Lesson 234

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Salvation,” to contemplate Lesson 234, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:

AWA Description L

Father, today I am Your Son again.

Today, we will notice our true Self throughout the day. Here are some questions you can use to help shift your attention for short glimpses of awareness throughout the day.

What is here, present, that has always been here and present?

What is constant (non-changing) as what I am?

What sees this sensation/pain?

What is aware of this sound?

What is here as I while this mood is present
that was also here as I when another mood was present?

What is giving attention to these thoughts?

What is aware of the body and the environment the body is in?

Also, here are some very brief exercises that you can try at different times during your day today. I recommend taking a break from whatever you are doing at 4 different times in your day, and giving your full attention to one video during each break. Each video is under 10 minutes long. Don’t just watch the video. Try the experiments as you watch or immediately after watching the video.

Loch Kelly – Awareness of Awareness

Richard Lang – Who are we really? (1B)

Douglas Harding – Out of Body Experiment

Greg Goode – A Guided Self-Inquiry Exercise

The videos above are for breaks during the day. This last video (14 mins) is for nighttime, just before going to bed:

Rupert Spira – How Do I Practice Self-Inquiry?

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Salvation,” to contemplate Lesson 233, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:

AWA Description K

I give my life to God today.

Nisargadatta Maharaj said that in order to realize the Self, you need the right teacher. He went on to say:

“Generally speaking, there are two ways: external and internal. Either you live with somebody who knows the Truth and submit yourself entirely to his guiding and shaping influence, or you seek the inner guide and follow the inner light wherever it takes you. In both cases your personal desires and fears must be disregarded. … If you are earnest, whatever way you choose will take you to your goal. It is the earnestness that is the decisive factor.”

Our way is a combination of the external teacher and the internal teacher. We have structure laid out by the external—by A Course in Miracle Workbook for Students, by Gentle Healing Homework Assignments, by Tips from Regina—but most of the time we are left alone with our internal teacher, inner spiritual intuition. Within the structure given by the external, it is the internal we need to submit ourselves to. We submit ourselves to its “guiding and shaping influence” by asking, “What am I to do now?”

Today’s lesson is very clear. An important part of salvation is surrender. We surrender our thoughts, we surrender our actions, and we surrender without questioning the guidance of the teacher. (Note: Nisargadatta does indicate that not all external teachers are trustworthy. Therefore, the wisdom of the internal must guide us in selecting the external.)

It’s important to notice that Nisargadatta said “your personal desires and fears must be disregarded.” If we let our personal desires and fears lead us to ignore the guidance of the teacher, we will remain attached to the ego.

True surrender transcends the personality-mind entirely.

There is a paragraph from The Teachings of Inner Ramana that has been coming to my mind over the last two days. That paragraph says:

“Watch the mind carefully. Notice how it wants to judge my words or judge my methods. Notice how it wants to choose against me and decide what is best for itself. That is the confusion-mechanism. That questioning and doubting feature, which is a core mechanism within the mind, is a separation-creation mechanism that keeps you blind to the truth.”

First, we can ask ourselves if we are remembering to seek the guidance of the inner teacher by asking, “What am I to do now?” Next, we need to ask if we are following the intuition we receive, or are we judging for ourselves whether we want to follow or not?

Yesterday we recommitted to following the instructions laid out by one of our external teachers, A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students. Today, we recommit to seeking guidance from the inner teacher, and we commit to follow the guidance we receive.

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Salvation,” to contemplate Lesson 232, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation by Michael Langford and Karen Worth:

AWA Description J

Be in my mind, my Father, through the day.

Throughout this section of A Course in Miracles Workbooks for Students, we are using this process:

1 – Each day read and contemplate the “special theme” that we are currently working with. Currently that theme is, “What is Salvation?”

2 – Contemplate the day’s workbook lesson.

3 – Spend time in meditation.

4 – Recall the day’s workbook lesson hourly.

5 – Spend at least a brief time with the workbook lesson and/or meditation before going to bed at night.

Maybe you’ve remembered to follow all five steps in this current process, maybe you’ve forgotten part of it, or maybe you decided to skip part of the process because you thought it wasn’t important for you. Today is an opportunity to recommit to the entire process that is requested in this section of the workbook.

I look at it this way: We have been vigilant for the ego. However, we joined this group because there is a calling in us. The calling is to be vigilant for salvation. It’s what we want. That’s why we’re here, so let’s do it.

NTI Luke, Chapter 5 says:

“Old habits must be let go, for old habits will not usher in a new day. With old habits, all things remain the same. But with new habits, all things are possible.

I have come to teach you new habits. You will learn these habits by practicing them as I ask. Remember Me, and practice.

You will catch yourself practicing the old habits, for this has been your way until now. Slipping into old habits does not ruin the new ones. So when you find yourself doing this, forgive yourself your attraction to the old by stepping away from the old and stepping into the new. Each time you do this, you help yourself to unlearn the old and to learn the new.”

So today, let’s remember our desire for salvation and recommit to practicing the workbook lessons in the way the workbook asks us to.