Today’s reading tells us how to use meditation to awaken.

First, let’s look at how we keep the illusion alive. We keep the illusion alive with believing-attention. We keep the illusion alive by believing thoughts, emotions and perceptions and giving them our attention.

Since giving believing-attention keeps the illusion alive, not giving  believing-attention allows the illusion to fade away. And that is the purpose of meditation.

During meditation, you close your eyes and ignore thoughts, emotions and perception. You keep attention still, focused on awareness, without chasing after movement. This stillness doesn’t stop movement; it just doesn’t give movement any attention. In this way, movement is allowed to move through, out and away, until only stillness remains.

Today’s reading shares a few tips to help you keep attention still, focused on awareness, instead of being caught up in thought or emotion during meditation. It says:

When you notice a belief in illusions, ask where your faith is now. Faith comes from desire. … In questioning your faith, you remember your desire. In remembering desire, you loosen your grip on belief.

In other words, when thoughts arise and your attention goes to them, ask yourself, “What do I really want?” or “What is my purpose?” or “Why am I here?” or any other question that reminds you how much you want to remain focused on awareness and awaken. When you remember how much you want to remain focused on awareness and awaken, you naturally recall attention from thought, and place it with awareness again.

Fear sometimes occurs during meditation, especially as you progress from a familiar stage of meditation to a new stage or new level. When fear arises, notice that the mind is judging the experience. Again, remind yourself how much you want to remain focused on awareness and awaken. Let the movement of fear be—do not interfere with it; gently place attention on awareness, and remain there.

The scene from Little Buddha  that we watched on Day 280 is a good symbol of remaining still in meditation, regardless of what arises, in order to awaken.

You do not need to read from Revelation in the Bible today. Go directly to the reading in NTI.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

On Day 275, we learned about the seven steps to awakening (as those steps are described in NTI). As a review, those steps are:

Step 1– An intense desire for awakening.

Step 2– Seeing through the ‘mask’ of ferociousness (attack, grievance, harshness) to the false beliefs that support and sustain it.

Step 3– Tiring of judgment.

Step 4– Letting go of the belief that life is temporary, which is also letting go of the belief that the body-mind-personality is your reality.

Step 5– Learning to trust all that is as it is.

Step 6– Letting go of perception, which is letting go of thought as me.

Step 7– Giving no meaning to anything the ego says or any experience you have as the ego dies its final death.

 
If you examine these steps carefully, you will see that they are not necessarily sequential.

The steps can be circular in nature, like a spiral of awakening.
 
 
 
Yesterday’s reading said:

Do not make the mistake of seeing the harvest as an event in your future, for always the harvest is now. … Always, it is now, so always, it is time to let go of judgment and look at the darkness hiding in the recesses of the mind.

The harvest and the spiral of awakening are one and the same. That means:

Now is the time to increase your desire for awakening.

Now is the time to look beneath upsets for false beliefs.

Now is the time to notice that judgment causes you pain.

Now is the time to practice awareness-watching-awareness.

Now is the time to nurture unconditional trust.

Now is the time to let go of identifying with thought.

Now is the time to give no meaning to the ego as it squirms about seeking believing-attention.

A spiral of awakening is a helpful symbol, because it helps us see that we may not be “done” with a particular step, but that we visit it over and over again as we spiral into awakening. It’s a helpful symbol for another reason too. Humans are not necessarily comfortable with a spiral. They tend to be more comfortable with a sense of control. So, the spiral of awakening helps us understand the feeling of resistance that arises as we go through the awakening process.

Remember that the spiral of awakening awakens us to joy, clarity, love and reality. When you feel the urge to cling to something and fight against the spiral, remember that the spiral carries you into awakening. Rest, release and allow.

Here is a song that may help you remember this advice:

Read Revelation 15:5-8 in the Bible before reading today’s reading in NTI.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Yesterday we saw that our belief in guilt (wrong) supports our habit of judgment, and our habit of judgment keeps us locked in the idea that we are a person. Through judgment, we see ourselves as a person in a world. We do not see everything as consciousness. This is why judgment is called the “building block of illusion.”

Today’s reading refers to “God’s judgment.” In this context, “God’s judgment” is seeing consciousness as consciousness. It is seeing as God (as consciousness). That’s why today’s reading says:

The hour of God’s judgment is the hour of your release.

Near the end of St. Francis’ life, he went to the La Verna hermitage in Tuscany, north of Assisi. According to one biographer, he climbed Mt. Verna:

“as though he were pulled along by an inner voice that kept calling out to him. He knew that something out of the ordinary was beginning to take shape within him among these mountain boulders. …

“Francis felt the need to be alone, not in order to avoid people, but in order to see and touch his God in an experience that he already knew from his premonition would be new and exceptional. …

“Francis once again wanted to come in contact with the ‘judgment of God.’” ~ Gianmaria Polidoro

Was the event at La Verna, which is traditionally referred to as the physical stigmata, actually the final end of the ego? One can only wonder, although the possibility of it is inspirational.

Remember what we learned on Day 273:

All of consciousness is one and the same, so if Jesus (or Siddhartha or Francis) or any other being can realize absolute truth, you can too. You are fully worthy and fully capable. All that is needed is an absolute decision and commitment-living-practice to back up that decision.

Today’s reading continues to interpret Revelation with the right-mind, and so you will read a little from Revelation in the Bible today. As you read from Revelation and from NTI today, keep in mind that you are being taught how to live your everyday life in a way that lets go of ego. By living your everyday life in the way NTI Revelation recommends, you can transcend the ego completely and come to see through the eyes of God.

Today’s reading says:

When you fear death, realize the judge has been allowed to be resurrected.

That means you are thinking like a person again; you see yourself as a body-mind-personality, and so you think body-mind-personality is primary and life is secondary. To reverse this error, shift into awareness-watching-awareness. Through awareness-watching-awareness, you see for yourself that life-awareness is primary and body-mind-personality is secondary. You see that body-mind-personality is observed. Body, mind and personality are objects. You are beyond them.

Before reading from NTI, read Revelation 14:8-12 from the Bible. Note: Today’s reading refers to the lessons that are represented by the 144,000. You can review those lessons in NTI Revelation, Chapter 7.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Yesterday we learned that we transcend the temptations that occur during the seventh step to awakening by learning to make choices with inner intuition. This is hard for most humans, because most humans make decisions through judgment.

Today, we are going to learn more about judgment. By examining judgment carefully, we will learn to notice it more easily in ourselves. Then, when we notice we are making a decision by using judgment, we can drop our judgment, empty our mind, and ask within for intuitive guidance.

Today, you will use the tip differently. The tip will guide you through the reading and through a journaling experience. See today’s tip as a teacher who is telling you what to do when. As you complete each step, return to the tip to find out what you are to do next.

1. Read Revelation 13:1-4 in the Bible.
2. Read NTI Revelation, Chapter 13 (v1-4), and then return to the tip.

When NTI says, “The beast that comes out of the sea is your judgment against your Self,” it means it is your judgment against consciousness. Whenever you judge anything, you judge consciousness, because all things are made of consciousness.

Most people can let go of judgment in some situations, but very few people are willing to let go of judgment in all situations. However, whenever we rely on judgment, we identify with the mind as “me,” because we believe its thoughts are “my thoughts.” That means whenever we judge anything, we believe we are a person and we do not see ourselves as consciousness.

Therefore, as we learned in NTI Romans 2, judgment is the “building block of illusion.” Through judgment, we believe that we are what we are not.

3. Read NTI Revelation, Chapter 13 (v5-10), and then return to the tip.

You are about to do a journaling exercise. In this exercise, you will ask for a right-minded interpretation of the verses you are about to read from the Bible. As you read, realize that the beast is Self-judgment, which is judging anything since everything is consciousness. So, when the Bible says, “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies,” it means that Self-judgment is not limited. It is not limited regarding what it judges or how it judges.

If you look at the judgments in your mind, you will see this is true. Self-judgment is very active and very creative.

Before going to the journaling exercise, let’s review how to open up to right-minded interpretation:

Step back.
Detach from what your mind thinks.
Look at the whole as it is.
Feel within for intuition.

4. Read Revelation 13:5-10 in the Bible, and then ask to see what you need to see regarding Self-judgment. After you complete your journaling, return to the tip.
5. Read Revelation 13:11,12 in the Bible.
6. Read NTI Revelation, Chapter 13 (v11,12).

NTI says that the second beast is guilt, and guilt supports judgment. In other words, as long as you believe in guilt (wrong), you believe you need judgment. You think judgment keeps you safe and provides guidance on how to be good and worthy.

In order to let go of judgment, you also have to let go of the belief in guilt. When this happens, right and wrong or good and bad are replaced with a way of seeing that is often described as, “Everything is just happening.” Manifestation is seen as unfolding based on what consciousness believes, but it is not seen as good or bad, right or wrong. It’s just a reflection of beliefs.

This is how Jesus saw when he said:

Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

It is as we learned through NTI Acts 3:

Ignorance is not guilt. It is a call for knowledge.

7. Read NTI Revelation, Chapter 13 (v13-18).
8. Read Revelation 13:13-18 in the Bible, and then ask to see what you need to see regarding your belief in guilt (wrong).

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Yesterday we learned that the seventh step to awakening can occur over a long period of time and can look like everyday life. Today’s reading provides guidance about how to transcend the temptations that occur during the seventh step. That guidance is to make choices carefully. That means we need to live reflectively, learning to always check in with inner intuition before making any choice in our daily life.

Before reading today’s reading in NTI, please read Revelation 12:1-6 in the Bible.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

In some dramatic stories, it seems as if the seventh step of awakening is transcended all at once. For example, watch this scene from the movie, Little Buddha, and then continue reading the tip below:

In this scene, it appears as if the final temptations of the ego came all at once, in one short meditation, and were transcended by Siddhartha as he watched everything without believing it. It looks as if the seventh step was transcended in only a few hours or less.

For most of us, however, the seventh step stretches over a period of time. It can last many years. It doesn’t occur in one dramatic meditation. It occurs more slowly through everyday life. During this time, the ego can be very deceptive. Most people fall for its deception easily.

In order to transcend the temptations that occur during the seventh step, one must want awakening more than anything else. It is as we learned through NTI Revelation 6:

The first of the seven seals on the scroll of Life represents that which must always come first. The rider of the white horse “bent on conquest” represents full dedication to the true desire of the heart.

Today’s reading asks us to feel within and notice our desire for awakening. How strong is it truthfully? How much resistance still remains? What other goals do we want to accomplish more than we want awakening?

We aren’t looking at ourselves today in order to condemn ourselves. We simply want to be honest. If awakening is at all important to us, self-honesty is also important. If our desire for awakening is not strong enough to see us through the seventh step, it is good to focus on increasing our desire for awakening.

It’s just as we learned from Michael Langford in Gentle Healing Year 1:

Awakening the extremely intense desire for Liberation is the most important first step that can be taken towards being liberated here and now in this lifetime. …

Of all of the factors that determine whether you will or will not be free, the intensity or lack of intensity of your desire for liberation is the most essential factor.

Therefore, whatever you can do to most effectively increase your desire for liberation should be done.

Today, take the opportunity to look honestly at your desire for awakening, and then ask for guidance about how you can increase that desire. Be willing to follow the guidance you receive. Often, people receive absolutely perfect guidance, but then they go about their daily lives and do not follow the guidance they received.

Remember what we learned through NTI James 1:

Do not merely listen to My words without practicing what I say. To listen, but not to practice, is to be like a man who looks in the mirror, but then goes away and forgets what he saw.

Before reading today’s reading in NTI, please read the Revelation 11:1-12 in the Bible.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Today, we continue looking at the seventh step in the awakening process. That step is to give no meaning to anything the ego may say or anything you may experience as the ego dies its final death.

When you go through the ego’s final death, you do not go through it alone. The right-mind (awake consciousness) is present and able to help you through to awakening if you are open to its guidance. The way to be open to its guidance is to give no meaning to anything the ego may say or anything you may experience as the ego dies its final death.

Revelation 10 speaks of an angel “holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand.” This scroll represents the guidance of the right-mind.

Today, you will read Revelation 10 and let the right-mind interpret it for you. On Day 272, we learned how to make room for the right-mind’s interpretation. We were taught to:

Step back.
Detach from what your mind thinks.
Look at the whole as it is.
Feel within for intuition.

Practice these steps as you read Revelation 10 today. Let a right-minded interpretation come to you. Don’t prejudge what that interpretation should be. Let the right-mind speak to you in whatever way it wants. Simply let it flow. Discover what guidance you are given when you open up to it.

Complete today’s reading this way:

1. Read today’s reading in NTI.
2. After you finish today’s NTI reading, read Revelation 10 from the Bible.
3. After you finish reading Revelation 10 or as you read Revelation 10, depending on how you are guided, write the right-minded interpretation that comes to you.
4. When the right-minded writing is complete, review it to see what guidance you are given.

For those of you who are interested, here is a video by Dr. David Hawkins about the final death of the ego. You can watch the video before or after doing today’s assignment, as you feel guided:

 
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Today, we continue looking at the seventh step in the awakening process. That step is to give no meaning to anything the ego may say or anything you may experience as the ego dies its final death. The only way to pass through the seventh step is to purify the beliefs that are part of your conditioned thinking. If those beliefs are not purified, you will interpret the ego’s death fearfully, and you will retreat from the ego’s death, because retreating makes you feel more comfortable.

Yesterday, you may have learned something about your thinking. For example, you may have learned that you perceive some things as good and other things as bad. You may like peace and silence, but detest violence, especially in the name of righteousness.

When you go through the final death of the ego, it’s important that you do not interpret anything you hear, feel or experience as meaningful. Instead, you want to simply be with it, whatever it is. As you be with the ego without giving it believing attention, it can pass away. However, when you give the ego believing attention, it has you (awareness) in its grip, and you will act reactively instead of from clarity.

That means that if you think peace and silence are good, and violence is bad or fearful, the ego can use that against you to extend its apparent existence.

It is much better if you see peace and silence as constant, and if you see violence as a temporary scene that will soon pass away. That is a completely different interpretation than “good” and “bad,” and it is an interpretation that will allow you to pass through the seventh step.

Today’s reading interprets Revelation with the right-mind. It encourages to you to seek out the conditioned beliefs that you are not aware of. It asks you to not be distracted by the “smoke that rises out of the abyss,” but to look “past the smoke, deep into the abyss.”

The “smoke” and “abyss” refer to symbols used in Revelation 9. The “smoke” is the smoke screen of the world, and the “abyss” is the mind. In other words:

Do not believe you are upset because of anyone or anything in the world.
Look in the mind for the cause of your upset.

Whenever you believe you are upset because of someone or something in the world, you are deceived by the smoke screen. Instead, look beyond the situation that appears to have upset you, and look in your mind to find the belief that caused your upset. This process of uncovering and letting go of conditioned beliefs is the purification that will enable you to pass through step seven to final awakening.

Today’s reading points out that purification is not always easy. We have repressed false beliefs because they were uncomfortable to face. However, they aren’t true. They are false  beliefs. In order to purify, we need to face them, feel them and let them fade away. That’s how we discover they were never real in the first place.

Sometimes people are afraid to look at their false beliefs. If you are afraid to look, you will not look, and you will remain a robot to your conditioning. However, there is nothing to fear, because you are looking at false beliefs. Looking is the way to freedom.

Please read Revelation 9:1-11, and then read today’s reading in NTI:

Revelation 9:1-11

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

On Day 272, we learned:

We all have ways of finding meaning—ways of interpreting—and whether we realize it or not, we use our conditioned ways of interpreting in order to apply meaning to everything we experience during our daily life.

Our “conditioned ways of interpreting” come from beliefs that we hold on to, because those beliefs are a part of who we think we are or they are a part of how we want to see the world. Conditioned beliefs are not all positive; in fact, the beliefs we treasure most are typically highly negative.

Today we will begin looking at the conditioned beliefs we carry in the mind, beliefs that color our interpretation of everything we perceive.

On Day 275, we looked at six of the seven steps to awakening (as those steps are put forth in NTI). We didn’t look at the seventh step that day. Today, we will begin looking at the seventh step.

The seventh step that one must pass through in order to awaken to truth is this:

Give no meaning to anything the ego says or to any experience you have as the ego dies its final death.

The only way to do this is to purify conditioned beliefs so you are no longer unconsciously subject to them.

The first step in purifying conditioned beliefs is becoming aware of those beliefs. You want to see them in action as part of your interpretation. When you see them, you can let go of them. If you do not see them, they control you.

Today, you will be asked to read a passage from Revelation. As you read, please take notes about the thoughts that flash across your mind. These thoughts will give you insight regarding conditioned beliefs that you still hold onto.

Complete today’s reading this way:

1. Read today’s reading in NTI.
2. After you finish today’s NTI reading, read Revelation 8 from the Bible. Write down the thoughts you see as you read Revelation 8.
3. After you finish reading Revelation 8, look at the notes you took and answer these questions:
   • What meaning did I give as I read Revelation 8?
   • What beliefs led to that interpretation?

For example, let’s imagine you begin the reading with a peaceful feeling, and you think, “That’s nice.” Write that down. Let’s imagine that as the reading continues, you see an anger thought arise. That thought is, “How could anyone think that  is holy?”

You continue reading and continue writing down all of the thoughts you notice.

In this example, after you finish the reading, you look at everything you’ve written down. You notice that you liked the first part of the reading and didn’t like something that came later in the reading. Ask yourself about those thoughts. Why did you think the first part was good and the second was bad? What did your mind see in the first part that it judged as good? What did it see in the second part that it judged as bad? What is underneath those judgments? Practice root cause inquiry to find out why you were upset about the second thing you read.

If you look at your thoughts carefully today, you will learn something about the filter through which you interpret everything you experience.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Before reading today’s tip, please read Revelation 7:1-8 in the Bible.

Revelation 7:1-8

The “seal” that is spoken about in this excerpt is readiness. One is not led to the point of letting go of ego until one is ready to let go of ego. Readiness includes preparation, and the teachings that we’ve contemplated in NTI up until this point have prepared us to be ready. When we have learned NTI’s lessons fully, and we live from those lessons in our daily life, we are ready to let go of the ego.

Today’s reading summarizes 12 primary lessons we’ve learned from NTI. Please read the 12 lessons slowly and contemplatively. You may want to journal a little about each lesson to make sure you have clarity regarding each lesson. Do you practice these lessons in your daily life? If not, how can you bring them into your daily living?

The more time you spend contemplating today’s 12 lessons, the better prepared you are to live your life ready to let go of ego.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.