Spiritual Practice
Spiritual practice is the key to Awakening. Below is a guide to spiritual practice with the Foundation for the Awakening Mind through A Course in Miracles.
The following guidelines have been received from Holy Spirit—Teacher of Teachers—for spiritual practice and going deeper, and are part of our daily practice.
A Guide to Spiritual Practice
with Awakening Mind
1. Volunteers
Awakening Mind does not involve the concept of membership and therefore relies entirely upon volunteers for every aspect of its community. Volunteers receive no financial compensation and no perks or tangible rewards for their devotion to Awakening. The benefits given and received are entirely Spiritual and always purely and simply a State of Mind.
2. Non-Profit
Awakening Mind is completely non-profit. The Purpose for this community is experiencing Present Inner Peace through forgiveness, and thus there is no incentive to grow larger or attain money, power, possessions, or property. Present peace is content with the Present Moment and therefore unconcerned with the past or future.
3. Intuitive
Awakening Mind encourages everyone to develop intuitive listening to their Inner Guide and to trust and depend upon this Guidance for decisions in everyday living. How one feels is a barometer for discerning that which is intuitively helpful, and peace is its own reward.
4. Divine Providence
Awakening Mind nurtures the awareness and experience that trust would settle every problem now. Trust in divine providence, the Holy Spirit, and Christ is the means Given by God to Answer every seeming problem that arises in perception. Friends in the community are always referred and directed to the Voice for God within and toward the recognition that God is the Creator, Source, and Provider.
5. Non-Judgment
All comparisons, opinions, and assumptions naturally give way to Intuitive Guidance as a practical Alternative to conflict. Guidance is always respected and following Inner Guidance is always encouraged. The outcome of listening to and following the Holy Spirit and Christ is always peace, Love, happiness, freedom, and joy. There need not be any exceptions to trusting Inner Guidance and living a life of integrity, honesty, and harmony.
6. Generosity
To give is to receive. Awakening Mind honors the Divine Law of Love. Freely you have received, now freely give. Generosity flows naturally from trust. Giving is an attitude that extends Love and continuously receives and experiences Love's extending. Love is an Abundant State of Mind that is whole and completely Shared.
7. No Private Thoughts
Awakening Mind is the experience of Union; a Unified Mind in which there is no secret kept apart from Spirit. There are no private thoughts to protect or keep hidden. Everything is openly revealed in the Light of Truth. Love has nothing to hide and is forever openly revealed exactly As It Is. Only the Thoughts of God can be shared and there is nothing else to share.
8. No People-Pleasing
Awakening Mind advocates always following Inner Guidance and accepting complete responsibility for one’s state of mind. Conformity to external authority or unconscious beliefs is never authentic or helpful on the spiritual journey. "No people-pleasing" becomes an invitation to question motives and beliefs, and let go of roles and identifications.
The laws of the land need not be broken if one follows the Inner Guidance of the Holy Spirit, and impeccable integrity is the certain outcome of yielding to the Holy Spirit for all decisions. “Holy Spirit, decide for God for me” is our constant prayer of gratitude, and it is very practical. This yielding to the Spirit offers immediate results.
9. No Control over the World
With total responsibility for one’s state of mind also comes the realization that there is nothing to control in this world. The Observer is One with everything and now all things are perfect exactly As Is. Atonement is a state of perfect Acceptance. Such is the happy dream of forgiveness—the forgiven world.
10. Peaceful Experience
Awakening Mind is an experience that transcends all specific concepts. Divine Silence simply Is.
"Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God."
– ACIM, W-pI.189.7
