Note: If desired, watch all of Acts 22 from the Visual Bible movie, Acts.
Today’s reading points toward the third stage on the spiritual path, which is service. It is through service that merging occurs.
Earlier this year, we read NTI Mark. It was a story about the third stage of the spiritual path. As a reminder, here is an excerpt from the tip for NTI Mark 1:
NTI Mark, Chapter 1 is the beginning of the story. Like any beginning, it lays out the details needed to begin the story. Some of the details regarding our role model, Jesus, are:
- Jesus has decided on the purpose for his mortal existence. It is truth realization. This purpose is the leading factor in his life.
- Jesus knows that God is found within, so his focus is within, which includes focus on spontaneous guidance. Jesus lives a surrendered life. He is led. He does not make decisions for himself. …
- Jesus lives from kindness and love. He is the servant of everyone he meets and the servant of Spirit within. Through service, which is not self-will, Jesus of NTI will follow spontaneous guidance to the end of the sense of self.
We enter the third stage of the spiritual path when enough purification has occurred that we are able to more easily intuit and trust guidance. As we move through the third stage, our ability to intuit and trust guidance is perfected to the point that we no longer feel surrendered. Instead, we feel in tune with our natural Self, which is the invisible power of all things.
Many people want to jump to service without completing phase two, purification. Purification is absolutely necessary in order to clear out enough ego to discern guidance clearly. Without purification, one is less likely to know the difference between ego and spiritual intuition.
However, it’s also true that the first three phases overlap to some degree. When I was in my five year purification phase, I was also in service. During the service phase, some purification continues.
The difference between phase two and phase three is the emphasis. In phase two, the emphasis, and necessarily your primary focus, is purification. Service occurs naturally as you focus on purification. Here is a quote from Nisargadatta about service during phase two:
The right use of mind is in the service of love, of life, of Truth, of beauty. … You must begin in yourself, with yourself – this is the inexorable law. Attend to yourself, set yourself right – mentally and emotionally.
In phase three, enough purification has occurred that the emphasis can move to intuiting guidance and following it. Again, that is the demonstration we saw from Jesus in NTI Mark.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
