A universal assembly for true discernment
Revs. Glen Ganaway and Yolanda Mapes, who are interfaith ministers, share a delightful, funny and inspiring hour of A Course in Miracles. Come join in on the fun, the laughs, and the music while unlearning the ego through the lessons and chapters of ACIM. You can find out more about the Mighty Companions on their website: www.themightycompanions.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpVzy80WCFY
In this program, Ian teaches about the traditional Mind, Body, and Spirit practice of Qigong (Chi Kung). Qi meaning life energy, referring to the energy circulating through the body, and Gong meaning cultivation or work. The two words are combined to describe a practice to cultivate and balance life energy. By following movements (forms) and a simple breathing technique, we encourage more Qi to flow which in turn allows us to feel more peaceful and at One with ourselves.
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.
Regina’s Tip for Lesson 11
The tip for lesson 1 defined mistaken perception as “perceiving and interpreting the world through a self-centered mental filter, known as the ego.”
Yesterday’s tip pointed out:
“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 seem to be self-centered, self-referencing thoughts, but the self they are centered on and referencing is not who you are.”
NTI Luke 12 says:
“Right now, you think you are focused on the world. … Even your thought that you are focused on the world is an illusion within the mind. What you are focused on, and have always been focused on, is thought. In every moment in your seeming interaction with the world, you are focused on thought.”
These three readings point out why your thoughts show you a meaningless world. You do not look directly at the world as it is now. If you did, you would see with true perception. Instead, you interpret everything you see and experience through self-referencing thoughts, which are centered on a self that isn’t you.
In other words, the foundation for everything you see, in the way that you see it, and for everything you experience, in the way that you experience it, is a mistake.
Since the foundation for the way you interpret the world is a mistake—it’s based on a you that you aren’t—everything you see and everything you experience is misperceived. Your meaningless thoughts show you a meaningless world.
What is the ego?
The ego is almost everything we know and consider to be real. It is:
It seems that life without all of this is no life at all. Or at best, it is life in a meaningless void. These words—no life at all, and meaningless void—are a perfect description of the ego’s idea of what exists beyond itself.
It is true that what most humans seek as God, truth, Heaven, Nirvana, etcetera does not exist, but that is because we are currently limited to the ego’s point of view. In order to discover what truth really is, we need to let go of:
Where do we start?
Most of us start with what causes our own suffering. It’s the easiest place to start. When we feel a twinge or stab of pain, we can look at our own ideas in the moment and find a piece of ego waiting to be let go. But eventually we will learn that in order to transcend the self and realize ultimate truth, we must let go of more than our suffering. We need to let go of anything that isn’t true—anything and everything that comes and goes—in order to realize the one eternal reality, which is the only actual truth.
This is well stated in A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 189, paragraph 7:
Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.
I can be free of suffering today
“Be glad today! Be glad!” Gladness is the best way to walk this path. It is also possible to drag one’s feet and cling to the unreal as if it is a prized possession, but that will not change the fact that you are on the journey to truth now. It will only make the journey longer and harder.
Be glad! Choose the easy path of joyously letting go of anything that you recognize as ego. In the words of Peace Pilgrim, make it a “quick relinquishment.”
The faster you let go of something, the easier awakening is. The longer you hold onto something, the more it hurts. In that way, awakening is like a great big game of Hot Potato.
Interestingly, even though awakening can be fairly easy, most people choose to make it hard. That is simply because of the value we put on that which has no value at all.
Meditation Options
Yesterday’s tip pointed out that the ego comes from consciousness—from the loop of believing attention—and when you believe the ego, you are a puppet of unreality.
The human isn’t reality. It’s not what you are, although it is your current level of experience. Since the human is not reality, it is always a puppet. Even when the ego dies its final death, the body-mind-personality is still a puppet. Instead of being a puppet to the ego, it is a puppet (manifestation) of truth. It is truth manifest in the world.
It’s important to realize that the human body always follows a script, which can also be called karma, but the script can be a script of clarity and wisdom instead of a script of ignorance and delusion. Since you are awareness and not a human body, you can decide which script to cast attention on, and that is the script that will move the body-mind-personality.
When you choose surrender, you choose to follow the script of wisdom instead of the script of delusion. Once Self-realization occurs, you are at a vibrational level where following wisdom is natural, yet the wisdom that moves the body-mind-personality is still script. When awakening to reality has occurred, the awake-mind is beyond the script entirely, yet the body-mind-personality is moved by the wisdom-script until the body dies a physical death. That is why Nisargadatta Maharaj said:
Yes, l appear to hear and see and talk and act, but to me it just happens, as to you digestion or perspiration happens. The body-mind machine looks after it, but leaves me out of it. Just as you do not need to worry about growing hair, so I need not worry about words and actions. They just happen and leave me unconcerned, for in my world nothing ever goes wrong.
His world is reality.
Ramana Maharshi described it this way:
[Bliss] is the state of unceasing peace of mind, which is found in the state of absolute quiescence, which resembles inactive deep sleep. In this state, in spite of the activity of the body and the senses, there is no external awareness, as in the case of a child immersed in sleep (who is not conscious of the food given to him by his mother). A yogi who is in this state is inactive even while engaged in activity. This is also called sahajanirvikalpa Samadhi (natural state of absorption in oneself without concepts.)
Thoughts of Awakening # 314
Notice when you are thinking,
and then say,
“I am willing not to think.
I am willing to be guided
by the finger of silence.”
Realize you need not know
at the level of mind
to be happy.
You need not know
to be moved.
You only feel you need to know,
because it gives you a sense of identity.
But isn’t a sense of identity
separate from the all?
From our Holy Spirit
Michael Deforbes leads a weekly meditation on Sundays during the weekly program “There Is Only One.” His meditations are inspired by non-dual teachings, direct path teachings, and Buddhist philosophy. With each meditation, Michael takes us on a journey through a non-dual perspective via teachers and traditions such as Helen Hamilton, Scott Kiloby, and Pema Chodron’s Tonglen practice. Each week a new and different meditation is shared but with the Universal theme of encountering the direct experience of Truth as The One.
Enjoy this most recent meditation!
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 enlightened 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 experience.
The speaker is Dave Mochel. The Ted Talk is called: “What are You Practicing Right Now?”
This group was facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert.
