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Gentle Healing 2 ~ Day 339 – GH Year 2 Review: The Commentary on Mind

February 11, 2021

Please read The Commentary on Mind from The Teachings of Inner Ramana and contemplate it with your inner teacher. Follow inner prompting regarding the best way to contemplate the reading with the inner teacher. If you don’t feel a specific prompt, ask the inner teacher to share whatever is most important for you to know, see or realize regarding this message.

If prompted, review the tip from Day 295.

Beginning today, instead of contemplating the Thought of Awakening with the inner teacher, contemplate the messages from The Teachings of Inner Ramana with the inner teacher each day. (Reference today’s tip.)

For the remainder of Year 2, use each day’s Thought of Awakening as a prayer that you return to throughout the day in order to remain in a state of devotion.

~339~

Holy Spirit,
let me remember
that a bird is not a bird,
a hand is not a hand,
a body is not a body.

Let me remember
that the sky is not the sky,
the clouds are not clouds
and rain is not rain.

All that my mind shows me
as I look upon the world
is an error and a mirage.

How can I think I know
based on what I see and experience?

To think I know
based on what I see
is to be a fool
believing a fool’s images.

Let me be wise
and trust not my sight.
Let me surrender fully
to You.

Amen.

~A prayer of awakening

Homework for this week

Practice daily meditation for 30-60 minutes each day.
Practice the “Loving All” Method.
Thoughts of Awakening, 337-343

*If you don’t already have it, order The Seven Steps to Awakening. That will be our text for Year 3.

Audio & Homework – Week 6 Gentle Healing Group Year 1 with Rev. Dawn 02/11/21

February 11, 2021

Rev. Dawn Fernandez guides a group of committed students through year 1 of Gentle Healing who would like to make consistent, gentle progress toward genuine peace, joy, and love. This group meets weekly on Thursdays at 6-8 pm ET and all members are committed to specific assignments and practices between group meetings.

Listen to the Audio

Please note: it may be necessary to download the audio to listen to it fully.

Homework for the week:

Homework Assignment A: Workbook Lessons 36-42. And, read Regina’s tips 36-42 that come out on the daily update. Here’s a direct link to Regina’s tips that are on the website: Click Here
Homework Assignment B: Read NTI Luke, Chapter 9 (p 144-146) and NTI Galatians (p 327-338).
Homework Assignment C: Nondual Awakening Meditation – Where am I? by Gary Weber, which is a video in the Gentle Healing Playlist.

New Gentle Healing Year 3 Begins March 2nd

February 10, 2021

The Gentle Healing curriculum guides a group of committed students who would like to make consistent, gentle progress toward genuine peace, joy, and love.

This Gentle Healing Year 3 group will meet weekly in the Sanctuary on Tuesdays at 6:30 pm ET/4:30 MT and will be led by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert and Connie Poole. You are invited to join this group if you have finished both Gentle Healing Years 1 and 2 or if you have already taken year 3 and would like a review.

In Gentle Healing Year 3, participants contemplate The Seven Steps to Awakening with their inner teacher. Participants will be asked to participate in class and to post their contemplations on the Awakening Together Forum. If you plan to join this Year 3 group and have not yet registered for the Forum, you may do so here: Awakening Together Discussion Forum.

New Program Starting Feb. 14th at 7:30 pm ET, Quiet Observation with Manuela Giaroli

February 10, 2021

We have a new program starting Feb. 14^th at 7:30 pm ET/5:30 pm MT. It is called Quiet Observation with Manuela Giaroli.

You are invited to join Manuela as she shares reading from David R. Hawkin’s book Letting Go.

“What’s in the book? It tells of a simple method to reach clarity and transcend your problems along the way. It’s not by finding the answers, but by undoing the basis of the problem…The mechanism of surrender is simple and the truth is self-evident… It is easy, effortless, and enjoyable. There is nothing to learn or memorize. You will become lighter and happier as you read it.”

500 Days with NTI ~ Day 40

February 10, 2021

Day 40 Assignment

This evening (or tomorrow morning):

Practice Leo’s emotion exercise with an emotion that is strong for you now or with this assigned emotion from your past: hurt
Click here to read instructions for Leo’s emotion exercise.
Read NTI Matthew 16 (v1-4) thru (v17, 18).

Tomorrow:

Set a timer for 5 minutes and practice the brain relaxation meditation.
Consider this sentence at least 6 times during the day:
The Spirit of God is one, and I am one with the Spirit of God.

Gentle Healing Year 1 Tip For Lesson 35

February 10, 2021

Regina’s Tip for Lesson 35

As today’s Workbook lesson points out, you probably do not see your mind as a part of God’s mind. You probably do not see yourself as “very holy.” However, that is exactly what NTI Ephesians and NTI Colossians teach. That is “what vision will show you.”

Today’s lesson implies that you believe you are a person in a world, because you do not believe you are one with God’s holy mind. NTI Colossians points out how you can begin to reverse this misperception. It suggests that you align yourself with the desire of the Heart. It says:

“Remember this. The desire of the Heart is only this, for this is the only desire it would place on the flow of creation that is you:

“Know thy Self. …

“Place your mind in subordination to your Heart in great joy! For in placing the mind in subordination to the Heart, you join with your Self in the true desire of Self.”

Interestingly, “Heart” is capitalized in this excerpt, which means NTI isn’t referring to the human heart. It refers to the spiritual Heart. The Spiritual Heart is the Heart of oneness, which is also called the Self. In oneness, there aren’t many desires like there are among humans. In oneness, there is one true desire. That desire is to know itself as its Self.

Today’s workbook lesson is inspired by this true desire. It is a call to oneness, inviting it to return from the misperception of separation by remembering itself as a unified whole.

Homework for this week

Homework Assignment A: Acim Workbook lessons 29-35.
Homework Assignment B: Read NTI Colossians, p. 355-362.
Homework Assignment C: Nondual Awakening Meditation – Who am I? by Gary Weber, which is a video in the Awakening Together Gentle Healing Playlist on YouTube. Note: There is also a meditation called “Where am I?” That is not this week’s assignment.

Gentle Healing Year 1 Tip For Lesson 363

February 10, 2021

Final Lessons

The Introduction to the final lesson says, “Let us together follow in the way that truth points out to us. … And to this purpose let us dedicate our minds, directing all our thoughts to serve the function of salvation. Unto us the aim is given to forgive the world.”

Yesterday I addressed the spiritual persona. Today, I would like to address the political persona. It is a tricky ego persona that gets in the way of “directing all our thoughts to serve the function of salvation” and keeps us from forgiving the world.

Spiritual students sometimes lose all clarity when it comes to politics or pet political issues like the environment, women’s rights, minorities’ rights, etcetera. They may argue that their emotional involvement is coming from compassion, but there is a distinct difference between compassion and the political ego.

Compassion comes from the right-mind. Compassion can move us to become involved in world-issues in some helpful way, but it is humble in feeling and non-judgmental in thought. It accepts the world as it is, does not pick one side over another and acts with right-action too. This is a balance the ego cannot maintain.

In contrast, the political ego is typically aggressive in some way. Its thought system is filled with judgment and attack.

For example, compassion for displaced refugees might give money to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) or volunteer in refugee camps, but it is able to do these things without attacking the President for his refugee policy.

On the other hand, the political ego is very judgmental. It feels right in its point of view and sees others as wrong. In fact, the tricky political ego often does nothing at all to help; it only attacks. It might attack the President in Facebook for his refugee policy without taking any positive action or giving any money to help people who are currently having the refugee experience. The political ego is not as concerned with helping the world as it pretends. Its primary interest is taking a stand. In its own way, it wages war from its point of view.

To be moved by compassion without taking a stand is an aspect of humility. A stand, regardless of what the stand is, is ego’s way, not salvation’s way.

Meditation Options

Guided Meditation Audios

YouTube Meditation Playlist

Gentle Healing 2 ~ Day 338 – GH Year 2 Review: The Seven Steps to Awakening

February 10, 2021

NTI teaches 7 steps to awakening. Those steps are not linear. They are more circular, like a spiral of awakening. The 7 steps are:

Step 1– An intense desire for awakening.

Step 2– Seeing through the ‘mask’ of ferociousness (attack, grievance, harshness) to the false beliefs that support and sustain it.

Step 3– Tiring of judgment.

Step 4– Letting go of the belief that life is temporary, which is also letting go of the belief that the body-mind-personality is your reality.

Step 5– Learning to trust all that is as it is.

Step 6– Letting go of perception, which is letting go of thought as me.

Step 7– Giving no meaning to anything the ego says or any experience you have as the ego dies its final death.

As we move into Gentle Healing Year 3, we will continue to progress through these 7 steps. As you commit more deeply to your inner teacher, the spiral of awakening will most likely increase in intensity. It may feel quite dramatic at times; that is the nature of a spiral before it explodes into nothing.

As I have mentioned, we will use the book, The Seven Steps to Awakening, in Year 3. The seven steps from that book are not the same as the 7 steps listed above. The book, The Seven Steps to Awakening, is a collection of 1574 quotes collected by Michael Langford. Here is what Michael shared about that collection of quotes:

Most people tend to think that when an Awakened Sage is talking to a student that everything the Sage says is a part of his or her teaching and therefore helpful for awakening. This is not true as the following saying of Sri Ramana Maharshi illustrates:

“The sage’s pure mind which beholds as a mere witness the whole world is like a mirror which reflects the foolish thoughts of those who come before him. And these thoughts are then mistaken to be his.”

… If you understand the full significance of that Ramana Maharshi quote it can completely change your approach to studying spiritual teachings. It changes everything. …

The Seven Steps to Awakening does not include quotes that were a reflection of the foolish thoughts of the questioner. The Seven Steps does not include quotes that are distractions and detours. Look at the power of that! The Seven Steps to Awakening is a new spiritual path.

The quotes in the book The Seven Steps to Awakening were typed exactly as they were in the eight books the quotes were gathered from. Not one word was changed. Not one word was added. Therefore you might wonder how can The Seven Steps to Awakening be called a new spiritual path. …

One of the most significant aspects of the book The Seven Steps to Awakening is that the quotes have been gathered together on seven essential teachings (the steps) one subject at a time. The impostor self does not like to focus on one subject. It likes to go from one subject to the next. That is one way the impostor self preserves its imaginary self.

By having quotes by Seven Sages on One subject before going unto the next subject the mind has a chance to really absorb that teaching, that lesson, that step, that subject. By having seven sages teach on a subject you can see it was not just one sage’s teaching. Seven different styles of communication on a single subject has a much better chance of penetrating the human mind’s thousands of layers of self-deception. …

This is how The Seven Steps to Awakening book was created: I read the eight source books one at a time. I was looking for quotes that met this criteria:

No distractions or detours.
Essential quotes for the Direct Path of Awareness.
No quotes that were the reflection of the foolish thoughts of the student.
Only the quotes that would lead toward’s the end of illusion and not towards more illusion. In other words the most helpful quotes for someone who really wanted to end the illusion and not just read about it. Quotes for those who wanted the Direct Experience and not just the theory. Quotes for those who wanted Realization and Freedom and not just more words.

After circling the quotes I wondered what category would this quote fall under? Then I wrote the category (step) in the margin of the book so I would know where to place it later. I did not start with seven categories and then look for quotes to fit them. I did not start with any category. I just circled quotes that met the criteria listed above and then wondered what category those quotes would fall under and then wrote the category in the margin. That is how the seven categories arose. I called them steps because steps are something you put into practice. Those seven steps are seven essential truths. I arranged those steps in the order that would be most helpful. For example Step One are quotes to show how to use the quotes as practice instructions and how not to take the quotes intellectually or theoretically. The reason that step is first is because if one does take the quotes in a way that just makes them into a thought journey, then all the other steps would not be effective. …

If some of you who have read the book The Seven Steps to Awakening have noticed a power or a unity or a transmission or a revelation that is different from any other book you have read before, this very large post may help you to understand why. The Seven Steps to Awakening has the undiluted concentrated focus of the essential essence of Seven Sages Teaching.… Seven Sages who succeeded in bringing the impostor self and all illusion and suffering to its final end.

Note on the statement that not one word was changed: in quote 1405 there was a typo in the first edition. The word “too” should have been typed as the word “to.” That has been corrected in the second edition.

Michael’s explanation of how The Seven Steps to Awakening came about may help you see that those seven steps are not steps in the same way the 7 steps from NTI are steps. Instead, they are seven categories of teaching by seven sages. When the seven categories of teaching from The Seven Steps to Awakening are contemplated and put into practice, they support you as you pass through the 7 steps listed in NTI. You will mature in your practice through The Seven Steps to Awakening.

Michael’s explanation of how The Seven Steps to Awakening came about may also help you see why that book is as powerful as the books we have already used in Gentle Healing. It is a collection of key quotes from seven sages who have brought the ego and its illusion to its final end.

There are two versions of The Seven Steps to Awakening. You may use either version in Year 3, because both versions are the same except for the font size and the correction of one typo, which Michael explained above. If you haven’t ordered The Seven Steps to Awakening yet, I recommend ordering it now.

Starting tomorrow, we will prepare ourselves to begin Year 3 by reading The Teachings of Inner Ramana again. This time, we will contemplate the messages each day with the inner teacher.

Thoughts of Awakening #338

Holy Spirit,
let me hold
no separate identity
apart from you.

Let me see all ideas,
all thoughts,
that tell me I exist
as a being apart,
and let me surrender those thoughts
into the dust of nothingness
from which they came.

As I surrender my thoughts,
I surrender my heart too.
But I surrender my heart,
not to nothingingness,
but to everything
and only-thing,
which is to surrender to You.

Make of me a slave,
moved only by You
through my desire
to have no semblance
of my own identity,
an identity I would call mine.

Make my identity
ours,
one and the same.

Amen.

~A prayer of awakening

Homework for this week

Practice daily meditation for 30-60 minutes each day.
Practice the “Loving All” Method.
Thoughts of Awakening, 337-343

*If you don’t already have it, order The Seven Steps to Awakening. That will be our text for Year 3.

02-10-21 ~ Life as Love ~ “The Power/Non-power of Thought”

February 10, 2021

Rev. Helen Avery is an Awakening Together Ordained Minister. She shares weekly in our Sanctuary with a half-hour of a 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 are 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.

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Anne Blanchard ~Unfiltered~ “The Inherent Power of the Dyad Process” – 2/10/21

February 10, 2021

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.

Listen to the Recording