“Let this become your key – next time when anger comes, just watch it. Don’t say ‘I am angry’ say rather ‘Anger is there; I am watching it.’ And see the difference! The difference is vast.” Osho
Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 117 ~ Review of Lessons 103 & 104
How to Contemplate, continued:
Contemplation is a process of discovery, a process of going deeper into something or going beyond what was already known or consciously realized.
I ‘d like to share an article by Adyashanti. In this article he talks about “meditative self-inquiry.” His meditative self-inquiry is contemplation. He does an excellent job of describing how contemplation feels.
“How I Discovered Meditative Self-Inquiry” by Adyashanti
An excerpt taken from Adyashanti’s book, True Meditation
I’d like to tell the story of how I came across meditative self-inquiry. In many ways, it was very spontaneous, almost a mistake. Nobody ever taught me about meditative self-inquiry directly, and nobody even suggested that I do it. It came naturally out of years of spiritual practice and meditating.
At one point, I realized that I had these questions … questions I think lots of people have about their practice, about their spirituality, about life. My questions were actually fairly basic.
For example, what is surrender? I had heard a lot about surrender, and I thought, what is surrender, really? And what is meditation? What is it really? I had been meditating for years, but what was it really? This line of questioning ultimately led me to ask, who am I really? I noticed that these questions were running around in my mind, and I was looking for a way in which I could actually engage with them directly, and that’s how I discovered meditative self-inquiry.
I found myself going to coffee shops in the evenings after work, and I would start with a question. I would take a piece of paper and a pen in hand and I would start to write about the question as if I was talking to somebody else. We are always the best in transmitting what we know when we are teaching it to somebody else, so I would sit down and write as if I were teaching the answer to someone. The agreement I made with myself was that I was not going to write a single word unless I knew in my experience that it was accurate and true. So I would take a topic like “what is surrender?” And I would start to write on it. As I said, I would not complete a sentence until I felt that the sentence was true, that I wasn’t in any way speaking outside of my own experience. In this way, I would write the next sentence, and the next sentence, and the next sentence.
What I found was that I would write myself right up to the end of my knowledge about the subject I was investigating in a relatively short period of time. I found that usually within two handwritten pages, three at the very most, I would write myself right up to the edge of what I knew. And so I would come to this inner wall, and I would feel it … not only in my mind, but in my body too. I would know: this is it; this is as far as my own experience goes.
I could sense that I had not gotten to the bottom of what my question was, so I would literally sit there with my pen in one hand, and a cup of coffee in the other hand, and I would refuse to write a word unless I knew that it was true. Sometimes I would sit right at that place for many minutes, sometimes half an hour, sometimes two hours … but I would not write the next word until I knew that it was true and it was accurate. What I found was that the only way to move was to hold still, right there at the edge of my knowledge, and feel into my mind and my body at that threshold. Not to think about the question. Not to go into a lot of philosophizing in mind. But literally to kinesthetically hold at that boundary between what I knew and what was beyond what I knew. And what I found was that by holding at that boundary … by feeling it, by sensing it, by knowing that I wanted to move beyond it … that eventually the next word or sentence would come. When it did, I would write it down. Sometimes I would write no more than half a sentence before I would know, right in the middle, that I had hit the boundary again. I would stop again and I would wait. I’d hold at the boundary.
Eventually I found that I could go through this mysterious limitation, this mysterious wall of what I knew, and I could move beyond it. And I knew when I had moved beyond it, because all of a sudden everything would start to flow again. I would start to write things that I never knew that I knew. All of a sudden this deeper wisdom would come out, and I would be writing it down, and eventually I would reach a conclusion.
Now these writings were not very long. I think the longest I ever wrote was probably seven or eight handwritten pages. So they weren’t long dissertations; I was trying to make them the shortest, most succinct expressions of what I knew. And when I was finished writing, what I found, number one and most important, was that the question had disappeared.
Regina’s Personal Contemplation of Lesson 117:
God, being Love, is also happiness. What is love? Love is not judgment. What do I do when I judge? When I judge, I reject what is. Rejection results in emotional closure. That closure blocks the natural flow of happiness, so by judging I cut myself off from happiness. Why do I judge? Because I think I need things to be a specific way in order for me to be happy. That means that I block happiness because I want happiness. That makes no sense. The way to be happy is to allow the natural flow of abundant, unending happiness. Stay open. Let everything be as it is. Let freedom be free.
I seek but what belongs to me in truth. What do I seek? Happiness? Yes, happiness is a natural desire, but that is only because happiness is natural. What I seek is what’s natural. I seek my natural Self and the ease of being that. What I really want is full and complete realization of my natural Self, my true Self, which I can see means dropping everything that is unnatural, contrived. I want to know and be purely natural Self without any lingering doubt, denial or confusion
May 12, 2017 Daily Quote
The sky does not have to exist without clouds to be a pure sky.” Mooji
Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 116 ~ Review of lessons 101 & 102
How to Contemplate, continued:
Sometimes we may be asked to contemplate material we do not like. Maybe the material uses words or symbols we do not like. Maybe we don’t have any mental understanding at all, and we feel frustrated about that lack of understanding. Maybe we don’t like the source of the quote. Maybe we have judgments against the person who spoke or wrote the quote, or maybe we have judgments against the text or spiritual path the quote comes from.
Any judgments we have about the material we are contemplating will get in the way of receiving wisdom. If we have any judgments at all about the material, we serve ourselves best by being willing to look at our judgments and let them go.
Grievances block wisdom, and that includes any grievance we may hold against any written word.
Regina’s Personal Contemplation of Lesson 116:
God’s Will for me is perfect happiness. That is my will too. Whenever I am not perfectly happy, it is because I want things to be different than they are. However, since things are as they are, to want it different is merely to believe mental chatter, mental chatter that is coming from a limited personal perspective. The personal point-of-view is darkness. Miracles are seen in light.
I share God’s Will for happiness for me. And miracles are seen in light. Light is open, embracing awareness. Therefore, I will to remain open and accepting of everything as it is. I will follow my inner intuition and not my head. I will allow others to be as they are and love them for what they are, miraculous living freedom. I will see the Regina-life as a temporary adventure and embrace it as the miraculous adventure that it is.
“Life is like a rollercoaster. It has its ups & its downs, but it is always exciting.” ~ Received from within at age 11 (the night my mom told me she was going to divorce my dad).
May 11, 2017 Daily Quote
“Other than inquiry, there are no adequate means to make the mind permanently subside. If the mind is controlled through other means, it will appear to be controlled, but will rise again. Through regulation of breath, the mind will become calm; but it will remain calm only as long as the breath remains controlled. When the breath is no longer regulated, the mind will become active and start wandering.” Sri Ramana Maharshi
5/10/17 – Weekly Satsang with Nirmala ~ The Three Questions that Guide our Spiritual Journey
Listen to this recording
You can learn more about Nirmala and his teachings on his website, which contains several free ebooks, articles, videos and audios.
Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 115 ~ Review of Lessons 99 & 100
How to Contemplate, continued:
A common block to receiving wisdom through contemplation is perceiving the text that is being contemplated as straightforward and easy to understand. Maybe you are contemplating a sentence that is short, simple and clear. “I get it,” the mind says.
Well … that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to be gained through contemplation. Joseph Benner had realization after realization, resulting in a book called “The Impersonal Life,” through contemplating one short quote continuously. The quote: “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)
Consider this story on contemplation by William Samuel, written in his book “The Awareness of Self-Discovery”:
“Once, in China, I was given a simple verse to read and then to give my interpretation. I was ready to give an answer immediately but was informed that I had twenty-eight days to think about it. ‘Why so long?’ asked I, with the usual impatience of a Westerner.
“’Because nothing has been read once until it has been read twelve times,’ was my answer. ‘Read and reread.’
“I did. Twelve times twelve to make twelve readings … and I heard a melody I could not have heard otherwise. Since then I have known why it is that certain lines in the Bible (or any other book) that have been read countless times will one day, upon just one more reading, suddenly take on a grand new significance.
“So reader, with a very gentle touch, read and re-read. If you are earnest, and act with the earnestness you are, one day when you least expect it, you will hear and feel your Heart within complete [the] words without.”
The quote William Samuel was asked to contemplate for 28 days was: “The same moon shines on ten thousand rivers.”
Regina’s Personal Contemplation of Lesson 115:
Salvation is my only function here. Getting to know my Self is my only function. For what other purpose could I have been born except the purpose of knowing my Self? The gift of life is given so we can celebrate life. The gift of awareness is given so we can love awareness. The gift of spontaneity is given so we can enjoy the miracle of spontaneity. I will embrace this birth by becoming intimately enthralled with my Self. This Regina-suit is the perfect medium for getting to know what I am.
My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation. If the plan is for the whole to be happy and celebrate, how can that be done without me? Can the whole be happy without my happiness? Can the whole celebrate without my celebration? I am integral to this plan. Most importantly, I can only know its gifts through my individual cooperation with it.
May 10, 2017 Daily Quote
“There must be no waiting for something to happen. This something is happening in every moment. To wait for it is to miss it.” Wu Hsin
Audio & Homework – Week 18 Gentle Healing Group with Regina, 5/9/17
Regina Dawn Akers guides a group of committed students 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 is willing to make a commitment to healing/awakening is invited to join this group.
Homework for the upcoming week:
Homework Assignment A: Workbook lessons 115-121. Practice daily awareness-watching-awareness meditation for 10 – 15 minutes each day. Practice your visualization plan daily. Practice the “Loving All” Method.
Homework Assignment B: Read The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, Chapter 4, The Desire for Freedom. It can be found online at: http://albigen.com/uarelove/most_rapid/chapter04.htm
Or listen to Ken Gibson reading The Desire for Freedom
Homework Assignment C: Listen to “Michael Singer Surrender Experiment The Live Interview”, which can be found in the Gentle Healing Playlist and below.
Regina’s Tips for Year 1 as an ebook
Gentle Healing Facebook group: Sharing in Contemplation Together
Growing with NTI ~ Luke Chapter 7 (v 24) – 9 ~ 5/9/17
Facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert & Connie Poole
Listen to this recording
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