For some people, NTI Hebrews may seem harsh, because it asks them to let go of people, things and circumstances that they love and enjoy. Others may feel guilty, because they aren’t ready to let go of those things. If you judge NTI Hebrews as harsh or if you judge yourself as guilty, you are looking at a form of the “I am bad” thought. Whenever this thought is seen, whether it is projected onto someone or something else or felt as a “fact” about you, it is rising into consciousness so that you can let go of it.

If you experience judgment or guilt as you read and contemplate NTI Hebrews, consider reviewing NTI 2 Thessalonians.

Today’s reading says:

The one sacrifice that ends sin and guilt forever is not a sacrifice at all. It is but the remembrance and acceptance of all that has always been true. It is the release of what isn’t and the re-acceptance of what is. It is a return to the realization of the truth of what you are.

Many of us go through a phase when we feel like we are asked to sacrifice something (or many things) for truth realization. That’s because the mind believes it gets happiness or love from the objects it is attached to in the world. However, as has already been pointed out, those things are passing—shifting and changing—anyway. Nothing in manifestation stays the same or lasts. To believe that manifestation is the source of our happiness is the cause of suffering.

True happiness comes from Self-realization, because our true nature is  happiness. In this realization there is no loss at all.

Why?

Because once you realize the Self, happiness is natural, and  manifestation continues as it did before. Manifestation doesn’t die away when you realize the Self. As long as the body lasts, it continues in manifestation and it experiences manifestation. Yet, you see with clarity. You know what everything really is, and you are able to appreciate its temporary appearance too. There is no sacrifice in that.

Today’s reading says:

God is Love. … Rest yourself within your Heart. Here your true desire is known, because here the truth of God is known. Then rise up and practice in joy.

If you feel that NTI Hebrews is asking you to sacrifice something you love or enjoy, take time to go within. Get in touch with your Heart. Let it reassure you about the truth, and then, only when you feel genuinely revitalized toward your spiritual aspiration, continue the practice of letting go of dreams.

Allow letting go to come from the heart, not from a sense of obligation. Remember, motive matters. (Ref: Day 177)

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

If you read Hebrews 9:1-10 in the Bible, you will see that Jewish people once followed very strict rules regarding worship. In fact, the Jewish people were given very strict rules to follow about everything in their lives, including food, relationships, how to settle disputes and more. These rules are called “the covenant of the first order” because they represent a phase in maturity.

Without realizing it, every person follows a “covenant of the first order,” which I have referred to in the past as “mind-made laws.” (Ref: Day 99)

We have rules about everything including food, how to worship (or how to be spiritual), relationships, clothing, and more. There’s a funny commercial on TV about a man who is being helpful by making the bed, and his wife responds by saying, “The big pillows go in the back.” ~ha ha~ That is one of her mind-made laws, a law he apparently did not have in his mind.

NTI points out that mind-made laws have their place at a certain stage in our maturity. For example, if we agree on how beds should be made, we feel a sense of sameness through that agreement. If you look around, you will notice we do have an agreement about how beds are made. We might not all agree that the big pillows go in back, but we do agree to put the pillows near the headboard instead of the footboard or under the bed during the day. These subtle “laws” that we all follow give us a sense of sameness, but that sense of sameness is very flimsy.

NTI says that a new covenant has come to replace the old covenant. The new covenant is the knowledge that we are one and all manifestations are created through the creative principle. That means mind-made laws are meaningless. If I believe that the big pillows go in back and you believe that the big pillows go in front, one is not more right than the other. Both are simply how the creative principle is manifesting as thought and action through a temporary body-mind-personality. Your way and my way are both story, and therefore equally meaningless. What we are beyond the story is one consciousness. Meaning lies in our reality.

Jasmine has a story about how she and a college roommate got in a tiff, because Jasmine started cooking ground beef without heating the pan first. Apparently the roommate felt that a pan should always be preheated before you put the ground beef in.

Have you ever paused to realize that if you hold onto your mind-made laws—your ideas about how food should be prepared, how friends should be treated or how houses should be decorated, and etcetera—you are holding onto the body-personality-mind as you?

By believing you are right about your mind-made laws, you cling to a temporary manifestation as you.

By seeing your mind-made laws as story, you see the body-personality-mind as story too.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

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.”

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.