Today’s reading references the story of Abraham. Abraham is believed to be the father of both the Arab and Jewish nations.

According to the Bible, God made a covenant with Abraham. He told Abraham in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” Abraham was worried because he was childless and did not have an heir. His wife, Sarah, was barren, and both Abraham and Sarah were old. According to Genesis 15, God said to Abraham:

Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.

NTI Galatians interprets that story by saying that Abraham represents birth. One definition of “birth” is “the beginning or coming into existence of something.”

According to NTI Galatians, Abraham represents the birth of Light. Light is the symbol for truth realization, so Abraham represents the birth of truth realization.

Comparing Abraham’s offspring to the stars, which cannot be counted, signifies an infinite awakening—a total awakening to truth, with no part of consciousness left out of it.

The total awakening of consciousness is an interesting promise, but the promise becomes more interesting when you realize that Abraham represents willingness.

You see, Abraham was a man who heard the Voice for God and followed it where it led, even though it meant uprooting his family and servants from the place where they lived and leading them into the desert toward an unknown promised land.

Abraham is just like willingness. It is our willingness that listens to inner spiritual wisdom and follows it, even though that means letting go of familiar beliefs and attachments and walking through purification toward an unknown experience called “awakening.”

Willingness is the state of wanting to do something and being mentally, emotionally and/or spiritually ready to do it, even if learning must occur in the process. Our willingness is the birth of awakening.

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NTI Galatians comes to us from awake consciousness as the voice of Jesus. It harnesses the essence of his experience as a human who awakened to truth and shares the simplicity of awakening from his point of view. As NTI Galatians 1 said:

I am the Way and the Life. I come to you on this day to clear up your confusion, for there have been many thoughts that have confused you until now. Do not fret over your confusion. It is nothing and can be easily laid aside when you see the simplicity of love as I offer it to you.

Yesterday’s reading spoke of a belief. It said:

I know well of this belief, for I experienced it once myself. But I have been made free by My own choice to release the belief that isn’t true.

Today’s reading tells us what that belief is:

You believe in separation.

It also points out the way to let go of that belief and awaken to truth:

Through acceptance, not judgment, the Light of Heaven is yours.

This isn’t the first time that we’ve been told judgment (or declaration) is the cause of illusion and acceptance (or Loving All) is a means to awaken.

As you contemplate today’s reading:

1. Reference Day 138 and Day 157, and then realize that we are being told that letting go of judgment and accepting what is as it is is the simple way to awaken.
2. Consider how you fall for the deceit that judgment is sometimes justified, a deceit that declares illusion real.
3. Ask yourself if you’d rather feel righteous in a world that is made to be different from truth, or if you prefer to awaken and realize truth as it is.

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Speaking of those who have awakened to the First Principle of God, NTI 1 Corinthians 16 said:

One who knows wholeness after experiencing the lack of wholeness knows illusion is no substitute for truth. He shall not choose illusion again.

But, being one mind with all that he thought was separate, he shall remain as a memory to call the mind that sleeps into wakefulness, that all that is whole may know Itself as one and whole again.

When I received NTI Galatians, inner wisdom came to me as the voice of Jesus.

As A Course in Miracles Clarification of Terms  says:

The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God.  So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God.  The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do.  Yet who can save unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are?  Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true.  And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions.

Through the Creative Principle, consciousness can appear as the re-enlivened form of a master who no longer exists. It’s as if the breeze of wisdom blows through a memory and temporarily re-envokes a familiar form.

Why?

As the Clarification of Terms  explains:

… time needs symbols, being itself unreal.

Jesus no longer exists, since Jesus was a temporary manifestation in time. However, because awakening occurred through that form, the form continues to be used by consciousness. A personification of reality is helpful for as long as we see ourselves as persons.

NTI Galatians came in Jesus’ voice. When NTI Galatians says “I” or “Me,” it refers us to the memory of Jesus. It directs our attention to one who experienced humanness as fully as we experience it now, and then transcended the beliefs and perceptions that we experience to realize truth without compromise. This memory is helpful, because if one human can awaken to reality, another human can do it too. The human is not limited, because identification with a human is a temporary cloak, and the consciousness that shines through the human is altogether unlimited.

A Course in Miracles Clarification of Terms  says:

There is no need for help to enter Heaven for you have never left.  But there is need for help beyond yourself as you are circumscribed by false beliefs of your Identity, which God alone established in reality.  Helpers are given you in many forms, although upon the altar they are one. …

Is [Jesus] God’s only Helper?  No, indeed.  For Christ takes many forms with different names until their oneness can be recognized.

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As the scribe of NTI, I became afraid when I wrote NTI 2 Corinthians 12. I was afraid to see that I was beyond the body-mind-personality. Beyond the mind meant “God” to me, and attempting to see that I am “God” felt like blasphemy. Therefore, I was not ready to discover that I am beyond the mind.

Some of that fear lingered the following day when I sat down to scribe NTI 2 Corinthians 13, so inner wisdom met me where I was and brought me forward from there. It’s as if I was standing in a realm surrounded by the unknown (beyond mind), and I was clinging to a pole that represented the known (concepts). Inner wisdom was able to get me to let go of that pole with one hand and show some willingness to move away from the pole.

When today’s reading starts, the scribing is more closely related to the fear I experienced the day before. However, the scribing begins to move away from the pole with this phrase:

I have told you that your mind is tricky, …

Upon hearing that, I opened up again. I loosened my grip on familiar concepts, I became willing to listen to inner wisdom, and I became willing to follow it again.

The scribing in NTI 2 Corinthians 12 and 13 do not go where inner wisdom wanted to take me at the time. I was not ready for beyond mind. If I had followed inner wisdom and went where it wanted to take me, I would have had a direct experience of the non-affected Self. I would have realized I am not in the world; the world is in me. I would have seen everything that NTI 2 Corinthians attempted to teach.

I did not become willing to look in that direction until The Teachings of Inner Ramana  were scribed three years later. However, inner wisdom did not abandon me just because I was not ready. It did not scold me. It continued to work with me by leading me toward truth in a way I was willing for. It gave me whatever wisdom I would accept, and it continued walking with me in the direction of truth.

Inner wisdom will do the same with you. You can trust it to walk with you towards truth at a pace that you will accept. It will not go faster or slower. You are the pacesetter.

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Today’s reading represents inner spiritual wisdom’s first attempt at leading me through Self-inquiry. When I scribed NTI 2 Corinthians 12, I had never heard of Self-inquiry or asking the question, “Who am I?” This is the first time that arose for me, and to be honest, I wasn’t an open student. I let inner wisdom guide me through the first few questions, but when I hit the threshold of the unknown, I became afraid. I quit looking. I ran to my mind and concepts I had learned through A Course in Miracles. I abandoned genuine scribing and wrote down words that made me feel comfortable. Those words are still a part of NTI.

When you read NTI 2 Corinthians 12 today, you will come to this sentence:

You are an aspect of thought within the Mind of God.

That sentence and everything that follows for the remainder of the chapter was written out of fear. You can tell that’s true if you look carefully. It defines “you” as an “aspect of thought.” NTI has never defined you as an “aspect of thought” before. That would equate you to the body-mind-personality as if that is what you are. That is not what you are. That was written because I was too afraid to look beyond my identification with the body-mind-personality.

Feel free to skip today’s reading. Instead, let me lead you through Self-inquiry as it could have happened if I wasn’t afraid that day.

16-minute audio

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Yesterday’s reading began:

The question that you always ask is: How are you to live in the world without being a part of the world?

Today’s reading continues to answer that question. Today’s reading emphasizes that the way we are to live in the world without being a part of it is to live with a rested mind. It says:

Resting is the realization that confusion rules the world. And it is also the decision not to be ruled by confusion anymore.

One who lives with a rested mind is also the empty shell. They are synonymous.

How do you rest the mind?

You rest the mind by:

• Letting your spiritual aspiration be the guiding principle in your life.
• Staying focused within; instead of relying on thinking, let inner wisdom be the author and director of your role in the world.

As we learned on Day 122, the mind will try to regain command and control. Thinking will become loud. You will feel the emotional energy associated with the points of experience in thought. That doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It simply means that the mind doesn’t want to be dethroned. When the mind acts up, rest as deeply as you can. Rest-accept-trust is  healing. You set yourself free and serve the greater good by choosing to live with a rested mind.

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Today’s reading begins by saying:

The question that you always ask is: How are you to live in the world without being a part of the world? … When you are thinking this way, you are listening to the voice of confusion. … You are looking at the world as if it is real, and you are looking at actions as if they are actions.

If awakening to truth is our goal, it is important that we remember truth and live by truth to the best of our ability. If we continue to live by falsehood, falsehood is strengthened in us. When we live by truth, falsehood weakens until it passes away.

Truth is represented by the four principles of God. Everything in the fourth principle is illusion; it is consciousness appearing as something other than consciousness. The appearances are created by declaration. When we declare something meaningful by believing it and giving it attention, that value is reprocessed by the creative principle, and the energy from the appearance creates more appearances with the same energy.

The energy that I am speaking of is also called “thought.” As mentioned on Day 183, “thought” is broadly defined to include general attitudes and ways of being. Action is an expression of thought. That means that every part of how we be  in the world is fed into the creative principle and creates the world, including its characters and their thoughts.

Most people are completely unaware of the four principles of God. They do not know truth, and they do not know that we are all a part of the creative process. They live from ignorance. That’s why Jesus said:

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.
(Luke 23:34)

Most people are completely unaware of truth, but we are not completely unaware. That’s why yesterday’s reading said:

This service that you perform of not believing the world and of not acting as if the word is real, is a service you provide for yourself and for the entirety of the one mind that you are.

Those of us who are not entirely ignorant serve everyone by living from the wisdom we’ve realized.

How do we do that?

• Actively remember your spiritual aspiration.
• Actively remember the wisdom you’ve realized.
• Act based on your spiritual aspiration and the wisdom you’ve realized instead of acting from ignorance.

The best way to act based on wisdom is to stay focused within. Ask inner wisdom, “What am I to do now?” and let it guide your perception and your actions.

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Yesterday’s reading said:

You give through thought.
There is literally no other way to give.

Today’s reading asks us to take discernment beyond thought. It asks us to practice discernment regarding the actions we take in the world.

That brings up a question:

If we give through thought and there is no other way to give, do actions matter?

Today’s reading teaches that our actions do matter, because all action is an expression of thought.

For example:

On Day 165, I mentioned that I used to parent through yelling. When I practiced inquiry, I found that I yelled because of a mind-made law that said, “Daughters are supposed to always happily obey their mothers.” Yelling was an expression of that untrue idea. If I had said, “I see that idea, and I don’t believe it anymore,” but continued to yell, that would not have been honest.  I yelled, because I believed the thought. My action demonstrated the belief.

When we practice discernment regarding the actions we take, we are practicing discernment regarding thought, because action is an expression of thought.

For example:

Imagine a woman wants her son to accept one job offer over another job offer. She notices she feels a lot of anxiety about her son’s decision, so she practices root cause inquiry to discover the cause of the anxiety. She discovers that she is embarrassed when she thinks about telling people her son is a trash man, and she feels better when she thinks about telling people he works for the state highway authority. As she inquires further, she realizes her anxiety is caused by her own sense of unworthiness.

The next day, her son calls to let her know what he’s decided. As he explains why he is going to accept the job as trash collector, she notices a strong desire to change his mind. She wants to point out the disadvantages of that job and emphasize the advantages of the job with the highway authority. If she follows that temptation, she will enliven the idea of her own unworthiness,  since the belief in her unworthiness is at the root of the temptation. If she chooses to stay quiet, listen to her son and practice rest-accept-trust with her feelings, she permits a false idea to weaken in her mind.

It is important to note that changing what we do because we want truth and changing what we do because we think we are guilty for doing it are not  the same motive. The first is genuinely helpful. The second continues to clog the creative principle with untruth, since guilt is an untrue idea.

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Today’s reading says:

You give through thought.
There is literally no other way to give.

In that statement, “thought” is broadly defined to include general attitudes and ways of being. “All is well” is one example of an attitude that gives. Seeing all experiences as having the purpose of helping you awaken is another attitude that gives.

One definition of “give” is to cause or allow someone or something to have something, especially something abstract. That definition comes close to the meaning of “give” as it is used in today’s reading.

To give is to allow truth into the creative principle by not clogging the creative principle with untruth. Of course, we clog the creative principle with untruth by giving our attention and belief to ideas of illusion.

For example:

When we judge the world and others, we clog the creative principle with untruth.

When we accept all things as they are, we allow truth into the creative principle.

When we believe that we are defined by specific qualities, we clog the creative principle with untruth. (Reference Day 173.)

When we see ourselves as open-silent-watching and when we practice awareness-watching-awareness, we allow truth into the creative principle.

Today’s reading says:

What you give is what is experienced,
so your experience is a measure of what you give.

The more we give the general attitudes of truth, the more we experience those attitudes. The more we give thoughts of falsehood, the more we experience falsehood. In other words:

What I think, I see.
What I see, I experience.

Because this is true, we can discern what we are giving by noticing how we feel. If we do not feel free, open, relaxed, happy and trusting, we can look at our minds to see where our focus is. If we are not giving in the way we want to give, we can use thought differently in order to give in harmony with our spiritual aspiration. (Reference Day 179.)

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