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 of the Thoughts of Awakening.

~Commentary on Obedience~

 I have asked for obedience, and this frightens you, but obedience is nothing to fear. In fact, if you look at this rationally you will see that you are always being obedient. It is just that you are being obedient to one voice or the other, but the choice not to be obedient  is an illusion. In that, it is a choice in itself. It is a choice to believe illusion.

Obedience, which you cannot avoid, is sharing. It is the sharing of thought. And therefore, it is the creation of experience.

By being obedient to the thought that seems to be independent thought (or thinking), you create the illusion of independence. Yet because this idea is shared, it is an illusion. In the creation of this illusion, you also find the creation of all pain.

By being obedient to the Voice of true authority, you choose to listen to your own Voice of Love, which knows it is sharing and unbroken, and so it communicates the truer aspects of the flow.

I say that to listen is to love, because to listen is to know your own Heart. In knowing your own Heart, you know love, and so you are  love, because your knowing isn’t hidden by illusion.

Obedience is a temporary measure, because the purpose of obedience is to retrain the mind to listen. Once listening becomes your natural joy…your pleasure…there will no longer be a need for the thought of obedience.

However, be wary of the idea that says you are independent and therefore no longer in need of obedience. Any thought that says you are independent is not the love of listening…the joy of connection…and so it isn’t the Voice of your Love.

~From our Holy Spirit

Today’s reading is brief, but it is filled with wisdom that inspires us to make a firm commitment to the motive we have chosen. A firm commitment to our motive is a firm commitment to truth. It is a firm commitment to Self. It is a firm commitment to peace and to joy.

I recommend reading today’s reading slowly and contemplatively, preferably multiple times throughout the day. It’s a short reading, so it isn’t difficult to read it more than once. You could also write down some of your favorite sentences from today’s reading, carry them with you, and review them throughout the day.

Today is also a good day to review Chapter 15 from The Untethered Soul  by Michael Singer.

Immerse yourself in today’s message in whatever way feels most guided for you.

Today’s reading is a guided meditation. It is another attempt at Self-inquiry, this time coming at Self-inquiry from a different angle than NTI 2 Corinthians 12.

Today’s Self-inquiry focuses on feelings. As you read and practice today’s Self-inquiry, you will be led through five steps:

1. Take time to get quiet.
2. Ask to see the feelings that are within you. Notice the different feelings that arise.
3. Go deeper, still noticing feelings. In this step, you are looking for the feeling of ‘me.’ It has a distinctness  about it.
4. After you notice the feeling of ‘me,’ ask to see what is beyond that.
5. Allow yourself to experience that which is beyond ‘me.’

When you go through this meditation, you may notice a lot of different feelings at Step 2. Don’t rush through Step 2. When a feeling arises to be seen, notice it, acknowledge it, and then ask, “Is there something else here to be seen?” Stay with Step 2 until you feel you have fully experienced the feelings at this level.

The feeling of ‘me’ is a very interesting feeling. I have come to recognize it easily as an object—not as ‘me’ at all—but in the beginning that wasn’t the case. It was a feeling I lived with everyday and took for ‘me’ without ever looking at it directly. The first time I ever noticed it was during this meditation, and there was a strong pull to stop there. There was a strong idea that nothing was beyond it. That’s why the reading says:

You may seem to come to a very personal feeling. It may seem strong, like a wall. This feeling tells you that you are what you are not, so do not pause to listen to it.

I was guided not to listen to the idea that there was nothing beyond the feeling of  ‘me.’ I was guided to continue and discover what was beyond that “wall.”

This meditation taught me that the wall—the personal feeling of ‘me’—and all of the feelings I found before the wall were not me. The lighter, non-attached Self that I found beyond ‘me’ is what I am. You could say this meditation was my first successful Self-inquiry.

When you go through the reading today, read slowly. Pause and practice the steps as you go through them. Look at the feelings before the wall, notice the wall itself, and then go beyond it.

What is beyond that feeling of ‘me’?

If you can know that which is beyond the feeling of ‘me,’ can you be that ‘me’?

Today, we are taught to investigate so we can discover if we are praying for truth or illusion through our daily living.

If you are reading NTI, then you have been called to awaken. Your purpose now is truth. If truth wasn’t your purpose, NTI could not hold your interest. However, your prior purpose was illusion. That isn’t a judgment. Consciousness as a whole chose illusion when it created the creative principle and made manifestation. But now, there is a return motion—returning to truth realization—and you have been called into that motion. Truth realization is the purpose you have been called to accept, and you have accepted it, which is why you read NTI.

Since illusion was your prior purpose, you are in the habit of praying for illusion. That is the same as saying that you are attached to the world. It is also the same as saying you are in the habit of believing the world, your thoughts and your emotions.

It’s time now to begin living from a new motive. So, starting today, you will observe yourself to find where you are in the habit of living from the wish for illusion, and you will shift your way of being  so that you live from the desire for truth. Living from the desire for truth is being in the world but not of it.

Since action is the expression of thought, NTI asks us to watch the body to learn which motive we live from, truth or illusion. We can tell which motive we live from if we watch the body without judgment, because the body’s action is the physical representation of a motive.

For example:

If you find yourself getting upset, believing your upset and acting out from your upset, you live from the wish for illusion.

If you find yourself getting upset, taking a break from the situation, practicing rest-accept-trust and possibly journaling to learn more about your upset, you live from the desire for truth.

Here’s another example:

If you are worried that the stock market will crash, you lose lots of sleep worrying about it, you call the stockbroker and move all of your investments to cash accounts, and then you find yourself laying awake all night worrying that you made a mistake, you live from the wish for illusion.

If you notice a thought that the stock market will crash, ask within if you are to do anything, do or not do based on what you feel intuitively, and then forget about it, you live from the desire for truth.

I could write examples all day, because there are many. However, you don’t need me to describe every possible scenario. As today’s reading says:

When you observe the body with the purpose of learning, you do not observe alone. The One who knows you and teaches you observes with you so you may learn. Call on this One and ask Him your questions. He will lead you to find answers, for His purpose is the same as yours.

What do you do if you observe the body and find that you are living from the wish for illusion? Make a correction. Bring more spiritual practice into your daily living. You know the purpose you’ve accepted. There isn’t really a question about that anymore, so now do your best to live from that motive instead of from old habits.

Today’s reading is about prayer, how we pray, and how prayers are answered.

Prayer is defined as an earnest request or wish. As we have already seen, since consciousness is not aware of many things, from consciousness’ point of view you can only pray for two things: truth or illusion. In order to have genuine clarity, one must be clear on this point.

The law of attraction is not the law of Love. The law of attraction is an ego-distorted version of the law of Love.

According to the law of attraction, there are many things, and you can attract the things you want through intention and faith.

Here are the distortions in the law of attraction:

1. 1. There are many things – This is a distortion that comes from the ego point of view. From enlightened point of view, there are not many things. Enlightened point of view is unity consciousness, and unity consciousness sees clearly that all there is is consciousness. There is one thing, not many. All is the Self.

   2. You  can attract – The “you” in the law of attraction is the personality—the false self. It is the personality that wants a new relationship, a new car, lots of money, a big house, world travel, and etcetera. Therefore, the law of attraction reinforces the idea that you are the false self.

   3. You can attract the things you want – The many things (distortion #1) and you (distortion #2) are put together with judgment, so that some things are perceived as good/desired and other things are perceived as bad/undesired. Judgment solidifies the perception of duality, and the ego remains very secure, even if the law of attraction works and you get the intended thing or circumstance.

The law of attraction is a distortion. Even if you “win” by attracting the thing or circumstance you intend to attract, you lose. Why? You still perceive a world of many things; you still perceive yourself as a “you” who has personality-based preferences; judgment rules in your mind, and your perception is duality.

As I already mentioned, today’s reading is about prayer, how we pray, and how prayers are answered. Prayer is defined as an earnest request or wish. One who practices the law of attraction prays for illusion and receives illusion.

Todays reading says:

“I pray for you” is a statement of faith that all you see and sense and experience is not all there is. It is a statement of realization that effect is the result of intent, and intent can be affected by you.

There are only two intentions (motives): truth or illusion. And you can decide which intention you choose as your purpose.

Today’s reading also says:

Faith is by no means dead. You put faith in whatever you believe. …

Motive without faith is dead.

In this context, faith is synonymous with believing attention.

When NTI says, “Motive without faith is dead,” it means:

To say you want truth, but to live with believing attention on the world, your thoughts about the world and your emotions, is to live from the motive that wishes for something different than truth.

To receive truth, you must live from the motive of truth. Your believing attention must abide with awareness and spiritual intuition, not the world, thought and emotion.

We do not pray with words or thoughts. We pray with believing attention and with action, since action is an expression of believing attention. If we put faith in illusion—if that is what we believe, think about and react to—we get illusion. If we want truth, we must learn to live from the intention for truth realization.

We experience illusion or truth, whichever we genuinely intend. That is the law of Love.