When we learn that we are the unaffected Self, but we still feel affected by things that happen in the world, we often think we are guilty for feeling affected. Today’s reading says that is not true. We are not guilty.

The idea that we are guilty for not being fully awake to Self is simply another false ego idea. Since it is a false idea, it is an idea we can let go of.

Instead of believing you are guilty when you feel affected by something in the world, simply watch your emotional reaction. Practice rest-accept-trust. When you watch an emotional reaction or practice rest-accept-trust, you are abiding as the true Self. When you feel guilty, you are falling for another ego shenanigan.

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

Today’s reading opens with this paragraph:

Now is the day of salvation, for now is the day that you can choose to think apart from the world. You can choose to think apart from your experience. As you do this earnestly, your experience will change, and you will find yourself willing to let go of the world.

Interestingly, the previous paragraph does not  end with:

As you do this earnestly, your experience will change, and you will have everything you want the way you want it.

Instead it says:

As you do this earnestly, your experience will change, and you will find yourself willing to let go of the world.

Yesterday, we saw that Ramana Maharshi said:

Happiness is your nature.
It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.

Everyone wants happiness. Since happiness is our true nature and we feel lost from our true nature, it is natural to seek happiness. However, it is a mistake to seek happiness in the world, because the world was created to be different from truth, which means different from our true nature. Happiness cannot be found in the world. Happiness can only be found in our true nature.

Some people may argue against this point by saying that although they aren’t always happy in the world, they do experience some happiness in the world. They might argue that they are happy when they are with their children, grandchildren, lover, pets or favorite hobbies.

Let’s look at that more carefully and see if these things truly bring us happiness.

Has there ever been a time when you were with your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobby and you felt something other than happiness? Have you ever felt distracted, worried, frustrated, annoyed, disappointed or any other way that was not happiness when you were with your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobby?

If so, then we can say that your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobbies don’t bring you happiness consistently, since you don’t always  feel happiness with your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobbies.

Next, let’s see if these things ever bring you happiness or if happiness has a different cause.

First, let’s examine what your true nature is. We have called your true nature “consciousness,” “awareness,” “life,” “emptiness” “openness” and “Love.” Another term that we can use is “being.” Whenever you are simply being open awareness, accepting the current moment as it is without a wish for it to be different, you are abiding as your true nature. Since your true nature is happiness, you experience happiness when you are being your Self.

Recall a moment when you were not  happy with your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobby. Look at what was in your mind in that moment. Notice that you were judging something. You thought something should be different than it was. The cause of your unhappiness wasn’t your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobby. The cause of your unhappiness was your judgment.

Now, recall a moment when you were happy with your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobby. Notice you were not judging in that moment. You were not wishing things were different. You were simply being with the moment. You were open and aware without judgment. You were abiding as your true nature, and that  is why you were happy. Happiness is your true nature. Since you weren’t blocking your true nature with judgment, you were naturally happy.

This is important, because if we think certain things or certain circumstances in the world make us happy, there will always be other things and other circumstances in the world that we believe make us unhappy. This leaves us seeking those things we think make us happy and trying to avoid those things that we think make us unhappy.  We start trying to control the world around us, which we can never do, and we become completely lost from our Self and our joy.

“Think apart from the world” is another way of asking us to abide as our Self regardless of the current circumstances. It is another way of asking us to be open awareness without asking things to be different. When we learn to be with every circumstance in this way, we abide as our Self, and we are happy because our Self is happiness.

The opening paragraph from today’s reading says:

Now is the day of salvation, for now is the day that you can choose to think apart from the world. You can choose to think apart from your experience. As you do this earnestly, your experience will change, and you will find yourself willing to let go of the world.

The reason thinking apart from the world prepares us to let go of the world is because we learn that happiness isn’t found in the world. It is found in our true nature. At that point, abiding as our true nature becomes our only real goal.

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

On Day 178, we were reminded that the world comes from the wish, “What if nothing was as it is?,” and so the world is necessarily  not truth.

Consider this quote by Ramana Maharshi:

Happiness is your nature.

If happiness is our true nature, but we asked to experience something different from truth, doesn’t that mean that we asked for experiences that are different from happiness?

We can each list a number of experiences that we have in the world that are different from happiness. For example: stress, worry, jealousy, unworthiness, guilt, anger, frustration, confusion, embarrassment, regret, grievance, insulted, stereotyped, imposed upon, and the list continues.

The Ramana Maharshi quote says:

Happiness is your nature.
It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.

It isn’t a question of whether we want happiness or not. Since happiness is our true nature, it is our nature to want happiness. The question is merely this:

Do we think we will find happiness through “right” circumstances in the world, which is created to give us an experience different from happiness, or do we realize that happiness is found by knowing and being our Self?

If our thoughts are focused on the world, the underlying motive is an experience that is different from truth, which is different from our true nature—different from happiness.

In the loop of experience, motive is “what I think.” And “what I think, I see; what I see, I experience.” So if our motive is “different from truth,” we experience “different from truth.” In other words, when our attention is focused on thoughts about the world, we currently desire “different from truth,” and we will experience it.

Or, as today’s reading says:

Your thoughts form your experience. This is a literal statement, and it is to be taken literally.

Through intention, our thoughts can be used to let go of illusion and remember truth. For a list of ways our thoughts can be helpful, review yesterday’s tip.

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

On Day 170, we saw that although people think they have many desires, awake consciousness sees only two possible desires: truth or illusion. Today’s reading asks us to consider carefully which of these two we want. It also points out how we express the desire for illusion and how we express the desire for truth. The reading says:

Are you thinking of the illusion of the world as if it is real? If so, you are expressing your desire to accept the veil of darkness. Is this your true desire? If not, why do you permit yourself to express it through the activity of your thoughts?

Watch your thoughts. Ask them to express your true desire.

How can our thoughts express true desire?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Repeatedly contemplate the Thought of Awakening and what you received from spiritual wisdom regarding the Thought of Awakening throughout the day.

 

2. Review the day’s tip, possibly a few sentences at a time, throughout the day. Mull over that small portion and let related thoughts come into your mind.

 

3. Use the mind to ask questions of surrender like:
   “What am I to do now?”
   “How am I to see this?”
   “How am I to respond?”

 

4. Use the mind to practice s/Self-inquiry with questions like:
   “What sees this thought?”
   “What is here now that is constant?”
   “What am I?”

 

5. Pay attention to awareness.

 

6. Practice a Name of God mantra.

Today’s reading says:

Your thoughts must do as you ask, because you are the thinker of your thoughts.

A thinker is one who has an intention regarding thought, so when NTI says “you are the thinker” it means that you get to choose the intention in the mind. You can decide if attention will wander with any thought that arises, or if it has an intention to focus on truth and let other thoughts go.

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

Yesterday’s reading said:

Choose … to be independent of your experience.

Independent means free and unaffected.

Awakeness is free from the world and unaffected by it. That is why Jesus, as awakeness, said:

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

In NTI Romans, we learned about the curiosity that created the creative principle, and via the creative principle, create the world and the ego. That curiosity is:

What if nothing was as it is?

The ego and the world, which are created through and for  this curiosity, are necessarily  not truth. They are appearances created through the creative principle, and their appearance appears as anything but truth. That’s why they are called “illusion.”

To look at something that is created specifically for the purpose of appearing different from truth and to hope to find evidence of truth in it is foolishness. Yet, that is a mistake that spiritual seekers make all of the time.

For example, one democratic-minded spiritual seeker was thrilled when Barrack Obama was elected president of the United States in 2008. She saw his election as evidence that the world was awakening. Of course, since then Donald Trump has been elected president and has undone many of the policies Barrack Obama put in place. Does that mean the world has fallen asleep again?

What about when a war ends, such as World War II? Is that a victory for awakening? What about the wars and crimes against humanity that have occurred since then?

What about when a personal problem is resolved? Don’t new problems arise to replace it?

The world is an appearance that is made to appear different from truth. One of those differences is change. If you watch the world carefully, you will notice that change is the world’s greatest constant. (Admittedly, it is change within a limited buffet of reoccurring problems.) Sometimes the world changes so that specific situations are temporarily “good” by the mind’s standards, but “good” will always eventually be replaced by “bad.”

Look carefully at the world, regardless of whether your mind judges it as “good” or “bad,” and realize that it’s not truth. It’s not truth, and truth can’t be found in the world.

Let the world be as it is. Don’t seek truth by seeking permanent good in the world. You will eventually be disappointed.

Seek truth by looking within. Find that which is absolutely changeless. See that is what you are, and abide as that. You are the only truth that can be found in the world—and actually, the world is an appearance in you.

Know your Self, and be your Self. Truth is known by being it.

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

Yesterday’s reading pointed out that our experience comes from the thoughts we listen to in the mind instead of from the outer appearance. It recommended that we listen to a “true interpretation” instead of a false one. Allowing attention to shift from one interpretation to another is called “changing your mind.”

Today’s reading points out that it isn’t just the act of changing our mind that affects our experience. Our motive, or the reason  that we change our mind, is also important.

Today’s reading begins:

Do not change your mind out of fear, but out of love, for Love is the only power that is real.

When you change your mind out of fear, you attempt to change your experience, because you believe your experience is lord.

There are three definitions of fear below this paragraph. Please read the first definition of fear, and then read the sentences above from today’s reading with that definition in mind. Next, read the second definition of fear, and then read the sentences above with that definition in mind. Do the same with the third definition. As you do this exercise, let clarity arise regarding how you change your mind out of fear. If it feels helpful, take time to journal about it. You can ask spiritual intuition, “How do I change my mind out of fear?” After you’ve practiced this exercise, continue reading the tip.

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.

~ ~ ~

Love is emptiness. Emptiness does not have an ulterior motive. While in the process of purification, we can say that love has no motive except for your spiritual aspiration.

When we change our mind out of love, we aren’t trying to change any external or internal experience. We change our mind simply because we want truth. There is no attempt to manipulate experience.

When we change our mind in order to manipulate experience, our motive is fear. If our motive is fear, fear is fed into the creative principle, and fear will continue to be experienced.

Do you remember this loop of experience?

What I think, I see (perceive).
What I see, I experience.
What I experience, I think.

(And the loop continues.)

Ulterior motives are “What I think, …” Ulterior motives feed into the creative principle and the loop of experience.

That means that in addition to watching the overt thoughts in the mind, we need to be alert to covert motives. You can discover hidden motives through root cause inquiry. You can do root cause inquiry through journaling, or you can do root cause inquiry through looking. You can simply look and ask yourself questions like, “What is my motive?” or “Am I trying to avoid anything?”

Today’s reading says:

Choose instead to be independent of your experience.

Independent means “free from outside control.” We typically call that “unaffected.”

One who is independent of outer circumstances has no need to change those circumstances. She can let outer circumstances be as they are.

Likewise, one who is independent of emotional experiences has no need to change or get rid of emotions. He can let them be as they are.

It’s also true that one who is independent is not engrossed in mind’s stories. One who is independent desires only truth, and if that one finds himself listening to stories, he will change his mind simply because he seeks truth. That is changing one’s mind “out of love.”

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

On Day 166, we learned about “points of experience.” We learned that points of experience are thoughts that give us an emotional experience, so we can have an experience that is different from truth. These thoughts typically enter the mind as stories, which we are enticed by. When we believe these stories, we experience the emotion(s) derived from the story’s thought-energy. We can also become addicted to some emotions—such as anger, jealousy, guilt and worry, to name a few—and then we tend to feel strongly compelled to believe stories with those energies as their base.

When we feel compelled to believe stories with particular energies as their base, we feel as if we are at the mercy of situations in the world. For example, if I am addicted to worry, I find many situations in the world that I believe cause me to worry. I think worry is necessary, because of everything that is going on in the world. I don’t realize that I experience worry because of the thoughts I listen to in the mind. I also don’t realize that I could have a different experience if I made different choices in the mind.

Today’s reading emphasizes that our experience comes from the choices we make in the mind, not from the world as it appears.

Every situation in the world can be interpreted through inner spiritual wisdom or it can be interpreted by the ego. The ego is the projection of the wish for experience that is different from truth, so when a situation is interpreted by ego, it will give an experience that is different from truth. However, inner spiritual wisdom’s interpretation points toward truth.

We will experience ourselves as subject to the world’s circumstances or we will see ourselves on a path of awakening, depending on the interpretation we choose in the mind.

Again, it’s not what is happening in the world that affects our experience. It is the interpretation that we listen to that affects our experience.

The empty shell listens to the silent message of truth, and so it experiences the bliss of truth realization. Before we have become the empty shell, inner spiritual wisdom interprets every event in a way that moves us towards emptiness. It interprets every event for the healing of the mind. The mind heals by letting go of what isn’t true while accepting the truth as it is.

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

Does it matter how we be  prior to awakening?

NTI does recommend specific ways of being as we walk this path of awakening.

Why does how we be  matter?

Because our way of being either supports and reinforces ego or it ignores ego. The way of being that ignores ego is most helpful in the process of awakening. The way of being that ignores ego abides by conscience and inner spiritual wisdom.

We were first introduced to the importance of our way of being on Day 2 when kindness was emphasized as a way of being. Recently, NTI Romans 16 highlighted ways of being including patience, trust, humility, honoring others and being discerning within our own minds. Today’s reading also focuses on ways of being.

Just as you did on Day 159, takes notes on the ways of being presented in today’s reading. As you do, contemplate the importance of being in a way that emulates the true Self instead of bolstering ideas of division, self-will and self-centeredness. If it feels right for you, review your notes from Day 159 as part of this contemplation.

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