A universal assembly for true discernment
All there is, is What Is. Just as it is.
Realize there is no separation.
Then there is peace that is beyond understanding.
Perfect Brilliant Stillness.
Beyond the individual self.
Stop focusing on words and concepts.
Look where the pointers point!
Be still.
Realize Perfect Brilliant Stillness.
Just as it is.
This enlightening book study, which isn’t a book study at all, is led by Regina Dawn Akers.
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.
There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world — and they all have different sounds, vocabularies, and structures. But do they shape the way we think? Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky shares examples of language — from an Aboriginal community in Australia that uses cardinal directions instead of left and right to the multiple words for blue in Russian that suggest the answer is a resounding yes. “The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is,” Boroditsky says. “Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000.”
This group was facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert.
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.
Title: “You Are Another Me”
Description: NTI Matthew says, “Blessed are those who see only Love in their brothers, for they know what they have found.” What if our greatest fear is not of death but of Life? When we break down the mental patterns of judgments and expose death as the great reward, is there really anyone else out there but Me? Rev. Meghan explored this inquiry and more during her homecoming homily.
Reading: Joe Schmitz read an excerpt from The Path to No-Self by Bernadette Roberts.
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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.
Rev. George Maddox has prepared this playsheet for contemplative movie watching:
PlaySheet for As Good As It Gets
As Good as It Gets is a 1997 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by James L. Brooks, who co-wrote it with Mark Andrus. Melvin Udall, played by Jack Nicholson is a cranky, bigoted, obsessive-compulsive writer who finds his life turned upside down when neighboring gay artist Simon is hospitalized and his dog is entrusted to Melvin. In addition, Carol, played by Helen Hunt, is the only waitress who will tolerate him must leave work to care for her sick son, making it impossible for Melvin to eat breakfast. We watch the storyline unfold as these characters interact and develop relationships that help to crumble the previous structured world of Melvin, a grumpy author with OCD. And eventually, the unraveling leads to an opening into love.
Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively, making As Good as It Gets the most recent film to win both of the lead acting awards and the first since 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. It was also nominated for Best Picture. It is ranked 140th on Empire magazine’s “The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time” list.
You can find this movie on Netflix with a subscription. It’s also available on Amazon Prime, Vudu, and iTunes.
Join us for this month’s movie group that will be facilitated by Rev. George Maddox on Sunday, November 28 at 8 pm ET/6 pm MT.
Day 323 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Read NTI Galatians 3 in full.
Tomorrow:
Please read quotes 798-801 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
Whatever name you give it: will, or steady purpose, or one-pointedness of the mind, you come back to earnestness, sincerity, honesty. When you are in dead earnest, you bend every incident, every second of your life to your purpose. You do not waste time and energy on other things. You are totally dedicated, call it will, or love, or plain honesty.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
On Day 261, I shared a story about the joy I felt when I recognized a fly on a toilet seat at a truck stop in New Mexico. I say “recognized,” because the joy didn’t come from what the eyes saw or what the mind defined those images as. Joy came from natural recognition—life-awareness recognizing life-awareness. It wasn’t one recognizing another. It was one recognition—Self-recognition.
Today’s reading refers to “the seeing that recognizes the Christ.” That seeing is the recognition I’m referring to. It doesn’t come from thinking metaphysical thoughts. It comes from a natural light in the mind that shines forth and sees only itself—only light…only life….only Self—and there is no thought in it.
I remember a conversation I had with some spiritual students around a dinner table one evening several years ago. Some felt that when we become enlightened, we suddenly know everything that can be intellectually known. They said the enlightened are Einstein-like in their knowledge, and they can tell the future, etcetera. It was a very grandiose idea of enlightenment.
Today’s reading says:
“We know only that the truth is true, but in knowing this is all Knowledge given, for there is nothing else to know.”
In other words, the knowing that caused my heart to leap with joy when I saw the fly on the toilet seat is true knowledge. That recognition is the only knowledge that has any real value at all. That’s why Ramana Maharshi used to ask people who had incredible book knowledge, “But do you know the Self?”
Today’s reading also says:
“Seek only the truth and the truth will find you.”
That means that whenever you notice attention is not with truth, shift attention to truth. By keeping attention with reality—with life-awareness—you come to recognize life-awareness in all.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
“I am here, now.”
This is fact.
Everything else changes.
Focus on this one fact.
Know thy Self,
and be happy.
~From our Holy Spirit
