A universal assembly for true discernment
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
This evening (or tomorrow morning):
Start listening to this audio teaching of NTI 2 Timothy at 18:45 minutes and listen to the end of the audio. It will take 23 minutes to listen to that portion of the audio.
Tomorrow:
Please read quotes 1009-1012 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
When this illusory division is not seen for what it is, there is the arising of the false egotism. But when the mind inquires into its own nature, this division disappears. There is realization of the one infinite consciousness, and the one attains great bliss.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Today’s reading is a little different from the other readings in The Teachings of Inner Ramana, because it isn’t a message from Inner Ramana. Today’s reading is in my voice as I explain an understanding that I received from Inner Ramana. I couldn’t find a message to go with that understanding, so years later when creating the manuscript for publishing, I assumed there wasn’t a message. After the publisher had the manuscript in his possession and just prior to printing thousands of copies, I found the message. I rushed it to the publisher, and it was added to the end of the book as “The Missing Ramana Message.”
Today, you will read my understanding of the missing message. On Day 326, you will read the missing message. That will give you twice the opportunity to contemplate this last message from Inner Ramana.
The message is about three states of mind:
Resistor– The state of mind when we fully believe the body-mind-personality is what we are.
Doubter– The state of mind when we learn about truth and question everything we believed as resistor.
Abiding– The state of mind when we embrace truth as our reality and live from that instead of from thought.
Everyone in Gentle Healing 2 should be somewhere in the doubter phase or possibly in abiding. When the doubter phase is complete, it is natural to progress to abiding. Although the doubter phase is a natural and very important part of the spiritual path, at some point each one must let go of doubter and consciously step into abiding. The mind will always argue that you aren’t ready for that step, but at some point you are ready, and if you do not take that step when you are ready, you will stunt your spiritual maturation.
How do you know when you are ready for abiding?
When you are able to ignore mental chatter and live (think, speak & act) from intuition, you are ready for abiding. You do not need to “wake up” in order to embrace abiding. Conscious abiding could be your path of awakening. It is the path of surrender, which is also the path of living as if you are Self-realized. (Reference Day 297.)
There is nothing to say
when one is awakened to truth.
There is no where to go
and nothing to do.
Yet one who is awakened
may be moved by you
to say and go and do.
Your desire to awaken
will move the awakened soul,
so what you see in him
is you, truly.
~From our Holy Spirit
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).
Add This Program to Your Calendar
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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.
Add to Your Calendar
*To add a recurring program to your own calendar click the three dots in the upper right-hand corner, and then click “copy” and “save”.
This evening (or tomorrow morning):
Listen to the first 18:45 minutes of this audio teaching of NTI 2 Timothy. You will listen to the rest of the audio tomorrow.
Tomorrow:
In NTI Romans 2, we learned that a curiosity arose:
What if nothing was as it is?
What if I could make something completely different?
When this original idea was infused with believing-attention, two options arose. The first option was a reminder of truth—the reminder that reality is reality, and it cannot change. The second option was the belief that something different had been made.
“What if nothing was as it is?” is the first sense of ‘I.’ It was the sense of an ‘I’ that can cause an effect. Out of that idea, two thoughts arose. One was a correction to the original thought; it pointed directly to truth. The other option was more thought, which led into a dream.
Today’s reading opens by saying:
“The truth is that all thought rises out of the sense of “I” or because of the sense of “I,” as a correction to this thought.”
Without the original error of an ‘I’ presence that can cause an effect, thought would not be. That includes right-minded thought, because right-minded thought is a correction to error-thought.
If we consider that our sense of self, our sense of others, our values, our ethics and our world are all thought, we may realize that we do not know who we are or what anything is without thought. Thought is our form of understanding; it is our form of knowing. And yet, if thought blocks reality, our form of knowing is entirely wrong. It is ignorance masquerading as knowing.
Thought is story. It is an ongoing storyline that creates fantasy. When the story comes into our mind as thought, and we believe it, we believe a story, a falsehood. Some things may be true in the storyline, but “true” in a made-up fantasy is not truth. When we search the story for what’s true in the story, we are simply engaging untruth more.
The story is in motion, and the storyline does come into your mind as thought. However, you are not the story character. You are life-awareness. You can abide as life-awareness and see the entire story as nothing but story. You have the ability to be the detached observer, regardless of what occurs in the story.
Detached observation leads to freedom from the story.
As pointed out on Day 314, the body-mind will continue to play its part in the story even when you pull attention out of the story and abide fully in the Heart. Nothing that is to be done by the body-mind will go undone. As Ramana Maharshi said, “A yogi who is in this state is inactive even while engaged in activity.” The script continues, and the body acts according to its vibrational level in the script, but you live beyond the script and have no part in it.
For one who is not completely detached from the script, the best way to “be in the world but not of the world” is to abide in a constant state of devotion. Devotion is living from within, instead of from thought. When you live from within, you return attention within. Through devotion, attention learns to stay at home in the Heart. It learns to abide there, until a natural transition occurs and it no longer goes out. It stays in.
Devotion is retraining attention to stay in.
With that said, please listen to this song very carefully now: On You Tube ‘Ramana’s Song’ by Kirtana
Surrender to the inner light
takes away all attachment to ideas,
for ideas are outer
and surrender is devotion to inner.
Surrender to the inner light
takes away all pain and suffering,
for pain and suffering are outer.
Pain and suffering is focus on outer ideas,
ideas of form and ideas of body.
Surrender is devotion to the inner light.
When one is consumed by the inner,
the outer disappears.
Ideas are distraction from the inner light.
When one is distracted,
return yourself to devotion.
This is true practice.
~From our Holy Spirit
Liz Cronkhite was interviewed by Regina Dawn Akers. Through Regina’s line of questioning, Liz jumps right into the deep end reminding us to know the Truth of what we are. Liz speaks about her journey, but reminds us that this path is highly individualized, intensely impersonal and absolutely perfect. She reminds us that our practice keeps the busy mind occupied and allows Grace to do what Grace is doing.
Liz is a spiritual teacher, life coach, and writer, most notably of The Plain Language A Course in Miracles and 4 Habits for Inner Peace. Liz enjoys working one-on-one with students of A Course in Miracles and other nondualistic paths to help them access their inner peace. She emphasizes a direct relationship with Spirit as the way to do this.
In 2018, Liz experienced a moment she calls The Break when existence as she knew it fell away, taking with it the life she had been living. Since that moment, she considers herself to be in an awakened dream. The spirit-centered life she led before, as well as this dramatic shift, are detailed in A Memoir of Christ: A Student of A Course in Miracles Awakens.
You can learn more about Liz and what she offers at acimmentor.com
Participants came together to discuss the Liz Cronkhite Satsang. The purpose of this Sangha is to share what was most impactful, hear from others about what they took away, and deepen into the teaching from the previous day’s Satsang interview. Come to share or just listen to others. All are welcome!
