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The Body as a Means

Beingness

“One of the forms your freedom shall take is the freedom from sickness. For in your realization that the body is simply a means, that the body is simply a vehicle of experience, which is the product of Mind, you shall find, in your realization that everything comes from Mind, that never shall you choose sickness. For sickness is nothing more than a device, a carefully laid plan that you use to substantiate your belief that you can be separate.”

“If ever, hear me well, if ever you are sick – from the slightest bodily sniffle, to the worst bodily disease you can imagine, from the worst psychiatric disease you might define, back to the slightest sigh that is not joy – if ever you experience any of those, you are believing that the body is an end.”

“How is it that so? As you believe that the body is an end, you believe, as I have told you, that it has existence of itself. And thus you believe that your body can become sick, somehow independent of you. And thus you believe that you, separate, isolated being, can be the victim of your body. While without the belief in separation, it could not be so.”

“Arising out of mind, it would be possible for you to choose what the world would call physical symptoms. But in your awareness that the body is but a means, and that everything comes from Mind, there would never be resistance. Because there could never be the belief that you were the victim of your body. And therefore, your perception would not be of illness. It would simply be of experience.”

Namaste
The Other Voice by Brent Haskell – Chapter 8, Sections VII – IX – The Body as a Means

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Jeff Foster and Scott Kiloby

Beingness

A teleconference call recorded July 11, 2010 with Scott Kiloby and Jeff Foster.

You may listen with “streaming audio” by clicking the blue arrow icon; or you may download the MP3 file to your hard drive. Each recording is over an hour long so it may take a few minutes to download.

Part 1 audio: [listen here or download MP3] download MP3 file.

Part 2 audio: [listen here or download MP3] download MP3 file.

Scott Kiloby

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But It’s Not Real, Right?

Teaching

You cannot know that your ego and the world are unreal until you experience Reality. A direct Revelation of God, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Holy instant, and the Holy relationship are the experiences that lead you to this awareness. You must experience your Real Self, and you must experience Oneness, to know that what you have been experiencing is not true.

Many students reach a point where they try to accept the intellectual idea that the world is not real without having experienced Reality. They end up deeply conflicted, because they still value the world. Sometimes, they use this idea as a form of denial so as not to deal with painful issues in their life. They will say things like, “I shouldn’t feel this grief/depression/anger, because it’s over something that isn’t real, right?” or “I shouldn’t want a special relationship/money/material objects/recognition, because they aren’t real, right?” But you wouldn’t feel these emotions or desires, except that they are for things that have value for you – which means that they are very real to you. No one values what they know is not real, and you cannot force yourself to accept something is unreal until you have experienced it as unreal.

You are not asked to give up your values, but to invite the Holy Spirit in to “purify” your values. They will not be taken from you, but, rather, used by the Holy Spirit to teach you what parts of them have real value, and what parts do not. When you learn what does not have value, it will naturally fall away from you. You cannot force this.

“You have regarded the separation as a means for breaking your communication with your Father. The Holy Spirit reinterprets it as a means of re-establishing what was not broken, but has been made obscure. All things you made have use to Him, for His most holy purpose. He knows you are not separate from God, but He perceives much in your mind that lets you think you are. All this and nothing else would He separate from you.” (T-14.VI.5)

A Course in Miracles is meant to be used in the course of an ordinary life. You are not asked to live a life of deprivation and denial. You are not asked to hide away from the world, but to live right in the middle of it with an awakening mind. You are not asked to be a hypocrite, pretending to not value what you do value. You are asked to invite the Holy Spirit to help you sort out what has real value, and what does not. This is not something that you can do without the Voice for Truth guiding you. If you decide for yourself what is real and what isn’t, what has value and what doesn’t, you are doing the Holy Spirit’s job.

~Liz Cronkhite

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Living Realization

Beingness

This is an audio recording of a Living Realization meeting held June 19th, 2010.

You may listen with “streaming audio” by clicking the blue arrow icon; or you may download the MP3 file to your hard drive. The recording is an hour and 46 minutes long so it may take a few minutes to download.

Audio: [listen here or download MP3] download MP3 file.

Living Realization Text – Chapter Five. . . .

Living Realization
Scott Kiloby

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Reincarnation

Teaching

In the ultimate sense, reincarnation is impossible. There is no past or future, and the idea of birth into a body has no meaning either once or many times. Reincarnation cannot, then, be true in any real sense. Our only question should be, “Is the concept helpful?” And that depends, of course, on what it is used for. If it is used to strengthen the recognition of the eternal nature of life, it is helpful indeed. Is any other question about it really useful in lighting up the way? Like many other beliefs, it can be bitterly misused. At least, such misuse offers preoccupation and perhaps pride in the past. At worst, it induces inertia in the present. In between, many kinds of folly are possible.” (M-24.1)

I always find it funny to read what A Course in Miracles has to say about reincarnation (Manual for Teachers, #24). It says that reincarnation is not real, yet it says you don’t have to give up your belief in it. It says that the only value in the belief in reincarnation is that it reinforces the idea that life is Eternal. Yet, because you can only accept salvation now, the past, whether in this “lifetime” or in another “past life,” is irrelevant. The Holy Spirit always takes what we already believe and purifies it. It keeps what is in line with Truth, and disregards the rest. With reincarnation, then, it seems that there is only this one aspect of it that the Holy Spirit would have you keep – that it strengthens your acceptance of Eternal Life.

While the Course says that you do not have to give up a belief in reincarnation, as someone who feels that she is supposed to specifically teach other teacher’s of God, I have some concerns with it. No student who believes in it has ever come to me believing in it only because it teaches them that life is Eternal. In fact, most find something in the idea that keeps them from having to accept God now. Why should they deal with their feelings of unworthiness, guilt, and fear of God when they can do it in another life time? The ego gets great comfort from the idea of reincarnation. It is a belief that individuality is real, and that it just switches egos over time. It reinforces the idea that time itself is real. It validates the idea of many minds, spirits, “lives” over one Mind, one Spirit, one Life – one God.

Some students fear that they have to be enlightened to get into Heaven, and they don’t think that they can reach enlightenment in one lifetime. The belief in reincarnation helps them deal with their sense of failure for not being enlightened. This judgment of failure, though, is from the ego. You cannot fail, for you are Part of God, and it is your Holy Spirit that works through you. Your ego is irrelevant.

Heaven is an awareness of Oneness. Once you experience It, you recognize that you are already there. You remain in the world as a teacher of God to reach others who have not yet welcomed Oneness. The experience of Oneness motivates you to shed your ego and walk towards enlightenment, leading others to God as you do so. Heaven is right here. (For more on this, revisit my blog of December 2, 2006).

I have had “past life” experiences myself. But they were always metaphors for what I was going through at the time, and I have come to look at them as such. It is possible, I suppose, to think that since we are all One Mind, that rather than tapping into a life we individually have experienced, we are tapping into “other lives” in the collective dream when we have these past-life experiences. But in any case they are past – only now can you accept God.

“The emphasis of this course always remains the same;-it is at this moment that complete salvation is offered you, and it is at this moment that you can accept it. This is still your one responsibility. Atonement might be equated with total escape from the past and total lack of interest in the future. Heaven is here. There is nowhere else. Heaven is now. There is no other time. No teaching that does not lead to this is of concern to God’s teachers. All beliefs will point to this if properly interpreted. In this sense, it can be said that their truth lies in their usefulness. All beliefs that lead to progress should be honored. This is the sole criterion this course requires. No more than this is necessary.“(M-24.6)

~Liz Cronkhite

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What is your awareness?

Awareness

Please don’t start this until you’re really in the mood, because this is going to be an experiential process, not just something to read or think about. For example, I’ll be asking you a series of questions. They’re very easy, obvious questions, but for this to work, you can’t just read the question, you have to stop, even if just for a couple of seconds, and consider the question. Please take your time. It’ll be worth it.

Ok, I’ll start right in.

First of all, how is it that you are aware? How is that happening? Did you manufacture or create your awareness? What, exactly, is it anyway? What is it made of? Of what does it consist? Does it really make any sense that signals running around in our brains can cause awareness?

Notice that our awareness has no shape, no size, no extension. It doesn’t really seem to be a pinpoint. And yet it doesn’t seem to have any size beyond that either. It seems to extend to whatever it is that we’re aware of.

Notice that it really doesn’t seem to be a substance of any kind. It doesn’t seem to be made of anything. And yet it is more real than substance because without it we would never be aware of substance.

So it confounds the entire idea of materiality. Matter is so prominently substantial, and yet without insubstantial awareness all the substance of matter would be pointless.

Notice how absolutely gentle awareness is. Unless what it is aware of has something to do with force, awareness itself is absolutely gentle.

Notice how everyone’s awareness, when considered without regard to anything one might happen to be aware of, is exactly the same for everyone. Though we might think that what we’re aware of might be special, awareness itself is never special.

Now notice how our very existence would actually have no meaning at all were it not for the fact that we’re aware of existing. Notice how we can’t even be aware of anything existing without awareness, because we can’t be aware of anything existing without awareness without being aware of just that.

And now, notice that it actually in fact is the greatest thing we could ever know, because without it we wouldn’t be able to know anything. Notice that it actually in fact is greater than any other experience we could possibly have because without it we wouldn’t be able to be aware of any experience.

Of all the magnificent phenomena in the entire universe. Of all the astounding miracles you could ever imagine. None is more magnificent or astounding as our own, living awareness. Just consider for a moment how much of an astounding miracle it actually is that we are aware

Notice that if we weren’t awareness in the first place, we couldn’t imagine ourselves to be something other than awareness. We have to BE awareness before we can think we’re something else. That being the case, what’s the point in thinking we’re something else?

And now consider this, can there possibly be anything more true than awareness. Just try to imagine something that is more true than awareness. Everything we can possibly know about Truth could not be known unless there was awareness in the first place to be aware of it.

Amidst everything else you may believe about yourself, the one thing that is most certainly real about you is that you are aware. No matter how much what you’re aware of may be fantasy, your awareness itself always remains a reality.

Notice that the ego uses the phrase “my” awareness, as if it were your real self and awareness were something it made and owns. The greatest catastrophe in the world is how we allow our ego to deceive us about the true nature of our awareness.

Now, say to yourself:

There is no doubt that I am aware and that I am being, and this incontrovertible reality of my awareness owes none of its reality to any beliefs. I am clearly awareness regardless of whether I have any beliefs about awareness or not. All the problems I used to have were all due to identifying with the fraudulent sense of self that constituted the ego. But now that it is clear that awareness is the only real self I have, I no longer believe the ego is who I am, thereby dissolving my commitment and allegiance to the ego, which is, as a result, gradually evaporating.

Now, Say to yourself, I AM. That’s a meaningful sentence, is it not. And you are certain of it. You have no doubt about it. But now ask yourself, Who do you believe the I is that is saying I AM? Notice the sense of self that believes it is the I. Be aware of that sense of self. Notice that you are aware of that sense of self. Now notice that it is awareness that is aware of that sense of self. Now notice that awareness is the knower and that sense of self is what is being known. Now notice that you have to be awareness itself as the knower in the first place before you can be aware of seeming to be that sense of self that is known. So notice now that what you really are is awareness and not the sense of self that you thought you were. So now identify yourself as awareness itself instead of that sense of self that you thought you were. Now feel what it feels like to be awareness itself. Make awareness itself now your sense of self, knowing yourself as awareness. Awareness aware of itself. Awareness being aware of awareness itself as awareness. Awareness aware of awareness is what the pure “I” is.

Awareness aware that what it is is that it is is I AM THAT I AM.

So, say to yourself, I am that I am. Keep saying to yourself I am that I am letting its meaning sink in deeper and deeper. Now as you keep saying to yourself I am that I am begin to deepen your experience of what those words mean, that what you are is that you are. Now as you keep deepening your experience of the words I am that I am, let the words gradually begin to fade away until you are no longer saying I am that I am but are only experiencing the awareness of what those words mean.

Now rest silently in that awareness for a few moments. Notice what purity and stillness there is in this center of yourself. Notice how clear it is that this is indeed what you truly are. Notice how easy and natural and effortless it is for you to identify as this awareness that you truly are. Notice how easy it will be to shift to awareness as your sense of identity any time you choose to do so.

Well, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for trying it out.

Much Love,

Ben Gilberti

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Jesus teaches…

Teaching

4. Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic. 2 Yet there is a plan behind appearances that does not change. 3 The script is written. 4 When experience will come to end your doubting has been set. 5 For we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by. (FIP, W-158.4) (URTEXT, W158 L4)

“Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic.”

What would happen to your beliefs about the “physical” world if you learned that what seems to have happened one second ago was no more that a thought in your mind intended to keep you believing that the world is real?

ACIM teaches that ego made the entire universe…from astrophysics to quantum physics.

Question: Do you believe that something really happened one second ago? As a “body” am I really smart enough to understand anything?

Now, be still and listen to the truth. You will be told all you need to know.

Love you,

ken

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Living Realization

Beingness

This is an audio recording of a Living Realization meeting held May 8th, 2010.

You may listen with “streaming audio” by clicking the blue arrow icon; or you may download the MP3 file to your hard drive. The recording is an hour and 42 minutes long so it may take a few minutes to download.

Audio: [listen here or download MP3] download MP3 file.

Living Realization Text – Chapter Three. . . .

Living Realization
Scott Kiloby

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Living Realization

Beingness

This is an audio recording of a Living Realization meeting held May 1st, 2010.

You may listen with “streaming audio” by clicking the blue arrow icon; or you may download the MP3 file to your hard drive. The recording is an hour and a half long so it may take a few minutes to download.

Audio: [listen here or download MP3] download MP3 file.

Living Realization Text – Chapter Two. . . .

Living Realization
Scott Kiloby

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To be Like a Leaf

Beingness

Enlightenment is just a fancy word for being totally surrendered. It’s like being a leaf. The wind blows you every which way and you are just glad to go in whatever direction it takes you. And you know that wherever you are, that is exactly where you are supposed to be because that is where you are.

You aren’t trying to figure out how to be a better or more spiritual leaf. But if those thoughts arise, that is fine too. You are not arguing with other leaves or trying to be heard or seen above all other leaves. But if that arguing or trying happens, that is fine too. You are not fighting the wind. And yet if fighting happens, that is fine too. You are just content moving in whatever way the wind (life) moves you.

Even when you are moving, you are naturally at rest because you are not separate from the wind. There is no you and the wind. There is only One Life, appearing as two. You are the One pretending to be a separate leaf, dancing with your friend “wind.”

You are happy being exactly where you are, whether anyone is paying attention to you or not, and whether anyone thinks you are an enlightened leaf or just a plain old leaf because you know that there is no real boundary between those two.

From: Reflections of the One Life, by Scott Kiloby www.kiloby.com

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