A universal assembly for true discernment
Please read and contemplate quotes #525-528 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. This is the last quote today:
When ego ends, then one becomes a devotee true;
when ego ends, one becomes a knower too;
when ego ends, one becomes Being supreme.
When ego ends, grace fills all space.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Yesterday’s reading said:
“Choose … to be independent of your experience.”
Independent means free and unaffected.
Awakeness is free from the world and unaffected by it. That is why Jesus, as awakeness, said:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
In NTI Romans, we learned about the curiosity that created the creative principle, and via the creative principle, create the world and the ego. That curiosity is:
What if nothing was as it is?
The ego and the world, which are created through and for this curiosity, are necessarily not truth. They are appearances created through the creative principle, and their appearance appears as anything but truth. That’s why they are called “illusion.”
To look at something that is created specifically for the purpose of appearing different from truth and to hope to find evidence of truth in it is foolishness. Yet, that is a mistake that spiritual seekers make all of the time.
For example, one democratic-minded spiritual seeker was thrilled when Barrack Obama was elected president of the United States in 2008. She saw his election as evidence that the world was awakening. Of course, since then Donald Trump was elected president and has undone many of the policies Barrack Obama put in place. Does that mean the world has fallen asleep again?
What about when a war ends, such as World War II? Is that a victory for awakening? What about the wars and crimes against humanity that have occurred since then?
What about when a personal problem is resolved? Don’t new problems arise to replace it?
The world is an appearance that is made to appear different from truth. One of those differences is change. If you watch the world carefully, you will notice that change is the world’s greatest constant. (Admittedly, it is change within a limited buffet of reoccurring problems.) Sometimes the world changes so that specific situations are temporarily “good” by the mind’s standards, but “good” will always eventually be replaced by “bad.”
Look carefully at the world, regardless of whether your mind judges it as “good” or “bad,” and realize that it’s not truth. It’s not truth, and truth can’t be found in the world.
Let the world be as it is. Don’t seek truth by seeking permanent good in the world. You will eventually be disappointed.
Seek truth by looking within. Find that which is absolutely changeless. See that is what you are, and abide as that. You are the only truth that can be found in the world—and actually, the world is an appearance in you.
Know your Self, and be your Self. Truth is known by being it.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
Fear says, “I am not love.
I am something bad.”
And so fear
runs and hides
and attacks and defends
and runs and hides some more.
But fear is only an idea in the mind.
It is a story.
It is not truth at all.
To see and realize truth
as it is right now
one must not listen
to the stories of fear.
To not listen
is not to believe.
To not listen
is to remember
that what fear says
isn’t true.
~From our Holy Spirit
This bi-monthly program is Awakening Together’s In the Company of Truth with Helen Hamilton that airs on the second and fourth Wednesday monthly from 3-4 pm ET. Helen’s core message is that the Realization of the True Self is possible for everyone, no matter what background you may have as long as you want it more than anything else. After all, we are only returning to our natural state, to what we already are. We are only coming to live as that Truth consciously.
Having reached a place of total peace, love, and joy, Helen has dedicated her life to helping others wake up too. The Truth is here and now and accessible to all. Helen will offer her teachings in this bi-weekly Satsang to help you Realize and BE the Self you already are.
For more information about Helen and to access her teachings, visit her website: www.HelenHamilton.org.
or
Rev. Helen Avery is an Awakening Together Ordained Minister. She shares weekly in our Sanctuary with a half-hour of heart-felt deep-diving into truth, love, and awareness. This candid sharing is a time when Helen explores different modalities and teachings with various non-dual teachers and how the real-life application of those particular teachings is currently showing up in her life. She shares about experiences from her path of awakening including the demonstration of how to utilize these helpful processes and spiritual tools. In her most recent Awakening journey, she discusses radical truth and wisdom from teachers such as Mooji and Helen Hamilton.
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.
Click the link below to read the minutes from this meeting.
(To learn more about the Member Board of Trustees, click here.)
Over the centuries, scores of people have flocked to ashrams and monasteries, making them their home, in order to pursue spiritual awakening. However, the average westerner today typically doesn’t have that option. We have families, jobs, and other commitments, which keep us living as “householders” in a modern world.
At this retreat, you will learn skills that will help you to awaken right where you are—at home!
Sharpen meditation, contemplation, inquiry, inner listening and mind-watching skills in this ‘less talk, more practice’ retreat led by Regina Dawn Akers & Jacquelyn Eckert.
The retreat will begin at 10am ET (8am MT) and end at 5pm ET (3pm MT) each day. A 2-hour lunch period will be provided beginning about 1pm ET (11am MT).
Registration is Closed
Last day to register: September 16
Day 221 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Read NTI Acts 4 (v23-31) to the end of the chapter.
Tomorrow:
Please read and contemplate the introduction to Step Three in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. The introduction says:
See how the imposter self perpetuates its imaginary self and all illusion and suffering.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Yesterday’s reading pointed out that our experience comes from the thoughts we listen to in the mind instead of from the outer appearance. It recommended that we listen to a “true interpretation” instead of a false one. Allowing attention to shift from one interpretation to another is called “changing your mind.”
Today’s reading points out that it isn’t just the act of changing our mind that affects our experience. Our motive, or the reason that we change our mind, is also important.
Today’s reading begins:
“Do not change your mind out of fear, but out of love, for Love is the only power that is real.”
When you change your mind out of fear, you attempt to change your experience, because you believe your experience is lord.
There are three definitions of fear below this paragraph. Please read the first definition of fear, and then read the sentences above from today’s reading with that definition in mind. Next, read the second definition of fear, and then read the sentences above with that definition in mind. Do the same with the third definition. As you do this exercise, let clarity arise regarding how you change your mind out of fear. If it feels helpful, take time to journal about it. You can ask spiritual intuition, “How do I change my mind out of fear?” After you’ve practiced this exercise, continue reading the tip.
Definitions of fear:
~ ~ ~
Love is emptiness. Emptiness does not have an ulterior motive. While in the process of purification, we can say that love has no motive except for your spiritual aspiration.
When we change our mind out of love, we aren’t trying to change any external or internal experience. We change our mind simply because we want truth. There is no attempt to manipulate experience.
When we change our mind in order to manipulate experience, our motive is fear. If our motive is fear, fear is fed into the creative principle, and fear will continue to be experienced.
Do you remember this loop of experience?
What I think, I see (perceive).
What I see, I experience.
What I experience, I think.
(And the loop continues.)
Ulterior motives are “What I think, …” Ulterior motives feed into the creative principle and the loop of experience.
That means that in addition to watching the overt thoughts in the mind, we need to be alert to covert motives. You can discover hidden motives through root cause inquiry. You can do root cause inquiry through journaling, or you can do root cause inquiry through looking. You can simply look and ask yourself questions like, “What is my motive?” or “Am I trying to avoid anything?”
Today’s reading says:
“Choose instead to be independent of your experience.”
Independent means “free from outside control.” We typically call that “unaffected.”
One who is independent of outer circumstances has no need to change those circumstances. She can let outer circumstances be as they are.
Likewise, one who is independent of emotional experiences has no need to change or get rid of emotions. He can let them be as they are.
It’s also true that one who is independent is not engrossed in mind’s stories. One who is independent desires only truth, and if that one finds himself listening to stories, he will change his mind simply because he seeks truth. That is changing one’s mind “out of love.”
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
Pause for a moment today
and ask
“What is experience?”
“Where does experience come from?”
Look carefully
until you know you have found
the answer,
for the end of all suffering
is in sight.
~From our Holy Spirit
