What is the Holy Spirit?
Our special theme says, “The Holy Spirit understands the means you made, by which you would attain what is forever unattainable. And if you offer them to Him, He will employ the means you made for exile to restore your mind to where it truly is at home.”
The ego uses our attention to keep us absorbed in illusion and ignorance. Our attention is usually focused outward on the ego’s ideas (thought) and perceptions (the world as perceived through thought).
Spiritual intuition uses the same tool that the ego uses—attention. However, spiritual intuition guides us to keep attention focused inward instead of outward. We are focused inward as we ask intuition, “What am I to do now? How am I to see this?” We are also focused inward as we practice awareness-watching-awareness or loving consciousness meditation.
Outward focused attention is guided by ego.
Inward focused attention is guided by spiritual intuition.
There is a third type of attention. It is fully involved in the moment with no “I” or self in it. Examples include being absorbed in creativity or being absorbed in nature.
When we are fully in the moment without ego chatter about “me,” we are in presence. We might call that merged attention instead of outward focused attention, because instead of the idea of me as a person looking outward at a world through “my” thoughts, it is awareness and scenery all merged into one happening.
Therefore:
Outward focused attention is guided by ego.
Inward focused attention is guided by spiritual intuition.
Merged attention is presence.
Let me forget my brother’s past today.
Which type of attention is active when there is a grievance? Is it outward, inward or merged attention?
The answer is outward attention. Outward attention is attention that looks outward through thought, or more specifically, through the ego thought system. Outward attention looks at our brother through the ego’s chatter about the brother and what he did to me, or what I don’t like about him, etcetera.
If we focus our attention inwardly, we will find another thought system. It is the thought system that points toward truth. It may guide us to see our brother differently; it may guide us to inquire into our thoughts in order to see them differently; it may guide us to practice the Loving All Method with our brother and the situation; it may guide us to notice our self as unaffected awareness, etcetera. The specific guidance will vary, but the guidance will always be toward truth and away from untruth.
If our attention is merged, there will be no thought about our brother’s past and there will be no current judgments about him. There will only be this moment as it is in joy.
As you look at the three paragraphs written above, you might notice that inward focused attention is the bridge between outward focused attention and merged attention. Said another way, spiritual intuition is the means to one consciousness, which is awareness and happening as one (not “me” and other than me).
Today, whenever you notice that you are involved in outward attention, shift inward using surrender as it is taught in The Teachings of Inner Ramana.
If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:
