Awakening Together

A universal assembly for true discernment

NON-DUAL PURPOSE & PRACTICE

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Come to the Retreat House for your own Personal Retreat!

The Awakening Together Retreat House in La Veta, CO is here to support you in taking your next step with God.

Personal Retreat Stays

Are you in need of some spiritual renewal time? If you are called to spend some time apart, the Awakening Together Retreat House is open to support you. Whether you would like to support your journey with some time in silence, share the joy of being around friends on the path, deepen in your contemplation practice and perhaps hike or explore in the afternoons, the Retreat House is open to serve you.

The Retreat House has five bedrooms, shared bathrooms, WiFi, and gorgeous mountain views. Breakfast is included in your lodging rate as well as dinner from Saturday through Wednesday. A guest refrigerator and pantry area is provided for you to store your own food for lunches and for Thursday and Friday dinners – although La Veta has some amazing restaurants that you just might want to try!

Retreat House Caretakers

Jane Marie and Pieter started as the Retreat House caretakers in April and are ready to serve you during your time at the retreat house. For more information about coming for a Personal Retreat please contact us at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!

Are You A Graphic Artist?

One of the greatest blessings in this community is the endless willingness of the members to serve the membership of Awakening Together.  We are excited to announce a new volunteer opportunity. We are seeking a Graphic Artist.

What are we seeking help with?  We are seeking a volunteer, for a short-term project, who can help us with the quality of graphics.

If this service area speaks to you please contact us through this link. If you’re interested in providing service, but aren’t called to this opportunity, please visit our Volunteer Page.

Thank you for your consideration and your service to the Awakening Together community.

Our Sanctuary Director is on Vacation

Our Sanctuary Director, Saina Fernandez, is taking a well-deserved vacation this week. In her absence, we ask for your patience while we work to get recordings of your favorite programs posted in a timely manner. If you find a program is not posted on the Daily Update on the day you expect it, please check back the following day.

If you have questions about a particular program, feel free to Contact Us.

Again, thank you for your patience.

The Midnight Library Book Club, Wednesday, September 8, 2-3 pm ET

Join us Wednesday, September 8 from 2 to 3 pm in the Sanctuary when Revs Helen Avery and Doreen Bonnet will be hosting a book club for the book The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
The book tells the story of Nora Seed who finds herself in the Midnight Library – a library between life and death with an infinite number of books, each one providing a chance to try another life she could have lived.

Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

The book touches on themes such as regret, grief and acceptance and is full of inspiring quotes.

It is a fairly quick read and is available on Kindle, Audible and Amazon for those who may not have yet read it. (It’s 8hr 49 mins on Audible if you fancy cramming it in before Wednesday ). But all are welcome even if not having read it.

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The Midnight Library Book Club Questions

  1. Did you enjoy this book and why/why not?
  1. What would be another title for this book other than the Midnight Library? Matt Haig says one of his inspirations was It’s a Wonderful Life that also had heavier themes  and started quite bleak but ended on a cheerier note. (Bedford/Bedford Falls George Bailey/Ryan Bailey).
  1. What do you think of Nora Seed at the beginning? How does she evolve during the book? What do you think of her at the end?
  1. There are many lives that Nora tries on. Were there any of the lives that spoke to you the most?
  1. There are many quotes in this book – some from famous philosophers like Bertrand Russell, Henry David Thoreau, Lao Tzu, and Jean-Paul Sartre, and some from Mrs Elm – were there any that stuck out for you?

    Here is a list of some to jog the memory.

  1. Nora is presented with her Book of Regrets. Some of which come and go, some that reoccur. Did the book make you realise any of your own regrets as indications of where you haven’t had acceptance yet? Or make you revisit the I Am Bad belief?
  1. Nora Seed had Mrs. Elm and the midnight library and Hugo Lefevre had his uncle Philipe and the video store. What would be your portal to your life?
  1. What did you think of Hugo Lefevre’s role in the book?
  1. There are many themes in this book like chess, fire, climate change, nature – are there any that stood out for you?
  1. What did you think of the ending? Was it what you expected?
  1. What was your own take-away from The Midnight Library? Has it made you reflect on your own path at all?
  1. Can you compare this novel with other novels you have read? Which ones and how?

Inner Ramana Now Available in Kindle Format!

The Teachings of Inner Ramana is now available as a Kindle ebook on Amazon!

About The Teachings of Inner Ramana:

When Sri Ramana Maharshi’s body began to fail him, his devotees became concerned that their beloved teacher was leaving them. He responded by saying, “I am not going anywhere. Where would I go?” Ramana seemed to die in 1950, but in 2009 Regina began to hear him as her inner teacher. Although she had not studied this great sage, Ramana reached out to her. The clarity of his teachings is startling. He led Regina to the Heart, the Self, “I am that I am” with direct simplicity.

The Kindle Edition:

Click to order from amazon.com in the US

Also available through the online Amazon Kindle Store in Your Country

Registration is Closed for The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi

The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi

This course is 6 weeks long.

Ramana Maharshi was born on December 30, 1879 in a village in Tamil, India. His father died when he was twelve, and he went to live with his uncle. At age 16, he experienced a sudden and extreme fear of death to which he responded by immediately seeking the truth of the Self and became Self-realized. Six weeks later he followed an inner calling and ran away to India’s holy hill, Arunachala, where he remained for the rest of his life. For years he was a silent ascetic. He spent many hours each day deep in samadhi. Years later he emerged from silence to share the wisdom of the True Self with those who came seeking it. Before the end of his life in 1950, thousands of people had come to him from all over the world. Ramana Maharshi became known as one of the greatest saints to have ever graced this planet with Presence.

Join us as we contemplate the teachings of this great sage. We will also read stories about about him told by the people who knew him best.

In this course you will:

1. Consider the legend, the living example and the teachings of a great sage and determine what is most helpful to one’s own spiritual process.

2. Practice self-inquiry in order to distinguish between what is and is not the Self.

3. Practice removing attention from the non-Self and placing it with the Self using a spiritual practice that is most suited for you now.

Structure of Course in Forum Format: Six weeks including one introductory video and six weekly instructional videos, each about 45 minutes in length.

Specific Information:
Course dates: June 16 – July 28, 2021.
Cost is $120.
Textbook needed is The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi.
Course is offered in the Awakening Together Forum. Familiarity with the forum is helpful.
Registration closes on June 13.
For more information on this class, click here.

Curious About Kabbalah? – Take this 3 Week Course by Awakening Together

Introduction to Kabbalah

This class is 3 weeks long.

One strength of Kabbalah is its deep contemplation of the nature of God. Rabbi David Cooper wrote, “The closest we can come to thinking about God is as a process rather than a being. We can think of it as ‘be-ing,’ as verb rather than noun. Perhaps we would understand the process better if we renamed God. We might call It God-ing, a process, rather than God, which suggests a noun.”

Join us in Introduction to Kabbalah, contemplate God with us, and see if some of your concepts do not fall away as you grasp the meaning of Reality.

In this class you will learn:

1.   The participant will consider the question “What is God?” deeply from more than one Kabbalistic point of view.

2. The participant will contemplate the Kabbalistic teaching of “ongoing creation” and, with awareness of this spiritual law, determine how he/she wants to live/be.

3. The participant will contemplate and become clear on the difference between spiritual belief and spiritual practice.

Individual Homework Time Commitment: 30-60 minutes per day, 5 days per week

This course is being offered in the Forum Format: In this format, the course is three weeks including one introductory video and three weekly instructional videos, each about 45 minutes long.

Specific Information:

Course dates are May 19 – June 9, 2021.
Cost is $60.
Textbook needed is The Way by Michael Berg.
Class is offered in the Awakening Together Forum. Familiarity with the forum is helpful.
Registration closes on May 16.
For more information on this class, click here.

Click to register

Playsheet for this Month’s Movie: As It Is In Heaven

As It Is in Heaven is a 2004 Swedish film written and directed by Kay Pollak; it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in the 2005 Academy Awards.

The story focuses on a lonely but gifted conductor, his yearning to create music that will open the heart, a church choir, and its idiosyncratic members who live in a small rural town in northern Sweden.

This movie is a beautiful representation of one man’s search for love and meaning in a seemingly simple life. The dream of creating music that opens the heart is realized in real-time as viewers of this movie recognize the symphony and harmony of the lives of the characters who, themselves, learn to live with open hearts.

This movie is no longer available on our website. It may be available on YouTube at this link.

Here is a link to a playsheet designed to facilitate contemplative movie watching: As It Is In Heaven Playsheet.

Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert will lead the Movie Group’s discussion of this movie on Sunday, February 28 at 8 p.m. ET.

Introducing this Month’s Movie: As It Is In Heaven

As It Is in Heaven is a 2004 Swedish film written and directed by Kay Pollak; it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in the 2005 Academy Awards.

The story focuses on a lonely but gifted conductor, his yearning to create music that will open the heart, a church choir, and its idiosyncratic members who live in a small rural town in northern Sweden.

This movie is a beautiful representation of one man’s search for love and meaning in a seemingly simple life. The dream of creating music that opens the heart is realized in real-time as viewers of this movie recognize the symphony and harmony of the lives of the characters who, themselves, learn to live with open hearts.

This movie is no longer available on our website. It may be available on YouTube at this link.

Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert will lead the Movie Group’s discussion of this movie on Sunday, February 28 at 8 p.m. ET.

Debut of Herein Lies the Peace of God, Friday Jan. 8 at 8 pm ET

“Herein Lies the Peace of God,” a new program featuring Reverends Jacquelyn Eckert and Glen Ganaway, begins Friday, January 8 at 8 pm. In this program, Jacquelyn and Glen will review and discuss A Course In Miracles from a non-dual, interfaith perspective.

 

The program will discuss the main themes and key principles of the Course and how they are lived  in our shared lives.

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