A universal assembly for true discernment
Please read and contemplate quotes #605-606 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is a portion of the last quote:
Feelings, thoughts and actions race before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain and creating an illusion of continuity.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Death is defined in the dictionary as, “the permanent ending of vital processes.”
Vital is defined as, “full of energy, lively.”
Process is defined as “a natural series of changes.”
This means that death would be the permanent end of life-energy in all of its forms. Anyone who is willing to look with reason can see that death has never occurred. Life-energy in all of its forms has never ceased. It is just as the old saying says, “Life keeps going.” It’s true that transitions occur. Change is always happening at the level of form. But life itself cannot end.
Awakening is realizing that all of life is life itself, ongoing, and not the temporary form.
Today’s workbook lesson defines death as an idea, and nothing more. It says this idea “underlies all feelings that are not supremely happy.” That is because happiness is a natural characteristic of life aware of itself. Whenever we are not supremely happy, our attention is distracted from our truth as life.
Let’s look at how this is experienced.
Imagine I am unhappy because my daughter prefers to stay in her room instead of joining the rest of the family for a day of activity. First, I look to see what I am feeling specifically. I notice that I feel a sense of loss, like something is missing from this day. In my perception, the day is not perfect because of my daughter’s decision.
I recognize that the idea “today is not perfect” is the wish for something different. I continue the practice from yesterday’s workbook lesson, and I pause to appreciate awareness-life-presence. I let go of all thoughts about my daughter’s decision, and I reflect deeply on the perfection of awareness-life-presence as it is.
After a few moments of appreciating awareness-life-presence, I look back at the idea that there is loss today. Is that true? Did I find loss in awareness-life-presence as I reflected on it? No, there was no loss in awareness-life-presence. It was exactly the same as it always is. The idea of loss was just a thought in my mind. I was able to experience it to the degree that I let my attention focus on it, but that idea has no affect on awareness-life-presence.
Let’s practice in this way today. Whenever you notice that you are not happy, take these steps:
1 – Look briefly to get some clarity regarding the specific feeling of unhappiness. (e.g., In the example above, the unhappiness was specifically a feeling of loss.)
2 – Look at the specific feeling, and notice it is a form of the wish for something different. You might ask yourself, “Do I think I would be happier if this was different than it is?” If the answer is yes, it is the wish for something different.
3 – Shift your attention to notice and appreciate awareness-life-presence for a few moments. During this time, let go of your thoughts about the situation related to your unhappiness. Give full, restful attention to noticing awareness-life-presence as it is.
4 – Next, look with reason to see if the specific feeling of unhappiness is a fact that was noticed in awareness-life-presence or just a thought in the mind. (For example, if the feeling is rejection, is there any rejection found in awareness-life-presence or is awareness-life-presence the same as it always is? If the specific feeling is guilt, is there any guilt found in awareness-life-presence? Etcetera.)
5 – With the recognition that there was no affect on awareness-life-presence, say to yourself, “There is one life, and that I share with God.”
Note: If you feel you do not have time to look at unhappiness fully during the day, you may go back to it with your journal at the end of the day.
Regina Dawn Akers guides a group of committed students who would like to make consistent, gentle progress toward genuine peace, joy and love.
Facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert
Homework for next week:
Anne Blanchard guides a group of committed students through year 2 of Gentle Healing 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 has completed year 1 Gentle Healing and is willing to make a commitment to deepening even further into healing/awakening is invited to join this group.
Please read and contemplate quotes #603-604 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is a portion of the last quote:
You are the infinite focused in a body. Now you see the body only. Try earnestly and you will come to see the infinite only.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Today’s lesson notes the “the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This world is not the Will of God, and so it is not real. Yet those who think it real must still believe there is another will, and one that leads to opposite effects from those He wills.”
We forget, in other words, that the world we witness is the insane answer to an insane curiosity, “What if nothing were as it is?”
This week’s mass shootings serve as backdrop and motivation to devote ourselves to understanding and practice. Upon witnessing such suffering, most of us wish this world were different than it appears to be. However, if the wish that things were different (or judgment) is the building block of the world, how do we be and practice this lesson, that asks that we extend the gifts given to us to those who seem to be suffering?
We have been told that the sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the atonement for himself. When we are asked to accept the atonement, we are asked to see ourselves as that which we are.
We have been recognizing and embracing that which we are (true Self) through the practice of Self-inquiry, a form of devotion where we repeatedly focus on the true Self until it is our only experience. We are, indeed, coming to see that awareness-life-presence is what we are.
We have been given the gift of vision. We have been gifted with the understanding that things are not what they seem. This pivot is what our certainty inspires in others. Their certainty will inspire others still. It is through our seeing that we share that impenetrable, unassailable certainty with those who have no hope of redemption of the world. The world is, indeed, irredeemable. Those who seem to live in it are not in need of redemption, for they are not who they think they are.
We need not wish the world were different. We need merely recognize the truth. Today’s lesson speaks of our truth as a treasure “so great that everything the world contains is valueless before its magnitude.” That treasure is awareness-life-presence.
Reflect upon that for a moment. Without awareness-life-presence, nothing would be.
The sound of a bird’s song or the sound of waves rolling onto the beach, the sight of a beautiful sunset or the sight of a herd of deer moving through the pines—nothing that symbolizes the treasure of life could be without awareness-life-presence. Awareness-life-presence is the basis of everything we treasure, and therefore it is the greatest treasure of all.
Each time you notice the wish for something different in your mind today, pause. Shift your attention to awareness-life-presence, and spend a few moments appreciating it. Be as vigilant in this practice as you can be. I say this, because the wish for something different is a strong habit; it could occur many times during the day without you noticing it.
For example, the wish for something different may show up as the wish for more time to get things done, or as the wish for fewer things to do. It may show up as the wish for less traffic or a shorter line at the grocery store. It may show up as the wish that someone around you were different than he/she is. It may show up as the wish that you were different or that your body was different. It may show up as the wish that the world was different than it is.
Pay attention today for the wish for something different in whatever way it shows up in your thoughts, and then shift attention to notice the treasure. Let yourself feel appreciation for awareness-life-presence. Follow that by slowly saying to yourself, “I am entrusted with the gifts of God.”
Please read and contemplate quotes #600-602 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
The person you became at birth and will cease to be at death is temporary and false. You are not the sensual, emotional and intellectual person, gripped by desires and fears. Find out your real being.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
This lesson reminds us of the power of our believing attention. “What makes this world seem real except your own denial of the truth that lies beyond? … What could keep from you what you already have except your choice to see it not, denying it is there?”
As the text tells us in the section titled, The Way to Remember God, “Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth. … The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth.” T-12.II.
Our denial of the truth (doubt) is consistent, albeit, mostly unconscious. What seems like habit is much more pernicious than it may at first appear. Denial of the truth has no effect on the truth, but as an affirmation of illusion its results are experienced as pain and suffering by you.
This is not an invitation to get down on ourselves for denying the truth. Rather, it is an invitation to notice our doubt and to turn it to hope and then certainty instead.
Let me use my recent experience as an example. Last week, I was lamenting that I just wasn’t journaling any more (and therefore had nothing to share in my Wednesday program). This past week, I have journaled on the ACIM lesson each evening in preparation of the next day’s tip. This journaling with Inner Wisdom has led to deep contemplation of the lessons and increased clarity. Let’s look at what changed.
I gave up the belief that I no longer received inspiration from Inner Wisdom when journaling (the denial of guidance). I gave up the belief that I was only journaling to get something—the next day’s tip (the denial of my true nature). I journaled at a more or less regular time, even when I didn’t want to (resistance to practice). I posted what came even though I wasn’t sure it was “good enough” (the denial of Self worth). I placed faith in what came before I knew whether it was helpful or appropriate (hope).
Today’s lesson makes clear that we need not rest on our own certainty, we need merely have faith and act consistently with that faith (hope). “Ask to receive, and it is given you. Conviction lies within it. Till you welcome it as yours, uncertainty remains. … Practice today in hope. For hope indeed is justified. Your doubts are meaningless, for God is certain.”
When we place faith and hope in ourselves and our true desire, we place it with Truth. Certainty is not required. Willingness and earnestness are required. It is hope that fuels these ingredients and builds the flame that leads our way beyond the illusions created through denial of the truth.
Today, see where you employ denial and give it up, even if you are not yet certain that your denial of doubt is true. Give it up and see what happens. Give it up and see if you don’t feel lighter, more at ease, more helpful. When you do so, hope will come to replace negativity and despair.
What if we replaced every thought of doubt with a thought of hope? For example, we could replace, “I do not want truth enough” with “I must want truth more than I think, because spirituality is an ongoing focus in my life.”
Which do you think benefits the purpose of awakening more: negative thoughts of doubt or positive thoughts of hope? Which do you think benefits the ego more?
Let’s do two things today:
1 – Pay particular attention to discover the thoughts of doubt that you listen to. Look at those thoughts with reason, meaning notice that those thoughts serve the ego and discourage spiritual aspiration. Look for reasonable thoughts of hope to replace them with, thoughts that encourage you instead of discouraging you.
2 – Continue to notice awareness-life-presence. Throughout the day, each time you remember, take a moment to notice that you are aware and you exist. Even when you are distracted from awareness-life-presence by doubt, you are still aware and you still exist. Doubt does not change the truth; it only denies it.
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.
