A universal assembly for true discernment
Weekly Sunday Gathering with Rev. Billy Sintiris Title: “The World is Too Full To Talk About”
Description: What is the Sin of the World? There is no Sin. Rumi says: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there”. Rev. Billy shared about the idea of matter, the world, and presence.
Reading: Kate Brennan read from the poet Rumi.
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Day 113 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Tomorrow:
(You may always select another meditation video from this playlist.)
Today’s reading interprets the story of the Centurion. Here’s that story:
When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. [ At the time, Jews believed they would be made unclean if they entered the house of a Gentile.] That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
Today’s reading emphasizes faith, clarity regarding the goal, and surrender.
Faith
Jesus said the Centurion had “great faith.” The Centurion knew that his request would be fulfilled. He said, “… say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
Previously, I described faith as (1) trusting the healing process, (2) having confidence in a benevolent power beyond what your senses or mind can know and (3) accepting that all is well, regardless of the appearance. I’d like to add a fourth aspect to faith. Faith includes having confidence that you will awaken. Consider this quote:
Desire and confidence must go together. The stronger your desire, the easier comes the help. … If your desire and confidence are strong, they will operate and take you to your goal, for you will not cause delay by hesitation and compromise. ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
Let’s look at how the creative principle works. That which we believe is fed into the creative principal and results in manifestation. With that said, if I believe I am unworthy to awaken, what is likely to be the result?
Catch thoughts of unworthiness in your mind, and let them go in faith.
Clarity Regarding the Goal
Yesterday we learned that the ego-mind does not know; it interprets. When we imagine what we think truth is, we are interpreting with a mental-mechanism that does not know. We are creating a fantasy.
If we have a mental fantasy about truth, and we desire our fantasy, we are not truth-seekers; we are illusion-seekers.
What do you imagine truth to be? Are you willing to let that go and find out what truth is?
Surrender
Today’s reading asks, “Did you really expect to find the peace of God in your way?”
That leads to another question:
What is the ‘I’ that says “my way,” and can it lead to truth?
Contemplate how critical surrender is if your purpose is awakening.
The only way to let go of ego
is to choose not to listen to it anymore.
To listen is to believe.
To listen is to follow
To listen is to do.
Instead of listening to ego, listen to Me.
Believe Me by not believing ego.
Follow Me by putting your mind to rest.
Do as I say by choosing not to do as ego says.
By following these simple steps,
you release your hold on ego.
Releasing is letting go,
and letting go is releasing.
~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.
Awakening Together will begin playing The Seven Steps to Awakening Audios with Regina Dawn Akers on May 2 at 8 pm ET. These recordings will be played in the Sanctuary on the 1st, 2nd, and 5th Sundays of the month from 8 – 9 pm ET / 6 -7 MT.
In this series of teachings, which began in 2012, Regina Dawn Akers shares her contemplation of the quotes compiled by Michael Langford in The Seven Steps to Awakening. The Seven Steps to Awakening is a powerful collection of quotes on the subject of how to directly experience the true Self, whose nature is Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss, and how to bring the impostor self, its tricks, and all suffering to a final end in this lifetime.
Plan to join us for a rediscovery of the timeless wisdom that came through Regina Dawn Akers as she shared her profound journey with this powerful book.
In the last year, expenses have increased for groceries, supplies (like toilet paper), water and sewer. As a result of the increase in expenses, the Retreat House Subcommittee determined that Retreat House Lodging Rates need to increase similarly.
The new Retreat House lodging rates are:
Shared room or a room in the Ladies’ Dormitory:
Regular nightly rate – $85+tax per person
3-week discount rate – $1575+tax per person for 21 nights ($75+tax per night)
4-week discount rate – $1890+tax per person for 28 nights ($67.50+tax per night)
Pre-approved 30+ nights – $67.50 per night
Single private room:
Regular nightly rate – $125+tax
3-week discount rate – $2415+tax for 21 nights ($115+tax per night)
4-week discount rate – $3024+tax for 28 nights ($108+tax per night)
Pre-approved 30+ nights – $108 per night
Ladies’ Dorm Budget Space with Pullout Twin Bed:
Regular nightly rate – $60+tax
The sales & lodging tax is 11.4%.
There is no tax for pre-approved stays of 30+ nights.
The Retreat House is open and available for private retreats. As always, our goal is to provide an environment conducive to meditation and contemplation along with delicious, nutritious meals at an affordable rate.
Day 112 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Tomorrow:
(You may always select another meditation video from this playlist.)
Today’s reading is very important. One who genuinely practices today’s reading will advance very quickly. As we have already seen, if we continue to live by our old habits, nothing changes.
Today’s reading makes two primary points:
Everything that you see and experience, you see and experience through the filter of your mind.
That means your mind at your current vibrational level. As you rise in vibration, you still see through the filter of your mind, but how you see changes because the mind is different at a higher vibration. Remember, mind is simply thought. So as thoughts change, perception changes. However, even the highest thought—the highest vibration—is still not reality. Perception is never reality, so perception isn’t knowledge.
Knowledge is peace.
Knowledge isn’t “the right perception.” Perception is always interpretation—always seen through the filter of mind. Knowledge is peace.
Peace isn’t perception. Peace is difficult to describe, because it isn’t an object. It isn’t a thought or emotion. It is the absence of object—the absence of thought and the absence of emotion. It is undisturbed, clear, open awareness. That is knowledge.
If we are honest with ourselves, we know when we are caught up in our interpretation and when we are acting with knowledge.
How do we know?
Because peace is either present or it is not.
We can lie to ourselves and claim to be at peace when we are not, but if our desire for truth is strong, we won’t lie to ourselves. From the stance of self-honesty, it is very easy to tell if we are at peace in the moment or if there is a disturbance present.
Today’s reading recommends that we avoid speaking or acting from interpretation, which is not knowledge. It also suggests that we avoid “correcting” others whenever there is a disturbance in our mind. Instead, if we notice a disturbance in ourselves, regardless of how small that disturbance is, we do well to seek healing and clarity in quiet.
When we are at peace—meaning there is no disturbance present—we can trust what we feel to say and do. We are moved by knowledge. In fact, one who is moved by knowledge knows she is moved by knowledge, because she does not have her own interpretative reasons for what she is saying, doing or not doing. She does it because she feels moved to do it, and that is all. There is no other reason, because there isn’t an interpretation.
Review today’s reading carefully, contemplatively and repeatedly. After that, I recommend practicing it conscientiously. There is great benefit in putting today’s reading into practice starting immediately.
All I want to do
is want God.
Everything else
will take care of itself.
~An affirmation given to us
by our Holy Spirit
In this program Anne Blanchard facilitates one of the core practices of the Awakening Together community. This program provides an opportunity to be in community with others who will to find that place of no-place, that attention to our natural attentiveness, that innate humanness that can often be overlooked. Anne Blanchard facilitates this program on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7:30 – 8:30 am ET/5:30-6:30 am MT by leading participants through gently guided Being Aware of Awareness meditation.
All are warmly welcome.
How do you honor a deep and poignant feeling? When you feel intense love, how do you hold it so it will never go away?
You must connect with the permanent. The rule of feelings is simple: All feelings which rise will eventually fall. When a feeling of sadness arises you may feel pain, and then when it falls you may feel relief. When a feeling of happiness arises you may feel relief, and then when it falls you may feel pain. Both happiness and sadness bring pain and relief because both feelings are temporary – always arising and falling. When the question is how to honor the relief, or how to hold joy so close it never fades, the answer is to look outside of feeling. When the rule is all feelings arise and fall, then the only way to honor these feelings is to connect with the permanent.
Connecting with the permanent will open the floodgates of all joy. The permanent is the awareness inside of you which knows you. The awareness which witnesses childhood, then adulthood – who perceives simple thinking, then complex thinking – who is present when the body falls asleep, dreams, then wakes, is the permanent. If you were to draw on a piece of paper an image from an emotional memory, the image on the paper would be your memory, and the paper itself would be your awareness. When you have an experience, the experience is arising and falling, but the canvas on which the experiences arises is your awareness and is permanent.
When you connect with the permanent, you find an ethereal presence which is more than concrete. You find a subtlety which is directly noticeable. You look at awareness which you have always felt and had, which is not an idea or a God to have faith in, but an utter reality you live in every day. You see your own awareness, and you know it is real because it is literally yourself looking at yourself. Connecting with this is connecting with the paper on which any story can be written – and on which any and every story which has ever existed has been written. You connect to the concrete source of experience.
If you are lost in the waves of feeling, you can not honor feeling. You will feel intense joy, but in time your joy will fade and the intensity you once had will be at first diluted, and then forgotten. Your pain likewise will move along in waves. Pain will rise, and swell, and pop. Relief will wash in, and wash out, and the cycle will continue. To honor the feelings, the honor must come from outside of the cycle. The honor must come from the permanent awareness. Abiding in permanent awareness will put in your mind the direct source of all joy. You will have the power to see the paper on which all stories are written, and you can honor all stories by honoring the paper. When a new happy story is ready, you will know where to find the paper. When a cycle of pain begins, you will know where to find the paper.
Eventually, you will identify with the paper and not the story. You will know every story is just a permutation of what the paper can say and be in a single moment. You will know the paper as the permanent, concrete, eternal truth. You will know with your heart, with your feeling, it is the source of all joy and Peace. You will feel the immense sensations of the person and the experience, and you will simultaneously feel the subtle presence of the paper. You will notice the subtle feeling always proceeds experience, experience is always painted on the subtle feeling, and under all experience is the paper. The paper will remain when experience changes, when experience is forgotten, and when experiences are born. You will feel the paper, and eventually, the paper will be the bigger feeling and the experience will be subtle. Your attention will shift. In that moment, when your paper is the focus of your attention, you will feel intense joy because you know the boundless generosity of the paper and because you can feel its intense potential and benevolence. You will feel permanent joy, and you will feel you are honoring all experience. You will be unbiased towards pain or joy, knowing both are written on the same one all omnipotent, all infinite source – the permanent paper: Awareness.
To honor experience, abide in awareness.
Join us in the Forum for further discussion of this article.
