Please read and contemplate the following commentary in the same way that you read and contemplate the Thought of Awakening. The commentaries are designed to enrich your understanding.

~Commentary on Awakening~

 As one travels the seeming spiritual path, one is awakened one realization at a time. Each realization is a precious Gift from the Seat of Knowledge given to one who has readied himself to receive it.

Realizations are like opening one’s eyes after a heavy night of sleep. If one is grateful for the realization, one will open his eyes more and focus his Heart on it. But if one allows the sleepiness of night to again overtake his heavy eye lids, the realization is lost for a time while the depth of slumber is again experienced and cherished.

Let each realization be a time of awakening. Stay with it and appreciate it until you have fully awakened to the Knowledge that has come knocking at your door.

~From our Holy Spirit

The error that is the ego is attaching life to manifestation and identifying with that. It is attaching life to a body, a mind, and a personality, and then feeling that you are that. When you make the mistake of pinning life down to a specific form and identifying with that form, you also see form as alive, as if the form is primary and life is both secondary and temporary. That’s why you believe in death.

In reality, life is primary and eternal. Every aspect of manifestation is temporary, shifting and changing. And you are life, not the temporary form that you experience now.

To let go of ego is to let go of identifying with a specific manifestation as you and to let go of seeing others as specific manifestations. It is to fully accept that manifestation comes and goes, and life is beyond all manifestations. Life is the source of all manifestations; it is the essence of all manifestations, and life is what you are, just as it is what everything is.

The purpose of today’s reading is to help you accept this truth. Admittedly, it is not the truth the ego wants to hear. The ego (identification with a specific form) wants to believe it is eternal, but that simply isn’t the truth, nor will it ever be the truth.

Read today’s reading slowly and contemplatively. I recommend taking notes again today. Taking notes will help you absorb today’s teaching. You can also review and further contemplate your notes, which will further aid in absorbing this important teaching.

NTI Hebrews asks you to be the leader of your own awakening. Yesterday we saw that you lead yourself to awakening through faith in truth, because whatever you have faith in is extended to you through the creative principle.

Today’s reading is a summary of tips written to one who has decided to lead his/her way to awakening. I recommend taking notes as you read today. Taking notes will help you remember today’s tips. You can also review your notes, which will further aid in remembering the tips.

There is one tip I would like to highlight from today’s reading. It says:

Have compassion for yourself,
and be firm in your [true] desire.

The ego does not know how to be firm for something and have compassion when you “fail” in your intentions too. The ego either chooses not to be firm, because if it doesn’t make the decision to be firm it doesn’t have to worry about failing, or the ego makes a firm decision and then judges harshly each time you do not meet your own expectations.

The heart is naturally firm for truth and always compassionate regarding errors. In this context, the heart can be defined as “awareness with natural intention.”

For example, when a baby is learning to walk, that baby is awareness with the natural intention to walk. It is firm in its intention to walk. It also does not harshly judge its falls as failures. Interestingly, the baby’s heart is so perfectly set on the intention to walk, the baby doesn’t need to have compassion when it falls. There is absolutely no judgment in the baby’s pure intended-awareness, so there is no need for compassion. However, in your case there may be judgment when you slip or fall. When there is judgment, be compassionate (forgiving) with yourself.