And this exercise is based around awareness and acceptance.
And it's quite different from some of the normal exercises I've been given here.
So what we'll do now is just ask you to relax and close your eyes.
And I'll guide you through this exercise.
We'll do a little relaxation to begin with.
So just take a few gentle but deep breaths.
And the next breath,
Just breathe in and tense all the muscles in the body,
Tense the hands,
Squeeze the shoulder blades together,
And release.
And then silently count backwards from 10 to 0,
Feeling yourself becoming more relaxed as you count.
And now you can open up to your guides,
Whatever words you want,
The Holy Spirit,
Jesus,
God,
God,
Just to be with you in this exercise.
If it helps,
You can imagine it as a light shining down upon you,
Or a hand you hold.
And to begin with,
I'd like you to listen to any sounds that may be around you.
I'm one of those sounds.
And try to listen to the sounds without any judgment.
There's no right or wrong sounds,
Or good or bad sounds.
Now try and become aware of the silence behind those sounds.
Without the silence,
You couldn't hear the sounds.
There's a background of silence.
So you can bring your awareness to that now.
Now these sounds are contained in the silence.
My words are contained in that silence.
Are these sounds your sounds,
Or are they just sounds?
And now open your eyes and have a look around the room at the objects that you see there.
You might see your hand,
The computer,
Tables,
Windows.
And again,
Look without judgment.
There are no right or wrong objects,
No good or bad objects.
You look at them without labelling.
You accept them as you accepted the sounds.
Do you see them as objects or your objects?
Now you couldn't see these objects unless there was space between them.
Otherwise,
They'd all be stuck on top of each other.
This is harder,
But see if you can become a bit more aware of the space that the objects are in.
The sounds were contained in silence.
The objects are contained in space.
Anything else is labels that our mind puts on them.
Can you see them without naming them?
A newborn baby would see them,
But without names,
Without right or wrong.
As the Course says in the workbook,
We only see the past.
And then just close your eyes.
And now watch the thoughts that are going by.
Seeing them spring up,
Go away.
And once again,
Try and observe the thoughts without judgment.
No right or wrong thoughts.
No good or bad thoughts.
You're watching and accepting without judgment.
You're the observer.
This is forgiveness.
The Course says,
Forgiveness is still and quietly does nothing.
It merely looks and waits and judges not.
Maybe there's thoughts of COVID coming in and people in power.
Can they just come in and out without judgment,
Without right or wrong?
Are these my thoughts or are they just thoughts?
There are spaces between these thoughts,
Gaps.
Thought ends,
The gap,
Another starts.
See if you can become more aware of that space between two thoughts.
The thoughts spring out of that silence,
That gap.
Can you become aware of the silence behind the thoughts?
See if you can relax more into that silent awareness,
Letting the thoughts come as they pop up and go away.
There are no good thoughts,
No bad thoughts,
Just thoughts.
Are these your thoughts or are they just thoughts?
And finally,
Ask yourself a question without trying to think of the answer.
And the question to ask yourself is,
Who am I?
Who am I?
Take what time you need to feel complete with the exercise.
And when you're ready,
Just bring yourself back to the room and open your eyes.
See if you can bring the observer with you.
