In the Year 1 tip based on ACIM Workbook Lesson 362, I shared this excerpt from Floyd Henderson’s book, The Final Understanding:

So many take their favorite teaching method and its teachings as the final step, adopting a religious or spiritual persona and fixating in that role for the remainder of the manifestation…doing spiritual stuff and eating spiritual stuff and wearing spiritual stuff and—in all of their spiritual doingness—living in what they take to be a most non-natural, supernatural, “elevated,” “higher” (and yes, “separate and different”) manner.

NTI addresses this same stumbling block in one of my favorite paragraphs in the entire book:

The search for truth is not truth itself, so do not stop there. Many have heard this call to search and have accepted it, but they have stopped, thinking themselves complete. You are not complete until you are Truth, so do not stop at the call. It is your beginning, but it is not your end. To find the truth, you must walk until your end.

This is what was so important about the last section of A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students. We learned that there are two awakenings, awakening to unity consciousness and then awakening beyond unity consciousness, beyond the pure I Am presence, beyond subject awareness. It is so important to know “keep going.” Even when you think you are complete, keep going. We are blessed to have this knowledge.

Today’s reading cautions us “not to judge the symbols. Do not look for truth there.” This is the same as the teaching from NTI Revelation, Chapter 1, which says, “Do not idolize anything within the world or any symbol or any thought that is sent to lead you from the world. Hold to them as they are useful, but let them go when their usefulness has past. You are to keep moving by letting go until you find yourself with nothing left to hold onto.”

In other words, the spiritual path can be a final obstacle that we get stuck on. Our favorite spiritual teacher can be a final obstacle that we get stuck on. Our favorite scripture or spiritual teaching can be a final obstacle that we get stuck on. Even our own clarity can be a final obstacle that we get stuck on. We want to avoid these common ego traps, which are a lot like quick sand. First we get stuck, and then we are sucked in and swallowed.

That’s why one of Awakening Together’s five core values is:

We affirm one true Self as the only truth. We live this value by embracing what is helpful on the path of awakening without idolizing any spiritual doctrine as truth.

We are here to become empty of everything, “to keep moving by letting go until you find yourself with nothing left to hold onto.”

Thought of Awakening #8

Today’s reading is a request to commit to the inner Teacher. From this point forward, I am not your teacher. I am a facilitator, a helpmate. The teacher resides within you. I am here to help you become Self-reliant with your inner Teacher.

The outer teacher helps awaken the student to the inner Teacher. The inner Teacher awakens the student to consciousness. Truth Itself awakens consciousness to Truth.

Today’s reading begins by giving you authority to teach, and it emphasizes that the one you teach is yourself. I’d like to share some comments about teaching. I have been a teacher and course writer since 1988. My career began in the Air Force, where I developed courses that taught new recruits how to be Radio Communications Analysts. When I got out of the Air Force, I got a job as a software trainer and course developer. Later, I transferred to soft skills, which included topics like management training, communication skills, change management, etcetera. In late 2004, I received a calling to write for Holy Spirit and teach what I write. I’ve been doing that since then.

In these 30 years of writing courses and teaching, I’ve learned that the best way to learn something is to teach it. Jesus must have known this too, because he wasn’t with the disciples for long before he sent them out to the villages to teach. (See Matthew 10 in the Bible.)

Most people make a mistake when they think of teaching. They think that in order to teach, you must be an expert in the field. That’s not true. Every single course I have ever taught, from software to soft skills to spiritual, has always been at the leading edge of my own learning. When Jesus sent the disciples out to teach, they were far from being masters. However, he knew that it was only through doing that they would learn about the wisdom that resided within them.

I’ve mentioned that inner wisdom is repressed for most humans. Teaching (sharing) is a great way to bring wisdom out of repression into conscious awareness. However, when you teach you cannot teach from the idea, “I am supposed to know” and “I am teaching others.” When you teach, you teach from the idea, “I don’t know” and “I am here to learn.”

Some of you answered the call to teach when I put out that call last year. Now, I will revise that call somewhat. I would like you to consider teaching from your own journals, from the writing you do with Spirit as you go through Gentle Healing. The wisdom and guidance that comes through that writing is the wisdom and guidance that will guide you “ever so gently, to the point of knowing your Self again.” There is nothing better to teach, because there is nothing more important to learn.

In the past, I taught from my journal through the Holy Spirit Guides series. Now, I teach through my journal when I teach Seven Steps to Awakening on Sunday nights.

Please consider teaching from your journal. When you do, although you are teaching yourself, it is important to communicate as if you are teaching others. In other words, you want to have the intention of fully communicating so that others can understand. When you teach in this way, more clarity will come to you, and what you understood before will become enhanced “by a hundred times as much.” (Ref: Matthew 19:29) Note: Those of you who participated in dyads at the Fall Retreat understand the value of communicating in this way.

Some of you teach in the Sanctuary now from books written by others. Consider repurposing your teaching time to share from your journal instead. If you feel there isn’t enough material in your journal to fill the timeslot, begin your teaching time by sharing from your journal and then go to the book you are sharing from after that. Another option is to continue with the book you are sharing from now, but whenever it connects with your journal, bring your journal into the sharing.

If you do not have a teaching time in the Sanctuary, but you are willing to answer this call to teach, contact us. We can rearrange our schedule somewhat in order to find additional time slots. If we can’t find a time slot for you now, we will put your name on a waiting list until a time opens up.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the first couple of paragraphs in Chapter 10, because I feel there is a lot of confusion about the value of teaching. However, let me take another moment to comment on another key point in Chapter 10.

It’s important that we realize the difference between the eternal and the temporal. This is one of the most important of all spiritual realizations. Take time to notice over and over again that you—the seer, the watcher, awareness—are ongoing, while everything that you perceive comes and goes. Thoughts come and go; emotions come and go; relationships come and go; problems come and go; but the witnessing presence that you are remains constant. Notice this.

Today’s Thought of Awakening appears below:

The primary theme in today’s reading is this:

Our thinking is not who we are;
therefore, it cannot lead us to know what we are.

We have learned to trust our thinking, which is one of the most foolish lessons we’ve ever learned. In fact, the three most foolish lessons we have ever learned are:

1. I am a self
2. I am this self (body-mind-personality)
3. I am a bad/lacking self

When you look at those three lessons, you see everything that we need to unlearn.

Of course, the self that believes these ideas cannot heal us of these ideas. That is why we need to learn to trust the guidance that comes from within, which may sometimes seem contrary to our will. What we perceive as ‘our will’ is based primarily on the last two lessons in the list above. What we perceive as ‘our will’ is a defense against the belief that we are bad or lacking, and it upholds the idea that we are a specific body-mind-personality. What we perceive as ‘our will’ is the obstacle to realizing our truth.

That’s why today’s reading says, “Do not ask for what you want. Ask Me what it is that you need, and I shall lead you to it.”

When we ask for specific things or circumstances that we want, those specific things are based on the fears and desires of the specific bad or lacking self that we think we are. Therefore, believing we need or want those things reinforces the idea that we are that self. By letting go of what we think we want, and by asking in trust for whatever it is that we need, we loosen our grip on who we think we are.

Today’s reading says, “Do not be confused. Your will is not the same as God’s, but when you lay your will aside and walk with God, you will know that you are one with Him.”

A common confusion is this idea: I am one with God, so what I want for myself is also what God wants for me. However, that confusion ignores the fact that you are confused about what you are. God is not confused about what you are. God’s Will is that you know your truth. That’s why you have been called from within to awaken. That’s why you are on this spiritual path. However, most of what you think you want still comes from mistaken ideas about who you are.

You are one with God. That is what God wants you to know—that is what awakening is—but that is not learned by reinforcing that you are the person you think you are. God’s Will is different from your will. Your will is based on mistaken ideas about who you are, and your will reinforces those ideas. God’s Will is the truth of what you are.

The reading asks us to let go of “old habits and old ways of thinking.” We can start by doing these two things:

1. Practice letting go of judgments as taught in yesterday’s tip.
2. Ask for what we need instead of asking for what we want. We can practice with the daily thought. When we contemplate the thought we can ask, “What would You have me see or realize from today’s thought,” and then see what unfolds from asking that question.

Today’s Thought of Awakening appears below:

Kate Brennan will interview Bill Free for our Awakening Together Guest Satsang on March 15, 2020 at 7:30 am ET/5:30 am MT. Please Note that this live interview will be taking place in the morning (a.m.). There will also be a replay of the recorded Satsang with Bill Free at 7:30 pm ET/5:30 pm MT that same evening on March 15th. Join us for either or both!

Bill loves and shares the teachings of A Course in Miracles. He teaches non-duality and the Direct Path, through lectures and guided meditations. Bill enjoys many of the great masters’ teachings of The Self I Am in the investigation that reveals and embodies Pure Presence. The embodiment of Christ Consciousness is present in every moment.