You have a lot of spiritual practices in your life now:

• Daily reading and contemplation
• Journaling with inner wisdom
• Awareness-watching-awareness meditation
• The loving all method
• Surrender
• Practicing the mantra
• Looking at chatter to notice its “I” or “me” content

Spiritual practice is becoming the center of your life. There’s a reason for that.

Most people who believe they are on a spiritual path are on an intellectual journey only. Self-realization does not come from the intellect. Self-realization is beyond the intellect. And that is the purpose of a life centered on spiritual practice—to go beyond the intellect to Self-realization.

Today’s reading points out that there are two paths of awakening:

Surrender
Withdrawing from the world

The Teachings of Inner Ramana  teaches surrender as the primary path to awakening. This is also the path taught in The Bhagavad Gita. In Hindu tradition, it is called “karma yoga.” It is a path of living in the world and going about your usual daily tasks—work, family, etcetera—while disengaging from the ego through detachment. That is the purpose of surrender—to live an active life without being attached to mind.

As we learned through The Circus and the Meadow:

True stillness cannot be achieved by quieting the mind through meditative practices for part of the day and then being wrapped up in the stories of the mind the rest of the day. … You will never be free through partial abidance. Only total abidance can be totally freeing.

That means if surrender is our path of awakening, we want to learn to use surrender for all of our daily decisions. Learning surrender to this level will take time—it will take time for the surrender-program to fully develop in the brain—but we should continue to give it our best effort everyday, whatever our current best effort is, because total surrender is how we will awaken.

Remember, as you give surrender your best effort, awareness programs the surrender-program in the brain.

Withdrawing from the world is the path of awakening that Michael Langford recommends in The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss. That’s why he recommends meditating for 12 hours a day. Withdrawing from the world was also the path that Ramana Maharshi followed beginning shortly after his initial awakening to consciousness, which occurred when he was a teenager. However for most of us, surrender will work better than trying to fully withdraw from the world.

In The Teachings of Inner Ramana, “enlightened” is synonymous with Self-realized and true perception. “Awake” is a term reserved for the First Principle of God.

Today’s reading points out that the enlightened one doesn’t experience surrender like the deluded one does. The deluded one is attached to mental chatter as me, so to him, intuition feels like something other than me. The enlightened one doesn’t see mental chatter as me anymore, so intuition feels like the Self. Intuition is followed as easily by the enlightened one as mental chatter is followed by the deluded one.

However, the deluded one is still life-awareness, so the deluded one’s attention has the power of life-awareness in it. As she gives believing-attention to her thoughts, she unconsciously creates the world through consciousness.

That gives us an additional reason to live as if we are Self-realized.

On Day 297, you were asked to live as if you are Self-realized. That’s because living as if you are Self-realized leads to Self-realization.

Another reason to live as if you are Self-realized is because, when you do, you no longer participate in making illusion. That means that by living as if you are Self-realized, you stop contributing to the appearances that cause suffering in the world.

As Ramana Maharshi said:

“Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”

If you don’t remember how to live as if you are Self-realized in a genuine and self-honest way, review the tip from Day 297.

Today, practice surrender, the mantra, and practice looking back at chatter after you say the mantra to see what it was saying and how you were listening as if it was you  thinking.

Yesterday, we started looking more carefully at mental chatter to see how it emphasizes the idea of “I” or “me.” It’s important that we continue this looking until we have a strong realization that seeing mental chatter as “me” or “my thinking” is insane.

If you don’t remember yesterday’s tip well, please review it.

Today’s reading begins by saying:

Much of what you do comes from the ego.

And then it defines the ego as:

Belief  in the false identity “I”.

Mental chatter on its own is not a problem. If you paid no more attention to mental chatter than you do to the sound of the heater, air conditioner or refrigerator in your home, you’d experience true perception in spite of ongoing mental chatter.

The real problem is that you believe  mental chatter. You might not believe all of it. You may have learned to let go of some categories of thought, but you most likely still believe a lot of mental chatter to be you  thinking.

Look and see if that isn’t true. When mental chatter is running through the mind, don’t you give attention to it as if it is you  thinking? We don’t say to ourselves, “I am thought.” In fact, that statement probably seems ludicrous. But we give attention to mental chatter as if it is me  thinking.

That attitude of attention—giving attention to thought as if it is me  thinking—is what creates the ego. The ego is listening to mental chatter as if it is me  thinking.

The reason much of what we do comes from the ego is because much of what we do comes from the belief that mental chatter is me  thinking.

If mental chatter says, “I don’t like this,” we react as if we do not like the current happening. It never occurs to us that it isn’t true, because we believe mental chatter is me  thinking.

If mental chatter says, “I want a new …,” we react as if we need to obtain that object. It never occurs to us that it isn’t true, because we believe mental chatter is me  thinking.

If mental chatter says, “I need to quit this job/relationship,” we react as if we are dissatisfied and need to change our circumstance. It never occurs to us that it isn’t true, because we believe mental chatter is me  thinking.

In most cases, we do whatever mental chatter tells us to do, because we believe it is me  thinking. It never occurs to us that it isn’t me.

Much of what you do comes from the ego.

True perception comes when we are disengaged from mental chatter. True perception comes from realizing in a very deep way that mental chatter isn’t  me thinking. We know we’ve had this realization when what we do doesn’t  come from mental chatter. Mental chatter may still make noise, but we have become adept at ignoring it as meaningless—as uninformed—as wrong—as not me.

That’s why Inner Ramana asks us to surrender. When we surrender, we listen to something other than mental chatter. What we do  comes from something other than mental chatter. Through this practice, we begin to disengage from mental chatter. First, we see that we do not need mental chatter to get through daily living; there is  another way. Next, we begin to see in an experiential way  that mental chatter isn’t me. That’s when we begin to break free from the ego.

As you’ve learned, there are two awakenings. First, one awakens from delusion to true perception. Next, one awakens from true perception to reality. Reality is entirely different from delusion. It would be very difficult (if not impossible) for one to go from the deluded state to reality in one giant step. The human brain needs time to reprogram based on new learning, which prepares the human organism (the brain and the body) for the realization of reality.

That’s the purpose for two awakenings. One can go from delusion to true perception more easily—even as an unexpected, dramatic awakening. And then, the experience of true perception gives the brain a chance to reprogram in preparation for truth realization.

The practices in Inner Ramana lead us from the stage of delusion to the stage of true perception. Once we reach the stage of true perception, intuition is our guide without confusion or distraction. At that point, mental chatter doesn’t have an influence over us anymore—because we no longer see it as me—so intuition leads unimpeded and prepares us for the final awakening to reality. In that way, true perception is a bridge from delusion to reality.

That’s why NTI 1 Corinthians 15 said:

The purpose of your life in the fourth phase of living on earth (true perception) shall not be different than the purpose at any other time. Only now, in the fourth phase, the distractions have been erased. In letting yourself become an empty shell, you freed yourself from the desire for distraction. Now, in the fourth stage, your focus is complete. Now you know what you want, and you want it wholly.

The purpose of true perception is to prepare you to awaken to the First Principle of God.

Today, practice surrender, the mantra, and practice looking back at chatter after you say the mantra to see what it was saying and how you were listening as if it was you  thinking.