Sidebar – Page 568

Gentle Healing 2 ~ Day 154: Commentary on Calm

August 3, 2020

Please read and contemplate the following commentary in the same way that you read and contemplate the Thought of Awakening. The commentaries are designed to enrich your understanding of the Thoughts of Awakening.

~Commentary on Calm~

Fear is a voice that has had your attention because you have believed it has something to give. You listened to fear, and thoughts of fear, because you believed they spoke of your own best interests.

Watch your mind when it is busy with fear and turmoil. Notice it believes your best interests are at heart.

Now turn your attention away from the thought (or fear) of your own best interests, and place your attention with your desire to know the all as one…to know the all as in harmony and in love.

Focus your mind and your heart and all of your attention on the desire to know the all as one harmonic whole. Seek nothing but this, and you are immersed within a confident peace that is calm.

~From our Holy Spirit

Thoughts of Awakening # 154

The spirit of God is one.
This is an irrefutable fact.

And yet,
the mind refutes this fact daily,
moment-by-moment
with every thought.

This is why you must surrender.
Not to surrender
is to listen to the mind,
which tells constant stories of untruth.

To surrender
is to be led by not listening to mind,
which frees the spirit
to remember.

~From our Holy Spirit

Homework for this week

Practice daily meditation for 30-60 minutes each day.
Practice the “Loving All” Method.
Thoughts of Awakening, 148-154 including Commentary on the Inner Guiding Force (with 151), Commentary on Surrender (with 152), Commentary on Self-Love (with 153) & Commentary on Calm (with 154).
Read NTI Romans 11-13
The reading shared on Tuesday night was from The Transparency of Things by Rupert Spira, 166-172, Consciousness and Being are One & The Fabric of Self.
Exercise: This is a follow-up to an exercise we did in Week 72. But instead of noticing clinging and pushing away in our meditation, we’re going to notice this in our daily lives. Notice when you’re lost in thought, anxious, pause and notice, am I trying to cling to this or push it away. Realize that either of these actions works to make our sense of self more dense. Remember your desire to know yourself as consciousness. If you’re trying to hold on to something, let it go. If you’re trying to push soemthing away, let it be. Or, just return to practicing the Loving All Method.

Minutes for the Member Board of Trustees Meeting ~ 6/1/20

August 3, 2020

Click the link below to read the minutes from this meeting.
(To learn more about the Member Board of Trustees, click here.)

Read this meeting’s minutes

Being Aware of Awareness Meditation 8-3-2020

August 3, 2020

In this program Anne Blanchard facilitates one of the core practices of the Awakening Together community which is Awareness watching Awareness meditation. 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 Awareness watching Awareness meditation. All are warmly welcome.

Listen to Audio

Gentle Healing 2 ~ Day 153: Commentary on Self-Love

August 2, 2020

~Commentary on Self-love~

To be calm, one must remember to love one’s Self above all else. One must be willing to love one’s Self above one’s fears or concerns. For if you look, you will notice that when the mind is consumed with fear or turmoil, you are focusing the mind outward on the worry or concern. Since your attention is there, your love is there also. So when you notice that you are not at peace, you must choose to love your Self.

To love your Self, turn your attention from the worry or concern, and notice what you need most now. If you place the attention inward, away from the problem, with the desire to love your Self, you will notice that what you need most now is to be calm. When love gives its attention to its Self with love as its only purpose, it sees what gift to give, and it is perfectly guided in how to give it.

Trust the intention that is your love. Follow it to the practice of truly loving your Self.

~From our Holy Spirit

Thoughts of Awakening # 153

To be calm
remember that you want to hear
the Voice and intention
of all love.

Consciously tune your ears
away from the noise
to the silence that is within.
Make the decision to breathe
within the silence.

Rest in silence,
asking nothing
and notice the feeling of calm.

Let calm overtake you.
Let it become loud.
Be willing to listen
only to the sound of calm.

~From our Holy Spirit

Homework for this week

Practice daily meditation for 30-60 minutes each day.
Practice the “Loving All” Method.
Thoughts of Awakening, 148-154 including Commentary on the Inner Guiding Force (with 151), Commentary on Surrender (with 152), Commentary on Self-Love (with 153) & Commentary on Calm (with 154).
Read NTI Romans 11-13
The reading shared on Tuesday night was from The Transparency of Things by Rupert Spira, 166-172, Consciousness and Being are One & The Fabric of Self.
Exercise: This is a follow-up to an exercise we did in Week 72. But instead of noticing clinging and pushing away in our meditation, we’re going to notice this in our daily lives. Notice when you’re lost in thought, anxious, pause and notice, am I trying to cling to this or push it away. Realize that either of these actions works to make our sense of self more dense. Remember your desire to know yourself as consciousness. If you’re trying to hold on to something, let it go. If you’re trying to push soemthing away, let it be. Or, just return to practicing the Loving All Method.

Dissolving the Ego~ 8-2-20

August 2, 2020

Sharon Slyter and Michael Deforbes shared from Helen Hamilton’s teachings and books about what it means to dissolve the ego and see all as the already Aware/Self. Join in and listen to the deep teachings of the Northern Guru Helen Hamilton.

Listen to Audio

8-2-20 Weekly Gathering: “Letting Bliss Succeed”

August 2, 2020

Weekly Sunday Gathering with Rev. Gloria Wells

Title: “Letting Bliss Succeed”

Description: Rev. Gloria shared about how using two questions on your thoughts helps to keep you in a state of detachment. This allows the thought blocks to be seen through and thus no longer blocks the bliss.

Reading: Kathy Smith read from Detachment from Attachment written by Tejguru Sirshree Tejparkhiji.

Listen to this Recording

Watch Video

Gentle Healing 2 ~ Day 152: Commentary on Surrender

August 1, 2020

Please read and contemplate the following commentary in the same way that you read and contemplate the Thought of Awakening each day. The commentaries are designed to enrich your understanding of the Thoughts of Awakening.

~Commentary on Surrender~

Surrender is an act of not knowing while also desiring to be led by knowledge.

Surrender is an intent. It is the intent to be used by all, for all, with the good of all as one’s only purpose.

True surrender cannot be accomplished by one who has his own best interests in mind, because when one has an eye on his own best interests, he has also defined himself as apart from the all.

One can only truly surrender when he forgets to consider his best interests, and he asks the allness to make of him a slave, because he knows that to serve without thinking is joy, and to think without serving is the cause of all pain.

~From our Holy Spirit

Note from Regina: Sometimes in writings such as this one, people have a strong negative reaction to the word “slave.” In this case, “slave” is a devotional term. As you contemplate today’s commentary, consider this dictionary definition of slave:

A device that is directly responsive to another, such as a printer to a computer.

Thoughts of Awakening # 152

Be calm in the midst of turmoil.
This is the first step of surrender.

One who is not calm
cannot surrender,
because one who is not calm
cannot hear the Voice of his lord.

To be calm,
remember that you want to surrender.

This helps,
because you will also remember
that you cannot surrender
when your ears are tuned
to the voice of fear and turmoil.

~From our Holy Spirit

Homework for this week

Practice daily meditation for 30-60 minutes each day.
Practice the “Loving All” Method.
Thoughts of Awakening, 148-154 including Commentary on the Inner Guiding Force (with 151), Commentary on Surrender (with 152), Commentary on Self-Love (with 153) & Commentary on Calm (with 154).
Read NTI Romans 11-13
The reading shared on Tuesday night was from The Transparency of Things by Rupert Spira, 166-172, Consciousness and Being are One & The Fabric of Self.
Exercise: This is a follow-up to an exercise we did in Week 72. But instead of noticing clinging and pushing away in our meditation, we’re going to notice this in our daily lives. Notice when you’re lost in thought, anxious, pause and notice, am I trying to cling to this or push it away. Realize that either of these actions works to make our sense of self more dense. Remember your desire to know yourself as consciousness. If you’re trying to hold on to something, let it go. If you’re trying to push soemthing away, let it be. Or, just return to practicing the Loving All Method.

Being Aware of Awareness Meditation 7-31-2020

August 1, 2020

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.

Listen to Audio

Gentle Healing 2 ~ Day 151: Commentary on the Inner Guiding Force

July 31, 2020

For the next several days, we will take a break from NTI to read and contemplate commentaries that support the current day’s Thought of Awakening. The commentaries are from Thoughts of Awakening: 365 Thoughts for Contemplation.

Please read and contemplate each commentary deeply, in the same way that you read and contemplate the Thought of Awakening. Each commentary is a gem in the treasure chest of spiritual wisdom.

~Commentary on the Inner Guiding Force~

The inner guiding force is birthed from silence, which means “not thinking.” It is described as a prodding or nudging, because it moves to action without reason or justification. It leads to non-action without telling why.

The inner guiding force is a guiding force and not a forcing force, because the guiding force requires (or respects) your cooperation. It does not ask of you that which you do not want to give, and if you want to give what it does not ask, it surrenders and rearranges itself in response to you. It this way, it is a perfect leader, because it leads as it would have you follow and it follows as it would have you lead.

The inner guiding force is discussed as if it is a separate force, but it cannot be. It is the perfect attunement of the allness as oneness, because the oneness is allness and the allness is one.

You cannot go against the will of the inner guiding force, because the inner guiding force provides in response to you. And yet, you cannot know the fulfillment of your part as the inner guiding force unless you listen as it listens and act as it acts.

Through being one with the inner guiding force, you know yourself as one with it.

Through driving the inner guiding force, you experience yourself as separate, and yet you are experiencing yourself in a way that can never be true.

— From our Holy Spirit

Thoughts of Awakening # 151

The inner guiding force
is the force of all knowledge,
all love
and all compassion.

And yet,
the inner guiding force
is not recognized by one
who thinks he has knowledge,
knows love
and acts compassionately.

The inner guiding force
is known by one
who knows he does not know
and can not know,
and so he surrenders
to that which does.

~From our Holy Spirit

Homework for this week

Practice daily meditation for 30-60 minutes each day.
Practice the “Loving All” Method.
Thoughts of Awakening, 148-154 including Commentary on the Inner Guiding Force (with 151), Commentary on Surrender (with 152), Commentary on Self-Love (with 153) & Commentary on Calm (with 154).
Read NTI Romans 11-13
The reading shared on Tuesday night was from The Transparency of Things by Rupert Spira, 166-172, Consciousness and Being are One & The Fabric of Self.
Exercise: This is a follow-up to an exercise we did in Week 72. But instead of noticing clinging and pushing away in our meditation, we’re going to notice this in our daily lives. Notice when you’re lost in thought, anxious, pause and notice, am I trying to cling to this or push it away. Realize that either of these actions works to make our sense of self more dense. Remember your desire to know yourself as consciousness. If you’re trying to hold on to something, let it go. If you’re trying to push soemthing away, let it be. Or, just return to practicing the Loving All Method.

This Sunday in the Sanctuary ~ August 2, 2020

July 30, 2020

Join us at 10:15 am ET/ 8:15 am MT for Our Weekly Sunday Gathering with Rev. Gloria Wells

Topic: “Letting Bliss Succeed”

Reading: Kathy Smith will be reading Detachment from Attachment written by Tejguru Sirshree Tejparkhiji.

*Weekly gathering is held every Sunday morning at 10:15 am ET/8:15 am MT in the Awakening Together Sanctuary. Join us after the Gathering for our Fellowship Time, hosted by Rev. George Maddox.

Enter Sanctuary Here.

Join us at 1:30 pm ET/ 11:30 am MT for The Freedom Practice Sangha

This will be a time of sharing our inquiries, insights and challenges, listening to others, or just knowing that we are in community as we find that undefended place within ourselves that longs to be free. This program will be facilitated by Anne Blanchard. She also will be acting as admin since this is the time the Sanctuary Director normally takes a break.

Join us at 6:00 pm ET/ 4:00 pm MT for Something Genuine with Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert

Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert facilitates this program, in which Awakening Together members and friends join together to watch and discuss TED talks that reveal the Truth of ourselves and our universe based on the actual experience of ordinary people. Their insights are genuine—not based upon theory or dogma—and give us a “man on the street” perspective on what we are coming to learn through Awakening Together.

Join us at 7:00 pm ET/ 5:00 pm MT for The Guiding Light with Rev. Regina Dawn Akers

Regina Dawn Akers reads selections from the book Perfect Brilliant Stillness by David Carse. The purpose of this inspired book study is to learn to stop focusing on words and concepts. Look where the pointers point! Be still and realize Perfect Brilliant Stillness just as it is. Join Regina as she dives deep into this enlightened book study which isn’t a book study at all! Here’s a link to the ebook: Perfect Brilliant Stillness

Join us at 9:00 pm ET/ 7:00 pm MT for Dissolving the Ego with Sharon Slyter & Michael DeForbes

Sharon and Michael will be sharing from Helen Hamilton’s teachings and books. They will be exploring deeply what it means to dissolve the ego and see all as the already Aware/Self. Join in and listen to the deep teachings of the Northern Guru, Helen Hamilton.

Here are direct links to join us in the Sanctuary:

Enter the Sanctuary Here: Click Here

Awakening Together Internet Broadcast: Listen Live on AT Radio