Awakening Together

A universal assembly for true discernment

THIS IS A TRAINING SITE ONLY:_____Click the heart to go to the LIVE awakening-together.org

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • About
    • Our Spirituality
      • Our Purpose and Values
      • Paths of Awakening
      • Spiritual Practices
      • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Our Governance
      • Board of Directors
      • Member Board Trustees
    • Our Ministers
    • Helpful Resources
      • Our YouTube Channel
      • The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament (NTI)
      • The Teachings of Inner Ramana
      • Thoughts of Awakening
    • Prayer By Request
    • Benevolence Programs
    • Join & Subscribe
    • Contact Us
  • Online Sanctuary
    • About Our Online Sanctuary
      • What is the Sanctuary?
      • Sanctuary Open Hours
      • Sunday Morning Gatherings
      • Sanctuary Etiquette
      • How to Become a Presenter
    • Sanctuary Program Schedule
    • How to Enter the Sanctuary
    • Awakening Together Radio
  • Retreats & Classes
    • Retreats at the Retreat House
      • Self-Inquiry Retreat ~ February 17-21, 2020
      • Letting Go of Fear ~ March 27-29, 2020
      • All Retreats at Retreat House
      • AT Retreat Shuttle
      • Retreat Final Payment
    • Online Classes
      • The Teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj
      • Minister Preparation Program (MPP)
      • Upcoming MPP Classes
  • Retreat House
    • About the Retreat House
      • Retreat House Amenities
      • About the Local Area
      • Airports & Driving Directions
      • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Retreat House Calendar
    • Reservations & Payment
      • Lodging Options & Rates
      • Day Use/Day Rate
      • Apply for Lodging
      • Make a Lodging Payment
      • Scholarship Opportunities
    • Be a Sustaining Subscriber
    • Donate to the Retreat House
    • Offer a Retreat at the RH
    • Contact the Retreat House
    • Pictures (worth 1000 words)
    • Sunday Morning Gatherings
  • Audios & Videos
    • Sanctuary Highlights
      • Weekly Gathering
      • Anne Blanchard
      • Helen Avery
      • Kate Brennan
      • Featured Talks
      • Movie Watchers Group
      • Program Archives
        • Experience Your Perfect Soul
        • From Eastern Wisdom
        • Michael Langford Group
    • Regina Dawn Akers
      • The Guiding Light
      • I Am That – With Regina
      • Enlightened Leadership: Tao
      • NTI Study – With Regina
      • Seven Steps to Awakening
      • Teachings of Inner Ramana
      • Oldies & Classics
    • Jacquelyn Eckert
      • As It Is
      • Something Genuine
      • Gentle Healing Year 1
      • Growing with NTI
    • Featured Guests
      • Guest Satsang Interviews
      • Cate Grieves – ACIM
      • Craig Holliday Satsang
      • Gina Lake & Jesus
      • Nirmala Satsang
      • Guest Mini-Series
      • Other Featured Guests
    • Meditation Audios
      • Direct Path Meditation
        • Awareness Watching Awareness
        • Loving Consciousness
        • Abandon Release Method
      • Thoughts of Awakening
      • ACIM Meditation
      • Words of the Sages
      • Devotional Meditation
    • Member Meetings
  • Gentle Healing
    • Daily Contemplation
    • Audios & Homework
      • For Year 1
      • For Year 2
      • For Year 3
    • Gentle Healing Tips
      • Regina’s Tips – Year 1
      • Jacquelyn & Connie’s Tips – Year 1
      • Regina’s Tips – Year 2
      • Gentle Healing – Year 3
    • Gentle Healing Playlist
    • New Group Notification
  • To Read
    • AT Bookstore
    • AT News
    • Inspirational Articles
    • Jeshua Through Brent Haskell
    • Free E-books
    • Favorite Links
    • Governance Documents
  • Forum
  • Donate
    • Donate by Mail
    • Donate Online
    • Automatic Monthly Donation
    • Support Us as You Shop
You are here: Home / Archives for JPE GH Tips

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 258

November 13, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

What is Sin?

Our special theme asks, “How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin?”

Let’s contemplate this question using some of our alternative terms:

How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of judgment?

How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of duality?

How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of ignoring truth?

How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of outward focus?

We can answer, “No longer will I play that game.” It is within our power to stop playing the game now. We have the practices that point away from games and towards truth. To stop playing the game, we simply need the desire to live from those practices instead of from old conditioning that is not in harmony with what we want now.

Let me remember that my goal is God.

Today is another opportunity to contemplate what we really want.

Spiritual practice can be forgotten when we are distracted by the personality mind’s “little senseless aims.” However, when we continuously contemplate what we really want, we are naturally drawn to the spiritual practices that lead to Self-realization. We are naturally drawn to those practices, because they are the way to complete our heart’s one true desire.

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

AWA Description Z

 

Filed Under: JPE GH Tips, Sidebar

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 257

November 12, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

What is Sin?

Our special theme says, “A madman’s dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed to terrify. And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game.”

Let’s contemplate this using some of our alternative terms:

A madman’s dreams are frightening, and duality appears indeed to terrify. And yet what judgment perceives is but a childish game.

A madman’s dreams are frightening, and ignorance appears indeed to terrify. And yet what ignorance perceives is but a childish game.

A madman’s dreams are frightening, and outward focus appears indeed to terrify. And yet what outward focus perceives is but a childish game.

Our special theme continues, “The Son of God may play he has become a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death. But all the while his Father shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses cannot change at all.”

These words are symbolic. However, they point toward our unaffected truth, which is not symbolic at all. It is very real, and it is present right now.

Today, we begin another day with clarity regarding the problem that “appears indeed to terrify.” That is ignoring truth, focusing outward and believing the mind’s judgments. This clarity reinforces the realization that the solution to the problem is paying attention to awareness, focusing inward for intuitive guidance and ignoring the mind’s judgments by practicing the Loving All Method.

Let me remember what my purpose is.

Today’s lesson says, “If I forget my goal I can be but confused, unsure of what I am, and thus conflicted in my actions.”

This is important to contemplate:

If I am confused about what I am, my actions will be confused also.

How might you act differently as the eternal unaffected Self than you do as an apparent personality-body-mind?

With which identity would you experience more peace?

With which identity would you respond more patiently and lovingly?

With which identity would you feel more secure?

When we were on Lesson 238, we saw that we make decisions based on who we think we are. We could also say that we live from our identity.

Today’s lesson reminds us to focus on our spiritual aspiration so “we may unify our thoughts and actions meaningfully.”

When we remember what we truly want, we are more likely to pay attention to awareness, feel inward for intuitive guidance and practice the Loving All Method. When those habits are our central focus, we are more likely to live from our unaffected Self than from the frantic personality-mind.

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

AWA Description Y

 

Filed Under: JPE GH Tips, Sidebar

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 256

November 11, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

What is Sin?

Since we have been with this special theme, we have replaced the word “sin” with “insanity,” with “My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be,” with “judgment,” and with “duality.” As we read our special theme today, let’s replace the word sin with “ignorance.” In this case, “ignorance” is defined as ignoring the truth.

For example, “Ignorance is insanity.” Or, “Ignoring the truth is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth.”

After you have read the special theme using “ignorance” or “ignoring truth,” please return to my tip for today.

~ ~ ~ ~

Ignorance is accomplished through outward focus. We ignore truth when we give all of our attention to thoughts and to the world.

Let’s read the special theme again. This time, replace the word “sin” with “outward focus.”

For example, “Outward focus gave the body eyes, …” and “Outward focus is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue.”

After you have read the special theme using “outward focus” in place of “sin,” please return to my tip, and we will look at today’s lesson.

~ ~ ~ ~

God is the only goal I have today.

Today’s lesson also uses the word, “sin.”

If sin had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you are?

If insanity had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you are?

If ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you are?

If judgment had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you are?

If duality had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you are?

If ignorance had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you are?

If ignoring truth had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you are?

If outward focus had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you are?

It’s important to look at all of these alternative terms, because “sin” typically implies guilt to most people. It reinforces the false idea that something is inherently wrong with me, which reinforces the idea of separation.

However, as we consider alternative terms, we see that there is a habit that has been formed. It is the habit of ignoring our true Self, focusing outward, and believing our thoughts’ judgments regarding everything the body senses. We also see that the body, as the sensing organ, reinforces this habit of looking outward, a habit that has been cherished by the mind.

When we see the problem clearly, we can also see the solution.

If ignoring the truth, focusing outward and believing the mind’s judgments is the problem, then paying attention to truth, focusing inward and ignoring the mind’s judgments is the solution.

Said another way, awareness-watching-awareness meditation, surrendering to intuition and the Loving All Method are the solutions to insanity.

Today is a day to put special attention on changing our goal. The mind has cherished ignorance. Today, we direct the mind to cherish truth instead. The mind is capable of cherishing truth, but we need to take the lead by teaching the mind new habits and by reminding the mind to attend to those new habits.

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

AWA Description X

If you have time for two meditations today, and you would like to try a different meditation the second time you meditate, I recommend this meditation for later in the day:

Introduction to Loving Consciousness Meditation

 

Filed Under: JPE GH Tips, Sidebar

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 255

November 10, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

What is Sin?

Our special theme says:

Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue. They are ‘proof’ that what has no reality is real.

Yesterday we replaced “sin” with “My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be.”

My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be are the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue. They are ‘proof’ that what has no reality is real.

NTI calls these ideas “judgment.”

Judgment is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue. They are ‘proof’ that what has no reality is real.

Gina Lake calls these ideas “duality.”

Duality is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue. They are ‘proof’ that what has no reality is real.

Today, we continue to notice our judgments or ideas of duality. We remember that these ideas feed the ego, make illusion and hide truth. We choose to disregard these ideas as mistaken, limited or unwanted and to practice the Loving All Method instead.

This day I choose to spend in perfect peace.

If we do not believe ideas of duality, and we practice the Loving All Method with everything that comes into our consciousness today, we will spend the day in perfect peace. This is entirely possible today.

If you find that you are not at peace at some point today, look at the thoughts that are in your mind, and ask yourself these questions:

Is there a thought of duality (judgment) in the mind now?

What is it?

Am I willing to see that idea as mistaken, limited and/or unwanted?

Am I willing to practice the Loving All Method now?

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

AWA Description W

If you only have 20 minutes for meditation today or if you have 20 minutes later in the day for a second meditation, I recommend this guided meditation by AHAM and Karen Worth again today:

Say Yes to What Is

Filed Under: JPE GH Tips, Sidebar

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 254

November 9, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

What is Sin?

We have read the special theme while replacing the word sin with “insanity.” Let’s read the special theme again, and this time let’s replace “sin” with “My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be.”

For example, “My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be are the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue. They are ‘proof’ that what has no reality is real. My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be ‘proves’ God’s Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die. …”

Most people take their ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be to be fact. However, not everyone sees right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be in the same way. Therefore, our ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be are opinions.

NTI calls these ideas “judgment,” and claims that judgment is the building block of illusion. Our special theme makes the same claim:

[My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be are] the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue. They are ‘proof’ that what has no reality is real.

In her book, In the World but Not of It, Gina Lake refers to these ideas as “duality.” She says, “Be aware of the duality and untruth represented in your thoughts. Thoughts do not tell the truth. When you see this very clearly, your thoughts lose the power to make you suffer.”

Here are some tips Gina shared about how to transcend duality:

The duality of better than/less than is transcended by recognizing the truth that everything is perfect just as it is. Everything is as its meant to be and serving its purpose in the Whole. …

The duality of like/don’t like is transcended by holding your preferences lightly, by noticing your preferences but not necessarily letting them drive your actions or decisions. Instead, the divine self determines your actions, which may sometimes take you in directions that go against your conditioned preferences and desires.

The duality of want/don’t want is transcended by holding your desires lightly and by letting everything come that comes and letting everything go that goes. You lay the small will at the feet of Thy will, trusting that the divine self knows best …

The duality of good/bad is transcended by recognizing where those opinions come from and that they serve only the ego, and then holding them lightly or letting them go.

The duality of emotional highs and lows is transcended by coming into right relationship with life, which is experienced as equanimity. … This equanimity is sober, steady, okay with everything, at peace and content. It is a state of causeless, subtle happiness, or inner joy.

The duality of taking too much or giving too much is transcended through selflessness. The ‘self’ that is absent in ‘selflessness’ is the egoic self, which tends to take or give too much, both for the purpose of getting what it wants. Selflessness, on the other hand, is giving appropriately, … the divine self moving in the world, doing or not doing, according to a greater will that knows exactly what action to take when.

Gina goes on to write:

What happens when you become more aware of your thoughts [of duality] and start questioning them is that space, or distance, is created between you and the thought-stream … more time in the spacious Presence that is the divine self.

Let every voice but God’s be still in me.

As today’s lesson says:

Today we let no ego thoughts direct our words or actions. When such thoughts occur, we quietly step back and look at them, and then we let them go. We do not want what they would bring with them. And so we do not choose to keep them. They are silent now. And in the stillness, hallowed by His Love, God speaks to us and tells us of our will, as we have chosen to remember Him.

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

AWA Description V

If you only have 20 minutes for meditation today or if you have 20 minutes later in the day for a second meditation, I recommend this guided meditation by AHAM and Karen Worth:

Say Yes to What Is

Filed Under: JPE GH Tips, Sidebar

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 253

November 8, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

What is Sin?

Our special theme says, “The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself. Its purpose is to strive. Yet can the goal of striving change. And now the body serves a different aim for striving. … Truth can be its aim …”

Actually the mind strives, and the body follows. The mental chatter that you experience is striving—it is not rest. It is striving to accomplish the ego’s “idle wish” for separation.

Admittedly, spiritual practice is also striving. However, it is striving with a different purpose. It is striving to let go of the striving that creates illusion and to return to the state of rest in which the truth is realized.

Here are some quotes from Nisargadatta Maharaj that are related to this teaching from our special theme. Pleae contemplate these quotes at intervals throughout the day today:

  1. “You give reality to concepts, while concepts are distortions of reality. Abandon all conceptualization and stay silent and attentive. Be earnest about it and all will be well with you.”
  2. “You are the infinite focused in a body. Now you see the body only. Try earnestly and you will come to see the infinite only.”
  3. “Mere listening, even memorizing, is not enough. If you do not struggle hard to apply every word of [the teaching] in your daily life, don’t complain that you made no progress.”
  4. “When you are dead earnest, you bend every incident, every second of your life to your purpose.”
  5. “The word itself is the bridge. Remember it, think of it, explore it, go round it, look at it from all directions, dive into it with earnest perseverance. Endure all delays and disappointments till suddenly the mind turns round, away from the word, towards the reality beyond the word. It is like trying to find a person knowing his name only. A day comes when your inquiries bring you to him and the name becomes reality.”

My Self is ruler of the universe.

“It is impossible that anything should come to me unbidden by myself. Even in this world, it is I who rule my destiny. What happens is what I desire. What does not occur is what I do not want to happen. This must I accept.”

There is a simple way to see the teaching above.

If I want illusion, I get illusion.
If I want truth, truth is realized.

How do I know what I want?

What is my life about? What am I applying myself toward?

Most people have had a goal at some point in their life that was the central theme of their life at that time. It could have been the goal of getting a college degree, of finding a life partner, of having and raising children, of starting a new business, or any number of things. When a goal is really important to us, we apply ourselves toward that goal.

So again, what am I applying myself toward?

If I am applying myself toward thought or the imposter self’s desires, that means that I am primarily interested in the world of illusion. Because I am primarily interested in the world of illusion, that will continue to be experienced. Since the world of illusion is duality, I will experience duality, both that which I consider good and bad, desired and undesired. That is the nature of duality.

If I am applying myself toward awakening, I will succeed in awakening. As Nisargadatta Maharaj said, “The desire to find the Self will surely be fulfilled, provided you want nothing else.”

Today is a day to contemplate what I want, and to ask if I am willing to apply myself toward that goal.

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

AWA Description S

Filed Under: JPE GH Tips, Sidebar

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 252

November 7, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

What is Sin?

Our special theme says, “The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself.”

Here are some quotes for you to contemplate today in relation to the previous statement from our special theme:

  1. You know yourself only through the senses and the mind. You take yourself to be what they suggest; having no direct knowledge of yourself, you have mere ideas; all mediocre, second-hand, by hearsay. Whatever you think you are, you take it to be true; the habit of imagining yourself perceivable and describable is very strong with you. ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

  1. Question: To be here and now, I need my body and its senses. To understand, I need a mind.
    Nisargadatta Maharaj: The body and the mind are only symptoms of ignorance, of misapprehension. Behave as if you were pure awareness, bodiless and mindless, spaceless and timeless, beyond ‘where’ and ‘when’ and ‘how’. Dwell on it, think of it, learn to accept its reality.

 

  1. When the subtle mind emerges through the brain and the senses, the gross names and forms are cognized. When it remains in the Heart names and forms disappear… If the mind remains in the Heart, the ‘I’ or the ego which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self, the Real, Eternal ‘I’ alone will shine. Where there is not the slightest trace of the ego, there is the Self. ~ Ramana Maharshi

 

  1. We know that only by means of the bodily senses and the mind can the world be known. ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

  1. This [supreme state] is entirely one and indivisible, a single solid block of reality. The only way of knowing it is to be it. The mind cannot reach it. To perceive it does not need the senses; to know it, does not need the mind. ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

The Son of God is my Identity.

Today is a day to give willingness to know your true Self. Stay in the heart today. Review the quotes above along with today’s excerpt from our special theme. Ask yourself questions like, “If I am not this body, this mind, this personality, what am I?”

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

AWA Description U

Filed Under: JPE GH Tips, Sidebar

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 251

November 6, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

What is Sin?

Our new special theme needs to be read with understanding that comes from clarity. If one reads this special theme with the judgmental mind of the ego, one might perceive that s/he is a sinner because s/he experiences a body. That is not what this lesson intends to teach.

Let’s look at the first paragraph through the lens of clarity.

The paragraph begins with three important words. “Sin is insanity.” The mind might interpret those words to mean something like, “It is insane to be evil” or “It is insane to be as bad as you are.” However, that is not what the sentence says. The sentence is defining what sin is by placing it side-by-side with a synonymn.

Pretend like you had never heard the word “sin” before. This is the first time the sound of s—i—n has ever reached your ears. Someone uses that word, and you ask, “What is ‘sin’?” The answer is, “Sin is insanity.”

“Oh,” you say, because you know what insanity is. And as the person continues to talk using the word “sin,” your mind naturally substitutes “insanity” every time “sin” is heard.

Therefore, you hear, “Insanity is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth. And being mad, it sees illusions where the truth should be, and where it really is. Insanity gave the body eyes, for what is there the lucid would behold? …”

Or said another way, the perceived world is not true. Those who choose to believe it without questioning it are deluded. Anyone who has awakened to truth, and therefore knows the unreality of the world, has no interest in it. They are drawn only to reality.

Here’s how NTI says the same thing:

You experience the ego as a stream of thoughts within the mind that seem to interpret, counsel, identify, judge and spring forth as ideas. In themselves, these thoughts seem to be nothing to you, although you listen to them and act on all that they say. These thoughts rule your mind and your interpretation of the world, because you believe what they say. Yet, they are based on a foundation of separateness, which is not what is true. And so what is true is not in what they say.

To listen to these thoughts and believe them is ignorance, for you are listening to what is not true, but believing what you hear. Any action you take based on these thoughts is ignorant action, for it is action based on untruth in an unreal world.

Ignorance is not guilt. It is a call for knowledge. It is the Holy Spirit that leads you through corrected perception to the right-knowledge that you seek. Right-knowledge is true knowledge, and true knowledge is the knowledge of truth.

Do not worry about the mistakes you have made. They are based on ignorance, which is illusion and affects only that which is not reality. Be happy that you have been mistaken! Be joyous that there is another way to see! This is what it means to repent. To repent is to choose again. To repent is to decide to turn from the ways of ignorance and turn to the Voice of Knowledge. This is a joyous decision, for this is the decision that changes all things. This decision that you have made is a decision to listen to another Voice. It is the decision to let go of the thoughts you have listened to until now and to listen to another Voice, the one that comes from God. This decision is a decision to change the habits you have had until now. It is a decision to see yourself through new eyes, eyes that are based on a foundation of truth. ~ NTI Acts, Chapter 4

Set aside your thoughts of division. When you see them in your mind or in the playing out of thought within the world, rejoice! What you see is not true. Be happy that you have found willingness to deny that which is false, for inherent in its denial is the willingness to accept only that which is true. …

One who knows wholeness after experiencing the lack of wholeness knows illusion is no substitute for truth. He shall not choose illusion again. ~ NTI 1 Corinthians, Chapter 16

I am in need of nothing but the truth.

Today is a day to give willingness to know truth. Stay in the heart today. Review the teachings above from A Course in Miracles and NTI throughout the day. Ask yourself questions like, “If this is not reality—if I am deluded in everything I see and believe—do I want to know truth?”

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

Subtle Looking

Filed Under: JPE GH Tips, Sidebar

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 250

November 6, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

What is the World?

This is our last day with our special theme, “What is the World?” It is good to read it slowly and contemplatively today. Notice the main themes in this special theme, all of which we have covered in our daily tips.

Let me not see myself as limited.

In two of our recent recommended meditations, the instructions have asked us to keep an open mind.

Tip 11 with AWA Description O said, “Be open minded to the possibility that you can let go of whatever obstacle appears.”

Tip 12 with AWA Description P said, “Be open minded to the possibility that you can let go of all that is limited and finite.”

Today’s workbook lesson asks us to be open minded in the same way. Today is a day to let go of any doubt that we find in our thinking.

Remember, doubt is an ego preservation strategy. If we believe doubt, we are less likely to apply ourselves to the spiritual practice that ends the ego and leads to Self-realization. Therefore, taking time to let go of doubt is extremely useful.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend that you practice one of the following meditations:

AWA Description O

AWA Description P

If you have time, practice both meditations today. I recommend practicing one early in the day and the other later in day.

Filed Under: JPE GH Tips, Sidebar

Gentle Healing Year 1 ~ Lesson 249

November 4, 2019 By Jacquelyn Eckert

What is the World?

Our special theme says, “Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete. And let us not attempt to change our function. … what was made to die can be restored to everlasting life.”

With these words, our special theme encourages us to stay with our spiritual practice until the final end of the ego.

How do we know when the ego has reached its final end?

Our special theme says that in truth “all the world must disappear.”

Here are a few quotes to consider:

Only when the world-illusion goes does the blissful light of Self arrive. Life lived in this bright, blissful light is our true, natural life. Other ways of life are full of trouble and fear. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The Self, revealed as our true nature within the heart through the power of Self-inquiry, is none other than the peerless reality of the Supreme, which alone remains after this worldly illusion has faded into nothingness. ~ Muruganar

He who knows the state in which there is neither the world nor the thought of it, he is the Supreme Teacher. ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

When the mind abandons the movement of thought, the appearance of the world ceases. ~ Vasistha

The world no longer is, whether past, present or to come, after awakening to the supreme reality in the real Self, the Eternal, from all wavering free. ~ Adi Sankara

There are many, many more quotes that point to the disappearance of the world as the sign of true awakening. However, I will end with just one more quote:

There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts to teach. Not everyone is ready to accept it, and each one must go as far as he can let himself be led along the road to truth. He will return and go still farther, or perhaps step back a while and then return again. ~ A Course in Miracles, Lesson 132

The end of ego and the disappearance of the world are both only concepts for me. I have not experienced either. However, it feels both gentle and right to commit myself to spiritual practice for as long as I look in the mirror (referring to yesterday’s analogy) and see a world.

Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss.

NTI 1 Corinthians speaks of a stage of enlightenment in which existence in the world is pure joy. It says:

The fourth phase is a glorious phase, upon which your feet shall barely touch the ground. As you walk the earth, you know where you walk, so that the earth is merely a symbol within the mind. You shall not know brothers, but you shall talk to them. You will not need food, but you will eat with joy. Music shall accompany you in your every moment, and yet, you will have no need for your ears. Your sight will be changed from earthly sight to sight that is provided from Heaven. All things shall be new, and you shall have no need for any of them. In this, your joy shall be complete.

From there, NTI 1 Corinthians goes on to say:

The purpose of your life in the fourth phase of living on earth shall not be different than the purpose at any other time. Only now, in the fourth phase, the distractions have been erased. In letting yourself become an empty shell, you freed yourself from the desire for distraction. Now, in the fourth stage, your focus is complete. Now you know what you want, and you want it wholly. …

The one that seems to be in the fourth stage is but a symbol of the truth that is. So this one must pass away also. But in its passing, you pass from a final illusion of beauty to Beauty that cannot be contained in illusion. You pass from form, which reflects Light, to Light, which shines into form.

You shall not know death in your passing from the fourth phase to Light, for this passing is recognition of Life. This passing is acceptance of all that is true and all that has always been true. This passing is the final release of illusion, so that no illusion may appear to you. And death is an illusion. So you shall not know death, because you have accepted that illusion does not exist.

Therefore, be willing to become an empty shell. And be willing for this completely. For it is through emptiness that illusion is released, and it is through releasing it, that illusion is taken away.

Letting go of I-thought thinking takes us from a dream of suffering to a dream of joy, but that is not yet the end of the I-thought. If we stop our spiritual practice upon reaching this threshold, we can experience a reemergence of the ego thought system.

It is in our best interest to welcome the happy dream as an opportunity to continue our spiritual practice without distraction until we find ourselves ushered across the threshold, through the experience of the ego’s final end, to “Beauty that cannot be contained in illusion.”

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

AWA Description T

Filed Under: JPE GH Tips, Sidebar

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • …
  • 38
  • Next Page »
About Our Online Sanctuary
About Our Retreat House
AT Minister Ordination
AT Discussion Forum
Become a Member
Subscribe to Daily Updates

Recent Posts

Want To Teach? How about starting in the Forum?

Gentle Healing 2 ~ test

Gentle Healing 2 ~ Day 85: NTI Luke 20 (v1-8) – (v9-19)

Registration Now Open: Introduction to the Awakening Together Minister Preparation Program (MPP)

Gentle Healing 2 ~ test

[More Posts...]

Contact Us
Donate ~ Thank you!

Recent Posts

  • G&Y Youtube Post Nov 15
  • Protected: password protected
  • In the Company of Truth with Helen Hamilton ~ Begins Wednesday, Oct. 14, 3 – 4 pm ET
  • Want To Teach? How about starting in the Forum?
  • Gentle Healing 2 ~ test
Awakening-Together.org: Sanctuary Schedule (A-T logo)
Awakening-Together.org: Radio Broadcast
Awakening-Together.org: Join & Subscribe
Awakening-Together.org: Bookstore

site map · Awakening Together · Copyright © 2025 · Terms of Service · Privacy Policy
Genesis Theme by StudioPress · customized by Intent Design Studio · hosted by BlueHost · WordPress · Log in