A universal assembly for true discernment
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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Join us on Sunday, February 6, 2022, from 8-9 pm ET/6-7 pm MT for the next installment of the musical Awakening Together program.
This Sunday’s lineup for Sounds of Awakening starts with Rev. Yolanda Mapes singer/songwriter/performance artist & interfaith minister, originally from Muscle Shoals, Alabama- The Hit Recording Capital of the World. Yolanda has been making music professionally for over 35 years, winning the NYC MAC Award twice and inducted into both the NY Blues Hall of Fame and The GLBT Hall of Fame. Rev. Yolanda and husband Rev. Glen Ganaway are the founders of the “spiritual happening” called Church With A 2 Drink Minimum.
Rev. Yolanda’s first guest will be The Kennedy Family Band are concert producers, as well as a collective of musicians dedicated to bringing positive, laid-back vibrations to the world through music. Cam Kennedy is a world-traveling Australian Psychotherapist, Public Speaker, Documentarian, Author, and Musician based out of Madison Wisconsin. Ellie Kennedy, is also a world-traveler, musical theater actress, concert pianist, choir director, and musician. She has a huge heart and a beautiful tone. Many have fallen in love with her voice and powerful presence.
And the second guest for this music-filled evening will be Rosemary Loar. Rosemary began her singing career in the back seat of a station wagon with her other six brothers and sisters. Her father would take the family on Sunday drives and the concert would begin. Since then Rosemary has become an actor on Broadway and national tours. She was in the original casts of Sunset Boulevard, (starring
This evening (or tomorrow morning):
Read NTI Hebrews 2 in full.
Tomorrow:
Please read quote 1060 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is a portion of that quote:
Freed from dependency, from habits of thought, from desires and cravings, from deluded belief in the existence of the ego, from the coloring of pleasure-seeking tendency, and from revelry — my mind has reached a state of utter quiescence.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
NTI teaches 7 steps to awakening. Those steps are not linear. They are more circular, like a spiral of awakening. The 7 steps are:
Step 1– An intense desire for awakening.
Step 2– Seeing through the ‘mask’ of ferociousness (attack, grievance, harshness) to the false beliefs that support and sustain it.
Step 3– Tiring of judgment.
Step 4– Letting go of the belief that life is temporary, which is also letting go of the belief that the body-mind-personality is your reality.
Step 5– Learning to trust all that is as it is.
Step 6– Letting go of perception, which is letting go of thought as me.
Step 7– Giving no meaning to anything the ego says or any experience you have as the ego dies its final death.
As we move into Gentle Healing Year 3, we will continue to progress through these 7 steps. As you commit more deeply to your inner teacher, the spiral of awakening will most likely increase in intensity. It may feel quite dramatic at times; that is the nature of a spiral before it explodes into nothing.
As I have mentioned, we will use the book, The Seven Steps to Awakening, in Year 3. The seven steps from that book are not the same as the 7 steps listed above. The book, The Seven Steps to Awakening, is a collection of 1574 quotes collected by Michael Langford. Here is what Michael shared about that collection of quotes:
Most people tend to think that when an Awakened Sage is talking to a student that everything the Sage says is a part of his or her teaching and therefore helpful for awakening. This is not true as the following saying of Sri Ramana Maharshi illustrates:
“The sage’s pure mind which beholds as a mere witness the whole world is like a mirror which reflects the foolish thoughts of those who come before him. And these thoughts are then mistaken to be his.”
… If you understand the full significance of that Ramana Maharshi quote it can completely change your approach to studying spiritual teachings. It changes everything. …
The Seven Steps to Awakening does not include quotes that were a reflection of the foolish thoughts of the questioner.The Seven Steps does not include quotes that are distractions and detours. Look at the power of that! The Seven Steps to Awakening is a new spiritual path.
The quotes in the book The Seven Steps to Awakening were typed exactly as they were in the eight books the quotes were gathered from. Not one word was changed. Not one word was added. Therefore you might wonder how can The Seven Steps to Awakening be called a new spiritual path. …
One of the most significant aspects of the book The Seven Steps to Awakening is that the quotes have been gathered together on seven essential teachings (the steps) one subject at a time. The impostor self does not like to focus on one subject. It likes to go from one subject to the next. That is one way the impostor self preserves its imaginary self.
By having quotes by Seven Sages on One subject before going unto the next subject the mind has a chance to really absorb that teaching, that lesson, that step, that subject. By having seven sages teach on a subject you can see it was not just one sage’s teaching. Seven different styles of communication on a single subject has a much better chance of penetrating the human mind’s thousands of layers of self-deception. …
This is how The Seven Steps to Awakening book was created: I read the eight source books one at a time. I was looking for quotes that met this criteria:
After circling the quotes I wondered what category would this quote fall under? Then I wrote the category (step) in the margin of the book so I would know where to place it later. I did not start with seven categories and then look for quotes to fit them. I did not start with any category. I just circled quotes that met the criteria listed above and then wondered what category those quotes would fall under and then wrote the category in the margin. That is how the seven categories arose. I called them steps because steps are something you put into practice. Those seven steps are seven essential truths. I arranged those steps in the order that would be most helpful. For example Step One are quotes to show how to use the quotes as practice instructions and how not to take the quotes intellectually or theoretically. The reason that step is first is because if one does take the quotes in a way that just makes them into a thought journey, then all the other steps would not be effective. …
If some of you who have read the book The Seven Steps to Awakening have noticed a power or a unity or a transmission or a revelation that is different from any other book you have read before, this very large post may help you to understand why. The Seven Steps to Awakening has the undiluted concentrated focus of the essential essence of Seven Sages Teaching.… Seven Sages who succeeded in bringing the impostor self and all illusion and suffering to its final end.
Note on the statement that not one word was changed: in quote 1405 there was a typo in the first edition. The word “too” should have been typed as the word “to.” That has been corrected in the second edition.
Michael’s explanation of how The Seven Steps to Awakening came about may help you see that those seven steps are not steps in the same way the 7 steps from NTI are steps. Instead, they are seven categories of teaching by seven sages. When the seven categories of teaching from The Seven Steps to Awakening are contemplated and put into practice, they support you as you pass through the 7 steps listed in NTI. You will mature in your practice through The Seven Steps to Awakening.
Michael’s explanation of how The Seven Steps to Awakening came about may also help you see why that book is as powerful as the books we have already used in Gentle Healing. It is a collection of key quotes from seven sages who have brought the ego and its illusion to its final end.
There are two versions of The Seven Steps to Awakening. You may use either version in Year 3, because both versions are the same except for the font size and the correction of one typo, which Michael explained above. If you haven’t ordered The Seven Steps to Awakening yet, I recommend ordering it now.
Starting tomorrow, we will prepare ourselves to begin Year 3 by reading The Teachings of Inner Ramana again. This time, we will contemplate the messages each day with the inner teacher.
Holy Spirit,
let me hold
no separate identity
apart from you.
Let me see all ideas,
all thoughts,
that tell me I exist
as a being apart,
and let me surrender those thoughts
into the dust of nothingness
from which they came.
As I surrender my thoughts,
I surrender my heart too.
But I surrender my heart,
not to nothingingness,
but to everything
and only-thing,
which is to surrender to You.
Make of me a slave,
moved only by You
through my desire
to have no semblance
of my own identity,
an identity I would call mine.
Make my identity
ours,
one and the same.
Amen.
~A prayer of awakening
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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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.
Please note: it may be necessary to download the audio to listen to it fully.
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In this program, Reverends Jacquelyn Eckert and Glen Ganaway review and discuss A Course In Miracles from a non-dual, interfaith perspective. The two of them discuss the main themes and key principles of the Course and how they are lived in our shared lives.
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If you would like to read the transcript of the Awakening Together Satsang with Akilesh Ayyar: Click Here
If you would like to learn more about Akilesh, you can visit his website: siftingtothetruth.com
Also, we would like to invite you to donate to the Mini-Series Sifting to the Truth with Akilesh Ayyar here at this link: Click Here
In the future, each Satsang will have the transcript included on the Satsang’s post page for each guest speaker that we have once the Satsang Team has finalized the transcript. If you missed the original broadcast of the Satsang with Akilesh, we invite you to watch it here: Watch Video
Revs. Glen Ganaway and Yolanda Mapes, who are interfaith ministers, share a delightful, funny, and inspiring hour of A Course in Miracles. Come join in on the fun, the laughs, and the music while unlearning the ego through the lessons and chapters of ACIM. You can find out more about the Mighty Companions on their website: themightycompanions.com
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