Section 1: Journey to Higher Consciousness
When you read this Course, seek to read from a feeling state. Read it as if your whole body is reading it, not just your mind. Open your whole being to it, bringing all the energy in your body to it.
Opportunity for Self-inquiry and Sharing:
A. If you have ever experienced being able to read from a feeling state, with your whole body engaged in your reading, tell us what it felt like.
B. What difference did reading in this state make?
C. If reading in this way doesn’t come easily for you, would you like to share some of the obstacles you encountered?
D. If you have faced obstacles to reading from a feeling state with full body engagement, and overcame these obstacles, how were you able to do so?
Comment: In order for something to be the “living word,” it must emanate from the state we are describing and be received in this state. Some have called this the state of presence.
There is a tendency among many to want to write words like “presence” with a capital P, as in “Presence.” In this course, we won’t do so unless we are referring directly to the source of presence. This is because the experience of presence isn’t an experience that’s separate from everyday life. It involves no duality. There is only one reality – whether it is expressed as formless or form – the divine in which we all participate.
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Reading from a feeling state makes being feel more alive and vibrant as well as all life.
I love to read and most of my reading has been fueled by my appetite to know and understand myself and others more deeply. There are many books I have read where it may be good information that I can learn from, but it is dry and lifeless. And then there's the other side of reading from authors who write from their own honest experience that I tend to be able to feel like I am in the room with them as I read their work, feeling their heart and love. I think this is how I would describe when I feel the present feeling-state connection from the latter of the two.
I have experienced reading from a feeling state, just recently. I had no idea that's what was happening until I read the first line of this course today. And the experience is happening again. It's as if a brighter bulb has been put in the reading lamp and the room has become a bit warmer. My body feels sensations I normally don't feel or pay attention to when reading. I am totally in the moment.
You are bringing your presence to the reading. When we read not with the thought-riddled mind but with consciousness, our awareness of everything touched on in the reading is heightened in everyday life. Wonderful.
Brand new to the course and to any other spiritual understanding or experience besides fundamental Christianity. At ease and looking forward to being present throughout the course.
So glad to have you aboard on this course. If you have specific questions about Christianity, you will find many of them answered in the daily blog Consciousness Rising. Also, ask your questions either here or there and we'll be glad to address them. It is amazing how the statements of Jesus and his followers dovetail beautifully with consciousness once a person begins to read them with new eyes.
Reading from my whole body means that the words enter my body and become a part of my form. They change who I am (the form that I am) rather than just bounce around in my mind.
Yes, so true. Such a marvelous realization.
I've Stumbled upon this course today - and I'm headed off to work soon. So I gleaned this.... meaning - read not with too much whole body, nor too much whole thought or engagement. I visualize as I read, and when I'm not visualizing, it's hard to connect. So, I'm not visualizing... and, long story short, I think I know what this is about, but not sure. :p (but it's namaste publishing so I'm trusting of it!)
Well, it's nice when there's trust. But the main thing of course is to trust your own experience. As you proceed in the course, you'll come to the sections on inner knowing and our inner grower, which are all about trusting our own center.
Interesting questions and comments.
I used to read constantly, everything (and I mean everything--the back of the cereal box, etc., etc.) It was really an addiction of sorts--a big way of escaping my life and my feelings.
Then I experienced some kind of shift and didn't want to read at all. I went from being a hyper-intellectual smoker who read stuff all the time to a non-smoker who wanted to walk for miles and miles and cry.
Now I do read, but not everything, and almost never fiction.
I find that reading certain authors (most especially Michael Brown), helps me to dwell more in present moment awareness (we are always present in the literal sense, but the awareness is often not there). But, when I am actually in that state of present moment awareness (by degrees, and not as often as I wish I were), I really have no desire to read. I would rather be outdoors, or do what presents itself to me. For me, reading is something I "plan" or "make happen", so reading in a flow state is rare.
I hope this isn't an overshare. Thanks for the opportunity to interact via the new site and this course.
This is a wonderful share--I wish I had noticed it earlier. Going with what flows for us at any given time is the key, don't you feel? For me, fiction has also become a wonderful window onto life, enriching my experience. Books like The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End have so much in them, they deserve a thorough discussion. Enjoy whatever you read, and enjoy when you don't read!
When I read with my mind, I try to grasp,to understand, to weigh, to consume. When I read from a feeling state its an openness, that I may receive or to merge energetically with something beyond understanding or uncover that which is already there. It feels like a releasing of what I have unconsciously constricted.
Just wondering how this is progressing for you, whether the releasing of constriction is continuing. We've been talking about this constricted feeling in the daily blog Consciousness Rising, where the pilot who has met the Little Prince became so constricted by the social boa constrictor by age six, but is now learning how to draw sheep instead of just boa constrictors!
At this moment in time I am aware that I am reading and as I often feel when I am reading, I want to skip past the words and reach, reach something more, something that will make me think 'I didn't know that.' or 'Wow, I knew that, but I didn't realize I did.'
I think how one reads is like how one lives: Do we read deeply? or skim the surface? Do we digest each sentence, each line and visualize ourselves there in that place? Or, do we simply read and know merely the outline of the story and not the details running through the book and the unwritten yet implied meanings?
Such a wonderful comment. How are you doing with your reading these days, now that some time has gone by?
As my moments of conciousness grow I am aware of my body more and more. My first impression of reading conciously seems a bit like juggling while riding a bicycle. My ego seems to want to take over.
Several months later, we are wondering how this is all feeling to you now. Does it still seem like juggling while riding a bicycle, or have you relaxed into it more? Or have you found a different approach that works for you?
I wish to offer my sincere thanks to Namaste Publishing for organizing this blog. Most of us struggle through the spiritual maze with the help of authors like Tolle. However, some questions arise that are difficult to answer. So any comments from fellow participants are greatly appreciated in this pursuit.
How are you doing with the course these days? Any questions you may have, we would all love to address.
I tried to read using the whole body. However, I feel much better in reading from my center of consciousness. When I try to read without using the mind the attention automatically goes there. I feel that is a better way to read than using the whole body which seems like an artificial way.
What may be very authentic for one person may be artificial for another, since we are all individuals and learn in different ways. The important thing is to take the approach the is the most authentic for you. That's why this course seeks to be interactive, so we can all learn from each other.
I'm simply marveling in the creation of my account "name" and this first section. That's all there is to write here. Now.
I hope you are still enjoying the course. We are getting into some marvelous material, so very practical for everyday life.