother and Father.
The healing that is waiting to be received,
Is here within the heart
As we give Love and thanks
For all that we do receive.

We must give thanks. Not only for the healing, but for the great gifts of Truth that leads us in every moment and blesses everything all the time. Only Love.

Tripping Over Joy

What is the difference
Between your experience of existence And that of a saint?

The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with God,

And that the Beloved
Has just made such a Fantastic Move

That the saint is now continually
And bursting out in Laughter
And saying “I surrender”
Because there’s nothing else to do.

Whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still look and think

That you have a thousand serious moves.
[Hafiz]

Serious moves. Finding that place of resting in God, trusting that God’s movement within the world is serving you and perfectly orchestrated for your learning, and not looking at it with a seriousness that says “I have to figure all this out because I have to get back in control”. When all that Love is asking of the saint and of the learner is to recognize that it’s all perfectly orchestrated and that you can laugh. That you can laugh at what you may be thinking. You can laugh at how things are unfolding. What does it mean to accept that there’s no good or bad, there’s no right or wrong, there’s no light or dark? How can you not laugh if there’s no good or bad?

Once you identify something as bad or wrong, you have to adjust and be with it in the manner in which you think it needs to be held. But if everything is perfect for your learning, then how can you not just laugh and say ok, show me the way because this is the way of Love, and I’m held.

Tripping Over Joy

It’s totally possible, (of course it is) to be at peace. To be trusting that you really, really, really don’t know what anything is supposed to look like. The form of it, whatever it is, is not “it”. The form is just a shell that you have identified as good and bad and right and wrong and…. For some to have rain is to be automatically upset. Looking at the rain and saying “it’s depressing. I can’t go outside. We can’t do this. I can’t do that. My hair will go wanky”. Whatever it is, it’s made up. Completely. Or someone is behaving the way that is not liked. And, you believe that you have to change it. There’s nothing to judge. There’s just nothing to judge. “Is this where would you have me be? How can I serve? What is most helpful? I don’t know”. And in that, life becomes a movement that is tripping over joy.

I have mentioned several times that when I was in healing that I was called to go sit with a teacher that was in the valley visiting. And the only thing I remember him saying was laughing at your house burns down…he’d laugh really loud. You split up, get a divorce, he laughed. You lose your job, he laughed. And I took that and I was with it for months. To enter into the energy of that possibility that you could be free of the form and go beyond the form and touch into the joy into the blessings that were always there. Always. Months and months and months of inner study, inner questioning. Not questioning God, questioning the insanity that I carried of believing in the right and wrong and the good and bad. Learning.

The saint knows that the spiritual path is a sublime chess game with God.

If you see your life as a chess game with God, all you’re doing is waiting for the next move. And, you’re learning how to play. You’re watching the moves that God makes and the guidance is all there to teach you what that move means and how that move came to be, and what’s really here. But without that inquiry, without that awareness that the form has no meaning…the meaning is all coming from the mind that sees the form, judges it as a like or a dislike through personal meaning from YOUR past and reacts to the form as if the form has reality.

But your Divine Spirit is not stuck in those forms. The forms change constantly, and the only thing is that if you give them meaning, then you either suffer through the meaning that you give them or you are at peace through the God’s Truth that you accept. And you learn, that’s the key.

It is a blessed discovery to accept that no one can suffer loss except by their own decision…by your own decision. No one can suffer loss. How can that be? Everything that you see is coming through a filter of the belief of scarcity, of lack and the belief that there’s a right and a wrong and a good and a bad and that’s already been established by your ego mind and you’ve carried it for lifetimes. But if you can open and recognize that there really is nothing to lose, you are whole and complete and nothing of the Truth of you can be taken from you. It can’t be altered by anything. No one can do anything to you. And no one can take anything from you that is of Truth.

So what is it to live in that recognition that there’s only loss by decision? What if you stop yourself in a moment where you think something’s lost or something’s missing? And, you stop and pray to see it differently…that it can’t be true, that you cannot be in loss, and that something within your mind has to make an adjustment or you’re going to stay in pain. And, it isn’t God’s Will at all for there to be anything other than Peace.

No one can suffer loss except by his own decision.

No one suffers pain except by his choice. No one can grieve except by the belief that something is missing. The idea of grieving…let’s say somebody moves out the area that you’re close to physically and that you have a heart connection with. And, they are moving. And, your instant reaction is “I’m bereft. I’ll be without”. Because the body is so believed, that you believe that your relationship is based on physicality. It has nothing to do with physicality. Physicality would mean that you would have to be with every single person that you care about all the time in order to believe that you were in a state of Love. And Love has nothing to do with physicality.

Can you step out of the mind that believes that and open to the reality that Love has no limitation? The freedom in that place is so profound because it actually opens you to the Truth of Love. When you were in the physical belief that you have to be close by, it was a need from the body’s emotions, rather than the actual Truth of Love, the heart connection, the oneness. And this Beloved who is moving out of the area…imagine that you begrudge them moving. That you have a sadness, that you have an upset because they’re not going to be physically with you to prove you are Loved.

So, you would put your Love aside in the name of grief, in the name of belief in loss, the belief that you will be bereft without their physical nearness and that you don’t want them to go. And, in that, you’re basically saying “I believe that my not wanting you to go is Love. My grief over your leaving is what I consider to be Love”. And, it is NOT Love. It is the need of the ego to get what it wants. To believe that something is missing and what it needs in order to be okay. It’s an old agreement with bodies that believe in separation. That being separate from another body means that you are separate when that’s not possible in the Truth of Love. It’s not possible. And, what gift would there be in speaking to this beloved who was moving and making sure that they know that you’re miserable, which is a ploy that the ego likes a lot. “I miss you. I miss this. I miss that. And, I am without”.

Imagine that beloved having the courage to go beyond and to take the sacred teachings and be able to say “this can’t be true. God has promised that I cannot have loss, that there is no separation. So, how could it be that I am experiencing a separation when there can’t be any by God’s word”? Are you willing to question the validity of your mind? What you’re feeling and how you’re reacting? Are you willing to ask and to find the way? So, when you do ask and Spirit says take this teaching: “ I have given everything all the meaning that it has”…. If this is the Truth, that you have given everything in what you see all the meaning that it has, “I am inside out. I’m upside down”. You are believing in loss when there is no loss. You are believing that you have been jilted, You have been treated unfairly, you have been abandoned, you have been rejected. All of it, the refusal to accept the mind’s insanity.

And, all the while, you could be in celebration. You could be tripping over joy, because you would be bursting into laughter and saying “I surrender! I surrender what I know because I just entered into an area that has no Truth to it. And I want the Truth. I want to remember that I cannot be without. And that nothing is happening to me that I am not asking for, for my own learning”. Not asking for to be punished, but for your learning. Is your prayer “Show me the way? Show me what’s most helpful”. And, if that is your prayer, then everything that’s showing up is for your remembering. And, how beautiful and how perfect.

But, the other side of it is, when you’re miserable, it’s a self-made punishment for whatever reason that you believe the punishment is justified or valid. Mostly, it’s just out of habit. And, the habit says, “if I have this habit, it must be real. And if I have this habit, it must be right, because I’ve had it for so long. I believe in it. I’ve put my faith in it”. And, all the while, this is just the schoolroom of learning.

The schoolroom of learning. The ego identity says, “love is my enemy”. And, nobody on the surface really believes that, except that we turn away from what is real for the illusion out of habit and out of the arrogance of knowing, and out of the fear of the unknown. That’s why faith is so essential. But, the ego doesn’t buy faith. Certainly not faith in God. It believes in its own faith that what it already knows is right. But, with love as the enemy, cruelty becomes god. If love is the enemy then cruelty has to raise its head and try to be in control, try to be right about whatever. It’s all fear. But the cruelty of it is the insistence on being right.

And, while that’s going on, this insistence on being right and doing it the way your used to doing it, whatever it is, the cruelty that comes up is that you want to be right so bad that it doesn’t matter who you step on. It doesn’t matter what the end result is, you just want to get back in control, not realizing that it’s such a painful, painful place. And that it separates so deeply…not really separates, but the sense of it is “I’m separate, because I’m in my own battle”. When you are in your own battle, your own mind, your own thinking, you can’t help but feel separate. It’s a place of pain. That’s not any way connected with going within and connecting with the Divine, or contemplation, meditation, prayer.

Those are all inward expressions and connections. But that’s not what the problem is. The problem is that you separate yourself in the name of being right, in the name of knowing. And, there’s no remedy except to recognize you’re thinking that you know something and you are making your own little landscape that is just very painful and always familiar. Immediately, the idea of being right is…you can feel safe. Don’t be fooled by it, because it doesn’t bring safety. It brings you a recognition of something that you have already developed…when you’re right. And there’s a strange relationship with the power in being right.

It’s almost as if you won the race, just momentarily you won the race. That feeling of crossing the finish line ahead of everybody and being the victor. That’s what the wanting to be right feels like. It gives you a false sense of winning and being safe. But, being right separates also. It’s all about winning and whoever crosses that finish line and wins is dancing by themselves.

In a conversation not very long ago, we were talking about running and racing. Being a runner. And I said, “the most beautiful thing that I’ve ever seen at a race was when someone fell down and the runner that was actually going to win stopped and helped them up”. That’s so beautiful! That place of offering Love was a state of being of true Love, of helpfulness. There’s nothing wrong with being the winner of the race, but whatever the intention is…if it’s just to win, it’s going to be a solitary place. Nothing wrong (or right) with winning at all in those circumstances, but, it’s paying attention to the intention. What is it for? And really choosing constantly to not know and let a new world open up. A new world.

One of the main teachings that expands that into everything is:

You are responsible for what you see and feel.

You are responsible for what you see. You’re not condemned for what you see, but everything you see and how you see it comes from your own mind. It isn’t coming from anybody else doing anything. It isn’t coming from anybody else’s decisions. It’s coming from what you believe in. And that’s where your healing is, is to examine what you’re believing. This, the ego wants no part of. No part. Because the ego wants to convince that what it knows is pretty darn important and right. Except, that you don’t feel any love. You don’t connect, except in your own mind, what you’re believing in. And so Love keeps calling, keeps calling.

I’m afraid you think you have a thousand serious moves.

There is a certain amount of taking care of business in the world. How do you take care of business in the broader sense and still stay present and realizing that this is all unfolding in God’s harmony? You take one step at a time. And you don’t know what’s going to happen next. You just take care of the step that is here and now. And you don’t allow your mind to have a concept, a plan, or an outcome other than God’s Will for you is peace and joy. Whatever it’s going to look like, you are going to be resting in peace and joy, fulfilling your calling. To offer Love, to be Love, to serve Love. It becomes easy because you’re not the planner. You’re not the one making decisions because you never make decisions on your own. You decide that the friend who moved away is leaving you, well, that can be your decision but, it’s a decision of separation. It’s a decision that probably is very familiar; that every time somebody left in the past, you believed that they were doing something to you personally. And now you have the opportunity of really transforming everything you have believed about abandonment that you thought was true.

And you stay with the Truth when the Beloved friend physically leaves, your calling is to hold for the two of you (at the very least the two of you) the Truth. That you cannot leave Love. That you cannot be separated from anyone, because Love is the only Truth, and in the Truth you are One. Are you offering them Love? Are you offering them non-judgment, are you offering them blessings for their journey that may have a different form than yours? When you are there, in that love, holding them for their journey…it doesn’t matter what the journey is for them. It’s not your business, it’s not your business to have an opinion about “they could be doing a lot better than that. They shouldn’t be moving there. They should be doing this. They should be doing that”. Nope. That insanity is insane.

This is the arrogance of the ego that says “I know something. And I definitely know what somebody else’s journey should look like”. That is such a place of loneliness. It is a place of affirming for yourself that you are separate, that you are without, and that you are adamantly sticking to it, because it’s what you know. There is a certain payoff in this belief because the ego, in its audacity, gets a high from mulling over what the other one should be doing. There’s a high in it. There’s a sense of superiority, control. “I know what their life should look like. And, it’s very rude that they don’t ask me”. And the only place that there is is to step back and realize you’re just making it up.

You don’t know what they need for their journey. You don’t know what their journey needs to look like. You don’t know. But, all that you’re there to learn is that you can’t be separated from them at all because it has nothing to do with the body. Your Heart has the capacity, your being has totality of capacity to be in oneness with every Beloved. If you will allow the Holy Spirit to show you the Truth of Love. This Beloved who has moved away, or moved somewhere, they have given you a gift of learning. They have given you the opportunity of learning something that you have not known…in Truth.

So, imagine that you would drop the opinions of what you think somebody else should be doing with their life, or where they should be living, or how their world should look, and offer them Love. Offer them blessings. Offer them the exalted state of holding them as the Light of God no matter where they are or what they’re doing, because what they’re doing or where they are is really none of your business. It’s God’s business. Spirit is moving them where they will be. Or, their ego is moving them, but they have a learning. They’re here to learn, just as everyone is here to learn.

The selfishness of the ego that says “I need you to be around, so that I can be in charge of something or knowing something or that you’re available for me”…. All that is painfully untrue. There is nothing more beautiful than to be in union, celebrating someone’s journey where they need to be, accepting that you cannot be separated in the Truth of Love. You can be separated in your ego mind because when you’re in your mind and you think that you’re lacking or you think that somebody’s betraying you or thinking that somebody is not being nice to you or whatever it is. It’s untrue. No one can betray you.

You’re whole and complete in the Light of God. You cannot be betrayed. But if you choose to believe that you are betrayed, then that element will run your life and hold you in that imprisonment of your upside down mind, because it’s just not true. “Sister, brother be very, very careful to not mistake your path. Be careful with your pride. Be careful with your vanity”. The pride and the vanity are all part of that scenario of thinking you know. Even when you’re not aware of the pride, pride says “I’m the one who knows! I’m the one who has the license for judgment. I have the license for opinions. I’ve earned that right to my opinions and my judgment”.

How did you earn the right to judgment and opinions? The only way that anybody earns the right to judgment and opinions is through fear, through the belief of battle, and the belief of self-protection, and the belief of separation. None of those are true. So you have this opportunity of offering Love to a beloved who you wanted to make them guilty for not physically being in your presence. And you have this opportunity of learning how to truly Love and how to expand your Divine Spirit to include everyone, and that you can’t be separate from anyone. It’s not possible.

Conflict must be resolved; not evaded, set aside or hidden by deceit.

It must be resolved. If you have a sense of conflict within you, use it…let the Holy Spirit use it. If there’s a conflict, if the energy of conflict comes up, that means you are believing that there’s conflict, and the first place to go is “help me! Help me! I’m believing in conflict, and I cannot give it my own interpretation. I can’t let it be hidden by deceit, my own deceit of what I think it means. I have to ask. What is this conflict about? What am I believing in about this conflict? Why am I feeling conflicted”? You’re not asking yourself, you’re asking the Divine, “show me please”! If you ask yourself, it’s like being in an insane asylum and giving yourself the keys. Doesn’t work. Your ego can’t open deceit. It depends on deceit. It is deceitful by its nature.

There was a teaching that came years ago. It was a beloved that was explaining that they couldn’t stand lying. Liars…couldn’t stand lying. I almost started laughing, because it was so serious. And I said, “Well, then, you can’t stand anybody, because everybody’s lying”. If you don’t know the Truth of Love, you’re in a lie. If you’re believing in the illusion of separation and lack, believing in your own mind and believing that you think you know, it’s all a lie to yourself.

So, to make the statement that you can’t stand liars; then you have to look in the mirror because the liar is looking back at you. And, I wasn’t saying that about anyone, it’s not about anyone. It’s that the ego lies. That’s all it knows how to do. It doesn’t tell the Truth because it doesn’t know Truth. It has no relationship to Truth. God is truth. Ego is the liar. That’s all that it is. It’s a lie that you’re going to die. You can’t die. You’re the Life and the Light of God. There is no death. You can’t sin. No one can sin. You can make a mistake. That’s it. But the ego knows nothing but deception. And that is essential to realize that the distain for others and their journey is a condemnation that has no reality. None at all.

The illusion has no connection to Love, has no connection to anything other than “I want to be right”. And, even though you can say the ego is a liar, that means that everybody is a liar, everybody believes in a deception, and everybody is mistaken. They’re not sinners. They’re not condemned. All have believed in a mistaken identity. And to awaken from a mistaken identity is the gift of Creation. It doesn’t make you different. It actually affirms your sameness completely. There’s nothing to be unequal in. It’s all Divine equality of Love. That’s all. And where is that…to forgive yourself from the lies of the past, from the misperceptions of the past is essential for sure. But there’s no condemnation. It’s just the realization that only Love is real.

The world you see attests to the fearful nature of the self-image that you’ve made.

That’s all that you’re seeing. The fearful nature of what you believed you were. It’s being shown to you in everything that you think you see. In everything that you think you perceive. In everything you react to. What’s in the way is being shown to you. If you project it onto somebody or something else, then, it just makes it more difficult. It makes it more confusing and complicated, which the ego loves.

Tripping over joy, because it’s a chess game. That’s all that you’re playing is a game of God, “Where do you want me next? Where do you want me to move on the board? Where is it most helpful? I don’t know. How do I look at this chess piece? How do I see it differently as my friend instead of my enemy? How do I change and release the belief that I’m in competition with anybody?”

There’s no competition. Feel that edge of wanting to be competitive. That is such a hard place to live, to be competitive. And, once you enter into competition, it’s painful, just painful. Because then, in competition you have to see everybody as your enemy. You have to be the winner. It’s a painful place. Can’t see love, can’t feel the love, can’t embrace the love and relax and rest in it as God asks you to. Everything that you see are just images that your mind is putting out. And in that, is where all the healing is. We get the picture all the time. What are you seeing? What are you believing in? How do you see what’s around you? And to embrace what is here now, and let it be its perfection. It’s always perfect. Always. There’s nothing other than the Truth of Love.

Let true vision be given to you as you let go of what you think you know.

That wanting true vision, it’s right here; just waiting for the YES, show me! And, when it opens, it’s so spectacular. Not because it’s wow, wow, wow. But because you can feel the balance, the harmony, the inspiration, the beauty, the resting. It’s all here in your “YES, show me! Teach me! And, let me recognize that I don’t know anything about anything. But, you can show me”. Accepting that there’s nothing outside…ever. It’s never outside. It’s never somebody else. It’s never somebody else moving away. It means nothing. It doesn’t mean nothing because you’re saying get out of my life or anything…no. It doesn’t mean anything because your heart is full and you’re in connection with everyone and it doesn’t matter where they are in the physicality of distance or closeness at all.

The belief that others can make decisions for you and that you’re a victim…it is such a funny place to be a victim and to have the arrogance of thinking that you know something. It’s not a funny place, ha ha. It’s a strange place because they seem so not connected and yet the arrogance of the victim can be really a strong. You tap into familiar anger, resentment, there’s all of the aggressiveness of the arrogance that held as “poor me, I’m the one that’s always without”. But none of it is true. Absolutely none of it’s true. Love is pouring, pouring, pouring all the time and you are ALL THAT IS GOD. You’re the innocence of God, you’re the beauty of God.

But if your mind is in its knowing, you can’t touch it. You can’t relate to the Truth of you. You can’t meet it, because your mind is running the show. It can just be let go. Surrendered. Truly surrendered…ending conflict because you must remain as God created you. While the transitory states of illusion move and you consciously choose to not attach to them. The forms will continue to show up and change all the time and you just don’t attach to them. You don’t attach to them with your made up meaning.

Something as simple as sitting in a chair, but if there’s a “me” here that would say “my chair”. Once it’s “my chair”…ownership, all bets are off because it’s the land of pain and suffering. MINE…it will turn into pain and suffering. The idea of “my chair”…ownership, will always end up in a sense of betrayal. Because, you can’t own anything. You are whole and complete as the beingness, the Light, the Spirit of God. And this chair can have no ownership. It’s borrowed. It’s a blessing to use. It has nothing to do with ownership.

And anything that you think is yours, including relationships, it’s just a place of pain. It’s a place of pain because you have an expectation that it means something to own a relationship. And that you have bragging rights or condemnation rights or whatever it is that you think. And, it means nothing. There’s no ownership. Not at all. Letting go, surrendering all relationships. The chair, the roles that everybody took in your life, whatever those roles were. They all have to be surrendered into the Hands of God to be free. And those statements of Truth…the ego wants to say, “I’ll be without. I’ll be without”.

NO! You will actually open to everything, because you won’t be an identity with the belief in needs that are nothing. You are already everything and your journey is to travel into that exquisite place within and find the Divine within. And to open into that blessed peaceful place of wholeness, That you have nothing missing; Nothing to get, nothing to prove, nothing to try to hold onto.

How many times have I used the example of a pie. There’s only so many slices of a pie. It’s the same thing. It’s the same thing with a chair. It’s the same thing with a relationship. Roles that you’ve given to others that you expect them to behave in a certain way with those roles. It’s totally fabricated and has nothing to do with Love. Love is being free, that somebody else is sitting in this chair. Hooray if somebody else is sitting in this chair. What a blessing! They get to sit in the chair at some other time and they’ve sat in the chair. It’s perfect! The lack of ownership is essential. Because everything that you think you own… “own”…is slavery. You’re a slave to it and you believe that it is a part of your ownership and that you are the master of owning. That’s why there’s pride in ownership, because the pride says, “look at me. I have more than someone else does or I have enough”, or whatever it is. Instead of the divine equality that God always provides and there’s nothing missing and nothing to get. All your clothes burn up. Okay! Guess it’s time for a new pair of pants. There’s no ownership. It doesn’t matter. You’re whole and complete in your divinity, in your holiness, in your perfection in the Love that YOU ARE. Completely perfect.

And all of those thousand serious moves that you still believe in can be laughed at. The words nothing to prove…I know they are said all the time. But, when you really enter into nothing to prove, it really means that it’s a dead end. It’s a dead end if you are trying to prove something, you’re going to be in pain. Because it is a painful place that the ego takes you, because you can’t ever prove your worth. Your worth is intrinsic and nothing on this outside of accomplishments means anything about you. Are you in service of Love?

Are you in the generosity of the beloved moving someplace else and holding them in celebration of their journey? Or are you turning it around…”it’s about ME! I need this. I want this. I…I…I…I…I”! That’s the painful place. “Me”. Open to the we. Open to the Oneness. Allow the Reality of Love to teach the road of unity and union. It’s the great gift. “Show me the way because I cannot perceive my own best interest. I cannot. There’s no way that I can. I never have and I never will. Show me the way. Show me the way of Love”. That’s all, only Love.

Chris Celine © 2017

Filed Under: AT Blog Articles

Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 151, All things are echoes of the Voice for God

June 17, 2017 By Regina Dawn Akers

At the last Gentle Healing meeting, I read some paragraphs from Chapter 14 of “The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss.” Part of that reading was a story about a planet where people are born and raised in a movie theatre, and they never question if the movie on the screen is reality; they simply assume it is.

Here’s that story again:

“Imagine a planet where all of the people were born and raised and spent their entire lives in a movie theatre. Almost all of them believed the movie they were seeing on the screen was real. Their attention was so fixed on the screen that they never bothered to turn their heads around 180 degrees to see the projector’s light. One of them had the courage to turn his head around 180 degrees and he saw the projector’s light. He did not know what it was, but he followed that light until he found the projector. He went back and told the people that what they were seeing on the screen was not real.

“He told them that to find the projector they would have to turn their heads around 180 degrees. Due to the long habit of always keeping their attention fixed on the movie screen, fear of the unknown, their belief that the movie was real, and their disbelief in what he was telling them, very few bothered to turn their heads around 180 degrees to see the light from the projector. Some of those who did follow his instructions turned their heads immediately back to the screen. They were used to the illusion and afraid of the Truth. Others did not sustain their attempt to find the projector long enough to find it. After all it is difficult to find the projector in the dark. One has to pass through a number of doors to find it. Once in a while someone actually persevered long enough to find the projector.”

Today’s Course lesson is like the one in this story who had the courage to turn his head around 180 degrees and follow the projector’s light until he found the projector, and then “went back and told the people that what they were seeing on the screen was not real.” Today’s Course lesson says:

“You do not seem to doubt the world you see. You do not really question what is shown you through the body’s eyes. Nor do you ask why you believe it …”

We do well to contemplate Michael Langford’s analogy of the movie theatre and today’s Course lesson together. Isn’t it true that ever since we can remember our attention has been focused outward on thought and the world? Isn’t that like the people in the movie theatre who were born and raised with their attention on the movie screen? Isn’t it true that, just as they did not question the reality of the movie, we have not questioned the reality of our thoughts and perceptions? Isn’t it at least possible that what we have always believed to be reality is not reality? Doesn’t this possibility deserve genuine investigation? Isn’t it worth our time to find out what is true?

Today’s lesson calls our senses “idle witnesses, which merely bear false witness…” Do we want to continue to believe them without question, or are we willing to use inquiry (self-inquiry) and awareness-watching-awareness meditation (Self-inquiry) to discover what is and is not true?

“One of them had the courage to turn his head around 180 degrees and he saw the projector’s light… he followed that light until he found the projector.”

Filed Under: GentleHealingTips-Year1

Tips from Regina ~ Review Lesson 150

June 16, 2017 By Regina Dawn Akers

My mind holds only what I think with God.

I will accept the Atonement for myself. The “will” in this sentence implies the future, as in ‘I am going to do this.’ I don’t feel to see it as a future endeavor. I accept the Atonement for myself now. As NTI Luke says, “Now is a very important time, for now is the only time that you can take any action that will make any difference. … Lay aside resistance now. Dismiss meaningless thoughts now. Focus on your willingness and nurture gratitude for being [now]. … The kingdom of God is within you now. Do not let yourself be distracted away from it.”

Only salvation can be said to cure. All problems are temporary. They shall have their end. And yet, every problem or difficulty will be replaced by another until we have transcended the belief in the body-mind as ‘me.’ Salvation is liberation from ignorance. Only salvation resolves all problems forever. With this realization, I am no longer distracted by thinking my happiness lies with some change or acquisition in the world. My focus is clear. I accept the Atonement for myself.

Filed Under: GentleHealingTips-Year1

Tips from Regina ~ Review Lesson 149

June 15, 2017 By Regina Dawn Akers

My mind holds only what I think with God.

When I am healed I am not healed alone. In Chapter 1 of A Course in Miracles, Jesus says, “I have nothing that does not come from God. The difference between us now is that I have nothing else.” That is healing, having nothing but that which comes from God. I trust when I am healed, that healing helps others. However, my focus now must be on reaching that healed state, that permanence of “only what I think with God” and nothing else. This is my commitment to myself and everyone.

Heaven is the decision I must make. This decision is not made once, but repeatedly. It is made each day, and it is made throughout the day. Anything that reinforces this decision in me is helpful. Anything that weakens this decision in me needs to be looked at and questioned. A partial decision or a ‘sometimes’ decision is not a decision. Total unwavering commitment is the sign of true decision.

Filed Under: GentleHealingTips-Year1

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