What is the Holy Spirit?

The Teachings of Inner Ramana, The Purpose Of Surrender Part Two, Pages 9-11 says:

“Fear comes simply from not knowing reality. Therefore, the only answer to fear is to let go of what is false and to remember reality as true. Discarding the world is as simple as remembering that it isn’t true. This is as simple as living from within instead of from without.”

One who is forgetting the world takes his cues from within.

“Discarding the world” is the same as seeing that we are unaffected by it. It is the same as being in the world, but not of it. It is also what our special theme means when it says:

If you but knew how much your Father yearns to have you recognize your sinlessness, you would not let His Voice appeal in vain, nor turn away from His replacement for the fearful images and dreams you made.

Although this language is highly symbolic, our “sinlessness” in this context is our unaffectedness. The previous paragraph from our special theme could be translated into less symbolic language in this way:

Your yearning for truth is the yearning to know your unaffected Self, which is your truth. When you realize how strong this yearning is in you, you will cease to listen to ego; you will listen instead to spiritual intuition. You will let spiritual intuition guide you to the realization of your Self. You will stay in the awareness of your Self, and see all things through the lens of truth. In this way, all you will see is truth, and you will rejoice at what you see.

As The Teachings of Inner Ramana says, “This is as simple as living from within instead of from without.”

If we look at the world as a movie or a play, we can also say that it has two directors. One director is the ego. When the actor is too caught up in the play of the world, the ego shouts its directions, and the actor blindly follows. This actor has forgotten that the play is a play and believes s/he is affected by everything that is happening.

The other director is intuition. In order to hear this quieter director, who whispers instructions quietly from within the actor, the actor must remember that s/he wants to hear the director’s instructions. To do this, the actor must be more focused within than on the play. Certainly, there is awareness of the play, but the actor is turned inward to discover what s/he is to say, do, not say or not do as the script of the play unfolds.

I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.

Today’s lesson says, “Loss is not loss when properly perceived. Pain is impossible. … This is the truth, at first to be but said and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally accepted as the truth. I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.”

The thoughts that hurt come from the ego. They are thoughts that rise up from the belief that we are affected by the world.

In order to change all thoughts that hurt, we must change directions and directors. Instead of being focused outward, we change direction and focus inward, always inward.

Outward results in fear and suffering.
Inward realizes wisdom, peace and trust.

Remain focused inward today by practicing surrender as it is taught in The Teachings of Inner Ramana.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

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What is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is a term that points to spiritual intuition. Yesterday we read about spiritual intuition in an excerpt from The Teachings of Inner Ramana, ‘The Purpose Of Surrender, Part Two’, pages 9-11.  That excerpt said, in part:

“One who listens to guidance … realizes truth even as he experiences perception. He listens to knowledge because he knows that one who sees perception cannot truly see, but one who is not attached can be guided. Non-attachment and realization are one.”

While contemplating our last special theme, we learned about equanimity. Equanimity is abiding in the qualities of Christ-consciousness—acceptance of what is, openness, non-attachment, and unconditional trust.

When we accept that we are consciousness, we abide in equanimity, because we realize we are unaffected by the outside world.

When we abide in equanimity, we are able to feel spiritual intuition more easily, because “one who is not attached can be guided.”

I live in the high desert of Colorado. Tumbleweeds are common here. However, we only see tumbleweeds in the winter. During the summer, tumble weeds are rooted firmly into the ground. The wind cannot blow the tumbleweeds about when they are attached to the ground.

In the winter, the tumbleweed’s roots die. That frees the tumbleweeds from the ground, and then the wind can blow them about freely.

Spiritual intuition is like the wind. When we abide in equanimity, we are like the tumbleweeds in the winter. We allow spiritual intuition to guide us without any attachment to the ground of our thoughts.

This is the goal of the Holy Spirit’s teaching. It is to free us from attachment to our thinking.

Once we are freed from our habitual thinking, we can be guided by spiritual intuition, and the Holy Spirit “becomes the means to go beyond itself, to be replaced by the eternal truth.”

As we’ve already seen, the Holy Sprit is the means to awakening. Once we awaken to truth, we are beyond the Holy Spirit. What we are is the home of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual intuition emanates from awakened consciousness.

Although what we are is the source that spiritual intuition emanates from, until we genuinely awaken to our Self, we do well to be surrendered to spiritual intuition. Through surrender, we let our true voice guide us back to the realization of what we are.

One mistake that people make when they understand intellectually that the Holy Spirit is their true voice, but they don’t have the genuine experience of themselves as consciousness, is listening to the ego thought system while saying, “But the Holy Spirit is me.” In other words, they think their thinking and their will is the same as the Holy Spirit’s thinking and its will.

Your thinking and spiritual intuition are not the same thing. Thinking is the voice of the ego, and it will keep you attached to the idea that you are a person in a body.

If you really want to awaken to your truth, it is critical that you put your own thinking aside and tune into spiritual intuition. Spiritual intuition is the means to awakening, not your thinking. You need to free yourself from the ground of your thoughts in order to genuinely follow spiritual intuition.

My true identity abides in You.

The prayer in today’s workbook lesson begins with, “Father, I made an image of myself, and it is this I call the Son of God. Yet is creation as it always was, for Your creation is unchangeable. Let me not worship idols.”

Most people do not call themselves the “Son of God.” Most people in the world today think of Jesus as the “Son of God.” Yet, they may think of themselves as the children of God.

Why is it an error to think of yourself, the person, as the Son or child of God?

When you think of yourself, the person, as the Son or child of God, you remain identified with yourself as the person. You remain identified with the mind’s thoughts as your thoughts. You are not the person, and the mind’s thoughts are not your thoughts, so the error is a mistake in identification.

It is much more helpful to think of yourself as consciousness, and to realize that consciousness is the Son or child of God. Consciousness is the direct creation or extension of the source.

Nisargdatta Maharaj said:

Keep on remembering: I am neither the mind nor its ideas.  Do it patiently and with conviction and you will surely come to the direct vision of yourself as the source of being—knowing—loving, eternal, all-embracing, all-pervading. You are the infinite focused in a body. Now you see the body only. Try earnestly and you will come to see the infinite only.

Today, we will take Nisargadatta’s advice and “keep on remembering” by noticing repeatedly throughout the day that we are awareness.

We will also practice the Loving All Method today. As we do, we will remind ourselves that the essence of everything is the essence that we are. As our lesson says, “Now are we One in shared Identity, … And so we offer blessing to all things, uniting lovingly with all the world, …”

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

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