As I write this, it is the day after euthanizing my dog, Jamie. Yesterday, after she was gone, I decided to go for a walk, which is what I would have done had she been alive and healthy. I went to one of her favorite places along the Arkansas River.

As I walked, I noticed lizards, grasshoppers, ants, birds, trees, the water, and the wind. I felt awed by the intensity of life. It was so full of itself—vibrantly present and immediate. I could not find death in life. I knew the dog, Jamie, had ended, but yet there was no loss or lack in life. There wasn’t a hole in life where Jamie had been. Life was perfectly intact.

As NTI John taught, life and light are one. NTI John 1 said:

The Light is in all men and with all men. The Light does not fade or wither, but the darkness that fills the sight of man does not see the Light or choose to know it. And so, the Light waits on welcome, that it may be known.

What is the “darkness that fills the sight of man”?

It is the belief that manifestation is reality. It is the belief that I am the person, that Jamie was the dog, that an ant is just an ant, etcetera.

On Day 212, we saw that it’s a mistake to see ourselves as merely manifestation. It is more correct to say we are the creative principle than it is to say we are the person. To say we are consciousness is closer to truth. To say we are life is truth. To say we are all of it (life, consciousness, creation and manifestation) is the essence of truth, since consciousness, creation and manifestation are made of life. Life is the source and essence of all things.

Today’s reading says:

Rest within the acceptance that the temporal being you seem to be is not the totality of your Beingness, and so it cannot be the truth of what you are.

The person that you appear to be is to be loved, just as Jamie was to be loved, but the person is a temporary expression occurring through the creative principle. You are much more than that.

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

The purpose of NTI 2 Thessalonians was to help us let go of the ‘I am bad’ belief. The purpose of NTI 1 Timothy is to help us let go of the belief in ‘me’ as an individual, separate person. This is also letting go of the belief in separation.

Today’s reading says:

The personhood of man, which is based on the belief in the world, is meaningless. It is meaningless because the world itself is not real, so all that is based on the world is also not real.

This is a very deep thought that you do well to sit back and soak in fully, for within this thought is another symbol that is key to your own salvation.

What is the “symbol that is key to your own salvation?”

It is Self-inquiry.

Who/What am I?

I was not ready for Self-inquiry when it was introduced in NTI 2 Corinthians 12, so like a GPS, inner wisdom recalculated to help me see that I am the Third Principle of God, the creative process. I accepted that teaching more easily. Through that teaching, I could see that I am not what I think I am and that the world is not real; it is made through attention on thought, perception and emotion.

In NTI 1 Timothy, inner wisdom asked me to contemplate that more deeply. If I go deeply  into the realization that I am not what I think I am, that the world is made by attention on thought, emotion and perception, and that the body-personality is part of the world, I will eventually come to the question:

What am I?

And that question is key to salvation (awakening).

Some of you accept that you are not what you think you are. You accept that the world is not real; it is made by attention on thought, perception and emotion. Now, notice that the body and personality are part of the world. That means they are also made  in the same way all manifestation is made. They can’t be what you are, so what are you?

Don’t make the mistake I made in NTI 2 Corinthians 12, when I went to concepts for the answer. Instead of answering with what you’ve learned, look.

Experience you intimately.

If not the body, if not the thoughts, if not the emotional-makeup, and if not the personality, what’s left as you?

Subtract everything that you identify with that is a type of manifestation.

What’s left as you that is not  a manifestation?

Today’s reading points out that individual personhood—me, you, us, them—supports judgment.

Can that which is left when body-thought-emotion-personality is subtracted be judged like a body can be judged? Like thoughts can be judged? Like emotion or personality can be judged?

Anything that can be judged is part of manifestation. It is not real, and it supports the continued making of illusion.

That which cannot be judged is beyond all of it—beyond world, beyond body and beyond mind. And yet it is you.

What is that?

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

The guidance I shared in yesterday’s tip said:

Letting go of [guilt and unworthiness] comes from the mind, since the belief that holds to the perception is in the mind. This is why I have been teaching you that the cause of guilt and unworthiness is not in the world or in anything that you experience. The only cause is belief in the mind. It’s important to remember that belief in nothing is nothing but belief.

Today’s reading reemphasizes that point.

Today’s reading likens the ‘I am bad’ belief to the busy mind. If you watch the busy mind carefully, you will find it is constantly judging you as less than your reality. The idea that you are less than your reality is the root of the ‘I am bad’ belief. Therefore, your busy mind is the cause of your sense of guilt, unworthiness, inadequacy and the like.

Today’s reading teaches a discernment practice. It asks us to “manage your mind” by using the practice it teaches. We can start by using the practice during meditation, during rest-accept-trust or anytime we want to sit quietly. However, once we are skilled at the practice, we can use it while we are active as well.

NTI 2 Thessalonians is a short section in NTI. However, what it teaches is powerful and incredibly useful. I recommend referring to NTI 2 Thessalonians frequently until you are free of the ‘I am bad’ belief completely.

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

Today, we are taught exactly how to heal the ‘I am bad’ belief.

1. Ask to see it.
2. Look at it while being aware that it is a belief (not a fact).
3. Rest (rest-accept-trust).

You can practice these steps repeatedly until every shred of the ‘I am bad’ belief has been healed.

To help support today’s reading, here is guidance I received about letting go of the ‘I am bad’ belief:

Question: In order to feel my feelings (e.g., guilt, unworthiness) instead of repressing them, I cannot fear them. The problem is that I fear them because I still think they define me. I think they are true about who I am. How can I let go of this perception?

Answer: Letting go of this perception comes from the mind, since the belief that holds to the perception is in the mind. This is why I have been teaching you that the cause of guilt and unworthiness is not in the world or in anything that you experience. The only cause is belief in the mind. It’s important to remember that belief in nothing is nothing but belief.

To change your perception, look at this belief and say, “This is only belief.”

Call it by its name:

Not true, only belief

Be consistent and repetitive in this. That which isn’t true is coming into your mind now to be seen. This is a good thing, a great thing.  Look right at it in full confidence of who you are—full trust and knowing. Don’t trust your eyes or your thinking mind. Trust only your Heart, which knows. With knowing, look at your beliefs and say, “Not true, only belief.”

It is important to practice the previous guidance with clarity and not with fear. Your underlying motive for the practice is essential  to its effect. Truth realization is a different motive than the desire to avoid or escape something unpleasant.

Note: I recommend printing this tip for future reference.

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

On Day 217, we saw that the ‘I am bad’ belief incites denial and repression instead of healing. The goal of NTI 2 Thessalonians is to help us transcend the ‘I am bad’ belief so we can heal (let go of the false and realize the true) more quickly and more effectively. When this stumbling block is out of the way, the road is clear to find our way to awakening more easily (assuming our desire for truth remains strong).

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

Please read and contemplate the following commentary in the same way that you read and contemplate the Thought of Awakening. The commentaries are designed to enrich your understanding of the Thoughts of Awakening.

~Commentary on Awareness~

 Awareness is not judgment. Judgment is a thought that at its basic root sends a message saying, “This must be this way or something is terribly wrong.”

Judging sets up duality. It is  the world of right and wrong, good and evil, good and bad. With duality there are right choices and wrong choices, and you can be worthy or unworthy, innocent, righteous or very guilty.

Judgment sets up a world of comparison of this and that, higher and lower, better and worse. It makes the world of joy and sorrow, happiness and pain, security and suffering. And judgment, as the king of the world, defines what is good and what is pain, so that you become a slave unable to be consistently happy in a world of this and that.

But all of this…everything that is created in a world of judgment…is illusion. The answer, which frees you from illusion’s images, is the simple truth of awareness.

Awareness is attention without judgment. It is observation with curiosity and without conclusion. It is perpetual openness. In awareness there is no pain, no suffering, no guilt, and no bad, because there is no judgment, no definition, that would make these things possible.

~From our Holy Spirit

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

The primary message in NTI 1 Thessalonians is:

Be it to know it.

Be peace to know peace.
Be happiness to know happiness.
Be gratitude to know gratitude.
Be acceptance to know acceptance.
Be love to know love.

Today’s reading says that fear is the primary obstacle to being that which you desire to know.

On Day 177, we looked at three definitions of fear:

1. A strong, distressing emotion that arises when we anticipate danger, regardless of whether the threat is real or imagined.
2. Anxious concern or anticipation that something unpleasant is going to occur.
3. The desire to escape something unpleasant.

Contemplate each of the previous definitions of fear. As you do, look at your own experience. Do you agree that fear is an obstacle to being that which you desire to know?

For example, if you have decided to be and know acceptance, when you are caught up in fearful thinking, are you in acceptance or are you resisting something?

Please contemplate this before continuing to read the tip.

~ ~ ~

You cannot fully believe fear and be that which you desire to know simultaneously, but you can feel  fear and be that which you desire to know.

How?

Be at peace with feeling fear.
Or be happy to explore the feeling of fear.
Or be grateful for the opportunity to heal fear.
Or accept of the feeling of fear exactly as it is.
Or love the feeling of fear exactly as it is.

Each of the previous suggestions will help you practice rest-accept-trust. When you practice rest-accept-trust, fear heals. When you believe fear and act from fear, you are lost and do not know the Self.

Fear can be subtle. If you look carefully, even the tiniest upset can be attributed to fear. For example, frustration in a business meeting could be attributed to the fear that you are less than others, the fear that you might lose something, the fear that something outside of you can affect you, or the fear that you are losing control.

Fear is the greatest obstacle to truth realization.

Fear is the greatest obstacle to peace.
Fear is the greatest obstacle to happiness.
Fear is the greatest obstacle to gratitude.
Fear is the greatest obstacle to acceptance.
Fear is the greatest obstacle to love.

Pay careful attention to yourself. Whenever you are upset, pause and look to discover the fear that is present. If necessary, take a break and practice root cause inquiry.

Each time you bring restful awareness to fear, you come one step closer to abiding as your true Self consistently. In the early stages of awakening, this practice is called purification. In the later stages of awakening, it is called stabilization, because you are learning to stabilize as the Self.

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

One of the definitions of “sin” in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is “a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God.” Today’s reading says:

Sin is only forgetfulness.

Sin is the belief that you are a separate, individual being, apart and different from all that is. It is the belief that spawns the “I am bad” belief, which is the source of guilt and unworthiness. Sin is the belief that causes fear and the perception of death.

Since sin is forgetfulness, the answer to all problems caused by sin is remembrance. In other words, the answer to all problems is truth realization. (Reference Day 110.)

Today’s reading says:

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, because a quiet life is a godly life in which you hold, within your mind, that the process of life is  God.

If you investigate stories of awakening, you will find that many who have awakened have spent long periods of time alone in nature. When one is alone in nature with a contemplative spirit, one may realize that life is supreme and manifestation is temporary. Seeing that life is supreme and life is one’s true nature is truth realization.

Awareness-watching-awareness is another well-known way to reach truth realization, since life and awareness are one.

A busy or distracted life, where attention is constantly focused outward, does not support truth realization. It’s helpful to find time for deep reflection and meditation. There are a number of ways to do this. You can:

• Set aside time in your schedule that is specifically dedicated to reflective contemplation and meditation.
• Take retreats away from your daily routine. Go someplace for the sole purpose of reflective contemplation and meditation.
• Use practices that keep your mind turned inward as you go about daily activity. (For example, the practices taught in The Teachings of Inner Ramana.)

Also, commit to being the Self instead acting like the false self. Live as your Self.

Make a commitment to peace, and live from peace.
Or make a commitment to happiness, and live from happiness.
Or make a commitment to gratitude, and live from gratitude.
Or make a commitment to acceptance, and live in acceptance.
Or make a commitment to love, and love everything as it is.

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

NTI 1 Thessalonians 3 opens by saying:

Lack of peace in any measure is an opportunity to be healed.

It recommends that we not judge ourselves for our upsets, but instead rejoice, because another opportunity for healing has been brought to our attention. Certainly, the more we see and accept our mistakes with gratitude, the more consistent we heal and come to know ourselves as peace. (Reference Day 214.)

Interestingly, after recommending that we rejoice when we find ourselves upset, NTI 1 Thessalonians also recommends rejoicing whenever we are not upset. It says:

Rejoice in each moment that peace is known within your heart. Do not judge from whence the peace has come or whether it is for the “right” or the “wrong” reason. Celebrate its glory regardless of the reason, and be glad.

Could it be that we have a habit of not being happy—a habit of constantly judging our self, others and circumstances in the world—and that the habit of not being happy is  the obstacle to knowing the Self?

Yep, that’s it. That is the problem. And as Buddha indicated, when you recognize the problem, you also realize the solution.

The way to awaken is to be your Self now. In other words:

Make a commitment to peace.
Make a commitment to happiness.
Make a commitment to gratitude.
Make a commitment to acceptance.
Make a commitment to love.

Choose any of the five options above, whichever one you feel you can genuinely commit to now, and then choose to live that commitment unconditionally, and you will find your Self, because you have committed to your Self.

Note: I recommend printing this tip for repeated reference.

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