A universal assembly for true discernment
In this member meeting:
In this program, we watched and discussed a selected TED talk. TED talks follow a unique format. Speakers at TED events have a maximum of 18 minutes to share their messages, which are delivered in highly polished, succinct speeches. TED talks are delivered by people from all walks of life on a multitude of subjects. A great many of these talks are about the insights gained by ordinary people–insights gained through extraordinary experiences or based on their contemplation of the ordinary events of their lives. Either way, their insights are genuine—not based upon theory or dogma, but through experience.
Wendy MacNaughton, a graphic journalist, invites us to slow down and look at the world around us and shows us how drawing can spark deeply human, authentic connections. Ready to try? Grab a pencil and join MacNaughton for this delightful talk. “Drawing is looking, and looking is loving,” she says.
This group was facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert.
Please read quotes 844-847 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
The steadying of the powers that act and perceive, each in its own sphere, turning them back from sensuality; this is self-control.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
In some dramatic stories, it seems as if the seventh step of awakening is transcended all at once. For example, watch this scene from the movie, Little Buddha, and then continue reading the tip below:
In this scene, it appears as if the final temptations of the ego came all at once, in one short meditation, and were transcended by Siddhartha as he watched everything without believing it. It looks as if the seventh step was transcended in only a few hours or less.
For most of us, however, the seventh step stretches over a period of time. It can last many years. It doesn’t occur in one dramatic meditation. It occurs more slowly through everyday life. During this time, the ego can be very deceptive. Most people fall for its deception easily.
In order to transcend the temptations that occur during the seventh step, one must want awakening more than anything else. It is as we learned through NTI Revelation 6:
The first of the seven seals on the scroll of Life represents that which must always come first. The rider of the white horse “bent on conquest” represents full dedication to the true desire of the heart.
Today’s reading asks us to feel within and notice our desire for awakening. How strong is it truthfully? How much resistance still remains? What other goals do we want to accomplish more than we want awakening?
We aren’t looking at ourselves today in order to condemn ourselves. We simply want to be honest. If awakening is at all important to us, self-honesty is also important. If our desire for awakening is not strong enough to see us through the seventh step, it is good to focus on increasing our desire for awakening.
It’s just as we learned from Michael Langford in Gentle Healing Year 1:
Awakening the extremely intense desire for Liberation is the most important first step that can be taken towards being liberated here and now in this lifetime. …
Of all of the factors that determine whether you will or will not be free, the intensity or lack of intensity of your desire for liberation is the most essential factor.
Therefore, whatever you can do to most effectively increase your desire for liberation should be done.
Today, take the opportunity to look honestly at your desire for awakening, and then ask for guidance about how you can increase that desire. Be willing to follow the guidance you receive. Often, people receive absolutely perfect guidance, but then they go about their daily lives and do not follow the guidance they received.
Remember what we learned through NTI James 1:
Do not merely listen to My words without practicing what I say. To listen, but not to practice, is to be like a man who looks in the mirror, but then goes away and forgets what he saw.
Before reading today’s reading in NTI, please read the Revelation 11:1-12 in the Bible.
Peace lies within.
You have heard this statement before.
Yet, this is not a truth.
It is a pointer.
Peace is.
Peace is all that is
regardless of the seeming intrusions
or obstructions.
Peace is the only reality.
To discover this for yourself,
look within.
~From our Holy Spirit
Weekly Sunday Gathering with Rev. Beverly ToporowskiTitle: “Can the Experience Survive the Disappearance of the Experiencer?”
Description: Rev. Beverly explored the questions: What are we as both manifest and unmanifest? What is it to see that there is no separation? And who is there to see it? With real-life examples, she showed us glimpses of the truth that these inquiries have helped her to uncover and reveal the deeper Reality of Our True Nature.
Reader: Rev. Gerry Scott read Experience of Immortality, Ch. 1, pgs. 67-69 by Ramesh S. Balsekar.
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Kate shares her experience, poetry, and life with us as she goes about the business of giving up her ideas about herself and the world on her journey toward purification and awakening. Kate shares with wisdom and humor and allows us a glimpse into the beautiful and sometimes messy blossoming of life examined with an eye on Truth.
Michael DeForbes led our Sunday morning meditation. Michael is a student of Helen Hamilton. His guided meditations are based on the direct path, which is an integral part of our teachings here at Awakening Together.
Enjoy this powerful, deep meditation into ever-present peace and the now of the Noumenon which had the theme of embracing all aspects of the self.
Join us for our next Movie Watcher’s Group which will be facilitated by Rev. Kelly Barber on Sunday, December 26 at 8 pm ET/6 pm MT. Our movie for this month is Oblivion.
Oblivion is a 2013 American post-apocalyptic action-adventure film co-produced and directed by Joseph Kosinski, and produced by Peter Chernin starring Tom Cruise in the main role alongside Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in supporting roles.
Oblivion takes place in 2077, on an Earth devastated by war with extraterrestrials that has caused humanity to relocate itself to Titan. The film follows the story of Jack Harper played by Tom Cruise, a technician who has been sent back to Earth to service drones used in the fight against remaining extraterrestrials (scavengers). After witnessing a spacecraft crash, from which he rescues a survivor, Harper is captured by scavengers (who are revealed to be humans) and fights against a new and evolving alien threat. Olga Kurylenko, played by Julia Rusakova Harper, who is Jack’s wife and a crew member on the Odyssey, was sent to Earth by her husband to protect her from the Tet.
We watch the story unfold as Jack learns of the clones, that Tet/Sally is an alien artificial intelligence seeking to acquire Earth’s natural resources and wipe out humanity. We also see how his deep love for Julia plays out through Jack 49 and all the lengths he will go to in order to protect her.
You can find this movie on Amazon Prime, Vudu, and iTunes, and YouTube.
Day 337 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Listen to this 31-minute audio teaching from NTI Ephesians 3.
Tomorrow:
