Regina Dawn Akers reads from the Tao Te Ching in order to contemplate enlightened leadership.
1-2-19 ~ Regina & ‘I Am That’ – “True Meditation”
Regina Dawn Akers read and shared from her contemplation of Conversation #16, Desirelessness, the Highest Bliss, from I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Meditation & Mitigation: Meditate with Us & Volunteer to Help the Town of La Veta
Late June and early July, 2018, a fire burnt 109,000 acres around La Veta, Colorado. Vegetation was destroyed. The ground was scorched. Once a fire of this magnitude occurs in the mountains, major flooding is the next threat. Flood modeling shows that La Veta has a 100% chance of annual flooding over the next several years unless flood mitigation is implemented immediately.
La Veta Trails, a non-profit organization in La Veta, is organizing volunteers to participate in flood mitigation work between February 4 and March 31, 2019. We asked if it would be helpful if some of our members came and helped with this work for days at a time, and they answered, “Yes!”
That gave us an idea:
Meditation & Mitigation Retreats
February 24-March 1
and
March 24-29
Volunteer to help clear the Cucharas River channel of debris (limbs, overgrown plants and trash) in order to prevent/mitigate the flooding that is predicted following the Spring Fire of 2018. At this retreat, you will join with Regina Dawn Akers and other retreat participants for early morning inspiration and meditation; and then, following the spiritual advice of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, you will focus on the ‘I am’ presence throughout the day while volunteering for flood mitigation work with the town of La Veta. Each evening, retreat participants will join with Regina to discuss their experience of active meditation throughout the day.
Mitigation work will occur on Monday – Friday. Sunday is reserved for a day of contemplation, meditation and inspiration prior to beginning the volunteer work on Monday.
Retreat Fee: $0
Lodging Options and Rates
To register for a Meditation & Mitigation retreat, contact us.
Note: You may volunteer with the town of La Veta to help clear the Cucharas River channel anytime between February 4 and March 31. For more information, contact us.
Thoughts of Awakening #330
Peace comes from true knowledge,
but true knowledge is not learned
or gained.
True knowledge is
within the peace of your Heart
now.
When panic strikes
go to the Heart for guidance.
Trust implicitly
the guidance of the Heart.
Do not think about its guidance.
Accept it.
Do not worry about what will come next.
Trust the guidance of the Heart
is always available.
This is the way to peace
in every moment
of now.
~From our Holy Spirit
Thoughts of Awakening Quote 330 – Meditation with Karen Worth
Find a place where you will be undisturbed. If it is comfortable, put on headsets or earbuds. Relax, and enjoy this meditation.
Thoughts of Awakening Quote 330
Hour Meditation Thoughts of Awakening Quote 330
Peace comes from true knowledge,
but true knowledge is not learned
or gained.
True knowledge is
within the peace of your Heart
now.
When panic strikes
go to the Heart for guidance.
Trust implicitly
the guidance of the Heart.
Do not think about its guidance.
Accept it.
Do not worry about what will come next.
Trust the guidance of the Heart
is always available.
This is the way to peace
in every moment
of now.
~ From our Holy Spirit
Tips from Regina ~ Day 330, GH Year 2 Review: Transcending the Resistor Thru Surrender
Judgment creates the sense that the imposter self is ‘me.’ Judgment is the “I know” and “I’m right” mind—the resistor.
NTI Romans teaches two practices as the antidote to judgment. Those two practices are acceptance and surrender.
Why does NTI teach two practices as the antidote to judgment?
NTI teaches two antidotes, because there are two types of judgment.
One type of judgment divides everything into good and bad, liked and disliked, desired and not desired, etcetera. That type of judgment creates the appearance of many things.
Yesterday, we saw that acceptance (existence-loving-existence) is the antidote that undoes the many things and collapses them into one thing, which is experience. When this collapse occurs, only two things remain, the experiencer and the experience.
The second type of judgment is decision-making. Decision-making creates the sense of ‘me who decides.’ Surrender is the practice that removes the sense of ‘me’ as the one who decides.
You might remember that NTI teaches there are four stages on the spiritual path: The Search, Purification, Service and True Perception. The third stage is the period of surrender. NTI Acts 22 says:
The third stage on the path with Me is the stage of guidance or service. This is the time when the merging will occur. … This is how the merging occurs. It is through your own willingness to surrender to Me. … What seemed to be separate gradually becomes one, until it is evident that “separate” never was.
Consider this related quote by Ramana Maharshi:
Surrender is giving oneself up to the original cause of one’s being. Do not delude yourself by imagining this source to be some God outside you. One’s source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.
When you are not surrendered, there is a feeling of “me” making “my own decisions.” As you fall more deeply into surrender, you lose the sense of “me deciding,” and you experience everything as one ongoing flow of happening. You cannot separate yourself from the ongoing flow of happening. You know only one flow, one existence, one consciousness.
The Loving All Method and surrender practiced together undo both types of judgment—the judgment of good or bad and the judgment ‘I decide”—so both the experienced (the many things) and the experiencer (the decider) are undone, and only non-dual (not two) consciousness remains.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link
Thoughts of Awakening #329
Love is formless.
A joy that springs forth from form
is mistaken identification.
It is mistaken identification
with the body
as who you are
and how you live.
When the mistake arises,
pause.
Let go of the mind’s thoughts about form,
and investigate the true source of joy.
Discover that joy is formless,
and its only true source is formless love.
Let go of idea-attachment to objects
and revel in true joy always.
~From our Holy Spirit
Thoughts of Awakening Quote 329 – Meditation with Karen Worth
Find a place where you will be undisturbed. If it is comfortable, put on headsets or earbuds. Relax, and enjoy this meditation.
Thoughts of Awakening Quote 329
Hour Meditation Thoughts of Awakening Quote 329
Love is formless.
A joy that springs forth from form
is mistaken identification.
It is mistaken identification
with the body
as who you are
and how you live.
When the mistake arises,
pause.
Let go of the mind’s thoughts about form,
and investigate the true source of joy.
Discover that joy is formless,
and its only true source is formless love.
Let go of idea-attachment to objects
and revel in true joy always.
~ From our Holy Spirit
Tips from Regina ~ Day 329, GH Year 2 Review: Transcending the Resistor by Loving All
NTI Romans, Chapter 2 calls judgment the “building block of illusion.”
What is judgment?
If you look very carefully at judgment when it appears in your mind, you will see it is the “I know” and “I’m right” mind. It is the resistor, the antithesis to truth. Whenever you give believing-attention to judgment, you are identified with the imposter self.
NTI Romans teaches two practices as the antidote to judgment. Those two practices are acceptance and surrender. Today, we will look more closely at acceptance. Tomorrow, we will look at how surrender undoes judgment.
Acceptance is the decision to accept every experience exactly as it is without judging that it should be different. The deepest form of acceptance is love. Therefore, a key practice that undoes illusion and disengages from the “I know” and “I’m right” imposter mind is The Loving All Method.
Let’s look more closely at how The Loving All Method works.
At its most basic level, illusion is the appearance of two things, the experiencer (you) and the experience (everything else). You are the “I” that experiences everything else, which is “not I.”
The “not I” or the experienced appears as many things, some things that are judged as good or desired and other things that are judged as bad or not desired. The Loving All Method undoes the judgment that creates many different things and collapses them into the current experience, sometimes called the ‘now’. Through Loving All, you come to the experience of “I” loving consciousness/existence. A Course in Miracles refers to this stage as “the happy dream.”
Look at the room around you. Notice that the mind sees many things. Let the mind tell you what it likes and doesn’t like about what you see. Or, look in a mirror. Consider standing naked in front of the mirror, and let the mind tell you what it likes and doesn’t like about what you see. Or look at another person, and let the mind tell you what it likes and doesn’t like about that person.
As the mind tells you what it likes and doesn’t like, notice the sense of difference or division that happens. Watch the mind as it creates many things.
For example, while looking at the room the mind might say, “The picture of my family is very nice, but there is too much clutter on the furniture.”
While looking in the mirror, the mind might say, “My arms look strong, but my waistline is too fat and flabby.”
While thinking about a friend, the mind might say, “She is very generous, but she talks too much.”
Notice that in each case, judgment is the sense (or feeling) of “I know” and “I’m right.”
Notice how judgment gives you the distinct feeling of being ‘me’ separate from whatever or whoever is being judged. Feel the strong sense of ‘me’ that is present in judgment.
Notice the hardness (firmness) in your way of being whenever you believe a judgment.
Judgment is to the ego like air is to a balloon. It inflates the sense ‘me’ and many things that are ‘not me.’
After examining judgment closely, close your eyes and simply appreciate existence. Don’t think of the many things thought says you like about your life. That is still judgment. Simply appreciate existence itself.
Within each of us, there is a love of existence that is so excited by existence that it loves every experience simply because it emphasizes existence. Leave the mind behind, and find the love of existence in you. (People often experience this love in nature, but nature isn’t needed to experience it, because love of existence lives in you.)
After spending a few minutes appreciating existence with your eyes closed, open your eyes. Pick up something and hold it in your hand. Don’t think about what the thing is. Just feel it. Appreciate existence experiencing this existing experience.
You can practice existence-appreciating-existence with any experience. If you look in the mirror and feel self-hatred, pause and appreciate existence experiencing emotion. Or look at the part of the body that mind says it hates, let go of everything you’ve learned about how a body is supposed to look, and appreciate existence experiencing a body.
Existence-appreciating-existence is the Loving All Method. It is accepting experience exactly as it is and loving it as existence. It is consciousness loving consciousness as manifestation.
Practice existence-appreciating-existence as a way of life. Whenever you notice yourself hardening into judgment, notice the distinct feeling of ‘me,’ remember your desire to be immersed in truth, and shift into existence-appreciating-existence with whatever is being experienced now, including the feeling of believing judgment. Make no exceptions in your practice. Appreciate existence in every experience exactly as it is.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link
The Sanctuary Will Be Closed on January 1
The Awakening Together Sanctuary will be closed on Tuesday, January 1 for the New Year’s holiday.
We will see you when we reopen on Wednesday, January 2.
Happy New Year!!
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