Today’s reading is about our identification with thought. It’s about how thought thinks it is what we are, and we also think thought is what we are. The reading says:

The voice that thinks it is you has convinced you that it is you also, and so you listen to this voice as if it is you.

What is the “you” that thinks it is thought?

We can answer with labels like, “I am consciousness,” “attention,” or “awareness,” but instead of doing that, let’s look.

Can you see what you are?

Can you see how you give yourself to thought as if thought is what you are when thought is not what you are?

Can you see how you can hold back from giving yourself to thought?

Can you see how you can relax into a general openness that is the empty shell instead of being concentrated on thought?

Can you see how in this moment, you actually are  general openness, even when some part of you is concentrated on thought?

Nisargadatta Maharaj once said:

“I am that which knows I am.”

Can you see (be aware of) that?

I recommend practicing a few minutes of awareness-watching-awareness with Self-inquiry before reading today’s reading. If you are clear on yourself when you read, the reading will be clear.

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

Thoughts of Awakening # 168

Listening to the Heart
is letting go of stories.
Letting go of stories
is letting go of judgment and fear.

This is what it means to be still.
This is what it means to be quiet.
This is what it means to be at peace.

One cannot be still while judging.
One cannot be quiet
while listening to the noise of stories.
One cannot be at peace
when the mind is absorbed with fear.

One must choose between one and the other.
One must look and see what each option offers,
and then one must make a choice.

~From our Holy Spirit

Yesterday’s tip ended with this statement:

As previously mentioned, we let go of a thought by realizing we don’t want it, and the best way to realize what you don’t want is to remember what you do want—your spiritual aspiration.

Today’s reading is about the importance of remembering what you want by focusing on the heart instead of on thinking.

One advantage of Gentle Healing is that we take time each day to focus on the heart through reading, contemplation and meditation. Without this daily focus, we would most likely be slaves of the head instead of servants of the heart.

It is just as Jesus taught when he walked on the shores of Galilee:

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Dependence on the mind is like building a house on sand. Dependence on the heart is like building a house on a foundation of rock.

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

Thoughts of Awakening # 167

Fear springs forth from judgment,
and fear spawns judgment.
Both are effects
of believing you need control,
and both feed the idea
from which they originally came.

Stories are in the mind.
Truth is in the heart.
Stories have words and reasons.
The Heart provides simple guidance now.

Fear trusts stories,
and stories are based on fear.
The Heart allows and listens and waits.
The Heart trusts truth,
and gently awaits unfolding.

~From our Holy Spirit