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.
