“Don’t go back and try to repeat a moment of clarity in the past. Ask instead, ‘What is awake right now?’ Then your attention is riveted in the present moment. You’re not discounting your past experiences but focusing on how it is showing up now. Don’t compare.” Adyashanti
Tips from Regina – Lesson 85
Someone once asked me what motivates me to spiritual practice. My 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. It reminds me of an Awakening Together Daily Quote from last week:
“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.
April 10, 2017 Daily Quote
“Ordinary people despise solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing her aloneness, realizing she is One with the whole universe.” Tao Te Ching
Common Ground Mini-Series: Carol Howe – Part 2 of 5
SEE HOW LIFE WORKS – PRACTICING THE PATH TO PEACE OF MIND
Listen to the recording
As the turmoil in the world appears to escalate, we are called more than ever to deepen our commitment to peace of mind as our primary goal. To that end, Carol Howe, biographer of ACIM co-scribe Bill Thetford and one of the first teachers of the Course, will share 40 years of teaching and counseling insight and experience on this all-important subject.
Carol draws from the great wealth of material covered in her highly-acclaimed video course, See How Life Works, the one-of-a kind series designed to clarify:
1) The purpose and practice of ACIM
2) The ego’s origin and process of letting it go
3) Healing relationships
4) Real forgiveness and its rewards
5) The restoring power of acceptance
6) The true path to healing
7) Cultivating trustworthy guidance
8) Choices that matter and guarantee results
A Course In Miracles is a brilliant and powerful spiritual technology, designed to help us completely reprogram our original false beliefs and conditioning. A modern masterwork based on ancient wisdom, it delivers the deep peace and safety it promises when we do what it asks. Our work this month will focus on clarifying this practice that resolves even the most difficult challenges and assures greater happiness for anyone.
Carol’s website: CarolHowe.com
4-9-17 – Gathering – Emotions – Truth Tellers or Liars
Emotions – Truth Tellers or Liars
Rev. Regina Dawn Akers will examine human emotions, their lies, their truths and how they can help us awaken.
Rev. Gloria Wells will read excerpts from Gina Lake’s newest book, All Grace.
Tips from Regina – Lesson 84
Buddhists often speak of compassion. They practice compassion in many ways. It occurred to me recently to look at the life of Buddha to see what he meant by compassion.
For those of you who don’t know the story of Buddha, he was born the son of a king. When he was born, a prophet foretold that he would become either a great spiritual master or a great king. His father was determined that he become a great king, so he decided to hide the world from Prince Siddhartha. (I guess his father knew that the world’s suffering was the ‘kick’ that would put Siddhartha’s feet on the spiritual path.)
Siddhartha was never allowed to go outside the walls of the great palace. Inside those walls, the king made sure Siddhartha had everything he needed for a life of constant pleasure. However when Siddhartha was a young man, he grew increasingly curious about what was outside of the palace walls. His father knew this curiosity had to be resolved, so he arranged for the prince to have a tour outside the walls. The tour was carefully orchestrated so that Siddhartha only saw young, healthy people. The old, the sick and the dying were hidden on back streets that were not part of Siddhartha’s tour.
As it turns out, one curious old man peeked around a corner to get a glimpse of the prince as he passed, and Siddhartha saw him. Prince Siddhartha had never seen old age before and was immediately struck by what he saw. He followed the old man in order to learn more, and stumbled across everything his father had tried to hide from him. Old age, sickness and death.
Prince Siddhartha was overcome with compassion for everyone who suffered from these maladies. Driven by compassion, his quest became the pursuit of the end of suffering.
Now, this is what is important for us to notice. When driven by compassion to end suffering, did Siddhartha decide to be a great king so he could make new laws? Did he decide to become a doctor? A scientist? A social worker? No. He decided to seek enlightenment. Somehow he intuitively knew that the answer to all problems rested with truth realization.
We are practicing true compassion when we dedicate our lives to the pursuit of truth realization. This is because the ego thought system is the cause of all forms of suffering.
Today I have selected a Christmas song for inspiration. It was written by John Lennon. I picked this song because it asks us, “What have you done?” This is not meant as an accusation, but as an internal question that we can each contemplate until increased motivation for spiritual practice arises within us. If we ask, motivation will come
April 9, 2017 Daily Quote
“Look at yourself steadily – – it is enough. The door that locks you in is also the door that lets you out. The “I Am” is the door. Stay at it until it opens. As a matter of fact, it is open, only you are not at it. You are waiting at the non-existing painted doors, which will never open. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Tips from Regina – Lesson 83
I know some of you found yesterday’s tip difficult. One ego preservation strategy is denying the full onslaught of suffering and terror caused by the ego thought system. If we looked directly at it, we would give it up. It’s like the movie, “Inception,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In that movie, they are going deep into another man’s dream in order to plant an idea into his head. The question becomes, “How will we wake up from the dream?” The answer is to plant a ‘kick’ in the dream, something that will shock them awake.
If we looked at the full horror caused by the ego thought system, that would be our ‘kick,’ so the ego makes sure we don’t look.
In spite of any suffering we may experience, our lives aren’t bad. Our level of suffering is tolerable, which is why we put up with it. The disadvantage of that is that it doesn’t push us to desire awakening with our whole heart, our whole soul, all of our strength and all of our mind.
However, there is an advantage to our easier lives too.
If we were overly consumed with suffering, we might not have time or energy to focus on awakening, because we would be too busy trying to resolve the problems of our suffering (or too sick/weak to do anything). Our more cozy lifestyles permit the opportunity for spiritual practice, if we will take advantage of them. And as yesterday’s tip pointed out, we can be motivated by the suffering of others, if we are willing to look like Prince Siddhartha (Buddha) looked.
Most of us (if not all of us) know that we do not take full advantage of the time allotted to us for spiritual practice. Yesterday I was driving to the bank in our new AT Ride (a van donated for our Retreat House) when I heard a Christian song on the radio. The song said that a saint is someone who, “falls down and gets up, falls down and gets up, falls down and gets up.”
So, that’s what we need to do. When we notice we have slipped or forgotten our purpose (fallen down), we just begin again (get up). In this way, we awaken ourselves and the world.
April 8, 2017 Daily Quote
“Never assume that you have attained truth. Don’t make any claim to knowledge. Form no conclusion or evaluation concerning truth. The minute you do, your downfall is assured. Whenever you imagine you know something, you cease being open to the living exploration. You have closed a door and cut off the oxygen to the breathing truth.” Mooji
Tips from Regina – Lesson 82
Earlier this week someone, presumably Syria’s president Assad, ordered a chemical attack on civilians/terrorists (depending on who is telling the story). In America, we saw images of the children affected in the attack. Last night US President Trump ordered an attack on a Syrian airbase. Russia, Iran and Syria say the US attack was “naively pulled behind a false propaganda campaign.”
An 11-year old boy hung himself because his girlfriend and her friends pulled a prank on social media saying she killed herself. (Clearly he was pulled in by a false propaganda campaign.)
North Korea’s nuclear missile campaign is increasing. Their leader has been willing to execute his own family members, so there is little to no trust that he will be responsible with nuclear weapons. His goal is to obtain the capability to strike the US.
A maid, who had been cleaning windows outside of a high-rise apartment, slipped. She held on to the windowsill and screamed desperately for help. Her employer thought it was funny. Instead of helping, she grabbed a smart phone to video it. The terrified maid fell. The employer walked over to the window to finish the story on video by showing her lying about 15-20 floors below. (Amazingly the maid survived.)
A Michigan woman, age 41, was arrested for choking a high school girl at Disney World on Wednesday night for blocking her view of the Disney fireworks show.
These are just a few of the stories in the news this week. The sad thing is, there are many, many, many more stories like them that we will never hear about. These aren’t just stories ‘out there.’ These stories are the affect of the ego thought system.
Buddha’s motivation for letting go of ego was the desire to find the end to suffering. His own suffering didn’t motivate him. Personally, he didn’t know suffering. He was motivated by compassion for others.
Jesus said his life was a ransom for many. Could he have had the same motivation as Buddha?
Can we look at the suffering and terror that is caused by the ego thought system, and like them, choose to let go of it?
Please take a moment to listen to this song today. And thanks for any effort that you put into letting go of the ego thought system in your mind. It is a gift to all of us.
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