Today’s reading opens with this paragraph:

Now is the day of salvation, for now is the day that you can choose to think apart from the world. You can choose to think apart from your experience. As you do this earnestly, your experience will change, and you will find yourself willing to let go of the world.

Interestingly, the previous paragraph does not  end with:

As you do this earnestly, your experience will change, and you will have everything you want the way you want it.

Instead it says:

As you do this earnestly, your experience will change, and you will find yourself willing to let go of the world.

Yesterday, we saw that Ramana Maharshi said:

Happiness is your nature.
It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.

Everyone wants happiness. Since happiness is our true nature and we feel lost from our true nature, it is natural to seek happiness. However, it is a mistake to seek happiness in the world, because the world was created to be different from truth, which means different from our true nature. Happiness cannot be found in the world. Happiness can only be found in our true nature.

Some people may argue against this point by saying that although they aren’t always happy in the world, they do experience some happiness in the world. They might argue that they are happy when they are with their children, grandchildren, lover, pets or favorite hobbies.

Let’s look at that more carefully and see if these things truly bring us happiness.

Has there ever been a time when you were with your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobby and you felt something other than happiness? Have you ever felt distracted, worried, frustrated, annoyed, disappointed or any other way that was not happiness when you were with your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobby?

If so, then we can say that your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobbies don’t bring you happiness consistently, since you don’t always  feel happiness with your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobbies.

Next, let’s see if these things ever bring you happiness or if happiness has a different cause.

First, let’s examine what your true nature is. We have called your true nature “consciousness,” “awareness,” “life,” “emptiness” “openness” and “Love.” Another term that we can use is “being.” Whenever you are simply being open awareness, accepting the current moment as it is without a wish for it to be different, you are abiding as your true nature. Since your true nature is happiness, you experience happiness when you are being your Self.

Recall a moment when you were not  happy with your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobby. Look at what was in your mind in that moment. Notice that you were judging something. You thought something should be different than it was. The cause of your unhappiness wasn’t your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobby. The cause of your unhappiness was your judgment.

Now, recall a moment when you were happy with your children, grandchildren, lover, pet or favorite hobby. Notice you were not judging in that moment. You were not wishing things were different. You were simply being with the moment. You were open and aware without judgment. You were abiding as your true nature, and that  is why you were happy. Happiness is your true nature. Since you weren’t blocking your true nature with judgment, you were naturally happy.

This is important, because if we think certain things or certain circumstances in the world make us happy, there will always be other things and other circumstances in the world that we believe make us unhappy. This leaves us seeking those things we think make us happy and trying to avoid those things that we think make us unhappy.  We start trying to control the world around us, which we can never do, and we become completely lost from our Self and our joy.

“Think apart from the world” is another way of asking us to abide as our Self regardless of the current circumstances. It is another way of asking us to be open awareness without asking things to be different. When we learn to be with every circumstance in this way, we abide as our Self, and we are happy because our Self is happiness.

The opening paragraph from today’s reading says:

Now is the day of salvation, for now is the day that you can choose to think apart from the world. You can choose to think apart from your experience. As you do this earnestly, your experience will change, and you will find yourself willing to let go of the world.

The reason thinking apart from the world prepares us to let go of the world is because we learn that happiness isn’t found in the world. It is found in our true nature. At that point, abiding as our true nature becomes our only real goal.

On Day 178, we were reminded that the world comes from the wish, “What if nothing was as it is?,” and so the world is necessarily  not truth.

Consider this quote by Ramana Maharshi:

Happiness is your nature.

If happiness is our true nature, but we asked to experience something different from truth, doesn’t that mean that we asked for experiences that are different from happiness?

We can each list a number of experiences that we have in the world that are different from happiness. For example: stress, worry, jealousy, unworthiness, guilt, anger, frustration, confusion, embarrassment, regret, grievance, insulted, stereotyped, imposed upon, and the list continues.

The Ramana Maharshi quote says:

Happiness is your nature.
It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.

It isn’t a question of whether we want happiness or not. Since happiness is our true nature, it is our nature to want happiness. The question is merely this:

Do we think we will find happiness through “right” circumstances in the world, which is created to give us an experience different from happiness, or do we realize that happiness is found by knowing and being our Self?

If our thoughts are focused on the world, the underlying motive is an experience that is different from truth, which is different from our true nature—different from happiness.

In the loop of experience, motive is “what I think.” And “what I think, I see; what I see, I experience.” So if our motive is “different from truth,” we experience “different from truth.” In other words, when our attention is focused on thoughts about the world, we currently desire “different from truth,” and we will experience it.

Or, as today’s reading says:

Your thoughts form your experience. This is a literal statement, and it is to be taken literally.

Through intention, our thoughts can be used to let go of illusion and remember truth. For a list of ways our thoughts can be helpful, review yesterday’s tip.

On Day 170, we saw that although people think they have many desires, awake consciousness sees only two possible desires: truth or illusion. Today’s reading asks us to consider carefully which of these two we want. It also points out how we express the desire for illusion and how we express the desire for truth. The reading says:

Are you thinking of the illusion of the world as if it is real? If so, you are expressing your desire to accept the veil of darkness. Is this your true desire? If not, why do you permit yourself to express it through the activity of your thoughts?

Watch your thoughts. Ask them to express your true desire.

How can our thoughts express true desire?

Here are some suggestions:

1. 1. Repeatedly contemplate the Thought of Awakening and what you received from spiritual wisdom regarding the Thought of Awakening throughout the day.
   2. Review the day’s tip, possibly a few sentences at a time, throughout the day. Mull over that small portion and let related thoughts come into your mind.
   3. Use the mind to ask questions of surrender like:
      “What am I to do now?”
      “How am I to see this?”
      “How am I to respond?”
   4. Use the mind to practice s/Self-inquiry with questions like:
      “What sees this thought?”
      “What is here now that is constant?”
      “What am I?”
   5. Pay attention to awareness.
   6. Practice a Name of God mantra.

Today’s reading says:

Your thoughts must do as you ask, because you are the thinker of your thoughts.

A thinker is one who has an intention regarding thought, so when NTI says “you are the thinker” it means that you get to choose the intention in the mind. You can decide if attention will wander with any thought that arises, or if it has an intention to focus on truth and let other thoughts go

Yesterday’s reading said:

Choose … to be independent of your experience.

Independent means free and unaffected.

Awakeness is free from the world and unaffected by it. That is why Jesus, as awakeness, said:

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

In NTI Romans, we learned about the curiosity that created the creative principle, and via the creative principle, create the world and the ego. That curiosity is:

What if nothing was as it is?

The ego and the world, which are created through and for  this curiosity, are necessarily  not truth. They are appearances created through the creative principle, and their appearance appears as anything but truth. That’s why they are called “illusion.”

To look at something that is created specifically for the purpose of appearing different from truth and to hope to find evidence of truth in it is foolishness. Yet, that is a mistake that spiritual seekers make all of the time.

For example, one democratic-minded spiritual seeker was thrilled when Barrack Obama was elected president of the United States in 2008. She saw his election as evidence that the world was awakening. Of course, since then Donald Trump has been elected president and has undone many of the policies Barrack Obama put in place. Does that mean the world has fallen asleep again?

What about when a war ends, such as World War II? Is that a victory for awakening? What about the wars and crimes against humanity that have occurred since then?

What about when a personal problem is resolved? Don’t new problems arise to replace it?

The world is an appearance that is made to appear different from truth. One of those differences is change. If you watch the world carefully, you will notice that change is the world’s greatest constant. (Admittedly, it is change within a limited buffet of reoccurring problems.) Sometimes the world changes so that specific situations are temporarily “good” by the mind’s standards, but “good” will always eventually be replaced by “bad.”

Look carefully at the world, regardless of whether your mind judges it as “good” or “bad,” and realize that it’s not truth. It’s not truth, and truth can’t be found in the world.

Let the world be as it is. Don’t seek truth by seeking permanent good in the world. You will eventually be disappointed.

Seek truth by looking within. Find that which is absolutely changeless. See that is what you are, and abide as that. You are the only truth that can be found in the world—and actually, the world is an appearance in you.

Know your Self, and be your Self. Truth is known by being it.