A universal assembly for true discernment
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Title: “Living In the World With Spirit”
Description: Jay shares practical ways and how ‘right diligence’ can help us to navigate the world while still remaining true to the awakening that is occurring within us. Also, how engaging in a joyful practice also helps us to keep with the practice. A consistent practice is part of being in the world but not of it.
Reader: Michele Hojnacki read “Right Diligence” from The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh.
Title: “Script Living vs. Script Making”
Description: Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert discussed how continued reliance on the thinking mind keeps us trapped within our personal story. We examined how and why we perpetuate the script. We also learned how understanding why we make the choices we make enables us to make different choices.
Reader: Rev. Jay McCormick read NTI 1 Peter Chapter 4.
Title: “The Mind – Friend, Foe or Both?”
Description: Rev. Regina Dawn Akers shared about the topics of learning, conditioning, thinking and mental chatter so that we can become clear on what mind-activity is helpful and what mind-activity is merely a distraction from truth. She taught that mind chatter is the ego. But paying attention is learning. It is how we use awareness to program the mind for learning. This use of the mind is not the ego. This talk further emphasized clarity on what is helpful and what is clearly ego. This distinction helps one to let go of the ego.
Reader: Rev. Dov Fishman read Gentle Healing Year 2 Tip #286: Tips from Regina- Day 286, NTI Revelation 17
Description: Jay McCormick shared that the basic tenant in A Course in Miracles is that we are seeing through a projection of our own belief and thus not seeing from true perception, or the right mind. The psychologist Carl Jung classified 28 defense mechanisms our mind uses, the first and primary of which he described as “projection”. One of the definitions the Merriam-Webster dictionary has for the word “Projection” is stated as: “The attribution of one’s own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people or to objects. especially : the externalization of blame, guilt, or responsibility as a defense against anxiety.”Attainment of true perception, a healed mind, free of anxiety and fear, is what can be described as the ‘first awakening’. Yet a greater projection exists, the one of consciousness itself projecting as and into mind, creating a seeming world for all. In Hinduism, the tale of the God Indira was that he slept – as the flower of the world grew from his naval as but a dream. This could be interpreted as our life here, the grand illusion of the experience of ‘something else’ other than Heaven, perfection, and love – the experience of the seeming world.
Rupert Spira states that consciousness is naturally one with all things, one with the totality of experience. Awakening to consciousness is the ‘second awakening’ and final healing of all projection as consciousness re-cognizes itself as one.
Reading: Shiryl Kaplan read “The Natural Condition” by Rupert Spira from “The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience.”
Reading: Kathy Smith read from NTI Matthew, Chapter 11
Topic : “Exploring the Dream State”
Reading : Rev. Geri Scott read the Way of Liberation by Adyashanti – Dream State
