A universal assembly for true discernment
Day 31 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Tomorrow:
Consider the following sentence at least 6 times throughout the day:
All that I do, I do by my choice.
Yesterday’s Workbook lesson said:
“Everything is for your own best interests. That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means. It is in recognizing this that your goals become unified. It is in recognizing this that what you see is given meaning.”
Your own best interest is realizing the truth of what you are. The purpose of everything is to help you remember. That is the only real purpose that the world can have.
What are you?
Today’s Workbook lesson points to the answer. It says, “My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.”
In other words, you are Invulnerable. However, you cannot know yourself as Invulnerable as long as you give believing-attention to attack thoughts. That’s because the perceptual loop of experience will lead you to see and experience yourself as vulnerable as long as you give believing-attention to the idea that you, or anyone, can be attacked.
In short, to believe in attack is to believe in vulnerability.
What Am I?
Our special theme says, “We do not seek a function that is past the gate of Heaven. Knowledge will return when we have done our part. We are concerned only with giving welcome to truth.”
“Our part” is spiritual practice, like the spiritual practices listed in my tip from Lesson 352. It’s interesting to note, however, that spiritual practice cannot take us across the threshold into the final awakening. We can’t make the crossing through the self’s will or effort. Bernadette Roberts wrote about this in the conclusion of her book, “The Experience of No-Self.” She wrote:
“Of our own accord we cannot cross the line into the unknown; only God knows if we are ready for such a step, only he can take us across and see us through. In fact, self never crosses the line, it simply ceases to be.”
However, it is important to note that she also wrote:
“Having made this journey I now see clearly, that a dimension unmistakably exists beyond anything that could be described as self’s union with God… For the contemplative to regard such a union as the final or ultimate consummation of his spiritual life is a grave mistake. He is setting his sight at a midway point, which I now see is too low, too close-in, and too narrow. At this point he may be so centered in God that he is still subject to the illusion of self’s deification… Whenever possible, it is best to get beyond such a point, even when letting go means surrendering this union with all of its experiences and ensuing qualities of strength, love, certitude, and much more; for as long as there is any feeling, knowledge, or inkling that any self remains, … we have not gone far enough.”
In the first excerpt that I shared from Bernadette’s book, she said that we cannot cross the threshold of the final doorway “of our own accord.” In the second excerpt, while referring to the state of awakening that the Course calls true perception, she emphasized that even there, it is best to continue surrender and letting go.
It is as NTI Revelation states:
“The world is an illusion, and so everything you experience as you let go of the world is illusion also. … You are to keep moving by letting go until you find yourself with nothing left to hold onto.”
This reminds me of Mooji’s story of the Yogini, who let go of what appeared to be divine experiences in order to awaken to Truth. It also reminds me of Dr. David Hawkins words in the video I shared with you recently. He said:
“Having surrendered everything, there was nothing left. … There was nothing left to surrender. And then came the knowingness, “Yes, except your life.” And then I got, “This to must be surrendered to thee, O Lord.”
In other words, spiritual practice will not usher us across the threshold to the final awakening, but until the crossing over occurs, spiritual practice is needed up to and including the last moment on this side of the crossing. In fact, the closer we are to the crossing over, the more mastery we need in spiritual practice.
One temptation that can occur after achieving the first awakening is that one feels awake and puts aside spiritual practice. However, Bernadette Robert’s warns of what can happen if we make this mistake:
“At this point [the contemplative] may be so centered in God that he is still subject to the illusion of self’s deification…”
NTI Revelation echoes this point. It says:
“True desire must lead in the last days of the thinking mind, for the thinking mind will try to disguise itself as true desire. For this, you must remain on watch. … In the hour when true desire is nearly full force, the thinking mind will look for a way to lead you from your true desire, possibly also by leading you to think you are fulfilling it.”
“This is what “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” points to. Whenever you feel self-satisfaction in the role you have been asked to play, know that role is not true desire. For true desire never leads to a role that is satisfactory to the self. True desire leads only from self to the wholeness of the realization of truth. …”
“The only way to pass through the tests of the thinking mind, without being led astray by false desire, is to remain fully focused on true desire now. There is no other way.”
And so it is worthwhile to repeat that although spiritual practice will not usher us across the threshold to the final awakening, until the final awakening occurs it is advisable to continue with spiritual practices like surrender, inquiry, meditation and abiding unaffected. That’s because, until the final crossing over occurs, we are vulnerable to the subconscious ego. We need to remain alert through spiritual practice. In fact, the closer we are to the crossing over, the more mastery we need in spiritual practice in order to make ourselves available for the final awakening without turning back or slipping into a delusional false enlightenment.
It is helpful to see spiritual practice and humility as synonymous. Spiritual practice is humility, because through spiritual practice we remain the student. Humility is the opposite of egotistical self-importance. Humility prepares us for God’s final step. It is safe to say that ultimate humility is absolutely necessary for final awakening.
There is no end to all the peace and joy, and all the miracles that I will give, when I accept God’s Word. Why not today?
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
NTI Romans, Chapter 2 calls judgment the “building block of illusion.”
What is judgment?
If you look very carefully at judgment when it appears in your mind, you will see it is the “I know” and “I’m right” mind. It is the resistor, the antithesis to truth. Whenever you give believing-attention to judgment, you are identified with the imposter self.
NTI Romans teaches two practices as the antidote to judgment. Those two practices are acceptance and surrender. Today, we will look more closely at acceptance. Tomorrow, we will look at how surrender undoes judgment.
Acceptance is the decision to accept every experience exactly as it is without judging that it should be different. The deepest form of acceptance is love. Therefore, a key practice that undoes illusion and disengages from the “I know” and “I’m right” imposter mind is The Loving All Method.
Let’s look more closely at how The Loving All Method works.
At its most basic level, illusion is the appearance of two things, the experiencer (you) and the experience (everything else). You are the “I” that experiences everything else, which is “not I.”
The “not I” or the experienced appears as many things, some things that are judged as good or desired and other things that are judged as bad or not desired. The Loving All Method undoes the judgment that creates many different things and collapses them into the current experience, sometimes called the ‘now’. Through Loving All, you come to the experience of “I” loving consciousness/existence. A Course in Miracles refers to this stage as “the happy dream.”
Look at the room around you. Notice that the mind sees many things. Let the mind tell you what it likes and doesn’t like about what you see. Or, look in a mirror. Consider standing naked in front of the mirror, and let the mind tell you what it likes and doesn’t like about what you see. Or look at another person, and let the mind tell you what it likes and doesn’t like about that person.
As the mind tells you what it likes and doesn’t like, notice the sense of difference or division that happens. Watch the mind as it creates many things.
For example, while looking at the room the mind might say, “The picture of my family is very nice, but there is too much clutter on the furniture.”
While looking in the mirror, the mind might say, “My arms look strong, but my waistline is too fat and flabby.”
While thinking about a friend, the mind might say, “She is very generous, but she talks too much.”
Notice that in each case, judgment is the sense (or feeling) of “I know” and “I’m right.”
Notice how judgment gives you the distinct feeling of being ‘me’ separate from whatever or whoever is being judged. Feel the strong sense of ‘me’ that is present in judgment.
Notice the hardness (firmness) in your way of being whenever you believe a judgment.
Judgment is to the ego like air is to a balloon. It inflates the sense ‘me’ and many things that are ‘not me.’
After examining judgment closely, close your eyes and simply appreciate existence. Don’t think of the many things thought says you like about your life. That is still judgment. Simply appreciate existence itself.
Within each of us, there is a love of existence that is so excited by existence that it loves every experience simply because it emphasizes existence. Leave the mind behind, and find the love of existence in you. (People often experience this love in nature, but nature isn’t needed to experience it, because love of existence lives in you.)
After spending a few minutes appreciating existence with your eyes closed, open your eyes. Pick up something and hold it in your hand. Don’t think about what the thing is. Just feel it. Appreciate existence experiencing this existing experience.
You can practice existence-appreciating-existence with any experience. If you look in the mirror and feel self-hatred, pause and appreciate existence experiencing emotion. Or look at the part of the body that mind says it hates, let go of everything you’ve learned about how a body is supposed to look, and appreciate existence experiencing a body.
Existence-appreciating-existence is the Loving All Method. It is accepting experience exactly as it is and loving it as existence. It is consciousness loving consciousness as manifestation.
Practice existence-appreciating-existence as a way of life. Whenever you notice yourself hardening into judgment, notice the distinct feeling of ‘me,’ remember your desire to be immersed in truth, and shift into existence-appreciating-existence with whatever is being experienced now, including the feeling of believing judgment. Make no exceptions in your practice. Appreciate existence in every experience exactly as it is.
Thoughts of Awakening # 329
Love is formless.
A joy that springs forth from form
is mistaken identification.
It is mistaken identification
with the body
as who you are
and how you live.
When the mistake arises,
pause.
Let go of the mind’s thoughts about form,
and investigate the true source of joy.
Discover that joy is formless,
and its only true source is formless love.
Let go of idea-attachment to objects
and revel in true joy always.
From our Holy Spirit
*If you don’t already have it, order The Seven Steps to Awakening. That will be our text for Year 3.
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.
This meditation was led by Kate Brennan.
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.
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.
Day 30 AssignmentThis evening (or tomorrow morning):
Watch the following 17-minute video.
Tomorrow:
Pick a day from the previous week to do again.
Consider leaving a tip for actualized.org
Today’s Workbook lesson explains the foundation of misperception. The foundation of misperception is the ego.
Here’s a review from previous tips:
From the tip for Lesson 1 – “Mistaken perception is perceiving and interpreting the world through a self-centered mental filter, known as the ego. The ego is basically a mental program that has been built throughout your lifetime. It tells you who you are, what everything you experience is, and it gives self-referencing meaning to everything you perceive. Meaning that is created through self-referencing is mistaken perception, because it defines what you see and experience in terms of ‘you’ and what ‘that’ has to do with ‘you.’”
From the tip for Lesson 10 – “You are not who you think you are, and the thoughts that speak to you as if you are this person, are illusions. That is why your thoughts are meaningless. They appear to be self-centered, self-referencing thoughts, but the self they are centered on and referencing is not who you are.”
Since you view the world through self-referencing thoughts, but you are not the self those thoughts refer to, you do not know what anything is for. You think you know what it’s for in relation to who you think you are, but you are wrong about who you think you are. Therefore, you are wrong about everything.
What Am I?
Our special theme says, “We are the bringers of salvation. We accept our part as saviors of the world, which through our joint forgiveness is redeemed. And this, our gift, is therefore given to us. We look on everyone as brother, and perceive all things as kindly and as good.”
Yesterday I addressed a confusion that forms in the minds of some students of A Course in Miracles. The confusion is that one is a divine individual, and the projection of the world comes from the divine individual mind. (For example, the idea that Sally and Sam are projections of Maria’s individual mind.)
We are not divine individuals. The individual is part of the projection of consciousness. That means that the healing of one individual mind does not end the projection of suffering in the world. That is why our special theme says the world is redeemed through our “joint forgiveness.” However, our special theme goes on to say:
And this, our gift, is therefore given to us. We look on everyone as brother, and perceive all things as kindly and as good.
Even though the world will continue with its ego projections for humans who still believe the ego thought system, the one who awakens beyond the ego thought system will see God in all projections. This is what the Course calls “true perception.” It is as Holy Spirit shared with me in one of my first scribal messages, a message that has been named, “The Ego is Not the Devil.” In that message, Holy Spirit said:
Now you may ask, “If I change my belief about the world, will I see no more sickness, no more war and no more threat?” I’ve answered this for you before in many ways, but I will put the answers together for you now so you may see what seem to be pieces as a whole.
You are not an individual. Everyone that you experience in the world is a part of you. You are aspects of one mind. When I say that the world you experience is made by you, I am not referring to you as an individual. That would indicate that separateness is truth. When I say that the world you experience is made by you, I am referring to all aspects of the mind that believe in separateness. As one aspect of the mind lets go of the belief in separateness, more Light is brought into the whole mind. It helps to rouse the Sonship, but as the Sonship continues to sleep, nightmares of separateness continue in the world.
When I indicate that what you will see will change, the word “see” and the word “perceive” are synonymous. As long as you see a world, you perceive. I am not saying that a violent crime could occur around you and that others would see it and you would not. The body’s eyes will continue to show you the seeming actions within the world of illusion. When I say you will see differently, I mean that you will perceive differently, or to be even more clear, that you will feel differently about what you see. Your perspective will be different. Your feelings will be different and therefore, your action will be different.
This message points to true perception, which is still perception, but it feels the presence of God, and it sees the reflection of God in all projections. Bernadette Roberts called this “unity consciousness.”
The Bible teaches that God is in all projections. In the opening of the Book of John, it says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
When an individual awakens to consciousness, the world itself may not be healed, but the individual mind is healed. Therefore, it is able to see the light that “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” This seeing is the essence of true perception. Although the world may not be renewed to the point of yesterday’s scripture from Isaiah, the one awakened to consciousness sees the real reflected in the world.
We stand together, Christ and I, in peace and certainty of purpose. And in Him is His Creator, as He is in me.
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
