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Gentle Healing Year 2 – Day 28 – NTI Matthew 28

March 9, 2022

NTI Matthew closes with a discussion about doubt. We have doubt, because we have memory. Our brain stores perceptions from this lifetime as memory. With each memory stored, this lifetime seems more and more to be reality.

Doubt comes from the belief that this lifetime as this body-mind-personality is reality. However, this lifetime as this body-mind-personality is not reality. There is so much more to reality than this! If we had even an inkling of an idea how much more there is than our limited experience, we would put no value in our perceptions or memory at all.

In a teaching from I Am That, I shared about an experience I had. That experience is only one example of something that is beyond our perception and completely denied by our memory. To hear that story, advance this audio to 53:45, and begin listening there. The audio from that point to the end is only a little over 6 minutes long.

In order to progress on the spiritual path, we need faith. Faith is the antidote to doubt. With faith that there is more than the lifetime of perceptions that our memory points to, we apply ourselves to truth realization. Without faith, there is nothing to pull us forward. Without faith, we believe the limited, biased, self-centered memory, and we think it is omniscience.

Thoughts of Awakening # 28

The thinking mind is based on a desire to defend from that which seems fearful to the self.

Therefore, the role of the thinking mind is to protect the separated self and keep it separate.

The knowing mind is different, because it knows.

Trust the knowing mind.

Put the thinking mind aside.

This is the path to peace.

~From our Holy Spirit

Gentle Healing Year 1 Tip – Regina’s Review, Lesson 53

March 9, 2022

Review 11. My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world. When I see with the mind, I am lost in an individualistic illusion that has no meaning at all. When I see with the heart, I am in communication with my true Self. When I am in communication with my true Self, I know my real thoughts. My real thoughts are meaning.

My real thoughts have a different quality than meaningless thoughts.

Meaningless thoughts are stories—maybe that is why they are so entertaining, but I want to remember that when the quality is story, the thought is not true. Story is individual interpretation, based on the scribbles inside the box. Highly individualized, these stories have no meaning at all.

My real thoughts are more like attitudes or a general environment in which everything is seen. My real thoughts include all-is-well (peace), open-embracing-acceptance (love), an inherent sense freedom—a sense of soaring from within (joy), intimacy with everything (oneness), and compassion for anyone who suffers because of belief in the box.

Review 12. I am upset because I see a meaningless world. Whenever I am not at peace, I am believing the box. Remembering this is enough to shift me from belief in the box to my real thoughts.

My real thoughts include compassion for myself, open-embracing-acceptance of what is, and the realization that all is well. By resting in these realizations, I rest in my real thoughts. As I rest in my real thoughts, I remember what is true, because my real thoughts are true.

Review 13. A meaningless world engenders fear. One idea written inside the box is that its stories are meaning. When I believe this idea, I draw a sense of security from the box. I believe that staying in the box is safety. I believe anything outside of the box is dangerous.

I want to overcome this backwards thought. There isn’t safety in the box. The story that is playing now may seem like a good one, but it is fragile. Good can turn to bad in an instant in the box. Look at the box honestly.

Eternal peace-life-love is realized only by abandoning the box.

This is my prayer:

Let me overcome my attraction to the box and realize all-encompassing love for the truth that is known when the box is removed.

Review 14. God did not create a meaningless world. I can have confidence that if I want it, the box will be removed. I can have confidence in that because the box is not true. It remains on my head only because I am holding it there. If I let go, a wind will come and blow the box away.

My job is to learn not to reach for the box, so that the wind can blow it away. I am ready to learn that lesson now. My readiness is demonstrated by consistently letting go of the box.

Review 15. My thoughts are images I have made. I have drawn what’s inside the box by being interested in the box’s drawings. As I stare at the drawings that are already there, the drawings multiply.

I have two choices. I can continue to be fascinated with the box, and the automatic scribbling will continue. Or I can let go of the box and discover the freedom of the endless world outside of the box.

Which choice do I want? Which choice makes sense?

Jacquelyn Eckert ~ As It Is ~ Reviewing “A Technique for Forgiveness” by Regina 3/9/22

March 9, 2022

Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert shares with honesty and passion about the ups, downs, and all-around of the spiritual journey. Jacquelyn is transparent as she shares about the impersonal awakening process we all experience. She moves us with stories from her own journey, with direct insight from inner wisdom, and with guidance from spiritual masters, both contemporary and legendary.

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Anne Blanchard ~Unfiltered~ “The Decision Not to Believe” 3/9/22

March 9, 2022

Anne Blanchard shares her experience of purification and awakening, unfiltered and as it happens. Raw, reflective, brave, and infused with clarity, Anne’s open honesty inspires us all to dive deep into the spiritual journey instead of simply skimming the surface. She continues to share deeply from various non-dual teachings and teachers.

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Paul Hedderman ~ Traveling Lighter 3-8-22

March 9, 2022

In this program, Paul through the vehicle of Satsang and repetition will be helping us to let go of misidentification and recognize Being Consciousness as our Truth.

Paul suggests repetition through Satsangs is helpful. It is an example of how the dreamING repurposes another programming element, repetition. What was used to (mis)identify, becomes instead a helpful undoing within the dreaming of that identification. The helpfulness of the Message is recognized in what Paul calls “traveling lighter.” In the surrender of an assumed need to escape/improve, the ever-present reality of consciousness already now/here becomes where our interest stays. Being consciousness in contact (in/as/through sensory experiencING), we appreciate being “successful” – already, as that Reality.

You can also learn more about Paul on his website www.zenbitchslap.com or his YouTube channel under the same title (Zen Bitchslap).

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A Call to Awakening Together Ministers to Support Each Other in Community

March 8, 2022

Look out for an invitation in your email!

Please join us for a monthly discussion of growth, questions, contemplation, and experiences of being an Awakening Together minister–both within and beyond the AT community.

Facilitated by Rev. Karen Worth, the AT-inspired format is grounded within our Awakening Together Purpose and Core Values, and promises to offer spiritual reflection in an unconditional atmosphere of openhearted acceptance and support. All ordained ministers are invited to gather once a month in this mutual mentorship.

When: Beginning on March 21, we will meet every 4th Monday, from 2-3:30 PM ET

Where: A designated Zoom room will be sent to all Ordained Ministers. Please watch your email for an invitation with more information.

Questions: You may direct any questions to Karen at [email protected]

500 Days with NTI ~ Day 431

March 8, 2022

Day 431 Assignment

This evening (or tomorrow morning):

Read NTI 1 Peter 4 (v12-17) to the end of the chapter.

Tomorrow:

Set a timer for the amount of time you want to meditate, and then meditate with this Loving Consciousness audio.
Stay with this focus today:
(a) Seek out your misperceptions about who you are by noticing your fear.
(b) When you notice fear, look to see what you are imagining. Notice that is imagination.
(c) Return your attention to the present moment. Practice mindfulness with the present moment.

Gentle Healing Year 3 ~ Daily Contemplation #351

March 8, 2022

Please read quotes 1197-1200 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:

Consciousness is ever free.

Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.

Gentle Healing Year 2 – Day 27 – NTI Matthew 27 (v38-40) – end

March 8, 2022

Yesterday we saw that the false self is not a being. It is an activity. Today’s reading looks at one activity that upholds the false self, the activity of guilt.

Here is a summary of the cycle of guilt:

A baby is born. The baby is pure unconditioned awareness. As the baby grows older, it begins to crawl. Typically, once a baby becomes mobile, it begins to reach for things or do things that the caretaker does not approve of. Although a caretaker may sometimes say “no” to the baby with a kind voice, invariably the caretaker has days when she is caught up in her own mental concerns, and her tone of voice is not kind. The baby feels the vibration of the caretaker’s voice, and begins to develop the idea, “I am bad.”

As the baby grows into a child and then into an adult, this idea, “I am bad,” is reinforced by other caretakers, by teachers and by other children. The child’s religious training may even reinforce this idea. Soon the idea is fully developed in the brain, and it replays in the mind over and over, continually reinforcing itself again and again. However, this idea is unbearable. One cannot exist with any sense of peace, happiness or well being if he fully experiences the self-hatred that is caused by the “I am bad” thought. So, the child learns to see the “I am bad” thought outside of himself. He sees other children as bad. He may see the family pet as bad. By the time he’s reached adulthood, he has learned to see guilt and sin in many others, whom he perceives as separate from him. This alleviates his own feeling of guilt and self-hatred, and he is able to bear the belief, “I am bad.”

This is a sad story, because the “I am bad” belief is learned mental activity only. The original caretaker, suffering from the belief, passed it on to the baby. Others who believed it, reinforced it. Yet, there was never any truth to it at all.

If you can’t see that guilt is merely mental activity and not fact, practice the awareness-watching-awareness exercise from yesterday’s tip again. It doesn’t matter what the body does or how strong the feeling of guilt is, the fact remains that we are pure awareness itself, and pure awareness is completely unaffected, always only itself.

We cannot let go of awareness, because it is what we are, but we can let go of mental activity, because it isn’t what we are. That means you can let go of the “I am bad” belief. The “I am bad” belief is the root of many other false ideas. Let go of that one idea, and you will feel significantly freer than you did before.

I would also like to comment on another teaching from today’s reading. The last paragraph of the reading says:

You who feel safe within the illusion of form fear death. But there is a fear that is greater than your fear of death. It is your fear of Life. It is your fear of Self. It is your fear of truth. It is this fear that you protect, hidden beneath your fear of death, by accepting death as your final reward.

How do we live out our fear of truth? We do not give all of our time and effort to truth realization. We may give some time and effort to truth realization, but we don’t give all. Even though we know this body-personality-mind is mortal, we prefer to ignore that fact, waste time and die than dedicate ourselves to truth realization.

Please read Matthew 27, verse 38 to the end from the Bible before reading its interpretation in NTI.

Thoughts of Awakening # 27

The truth is always true, and so the truth is true now.

Do not worry that it cannot be true for you, or that it cannot be true at all.

Worrying changes nothing and it only hides the truth from you.

The truth is always true, and you are a part of that truth.

Nothing can change the essence of what you are.

Trust and follow your Self without fear, and that which is beyond fear shall be known by you.

~From our Holy Spirit

Gentle Healing Year 1 Tip – Regina’s Review, Lessons 51 & 52

March 8, 2022

When I see the world through my individual point of view, I see an individual world. No one else sees a world exactly like the world I see. It is as if each of us is walking around with a box on our head. Our unique worlds are drawn on the inside of our boxes, and that is all we see. We argue that we are right about our points of view, but we are not right. We are blind. In order to see, we need to take the boxes off of our heads.

Whenever I am upset, it is because I am looking at the inside of my box. There isn’t a single exception to this statement. Some ideas may be drawn inside my box in bold colors, and I mistake them as important because of their boldness, but I am looking at a colored box. The box deceives me.

Some people may have a few ideas written on the inside of their boxes that are similar to some ideas I have written inside mine, and if we get together and compare what we see, we agree that we are right; but that does not change the fact that we are each looking at a limited colored box. Our boxes deceive us.

If we took our boxes off, cut them open and laid them flat on the ground so we could see everything written on them, and then we took all of the boxes on everyone’s heads and did the same, we would be amazed at the ideas and stories that colored the vision of each individual person. Instead of being angry at those who disagreed with us, we would have compassion. “Oh,” we would say, “That is why you felt that way. I see the writing on your box. I understand now.”

The writing inside my box started with a single idea scratched upon its surface. “I.” As I stared at the one idea inside my box, I bumped into someone, and another idea was scrawled inside my box. “Other.” I held something soft and pleasurable in my hands, and then felt the “other” take it from me. “Mine,” “victim” and “defend” appeared on the box. And in this way, the ideas multiplied until a complex web of ideas colored the inside of my box, all birthed out of the original idea, “I”.

This box has become its own little universe. It is filled with so many ideas, that it entertains me all day everyday and all night every night. With so much entertainment coming from the box, I have lost the sense of curiosity about the outside world. I have become so accustomed to the dark that I no longer crave the light.

With the box on my head, I see only what is scrawled upon the box. That is blindness. Because I have accepted the box as my universe, and because I have become comfortable in my own little world, whether I am happy, upset or suffering because of what is written on the box, I feel sheltered by it. I don’t know what is outside of my box, and I don’t really want to peek outside to see. To me, the known is better than the unknown. I have become accustomed to the familiar scribbles inside my box.

Common sense can see that this spell, my fascination with my box, needs to be broken. It isn’t healthy. It isn’t true. … It isn’t true. … That’s the problem. I fooled myself into thinking that the world inside my box is true, but it isn’t true. The box deceives me.