Yesterday’s reading said:

Look within the mind at the thoughts that make you proud and make you happy at the thought of being you. Look at those thoughts, which you judge as good, which make you feel better or luckier than someone else you know. Look at those thoughts, and listen clearly to what I say:

Those thoughts have no value.
Those thoughts are nothing but the dust of dreams.

We have spent a lot of time letting go of negative self-judgment, but now, in our maturity, we are also asked to let go of positive self-judgment.

Why?

Because any judgment, negative or positive, says, “I am the body-mind-personality.”

Today’s reading continues in the same vein. It asks us to look at everything we like about our life-experience in the world, and envision letting go of it.

Again, this is significant, because if anything is important to “me,” it reemphasizes “me.”

But how do we let go of things like our children? Our pets? Our spouses?

In my experience, the easiest way to let go of them is to notice the fact that in every moment they are changing. The exact form of the one I love now is already changing and leaving. I can’t hold onto it anyway, so why try to hold onto it?

Let me give you an example. I used to have this really cute little 6-year old daughter. She was happy and easy to be with. Her toothless smile was so cute. We spent weekends doing arts and crafts together, playing games and cooking foods from different countries. But that is gone now. My daughter naturally grew out of being 6-years old. She will never be that cute little 6-year old again. She’s in college now, but she isn’t going to be the college kid forever either. She will mature and change, and then she will mature and change again.

If you look at anyone (or anything) you love with clarity, you will see that it is here now, but it is already passing away. Everything in form is constantly being recreated by the creative principle. Nothing in manifestation lasts.

When we cling to anything in manifestation, all we really cling to is an idea of that thing. By clinging to an idea, we refuse to notice what the thing really is.

What is it?

It’s life appearing temporarily as this appearance now.

We can embrace everything as a precious momentary appearance. We can love it fully now, while it is here. But as it passes—as it shifts and changes into a new appearance—wisdom lets it go, because it is gone. Wisdom lets go of what has passed and loves what is here.

Jasmine came home from college this past weekend, and we had a really lovely time together. We kayaked, went to the state fair, hiked, played board games, and cleaned my car together. Now the weekend is over. Jasmine has gone back to college. If I sat here longing for her—wishing she was still here or that it was still last weekend—I would be clinging to thought only, and through clinging to thought, I would also cling to my identity as ‘mom’ and the ideas I think ‘mom’ needs to be happy. Those ideas and that identity are “nothing but the dust of dreams.”

NTI Hebrews teaches that you have matured on the path of awakening. Yesterday’s reading was a review of some of what you have learned as you have matured through your study and practice of NTI. Today’s reading asks you to acknowledge your maturity by living your life from maturity instead of living as if you are a beginner on the path of awakening.

Melchizedek was a king and a priest during Abraham’s lifetime. He is first mentioned in the Bible at Genesis 14. Abraham had just won a battle through which he rescued his nephew, Lot, from a group of kings who took him while attacking Sodom, which is where Lot lived. After Abraham won this battle, two kings came to visit Abraham. One was the king of Sodom, who came to retrieve what he had lost when the group of kings attacked his city. The other king was Melchizedek, who is described later in Psalm 110 as “a priest forever.”

Melchizedek blessed Abraham. After receiving the blessing, Abraham was moved by the heart to give him one tenth of the possessions he had recovered in the battle.

The king of Sodom asked Abraham for the people he’d rescued, but offered to let him keep the remaining possessions recovered in the battle.

Abraham refused the remaining possessions, saying, “With raised hand I have sworn an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’”

The king of Sodom represents the ego. Abraham chose to accept nothing from him, which symbolizes the decision to stop giving belief and attention to the ego.

Melchizedek represents the Holy Spirit, which is the wisdom of awake consciousness. As the Bible says at Hebrews 7:1-3:

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.

Today’s reading points out that we have given 1/10^th of our attention to the Holy Spirit, which means we still live 90% from ego. Ego is our attachment to the body-mind-personality as “me.”

Today’s reading says:

But one tenth of your mind given to awakening is only one tenth of everything, which means everything is not focused on who you are. I ask you to be willing to accept the Holy Spirit as the Voice of your truth. Be willing to give everything to the Voice that represents all that you truly are.

We demonstrate what we think we are by what we listen to and follow. As we learned on Day 135, there are two scripts that we can listen to and live from as we have this bodily experience. One is the ego script, which teaches that I am a body-mind-personality living in a very real world. The other is the script that comes from awake consciousness. It leads us to see temporary appearances as temporary appearances while embracing reality as truth and as what we are.

It’s fair to say that NTI Hebrews 7 asks you to increase your commitment to truth while decreasing your attachment to manifestation as reality.

Please read today’s reading slowly and contemplatively. The reading asks several questions. Take the time to consider those questions deeply as you read.

NTI Hebrews teaches that you have matured on the path of awakening, and it encourages you to live from that maturity now. It also acknowledges that your stage of awakening is a stage in which you will sometimes slip back into ego habits. It says:

When you notice that you have awakened again from another period of slumber and dozing, go back to your practice. Do that which is natural by the maturity of your faith. Practice the state of awakening with joy.

How can you practice the state of awakening?

Reference Day 179 and Day 218 for suggestions.

Today’s reading mentions God’s promise to Abraham. We first learned about God’s promise to Abraham while reading NTI Galatians. Today is a good day to review that teaching. Reference Day 191 for that review.

Today’s reading also says:

Forgive the scenarios of your dreams. … They are images of the past.

In NTI Ephesians, we learned to see our current circumstances as a manifestation of past believing attention, and we were asked to be with current circumstances differently now. Reference Day 200 for a review of that teaching.

NTI Hebrews sees you as the leader of your own awakening, and it teaches you how to be a great leader as opposed to a weak leader or an overly forceful leader. It encourages you to be a great leader by:

1. Having compassion when you fall short of your hopes or expectations for yourself.
2. Gently encouraging yourself to listen to clarity and let go of ego impulses.
3. Strengthening your spiritual aspiration with heartfelt, devotional prayer.
4. Living from clarity as much as you can.

Today is a good day to ask inner wisdom for specific guidance about how you can be an effective leader in your awakening process.