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: www.themightycompanions.com
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.
Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.
The book touches on themes such as regret, grief and acceptance and is full of inspiring quotes.
 
The Midnight Library Book Club Questions
Here is a list of some to jog the memory.
Day 248 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Read NTI Acts 19 (v23-41) to the end of the chapter.
Tomorrow:
Please read and contemplate quotes #605-606 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is a portion of the last quote:
Feelings, thoughts and actions race before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain and creating an illusion of continuity.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Today’s reading is a guided meditation. It is another attempt at Self-inquiry, this time coming at Self-inquiry from a different angle than NTI 2 Corinthians 12.
Today’s Self-inquiry focuses on feelings. As you read and practice today’s Self-inquiry, you will be led through five steps:
When you go through this meditation, you may notice a lot of different feelings at Step 2. Don’t rush through Step 2. When a feeling arises to be seen, notice it, acknowledge it, and then ask, “Is there something else here to be seen?” Stay with Step 2 until you feel you have fully experienced the feelings at this level.
The feeling of ‘me’ is a very interesting feeling. I have come to recognize it easily as an object—not as ‘me’ at all—but in the beginning that wasn’t the case. It was a feeling I lived with everyday and took for ‘me’ without ever looking at it directly. The first time I ever noticed it was during this meditation, and there was a strong pull to stop there. There was a strong idea that nothing was beyond it. That’s why the reading says:
You may seem to come to a very personal feeling. It may seem strong, like a wall. This feeling tells you that you are what you are not, so do not pause to listen to it.
I was guided not to listen to the idea that there was nothing beyond the feeling of ‘me.’ I was guided to continue and discover what was beyond that “wall.”
This meditation taught me that the wall—the personal feeling of ‘me’—and all of the feelings I found before the wall were not me. The lighter, non-attached Self that I found beyond ‘me’ is what I am. You could say this meditation was my first successful Self-inquiry.
When you go through the reading today, read slowly. Pause and practice the steps as you go through them. Look at the feelings before the wall, notice the wall itself, and then go beyond it.
What is beyond that feeling of ‘me’?
If you can know that which is beyond the feeling of ‘me,’ can you be that ‘me’?
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
The individual self
is an illusion,
because the idea of individual self
says that there is a “me”
who stands apart from “you.”
It does not see
that the experience itself
comes from one creation.
Creation and creator are one,
because the process of creation
is creator,
and creation cannot be apart from
the process.
This need not be understood,
but it must be accepted,
if one is to see why or how
to love
his brother as his Self.
~From our Holy Spirit
Day 247 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Watch the following 31-minute video.
Tomorrow:
Please read and contemplate quotes #603-604 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. Here is a portion of the last quote:
You are the infinite focused in a body. Now you see the body only. Try earnestly and you will come to see the infinite only.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Today, we are taught to investigate so we can discover if we are praying for truth or illusion through our daily living.
If you are reading NTI, then you have been called to awaken. Your purpose now is truth. If truth wasn’t your purpose, NTI could not hold your interest. However, your prior purpose was illusion. That isn’t a judgment. Consciousness as a whole chose illusion when it created the creative principle and made manifestation. But now, there is a return motion—returning to truth realization—and you have been called into that motion. Truth realization is the purpose you have been called to accept, and you have accepted it, which is why you read NTI.
Since illusion was your prior purpose, you are in the habit of praying for illusion. That is the same as saying that you are attached to the world. It is also the same as saying you are in the habit of believing the world, your thoughts and your emotions.
It’s time now to begin living from a new motive. So, starting today, you will observe yourself to find where you are in the habit of living from the wish for illusion, and you will shift your way of being so that you live from the desire for truth. Living from the desire for truth is being in the world but not of it.
Since action is the expression of thought, NTI asks us to watch the body to learn which motive we live from, truth or illusion. We can tell which motive we live from if we watch the body without judgment, because the body’s action is the physical representation of a motive.
For example:
If you find yourself getting upset, believing your upset and acting out from your upset, you live from the wish for illusion.
If you find yourself getting upset, taking a break from the situation, practicing rest-accept-trust and possibly journaling to learn more about your upset, you live from the desire for truth.
Here’s another example:
If you are worried that the stock market will crash, you lose lots of sleep worrying about it, you call the stockbroker and move all of your investments to cash accounts, and then you find yourself laying awake all night worrying that you made a mistake, you live from the wish for illusion.
If you notice a thought that the stock market will crash, ask within if you are to do anything, do or not do based on what you feel intuitively, and then forget about it, you live from the desire for truth.
I could write examples all day, because there are many. However, you don’t need me to describe every possible scenario. As today’s reading says:
When you observe the body with the purpose of learning, you do not observe alone. The One who knows you and teaches you observes with you so you may learn. Call on this One and ask Him your questions. He will lead you to find answers, for His purpose is the same as yours.
What do you do if you observe the body and find that you are living from the wish for illusion? Make a correction. Bring more spiritual practice into your daily living. You know the purpose you’ve accepted. There isn’t really a question about that anymore, so now do your best to live from that motive instead of from old habits.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
Forgiveness is letting go
of ideas that are not true.
It’s the opposite of clinging to them.
It’s being willing to see
that there is another way to see.
It is being willing to be wrong
about the idea
that is causing pain.
~From our Holy Spirit
