A universal assembly for true discernment
Topic: “Embrace Grace”
Description: Shawna shared about what Grace is, how it appears in life & how we can choose to miss it or embrace it when it blesses us.
Reading: Rev. Jay McCormick read from Falling Into Grace, written by Adyashanti.
Please read and contemplate quotes #509-512 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. This is the last quote today:
Where has the world gone? Who has removed it, or where has it disappeared to? I saw it only just now, and now it is not there.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Who you are is All Knowing Oneness. In this you have no choice. For there to be a choice about who you are, there would have to be identities for you to choose between.
You could choose personhood and separation (fear, guilt, death, etc.). Or you could make a choice fot truth or forgiveness or peace or love or life.
The deceived mind thinks it is a separate person because it identifies with separate thoughts (fear, guilt, death, etc.) What one must realize is this mistaken identity must be given up because it doesn’t exist. If you think your life is being a real person living in the world then you will see life with choices. But the choices are between illusions and what kind of choice is that? That isn’t a real choice.
The real choice comes from the one who seeks the truth. This one sees what one isn’t. This one comes to see that personhood and separation (fear, guilt, death, etc.) do not exist and never have occurred. This one is the one who makes their mind ready for truth. This complete acceptance is the Atonement. It is the correction for the seeming separation. This is our part: Accepting the Atonement for ourselves.
Please read and contemplate quotes #505-508 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. This is the last quote today:
There is no “dream” in the infinite consciousness. There is neither a body nor a dream in it.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
I love, love, love today’s workbook lesson. It is so simple and clear! Yet, I don’t think I saw it that way the first time I did the Course in Miracles Workbook. I don’t think I knew what it talked about then when it said, “Who is the doubter? … He has accepted [truth] because he lives; has judged against it and denied its worth, and has decided that he does not know the only certainty by which he lives.”
Complicated minds can deny the simple obvious truth. What’s the truth?
You are life!
How do you know you are life? Because you live.
It’s that simple. Everything else is a complication.
Let’s embrace simplicity today. No matter what happens in your day today, keep turning attention to the fact that you are life.
Angry? Okay, but still life.
Sad? Okay, but still life.
Frustrated? Okay, but still life.
Laughing? Okay, but still life.
Scared? Okay, but still life
Feeling devotional? Okay, but still life.
Stressed? Okay, but still life.
Feeling guilty? Okay, but still life.
Sick? Okay, but still life.
Full of energy? Okay, but still life.
Happy? Okay, but still life.
If you look, you will notice the one thing you can never honestly deny is that you live. When you look even closer, you will notice the one fact that is obvious: You are life.
Have you ever experienced death as a direct experience? Sure, people and pets you loved died and you perceived that, but what was your direct experience as you perceived it? Wasn’t it life that perceived the concept/perception of death?
Do you have any proof of death as a direct experience?
Or is life the only thing that you can verify as a fact?
Look carefully. Forget ideas. What do you know from direct experience?
“Here is the end of choice. For here we come to a decision to accept ourselves as God created us. … For what is life except to be yourself, …?”
“Today accept Atonement, not to change reality, but merely to accept the truth about yourself, and go your way rejoicing in the endless Love of God.” Celebrate today that You Are Life!!
You are life! And you know it, because you live.
This class is 6 weeks long.
The purpose of this course is to introduce participants to “The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament” (NTI), which is scripture provided by and preserved by Foundation for the Holy Spirit (Awakening Together).
NTI is described as a loving or heart-centered approach to letting go of ego.
In this class you will:
1. Become familiar with key spiritual themes in NTI.
2. Practice noticing ego, letting it go and refocusing on spiritual wisdom.
Specific Information:
Class schedule:
Tuesday afternoons, August 6 – September 10 from 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern Time.
Homework begins July 30.
Facilitator: Rev. Doreen Bonnet
Cost is $120.
The textbook needed is The Keys to NTI or The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament (NTI). Either book is acceptable for this course. You do not need both books.
Class is offered in Zoom. Familiarity with Zoom is helpful.
Registration closes on July 28.
For more information on this class, click here.
Join us at 10:15 am ET/ 7:15 am PT for our Weekly Gathering with Rev. Shawna SummersTopic: “Embrace Grace”
Description: I will be exploring, with Spirit, what Grace is, how it appears in life & how we can choose to miss it or embrace it when it blesses us.
Reading: Rev. Jay McCormick will read from Falling Into Grace, written by Adyashanti.
*Weekly gathering is held every Sunday morning at 10:15 am ET/7:15 am PT in the Awakening Together Sanctuary. Join us after the Gathering for our Fellowship Time, hosted by Rev. Jay McCormick.
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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.
Join us at 8:00 pm ET/ 5:00 pm PT for Reflections from the Retreat HouseRecent participants from the latest retreat will share about their experience, insights, breakthroughs, and how being at the retreat has enhanced their Awakening to Truth.
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Craig Holliday continues his examination of what it means to be both free and human.
Please read and contemplate quotes #501-504 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. This is the last quote today:
The world has arisen like a dream.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
I remember being at a spiritual meeting and there were many who said they had very little experience with spiritual gatherings like the one being presented that evening. I remember, as well, watching one woman in particular. I knew she was really hearing what was being taught but she was in resistance. I knew exactly what this woman was going through because I had, had the same experience.
She had a pained look on her face. It said, “my world as I know it, is over. If I accept what is being said here, I am no longer calling the shots. My thinking is about to change and my world is going to be turned upside down.” This is the first step in learning that there is more to existence than the life I have been living. Suddenly the woman is confronted with ideas of giving up the way she has been thinking about herself and her world. There is a big shift coming and she knows it intuitively. “All of my beliefs are going to be challenged.”
Many of us at this point believe we are going to be asked to sacrifice or make a choice for spirituality over family and friends and possessions and, etc. But the truth is, we are being guided to experience differently as we let ourselves be undone. By letting go of the value we have placed on things of the world, we realize we have been seeking for happiness where it cannot be found. And with this realization, we can feel the impending death of the ego. For me, it took awhile to realize that what we have been learning is that peace of mind/heaven is available through the relinquishment of who we thought we were.
There is but one choice we have to make and that choice is made when we realize everything else is ridiculous folly, a waste of time. We–the ones of us in the Gentle Healing class together–have made this decision. We have looked at our thoughts and questioned our beliefs about everything and now we are ready to take the step that has always been available to us. We are ready for the direct experience of truth.
The practice we utilize for the direct experience of truth is Awareness watching Awareness. This is why awareness-watching-awareness is called the direct path. It is a practice that recognizes truth is now, and it chooses to give attention to truth now; attention ignores illusion and goes directly to truth.
A Course in Miracles is not the direct path. It says that itself in today’s lesson. It says, “But knowledge is beyond the goals we seek to teach within the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals, to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, …”
In other words, A Course in Miracles is like preparatory school. It helps prepare you to make the choice for truth. And that is the only purpose of learning, to prepare you. However, it is possible to go directly to being prepared without needing to learn volumes of information first.
As today’s lesson says, “Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven’s help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized.”
That’s the purpose of inquiry, which we will go deeper into over the coming weeks. As we saw in last week’s reading of Inner Ramana’s s/Self-Inquiry, this is the two part process recommended there. We question our thinking to see its worthlessness and untruth. As we see that clearly, we are willing to let go of our thinking and choose only truth (aka Heaven).
Come join us on July 28th from 8 pm ET/5 pm PT in the Awakening Together Sanctuary for a discussion of the movie Inception.
The main character, Cobb, enters into people’s Imaging, having the ability to enter into a shared dream and extract corporate secrets. At the end of a failed gig, he accepts a challenge from a client to do more than just extract information, but to plant a new idea. Cobb assembles a new team and embarks on a daring and dangerous adventure to plant a new idea into the heir of an energy giant. Join us for the ride of a lifetime as Cobb and his team explore the deep subconscious and navigate through their target’s mind symbolically, all while Cobb battles his own internal demons. There are many references to direct spiritual ideas and this movie can increase your motivation for awakening.
Release date: 2010, Running time: 2 hr 28 minutes
Ways to Watch
1. Rent on Amazon prime for $3.99 at:
https://www.amazon.com/Inception-Leonardo-DiCaprio/dp/B004FHP9KA
2. Rent on YouTube Movies also for $3.99 – search for: Inception.
Link to Play sheet for the movie: Read it here
