Today’s reading interprets three Bible stories. I recommend reading the stories in the Bible before reading the interpretation in NTI. Each story provides an opportunity for self-examination and self-honesty.
Jesus did not tell these stories so that we would chastise ourselves and decide that we are not good enough. There would be no forward movement if we understood the stories that way. The stories are provided so we can look, see where we are not in harmony with the calling of our heart, and then make adjustments. These stories are gifts to help us notice where we are still operating based on old conditioning, so we can retune ourselves.
With that said, a question you might ask yourself as you read The Parable of Ten Virgins and its interpretation is, “Where do I look for peace of mind? The marketplace, which is a symbol for the world, or within?”
A question you might ask yourself as you read The Parable of Bags of Gold and its interpretation is, “Do I trust the unknown or fear it?”
A question you might ask yourself as you read The Sheep and the Goats and its interpretation is, “Am I guiding myself towards unity consciousness or am I still interested in self-centeredness?”
It might be helpful to see yourself as a musical instrument. Are you playing the melody you want to play, or are some of your strings out of tune?
I found this comment online about tuning a harp:
There are people who will tell you that one key is “better” or “worse” than another. Like with many harp-related things, it is not so much a matter of right and wrong, but is rather very subjective and individual, and depends on a number of factors, including: what type of harp you have, how much musical experience you have, what style of music you want to play, and how much theory you know. It can even depend on things such as, how much improvising and/or transposing you want to do, and how much you rely on sheet music. So instead of trying to tell you the “right way” to tune a harp, I’ve presented some of the more common tunings, with explanations as to why some people choose them and others don’t.
I thought this comment was helpful, because we can get caught up in ideas of right and wrong whenever we engage in self-examination. It isn’t a matter of right and wrong or good and bad. It’s a matter of, “What do I want?” and “Is my way of being in support of that or hindering it?”
Here is a quote from Nisargadatta Maharaj that we can contemplate along with today’s reading:
You do and undo at every step. You want peace, love, happiness and work hard to create pain, hatred and war. You want longevity and overeat; you want friendship and exploit. See your net as made of such contradictions and remove them — your very seeing them will make them go.
