Note: This tip is longer than usual. If you are short on time, read the tip this morning, and then read from NTI later today.)

Yesterday we contemplated contrasts, so we can learn to recognize lower and higher vibrational choices. Today, we continue that same contemplation as we watch someone who sensed a pull toward a higher vibration, but then followed the lower vibration instead.

The person I am speaking of is Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pontius Pilate had the power to crucify Jesus, to imprison him or set him free. Other than the Roman Emperor, who was very far away and unaware of this little incident in Jerusalem, no one had authority higher than Pontius Pilate. He was free to make any decision.

As you read today’s story, notice that Pilate felt intuitively that Jesus was innocent. He also felt curious about Jesus, and interested in him. Something in him wanted to talk to Jesus more. If Pilate had followed this feeling, he would have followed the higher vibration.

However, the lower vibration showed up in thought too. It showed up as concern about what ‘others’ think of ‘me.’ It was the shadow of a thought we learned about earlier:

I am separate and different, and for this I am guilty [unworthy, less than]. I must protect myself, for when my guilt is unmasked, I will suffer endlessly. I will be cut off from all that is and from life itself.

Pilate believed that idea and followed the lower vibration.

Another opportunity came. Pilate had the authority to release Jesus or another prisoner, Barabbas. His genuine feeling was to release Jesus. That was the higher vibration.

However, once again a lower vibration arose. It was another idea that we’ve looked at recently. It was the idea that rules need to be consistent; precedent needs to be followed. Although Pilate had full authority to do something different this time, he believed consistency is what mattered, and he condemned Jesus to die. (Reference the tip for Day 46.)

Some people say that Jesus’ crucifixion was God’s will. Others say the script is written and cannot be changed. However, the Code says something different. The Code teaches that the script is always being written.

Here’s a simple review of the Code:

The thoughts that come into the mind are part of the code. However, the code is multi-layered, so there are higher vibrations and lower vibrations. When we choose the lower vibrations, the script is written according to the lower vibration. When we choose the higher vibrations, the script is written according to the higher vibration.

As we continue to choose lower vibrations, we are more likely to choose lower vibrations again. If we choose higher vibrations, higher and higher vibrations become available to us. Higher vibrational choices lead to true perception.

If we look at the story of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, we see that many characters in the story made choices along the way.

• • Judas decided to turn Jesus in so he could find out if Jesus was genuine or not.
  • The apostles chose to follow intuition, and they secured a safe place for Passover.
  • Jesus was overcome with the fear of death, but he chose to surrender completely.
  • At the time of Jesus’ arrest, many apostles listened to fear and ran away.
  • One apostle stayed in the garden in silence.
  • At Jesus’ trial, Judas saw he’d made a mistake and believed he was guilty.
  • At dawn, Peter saw he’d made a mistake and he went within seeking clarity.
  • Some of the chief priests listened to Jesus and did not join in the rush to have him crucified.
  • Most of the chief priests did not listen to Jesus. They rushed to Pilate to demand crucifixion.
  • The crowd outside Pilate’s palace decided to follow the lead of the chief priests and demand Jesus’ crucifixion.
  • Pilate felt that Jesus was innocent and intriguing, but he became worried about what others would think and chose to condemn Jesus to crucifixion.

If you look at this chain of events carefully, you’ll notice that a few people made higher vibration choices, but many stayed with the lower vibration. The script was written from the sum of those choices.

Imagine if Judas had decided to rest-accept-trust while in fear instead of deciding to turn Jesus in for a trial. Imagine if more chief priests had decided to listen to Jesus at his trial. What if the crowd outside Pilate’s palace had simply observed instead of joining the chief priests in their cry for Jesus’ crucifixion? Or what if Pilate had listened to his own inner prompting to set Jesus free?

Or, looking at it another way, what if the apostles had been afraid to trust intuition while looking for a room for Passover and had selected someplace that was associated with them? Is it possible the temple guards would have found Jesus earlier and the entire evening would have unfolded according to a different script? Or what if Jesus had listened to his fear in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Once a devotee asked Ramana Maharshi, “Is not this world, and what takes place in it, a result of God‘s will? If so, why should God will thus?”

Ramana Maharshi answered:

“God has no purpose. He is not bound by any action, and the World‘s activities cannot affect him. Take the analogy of the sun. The sun rises without desire, purpose, or effort, but as soon as it rises, numerous activities take place on earth. The lens placed in its rays produce fire, the lotus bud opens, water evaporates, and every living creature enters upon activity, maintains its activity, and finally drops it. However, the sun is not affected by any such activity, as it merely acts according to its nature by fixed laws, without any purpose. It is only a witness. So it is with God. …

God has no desire or purpose in acts of creation, maintenance, destruction, withdrawal, and salvation, to which earthly beings are subjected. As beings reap the fruits of their action in accordance to natural laws, the responsibility is theirs, not God‘s. God is not bound by any actions.”

When one understands God as the primordial, the First Principle of God, one realizes that God is the openness and essence that permits the appearance of the world, but God has no hand in its creation or its happenings. Consciousness itself is responsible for the world, and we are consciousness.

The higher vibration is made of consciousness, including thoughts, emotions and physical manifestation. The lower vibration is also made of consciousness, including thoughts, emotions and physical manifestation. It is all the play of consciousness, created in each moment through the play of consciousness. None of it is real—it is not the First Principle of God—but all of it is experienced, since consciousness is the realm of subject, object, and therefore, experience.

Do your choices matter?

Ultimately, your choices do not matter, because they do not affect reality. You are never guilty or innocent because of your choices, since they have no actual effects.

At the same time, your choices do matter, because they keep you at a lower vibration or help you raise to a higher vibration. At the lower vibration, you suffer more. At the higher vibration, you become increasingly happy and unaffected until you see with true perception.

Also, your choices matter because they are a part of consciousness as a whole, and so your choices help to write the script that is constantly unfolding as the world.

In short, happenings in the world happen the way they do, because everything that happened before led to the present being as it is. It is a mistake to give credit or blame to God for anything that happens in the world, and since innumerable inputs from consciousness lead to the script being as it is, it is also a mistake to give credit or blame to any one cause (any single decision, person or incident). It is best to accept the present as it is, and make the highest choice available in the moment.

Our choices reach higher or our choices remain lower, and experience unfolds according to the vibration of our choices. However, reality is something different entirely. Reality transcends all vibrations and all experience. Our choices affect our experience, but they do not affect our reality.

(Note: I recommend you print this tip for future reference.)

In today’s reading, Jesus is arrested and taken to the high priest’s compound for trial. When you read today’s story, pay attention to how the apostles react to this event.

1. Some apostles imagine what will happen next, and then they run off, reacting to their own imaginations.
2. One apostle stays in the garden seeking guidance in quiet.
3. Judas realizes that he has made a mistake, and he believes he’s guilty for it.
4. Peter realizes that he has made a mistake, and he seeks guidance from the inner teacher.

The reactions listed in #1 and #3 are egoic reactions. They come from identifying with thought and identifying with emotions.

The reactions listed in #2 and #4 are healing. Using the language of The Code, they are choices that raise one’s vibration. (Reference the tip for Day 53.)

In #2, the apostle stayed quiet and sought guidance instead of believing his imagination and acting from it. In #4, Peter made a mistake. When that mistake became apparent to him, he went within and sought clarity.

The contrast between #1 and #2 teaches us how to respond when a fearful situation arises in our life. The contrast between #3 and #4 teaches us how to respond when we see our own mistakes.

I recommend contemplating these contrasts. This contemplation will help us make choices that follow the examples set in #2 and #4. Those types of choices raise our vibration, and then higher choices become available to us.

Whenever fear arises, we have a choice about how to face it. We can project it onto someone or something else, we can lie to ourselves about what we are feeling, or we can surrender. Only the last of these three options is healing.

In today’s reading, most of the apostles project their fear onto one another. Since that is the situation in the moment, that is the situation that Jesus addresses through his teaching at Passover.

Peter denies his fear, so Jesus points it out to him. Jesus wants to help Peter discover how Peter lies to himself. As Michael Langford writes in The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, “Right from the beginning, the ego’s preservation strategies have to be dealt with.”

Jesus also experiences extreme fear in today’s story. However, Jesus faces fear with surrender.

Surrender is letting go of one’s point-of-view, one’s will, and one’s identity. In the final surrender, one also lets go of the sense of self-existence. Listen to what Dr. David Hawkins says about the final surrender in this video: (The tip continues after the video.)

When we practice surrendering our ideas and our positions in daily life, we are preparing ourselves for the final surrender. We need this practice. If we cannot surrender our political opinions, for example, we will not be able to surrender our sense of self-existence at the final doorway.

One way to prepare for enlightenment is to embrace opportunities to surrender. Have the thought in mind, “Let go of self. Let go of self. Let go of self,” and watch for opportunities to let go a little more each day. Typically, whenever there is conflict in your life, there is an opportunity to let go of self.

In addition, we need to learn to be with fear instead of projecting it or denying it. We also need to learn how to recognize fear, because fear hides under other emotions, like anger.

As we learn to accept fear with openness, and as we learn to surrender more and more deeply, we prepare ourselves to embrace enlightenment.