A universal assembly for true discernment
Please read and contemplate quotes #297-300 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. This is the last quote today:
The moment you allow your imagination to spin, it at once spins out a universe. It is not at all as you imagine and I am not bound by your imaginings.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
As mentioned in yesterday’s tip, discouragement is of the ego. It is a very successful ego trick, because it can lead us to let go of the practice that awakens.
Today I would like to share several quotes from masters. These quotes all make the same point: Complete awakening is possible for you if you make it the priority in your life.
From Nisargadatta Maharaj:
“The desire to find the Self will surely be fulfilled, provided you want nothing else.”
Questioner: How is the person removed?
Maharaj: By determination. Understand that it must go and wish it to go; it shall go if you are earnest about it.
“Try. One step at a time is easy. Energy flows from earnestness.”
“The mind will rebel in the beginning, but with patience and perseverance it will yield and keep quiet.”
Questioner: I have tried many times and failed.
Maharaj: Try again. If you keep on trying, something may happen. But if you don’t, you are stuck.
“All will come as you go on. Take the first step first.”
From The Supreme Yoga Vasistha:
“One should never yield to laziness but strive to attain liberation, seeing that life is ebbing away every moment.”
“Constantly seek to discover the supreme peace.”
“By their own self-effort millions of beings have attained liberation.”
“The wayfarer does not despair at the sight of the long road ahead but takes one step at a time.”
“By persistent effort the impossible becomes possible.”
From The Way of Mastery, Chapter 10:
“The point of all of this is simple. I want to convey to you, yet again, that the life I lived as a man was not unlike your very own. … If there be anything that I can give unto you, it is simply this: … I have overcome the world.”
“You are the one who decides.”
“All of your mind, all of your energy, all of your gifts, all of your very awareness must become committed to being the presence of peace.”
“The wisest of students are those that hear the word and put it into practice, diligently, for themselves.”
“But I can promise you, if you will take up such a path – simply, joyfully, gently, patiently – the end of your journey is certain.”
Regina Dawn Akers guides a group of committed students who would like to make consistent, gentle progress toward genuine peace, joy and love.
Facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert and Connie Poole.
Homework for next week:
Additional instructions: Be sure to do assignments, B, C and D in that order. To create your visualization plan, simply ask within and then write what feels right for you now. The idea is that your plan will take you beyond where you are now. However, it should be written in present tense as if you are already there.
For example, if you feel in your heart that it would be really good if you could learn to pause and look at your mind before responding to others, your plan might include, “I always pause and feel for what to say before I respond to another person.” Or, if you would like to be more peaceful than you are now, you might write, “I embrace peace in every moment and I am not affected by circumstances that arise.” Your plan should probably include about 3 – 8 visualization statements. Each statement may have further clarification or stand on its own.
Anne Blanchard guides a group of committed students through year 2 of Gentle Healing who would like to make consistent, gentle progress toward genuine peace, joy and love. This group meets weekly and all members are committed to specific assignments and practices between group meetings.
Everyone who has completed year 1 Gentle Healing and is willing to make a commitment to deepening even further into healing/awakening is invited to join this group.
Please read and contemplate quotes #293-296 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. This is the last quote today:
You are neither the body nor in the body–there is no such thing as body. You have grievously misunderstood yourself; to understand rightly — investigate.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
This tip was written by Regina for the original Gentle Healing Year 1.
Some spiritual teachers, like Michael Langford and Ellie Roozdar, teach that awakening/enlightenment are extremely rare. Often, when people hear this, they feel discouraged. Recently, Kathy Smith expressed that discouragement during one of my Seven Steps teachings, and Michael heard it. He responded by writing a letter to Kathy. Here is some of what he wrote in that letter:
“When I make a statement that less than one out of every five hundred million humans attains [the final end of the ego], I am referring to the seven billion people living on the earth today. I am not referring to people who are practicing the truly Direct Path. Those odds do not apply to people who are practicing the truly Direct Path.
“Look at the Seven Billion humans living on the earth. Billions of them are not even on a spiritual or religious path. They are materialists who are just living this one life for whatever pleasure this one life can give them and they are not interested in anything that is not physical or material. You do not fall into that category because you have an interest in the spiritual and that is a reason to be encouraged.
“Billions of people are on some sort of spiritual or religious path. Almost all of those spiritual or religious paths are feeding the ego illusion. Most of those people have never even read one book or seen one video that describes the truly Direct Path. Let us suppose that out of the seven billion humans on earth that seventy thousand have read a book or seen a video that describes the truly Direct Path. You are one of the seventy thousand that has read books that describe the truly Direct Path and that is a reason for great encouragement!
“Whatever you do or do not do for the rest of your life with the truly Direct Path, you have been introduced to it and therefore you are way ahead in the game of awakening! That is a reason for great encouragement, not discouragement.”
For those of you who don’t know, “the direct path” refers to watching awareness. Everyone in the Gentle Healing Group has been introduced to this path and hopefully is practicing it a little each day. That means everyone in the Gentle Healing group is “way ahead in the game of awakening!” Our feet are solidly on the path, and this is reason for great encouragement.
By the way, Michael also mentioned in his letter that discouragement is of the ego. It is one of the ego’s preservation strategies, since discouragement keeps us from spiritual practice. If we see discouragement as an ego trick, it may help us NOT listen to thoughts of discouragement.
Before coming across Michael Langford or Ellie Roozdar, I already knew that full awakening was extremely rare. Yet, I felt called to reach for it in this lifetime, and so …. well, that was that.
One song that has always encouraged me in my quest for awakening is “The Impossible Dream.” Here’s a link to Susan Boyle’s version of that song:
Please read and contemplate quotes #289-292 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. This is the last quote today:
Truth is permanent. The real is changeless. What changes is not real, what is real does not change.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Regina reports that someone once asked what motivates her to spiritual practice. Her answer: “It is the practice itself that motivates me. I find that as I dedicate myself to spiritual practice, I experience an increase in my desire for spiritual practice.”
There may be some bio-chemical thing happening in the body to explain this. Just as the cells in our body can learn to crave certain emotions or specific types of food based on what we’ve given it, the body-mind can begin to crave spiritual practice and devotional time with God. This could be called “the positive use of craving.”
What we need to notice about this is that the body-mind learns to crave what we give it, so we have to GIVE IT in order for the body-mind to begin to crave it.
That could mean that in the beginning there isn’t much motivation to practice. However, in order to create the motivation to practice, we need to practice anyway.
“Each step may seem to take forever, but no matter how uninspired you feel, continue to follow your practice schedule precisely and consistently. This is how we can use our greatest enemy, habit, against itself.”
~ Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
Buddha taught that when we see the cause of suffering we also see the path to ending suffering. The cause of suffering is the ego thought system. The path to ending suffering is the spiritual practice that leads to the end of the ego thought system. That understanding is our motivation to begin spiritual practice even though we may not yet crave spiritual practice. If we will do that, the motivation to spiritual practice will increase as the body-mind learns to crave it.
In other words, through spiritual practice we become a soul on fire.
Aham and Aham-vrtti, Part 6
