This message is from Regina’s personal journal. It is dated January 3, 2006.
RDA: Holy Spirit, sometimes it seems as if our love of A Course in Miracles and our desire to awaken separates us from the ones we love and live with. There seems to be a perception on their part and on ours that we ignore them in favor of Course-related activities. What would you share regarding this concern?

Spiritual Intuition: A Course in Miracles is a guide to Love, but the course is not Love Itself. Love comes from the awareness and acceptance of the Truth and Joy of Oneness.

RDA: When the ones we live with do not seem to share our desire to be aware of this truth . . . It seems that we have to choose between living in the world with them and consistently working on forgiving the world with You. What can you share with us?

Spiritual Intuition: Stillness holds the answer that you seek. When you feel torn between loved ones in the world and the Love of God, you have forgotten the peace of stillness. To feel torn between any seeming [set of] options is to view the situation through the ego, through the belief in separateness and separate wills.

RDA: Yes, that’s clear. But in the moments that I feel torn, separate wills do appear to be real. How can I let my perspective be changed?

Spiritual Intuition: Your answer is stillness. When you are experiencing through the ego, you are experiencing through the belief in separate wills. When you do this, separate wills seem very real indeed. There is no reason to deny that your experience is your experience. Such denial would be fear, and that would not be helpful.

When you seem faced with the experience of separate wills, know that you are having that experience because you are using the filter of the ego. Then, be willing to put the filter of the ego aside. Be completely willing to take your mind into silence. Let go of all thoughts that tell you that you know anything about the situation. Realize that any knowledge you think you have about the situation is “knowledge” that you learned through the ego. Therefore, its purpose is to support the ego. Then, remember your purpose and let all prior-learned knowledge go.

Let Me say that again: Let all prior-learned knowledge go. Notice that I did not make any exception in that statement.

When you have done this, your mind will be still. Then ask Me in complete humility, “What am I to do now?” The answer will come to you. You may also feel a strong temptation to doubt the answer that comes. The temptation to doubt comes from the belief that you are separate from Me. Do not listen to the temptation to doubt. Listen to what you heard first within the stillness. Give your faith and gratitude to that thought, for that is your answer.

RDA: This is truly great. Thank you. But, I have one more question. The work described above sounds like it will take time. Sometimes, I seem to need to make a decision very quickly. For example, I could have someone seeking help and expressing concerns to me on the phone while Jasmine is pulling on my arm and asking me to hang up and spend time with her. How do I find stillness among the hectic, pressure-filled noise?

Spiritual Intuition: Remember quickly that “hectic, pressure-filled noise” is a perception, and accept that it is nothing more than that. Then ask, “What is the answer now?” That will be enough. Trust the answer that comes. It is the best for everyone.

At the Satang and Sangha retreat, which was the second week of the 2019 Fall Retreat, retreat participants did a group exercise. In this exercise, the groups determined things they could do to increase their desire for awakening.

First, the groups contemplated Key Quotes on True Desire.

Next, they followed inspiration to develop these methods of increasing the desire for awakening:

Group 1:

Each morning, review and contemplate quotes from the handout, “Key Quotes on True Desire.” This handout has quotes from Michael Langford, Adyashanti, Sri Annamalai, Nisargadtta Maharaji, and NTI.

A few insights from the group’s contemplation of those quotes:

• Something early, every day.
• If it’s to be, it’s up to me: focus on trusting Spirit.
• I am being drawn by Spirit, to Spirit.
• I focus on being present, I really want to awaken.
• I strengthen desire by constant focus on desire.
• Be earnest, honest, and gentle with yourself.
• I’m starting right here; I focus on my willingness.
• Feel gratitude when looking back to see how guidance has worked in your life to bring you to this point.
• Seeing guidance in your life increases desire.
• If it comes into your mind to practice, stop and do it–even if it’s only 3-5 seconds.

Group 2:

DIFFICULT SITUATION Exercise

1. THINK OF A DIFFICULT SITUATION – recall it to your mind.
2. Feel the negative feeling associated with it; do not need to list qualities; just be with the anxiety or worry for a moment.
3. Ego-Imagination: Go into your mind, and think of the outcome that your MIND would like to have, that could include indulging in revenge, yelling, or any other form of typical human ego based response, and then contemplate the outcome between you and those involved, what would happen, and how you would feel.
4. Spirit-Imagination: Go into your mind, and image what an awakened person would do, and see yourself responding that way, with a still mind, resting in awareness, and see the outcome, and see how you would feel.

POEM

May I desire liberation
More than anything else;
May I desire this more than my breath
Or any specific outcome or desire

~ ~ ~

Devotion/Desire building –
Body Movement,
Spiritual Re-dedication

1. Left and right hands in front of your chest, palms facing chest, eyes closed.
2. Say your spiritual aspiration out loud or silently, extend your left hand down. For example,  extend your left hand down as you say, “I want to live with God/awareness every moment.”
3. Say outloud or silently – while extending the right hand down, “I will unconditionally attend to my aspiration.”
4. Bring both hands together in a prayer pose over the heart and say, “May I desire liberation above all else.”
5. Bow your head.

THE FIVE AND ONE – written exercise

1. On the left side of a piece of paper, list FIVE specific things – physical things, conditions or circumastances (one at a time) that make you feel happy.
2. To the right of each one, indicate about how LONG, in your opinion, that this would make you happy.
3. Take a moment to notice that these things are temporary and do not last.
4. Now go within and contemplate ONE thing that will make you permanently happy. Deeply reflect on that.

Group 3:

An Affirmation to the Universe

I am willing to see Surrender as the only way.
I make an uncompromising decision to surrender to my Higher Self. I take suffering, mine and my brothers’, to my Higher Self. I let my Higher Self create, build and sustain the desire necessary for my Awakening. I trust the everything that happens is for my Awakening, and for the highest and best good for all of humanity.

Group 4:

Visual and/or Tangible Techniques for Remembering and Increasing True Desire

Put gold or colored stars on a calendar each time I feel I’ve taken a step towards my true desire. For example, add a star on each day that I contemplate truth teachings or meditate.

Create a paper chain out of construction paper. A link gets added to the chain each time I feel I’ve taken a step towards my true desire. The step is written on the newly added link. For example, “Meditated for 1 hour.”

Sit in devotion each day while holding the paper chain.

Keep a gratitude journal. Write about the gifts that I receive as a result of my true desire. For example, “Today I spontaneously understood what was meant by the First Principle of God.”

Keep a true desire journal. Each evening, review my strengths, progress, and weaknesses from that day related to my true desire. This must be done non-judgmentally. The purpose is to keep my commitment or lack of commitment in awareness so I can consciously strengthen commitment.

Make a vision board with symbols that inspire my true desire.

Carry a stone or wear a bracelet that represents my true desire.

Bow in silent devotion daily.

Journal with the inner teacher each day to receive my daily bread.

Use a planner booklet to keep track of the steps I take each day that feel like an outer manifestation of my true desire. For example, “Today I meditated for 40 minutes & journaled about my upset.”