On Wednesday night of this week, we were gathered in the Awakening Together Sanctuary for the Michael Langford Study Group. We were reading from his book, \u201cThe Importance of Practice and Effort\u201d. On page 22, Nisargadatta Maharaj and a devotee are discussing awareness-watching-awareness meditation. The devotee said, \u201cI have tried many times and failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I read that, my first thought was, \u201cHow do you know you failed?\u201d And this analogy came to my mind:<\/span><\/p>\n Where I live the internet is slower than in most towns and cities. That\u2019s because our area is somewhat rural. When I upload an audio file, it can take several minutes. As the file is uploading, I can watch a progress bar, which shows me that 1% of the file is uploaded, 2% of the file, 3% of the file, etc. So I know the upload is making progress.<\/p>\n However, I don\u2019t have a progress bar that shows my spiritual progress.<\/p>\n When uploading a file, if I ignored the progress bar and declared failure after 5 minutes because the file wasn\u2019t uploaded yet, I would be wrong. It isn\u2019t failure. It is simply in progress, but not yet complete. If I got frustrated that the file wasn\u2019t uploaded and shutdown the computer, I would prevent additional progress.<\/p>\n What if we were to realize that our awakening is in progress? And then with trust in that fact, what if we continue to follow instructions so that spiritual progress can continue?<\/p>\n When Michael Langford was teaching me to meditate, he shared some quotes with me. These are the quotes:<\/p>\n “Don’t look for quick results; there may be none within your noticing.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj<\/p>\n “Don’t waste energy on thinking or evaluating how well or how badly you are doing in your meditation.” ~ Annamalai Swami<\/p>\n “Don’t be discouraged by the length of the journey, and don’t slacken in your efforts to get home.” ~ Annamalai Swami<\/p>\n \u201cThe practice is the progress.\u201d ~ The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss<\/p>\n Compare these quotes to what today\u2019s Course lessons says:<\/p>\n \u201cPeace be to you today. Secure your peace by practicing awareness you are one with your Creator, as He is with you. Sometime today, whenever it seems best, devote a half an hour to the thought that you are one with God. \u2026 Abide with Him this half an hour. He will do the rest. Your benefit will not be less if you believe that nothing happens. You may not be ready to accept the gain today. Yet sometime, somewhere, it will come to you, nor will you fail to recognize it when it dawns with certainty upon your mind. \u2026 You will remember then the thought to which you gave this half an hour, thankfully aware no time was ever better spent.\u201d<\/p>\n Nisargadatta told the devotee who thought he had failed, \u201cTry again. \u2026 Give attention to the reality within you and it will come to light.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Wednesday night of this week, we were gathered in the Awakening Together Sanctuary for the Michael Langford Study Group. We were reading from his book, \u201cThe Importance of Practice and Effort\u201d. On page 22, Nisargadatta Maharaj and a devotee are discussing awareness-watching-awareness meditation. The devotee said, \u201cI have tried many times and failed.\u201d When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-gentlehealing","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n