E-News

January 2009   Volume 16

The current financial climate is the perfect circumstance in which to develop Trust (in Spirit) by questioning and witnessing our own fears. Just become the 'observer' of your scarcity thoughts. Don't judge them or yourself. Simply catch yourself when fears arise and LOOK with the Universal Inspiration. An appropriate response to an ego thought of scarcity could be, "Oh, there it goes again!" And have a little laugh to yourself. The ego falls away when we laugh at it; it gets stronger when we fear it or try to repress it.

Can the Son of God really experience any type of recession? Only the ego can

*** Read 'Everything is Spiritual' (below) by Jan Frazier

2009 Upcoming workshops!

Denver, Co - Visit: Sandra Newell 4 day workshop ph: 303 693 3481
Dates: Friday pm 13th Feb - Monday 16th Feb.

San Francisco, CA - Visit: ACIM Conference (3 day conference)
Date: Fri Feb 27th to Sun 1st Mar 2009

Virginia Beach, VA - Visit http://www.edgarcayce.org/edgar_cayce/conferencesVaBeach.aspx A.R.E. Conferences (Seminar)
Date: Sat March 7th 2009

Lake Charles, LA - Email: Rev. Myron Jones Visit: www.forgivenessisthewayhome.org/ ph: 337 515 1042 (2 day workshop)
Date: March 14th - March 15th

Boston, MA - Contact Open Doors, Email: robertleroy@comcast.net ph: 508 697 5480
Date: April 4th

Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC - Contact Julia Day Visit: www.OnlyLoveIs.org Email: 2freedom@axion.net (4 day workshop)
Dates: April 10th - 13th

UK Summer workshops -

London, UK - contact Heather Pozzo 2 day workshop ph 079 4849 6808
Dates: 13th - 14th June

Birmingham, UK - contact Heather Pozzo (evening talk) ph 079 4849 6808
Date: 16th June

Somerset, Glastonbury UK - Vale Centre Tel:01963 33360 (5 day workshop)
Date: June 19th - 24th

Kensington, London, UK - contact Heather Pozzo (evening talk) ph 079 4849 6808
Date: June 25th

Heather Pozzo of Creating Miracles

A Message from Nouk

"What's it like to go from being in a 'part-time' (non abiding) Awakened state to a 'full-time' (abiding) one?"

Recently, due to my own experiences lately, I have been searching for real life accounts of ordinary people who have attained the (abiding) enlightened state. I was especially intrigued by two specific stages;

    1.   The possible symptoms or states that may occur just prior to Awakening

    2.   After Awakening; the continued expansion (growth) of ones state of awareness

One of the people I came across in my research was author and writer, Jan Frazier. Jan had an amazing Awakening a few years ago, that never left her. The catalyst for Jan's breakthrough was extreme fear. I won't spoil the story... you will find this story in her wonderful book, When Fear Falls Away (see www.whenfearfallsaway.com).

I so enjoyed her book that I wrote to her to ask if we could feature a short article in our Newsletter. So, here is the article. We hope you enjoy it!

Everything Is Spiritual

By Jan Frazier

It is always there, always within, always theoretically accessible, able to be felt, given air. It is pure and delicious, the sensation of consciousness without an object, its plain self, its electric self. Always there, always there, but so seldom felt, known, so seldom allowed to take over, fill the bones, the skin, the lungs.

It can't be gone after. It needn't be gotten, needn't be earned, or given. But people live their whole lives and never feel it within. Those who do experience it, and know that they are experiencing something remarkable, and remarkably unlike ordinary life – those who do, seldom do, and they remember it. Oh, they remember it. They know just where they were when it happened. They will look you in the eye and tell you of it, try to describe what it felt like, and say why it has stayed with them, and how they long to get it back. What a wistful expression is on that face, how moist are those eyes.

It is the only thing that is real. It is the only thing that has no end.

I think all we can do is be receptive. It isn't an animal to be hunted, trapped. It can't be figured out by the mind, studied, finessed. It is gotten to by a trapdoor covered in leaves. It asks of us a falling, a leaning, a letting go. An undoing. Whatever is held onto like grim death would do well to be released, the fingers softened, the muscles relaxed. Lie down. Let the rain fall on you. Open your mouth. Let the tears come.

I want sometimes to say - get rid of your books, your workshops, your learnedness. Spend the day playing with a young child, a dog. Go swimming. Dance. Sing.

It is in there all the time. What a shame to live an entire life and not know that. I don't mean "know" with the mind, but with the heart, with the body.

All the pain in a life - it is to get us there. It is all suffering is for.

I want to say, don't try so hard, don't work, don't meditate, don't study. Learn how to laugh. Laugh at your self. Don't be so serious. There is nothing to take seriously. Oh, what heresy that sounds like. I once would have thought so myself, had I heard anyone else say it. What? I took everything seriously - above all myself.

Stand out in the wind. Let it blow your hair, blow against your eyeballs until they are dry, and then against your eyelids. Smell the world. God, how can you miss it - how can you possibly not feel this thing?

But they say to me - "I feel it, but then I get my head full of this and that, my work, my relationship, the phone ringing." The spiritual becomes a time of day, a slot in the week, fifteen minutes in the morning, a time that has to be cleared out.

No, no, no. The spiritual is all day. It is the phone ringing. I answer the phone, notice how I react to whoever it is, the story I am telling myself about this person as she is speaking. I notice I am fidgety, judgmental, insincere. It's all spiritual, constantly. Everything all day long is spiritual, is practice, is maybe even meditation. The trapdoors are everywhere. We lie constantly to ourselves. We lie when we don't notice what we're doing, when we believe so thoroughly in the importance of everything we are doing, every belief, every self-identification - when we believe so entirely in how much it all matters that we can't feel the underneath of ourselves, that sweet electric humming sensation of consciousness without an object.

All the stuff of life is there to get us to this. The stuff of life is not for itself. It is to trip us up, to show us over and over again, as many times as it takes, that nothing lasts, nothing is everlastingly going to do it, fill the need, the void, wipe out the dread, make the sleep one hundred per cent restful, cleansing, renewing. Wake up in the middle of the night and feel purely ecstatic, for no reason. Only one thing will ever do that, and it isn't a single thing in regular life, not one single thing will ever do it, not love or possession or respect or achievement. Nothing will do it everlastingly.

It turns out that life is here to trip us up, to make us lose our footing, lie down, let ourselves be held, seduced by our own original joy. We hide from ourselves all our lives. Heaven isn't later. It's here and now, or never at all. Once you've got heaven, you cease to care when death will come, or how, or if getting there will hurt.

But if you go around all day, all week, all year, all your life as though this thing isn't there, isn't in you, isn't real - as though what will justify your life is out there - if you do that, you could miss it. All day every day is spiritual. If waiting in line at the grocery store isn't spiritual, then I don't know what is. Telemarketers are spiritual teachers, and so is your ex, and so is the barking dog next door, and so is the cold that's got you down, and your aching back, and the mess in your kitchen. I don't mean a growth opportunity. I don't mean that. Growth opportunities are useless. I just mean when a thing is going on, there are really two things going on, always. There is the thing, and there is your inner orientation to it. The inner part is the spiritual. Just look at it: that's all. Don't judge it or try to change it. Don't try to grow from it. Purely look. Don't miss it. One fine day you'll step on a pile of leaves, and your weight will drop, and the world will have changed, and then you won't need telemarketers anymore, or lines to wait in. You'll be in heaven, only you'll still be alive.

Footnote: Jan Frazier is the author of When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening (Weiser Books, 2007). Her life is devoted to teaching that the awake state lives in us all. She lives in southern Vermont. For more information, visit www.whenfearfallsaway.com

Hi everyone, Silvana here, Event Planner for Nouk and Tomas. Please contact me if you're interested in bringing Nouk and Tomas to your city. They are amazing at translating the principles of the Course and give so many tools and helpful hints. Many participants that have taken their workshops have great things to say and have found it extremely helpful. I have also been to several of their workshops and have experienced profound and lasting changes. My understanding of the process of atonement and my ability to practice forgiveness has increased considerably, thanks to these two.

That is the reason I am dedicating so much time and effort to helping to get these teachers out to other groups. There are not many true teachers of A Course in Miracles and I am surely blessed to have met Tomas and Nouk. You can reach me at
E: silvana@takemetotruth.com
T: 905-884-8482 Canada
M: 416-300-2707

Don't forget to pass this along to your friends if you find this valuable.

And please drop us a line if you have a question and or contribution to make.
Remember, we are all students and teachers so please share with us that we may all learn.

See you soon
You are Love...
Nouk & Tomas.

For more information visit our website - www.takemetotruth.com