Today, you will have the opportunity to witness a conversation between a student and her awake teacher. The questions she asks may be a lot like the questions you would ask, because her experiences are probably very much like yours. She is attached to the mind as “me,” and so she believes the mind’s thoughts of resistance. She believes, “I don’t want to do this,” and “This is too hard.” She doesn’t see that those are thoughts, and she (life-awareness) is giving believing-attention to thought.
Our belief that we are mind and mind-chatter is me thinking is so deeply engrained that it takes time and practice to see that we are completely wrong and fully fooled about what we are. Those who feel they can awaken without devoting themselves to practice are like the alcoholic who continues to drink while telling his friends, “I can quit anytime I want.” They have not yet fully realized the extent of their problem.
As Jesus said when the disciples asked how they could be saved, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle… With man this is impossible,…”
That’s why we need to either surrender to within or withdraw from the world. The Teachings of Inner Ramana teaches the former. The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss teaches the latter.
Today’s message points out that the mind tries to feign surrender.
Mind’s fake surrender feels completely different than genuine surrender. In the mind’s fake surrender, there is still the feeling of “I know.” In genuine surrender, there is the knowledge, “I do not know.”
For example, one common teaching is to surrender to your brother and let him do things his way except when it is important. When the ego reflects on this teaching, it thinks it knows what is important. The spiritual aspirant who is surrendered needs to seek within to see if the current situation is important or not important. She never knows on her own if this is a time when she should let her brother have his way or if this is a time when she should be more insistent. Only surrender can adequately guide her.
Just now, after typing the paragraph above, there was a thought in my mind that said, “That’s a pretty good paragraph, but it needs editing. ‘Brother’ is A Course in Miracles’ language. It is sexist language. It might even confuse some people. They might think you mean their biological brother. You should rewrite the paragraph to eliminate the word ‘brother.'”
I looked at the paragraph I’d just written and read the first sentence. For a moment, I could see the mind’s point, but then I felt within for guidance. The guidance was to leave the paragraph as it is. Guidance didn’t judge the paragraph as good or bad. Notice ego did both. Guidance simply indicated through an intuitive feeling to leave the paragraph as it is.
Notice how much the mind thought it knew. It thought:
- The paragraph is pretty good.
- That’s A Course in Miracles’ language.
- That’s sexist language.
- It might confuse some people.
- They might think you mean their biological brother.
- You should rewrite the paragraph.
That’s a lot of “I know” in just a few short seconds of mental chatter!
(Just to let you know, I have no idea what I will write next, so we can feel pretty sure that it is coming from surrender.)
Feigned surrender has the feeling of “I know” in it. Genuine surrender comes from “I do not know.”
Today, we are encouraged to question the mind whenever we notice that we believe it is me thinking. For example, if you think and feel, “I wish she would stop talking,” pause. Ask, “Who wishes she would stop talking?” Look. Is it awareness that wishes she would stop talking, or is it the mind? When you feel that you wish she would stop talking, aren’t you identified with the mind?
Today’s reading says:
An idea is relinquished by looking at it, challenging it, and by seeing it as false. Since the idea of ego has been deeply learned through repetition, deep and consistent unlearning must result.
So now, instead of simply looking at mind chatter and noticing what it was saying, we will question chatter to see whether that was me thinking or not. If you have been practicing awareness-watching-awareness for the last 640ish days (since it was introduced in Year 1), you should be fully prepared for this practice. This is an advanced practice, and one who has not been watching awareness will be mistaken about what she sees when she asks, “Who thinks that?” In order to see the folly of believing mind, you have to have some direct experience with the sense of what you really are.
In other words, everything we have learned up until this point has prepared you for the step we are taking now.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link
