What is the Real World?
Our special theme says, “Only happy sights and sounds can reach the mind that has forgiven itself. What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack and murder?”
Yesterday, you were asked to practice inquiry on a fearful perception—a perception that leaves you feeling affected. If you did this, it’s highly likely that you found mistakes in your thinking, since the only thing that can leave you feeling affected is belief in thought.
A “mind that has forgiven itself” is a mind that recognizes itself as unaffected awareness. (In this context, “mind” is synonymous with awareness and consciousness. It is like the first definition of “mind” in my dictionary: “the element of a person that enables them to be aware…; the faculty of consciousness…”)
A mind that recognizes itself as awareness has no need for mistaken thoughts.
A mind that recognizes itself as awareness sees the real world.
Today, we will take another step toward forgiving our self. This step has three parts:
1 – Read this article by Adyashanti. It is taken from his book, True Meditation.
How I Discovered Meditative Self-Inquiry
2 – Write or type this question:
What do I need to realize about ___________________?
(Fill in the blank with the selected perception you have been working with.)
Note: You may also do this by speaking into a recorder, if that feels most effective for you.
3- Write about your selected perception as if you are teaching someone else everything you know about it. Include everything you discovered as you inquired into this perception yesterday. Follow Adyashanti’s advice by writing all the way to the edge of what you know about this topic, and then wait for something else that you know is true. When that next true word, phrase or sentence comes, write it down. Continue writing until you hit another boundary, and then wait again. Stay with this process until you know that you came to a conclusion, one that is recognized in your heart and soul as the completed answer to your question.
Note: If you are speaking into a recorder, pause the recording after speaking to the edge of what you know; wait until the next true word, phrase or sentence comes, and then start the recording and begin speaking again.
I want to give us plenty of time to be thorough with this, so other than a brief comment on tomorrow’s lesson, I will not write a tip tomorrow. My next tip regarding our special theme will be two days from today. That gives us two days to explore the answer to our questions.
My body is a wholly neutral thing.
People usually see the body as who they are, but today’s lesson points out that we are not the body. We are “a Son of God”—that is, we are unaffected consciousness.
The body is a neutral thing, which means it is open to interpretation. If we listen to the ego thought system, the body is “I”. However, if we listen to spiritual intuition, it is “of service for a while and fit to serve.”
As Ramana Maharshi said, “Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”
Hence, Self-realization is the purpose of the body. Your body is perfect for this purpose, and that is true regardless of the current condition of your body. The reason the body is as it is now is to help you reach Self-realization. If there is a thought that the body is an obstacle to Self-realization, realize that thought is ego’s interpretation of a neutral thing, and then shift to spiritual intuition’s interpretation instead.
If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:
