A universal assembly for true discernment
Title: “Place Your Trust in the Love that Birthed You”
Description: Rev. George shared how important it is to trust God regardless of what seems to be happening in the world.
Reading: Sharon Hepburn read from The Way of Mastery, Lesson 31, pg. 358.
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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.
Calling all members! As we continue to grow the offerings for the Awakening Together community we have been called to identify guest teachers who we would invite to offer retreats at our retreat house in La Veta, Colorado. AND WE WANT YOUR INPUT!
You will be receiving an email with a SHORT survey on Sunday, November 14. The survey takes less than 1 minute to complete. Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. And it is very important for us to hear your guidance. If you have already completed the survey, thank you for your input. If you have not, it’s not too late!
Your survey responses will be strictly confidential and data from this research will be reported only in the aggregate. If you have questions at any time about the survey or the procedures, you may send an email to [email protected].
WHAT: Please look out for the email request to take a survey.
WHEN: Emails will be sent on Sunday, November 14, 2021 with the link to the survey in the email.
DEADLINE: The survey will close on November 17, 2021 @ 10 p.m. ET
If you have not had the opportunity to attend a retreat in La Veta, Colorado, here’s a link to get more information about the retreat house and the retreats held there. Awakening Together Retreat House
Day 316 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Read NTI 2 Corinthians 10 in full.
Tomorrow:
Please read and contemplate quotes #781-783 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
Man’s circle of birth and death is built by mind, and has no permanent reality.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
On Day 251, we read stories about Job and Peace Pilgrim. Job and Peace Pilgrim were not confused about what abundance is. In the story about Job, the wrong-mind (represented by Satan) was confused about what abundance is. Since the wrong-mind thought that abundance was found in manifestation, it thought Job would curse God when his manifested abundance was taken away, but Job did not curse God when manifested abundance was taken away. Job continued to praise God, because he knew true abundance.
Today’s reading says:
Teach yourself only that your abundance is now,
without any separation from you,
and you teach yourself everything that is true about you.
Another way to say that is:
Teach yourself that you are abundance now,
and you teach yourself everything that is true about you.
If you were fully enlightened, there would be no confusion about this. Abundance is what the enlightened know, see and feel. However, the mind’s concepts block one’s awareness of abundance with ideas of lack. Ideas of lack can look like this:
Some spiritual teachers say that unhappiness is caused by our belief in lack (& then go on to teach how to attract what you want). It’s true that unhappiness is caused by our belief in lack, but it isn’t caused by our belief in material or experiential lack. Unhappiness occurs because we are unaware of our true nature. One who is Self-realized does not experience lack; that one is happy regardless of his/her material or experiential situation in form.
Today’s reading says:
It is true that there also seems to be something else within you…something that does not seem to be light, but dark…
Whatever you find inside that feels different than divine abundance is an untrue concept about what you are. You know these ideas are untrue, because when you believe them they block natural happiness.
Remember this:
Whenever you are not happy
or content with what is,
you are touching a false concept.
You touch false concepts with attention. Attention feels and experiences, so when you touch a false concept with attention, you feel and experience that concept. It’s like tasting food. When your tongue touches food, you taste it. In the same way, attention tastes the concepts it touches.
Today’s reading says:
“It is okay to stand within it for a moment and feel it. But then remember that I have taught you that the judgment comes only from you. Decide in that moment to choose to see your Self truly. Then reach within your mind, and turn on the Light.”
Judgment is the decision or declaration that something is real or true.
If you are the one deciding a specific concept is true, you are the one who can choose to decide differently.
You choose to decide differently by removing attention from the concept and placing attention with your true Self—with awareness or existence.
Some people may wonder if today’s teaching is different than rest-accept-trust. It isn’t.
When today’s reading says, “turn on the Light,” it doesn’t mean that you should stop feeling whatever is being felt. It means:
Notice awareness or existence
as you feel a temporary experience.
When you choose to focus attention on awareness or existence during an emotional experience, you make a decision regarding which is true and meaningful. That decision is made by where you place attention. When you place attention with awareness or existence, you “turn on the Light,” because by placing attention there, you’ve decided that life-awareness is supreme.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
Stillness is the quiet state of mind;
Only the Heart is speaking.
The Heart is not
the mind.
The Heart is not
what the mind imagines it to be.
The Heart is That
which you know
when you are not listening
to the oh-so-familiar mind.
~From our Holy Spirit
Day 315 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Read NTI 2 Corinthians 9 (v10,11) to the end of the chapter.
Tomorrow:
Please read and contemplate quotes #777-780 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is the last quote:
When the false self ceases utterly, and the motions of the mind caused by it come to an end, then, by discerning the hidden Self, the real truth that “I AM THAT” is found.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
NTI 2 Peter is about abundance. Take a few moments to write down what abundance means to you. If you were to live a life of abundance, what would that look like?
Please complete this exercise before reading the rest of this tip.
~ ~ ~
On Day 136 and Day 202, we learned that the law of attraction is a distortion of truth. Today, we will learn that the ego’s ideas of abundance are a distortion of abundance.
Today’s reading defines abundance as “full awareness of your divine nature.” We often call that awakening or enlightenment. The reading also says, “Abundance cannot be defined in any other way.”
Look at your list of abundance. Are there material ideas of abundance on that list? Are there experiential ideas of abundance on the list?
Whenever the mind tries to define abundance, it thinks about material or experiential ideas. For example, for one personality-type, the mind’s list of abundance might look like this:
– Plenty of money so I am financially secure until my death
– A nice house to live in with beautiful furniture and art work
– A swimming pool, a well decorated meditation room, an art studio
– The time and the money to travel all over the world
– Physical health for me and my family
Today’s reading says that abundance “cannot be defined within the limits of the world.” That means the previous list, or any list of material and experiential ideas, is a distortion of abundance.
If you look at the dictionary definitions of abundance, you will see that none of the definitions use the term “unlimited.” They may say, “a large quantity of” or they may say “ample quantity” or “a relative degree of plentifulness,” but the dictionaries do not define abundance as unlimited.
Any material or experiential idea of abundance is a limited idea of abundance. Therefore, it is not full, complete or unrestricted abundance.
If you look deep within your heart, you will find that your heart is not interested in limited abundance. The mind is interested in limited abundance, because in the pursuit of or the attachment to limited abundance, you maintain identification with the mind.
The heart is only interested in true abundance, which is abundance beyond all limits and beyond all definitions. It is “full awareness of your divine nature.” It is abundance that transcends the world entirely.
The reading says:
“For this reason, quiet the mind whenever it seems to stretch to imagine abundance within the world. When the mind is stretching in this way it is stretching to limit itself even more.”
Those who believe that material or experiential abundance will fulfill them are identified with the temporary body-personality-mind as who they are. That is the limit that mind’s ideas of abundance put on you. The mind’s ideas of abundance limit you to a temporary manifestation.
Do you want to be limited in that way, or do you prefer to know true abundance as what you are?
The reading also says:
“It is through witness that you know. That which you taste as witness cannot be forgotten…”
In other words, spend time noticing life-awareness. It is through the direct knowing of your Self that you know your Self. You cannot know your Self through the mind’s concepts, no matter how lofty those concepts might be.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
Let go of all learned “knowledge” now,
and be guided in trust
by the All.
This is how you become the true Servant.
Without realizing it,
without thinking or “knowing” anything,
you are guided by the Spirit in everyone,
and all needs are provided for
through you.
~From our Holy Spirit
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.
