A universal assembly for true discernment
Please read quotes 1257-1260 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
“I am Eternal”; knowing this clearly, those whose minds are awakened, who have abandoned the outward, becoming the Eternal, dwell in the Self, which is extending consciousness and bliss.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
What is the miracle?
Before leaving this special theme for the next one, let’s circle back and look at this excerpt again:
A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. … It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. Thus it stays within time’s limits. Yet it paves the way for the return of timelessness and love’s awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it brings.
The sense of self is more than self-centeredness. Although the sense of self is not our very existence, it is what feels like existence to us. That means that once the wrong-minded self-centered self ends, the next step in awakening is the end of the sense of existing or the sense of I am. The sense of existing and life are not the same thing. Life, which is what we are, does not end. The sense of existence is an energy that we have mistaken for life.
Remember Nisargadatta’s instructions to the man who said, “I see you smoking!” He said, “At the root is the sense ‘I am’. Go beyond it.”
Here is a brief video by Dr. David Hawkins about his experience with the end of the sense of existing. He calls it the Final Doorway. (The tip continues after the video.)
Note: Here is another brief video where Dr. David Hawkins describes the same experience with a different emphasis.
As our special theme says, the miracle works within time and perception. It moves us from self-centered existence to existence that reflects reality. This existence could be seen as a spotless mirror. Reality is reflected in the spotless mirror—in this sense of existence—but reflected reality is not reality itself.
The miracle cleans the mirror of the self-centered self. When the mirror is spotless, the miracle’s function has come to an end. It is another movement that takes us beyond time and the mirror, a movement that exceeds perception entirely. That movement is known as the final doorway, the eye of the needle, the last judgment, God’s final step, manonasa, etcetera.
Miracles mirror God’s eternal Love. To offer them is to remember Him, and through His memory to save the world.
Please read today’s workbook lesson in full. Notice a phrase, sentence or excerpt that you feel particularly attracted to and go into it more deeply through writing.
Meditation Options
Please read quotes 1253-1256 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
The supreme end is the incomparable enjoyment of the Self’s bliss.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
What Is a Miracle?
Let’s review what we’ve already contemplated about the miracle in order to look at the miracle as a whole.
Today I let Christ’s vision look upon all things for me and judge them not, but give each one a miracle of love instead.
Today we give the freedom that we seek by practicing the Loving All Method instead of judgment.
Please read today’s workbook lesson in full. Notice a phrase, sentence or excerpt that you feel particularly attracted to and go into it more deeply through writing. I have demonstrated this practice repeatedly by selecting an excerpt from the special theme and writing based on that excerpt. Increased clarity can come through this type of focused contemplation. The clarity that is perfect for you will come through the selection you are attracted to. You can open up to this clarity by asking to see what is most helpful for you to see, and then begin writing with faith that this prayer will be answered.
Meditation Options
Please read quotes 1249-1252 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
Thou worthy one also, seeking this higher reality of the Self, whose whole nature is the fullness of bliss, washing way the delusions thine own mind has built up, be free, gaining thy end, perfectly awakened.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
What Is a Miracle?
Our special theme says, “The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand. Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there. And thus the miracle will justify your faith in it, and show it rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought was there.”
When talking about the phases one goes through in the development of trust, A Course in Miracles Manual for Teachers says:
[The teacher of God] thought he learned willingness, but now he sees that he does not know what the willingness is for. … He must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance. Were not each step in this direction so heavily reinforced, it would be hard indeed!
This paragraph comforted me during many trials along this path. The trials were times that I feared real sacrifice was about to occur. For example, there were times that I feared running out of money, because by following guidance I left a traditional job and began to do what I was guided to do without any direct source of income. I was worried about how I would care for my daughter and myself; my daughter was only a little girl at the time. That paragraph from the Manual for Teachers reminded me to ask only for what I really want, which is awakening, and it promised that the rightness of that choice would be “heavily reinforced.”
My experience has been that this works. It is as Jesus taught, “Seek ye first the kingdom, and all else will be added to you.”
Again today, we are looking at the power of faith and asking, with asking focused on truth and not on conditions in the world. As we stay focused on seeking truth, the creative principle responds by providing the most helpful material circumstances.
When our special theme says, “faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there,” it is pointing to both the shift in perception and its material effects. Both are “witnesses,” which “heavily reinforce” our choice to abide as unaffected.
It is a mistake to expect a specific material outcome as a result of faith. Whenever we expect or desire a specific outcome, we think with ego, and so it is the energy of ego that is fed into the creative principle on our behalf. To feed the energy of the miracle into the creative principle, we must seek only for truth (in whatever way your mind words that aspiration). It is this seeking that brings the miracle, its effects and the positive reinforcement.
I have no cause for anger or for fear, for You surround me. And in every need that I perceive, Your grace suffices me.
Today’s lesson says, “Father, let me remember You are here, and I am not alone. Surrounding me is everlasting Love. I have no cause for anything except the perfect peace and joy I share with You. … God’s grace suffices us in everything that He would have us do. And only that we choose to be our will as well as His.”
Today, let’s notice our concerns.
Meditation Options
Please read quotes 1245-1248 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
One, verily, is the Eternal, without a second. There is no difference at all. Altogether perfect, without beginning or end, measureless and without change.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
What Is a Miracle?
Our special theme says, “The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand.”
There are two points from today’s selection that I would like to contemplate. First, let’s look at faith.
Bernadette Roberts wrote, “Indeed, it is because Truth is unbelievable that man needs faith—faith, which is beyond belief.”
What is faith? Faith is trust or confidence in something based on spiritual understanding rather than proof.
I have learned that faith is better than seeking proof, primarily because we cannot find proof until we have walked the journey and experienced it for ourselves. As Bernadette also wrote, “Complete understanding can only come at the end of the journey.” That’s because complete understanding comes from direct experience.
Every phase of the journey that still lies ahead is not understandable and not provable from the perspective of where we are now. This is why we need faith. We need faith that there is truth or higher seeing beyond our current way of seeing in order to motivate us to continue the journey. Without faith in something beyond our current knowing, our journey may stall.
A hiker keeps up the hike because there is still something to see that hasn’t been seen yet. It’s as the old song goes:
The bear went over the mountain,
the bear went over the mountain,
the bear went over the mountain,
to see what he could see.
Faith is trusting there is something to see that hasn’t been seen yet.
The second point I’d like to contemplate from today’s selection is this: “because to ask for it implies that the mind has been made ready…”
It is wonderful to ask. In my Buddha at the Gas Pump interview, Rick Archer commented that when I asked for something, I received it. It’s true. All along my spiritual journey, as I became ready for a particular phase of the journey, I found myself asking for it, and then that phase of the journey would begin. Of course, I didn’t always know what to ask for. I just knew I was ready for whatever was next. For example, just before The Teachings of Inner Ramana came, I asked for something that would take me to the next step. Just before a massive phase of purification started, I asked for something that would take me higher into love. In fact, the entire spiritual journey began when I asked for truth regardless of what it is.
Asking is grand! I like to begin each day’s contemplation by asking to see whatever is most helpful for me to see now. I begin each meditation by putting the meditation in the hands of Ramana and asking that it be whatever is most helpful for me now.
When we ask from a state of readiness, Grace responds. It is as NTI Revelation says:
You will never be asked to take a single step alone, but you must always be willing to take the lead by deciding the purpose and calling it out to Us.
Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me.
Today’s workbook lesson demonstrates asking when it says, “Straighten my mind, my Father.”
Of course, the words themselves are never the prayer. The prayer that moves Grace is the heartfelt readiness and faith that is at the foundation of the prayer. Until one sees for herself how hurtful judgment is, genuinely tires of the judging mind, and has faith that it is possible to be free of judgment, she will not ask with the dynamism that moves mountains. (Ref: Mark 11:23)
How do we prepare ourselves for a sincere prayer?
We simply be where we are on this journey now to the best of our ability and pay attention to everything. As we do that, we are naturally prepared for our next step. When we are ready for our next step, we will feel it, and we will ask for it sincerely.
Meditation Options
Please read quotes 1241-1244 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
Unbound am I, formless am I, without distinction am I, no longer able to be broken; in perfect peace am I, and endless; I am stainless, immemorial.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
What Is a Miracle?
Our special theme says, “Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. And each is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.”
This reminds me of the opening of the Book of John in the Bible. It says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. …
Once I looked up the word “word” in the dictionary to try to get some clarity on this passage from John. As I read the definitions of “word,” they seemed not to apply until I came across this definition:
an utterance
I looked up “utterance,” and found it to be the expression of an idea.
With that, I looked back at the opening paragraph of the Book of John and saw this:
In the beginning was an utterance—an idea expressed—and the utterance was with God, which is life, and the utterance was inseparable from life. It was with life in the beginning. Through utterance combined with life all things were made manifest; without utterance nothing was made that has been made. In the utterance was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. …
From that understanding of this scripture, I came up with this formula:
Life + Utterance = Manifestation
To make this simple, let me express it this way:
When we give expression to an idea by believing it and giving attention to it, it becomes infused with the life of our awareness, and it becomes manifest in some way. This is universal, divine law. It is the Third Principle of God, the creative principle.
With this little bit of clarity, let’s look back at today’s selection from our special theme:
Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. And each is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.
We’ve already seen that the “lily of forgiveness” is our choice to abide as unaffectedness, which is also the Loving All Method. Each time we abide as unaffected—each time we practice or live the Loving All Method—the expression of that choice becomes a silent utterance fed into the creative principle (the Word of God, the universal altar to Creator and creation) and results in a perfectly pure and joyous manifestation. These manifestations are often called Grace.
Grace shows up in the world in innumerable ways, in any way that is helpful in the moment. Grace is usually seen as a miracle, but Grace is actually the effect of the miracle.
The miracle is the shift in perception from seeing one’s self as affected to seeing one’s self as unaffected. This miracle, the lily of forgiveness, fed into the creative principle, creates its likeness in manifestation, because all ideas manifested through the creative principle manifest in the likeness of themselves.
Today the peace of God envelops me, And I forget all things except His Love.
Today’s workbook lesson says, “Father, I wake today with miracles correcting my perception of all things. … I do not seek the things of time, and so I will not look upon them. What I seek today transcends all laws of time and things perceived in time. I would forget all things except Your Love. I would abide in You, and know no laws except Your law of love.”
In other words, today we do not seek to fix, change, get or avoid things or circumstances in the world, because we know that judgment, as well as thought and action based on judgment, goes into the creative principle and creates like itself—more to fix, change, get or avoid.
Instead, we awake today with the realization of how divine law works. We understand that our safety and the world’s safety lies in our unaffectedness. It lies in living the Loving All Method, because when the safety of the Loving All Method is fed into the creative principle, it manifests like itself, thereby manifesting true safety as Grace.
Our way of being is a more important choice than most humans ever begin to imagine. The miracle today is that we accept this as true, and because we accept this as true, we put more effort into being the Loving All Method.
Be Loving All.
See yourself as that,
instead of as a person.
Being Loving All is forgetting “all things except God’s Love.”
Meditation Options
