A universal assembly for true discernment
Not believing ego is true practice.
True practice is the solution,
because belief in ego is the only problem.
This is why the answer can only be found within.
Although pointers are given without,
the problem and the answer are within.
To stay focused on without
is to look away from the problem
and the answer.
Look within and ask,
“What am I?”
This is a question of discernment.
True practice is taking this advice.
~From our Holy Spirit
Please read and contemplate the following commentary in the same way that you read and contemplate the Thought of Awakening. The commentaries are designed to enrich your understanding.
~Commentary on True Practice~
Intellectual knowledge or intellectual spiritual teachings are helpful only to the degree that they lead the one seeking to practice. When one is engaged in practice, one is not so concerned with intellectual understanding. One wants only to practice. This means that one’s heart has become big, or his desire for inner peace or knowledge of Self has become more full.
When one’s desire is not as full, he seeks intellectual teaching. Intellectual teaching can serve two purposes:
Intellectual teaching can be used to water desire so that it grows into more fullness and leads to practice, or …
Intellectual teaching can be used to satisfy the ego’s idea of “I am spiritual” and it can lead to more and more intellectual reading and seeking without many intervals of true practice.
True practice leads to awakening, because true practice is not believing ego. Since belief in ego is the only problem, not believing ego as self is true practice, and true practice is the solution until solution is no longer needed.
~From our Holy Spirit
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
You are abundance now. This has always been true, regardless of your material or experiential situation.
Most people do not realize the power of their abundance. Your abundance brings every experience to you exactly as you experience it. Abundance produces illusory experiences and provides for truth-realization, depending on where you focus attention.
That means that your choice about where to focus attention is very important. Everything that is given in manifestation and the way in which it is experienced is an outcome of attention.
Although it can seem like there are many things to place attention on, there are really only two options. You can place attention with illusion or you can place attention with truth. Your experience comes from that decision.
The good news is that you can change your mind about where you place attention. You can change your mind anytime regardless of current circumstances.
Whenever you realize that you’ve placed attention with illusion, and you want to place attention with truth, simply shift attention now. Your experience will begin to change when you shift attention, because you’ve decided to use abundance differently.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
On Day 251, we read stories about Job and Peace Pilgrim. Job and Peace Pilgrim were not confused about what abundance is. In the story about Job, the wrong-mind (represented by Satan) was confused about what abundance is. Since the wrong-mind thought that abundance was found in manifestation, it thought Job would curse God when his manifested abundance was taken away, but Job did not curse God when manifested abundance was taken away. Job continued to praise God, because he knew true abundance.
Today’s reading says:
Teach yourself only that your abundance is now,
without any separation from you,
and you teach yourself everything that is true about you.
Another way to say that is:
Teach yourself that you are abundance now,
and you teach yourself everything that is true about you.
If you were fully enlightened, there would be no confusion about this. Abundance is what the enlightened know, see and feel. However, the mind’s concepts block one’s awareness of abundance with ideas of lack. Ideas of lack can look like this:
Some spiritual teachers say that unhappiness is caused by our belief in lack (& then go on to teach how to attract what you want). It’s true that unhappiness is caused by our belief in lack, but it isn’t caused by our belief in material or experiential lack. Unhappiness occurs because we are unaware of our true nature. One who is Self-realized does not experience lack; that one is happy regardless of his/her material or experiential situation in form.
Today’s reading says:
It is true that there also seems to be something else within you…something that does not seem to be light, but dark…
Whatever you find inside that feels different than divine abundance is an untrue concept about what you are. You know these ideas are untrue, because when you believe them they block natural happiness.
Remember this:
Whenever you are not happy
or content with what is,
you are touching a false concept.
You touch false concepts with attention. Attention feels and experiences, so when you touch a false concept with attention, you feel and experience that concept. It’s like tasting food. When your tongue touches food, you taste it. In the same way, attention tastes the concepts it touches.
Today’s reading says:
It is okay to stand within it for a moment and feel it. But then remember that I have taught you that the judgment comes only from you. Decide in that moment to choose to see your Self truly. Then reach within your mind, and turn on the Light.
Judgment is the decision or declaration that something is real or true.
If you are the one deciding a specific concept is true, you are the one who can choose to decide differently.
You choose to decide differently by removing attention from the concept and placing attention with your true Self—with awareness or existence.
Some people may wonder if today’s teaching is different than rest-accept-trust. It isn’t.
When today’s reading says, “turn on the Light,” it doesn’t mean that you should stop feeling whatever is being felt. It means:
Notice awareness or existence
as you feel a temporary experience.
When you choose to focus attention on awareness or existence during an emotional experience, you make a decision regarding which is true and meaningful. That decision is made by where you place attention. When you place attention with awareness or existence, you “turn on the Light,” because by placing attention there, you’ve decided that life-awareness is supreme.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
NTI 2 Peter is about abundance. Take a few moments to write down what abundance means to you. If you were to live a life of abundance, what would that look like?
Please complete this exercise before reading the rest of this tip.
~ ~ ~
On Day 136 and Day 202, we learned that the law of attraction is a distortion of truth. Today, we will learn that the ego’s ideas of abundance are a distortion of abundance.
Today’s reading defines abundance as “full awareness of your divine nature.” We often call that awakening or enlightenment. The reading also says, “Abundance cannot be defined in any other way.”
Look at your list of abundance. Are there material ideas of abundance on that list? Are there experiential ideas of abundance on the list?
Whenever the mind tries to define abundance, it thinks about material or experiential ideas. For example, for one personality-type, the mind’s list of abundance might look like this:
– Plenty of money so I am financially secure until my death
– A nice house to live in with beautiful furniture and art work
– A swimming pool, a well decorated meditation room, an art studio
– The time and the money to travel all over the world
– Physical health for me and my family
Today’s reading says that abundance “cannot be defined within the limits of the world.” That means the previous list, or any list of material and experiential ideas, is a distortion of abundance.
If you look at the dictionary definitions of abundance, you will see that none of the definitions use the term “unlimited.” They may say, “a large quantity of” or they may say “ample quantity” or “a relative degree of plentifulness,” but the dictionaries do not define abundance as unlimited.
Any material or experiential idea of abundance is a limited idea of abundance. Therefore, it is not full, complete or unrestricted abundance.
If you look deep within your heart, you will find that your heart is not interested in limited abundance. The mind is interested in limited abundance, because in the pursuit of or the attachment to limited abundance, you maintain identification with the mind.
The heart is only interested in true abundance, which is abundance beyond all limits and beyond all definitions. It is “full awareness of your divine nature.” It is abundance that transcends the world entirely.
The reading says:
For this reason, quiet the mind whenever it seems to stretch to imagine abundance within the world. When the mind is stretching in this way it is stretching to limit itself even more.
Those who believe that material or experiential abundance will fulfill them are identified with the temporary body-personality-mind as who they are. That is the limit that mind’s ideas of abundance put on you. The mind’s ideas of abundance limit you to a temporary manifestation.
Do you want to be limited in that way, or do you prefer to know true abundance as what you are?
The reading also says:
It is through witness that you know. That which you taste as witness cannot be forgotten…
In other words, spend time noticing life-awareness. It is through the direct knowing of your Self that you know your Self. You cannot know your Self through the mind’s concepts, no matter how lofty those concepts might be.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
You are always led from within,
and you are always answered from within.
When you say “thank you,”
direct your gratitude toward the Heart.
Allow a moment of silence
to follow your words.
Likewise, when you are angry or annoyed,
look inside for the cause.
You are always led from within,
so if there is an error that is causing you pain
the error can be found
and eradicated
by looking within.
~From our Holy Spirit
Today’s reading is another collection of pithy statements for contemplation. Here’s how I recommend reading NTI 1 Peter 5:
It’s likely you will have a very insightful experience with today’s reading if you contemplate it as I’ve recommended. Don’t feel like you have to contemplate every sentence in the reading. Ask inner wisdom to help you know which sentences/paragraphs are for you.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
