Here is an excerpt from conversation #14 of I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Questioner: My own feeling is that my spiritual development is not in my hands. Making one’s own plans and carrying them out leads no where. I just run in circles around myself. When God considers the fruit to be ripe, He will pluck it and eat it. Whichever fruit seems green to Him will remain on the world’s tree for another day.
Nisargadatta Maharaj: You think God knows you? Even the world He does not know.
In this conversation, Nisargadatta points to the First Principle of God when he says, “Even the world He does not know.” From the point of view of the First Principle of God, the First Principle is all that exists. The “everything” that we see in perception, is one thing—reality, life-awareness—from the perspective of the First Principle. From that perspective there is nothing different from truth, so there is nothing to fix, change or awaken.
The perspective from the Fourth Principle of God is different, since the Fourth Principle is the expression of the wish for something different from truth. From this perspective, awakening is the mission of consciousness.
To see from the perspective of the Fourth Principle, but to say, “There is nothing to do,” which is the perspective of the First Principle, is what A Course in Miracles calls “level confusion.” Rupert Spira says it is disingenuous to say, “There is nothing to do,” when you still believe you are a person.
It is as NTI Hebrews teaches:
You are the leader of your own awakening.
So, how the heck do we awaken ourselves?
You know that the desire to awaken is very important.
You are aware of the practices, such as mind-watching, inquiry, discernment, rest-accept-trust, awareness-watching-awareness, loving all, and surrender.
Another important ingredient is faith.
Today’s reading defines faith as “what you accept as true.”
Faith is believing-attention and the action that comes from believing-attention. One who believes thought, emotion and perception place’s attention and takes action based on that belief, while one who trusts truth teachings places attention and takes action in another way. Both have faith. Both live according to their faith.
Faith, or believing-attention, feeds into the creative process. Faith based on the world continues the experience of something different from truth. Faith based on truth creates the experience of awakening. Some call that grace. Grace is not a gift from a benevolent or discerning God-being. Grace is the natural output of the creative principle when faith in truth was the input.
In other words, you lead yourself to awakening by having faith in truth, which also means your attention and actions are guided by your faith in truth instead of by faith in the world.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
