Yesterday’s tip pointed out that the ego comes from consciousness—from the loop of believing attention—and when you believe the ego, you are a puppet of unreality.

The human isn’t reality. It’s not what you are, although it is your current level of experience. Since the human is not reality, it is always  a puppet. Even when the ego dies its final death, the body-mind-personality is still a puppet. Instead of being a puppet to the ego, it is a puppet (manifestation) of truth. It is truth manifest in the world.

It’s important to realize that the human body always follows a script, which can also be called karma, but the script can be a script of clarity and wisdom instead of a script of ignorance and delusion.  Since you are awareness and not a human body, you can decide which script to cast attention on, and that is the script that will move the body-mind-personality.

When you choose surrender, you choose to follow the script of wisdom instead of the script of delusion. Once Self-realization occurs, you are at a vibrational level where following wisdom is natural, yet the wisdom that moves the body-mind-personality is still script. When awakening to reality has occurred, the awake-mind is beyond the script entirely, yet the body-mind-personality is moved by the wisdom-script until the body dies a physical death. That is why Nisargadatta Maharaj said:

Yes, l appear to hear and see and talk and act, but to me it just happens, as to you digestion or perspiration happens. The body-mind machine looks after it, but leaves me out of it. Just as you do not need to worry about growing hair, so I need not worry about words and actions. They just happen and leave me unconcerned, for in my world nothing ever goes wrong.

His world is reality.

Ramana Maharshi described it this way:

[Bliss] is the state of unceasing peace of mind, which is found in the state of absolute quiescence, which resembles inactive deep sleep. In this state, in spite of the activity of the body and the senses, there is no external awareness, as in the case of a child immersed in sleep (who is not conscious of the food given to him by his mother). A yogi who is in this state is inactive even while engaged in activity. This is also called sahajanirvikalpa Samadhi (natural state of absorption in oneself without concepts.)

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

The ego—mental chatter—is sometimes called “the imposter,” because it acts as if it is you when it is not you. Today’s reading says:

Right now, it is as if two “I”s live within you. … One “I” is the false thought, the false idea of who you are. The other “I” is best described now as your true Heart.

If you contemplate this deeply, you will find it disconcerting. There is a voice telling you what to think, feel, believe and do, and that voice isn’t you.

Where does the voice come from?

It comes from consciousness, from the loop of believing attention, but it is manufactured thought. It is manufactured through delusion and fed into your mind. When you believe it is you, and you think, feel and act as if it is you, you are literally a puppet of unreality.

Unfortunately, this is the state of almost all humans in the world today, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Devoted discipline is the answer. We could also call it disciplined devotion, since devotion has been defined as living from within—living from intuition, silence and awareness, instead of living from belief in mental chatter.

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

Today, Inner Ramana introduces us to self-inquiry and Self-inquiry, which are two different forms of inquiry. You were introduced to both forms of inquiry in Gentle Healing Year 1, and you’ve been using both forms of inquiry ever since you were introduced to them. As you will see, these are not new practices for you.

We practice self-inquiry whenever we question thought in order to discover false beliefs or to notice that thought isn’t me. Some forms of self-inquiry are Root Cause Inquiry and Byron Katie’s, “The Work.” Another form of self-inquiry is the form that’s taught through Inner Ramana. That is asking, “Who thinks this thought?” (For example, “Who wishes she would stop talking?” or “What says, ‘I am too busy to meditate?’)

Through self-inquiry, you see the attachment to mind, and then you can choose to break the attachment to mind. When I say, “You  see the attachment to mind,” and “You  break the attachment to mind,” I am referring to awareness, because that is what you are.

When you become aware that you (awareness) are giving believing-attention to mind, you (awareness) can shift attention and break the attachment to mind.

Remember, you are not mind. You are the one that casts attention on mind as if it is you.

We practice Self-inquiry when we put attention on awareness instead of mind. Self-inquiry is looking deeply at awareness until awakening to infinite awareness occurs. Awareness-watching-awareness is a form of Self-inquiry.

When you read today’s reading, do not read the last paragraph too quickly. It’s very important to see when you think mental chatter is you  thinking. The last paragraph of today’s reading teaches us to use self-inquiry to discover that belief.

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

Yesterday we contemplated this definition of sacrifice:

An act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.

We are asked to sacrifice our attachment to mind in order to awaken to true perception.

Do you feel that’s a worthy sacrifice?

Is it a sacrifice you want to make?

As we’ve learned before, desire is the most important factor in awakening. If you really want to sacrifice the attachment to mind and awaken to true perception, you will follow through and do that.

How?

By using the practices that we’ve been introduced to:

1. Daily reading and contemplation
2. Journaling with inner wisdom
3. Awareness-watching-awareness meditation
4. The loving all method
5. Surrender
6. Practicing the mantra
7. Questioning mental chatter to see if it is “me”

Eventually, you will be able to drop the first two on the list and live with practices 3-7.

One who desires awakening makes spiritual practice the focus of his/her daily life. Today’s message refers to that as devotion. Devotion is living from within. We awaken from the dream through devotion.

Today’s message also says:

Devotion is a slow process.

That means when we are devoted, we aren’t quick to react. Instead, we check within before responding to any outer stimulus. Instead of living from the fast-paced chaos of mind, we are deeply surrendered within.

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

NTI Luke 7 says:

There are expectations in your mind regarding truth, but these expectations are based on what you know within your slumber. They are not based on knowledge or Life. They are based on interpretation, or death.

What do you expect of Me? Where is it that you think I am leading you to?

Free yourself from these thoughts, and open your mind to Me unfettered by expectations. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of Me.

Inner Ramana teaches that the way to awaken from the dream (from delusion to true perception) is to break the attachment to mental chatter. As today’s message points out, that includes breaking the attachment to mental chatter about spiritual ideas.

If I think I know what enlightenment looks like or how an enlightened one behaves, then I think I know. If I think I know, that means I think the mind is me  thinking.

Thinking I know anything that doesn’t come from pure observation is identifying with mind. (Observation is not pure if it is interpreted through mental chatter.)

This is difficult to accept when we are heavily identified with mind. It’s hard to accept this, because of the underlying belief that giving up attachment to mind is giving up me. It feels like the ultimate sacrifice.

As inner wisdom said to Lanae last week:

To sacrifice the self is to request remembrance of the true Self.

We cannot be attached to ‘me’ and know the true Self too.

That is demonstrated in today’s message by the difficulty I had hearing Inner Ramana on the day this message was written. As soon as Inner Ramana started talking to me about my desire to think about and talk about Self, I had trouble hearing Inner Ramana.

Why?

Because the mind started to chatter about when I think about and talk about Self. As soon as I listened to chatter as me  thinking, the voice of inner wisdom faded. I could not be identified with mental chatter and hear inner wisdom too. In order to write the message that you will read today, I had to continually, repeatedly break the attachment to mental chatter and return my attention to inner wisdom.

This is very important to understand.

When we think we know something, inner wisdom is blocked. When we think we can figure ‘this’ out, inner wisdom is blocked. When we are lost in mental chatter, inner wisdom is blocked.

To know the Self, including inner wisdom and intuition, the self (our identification with mind) must be sacrificed.

Before going to today’s reading, contemplate this definition of sacrifice:

An act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.

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

Today, you will have the opportunity to witness a conversation between a student and her awake teacher. The questions she asks may be a lot like the questions you would ask, because her experiences are probably very much like yours. She is attached to the mind as “me,” and so she believes the mind’s thoughts of resistance. She believes, “I don’t want to do this,” and “This is too hard.” She doesn’t see that those are thoughts, and she (life-awareness) is giving believing-attention to thought.

Our belief that we are mind and mind-chatter is me  thinking is so deeply engrained that it takes time and practice  to see that we are completely wrong and fully fooled  about what we are. Those who feel they can awaken without devoting themselves to practice are like the alcoholic who continues to drink while telling his friends, “I can quit anytime I want.” They have not yet fully realized the extent of their problem.

As Jesus said when the disciples asked how they could be saved, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle… With man this is impossible,…”

That’s why we need to either surrender to within or withdraw from the world. The Teachings of Inner Ramana  teaches the former. The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss  teaches the latter.

Today’s message points out that the mind tries to feign surrender.

Mind’s fake surrender feels completely different than genuine surrender. In the mind’s fake surrender, there is still the feeling of “I know.” In genuine surrender, there is the knowledge, “I do not know.”

For example, one common teaching is to surrender to your brother and let him do things his way except when it is important. When the ego reflects on this teaching, it thinks it knows what is important. The spiritual aspirant who is surrendered needs to seek within to see if the current situation is important or not important. She never knows on her own if this is a time when she should let her brother have his way or if this is a time when she should be more insistent. Only surrender can adequately guide her.

Just now, after typing the paragraph above, there was a thought in my mind that said, “That’s a pretty good paragraph, but it needs editing. ‘Brother’ is A Course in Miracles’  language. It is sexist language. It might even confuse some people. They might think you mean their biological brother. You should rewrite the paragraph to eliminate the word ‘brother.'”

I looked at the paragraph I’d just written and read the first sentence. For a moment, I could see the mind’s point, but then I felt within for guidance. The guidance was to leave the paragraph as it is. Guidance didn’t judge the paragraph as good or bad. Notice ego did both. Guidance simply indicated through an intuitive feeling to leave the paragraph as it is.

Notice how much the mind thought it knew. It thought:

• The paragraph is pretty good.
• That’s A Course in Miracles’ language.
• That’s sexist language.
• It might confuse some people.
• They might think you mean their biological brother.
• You should rewrite the paragraph.

That’s a lot of “I know” in just a few short seconds of mental chatter!

(Just to let you know, I have no idea what I will write next, so we can feel pretty sure that it is coming from surrender.)

Feigned surrender has the feeling of “I know” in it. Genuine surrender comes from “I do not know.”

Today, we are encouraged to question the mind whenever we notice that we believe it is me  thinking. For example, if you think and feel, “I wish she would stop talking,” pause. Ask, “Who wishes she would stop talking?” Look. Is it awareness that wishes she would stop talking, or is it the mind? When you feel that you wish she would stop talking, aren’t you identified with the mind?

Today’s reading says:

An idea is relinquished by looking at it, challenging it, and by seeing it as false. Since the idea of ego has been deeply learned through repetition, deep and consistent unlearning must result.

So now, instead of simply looking at mind chatter and noticing what it was saying, we will question chatter to see whether that was me  thinking or not. If you have been practicing awareness-watching-awareness for the last 640ish days (since it was introduced in Year 1), you should be fully prepared for this practice. This is an advanced practice, and one who has not been watching awareness will be mistaken about what she sees when she asks, “Who thinks that?” In order to see the folly of believing mind, you have to have some direct experience with the sense of what you really are.

In other words, everything we have learned up until this point has prepared you for the step we are taking now.

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

Please contemplate this commentary in the same way you contemplate the Thoughts of Awakening.

~Commentary on Home~

 What is not at home is your way of seeing, your way of perceiving and your way of understanding. Your way is lost from home, because your way is unique and individual, and therefore it is not home.

Home is one way. It is the true way. It is seeing what is as it is.

Peace leads all things home, because in peace you are home. From home, home is all you see because home is all that truly is.

~From our Holy Spirit

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

Please contemplate this commentary in the same way that you contemplate the Thoughts of Awakening.

~Commentary on Not-Knowing~

 There is peace in not-knowing at the level of mind, because it is supposed knowing that keeps you distrustful, fearful and judging.

What could you judge if you did not think you knew? What could you fear without mind-knowing?

You are distrustful to stop the mind’s incessant knowing, because you feel without it you will be unsafe. But who fears letting go of this knowing? Who doubts that wisdom will keep it safe?

It is important to question, “What am I?” Realization of life is important, for without such realization you will cling to the mind that fears. Only in peace and security of not-knowing can you let go.

~From our Holy Spirit

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

Since Day 300, we have been looking very carefully at mind chatter in order to notice that we believe it is me  thinking. As was pointed out on Day 300, this is a very important step. In order to fully surrender, we need to see the extent of our addiction to mind. We need to see that we cannot awaken ourselves, because we are far, far, far too addicted to mental chatter as me.

Here are some quotes to consider before beginning today’s reading:

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle…” The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” ~ Mark 10:24-27

It is only your inner teacher that will walk you to the goal, for he is the goal. … He is your own Self, your hope and assurance of freedom; find him and cling to him and you will be saved and safe. ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

…surrender yourself, because you realize your inability and need a Higher Power to help you. ~ Ramana Maharshi

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