Rev. Jacquelyn & Connie – Early Insights, “What You Thought Did Not Occur, Part 1 & 2”

January 3, 2023

Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert and Connie Poole play Regina Dawn Akers’ Early Teaching videos and invite those in attendance to contemplate those teachings along with them.

Because these teachings are so helpful, Jacquelyn and Connie plan to slowly review them by playing one or two of them each week and contemplating them in a group format.

Live in the Sanctuary Weekly on Tuesdays 6:30-7:30 pm ET
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Here’s a link to next week’s RDA Early Teaching that will be played: What is Acceptance?

Heart Explorations: Embracing the Whole Show ~ 1/3/23

January 3, 2023

During our time together, we will explore what it takes to live from an open, undefended heart. Naturally, any true exploration of living from the heart necessarily entails taking a deep and sustained look at what prevents us from keeping our hearts open. Grounded in the knowledge that the essence of us, our true nature, is the very lovingness within us all, we will explore how to recognize and release egoic energies by cultivating open-hearted awareness practices which support us in directly experiencing our true Self. By leaning into willingness, steeped in self-honesty, and with a consistent dash of courage, we endeavor to open to whatever life brings, as it brings it, that is, on life’s terms. In so doing, we trust that everything – absolutely everything – is here for us to use for healing, for purification, and for learning to live from the heart. We look forward to supporting each other in our individual explorations of how we truly embrace the entirety of this show we call life.

To deepen further into the teachings from Heart Exploration here’s a link to the Being Aware of Awareness meditation podcast. In these meditations, the reading from Heart Explorations is contemplated.

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Please note: it may be necessary to download the audio to listen to it fully.

Live in the Sanctuary Weekly on Tuesdays, 9-11 am ET
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Regina’s Awakening Games ~ Game #36: The Now Game

January 3, 2023

Regina Dawn Akers shares the games she played as part of her awakening process. The games she played came to her as insight as she read and contemplated spiritual teachings.

We recommend you practice each game for one week. After practicing the game for one full week, move on to the next Awakening Game.

Click play on the following YouTube video to learn about this week’s game.

And don’t forget to have fun!

Reminder: New Gentle Healing Group Starts Soon on January 23rd at 5 pm ET

January 2, 2023

We have a brand new Gentle Healing group for year 1 starting soon on Monday, January 23, 2023.

Your facilitator for this group will be Rev. Michele Hojnacki. This weekly class will meet in the Sanctuary on Mondays from 5-7 pm ET/3-5 pm MT.

The Gentle Healing Curriculum guides committed students to make consistent, gentle progress toward genuine peace, joy, and love. Everyone who is willing to make a commitment to healing/awakening is invited to join an online Gentle Healing group. The gentle healing group will be diving deep into the daily workbook lessons of A Course in Miracles, The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament (NTI), Michael Singer’s book Untethered Soul, Gina Lake’s book In the World but Not of It, and other teachings.

If you or anyone you know would enjoy participating in this free class then all you have to do is show up in the Sanctuary Monday, January 23rd at 5 pm ET. No sign-up is required. However, you will need to purchase your own copies of both A Course in Miracles (Foundation for Inner Peace Edition) and The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament (NTI). Remember to purchase your books through Smile.Amazon.com and pick Awakening Together that you want your shopping to support.

Feel free to share this information on all your social media platforms.

Satsang with Brian Tom O’Connor, January 15, 2023

January 1, 2023

We are excited to be joined by Brian Tom O’Connor for a Satsang Interview on Sunday, January 15, 2023 at 7:30 p.m ET/5:30 p.m. MT. in the sanctuary. And we are so thrilled to have Rev. Shawna Summers facilitating the Satsang interview. Shawna also facilitates the sanctuary program “Playing Awakening Games Together” so it’s a really great opportunity to get into the joy of playing awakening games.

In case you are not familiar with Brian Tom O’Connor, he is the author of Awareness Games: Playing With your Mind to Create Joy, and a co-host of the Awareness Explorers podcast. His newest book is called Awareness Adventures: Discovering Your True Nature.

He is also an actor, theatre director, cabaret performer, and formerly depressed guy who stumbled onto the source of joy and happiness in the background of all experience. Brian does not claim to be an enlightened person, which he says is, in fact, a good thing, because if someone as imperfect and flawed as he is can find it, he maintains that we all can.

He invites us to try the games and make up our own. Experiment. See what works for us. He posits that it’s all about our direct experience. He asks us to play with pure awareness and discover the background of all experience, where happiness is hiding in plain sight.

If you would like to learn more about Brian, please visit one of his websites or listen to his podcast.

playawarenessgames.com

awarenessexplorers.com

Sanctuary Closed Today: Jan. 1, 2023

December 31, 2022

Have you ever listened to the weekly gatherings from the past and heard something you didn’t hear before? Are you deep into Regina’s teachings and haven’t re-listened to her homilies? While the Sanctuary is closed, we will play our Weekly Gathering Playlist on AT Radio. The Weekly Gathering Playlist contains all the weekly gatherings that have been given since October 2019, which you can enjoy as you feel called today.

The Awakening Together Sanctuary will be closed today (New Year’s Day) so that our staff, members, and friends can be with their loved ones during the holiday season.

We will have our regularly scheduled programs during the week and look forward to being with you then. Our regular Sunday programming will return on Sunday, January 8, 2023. Happy Holidays!

Clunky Being-ness ~ An Inspirational Article by Rhoda Makled

December 31, 2022

“Buddha and God appear in many forms. The buddha is not only in the cloud. He is in our hearts and in the hearts of many others.”

The Heart of Buddha’s Teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Something in this quote just sank from the head to the heart. I look into the kitchen, and I see Kahmel in a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up over his head as he prepares breakfast for himself after a long boxing workout. SUDDENLY I SEE HIM. He IS God appearing in form for this exact experience. This home IS God. Everything in it IS God. These hands and this computer ARE God. All that is in Awareness and the Awareness itself IS God.

The question that rises is, “What am I trying to Trust?” The confusion that is happening is a belief that there’s a deity that has a plan for all of this. The clarity is that there’s an underlying intelligence in all of Life as it IS manifest and unmanifest. It is not something outside that is watching over it all. It IS the nature of Life. God IS the nature of Life as it moves from the unmanifest to the manifest and back to the unmanifest.

Buddhists describe it as the suchness of life. This is why my only job is to experience life through THIS expression of God. This is why the awakening of all beings is so helpful. As collective consciousness moves to know the power of the collective consciousness and brings love instead of fear everything changes. I am not alone because that is not possible. I am not separate because that is not possible. I AM the unmanifest that has manifested as this body. An interconnected sentient being. When this form ends it returns to the unmanifest.

When fear rules my life (meaning I have full attention on fear) then fear is what I experience. When love and abundance and harmony and peace rule my life (again, meaning I have full attention on love, abundance, harmony, and peace) then love, abundance, harmony, and peace are what I experience. It’s not my fault and yet I am fully capable of seeing the habit energy. There is no entity that will end this suffering loop, but there is my deep and earnest to desire to wake up from the dream of fear. To be fully awake to and embrace the Truth of Love, abundance, harmony, bliss, and peace.

As this clarity flows through, I can feel the mind trying to figure out how to hold onto it. How to make it real. There’s fear here that this clarity will be lost. This is the exact fear that I wish to see. This is the habit energy of “I am not enough” and “I am not safe.” I can feel the practicality of the Loving All Method. I am truly grateful to see this energy rise. This is where I keep turning…to the Loving All Method.

Join us in the Forum for further discussion of this article.

Sanctuary Closed Tomorrow: Jan. 1, 2023

December 30, 2022

The Awakening Together Sanctuary will be closed on Sunday, January 1, 2023 so that our staff, members, and friends can be with their loved ones during the holiday season.

We will have our regularly scheduled programs during the week and look forward to being with you then. Our regular Sunday programming will return on Sunday, January 8, 2023. Happy Holidays!

Registration CLOSING SOON:The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi

December 28, 2022

Registration closing in 1 week.

Ramana Maharshi was born on December 30, 1879 in a village in Tamil, India. His father died when he was twelve, and he went to live with his uncle. At age 16, he experienced a sudden and extreme fear of death to which he responded by immediately seeking the truth of the Self and became Self-realized. Six weeks later he followed an inner calling and ran away to India’s holy hill, Arunachala, where he remained for the rest of his life. For years he was a silent ascetic. He spent many hours each day deep in samadhi. Years later he emerged from silence to share the wisdom of the True Self with those who came seeking it. Before the end of his life in 1950, thousands of people had come to him from all over the world. Ramana Maharshi became known as one of the greatest saints to have ever graced this planet with Presence.

Join us as we contemplate the teachings of this great sage. We will also read stories about about him told by the people who knew him best.

In this course you will:

Consider the legend, the living example and the teachings of a great sage and determine what is most helpful to one’s own spiritual process.
Practice self-inquiry in order to distinguish between what is and is not the Self.
Practice removing attention from the non-Self and placing it with the Self using a spiritual practice that is most suited for you now.

Purpose:The purpose of this course is to introduce the participant to the spiritual teaching of one of the great sages of the twentieth century, Ramana Maharshi.

Course Duration: 6 weeks

Course Section Times & Starting Dates: Tuesdays, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. ET beginning January 17, 2023 (Facilitator: Rev. Carl Lammers) OR Wednesdays, 6-8 p.m. ET, beginning January 18, 2023 (Facilitator: Rev. Christina Goldsmith).

Homework Begins: Tuesday Class; January 10, 2023 OR Wednesday Class; January 11, 2023.

Last Day of Course: Tuesday Class; February 21, 2023 OR Wednesday Class; February 22, 2023.

Facilitators: Revs. Carl Lammers OR Christy Goldsmith

Individual Homework Time Commitment: One hour per day five days per week plus 15 minutes per day two days per week.

Structure of Course: Six weekly 2-hour sessions.

Textbook needed: The textbook needed is The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi. If you make your book purchase through Amazon Smile and select Awakening Together as your designated charity, a small portion of your purchase will be donated to Awakening Together.

Format: Classes will be held live on a Zoom Link weekly.

Cost: $180

Registration closed

For more information on this class, click here.

Registration Closed

RDA Seven Steps Journal: Out of the Stillness ~ Sincerity and Practice (Step One)

December 28, 2022

Have you ever wanted to see inside someone else’s mind and heart as they journeyed toward spiritual awakening? Have you ever wondered what obstacles they faced, what inquiries they used, or what insights they experienced? If so, this program is perfect for you. Each week, Regina Dawn Akers shares from her published journal, Out of the Stillness. It was written as a personal journal over 8½ years as she contemplated quotes from spiritual masters and practiced the insight she realized through contemplation. The quotes Regina contemplated were collected by Michael Langford and published in The Seven Steps to Awakening. Both books are used in this program.

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