A universal assembly for true discernment
Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert shares with honesty and passion about the ups, downs, and all-around of the spiritual journey. Jacquelyn is transparent as she shares about the impersonal awakening process we all experience. She moves us with stories from her own journey, with direct insight from inner wisdom and with guidance from spiritual masters, both contemporary and legendary.
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.
I am in God.
God is in me.
God is all.
All is God.
When you fully accept this truth, there is nothing you will not accept in peace.
Job accepted the sores that covered his body from head to toe, because he saw that even the sores are from God.
Peace Pilgrim accepted nearly freezing to death at night on a deserted road in Arizona, because physical death is merely a transition in God.
Job and Peace Pilgrim could not be separated from God. Nothing was a curse for them. Every situation was a reminder of their love for God (truth).
That is true perception.
If that is not how you see, then there are misperceptions in your mind that can be healed.
Today’s reading says:
Everything that you see,
and the way in which you see it,
is a reflection of your feelings and your beliefs about you.
The “you” in this sentence is inclusive. It includes the body-mind-personality that you identify with as your self, and it also includes everyone and everything.
For example, if you see someone in politics as arrogant, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you see your personality as arrogant. You may never have had that thought about yourself. However, it does mean that arrogance is a belief in your mind. You believe some people are better than others, and you believe that some people can see themselves as higher on that scale of better and lesser than they actually are. Without these ideas, you could never see anyone as arrogant. You can only see someone as arrogant if you believe in worthy and unworthy or better and less than.
Every false belief that you carry in your mind is reflected back to you through your way of seeing the world, which includes but is not limited to your way of seeing the body-mind-personality that you identify with.
The entire world, including your body-mind-personality and everything else in the world, is like one big mirror. You are consciousness looking in the mirror. By looking in the mirror and noticing how you feel about what you see, you discover the beliefs and misperceptions that are hidden in your mind.
Today’s reading recommends that you use the mirror of manifestation to uncover every false belief, so it can be healed.
Again, let me emphasize that people often misunderstand this process of uncovering false beliefs. They think, for example, that if I see that person as one who takes advantage of others, that means I (this body-mind-personality) take advantage of others. That may not be true. Taking advantage of others may not be part of the script for the body-mind-personality that you identify with. It may be extremely shy and meek. However, if you feel that someone is taking advantage of others and have some sense of judgment about that, it means there are beliefs in your mind that allow you to see that perception in the way that you do. You believe in separation, autonomy, right, wrong and victimization. Without these core beliefs, you could never see one person taking advantage of another.
In order to discover what you believe, notice how you feel about everything that comes into your awareness in the world. Whenever you are not entirely at peace with what you see, practice inquiry to discover what you believe.
Thoughts of Awakening # 253
The true I rests within
the stillness deep.
The true I
lives and breathes
in God
as God
Known.
Stillness is truth.
Non-stillness is distraction
or reflection.
In reflection, there is peace.
In distraction, there is looking
for what seems not to be,
yet it exists.
A mere whisper:
“Be still
and know.”
~From our Holy Spirit
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 discover more about the Mighty Companions on their website: www.themightycompanions.com. Also, Rev. Yolanda has a site where you can purchase her beautiful, spiritually uplifting music: www.Yolanda.net/audio If you feel to contribute to their ministry, you can do so here: www.patreon.com/RevYolanda
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.
Our Member Board of Trustees and Board of Directors have nominated and elected two new directors to serve on the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is our senior board, which oversees the operation of the Member Board of Trustees. The Board of Directors is also responsible for approving Policies & Procedures, for hiring employees and for Awakening Together’s Budget.
Rev. Kelly Barber
Kelly first became conscious of a spiritual path when she was divinely led to the beautiful healing of 12 Steps to help with a drinking problem. It was there where she gained an understanding of dependence on a loving presence that began to invade all aspects of her life. Always a seeker, she discovered Awakening Together and Regina and has felt at home since. Kelly completed MPP in 2015, participates in Gentle Healing Year 2 and helps facilitate Movie Watchers Group. Kelly is Human Resource Manager for a non profit company that provides services for individuals with intellectual disabilities in a residential setting. She was born and raised in the beautiful state of Idaho and continues to live there her husband Jim, their two dogs Pete and Oscar and the newest member of the family Missy the feline.
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Andy Walker
Andy grew up in the Catholic Church but struggled to relate to its dogma and rituals along the way. His spiritual journey was sparked as a graduate student after reading The Phenomenon of Man by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, which described human evolution as a process culminating in the unification of consciousness. His internal guidance – the simple quiet listening to the resonance of his own inner being – led him to investigate various spiritual authors, teachings, philosophies, and practices along the way. He re-discovered ACIM in 2007, and its non-dual teachings reverberated profoundly during the ensuing years. In 2015, apparently ready to take a new important step on his spiritual path, he attended his first ever large-scale spiritual gathering – an ACIM conference in NYC, where he met Regina Dawn Akers and learned more about her books, online gatherings, and spiritual teachings. He continues to strongly resonate with the teachings and practices of Awakening Together, especially its teachings around paying attention to and trusting one’s own inner intuition above any external source. Andy is married, has two adult age daughters, and spends most of the year living in Southern Spain.
What is the Christ?
Our special theme speaks of forgiveness. It says, “The Holy Spirit reaches from the Christ in you to all your dreams, and bids them come to Him, to be translated into truth. … For when forgiveness rests upon the world and peace has come to every Son of God, what could there be to keep things separate, for what remains to see except Christ’s face?”
Our first special theme was, “What is forgiveness?” We saw that forgiveness is recognizing yourself as the unaffected Self. Therefore, “what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred.” Forgiveness “looks, and waits, and judges not.”
In other words, forgiveness is abiding in the qualities of Christ-consciousness—acceptance of what is, openness, non-attachment, and unconditional trust. This is often called equanimity.
When we abide in equanimity, we allow spiritual intuition to be our consistent guide. That is forgiveness.
If I am bound, my Father is not free.
Today’s lesson says, “If I am bound in any way, I do not know my Father nor my Self. And I am lost to all reality. For truth is free, and what is bound is not a part of truth.”
The truth is, we are unaffected by the world. We are the unaffected Self.
If we believe the mind’s chatter—the mind’s definition of “I”—and if we project our attention into the body as if the body is “me,” we do not know our Self. We do not recognize our nature. And if we do not recognize our nature, we do not recognize the nature of our source.
Yesterday we contemplated what we wanted to be identified with. If Christ-consciousness was your decision, then be doubly committed to spiritual intuition and the Loving All Method today. The Loving All Method is the practice of equanimity, which is the practice of identifying with your true Self. Spiritual intuition reminds you to be what you are.
If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:
Today’s reading says:
The time has come to release misperception.
The primary misperception that needs to be released is the idea that you are a body-mind-personality, or even an individual soul-mind, that is separate or distinct from all-that-is. However, there are other misperceptions too, which all stem from that one primary misperception.
I recently went on vacation with my mom. Her religious affiliation is Christian. She feels at home in a Baptist or Methodist church. Over our vacation, a couple of situations arose that might have caused anxiety in many people, but it didn’t cause anxiety for mom. She simply whispered to herself, “I am in God, and God is in me,” and then shifted to a state of surrender, peace and joy. I thought it was beautiful.
I am in God.
God is in me.
God is all.
All is God.
That is the essence of truth. That is the essence of the truth that Job and Peace Pilgrim knew and lived. That is the essence of true perception.
Thoughts of Awakening # 252
Light is a symbol
for that which shines
from within stillness,
which is absence of fear.
Stillness is peace,
because stillness is absence
of all that isn’t real.
Therefore, you can trust stillness,
because stillness is truth,
and truth cannot deceive.
~From our Holy Spirit
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 was Jia Jiang. The Ted Talk is called: What I Learned from 100 Days of Rejection.
This group was facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert.
Sharon Slyter and Michael DeForbes shared from Helen Hamilton’s teachings and books in a Satsang format about what it means to dissolve the ego and see all as the already Aware Self. Enjoy this lively discussion on Truth and listen to the deep teachings of the Northern Guru Helen Hamilton.
