As I write this, it is the day after euthanizing my dog, Jamie. Yesterday, after she was gone, I decided to go for a walk, which is what I would have done had she been alive and healthy. I went to one of her favorite places along the Arkansas River.

As I walked, I noticed lizards, grasshoppers, ants, birds, trees, the water, and the wind. I felt awed by the intensity of life. It was so full of itself—vibrantly present and immediate. I could not find death in life. I knew the dog, Jamie, had ended, but yet there was no loss or lack in life. There wasn’t a hole in life where Jamie had been. Life was perfectly intact.

As NTI John taught, life and light are one. NTI John 1 said:

The Light is in all men and with all men. The Light does not fade or wither, but the darkness that fills the sight of man does not see the Light or choose to know it. And so, the Light waits on welcome, that it may be known.

What is the “darkness that fills the sight of man”?

It is the belief that manifestation is reality. It is the belief that I am the person, that Jamie was the dog, that an ant is just an ant, etcetera.

On Day 212, we saw that it’s a mistake to see ourselves as merely manifestation. It is more correct to say we are the creative principle than it is to say we are the person. To say we are consciousness is closer to truth. To say we are life is truth. To say we are all of it (life, consciousness, creation and manifestation) is the essence of truth, since consciousness, creation and manifestation are made of life. Life is the source and essence of all things.

Today’s reading says:

Rest within the acceptance that the temporal being you seem to be is not the totality of your Beingness, and so it cannot be the truth of what you are.

The person that you appear to be is to be loved, just as Jamie was to be loved, but the person is a temporary expression occurring through the creative principle. You are much more than that.

The purpose of NTI 2 Thessalonians was to help us let go of the ‘I am bad’ belief. The purpose of NTI 1 Timothy is to help us let go of the belief in ‘me’ as an individual, separate person. This is also letting go of the belief in separation.

Today’s reading says:

The personhood of man, which is based on the belief in the world, is meaningless. It is meaningless because the world itself is not real, so all that is based on the world is also not real.

This is a very deep thought that you do well to sit back and soak in fully, for within this thought is another symbol that is key to your own salvation.

What is the “symbol that is key to your own salvation?”

It is Self-inquiry.

Who/What am I?

I was not ready for Self-inquiry when it was introduced in NTI 2 Corinthians 12, so like a GPS, inner wisdom recalculated to help me see that I am the Third Principle of God, the creative process. I accepted that teaching more easily. Through that teaching, I could see that I am not what I think I am and that the world is not real; it is made through attention on thought, perception and emotion.

In NTI 1 Timothy, inner wisdom asked me to contemplate that more deeply. If I go deeply  into the realization that I am not what I think I am, that the world is made by attention on thought, emotion and perception, and that the body-personality is part of the world, I will eventually come to the question:

What am I?

And that question is key to salvation (awakening).

Some of you accept that you are not what you think you are. You accept that the world is not real; it is made by attention on thought, perception and emotion. Now, notice that the body and personality are part of the world. That means they are also made  in the same way all manifestation is made. They can’t be what you are, so what are you?

Don’t make the mistake I made in NTI 2 Corinthians 12, when I went to concepts for the answer. Instead of answering with what you’ve learned, look.

Experience you intimately.

If not the body, if not the thoughts, if not the emotional-makeup, and if not the personality, what’s left as you?

Subtract everything that you identify with that is a type of manifestation.

What’s left as you that is not  a manifestation?

Today’s reading points out that individual personhood—me, you, us, them—supports judgment.

Can that which is left when body-thought-emotion-personality is subtracted be judged like a body can be judged? Like thoughts can be judged? Like emotion or personality can be judged?

Anything that can be judged is part of manifestation. It is not real, and it supports the continued making of illusion.

That which cannot be judged is beyond all of it—beyond world, beyond body and beyond mind. And yet it is you.

What is that?

The guidance I shared in yesterday’s tip said:

Letting go of [guilt and unworthiness] comes from the mind, since the belief that holds to the perception is in the mind. This is why I have been teaching you that the cause of guilt and unworthiness is not in the world or in anything that you experience. The only cause is belief in the mind. It’s important to remember that belief in nothing is nothing but belief.

Today’s reading reemphasizes that point.

Today’s reading likens the ‘I am bad’ belief to the busy mind. If you watch the busy mind carefully, you will find it is constantly judging you as less than your reality. The idea that you are less than your reality is the root of the ‘I am bad’ belief. Therefore, your busy mind is the cause of your sense of guilt, unworthiness, inadequacy and the like.

Today’s reading teaches a discernment practice. It asks us to “manage your mind” by using the practice it teaches. We can start by using the practice during meditation, during rest-accept-trust or anytime we want to sit quietly. However, once we are skilled at the practice, we can use it while we are active as well.

NTI 2 Thessalonians is a short section in NTI. However, what it teaches is powerful and incredibly useful. I recommend referring to NTI 2 Thessalonians frequently until you are free of the ‘I am bad’ belief completely.

Today, we are taught exactly how to heal the ‘I am bad’ belief.

1. Ask to see it.
2. Look at it while being aware that it is a belief (not a fact).
3. Rest (rest-accept-trust).

You can practice these steps repeatedly until every shred of the ‘I am bad’ belief has been healed.

To help support today’s reading, here is guidance I received about letting go of the ‘I am bad’ belief:

Question: In order to feel my feelings (e.g., guilt, unworthiness) instead of repressing them, I cannot fear them. The problem is that I fear them because I still think they define me. I think they are true about who I am. How can I let go of this perception?

Answer: Letting go of this perception comes from the mind, since the belief that holds to the perception is in the mind. This is why I have been teaching you that the cause of guilt and unworthiness is not in the world or in anything that you experience. The only cause is belief in the mind. It’s important to remember that belief in nothing is nothing but belief.

To change your perception, look at this belief and say, “This is only belief.”

Call it by its name:

Not true, only belief

Be consistent and repetitive in this. That which isn’t true is coming into your mind now to be seen. This is a good thing, a great thing.  Look right at it in full confidence of who you are—full trust and knowing. Don’t trust your eyes or your thinking mind. Trust only your Heart, which knows. With knowing, look at your beliefs and say, “Not true, only belief.”

It is important to practice the previous guidance with clarity and not with fear. Your underlying motive for the practice is essential  to its effect. Truth realization is a different motive than the desire to avoid or escape something unpleasant.

Note: I recommend printing this tip for future reference.