A universal assembly for true discernment
Weekly Sunday Gathering with Rev. George Maddox
Title: “Awareness is a Choice; Awareness is Curative”
Description: Rev. George shared how you can choose to stay focused on awakening.
Reading: Susan Bacon read from The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament (NTI), Matthew, chapter 13, and the Bible.
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Day 36 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Tomorrow:
Consider this sentence at least 6 times throughout the day:
I choose to know God, and so I choose to let go of fear.
Regina’s Tip for Lesson 31
Today’s workbook lesson begins by saying:
“Today’s idea is the introduction to your declaration of release.”
This week’s reading assignment may help you understand how “I am not the victim of the world I see” is the introduction to your release. NTI Colossians, Chapter 2 says:
“You are all things, and all things are you. You are the Life that flows in and out of all things. You are the wisdom and knowledge that travels on the current of Life, which moves through everything seen and unseen. In this way, you are absent from nothing, and nothing is disconnected from you. …
“Your mind communicates with all things through the flow of Life that is your reality. It is not partial to the body that you think you are. For within its flow, it is all things without partiality. It reads communication as it travels throughout spirit, and it delivers that which it is given through faith and desire.”
In other words, you are not the victim of the world you see, because the world you see comes from you. That knowledge is the introduction to your release because when it is understood and accepted, you can change your way of giving attention to thought, and the world you see will change too.
Today’s lesson is related to lessons 18 and 19. Take a few minutes to go back and review the tips from those two lessons. As you review those tips, ask yourself this question:
How is this information the introduction to my release?
See what realizations come as you contemplate that question.
Before going to our final lessons, let’s review the special themes:
What is Forgiveness? Forgiveness is recognizing yourself as the unaffected Self. Therefore, “what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred.”
What is Salvation? Salvation is healing by “failing to support the world of dreams … it lets illusions go. By not supporting them, it merely lets them quietly go down to dust.”
What is the World? It is a “false perception” where “mechanisms of illusion … go to find what has been given them to seek.” Yet, “all perception can be given a new purpose.”
What is Sin? Sin is ignorance or outward focus. “Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined issuing from thoughts that are untrue.”
What is the Body? “The body is a fence” that seems to separate us from everything else. It makes duality seem real and makes it seem as if we experience duality directly. However, its purpose can be changed.
What is Christ? Christ is consciousness. It is the process of creation and the unaffected witness of creation. It is what we are. It is our higher Self. (Note: There is a more ultimate reality beyond Christ, compared to which Christ is an illusion.)
What is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a Judeo-Christian term for spiritual intuition, which issues forth from our Self as consciousness. Its sole purpose is to help us awaken to consciousness. Once this goal is accomplished, its purpose is done. (God takes the last step to awaken us beyond consciousness.)
What is the Real World? The real world is the world as it is seen from the perspective of consciousness. It is a world blessed by forgiven eyes, seen through true perception. The real world is still a dream, but it is a dream that reflects Truth. It prepares us for the next and final awakening.
What is the Second Coming? It is the first awakening, awakening to our Self as consciousness. From this awakening we see with true perception and experience the real world.
What is the Last Judgment? It is the second and final awakening, awakening beyond consciousness into Nirvana. With this step, consciousness itself is seen to be untrue.
What is Creation? “Creation” is a term A Course in Miracles uses for eternal reality. It is known after the death of our sense of self as mind-consciousness. It is our true Self beyond any sense of self. It is our actual existence.
What is the Ego? It is the sense of self. The lower ego is the self-centered self, sometimes called the lower self. Usually when people use the term “ego,” they are referring to the lower self. However, the higher Self or “I am presence” is also part of the ego sense of self. The lower self is separation consciousness, and the higher Self is unity consciousness. Both the lower and higher selves are transcended when the final awakening occurs.
What is a Miracle? Miracles are shifts in perception that move one from the lower self to the higher Self. Some people refer to these shifts as awakenings, although each shift is a subset of the total awakening experience. Awakening to consciousness (the higher Self) may be gradual or sudden and varies greatly among individuals.
What am I? The answer to this question can be known as a direct experience when the sense of self disappears completely.
Peace be to me, the holy Son of God. Peace to my brother, who is one with me. Let all the world be blessed with peace through us.
Please read today’s workbook lesson in full. Notice a phrase, sentence or excerpt that you feel particularly attracted to and go into it more deeply through writing.
Meditation Options
Michael Langford says that the ego is the cause of all suffering. The ego is attachment to thought. So, attachment to thought or believing-attention on thought is the cause of all suffering.
There are two ways that believing-attention on thought causes suffering:
In other words:
What I think, I see.
What I see, I experience.
What I experience, I think.
NTI teaches this process of manifestation through NTI Ephesians.
Please review the tips from NTI Ephesians 4 and NTI Ephesians 6.
Thoughts of Awakening #334
Peace is my only goal.
Not happiness within a world
or with an object,
but peace,
which transcends all worlds
and all objects.
I close my eyes
and sense the Source of peace.
I am still,
and I am one with that Source.
I choose not to forget what I am
as I experience a world and objects.
Let that knowledge transcend
all I seem to see
and be all that I experience
in anything.
Amen.
~A prayer of awakening
*If you don’t already have it, order The Seven Steps to Awakening. That will be our text for Year 3.
Join us Sunday, February 21, 2021, at 7:30-9:00 pm ET for our Live Satsang with Roger Castillo. Anne Blanchard will interview Roger, who is a spiritual teacher based in Perth, Western Australia.
Roger talks about peace of mind and happiness (for the human being) in daily living. He enthusiastically invites and welcomes anyone to join in when there is an interest in opening to the notion, and ultimately the first hand knowing, that peace of mind, love, and contentment are our very nature and therefore available on a continuous and unbroken basis regardless of the circumstance we find ourselves in.
Roger shares insights and pointings from his own direct experience on the nature of life and the possibility of this unwavering peace of mind in daily living.
You can find more information about Roger at the website: www.rogercastillo.org
Roger also has his own YouTube channel with lots of inspiration and teachings: Roger Castillo – Being Lived
Please make your question clear, concise, and relevant. Please note that unless told otherwise, we may mention your first name and location; that questions may be edited to improve clarity; and that not all questions sent to us will be used.
Day 35 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Tomorrow:
Consider this sentence at least 6 times throughout the day:
Regina’s Tip for Lesson 30
Pause for a moment and notice yourself.
Notice that you are aware.
Notice that you are present now.
Now, look at something near you.
Notice that it is in your awareness.
Notice that it is present now.
Look at something a little further away from you.
Notice that it is also in your awareness.
Notice it is also present now.
Look at an object that fairly distant from your body, possibly something out the window. Notice that it is in your awareness. It is in your awareness just like the object closer to you is in your awareness. They are equally in your awareness.
Notice that the fairly distant object is also present now.
Think of something that you’ve seen before that you cannot see now. Notice your thought about it is in your awareness, therefore it is in your awareness. You are aware of it now, aren’t you? Both what you see and what you think of is in your awareness. They are equally in your awareness.
Notice the object you are thinking of is present in your awareness now as a thought or as a mental image. In that way, it is present now.
Now, consider these statements:
Your mind is awareness.
Thought appears in mind.
Thought appears in awareness.
Notice these statements are true. Check them in your own experience.
Your mind is life-awareness.
You cannot separate your mind from life.
You cannot point and say, “Life is there and mind is here.” They are one. Notice these statements are true. Check them in your own experience.
Life-awareness is present now.
Thoughts about the past appear in life-awareness, but life-awareness is present now.
Thoughts about the future appear in life-awareness, but life-awareness is present now.
Notice these statements are true. Check them in your own experience.
What Am I?
Although our final special theme did not directly answer the question, “What am I?” it has given us some final thoughts to contemplate before A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students comes to an end.
We were given these words to contemplate as pointers to what we are:
We were also told:
The truth of what we are is not for words to speak of nor describe. Yet we can realize our function here, and words can speak of this and teach it, too, if we exemplify the words in us. …
And thus our minds are changed about the aim for which we came, and which we seek to serve.
As the workbook nears its end, we are left with a decision to make. Do we want to practice our function here to the best of our ability so we can prepare ourselves for the final awakening, which is the realization that answers the question, “What am I?”
How committed are we to discovering the answer to the workbook’s final question?
God’s answer is some form of peace. All pain is healed; all misery replaced with joy. All prison doors are opened. And all sin is understood as merely a mistake.
Please read today’s workbook lesson in full. Notice a phrase, sentence or excerpt that you feel particularly attracted to and go into it more deeply through writing.
Meditation Options
Today, please read sentences 82-166 from Chapter 8 of The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss.
Thoughts of Awakening #333
Let me remember
I am in the presence of God.
Where ever I am,
who ever I am with,
there is God;
that is God;
in God I am;
it is God I am with.
Let me not forget
and see with human eyes,
thinking with human thoughts.
Let me stay tuned
to the guidance of God,
which remembers all is God
and interacts with God
always.
Amen.
~A prayer of awakening
*If you don’t already have it, order The Seven Steps to Awakening. That will be our text for Year 3.
