One key to effective discernment is knowing what to give attention to and what not to give attention to, because it isn’t meaningful; because it isn’t real, because it is temporary instead of eternal.
A second key to effective discernment is letting feeling guide the decision above.
Thinking can be extremely deceptive. You can’t trust thinking to help you discern the wrong-mind from the right-mind, but you can trust feeling.
Whenever you feel content, open, and free, you are in the right-mind. Whenever there is an interruption of any kind to content-open-free, you are giving attention to the wrong-mind.
I chose the word “content” instead of happy or joyous, because sometimes humans are serious, such as when they are looking at a problem that needs to be resolved, and sometimes humans are sad, like when a loved one passes away, etcetera. However, the right-mind is content with seriousness when seriousness is appropriate and content with sadness when sadness is appropriate, etcetera.
Contentment is an underlying permanent feeling. Sometimes other feelings are appropriately present too, but when one is with the right-mind, the other feelings do not cover contentment. They are present with contentment.
If contentment is lost (covered up), attention is with the wrong-mind.
A third key to effective discernment is self-honesty. You can lie to yourself about whether you were content or not while you were swearing at the driver in the car next to you, but lying to yourself will not help you reach the freedom that is called enlightenment. Self-honesty is a very important key.
Today’s reading says:
When any thought does not feel like Love, you may put it aside as false.
That is another way of saying, whenever you do not feel content-open-free, attention is with the wrong-mind. You can disregard what you are giving attention to—because isn’t meaningful; because it isn’t real, because it is temporary instead of eternal—and return attention to the right-mind and to truth.
The reading also says:
Existence cannot be denied, because it is.
Sometimes, when believing-attention goes deeply into false ideas, we can have deep feelings that are not anything like content-open-free. Sometimes content-open-free can be so far from our current experience that we can’t recall the feeling those words point to. However, there is one intuitive knowing-feeling that is never covered up. It is always present, and we can always turn our attention to it. That is existence.
In any moment, no matter how angry you are, … no matter how guilty you feel, … regardless of how ashamed you feel, and etcetera; in any moment you can notice that you exist. In fact, you couldn’t be angry or feel guilty, etcetera, unless existence was there to feel it. So, in any moment you can turn attention from whatever has captured attention and focus on existence instead. Simply notice that right now you exist, and keep attention there.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
