A universal assembly for true discernment
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.
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.
The title for this Ted Talk is: “How to have constructive conversations”. The speaker was Julia Dhar.
“We need to figure out how we go into conversations not looking for the victory, but the progress,” says world debate champion Julia Dhar. In this practical talk, she shares three essential features of productive disagreements grounded in curiosity and purpose. The end result? Constructive conversations that sharpen your argument and strengthen your relationships.
This group was facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert.
Weekly Sunday Gathering with Rev. Beverly ToporowskiTitle: “Traveling Lighter”
Description: Rev. Beverly discussed the topic of discarding what you are not and resting in your inherent ever-present nature as the Self.
Reading: Rev. Beverly read Paul Hedderman’s “The Escape to Nowhere”.
Here’s a link to the YouTube video that was shared during the homily: Click Here
or
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.
Day 162 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Read NTI Luke 16 (v19-31) to the end of the chapter.
Tomorrow:
(You may always select another meditation video from this playlist.)
Please read and contemplate quotes #289-292 in The Seven Steps to Awakening with your inner teacher. This is the last quote today:
Truth is permanent. The real is changeless. What changes is not real, what is real does not change.
Note: The next Daily Contemplation will be available tomorrow morning after 2am ET at this link.
Today’s reading says:
Each of your brothers is one with you. And so each of your brothers has one purpose, and that is the purpose given him within the mind.
In this sentence, “mind” is synonymous with consciousness. This sentence is another way of saying that light is spreading within one mind (consciousness). If we use the cake batter analogy, the moment the blue food coloring was put in the cake batter, it became one purpose for all of the cake batter to become blue. In that same way, it is one purpose for all of consciousness to awaken to itself.
Since all of consciousness has the purpose of awakening, awakening is the true purpose of every heart. Of course, it is easy to look at the world and see that not everyone lives by this purpose. In fact, most people don’t. However, our hearts communicate with us all of the time. When a person is, in the moment, in harmony with the true purpose of the heart, that person experiences joy. When a person is not, in the moment, in harmony with the true purpose of the heart, that person experiences some type of suffering.
Let’s look at an example:
Let’s imagine a man who lives in a self-centered way. He is a businessman. His primary objectives in life are to make money and enjoy himself. However, he experiences stress and anger at work regularly. Stress and anger indicate that he is out of harmony with consciousness’ purpose, which is a purpose he hasn’t consciously discovered yet.
One day a friend recommends a book called Busting Loose From the Business Game: Mind-Blowing Strategies for Recreating Yourself, Your Team, Your Business, and Everything in Between, by Robert Scheinfeld. He is motivated to read this book, because of his desire to make money. As he reads the book, he recognizes some of his self-limiting beliefs. Since he sees them as obstacles to success, he uses the process in the book to let them go. As he does, he begins to experience more joy at work.
Why has stress and anger been replaced with joy?
Even though he doesn’t have a conscious goal of awakening, he is beginning to live by the principles of awakening. Through these principles, he is falling into harmony with the true heart, and the effect is joy.
Everyone is joined in one purpose, because it is consciousness’ purpose, and everyone is consciousness. When one is in harmony with the purpose of the heart, one experiences joy. When one isn’t in harmony with it, one suffers.
What about your suffering? You have chosen awakening as your purpose. Doesn’t that mean you are in harmony with consciousness? Shouldn’t you experience joy?
Let’s look at another example:
Let’s imagine a woman who is committed to awakening. She is in Gentle Healing. She contemplates the Thought of Awakening each day, and she reads the daily tip, reads from NTI and meditates for 30 minutes. She feels at peace each morning as she does this. However, when the woman moves away from her morning contemplation and meditation time, and into her day, the peace fades. She begins to experience other emotions, especially worry and annoyance.
The woman experiences peace during contemplation and meditation, because in those moments she is in harmony with the true heart. As she moves into her day, she lets other ideas enter the mind, and she begins listening to them. She worries about her children. She unconsciously believes ideas that indicate she is unworthy if her children’s lives do not look a certain way. She also listens to ideas of blame. She believes the reason she isn’t happy is because of her husband, and so she finds herself annoyed with him frequently.
In other words, the woman experiences worry and annoyance during the exact moments that she is not in harmony with the true heart.
This can change for her, if she learns to look immediately whenever she is not happy. If she learns to look immediately to see what she believes in that moment, and then learns to let it go because it isn’t joy, she will learn to remain in harmony with the true heart throughout the day, and she will begin to experience joy in her daily life.
Peace, joy, and contentment are the signs that you are presently in harmony with the purpose of consciousness. All forms of suffering indicate that you are not currently in harmony with consciousness.
How can anyone be out of harmony with consciousness if everyone is consciousness?
Consciousness is life-awareness-freedom. The freedom aspect can never be removed from consciousness, because that is what it is. Therefore, even though awakening is the purpose of consciousness, aspects of consciousness can choose to be mentally out of harmony with that purpose. This is the hallmark of freedom. Freedom can choose to experience itself any way it chooses, even if that choice is different than its truth.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link
The realization that you are the chooser
can come from making choice,
and then observing the effects of choice.
Notice when you listen to stories,
you feel the emotional effect
the stories intended to evoke.
Notice when you choose to rest from listening,
the emotional effects begin to soften.
Notice when you are able to choose
not to listen at all,
there are no emotional effects.
Through observing this,
you learn you are the chooser,
and you begin to trust more
in your ability to choose.
~From our Holy Spirit
Join us on Sunday, July 18, 2021, from 7:30-9 pm ET/5:30-7 pm MT for our live Satsang with Louise Kay when she will be interviewed by Anne Blanchard.
Louise Kay was born in Lancashire, in the northwest of the UK. After graduating from university, she worked as an English teacher for 15 years, and during this time began to question the deeper meaning of life. This led her to the path of spirituality, where she found a strong resonance with the teachings of non-duality.
In her early thirties, Louise felt a deep call in her heart to visit India, where she experienced a profound spiritual awakening. Shortly afterward Louise began channeling and traveled around the world sharing this gift for several years. During this time, she experienced a deepening and integration of her initial spiritual awakening and as she opened more to this non-dual truth the channeling faded away and a new form of expression revealed itself from deep in her heart.
Louise now holds group events and retreats online and around the world. Her passion is to sit together in presence and hold gentle, unconditionally loving space for all emotions, all sensations, and all experiences which arise in the moment in order to support the integration of unresolved energies and allow the unfolding of the divine in all who feel the call. If you would like to learn more about Louise please visit her website at https://www.louisekay.net/.
If you would like to submit a question to Louise and can’t watch the interview live, you can suggest one in advance via this link Post your questions on the forum.
We also want to invite you to join in on the follow-up discussion happening the very next day on Monday, July 19, 2021, from 1-2 pm ET/11 am-12 pm MT.
Michael DeForbes has offered to lead our Sunday Morning meditation on a weekly basis. Michael is a student of Helen Hamilton. His live guided meditations are based on the direct path, which are an integral part of our teachings here at Awakening Together.
All are invited to meditate with these deep pointers to the Truth of Awareness. Come into the Sanctuary and join in at 9:30-10 am ET/7:30-8 am MT and share in the powerful deepening into ever-present peace and the now of the Noumenon.
*You will be able to find these meditations in the future at this link: Click Here
