All Is Welcome Here
I am sooooo Grateful for the Perfection and the Beauty of all that is offered in each and every moment! Even those words don’t reflect what’s in my heart… That is totally wordless…
Those last weeks and months have been about allowing into awareness everything and not judging or trying to control it, or change it. Everything is absolutely welcome as it is… however it looks like, whatever it is. It can be anything… joy, love, laughter, sadness, tears without definition, not knowing what is going on, abstract feelings, fear, rage, intensity, not understanding what is happening… it is all welcome! None of this means anything! That is the first lesson of the Course, and also my favorite… and it is so true! None of what seems to happen on the screen of the world ever means anything about Who I Am! It can never change Who I Am, can never hurt, harm, diminish or make better, bigger or improve… It cannot add or take away anything to the Changeless that I Am!
In this total allowance and non-judgment, remembering our ever Present Innocence and the Perfection of All That Is, the experience of the Vastness, the Changeless that I Am grow stronger and stronger and although thoughts or feelings can still come, there is really nothing wrong with them, they are welcome Here! In this welcome, they vanish! When nothing needs to be rejected or pushed away, it doesn’t have any power anymore and everything is seen as just a visitor! A visitor by definition is always passing… It comes and always goes! If it were to stay, it would be a resident! But everything in this world is always temporary. The nature of existence is that it always passes. It can’t therefore be Who I Am, for Truth must be ever Present! Happiness then depends only on whether there is identification with the Changeless, Self, Christ or with a little pile of dust that is destined to go, die. And it is that simple! No need to analyze anything, go back into the past, try to change or fix anything in us, for there is really nothing wrong with us. The one we think we are will always have glitches and will constantly need fixing, that is its nature! But the One We Are is Perfection itself, and both cannot meet. One is not reached through improvement or perfection of the other. The One is “reached,” or seen again when the one we think we are has no longer any value and is seen as just thoughts and never as an actual separate entity or person. When that idea falls away, all that’s left is the One We Are: Love… and That allows everything to be exactly as it is!
There never is a separate person living this life. There is only Life! Everything that seems to happen is arising spontaneously for no reason and for no one. When that is given value, attention or power, it becomes the story of “my” life, but without that it is just Life happening, experiences…
I watched the movie “Identity” two nights ago and that movie shows so beautifully the trick of believing in a separate self, in a story of “my” life.
The life that we think we have is only a hypothetical, a playing out of thoughts in the mind. It never leaves the mind (“Ideas leave not their source”, ACIM). It seems that it plays outwardly only because of the five senses, but it is never the case. All that this existence seems to be about is thoughts, images and sensations, all in the mind. In Truth, nothing ever happened. The Self that We Are is very Still and knows nothing of this world. It just Is…
There is never any interaction between people, persons. It’s only thoughts arising. They are totally meaningless and harmless until they are given attention, power, or identity. Then there seems to be a contraction. Going along with this contraction seems to bring about a feeling of a separate entity, which seems to form a “me.” That is how a “person” is made up! It never exists, except in that contraction. When that contraction is seen as just a construct and never a real actual person it releases itself and comes back to its natural state of Freedom.
I have noticed that everything that comes our way is always aiming to Freedom. Nothing ever wants to be bound… Every situation, thought, feeling is always arising to be seen, looked at for what it is (just thoughts), and let go of. That is the natural movement of Life. When anything is held onto, the flow of Life seems to be clogged and that is when suffering arises, as the holding on comes from a sense of a separate self that is defined by something else than What Is. However, all of that is totally involuntary. The whole of existence is always involuntary. There is never anyone doing any of it. As long as it is believed, there will be suffering and attempts to control the form, which only leads to more suffering, because of the impossibility of that attempt. When it is seen that Life is always involuntary and that everything is always arising spontaneously in the Moment, for no reason and for no one, the whole world is off the hook! What you think you are is off the hook and that is Freedom! You no longer take yourself to be a time-space bound entity and you watch as Life unfolds… From that perspective Perfection, Love, Happiness, Peace of Mind is all there is…
Loads and loads of Love,
Armelle
Update from Hawaii
Wow! What a shift this last month!
JP came back from Australia at the beginning of December. Jason left for Utah a bit before mid-December. And at this point, I am still here!
Everyone is so Grateful for Jason’s time here and all the Gifts his Presence offered and also it felt so right! Everyone could feel he was to go! We celebrated his next step and the following of his heart!
The day after he was gone, I got the guidance to spend a whole week of total removing of any limit or idea about what we think we are… such as a community, or a living miracles community, the idea of an external teacher, an authority outside of ourselves telling us anything, what time to get up, when to join, eat, the idea that there is any personal space, etc… It felt so great, like a fresh wind. I lived that whole week at the Center and went along with everything. We would have sessions any time, we would wake up in the middle of the night and call everybody to join. We would have no defined lunch time or set expression session time, just a huge telepathic flow that allowed us to fall in an ever deeper experience of all there is is NOW and a deeper and deeper Softness…
This set the tone for a group heart opening and falling in love with one another, truly with our Self! It was said not to try to figure out where the guidance is coming from and trying to do the “right” thing because of a fear of making any mistakes or future consequences, but to TRUST the Devotion of our hearts and that we all share the same Purpose! The leading word was and still is “don’t hold back!”
We watched movies at any time of the day and it loosened a lot of things for some! A feeling of childlike Innocence and playfulness took over from then on…
The Invitation for the whole week was to keep sinking in the fact that we can never do anything wrong and to watch for the temptation to escape this moment in any way! Very powerful and so much fun! We would join any time someone felt it and look into what was in the mind, as none of it is ever personal…!
A week later the Now Year retreat happened. We were so linked with each other, having removed all those ideas in the mind of how we are supposed to be that this retreat was such a perfect flow of Collaboration, in every area… and we were so happy that JP graced us with his piano music for new year’s eve! This retreat was all about a direct looking into your experience and seeing through the veils of thoughts, to the Truth of who you are, always available Now! You can see some heartfelt sharings, down below of some of the participants! It left everyone with an experience that could never be taken away and a seeing over and over again that What We Are can never be lost!
I feel so Blessed by all that is Given me and I am so grateful to also have been given to spend all this time with JP. It is so flowing and easy, and there is such a Joy and childlike Innocence. I feel so much space to just Be who I am and laughter is so often the result! It’s all about being in the Moment and everything else keeps being dropped. There is no room for judgement in my mind or leaving any thought in the way of the Present Joining. There is such a joy in knowing that you can never make any mistake. Every moment feels so FULL… and I keep feeling over and over again, that everything could stop now, that the whole world could stop now, that I really don’t need anything else or more, I don’t need a “next.” Whatever is, is Perfect! I am constantly overwhelmed by the Fullness and the Love, often with tears of Gratitude… This Connection that we all share is everything and that is what this whole life is about, it is never about the form of anything!
And here we are now, mid-January, with more shifts coming!
The Extension Center might go soon, as a potential buyer has expressed her interest in the property and will get back to us soon with an offer… Spirit is constantly teaching us to not be attached to anything in form, that True Happiness/Peace of Mind has nothing to do with form, a place, a setting, a person or a group of persons… He constantly calls us to let go of what we think makes us happy so that we can truly Be…!
That would mean that some of the friends living at the EC could move to the Temple and some would move somewhere else…! Yeah, keeping it fresh
Since the retreat the vibe at the EC is one of ever deeper Reverence and also a LOT of laughter! Spontaneous comedy has become a habit and I must say that I LOVE it!!! We laugh about everything and nothing… Now we certainly remembered to laugh!! What else is left to do..?
Jutta told me three days ago that they had an expression session that morning where no one had anything to express, there was just silence, and she ended it up in saying “Well, I only want to tell you guys how much I love You!!!!” When Love is the only expression left, that says it all….
I am ready to go on a swirl of travels for the next few weeks or months with David, starting with arriving in Kamas on the 18th of this month, Mexico on the 22nd and back here to the Big Island mid-February… with a new retreat on Oahu on the 19th and 20th of February! More info will come for other travels and events, but I can already tell that it feels very exciting!!!
Jackie will be coming to the Island at the end of February to join with all the friends here as I travel! Welcome Jackie, already!!!!!!!! There is a soft landing place awaiting you…
Thank you EveryOne for being part of this absolutely AWESOME adventure and for those weeks of deepening together in our ever present Innocence and in the Love that We Are! It’s been a blast to be with you… I am forever grateful and I Love You All soooooo much!
I just came back to my computer after an expression session where all that was shared is LAUGHTER, that seems to be how it goes every day lately…!!! Thank You Spirit for these Gifts!!!!
Armelle
The retreat for me was about being shown and experiencing the always-present, always-available Now Moment. It takes but one Instant to drop it all…the story, the situation, the blame, the past and future… and rest in the Stillness, in the vast space of total Presence. It was a treat to be immersed in and be witness to healing-in-action with other dedicated brothers and sisters. “Personally” for me, I felt supported and loved and was happy to share healing with everyOne. I am so grateful.
The NOW Year Retreat was simply about simplicity. Simple daily meals, sinking into the silence, sharing from the soul and seeing that in this moment there is nothing that needs to be changed, fixed or figured out. Everything we need for our healing is right here, right now. What am I feeling? Get in touch with that, feel it fully, wait for it to dissipate. No need to uphold an old story about why I feel such and such, or to get hung up about why I’m not happier, more spiritual, or further along.
I just loved it, so many reminders of being in the NOW and what a relief and happiness to step out of the ego and just be in the vastness of the NOW! Also a lot of laughter and miracles, I’m really happy that I came such a long way from Sweden, but I really felt the call. I have continued to be mindful about my thoughts and feelings also after the Retreat, and I feel grateful to the Holy Spirit Who led us all into the experience of NOW.
During the retreat I had the experience of thinking of a problem, then asking myself, “Who is it who is having this problem and why?” So I looked around in my mind for the “who” with the problem and I couldn’t find him! The problem was generated by a concept of myself as a body thinking it was necessary to change something or for something to be done in a certain way in order for the Andy-body to be happy. From the vantage point of a still mind in the now moment (perfectly happy), I saw that the problem didn’t really exist.
You can listen to Armelle’s talk from day 2 of the Now Year Retreat and join in the Vastness and Perfection of What Is.