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Dear friends,

This is a simple message of connection. It is a breaking of the "silence." It is a chance to extend love and acknowledge everyone who enjoys and uses The Gathering Place and finds our work meaningful.

The fact that the weekly study groups are not occurring, together with other apparent inactivity does not represent anything other than significant work going on behind the scenes, which will bless everyone when it is completed and shared.

For Paul, it is a time of intense and significant practice of the two-step, requiring a deeper level of trust in "the silence" of the holy instant, together with the abandonment of his trust in his memory, his best judgment, and his beliefs about what truth is. It is a time for him to become very clear about who his Teacher is, and make a committed choice, so as not to dilute his presence and Meaning by waffling between personality and Individuality.

Although the choice is difficult when commitment is not optional, it is made easier by the presence of a circumstance — one which unequivocally calls for correction — which will not be transformed by "personality."  Thus he has remained "incommunicado"— not in his accustomed place. This has been absolutely depriving him of the occasion to be "personal" and has provided him with an overly-abundant opportunity to either be bored in the silence of the holy instant or engage in it and be the holy son of God that he is.

This isolation in the only choice there is, is the Alpha and Omega — the crux, the promise and the guarantee — of the Now. Because of this, we will not wish everyone a happy new year, this year. Instead we will wish everyone a happy holy instant and invite everyone to engage in it with dedication, commitment and willingness.

It's time to get off the wheel of history!

Rajpur
Kingston, Washington
January 6, 2013