Yesterday, we saw that there are two awakenings. First, one awakens from the idea that he is a person to the realization of consciousness. And then, often years later, one awakens beyond consciousness to absolute reality.

As I mentioned on Day 272, Revelation is full of symbols. These symbols came to John through visions and dreams. The first series of symbols were violent and have been interpreted innumerable ways throughout the history of Christianity. NTI interprets these symbols for the purpose of purification and awakening.

I would like to take a moment to emphasize that NTI interprets the symbols in Revelation in order to make them useful to us. NTI does not teach the true meaning of the symbols. It is right-minded interpretation.

There is a second series of symbols in Revelation that come after John’s vision of the second death, which NTI interprets as the final awakening. The second series of symbols are peaceful. They are eternal. NTI interprets these symbols as the experience of the final awakening. However, since NTI is interpreting  symbols, the symbols themselves should not be taken seriously.

As the Tao Te Ching says at verse 1:

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

In other words, reality cannot be described.

Read Revelation 21:1-6 in the Bible, and then read NTI Revelation 21 (v1) – (v6-8).

Related note: If you are interested in a secular, historical-based interpretation of Revelation including who wrote it and why it was written the way it is, you can watch the BBC documentary on Revelation.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

On Day 286, we saw that mental chatter is the belief in separation. It is the I-thought. It is the ego. We’ve also seen that paying attention to mental chatter is the greatest of all human addictions.

Today’s reading opens by saying:

You must be willing to rest the thinking mind at every opportunity given.

Just as the only way to stop smoking is to stop smoking, the only way to let go of mental chatter is to let go of mental chatter. That’s why we need to be willing to rest the thinking mind at every opportunity given, and today’s reading highlights some of the opportunities that are given in everyday life.

When we finish NTI Revelation, we will begin reading The Teachings of Inner Ramana. Letting go of mental chatter is a primary focus in The Teachings of Inner Ramana.

For now, pay attention to the suggestions in NTI Revelation 20, and start letting go of mental chatter whenever you notice the opportunity to do so.

In the first year of Gentle Healing, we learned that there are two awakenings. First, one awakens to consciousness, the second principle of God, and then one awakens beyond consciousness, to the first principle of God.

When one lets go of mental chatter, one awakens to consciousness. This is also commonly called true perception. Jesus referred to this awakening as being born again. (Reference John 3:3 )

However, a second awakening still waits. Sometimes the second awakening is called the final  death of the ego or the final end to the sense of self. NTI Revelation refers to it as the second death.

This is why Jesus referred to the first awakening as being born again. When you awaken to consciousness you are born into true perception. This birth is followed by a period of maturing and learning to abide in the new way of seeing, and then a deeper calling arises. The deeper calling calls you forward into a second and final awakening.

You do not need to read from Revelation in the Bible today. You can go directly to the reading in NTI.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Yesterday we saw that mental chatter is the greatest of all human addictions, and so the greatest of all desires is necessary to set yourself free from mental chatter.

As your desire for awakening increases, mental chatter catches on to your desire for awakening. It uses that, too, to try and save itself.

If you give mental chatter your attention, it will distort your desire for awakening into another desire that is similar, but not the same. It might distort it into the desire to attract people or circumstances. It might distort it into the desire to get approving attention from others. It might distort it into the desire to be a spiritual teacher. It might distort it into the desire to be part of a spiritual community. It might distort it into the desire to write and sell spiritual books, to sing spiritual songs, to be seen as spiritual by others, to buy spiritual objects, to go to spiritual places, to have a close relationship with an enlightened person or to feel spiritually special in some other way.

Today’s reading says:

True desire is known by its desire for only one thing.

True desire desires truth. It is immune to deception. If you remain fully focused on the desire for truth, you will not be sidetracked by the myriad of distortions that the ego can come up with. Because mental chatter is highly deceiving, you need to remain fully aware of what you desire in every moment.

Today’s reading says:

The only way to pass through the tests of the thinking mind, without being led astray by false desire, is to remain fully focused on true desire now. There is no other way.

You do not need to read from Revelation in the Bible today. You can go directly to the reading in NTI.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Here is a review of the seven steps to awakening (as put forth in NTI):

Step 1– An intense desire for awakening.

Step 2– Seeing through the ‘mask’ of ferociousness (attack, grievance, harshness) to the false beliefs that support and sustain it.

Step 3– Tiring of judgment.

Step 4– Letting go of the belief that life is temporary, which is also letting go of the belief that the body-mind-personality is your reality.

Step 5– Learning to trust all that is as it is.

Step 6– Letting go of perception, which is letting go of thought as me.

Step 7– Giving no meaning to anything the ego says or any experience you have as the ego dies its final death.

Each of the first six steps leads to the seventh step. Ego death is a step in itself, because that is the ego’s last chance to reclaim your attention, and it will likely use anything it can  to manipulate you into returning attention to it.

If you can withstand the ego’s final temptations, a change will occur. The habitual connection between attention and mental chatter will collapse, and you will be free to see without seeing through the filter of mental chatter.

The physical world doesn’t change when you are liberated from the mind. It’s your way of seeing that changes. Instead of seeing through judgment and interpretation, you see naturally, which means you see consciousness as consciousness. Without mental chatter directing your actions and reactions, you live through spontaneous inspiration.

Here’s how Jesus described awakened inspired living in the Bible:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. ~ John 3:8

Using the symbols from Revelation, today’s reading says:

The Sight of Spirit is a choice that you make.
It is the choice to marry the lamb.
For with this choice is innocence known,
and glory is seen through the land.

In this context, innocence isn’t the opposite of guilt. Innocence is the freedom of living through spontaneous inspiration. It is freedom from mental chatter.

Today’s reading recommends that we observe the thinking mind and see how it works. If we do not see our judgments and interpretation clearly, we remain enslaved to mental chatter. We let go of mental chatter when we see that it deceives us.

When we see that chatter deceives us, we can lose interest in it. As long as we believe it protects us, we give it our full attention.

Without the desire to be free of mental chatter, you cannot free yourself from mental chatter. The addiction to mental chatter is strongest of all human addictions. Therefore, the greatest of all desires is necessary to free yourself from mental chatter.

It is as Michael Langford describes in The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss:

Eagerness for liberation must be equal to the eagerness someone who is being held underwater has for trying to rise to the surface. …

Eagerness is another word for the desire for freedom.

How great, how intense is the desire of someone being held underwater trying to rise to the surface. …

Every second his desire to rise to the surface is becoming more and more intense.

Michael Langford also writes:

Another great key is self-honesty. …

Self-honesty means to be 100% honest with your self, all of the time.

Catch your ego using preservation strategies.

Today’s reading makes the same recommendation.

Please read Revelation 19:6-9 in the Bible before reading today’s reading from NTI.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

The world is a reflection of the mind. That statement is true in two ways:

1. The scenes of the world are created through the creative principle based on the believing-attention that consciousness gives to thought.
2. The scenes of the world are interpreted through the filter of the individual mind.

The world is seen and experienced with clarity when there isn’t mental chatter. Inspiration shines through the mind that is not blocked by mental chatter, and it looks out on a world of miraculous beauty. The things that were important to the mind blocked by chatter, aren’t important to the clear mind. Although the person may still work in the same way and face the same daily challenges, she is happy, because she lives and works amid the spontaneous magnificence of consciousness.

Here’s a story that illustrates this:

St. Francis traveled from Assisi to Rome to get the Pope’s approval, so that his order of friars would be legitimized in the eyes of the church. This could have been seen as an important journey, one that could end in success or failure. In fact, it could have gone very wrong. Francis could have been arrested as a heretic and thrown into the Vatican’s dungeon.

One who listened to mental chatter would have had quite a bit to worry about on this trip. And once the approval was given, one focused on mental chatter might have big plans to focus on and talk about with his fellow travelers. You may be able to imagine what this journey could have been like if mental chatter was active in Francis’ mind.

Here’s a poem by St. Francis, which illuminates his experience of that journey to and from Rome:

A bird took flight.
And a flower in a field whistled at me
as I passed.

I drank from a stream of clear water.
And at night, the sky untied her hair
and I fell asleep clutching a tress of God’s.

When I returned from Rome, all said,
“Tell us the great news,”
and with great excitement I did:

“A flower in a field whistled,
and at night the sky untied her hair and
I fell asleep clutching
a sacred tress …”

Francis lived in the moment—in the miracle.

The world is seen and experienced with clarity when there isn’t mental chatter. Inspiration shines through the mind that is not blocked by mental chatter, and it looks out on a world of magnificence and beauty.

Please read Revelation 18:1-3 in the Bible before reading today’s reading in NTI.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Today’s reading is about the obstacle to truth. It refers to the obstacle as the belief in separation. The Teachings of Inner Ramana refers to it as the “I-thought.” It is also commonly called the ego.

What is the belief in separation, which is the I-thought and the ego? It is mental chatter.

What is the belief in separation?
It is mental chatter

What is the I-thought?
It is mental chatter.

What is the ego?
It is mental chatter.

You can see this for yourself if you pay close attention to the mental chatter in your mind. Mental chatter is all about “me” and “you” or “us” and “them.” It’s about what “I” think, what “I” want, and what “I” don’t want. Mental chatter is  the belief in separation. Mental chatter is  the I-thought. Mental chatter is  the ego.

In other words, the belief in separation isn’t one belief buried somewhere in mental chatter. Mental chatter itself  is the belief in separation.

The I-thought isn’t merely the words “I” or “me” in the mind. All mental chatter is the I-thought.

The ego isn’t some aspect of mental chatter, while part of mental chatter is benign or “my real thoughts.” The ego and mental chatter are synonymous. They are the same thing.

One reason the ego is able to deceive people so easily is because most spiritual aspirants define the ego as some thoughts or some qualities of thought, and they continue listening to other thoughts or other qualities of thought as if they aren’t ego.

All mental chatter is ego. There’s no such thing as truth in mental chatter. When you give believing-attention to mental chatter, you give believing-attention to ego.

Very few people have awakened to absolute truth, because very few people have disregarded mental chatter completely. The seventh step to awakening is disregarding mental chatter completely, regardless of what it says now.

One idea that keeps people listening to mental chatter, even when they want to let go of ego, is:

Something or someone will suffer if I do not listen to the ideas in my mind.

For example:

My children will suffer.

My work will suffer.

My finances will suffer.

My health will suffer.

My relationships will suffer.

My safety will suffer.

Underneath all of those ideas is the idea, “I will suffer.” That is the ego’s primary deception, which is also its primary defense.

When mental chatter chatters about how you need mental chatter to get by or survive, mental chatter gets your believing-attention. In this way, mental chatter maintains its apparent existence as you.

Whenever anyone says that you need the ego somewhat, and so you cannot let go of it completely, they have fallen for this trick. They have let go of some thoughts or some qualities of thought, but they have not let go of mental chatter entirely.

Mental chatter is not needed, not even in the world. Awareness is absolute intelligence. One who abides as awareness knows what to say and what to do in every circumstance. The intelligence of awareness is far superior to the feigned “intelligence” of mental chatter.

Let’s look at the difference between mental chatter and using the brain to think.

Compared to other animals, humans have large brains. The purpose of the human brain is survival. Awareness programs the brain so it can be used as an effective survival instrument. This programming is commonly called “learning.” For example, you learned language, math, computer skills, how to drive, how to ride a bike and much, much more. All of this is programmed into your brain.

Some of what is programmed into your brain is so deeply programmed that you no longer have to “think” about it. For example, you seldom have to think about words. You just use them. You don’t have to think about how to ride a bike. You simply get on a bike and ride.

However, when you are presented with a new situation, you have to “think” about it. If you pay close attention to the “thinking” that is necessary, it is awareness. Awareness pays attention to what is being learned, and it programs the learning into the brain. Awareness also sorts through previous programming to see if something is useful in the current situation. If so, it forms a relationship in the brain between the new programming and the prior programming.

What I have just described is not mental chatter. Mental chatter is different than the brainwork I just described. For example, when a new situation is present, mental chatter may say any of the following:

I’m never going to figure this out.

Why did Jane put that there? Now I have to undo everything she did!

I’m right. John’s wrong. I’ve got to convince him to do this my way.

Everything is always going wrong. How am I ever going to get ahead?

When I get this done, I will be able to do that. Then things will open up, and I can ….

Once I get this figured out, everyone will see how smart I am, and then they will listen to me more.

I didn’t expect this. I thought that since we did that, this would work out the way we planned.

I’m not going to blame Sally for this. I’m going to forgive her. I’ll be really nice next time I see her, and then she’ll see that I am spirit-guided.

I have to do everything around here. No one else is as committed as I am.

And Etcetera.

Mental chatter is the belief in separation. It is the I-thought. It is the ego.

Look at the previous examples of mental chatter and notice the belief in separation, the I-thought and the ego in those ideas.

Mental chatter is not thinking. Mental chatter serves no useful purpose at all. It can be let go completely.

If you paid attention to your thoughts on Day 277, you probably saw several comments that came from mental chatter as you read Revelation 8. (If you didn’t see any chatter, it’s likely you believed chatter without noticing it.)

Step 7 in the awakening process is seeing mental chatter without giving it believing-attention. Seeing it without believing it is disregarding it. (When it is not seen, it is believed by default.)

Please read NTI Revelation 17:1-6 in the Bible before reading today’s reading in NTI.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.

Today’s reading tells us how to use meditation to awaken.

First, let’s look at how we keep the illusion alive. We keep the illusion alive with believing-attention. We keep the illusion alive by believing thoughts, emotions and perceptions and giving them our attention.

Since giving believing-attention keeps the illusion alive, not giving  believing-attention allows the illusion to fade away. And that is the purpose of meditation.

During meditation, you close your eyes and ignore thoughts, emotions and perception. You keep attention still, focused on awareness, without chasing after movement. This stillness doesn’t stop movement; it just doesn’t give movement any attention. In this way, movement is allowed to move through, out and away, until only stillness remains.

Today’s reading shares a few tips to help you keep attention still, focused on awareness, instead of being caught up in thought or emotion during meditation. It says:

When you notice a belief in illusions, ask where your faith is now. Faith comes from desire. … In questioning your faith, you remember your desire. In remembering desire, you loosen your grip on belief.

In other words, when thoughts arise and your attention goes to them, ask yourself, “What do I really want?” or “What is my purpose?” or “Why am I here?” or any other question that reminds you how much you want to remain focused on awareness and awaken. When you remember how much you want to remain focused on awareness and awaken, you naturally recall attention from thought, and place it with awareness again.

Fear sometimes occurs during meditation, especially as you progress from a familiar stage of meditation to a new stage or new level. When fear arises, notice that the mind is judging the experience. Again, remind yourself how much you want to remain focused on awareness and awaken. Let the movement of fear be—do not interfere with it; gently place attention on awareness, and remain there.

The scene from Little Buddha  that we watched on Day 280 is a good symbol of remaining still in meditation, regardless of what arises, in order to awaken.

You do not need to read from Revelation in the Bible today. Go directly to the reading in NTI.

Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.