Today’s reading encourages us to disregard the ego voice in the mind and complete the purification process. The reading is thorough and clear. We all do well to read carefully, and then follow the advice given in today’s reading.

First, it advises us about how to be with  the ego voice in order to let go of it. We are advised:

• To see it as confusion.
• Not to hate it or fight it.
• Not to be afraid of noticing it or hearing it.
• To look right at it, and then disregard it.

Awareness is being (is’ing), so it be’s with  whatever is present. Awareness lets go of ego by being with it without believing it.

Next, the reading advises us to go through the darkest and toughest experiences of purification. You can only complete the purification process by going all the way through it. To stop and revert to your conditioning, because purification has become difficult and you are more comfortable with your conditioning, is not to purify.

Let’s review St. Clare’s quote from Day 269 again:

Never forget that the way which leads to heaven is narrow; that the gate leading to life is narrow and low; that there are but few who find it and enter by it; and if there be some who go in and tread the narrow path for some time, there are but very few who persevere therein.

You can be one of the very few who persevere. You just have to want truth realization more than anything else, including more than feeling better sooner.

Here’s a quote from St. Benedict that is also worth considering today:

Don’t be addicted to your own self-image or to anything else that promises cheap fulfillment or an easy escape from problems.

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

NTI Revelation 1 is one of my favorite readings in NTI. It provides simple clarity to help us avoid common pitfalls on the spiritual path. If we remember its wisdom, we can walk the “narrow path” to enlightenment without detours or delays.

For example, consider how many people throughout history have idolized Buddha and Jesus, or how many people idolize Mooji or A Course in Miracles  today.

Today’s reading says:

Do not idolize anything within the world or any symbol that is sent to lead you from the world. Hold to them as they are useful, but let them go when their usefulness has past. You are to keep moving by letting go  until you find yourself with nothing left to hold onto.

Idolizing any figure, scripture or theology is a delay on the spiritual path. Identifying with the idea that you are a spiritual person is another delay. Using the Law of Attraction to get happiness in the world is a detour from the spiritual path.  Believing that health is better than sickness, riches are better than poverty or that poverty is better than riches are also detours.

Pay attention to what St. Clare of Assisi said:

Never forget that the way which leads to heaven is narrow; that the gate leading to life is narrow and low; that there are but few who find it and enter by it; and if there be some who go in and tread the narrow path for some time, there are but very few who persevere therein.

Since today’s reading provides guidance about how to walk the narrow path without delays or detours, I recommend taking notes as you read.

Note: The next tip will be available on November 3, 2018 after 3:50am ET at this link.

On Day 263, I wrote:

You cannot read today’s reading from the idea, “I am a person,” and understand it. “I” cannot mean “me and not others.” “I” must mean consciousness, and it must include all things in manifestation as  “I,” or the meaning in today’s reading will be lost.

That’s true with today’s reading too. Today’s reading is not talking to Bill or Harry or Sally, or anyone else with an individual name. Today’s reading talks to consciousness, which misperceives itself as Bill and Harry and Sally, and every other apparent individual. However, the point of the reading is this:

There are no individuals. It is one consciousness appearing as many, just as one heating system blows through many vents to heat several different rooms in a house. It is all one heat. In the same way, the consciousness that enlivens many different personality-minds is all one consciousness.

As Jesus said in the Book of John in the Bible:

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” ~ John 14:2-4, English Standard Version

Likewise, today’s reading says:

I have come to help you remove your faith from the illusion, which you have believed in until now, and place it firmly with one mind (consciousness), which is not separate. With your faith placed in the one mind, you can look at the one mind, see the beliefs that have been accepted there, and then choose to use the one mind to peacefully see another way.

Choosing to look at the image of the world as the reflection of consciousness while abiding with attention on truth is how we “prepare a place” for consciousness, so that it may come and be “where I am.”

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

In the Bible, Jesus said:

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

When a person is identified with the ego, his point-of-view is selfish. He sees himself as different from others, and he cares more about himself than anyone else. This is true even though he may deny it to himself.

That is why a mother can be annoyed with her children, even though she loves them more than anyone else on earth. You see, she loves herself even more, and when her children conflict with her present desire (e.g., They are noisy when she wants quiet), she becomes annoyed with them.

As we awaken to consciousness, we begin to love others in the same way we love our self. That means their needs (perceived or real) are just as important to us as our own. Even more, we put others before  ourselves, because we notice that the only part of us that wouldn’t put others before ‘me’ is the ego, and we have no more interest in ego.

These are signs that you are awakening to consciousness:

• You naturally care about others as much as you care about yourself, even if you’ve never met them before.
• You happily put yourself aside without any sense of sacrifice in order to accommodate someone else’s needs (perceived or real).
• You prefer to take on a responsibility that you know you can manage yourself than pass it to another, if the other would perceive it as a burden.
• You are willing to do things someone else’s way, as long as the effect of that decision is in harmony with intuition’s guidance.
• You recognize others as yourself and greet them with great joy and familiarity. (Sometimes you have to tone it down a bit, because others are not accustomed to it.)
• Others often tell you they feel more at ease or happier when they are around you or after talking with you.

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

Today’s reading encourages commitment to our true desire … to our guiding intuition … to inner spiritual wisdom …. to truth.

At some point, it comes down to this:

What am I committed to?

Most people don’t notice my commitment to truth. Oh, they see the time I put into contemplation, because of these daily tips. They hear my teachings and know there’s something serious going on there, but my real commitment to truth is much more subtle than daily tips and teachings. My real commitment to truth shows up in the opinions I drop rather than fight for. It shows up when I do things someone else’s way instead of “my way.” It shows up in how I happily accept things as they are without trying to make everything please “me.” It shows up in how I have no grievances against anyone, and I let everyone be as they are without asking them to be different. It shows up in how I don’t expect anything from anyone, and how I respond to the moment as it is instead of thinking it should be different.

A real commitment to truth is subtle. It’s quiet. It appears passive, although it is actually a very active commitment.

Jesus said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.”

Meek is defined as “quiet, gentle and easily imposed upon; submissive.”

Someone who is genuinely meek in the way Jesus speaks of would agree with “quiet, gentle” and “submissive,” but would say she is never imposed upon. Only the ego can be imposed upon.

Genuine meekness is living from within—living from spiritual intuition and wisdom. It is not living from “I know.” It is not living from “I’m right.” It is not living from conditioning. And it certainly doesn’t seek recognition for itself. People who live from ego seldom notice meekness in another, and if they do notice it, they often interpret it as weakness. It takes meekness to notice, understand and appreciate meekness.

Genuine meekness is like a rare, overlooked jewel. It is those who live it that understand its value.

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

On Day 261, I shared a story about the joy I felt when I recognized a fly on a toilet seat at a truck stop in New Mexico. I say “recognized,” because the joy didn’t come from what the eyes saw or what the mind defined those images as. Joy came from natural recognition—life-awareness recognizing life-awareness. It wasn’t one recognizing another. It was one recognition—Self-recognition.

Today’s reading refers to “the seeing that recognizes the Christ.” That seeing is the recognition I’m referring to. It doesn’t come from thinking metaphysical thoughts. It comes from a natural light in the mind that shines forth and sees only itself—only light…only life….only Self—and there is no thought in it.

I remember a conversation I had with some spiritual students around a dinner table one evening several years ago. Some felt that when we become enlightened, we suddenly know everything that can be intellectually known. They said the enlightened are Einstein-like in their knowledge, and they can tell the future, etcetera. It was a very grandiose idea of enlightenment.

Today’s reading says:

We know only that the truth is true, but in knowing this is all Knowledge given, for there is nothing else to know.

In other words, the knowing that caused my heart to leap with joy when I saw the fly on the toilet seat is  true knowledge. That recognition is the only knowledge that has any real value at all. That’s why Ramana Maharshi used to ask people who had incredible book knowledge, “But do you know the Self?”

Today’s reading also says:

Seek only the truth and the truth will find you.

That means that whenever you notice attention is not with truth, shift attention to truth. By keeping attention with reality—with life-awareness—you come to recognize life-awareness in all.

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

One key to effective discernment is knowing what to give attention to and what not to give attention to, because it isn’t meaningful; because it isn’t real, because it is temporary instead of eternal.

A second key to effective discernment is letting feeling guide the decision above.

Thinking can be extremely deceptive. You can’t trust thinking to help you discern the wrong-mind from the right-mind, but you can trust feeling.

Whenever you feel content, open, and free, you are in the right-mind. Whenever there is an interruption of any kind to content-open-free, you are giving attention to the wrong-mind.

I chose the word “content” instead of happy or joyous, because sometimes humans are serious, such as when they are looking at a problem that needs to be resolved, and sometimes humans are sad, like when a loved one passes away, etcetera. However, the right-mind is content with seriousness when seriousness is appropriate and content with sadness when sadness is appropriate, etcetera.

Contentment is an underlying permanent feeling. Sometimes other feelings are appropriately present too, but when one is with the right-mind, the other feelings do not cover  contentment. They are present with  contentment.

If contentment is lost (covered up), attention is with the wrong-mind.

A third key to effective discernment is self-honesty. You can lie to yourself about whether you were content or not while you were swearing at the driver in the car next to you, but lying to yourself will not help you reach the freedom that is called enlightenment. Self-honesty is a very important key.

Today’s reading says:

When any thought does not feel like Love, you may put it aside as false.

That is another way of saying, whenever you do not feel content-open-free, attention is with the wrong-mind. You can disregard what you are giving attention to—because isn’t meaningful; because it isn’t real, because it is temporary instead of eternal—and return attention to the right-mind and to truth.

The reading also says:

Existence cannot be denied, because it is.

Sometimes, when believing-attention goes deeply into false ideas, we can have deep feelings that are not anything like content-open-free. Sometimes content-open-free can be so far from our current experience that we can’t recall the feeling those words point to. However, there is one intuitive knowing-feeling that is never covered up. It is always present, and we can always turn our attention to it. That is existence.

In any moment, no matter how angry you are, … no matter how guilty you feel, … regardless of how ashamed you feel, and etcetera; in any moment you can notice that you exist. In fact, you couldn’t be angry or feel guilty, etcetera, unless existence was there to feel it. So, in any moment you can turn attention from whatever has captured attention and focus on existence instead. Simply notice that right now you exist, and keep attention there.

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

You cannot read today’s reading from the idea, “I am a person,” and understand it. “I” cannot mean “me and not others.” “I” must mean consciousness, and it must include all things in manifestation as  “I,” or the meaning in today’s reading will be lost.

For example, today’s reading says:

The world that you see comes from the thoughts that you think.

That doesn’t mean, “Hey, Regina. The world that you see comes from the thoughts you think.”

Regina is a character. That sentence speaks to consciousness, and consciousness experiences itself as each character.

We are one consciousness, and the world appearance comes from us as one consciousness.

Before reading today, take a few minutes to contemplate one consciousness. Realize you are not the character you identify with. You are consciousness. Everyone and everything is one consciousness, and you are that.

Don’t think about this idea. Just be with it. As today’s reading says:

The thinking mind cannot follow this thought because the thinking mind believes in separation, …

If any part of today’s reading is not clear to you, ask inner wisdom for clarity.

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

Today’s reading is too good to read quickly. It begins with a reinterpretation of Jesus’ crucifixion. Many of us were taught that Jesus died for our sins. Today’s reading says that Jesus “released the sins of the world as illusion … and returned himself to the Awareness of God,” and then it asks us to make the same decision.

Are you ready to give no more meaning to illusion?

Are you ready to give all of your love and attention to truth?

Today’s reading shares a couple of ‘tests’ we can give ourselves in order to be honest with ourselves regarding our own spiritual progress.

First, we are asked to notice how we feel about others. If there is anyone we “do not love truly,” there are misperceptions in our mind that still need healing.

Next, we are asked to notice if some things in our lives have higher priority than other things. If some matters have more meaning to us than others, we do not yet see all things as God. The only exception to this test is when truth has more meaning than illusion.

I hope you decide to read today’s reading slowly and contemplatively. I recommend taking notes as you read today.

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