A universal assembly for true discernment
Day 355 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Read NTI Colossians 2 (v13-15) to the end of the chapter.
Tomorrow:
Please read quotes 909-912 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
Laying hold of that Self, which is the cause of love, you should realize your true nature in the bliss of the Real.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
In order to have clarity regarding today’s reading, it is helpful to remember that there are two states of mind and beyond mind.
The first state of mind is deluded. When one is deluded, she believes she is a person in a world. She values mental chatter as her real thoughts.
The second state of mind is true perception. One who perceives with true perception is disengaged from mental chatter. He follows spontaneous intuition. He has the experience of being human in a world, but he is aware that everything is consciousness. In today’s reading, one who experiences this state of mind is referred to as Self-realized.
Beyond mind is beyond perception entirely. As we learned on Day 292, there is no sense of self in awake reality. The body that is perceived by others as the awakened one is moved by consciousness—by “the code”—but there is no sense of ‘I am.’ There is no interpretation, no mind and no world beyond mind. Only the absolute exists.
In order to move from deluded to Self-realized, it is helpful to live as if you are Self-realized before you are Self-realized. By living as if you are Self-realized, you awaken into the Self-realized state.
How do you live as if you are Self-realized?
Today is a good day to begin living as if you are Self-realized. That doesn’t mean you should pretend you are Self-realized. That doesn’t mean you should be dishonest with yourself about your state of mind. It simply means this: Live your life by following the three recommendations above.
Judgments are a symbol of attachment.
When the mind is judging
it has a vested interest
in specific outcome in form.
Allowance, acceptance, release
is the opposite of judgment.
It asks for nothing
except peace,
which is the natural flow of God.
~From our Holy Spirit
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.
In this program, Ian teaches about the traditional Mind, Body, and Spirit practice of Qigong (Chi Kung). Qi meaning life energy, referring to the energy circulating through the body, and Gong meaning cultivation or work. The two words are combined to describe a practice to cultivate and balance life energy. By following movements (forms) and a simple breathing technique, we encourage more Qi to flow which in turn allows us to feel more peaceful and at One with ourselves.
Participants came together to discuss the Stephen Mitchell 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!
*You can also find this recording on the Satsang page. Here’s a direct link: Click Here
Join Yvonne Unger and Anne Blanchard weekly on Fridays from 3-4 pm ET beginning Friday, January 7, 2022, for a new program where we will contemplate the teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj together.
While the impetus for this program was born from the power and the clarity of the practice of the Minster Preparation Program curriculum, “The Teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj,” in which his pointings were contemplated, the desire is to share in this practice with all at Awakening Together regardless of any prior familiarity with the teachings of this Indian Master. So whether you have taken the MPP class or are brand new to these teachings, you are warmly invited to join in and see how Nisargadatta speaks to you.
The only thing that’s needed is an open heart, a little curiosity, and the aim to bathe and soak in the Truth coming through the teaching; to abide in the place Nisargadatta points to. On a practical level, this means we will read and contemplate the book I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (by Maurice Frydman)”, which is available as a free PDF here: Click Here
You are also invited to choose and contemplate your own weekly reading assignment from the book. There will be space for sharing your contemplation during our time together.
“Between the banks of pain and pleasure the river of life flows. It is only when the mind refuses to flow with life and gets stuck at the banks, that it becomes a problem.” – Nisargadatta Maharaj
Come and step into the river of life with the teachings of I Am That as your guide. Come see for yourself where your river of life is flowing and where mind refuses to flow with life and gets stuck on the bank.
Day 354 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Read NTI Colossians 2 (v1-5) thru (v9-12).
Tomorrow:
Please read quotes 905-908 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
The eye of truth which abides as unalloyed consciousness, pure grace possessing power and beauty, is indeed the absolute, the infinite eye.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
On Day 286, we learned that awareness programs the brain through a process called “learning.”
Some of what is learned and programmed into the brain is helpful to the experience of being human, like ‘drinking water is good for the body’, and ‘drinking floor cleaner harms the body.’ However, a lot of what is learned is untrue, like ‘I am a person in a world,’ and ‘I am bad.’
Today’s reading begins by saying:
“We are going to learn not to listen to the mind. We are going to learn not to listen to the mind, first, by listening to another Voice, which speaks through the mind, but does not speak from mind, for mind or with mind.”
In this context, ‘mind’ is mental conditioning (programming).
Humans have come to rely on mental conditioning as if it is their survival mechanism. Unfortunately, the basis of mental conditioning is wrong—the idea ‘I am a person in a world’. Since the basis of mental conditioning is wrong, mental conditioning as an interpretive mechanism is entirely unreliable. That’s why thought, perception and emotions are unreliable.
If mental conditioning knew ‘I am consciousness having a temporary human experience,’ it would interpret differently. That interpretation would be right interpretation, and it would lead to true perception. However, mind is unable to know ‘I am consciousness having a temporary human experience.’ Mind can have that thought. That thought can be learned and programmed into the brain, but that thought is not knowledge, because being is knowing, and mind cannot be. Only life-awareness can be.
The genuine experience of true perception comes from you (life-awareness) beyond conditioning.
You cannot be a slave to conditioning and know yourself as beyond conditioning too. You need to free yourself from conditioning in order to know true perception.
Today’s reading says:
“We are going to learn not to listen to the mind, first, by listening to another Voice, which speaks through the mind, but does not speak from mind, for mind or with mind. This Voice can see mind and it sees all that mind sees when it looks through mind, but it is outside of mind, so it is not confused by reality.”
Spiritual intuition comes from knowledge, which is beyond mind, and yet it sees and understands the conditioning of mind. It knows the faces that you perceive as your family members. It knows their names. It can utilize the programming that steps on the brake when you see a stop sign, and etcetera. Yet, it is fully aware that you are not a person in a world. It is the knowledge of consciousness, and it sees with true perception.
Intuition is the Voice of wisdom. It comes from knowledge, and it utilizes the brain, so it is fully trustworthy. However, until you are free from believing mental chatter, intuition will seem like something other than you. You can see it as your Higher Self, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Ramana, or any other helpful symbol, but as long as you are even a partial slave to conditioning, it is better to see intuition as your guide than to see it as yourself.
Why?
Mental chatter is very tricky. Mental chatter will take the idea, “Intuition is you beyond conditioning,” and distort it into “I am the will that is beyond mind.” Once you adopt that idea, you will not use surrender to discern between mental chatter and knowledge that comes from beyond mental chatter. Once you believe, “I am the will that is beyond mind,” mental chatter is in control again, because it is viewed as the right-mind (at least somewhat, which is enough to keep mental chatter in control as ‘me’. Reference Day 286.)
Intuition comes from you beyond mind, but the mind and its ideas, its perception and its will are not intuition. That’s why you need to surrender.
Begin practicing surrender as it is taught in today’s reading. Also, continue to practice the mantra. These two practices used throughout the day help to break the addiction to mental chatter.
Acceptance is non-attachment.
Non-attachment is attachment
to only one goal.
Acceptance is allowance
of all that is in form.
Non-attachment is commitment
to seeing all that is
instead of form.
~From our Holy Spirit
