1. INTRODUCTION
Shaloha!
I’ve a rabbi friend who used to be a hippie in Hawaii, coining the mixture of ‘shalom’
and ‘aloha’. ‘Shaloha’ is a fun, universal way of saying: “AAH! It’s YOU, the one I love and am so
happy to greet; always, peace and the flow of the divine to you!” Sooo….
Shaloha!
***
Let us begin, together (for we ARE, always, together; one emergent in spirituality is precisely this loss
of the spell of separateness), by accepting this invitation: resting IN, Grace.
May I suggest something helpful here? We will call it, ‘making our home in the breathing Light and
Life of All.’
Since we are all, always, ‘happy, willing learners’, remembering that we actually exist in the ‘infinite
loveliness of the Mind of God’ (Jeshua, Way of the Heart), we know that we can enjoy being in
innocent play, discovering, enjoying, integrating, and becoming more of all that is IN that lovely
Mind, true?
So: simply place an open hand on your lower belly. (Yes, I know. You may have mistakenly been
taught that the ‘body’ does not exist. While this is true is a specific sense, the conclusion drawn
that it can be ignored, and that anything that even sounds like it involves the body, is some sort
of evil ploy of ego, simply does NOT follow. It’s a mis-application of logical analysis masquerading
as ‘truth’.)
Since it is doubtful you deny the body’s existence when you are hungry and reach for a fork, let us
also translate the use of the body toward usefulness: the full and radical awakening in the ONLY
thing that will ever fulfill us as SOUL: to be the living freedom of Christ Mind, IN the ‘world’, but not
at all OF it, no longer in even the slightest recoil of Fear.
All that is required is the simplicity of a little willingness.
Now, simply notice. Stop reading, and simply, notice, for one full minute. Do not ‘analyse’, and
be careful of a dastardly habit that usually develops when we spend so much energy trying to
understand, for example, ACIM, or Way of Mastery, or the Bible, or….the habit of constantly going
into the conceptual/chattering mind to recall statements from within the very texts that have as
their ONLY goal, our freedom FROM needing them any longer. So, just notice.
Awareness, which is everything AND the power that liberates the Soul, develops not by ‘taking
thought’ (Jeshua), but moving beyond it, via the doorway of step one: simple noticing, of what
actually IS, as you directly experience it, in your utterly sovereign, infinite, innocent, and free being.
Now that your minute is up, reflect: what DID you notice? Take a few minutes and jot things down
in a ‘discovery journal’. You may have noticed that the body under your hand, has movement. That
movement, you may have noticed, is associated with what we call the ‘breath’ (hint, did you know
the breath is NOT actually ‘physical’ at all? In it, if we are willing to discover, is a sweetness, and in
that living flow of energy, is LIGHT, itself. It is the ‘light that lights all things.’)
What else did you notice? Perhaps how often the mind chatter distracts simple noticing AWAY from
exactly where you are, and exactly what is arising IN your actual awareness (as opposed to what the
thinking mind may want to believe is its ‘awareness’).
***
Next step: start again, but this time, as you ‘rest’ in noticing just what IS, there where your (pardon
me, ‘the’) hand rests on ‘the’ belly, you may be able to notice more, and do this more easily. This is
because, already, YOU are electing to release an ancient habit of recoil in Fear. Fear always creates
contraction. If you are familiar with, say ACIM, you may recognize that fear is always the opposite of
Love. Because ONLY Love heals, you may begin to recognize that simple noticing, WITHOUT going to
the thinking mind, is ALREADY a choice for Love.
This MAY be your very first experience in the recognition that Love can be present in all conditions,
and does not require use of the mind to ‘explain things away’, nor to minimize even a smidgen of
your own direct experience, EVEN if it is sitting quietly, with the hand on the belly.
ACIM/WOM/other genuinely helpful aids in awakening ALL share this though, of course, the words
they use [fingers pointing at the moon, NOT the moon itself] will appear differently:
Love, being Unconditional, is capable of embracing ALL conditions.
In this embrace, ALL conditions are released from our projections of fear,
And we realize Freedom.
***
Now, hand on belly, innocently discover what it is like to want/desire to feel the breath expand
– not in the upper chest – but down and into – the belly. You will notice, if you are truly, lovingly
in ‘presence’ that by simply desiring this, it begins to happen! YOU have instantly changed your
experience by wanting to move –IN the embrace of Love – toward a quality of greater Wholeness, OF
Love, itself.
What you just read may startle you; it may never have occurred to you, before. However, rest
assured, that IF you simply ‘sit with’ it, embracing your own direct experience, you may –already –
begin to easily recognize that this is so.
***
Next, IF and only if you want to keep playing and discovering, let that one breath become, say, ten
breaths, done in the same manner. Again, simply rest in noticing. Let this meaningful use of time be
as long as you want it to be!
There…welcome back to the sanctity of our communion and communication, for every encounter,
properly embraced, IS Holy, and holiness, itself.
You have probably already noticed that noticing involves the willingness to feel.
ACIM students will immediately understand that feeling is rather important, for two unalterable
reasons:
• Truth cannot be described, it can only be experienced.
(ALL genuine experience involves the capacity to feel, whether it involves what appears
to be a ‘body’ [which is only an effect of Mind], or not!)
• The Holy Instant [the epitome of experience ACIM talks about] is FELT.
IF you are from a background in ACIM, you MAY have been wrongly influenced to minimize the
important role of feeling, confusing it with something ego makes. This is a huge, huge error in the
mis-application of the thinking mind.
If we simply look at these two, fundamental offerings from ACIM, can it make any sense, at all, to
MINIMIZE the role of feeling? Perhaps, the direction to go is a healing, refining, and mastery that
awakens the liberation of enlightened ‘feeling’? Just perhaps, we MAY come to discover that feeling
is an extraordinary doorway INTO the unconscious ‘obstacles’ held in the mis-use of the mind, itself,
and thus a quantum leap in dissolving the very obstacles within us to the PRESENCE of Love!
***
As a dedicated happy learner (the mind of a happy learners is NEVER closed), let me ask you: would
you be willing to enjoy spending just, say, 2-5 minutes a day, just once, doing the above exercise,
simply to: a) cultivate the quality of simple noticing and b) to see WHAT you may notice, as it arises
in the preciousness of your own, direct experience. (This is very different than trying to ‘swallow’
what others may be telling you about your experience.)
‘Experience’, by the way, includes the following: sensation, feeling, maybe emotion, and mental
perception (images, specif memories, chatter in the mind, etc.). AS we truly develop the capacity
for genuine ‘Presence’, emerging out of the first steps of simple noticing, we find that Awareness is
profoundly powerful, infinite, and all-encompassing. We will find that it transcends the limited circle
of thinking thoughts. The Presence of Love IS what we want, truly, and it is NOT a thought, Idea, or
Belief. It is Reality.
Might we agree that ANYTHING that helps us to heal/awaken in – and as – Reality Itself is of
precious value, indeed? But I suppose this will depend on the following:
What DO you want, TRULY?
This fundamental ‘Wonder Question’ is perhaps Jeshua/Jesus’ most famous of all, and it’s an
absolutely critical question to ask, not once, but ALL THE TIME, in each moment, and with each
breath.
***
Finally, let me offer you something to chew on:
The quality of breath is the capacity of Light and Awareness that is actually operating in and through
us. For the breath is not physical, not merely a part of Nature (thus not illusory in any final sense),
at all! We find that what Jeshua calls the ‘breathing Light and Life of ALL’ IS, just that: the Light of
BEING.
As long as we remain habituated to the hope that the thinking mind can carry us into what is
transcendent of all thinking, we will remain in the ‘sphere of mere thinking’, where we can only think
about..what? Words, themselves symbols of Ideas, BOTH of which are not the living Reality that any
genuine spiritual curriculum has as its ONLY true goal.
Would we rather think about Love, Peace, and Freedom, or BE them?
Are we willing to discover, via our own direct experience, what may be truly helpful, or will we settle
for, (a) what our own merely thinking mind has selected and become attached to as word/idea and, (
b) what others may be ‘telling us’ from their own thinking minds? Hmmmmmmmm…..(the sound of
innocent wonder!)
It’s really up to YOU (as it always is).
***
Grace. Now, hand on belly, allowing ‘breath’ to flow more deeply and freely, let us simply
contemplate it, IN the flow of this relaxed, far more open, state of what I call ‘’feeling-communion”.
Grace. That we may fully awaken from all that is represented by symbols like ‘ego’, and ‘fear’; that
we may be utterly transformed INTO Christ Mind, itself, is –if contemplated fully – a mind-blowing,
astonishing, scintillating, beyond all words Revelation…and ALL revelation IS this: the expanded
flow of Light Itself in which we SEE directly, immediately, in KNOWING, and NOT in the slower
vibrational field that is ‘thoughts about’ what is seen.
Anyone who has had a genuine revelation knows this is true. What if we could deliberately cultivate
the conditions of ceaseless Revelation?
What would it be like to finally, truly, and wholly, feel, know and BE this flow of Light, Itself,
embracing, translating, transfiguring ALL conditions? What might arise in the direct field of our own,
precious, knowing experience? Might we come to see WHY Jeshua talks about the ‘breathing Light
and Life of ALL’?
Are we willing to go beyond words and Ideas, into a deeper sphere of translation of our very ‘I’?
***
I look forward to being with all of you at the Conference in October, 2012. Last year, it was
communicated to me (at the level of immediate ‘feeling -knowing’, within the sphere of Light that is
where real communication occurs, IN God) that I would be sent back to the U.S. soon, BECAUSE so
many ARE now ready, for the next steps. When the invitation came from Kathy, I was not surprised,
but I WAS ‘delighted’ in the place where we truly ARE, one, in recognition that Time can have only
the purpose the ‘Holy Spirit’ gives it. We get to play together in sacred, holy, amazement, receiving
the gift of Grace itself ever deeper: the Reality of Love!
I come to be with you ONLY that our radiant, amazing SOUL may be set freer to (a) re-cognize Itself
and (b) we may incarnate it more fully, as we – together – embrace in full responsibility the world
of Separation that once we wanted, and want no longer, SO that it may be utterly transfigured IN
us, AS us, and FOR all beings; the world of separation and fear will hardly ‘disappear’ UNTIL, and
UNLESS, we do.
Let us begin NOW to devote this Conference to Holiness and begin, today, to offer our ‘little
willingness’ (the only thing Grace asks for, because it respects our sacred sovereignty), that Miracles
alone will be our desire, and our willingness to receive them, together, for what God creates can
only BE ecstatically happy learners, always wanting the direct taste of MORE of God!
The Inspired Call of this conference is one to cross a certain threshold, that itself is beyond the reach
of even the most refined capacities of the conceptual/thinking mind, which can only bring us closer
to the threshold, but not across it.
For the past 25 years, my brother has taken me deeply into the depths of ‘illusion’ itself, and beyond
them, AND meticulously shown me how to integrate heaven and earth, until the poles of duality
explode into Reality, Itself. (Hint: calling something an illusion does NOT heal, nor transfigure,
anything. Only loving embrace in ever-deepening Presence, DOES.)
It is my honor, my privilege, and my devotion in ceaseless gratitude FOR the Grace that heals all
things – the proof that GOD IS LOVE, and only this – to abide with anyone and everyone as happy
learners, dissolving the most subtle obstacles to the presence of Love, SO that Love may operate
THROUGH us even more than it is already. What more fun could there be than that??!!!!
I will occasionally be writing to you as our time of togetherness drawn nearer, a gift of Grace TO us,
and feel free to ‘get to know me’ by simply perusing our website: wayofmastery.com There, you will
find lots of video clips, and more, that will help you sense who I am and what I am all about, as well
as gain some familiarity with the Way of Mastery, the living pathway Jeshua has been guiding into
existence FOR all of us, and teachings that in many wondrous ways, are a ‘furtherance’ of what He
began when ACIM was given to (and principally for), Helen Schucman.
Let us be thankful our Brother has a Plan, knowing where we truly want to arrive. If this is not proof
of the Grace we all share, I don’t know if there can BE any!
Shaloha!
Jayem
(all rights reserved, copyright January, 2012)
Heartfelt Publishing, PMA
