We read and meditated on several passages from this little book.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do.
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to “glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

Message from the Hopi Elders
We have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour
And there are things to be considered.

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in the right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.

It is time to speak your truth
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold onto the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, and push off and into the river,
Keep our eyes open, and our head above the water.
See who is in there with you and Celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally.
Least of all ourselves.
For the moment that we do,

Our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over, Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that you do now must be done in a sacred manner
And in celebration.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for…”

The Elders, Hopi Nation, Oraibi, Arizona

You are what you think. Everything you have believed, accepted, experienced, and internalized comprise a vast matrix or grid that defines what we might call your energetic signature. What you have learned forms the perceptual lens you use to subconsciously filter all of the information in your worldview. Your experience of your five senses makes up what you think of as your reality. IN order to change something in that perceived reality territory, you must alter or change the arrangement of your thoughts and feelings. Trying to fit new knowledge into what you already think you know is not the best way to make a paradigmatic shift

Conversation…

When you start to habitually ask open-ended questions of the universe, it starts to answer back, teaching you new things. When you change the way you observe and encode your reality, you are changing the conscious structure of what you choose to observe. You are becoming a co-creator in this new reality template that you have begun to experience. When you do this consistently, with a feeling of internal conviction and resolve, your experience of the so-called physical world… will morph and change.

Einstein said you cannot do things the same way and expect different results. You have to go outside the linear pattern of habitual thinking and have a new thought, which you then apply to your perception of reality, in order to get a different outcome. You have to paint outside the lines.

Our life experience is based on what we focus on. The following questions are designed to cause you to experience more happiness, excitement, pride, gratitude, joy, commitment and love every day of your life. Remember, quality questions create a quality life.

Come up with two or three answers to all of these questions and feel fully associated. If you have difficulty discovering an answer simply add the word “could”. Example: “What could I be most happy about in my life now?”

Current Feeling Flow (1= junky 10 = Nirvana)

What am I happy about in my life now?
? My health
What about that makes me happy? How does that make me feel?
? I do not need health insurance, my body guides me — I feel gratitude
What am I excited about in my life now?
? Excited about the prospects of my new business
What about that makes me excited? How does that make me feel?
? Brand new challenges, meeting new people —- makes me feel optimistic
What am I proud about in my life now?
? I am proud of my children
What about that makes me proud? How does that make me feel?
? They respect me.. makes me feel appreciated
What am I grateful about in my life now?
? Grateful for my partner relationship with Roxanne
What about that makes me grateful? How does that make me feel?
The support, the understanding, —- fortunate, giving
What am I enjoying in my life right now?
Community meetings on Wednesday night…

What about that do I enjoy? How does that make me feel?
The energy of the group is so loving — connected to source

What am I committed to in my life right now?
Following the will of God

What about that makes me committed? How does that make me feel?
It is the only thing that is real — I feel strength

Who do I love? Who loves me?

What about that makes me loving? How does that make me feel?
I am growing

What did I learn today?

How has today added to the quality of my life or how can I use today as an investment in my future?

Problem solving questions

What is great about this problem?
What is not perfect yet?
What am I willing to do to make it the way I want it?
What am I willing no longer to do in order to make it the way I want it?
How can I enjoy the process while I do what is necessary to make it the way I want it?

For cultures around the world, time is measured not by the ticking seconds of a clock or watch, but by seasons, rhythms and subtle shifts in nature that influence and enhance social interaction. People of the Andman Islands follow a “scent calendar,” while a “cattle clock” guides the Nuer in Sudan and myriad sounds and shadows in the forest tell the Karen tribe in northern Thailand when to do what. The compartmentalized, western division of infinity into infinitesimal decimal, digital units is at odds with thousands of different ideologies that consider time a sensual perception rather than a notation.Yet watch, clock and calendar are the global norm. And that, thinks Arguelles, is a huge problem.

Why are calendars so important?
What function do they serve in our lives?

The current world calendar:
* upholds a framework of standardized church, state, and global marketplace activities
* defines the schedule of holidays and traditional cultural practices
* coordinates the worldwide socio-economic program
In essence, a calendar produces the faculty by which we operate, and the lens through which we see…

What’s wrong with the calendar we have?
* The 12-month calendar is arbitrary and irregular, lacking any correspondence to actual cycles of nature. Put simply by physicist Mark Comings:”The 12 month calendar has a cycle that is contrary to and out of phase with the natural annual 13 fold gravitational wave created by the Moon’s orbit around the Earth.”
* This lack of harmony, though generally un-examined, has a profound effect on the way we relate to the Universe we live within. Movements of the Stars, Moons and Planets have eternally served mankind as reference points for relating to the Nature of Time.

The current world calendar divides the year as if it were a 2-D circle. 360 degrees of a flat circle are portioned into 12 subsections of 30 degrees each, giving us “30″ day months. This method of calendrics dates back to ancient Babylon and provides the template for the current 12-month calendar and 12-hour clock (doubling the calculation, we get 24 hours and 60 minutes). The 12-month model for measuring time fails for the 365-day year divided arbitrarily into 30-day months leaves 5 extra days!

How does Gregorian Calendar resolve this discrepancy?
Some of the months are 31 days, some 30, yet February gets 28 days, except for an extra day once every four years (but not on centuries, except those divisible by the number four).

Wonder why the months named September through December, which literally mean 7-10, are actually months 9-12? What’s in a name?

The system of 12 months and a corresponding 12 hour : 60-minute clock, is known as the 12:60 timing frequency, and has yet to be proven as a viable measure of time. This flat perception of time does not correlate to any actual cycles of time! It is an artificial model of reality. It is encoding humanity with a comprehension of the natural world as disharmonious and non-coherent!

The 13 moon calendar is an obvious and ancient way to structure the year. 13 cycles of 28 days describe the year perfectly, with one day of renewal before the new year.

The 12-month calendar hides the 13th moon. The number 13 is now surrounded by superstition and is considered taboo; unlucky; evil. This fear is reinforced by cultural antiquities like “friday the thirteenth.” Often buildings have no 13th floor, or avoid constructing a # 13 apt unit. Why?

The ancient Maya had an entirely different relationship to the number 13, actually revering it at as the Key to Time itself. 13 is the Mayan galactic prime number; the Force of The Universal Movement of Creation.

Living under the guise of the 12-month calendar, we have come to view nature as irrelevant - wilderness without intelligence, sentience, or order. It is from this fundamentally flawed perception that humanity attempts to progress ‘beyond the limitations of nature.’ In fact, it is our model of nature that is flawed, not nature itself.

As a comprehensive reflection of nature, the 13-Moon Calendar is an organization of creational elements that serves as a holistic tool for ongoing participation in life’s cyclic processes. If humanity wish to produce harmony, we must use harmonic tools!

As a “galactic constant” the 260-day cycle does not correspond to any known astronomical period, yet the number 260 functions as a cosmic common denominator to synthesize the cycles of the Sun, Moon, Earth, Mars, Mercury, and Venus. In essence, it is the key factor of all the planetary periods. The 260-day cycle also corresponds to the human gestation period of approximately 9 months, perfectly expressing its power as a cycle governing the unfolding of creation! We also see 260 in macro-cycles such as the grand, 26,000-year precession of the equinoxes, which author John Major Jenkins points out is like a “collective, spiritual gestation for humankind.” Even eclipses relate by a number whose factor is 260! As Jenkins assures us in his insightful book “Tzolkin” - the 260-day cycle has “multiple meanings,” as it applies to “celestial, biological, agricultural, mythological, and chronological processes.” Everything, on some level, has been imparted by the same rhythm of unfolding and is therefore related by a form of synchronistic correspondence.” -Author John Major Jenkins

The harmonic numbers of the Tzolkin are as clear as our 20 fingers and toes - digits with which to measure the universe. Our body’s 13 major joints, or articulations, move us through the universe. Through movement and measure, we experience each other and ourselves as the universe.

13 - primary Joints
20 – fingers & toes
260 - gestation period

From a whole system perspective, time, humanity, and nature are inseparable. Our physical and emotional bodies are moved by the same lunar, solar and planetary forces. Where we appear separate in space, we are unified in time.

Meditation

Jani King – P’taah
Life is meant to be easy. Your life is meant to be of love and laughter, abundance and fulfillment. What keeps you from these things are your old beliefs about reality and your belief that you are not worthy.

Every time you find yourself in a struggle, you are in a place of fear. Each time you refuse to deal with an emotional issue in the NOW MOMENT, you are adding to your emotional baggage. If you will not examine your belief structures and fears and deal with your emotions, you limit yourself to a most confining little box.

Each NOW is another opportunity for you to choose how it may be for you.

Enlightenment is not about being good. It is about BEING.

Your soul has no gender. It is not even human. Allow yourself to contemplate this, in all its unlimitedness

Rita read her short story….

With my body I thee worship. That’s part of the Protestant wedding ceremony.
Sex as worship requires a total level of loving generosity and trust and sharing, and the only place it can happen is in a committed relationship. Monogamous, committed sex is the best, hottest, most exciting sex possible. Nothing else comes anywhere close - not stranger sex, threesomes, foursomes, group sex, drug sex, solo sex, or S & M. When you are wrapped around with the absolute certainty of being loved, when you love your partner so much that his or her happiness and welfare - outside of bed as well as in bed - is as important to you as your own happiness, and you trust that he or she values your happiness just as much, then you can be completely open, completely defenseless, completely vulnerable. You are nakeder than naked. You bare your souls to each other. You see, feel, touch…you worship the pure essence of another person, their naked soul. And you can be utterly transparent,
undisguised, sharing not just your body but your own soul. It is shattering. Intense. Two bodies, fused, two souls, touching. It is beyond a physical experience, even beyond an emotional experience. It is sex as worship. OK, so married, or committed sex is not always like that. Sadly, even relationships that call themselves committed don’t always have the necessary level of intimacy or trust, don’t always have a mutual commitment to the happiness and welfare of both partners. And even when the trust is present, kids and domesticity and bills can get in the way. Or sometimes you just want the simple release in a friendly cuddle or a jolly romp. But even though every sexual encounter is not necessarily a profound spiritual experience, committed sex is the ONLY kind where that level of intensity is even possible. Monogamy rocks!

Thoughts …. Feelings???

reading
Sin is defined as “lack of love”. Since love is all there is, sin in the sight of the Spirit is a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished.

Our sense of inadequacy, weakness and incompletion comes from the strong investment in the “scarcity principle” that governs the whole world of illusions. From that point of view, we seek in others what we feel is wanting in ourselves. We “love” another in order to get something ourselves. That, in fact, is what passes for love in the dream world. There can be no greater mistake than that, for love is incapable of asking for anything.

Only minds can really join, and whom God has joined no man can put asunder. It is, however, only at the level of Christ Mind that true union is possible, and has, in fact, never been lost. The “little I” seeks to enhance itself by external approval, external possessions and external “love.” The Self That God created needs nothing. It is forever complete, safe, loved and loving. It seeks to share rather than to get; to extend rather than project. It has no needs and wants to join with others out of their mutual awareness of abundance.

The special relationships of the world are destructive, selfish and childishly egocentric. Yet, if given to Spirit, these relationships can become the holiest things on earth — the miracles that point the way to the return to Heaven. The material world uses its special relationships as a final weapon of exclusion and a demonstration of separateness. Spirit transforms them into perfect lessons in forgiveness and in awakening from the dream. Each one is an opportunity to let perceptions be healed and errors corrected. Each one is another chance to forgive oneself by forgiving the other. And each one becomes still another invitation to Spirit and to the remembrance of God.

Check in

The mind is an integrational facility of alternating functions which are electrically encoded in binary mathematics, much like a mechanical computer. Mental intelligence is a system of knowledge created by the environment which it serves.

If this is true, “What environment is your mind set up to serve?”

An environment may be as small as one’s daily life or as vast as the cosmos. The semblance of expansion in the mind comes from the simple fact that within the smallest systems are patterns which connect and eventually lead to larger ones. Nevertheless, it matters not what size the mind is. A mind is still a servant. Therefore it does not have the intelligence of mastery.

How do you feel about these statements?

It is imperative that man acknowledge the heart’s higher intelligence for the mind alone cannot tell him who he is, and genetic intelligence is a lethal weapon when combined with the technological potentials of the world today. By comparison to the mind, the heart is a function of intelligence based on the ultimate in simplicity and synchronicity. Its matrix is a synergistic center of awareness which perceives a unified relationship with all that is.

The levels of intelligence available to man could be summarized as Survival, Logic, Synchronicity, and Love. All four are present in the lives of each person, although a man will focus on the one which assists him the most. If he knows little about the heart’s intelligence or the greater intelligence of love, he will emphasize one of the other possibilities. Genetic intelligence is well equipped to sustain physical life and to interface emotionally with the environment. Mental intelligence can formulate reports and engineer rocket ships. Neither, however, is equipped to give meaning to life nor to establish a connection with Divinity. Attempts to apply them beyond their means has led to destructive misconceptions.

Looking at your life let’s look at where you think you are, and where you want to be.

* Relationships – Survival, Logic, Synchronicity, and Love
* Career – Survival, Logic, Synchronicity, and Love
* Health – Survival, Logic, Synchronicity, and Love
* Family – Survival, Logic, Synchronicity, and Love
* Finances - Survival, Logic, Synchronicity, and Love

Love is both a way of being and also a pathway for becoming.

Love ignites life.

Love savors life and sustains faith and hope

Even though life often brings lessons in hard pachages, learning happens only when forgiveness has occurred and love is restored.

Only with love can learning occur

What is The Work?
http://www.thework.com/thework.asp#3

The Work is a simple yet powerful process of inquiry that teaches you to identify and question thoughts that cause all the suffering in the world. It’s a way to understand what’s hurting you, and to address your problems with clarity.

People who do The Work as an ongoing practice report life-changing results.

Alleviation of depression: Find resolution, and even happiness, in situations that were once debilitating.
Decreased stress: Learn how to live with less anxiety or fear.
Improved relationships: Experience deeper connection and intimacy with your partner, your parents, your children, your friends, and yourself.
Reduced anger: Understand what makes you angry and resentful, and become less reactive, less often, with less intensity.
Increased mental clarity: Live and work more intelligently and effectively, with integrity.
More energy: Experience a new sense of ongoing vigor and well-being.
More peace: Discover how to become “a lover of what is.”
Top of Page

How to Do The Work
The simplest way to do The Work is outlined below:

1 Judge Your Neighbor

For thousands of years we’ve been told not to judge, but we still do it all the time—how our friends should act, whom our children should care about, what our parents should feel, do, or say. In The Work, rather than suppress these judgments, we use them as starting points for self-realization. By letting the judging mind have its life on paper, we discover through the mirror of those around us what we haven’t yet realized about ourselves.

Fill in a Judge-Your-Neighbor worksheet. You can download one here, or simply use this online version [below]:

The Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet - can be retrieved from the site above for free.

(Wikipedia definition)- In Christianity, divine grace refers to the sovereign favour of God for humankind — especially in regard to salvation — irrespective of actions (”deeds”), earned worth, or proven goodness.

Grace is enabling power sufficient for progression. Grace divine is an indispensable gift from God for development, improvement, and character expansion. Without God’s grace, there are certain limitations, weaknesses, flaws, impurities, and faults (i.e. carnality) humankind cannot overcome. Therefore, it is necessary to increase in God’s grace for added perfection, completeness, and flawlessness.

Put another way, humankind is unable to evolve or be saved without God’s grace; it is a prerequisite to salvation. Additionally, humans cannot exchange good deeds for it. It is a free gift from God. Thus, humankind is saved all by grace and not by some combination, mixture, or blending of good works and divine grace. Were it achieved by works, humans could take pride in their efforts towards holiness.

More broadly, divine grace refers to God’s gifts to humankind, including life, creation, and salvation. More narrowly but more commonly, grace describes the means by which humans are saved from original sin and granted salvation. This latter concept of grace is of central importance in the theology of Christianity, as well as one of the most contentious issues in Christian sectarianism.

Grace is often distinguished from mercy in that mercy is seen as not receiving punishment that one deserves to receive, whereas grace is receiving a positive benefit that one does not deserve to receive.

Conversation
* How do you feel about this definition?
* Can grace be increased?
* Can I do anything, or not do anything to notice grace?
* How do you know if you have received grace?

Close your eyes –
… Breathe…

Anoother perspective on Grace from A Course in Miracles:

Grace is given to me. I claim it now

If you but knew the meaning of Love, hope and despair would be impossible. For hope would be forever satisfied; despair of any kind unthinkable. Grace is the answer to all despair, for in grace lies remembrance of Love.

Grace is yours by your acknowledgement.

Today we ask for the gift … most carefully preserved within our hearts, waiting to be acknowledged

For in grace you see a light that covers all the world in love, and watch fear disappear from every face as hearts rise up and claim the light as theirs

Grace is given me. I claim it now.

meditation

Being able to have a person/community intensely listen and share feelings, thoughts and emotions was refreshing and inspiring.