A universal assembly for true discernment
Please read quotes 1048-1051 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
I am pure consciousness. I am peace beyond thought.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Please read quotes 1044-1047 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
True dispassion does not arise in one by austerity, charity, pilgrimage, etc. but only by directly perceiving one’s own nature. And, there is no means for direct Self-realization except right self-exertion.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
What is the Real World?
Our special theme speaks of the real world as a world that “arises from a mind at peace within itself.” It says the “real world signifies the end of time, for its perception makes time purposeless.” Then it goes on to say, “The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His purpose. Now He waits but that one instant more for God to take His final step.”
In our last special theme, we learned that spiritual intuition is the bridge from our false self to our true Self; we need to surrender to spiritual intuition for as long as the false self continues.
Since the mind is good at lying to us, and we could be fooled into thinking we’ve transcended the false self when we haven’t, our current special theme gives us another clue to pay attention to.
When we perceive the real world, with “no cries of pain and sorrow heard—when “No danger lurks in anything”—we have reached the end of the bridge, and spiritual intuition is no longer needed. It’s purpose has been fulfilled. God will take the next step to transport us from the end of the bridge to truth realization. Until then, spiritual intuition is needed to guide us.
It’s helpful to have this clarity, because it keeps us from fooling ourselves. As long as we have any fearful perceptions, spiritual intuition is needed.
The Holy Spirit speaks through me today.
Today’s lesson says, “We teach today what we would learn, and that alone.”
Over the last two days, you have discovered something that is helpful for you to learn. When you have fully learned something, a change occurs. Until a change occurs that signifies the learning is complete, you are still learning.
Teaching is a way of learning. However, there are many ways to teach. You can take time in the Sanctuary, weekly or just once (if there is an open timeslot) to teach what you need to learn. However, NTI Luke, Chapter 9 says, “I may have you teach without a single spoken word.”
Let’s allow spiritual intuition to guide us regarding how we are to “teach” in order to learn what’s most helpful for us to learn now. Let’s use Adyashanti’s method of writing to discover the best way for us to teach what we are learning regarding the selected perception we are looking at this week.
1 – Write or type this question: What’s the best way for me to teach to learn _______________?
(Fill in the blank with what you need to learn now.)
Note: You may also do this by speaking into a recorder.
2- Write about “teaching to learn” as if you are teaching someone else everything you know about that. You can use resources like NTI Luke, Chapter 9, to help you gather your thoughts about this topic.
Follow Adyashanti’s advice by writing all the way to the edge of what you know about this topic, and then wait for something else that you know is true. When that next true word, phrase or sentence comes, write it down. Stay with this process until you come to a conclusion that feels like guidance for you.
Note: Be sure to write without a limited view about what “teach” might mean.
If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:
Please read quote 1043 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is a portion of that quote:
Even without the help of another, the man of wisdom accomplishes his work; he who is without wisdom does not, nay even his capital is lost. Hence, one should constantly endeavor to gain this inner light or wisdom, even as one who aspires for fruits exerts constant effort in his garden.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
The Holy Spirit looks through me today.
Today’s lesson says, “Christ asks that He may use my eyes today, and thus redeem the world.”
Earlier in Gentle Healing, we studied The Code. We learned that the thoughts we believe make the world as it is. This is why forgiveness is so important. By releasing our belief in untrue thoughts, which are received into our minds through The Code, and by abiding as our peaceful unaffected Self, we send peace and wisdom into the world instead of fear and attack.
With this in mind, let’s make forgiving the untrue and realizing truth our top priorities. With these as priorities, we give a gift to the world and ourselves.
If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:
The Awakening Together Sanctuary will be closed for Christmas and Christmas Eve on December 24 & 25, 2019 so that our staff, members, and friends can be with their loved ones and celebrate the Holidays.
Please note that all Gentle Healing classes will now take place on Monday December 23rd instead of Tuesday (Christmas Eve).
See you in the Sanctuary on DECEMBER 23, 2019! And then again, the Sanctuary will re-open on Sunday, December 29, 2019 for our regularly scheduled programming.
Revs. Glen Ganaway and Yolanda Mapes share a delightful, funny and inspiring hour of A Course in Miracles. Come join in on the fun, the laughs, and the music while unlearning the ego through the lessons and chapters of ACIM.
Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert facilitates this program, in which Awakening Together members and friends join together to watch and discuss TED talks that reveal the Truth of ourselves and our universe based on the actual experience of ordinary people. Their insights are genuine—not based upon theory or dogma—and give us a “man on the street” perspective on what we are coming to learn through Awakening Together.
Regina Dawn Akers reads selections from books by Bernadette Roberts. The purpose of this inspired book study is to learn from one who walked through the final doorway to no self, no world, no God–Only Reality.
Come join us on December 22nd at 8 pm ET/6 pm MT in the Awakening Together Sanctuary for a discussion of this month’s movie, The Sixth Sense.
This month’s movie discussion group will be facilitated by George Maddox.
Join us on Sunday for a discussion of this mystical thriller starring Bruce Willis as Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist in Philadelphia, who works with a young boy named Cole. Cole confides his secret that he sees dead people to Malcolm – the ghosts are walking around like the living, unaware that they are dead. Learning to live with the ghosts he sees, Cole begins a journey to help Malcom discover a surprising truth as the cliffhanger movie ends with a surprise twist.
The Play sheet for the movie can be found HERE
Please read quotes 1040-1042 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is a portion of the last quote:
Whenever you create perverse thinking in yourself, out of your wantonness, it is then that this world-illusion begins to expand and spread out.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
What is the Real World?
Our special theme says, “Only happy sights and sounds can reach the mind that has forgiven itself. What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack and murder?”
Yesterday, you were asked to practice inquiry on a fearful perception—a perception that leaves you feeling affected. If you did this, it’s highly likely that you found mistakes in your thinking, since the only thing that can leave you feeling affected is belief in thought.
A “mind that has forgiven itself” is a mind that recognizes itself as unaffected awareness. (In this context, “mind” is synonymous with awareness and consciousness. It is like the first definition of “mind” in my dictionary: “the element of a person that enables them to be aware…; the faculty of consciousness…”)
A mind that recognizes itself as awareness has no need for mistaken thoughts.
A mind that recognizes itself as awareness sees the real world.
Today, we will take another step toward forgiving our self. This step has three parts:
1 – Read this article by Adyashanti. It is taken from his book, True Meditation.
How I Discovered Meditative Self-Inquiry
2 – Write or type this question:
What do I need to realize about ___________________?
(Fill in the blank with the selected perception you have been working with.)
Note: You may also do this by speaking into a recorder, if that feels most effective for you.
3- Write about your selected perception as if you are teaching someone else everything you know about it. Include everything you discovered as you inquired into this perception yesterday. Follow Adyashanti’s advice by writing all the way to the edge of what you know about this topic, and then wait for something else that you know is true. When that next true word, phrase or sentence comes, write it down. Continue writing until you hit another boundary, and then wait again. Stay with this process until you know that you came to a conclusion, one that is recognized in your heart and soul as the completed answer to your question.
Note: If you are speaking into a recorder, pause the recording after speaking to the edge of what you know; wait until the next true word, phrase or sentence comes, and then start the recording and begin speaking again.
I want to give us plenty of time to be thorough with this, so other than a brief comment on tomorrow’s lesson, I will not write a tip tomorrow. My next tip regarding our special theme will be two days from today. That gives us two days to explore the answer to our questions.
My body is a wholly neutral thing.
People usually see the body as who they are, but today’s lesson points out that we are not the body. We are “a Son of God”—that is, we are unaffected consciousness.
The body is a neutral thing, which means it is open to interpretation. If we listen to the ego thought system, the body is “I”. However, if we listen to spiritual intuition, it is “of service for a while and fit to serve.”
As Ramana Maharshi said, “Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”
Hence, Self-realization is the purpose of the body. Your body is perfect for this purpose, and that is true regardless of the current condition of your body. The reason the body is as it is now is to help you reach Self-realization. If there is a thought that the body is an obstacle to Self-realization, realize that thought is ego’s interpretation of a neutral thing, and then shift to spiritual intuition’s interpretation instead.
If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:
Regina Dawn Akers reads the conversation dated January 9, 1981 from Consciousness and the Absolute.
