Yesterday, we looked at this quote by Nisargadatta Maharaj:

The desire to find the Self will surely be fulfilled, provided you want nothing else. But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else. If in the meantime you want many other things and are engaged in their pursuit, your main purpose may be delayed until you grow wiser and cease being torn between contradictory urges.

Sometimes we have strong worldly desires, and it feels like nothing short of sacrifice to let them go. We might want a loving relationship, financial security, a child or grandchild, a home of our own, a home in a dream location, retirement or something else that feels really strong for us.

What are we to do with these desires? Repress them?

Of course not. Repression is never helpful.

Today’s reading recommends looking at desires with unrushed quiet clarity.

What do our worldly desires represent?

I’ve experienced very strong desires other than the desire to awaken. Sometimes, those other desires felt stronger than the desire to awaken. Sometimes, my mind whispered, “When I get that, I will be able to devote more time to awakening.” That thought made a desire feel really strong, because it became a “necessary” prerequisite to awakening.

However, when I looked at any worldly desire clearly, this is what I found:

• My other desire put awakening off to someday, after I achieved this.
• I realized that if I achieved this desire, ego would replace it with another desire that had to be achieved as a prerequisite to awakening.
• I saw that all desires other than the desire to awaken are delays.
• I saw that no desire other than awakening is final. If one desire is achieved, the mind will replace it with another desire. It is a never-ending path of desire and delay.
• I realized that any worldly desire comes with new problems to think about and solve.
• I came to see that any desire but awakening keeps me tied to the world, and therefore tied to my self as this body-mind-personality.

By looking at desires clearly, I was able to let go of even the strongest desires. Interestingly, some of those desires became manifest anyway. They came about on their own without being distractions for me. My awakening did not wait on them. Most likely, they were able to manifest because they ceased to be a distraction. Once they were benign, there wasn’t anything that blocked their manifestation.

(Sometimes when we desire something, we unconsciously desire it because we think we need things a certain way to feel safe, to be worthy, to fulfill lack or for some other wrong-minded reason. What we don’t realize is that by focusing on the desire, we focus on the feeling, “I am unsafe,” or the feeling, “I am unworthy” or the feeling of lack, etcetera. Those ideas can block manifestation of the desired object or circumstance, because unsafe manifests as more perceived unsafe; unworthy manifests as more perceived unworthiness; lack manifests as more perceived lack, and etcetera. When a desire based on a wrong-minded belief is let go, the associated focus on that belief is also let go, which can clear the way for a previous dream to become manifest.)

Of course, I’ve also had desires that haven’t manifested. Since I let them go, they aren’t missed. In fact, if they aren’t totally forgotten, they are seen as unnecessary clutter that was never needed in the first place.

If you would like more help letting go of worldly desires, refer to these tips from Year 1:

Lesson 133

Lesson 164

Lesson 185

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

The most important characteristic of awakening is the desire to awaken. Without a strong desire to awaken, one is drawn into the mind’s desires, which means one continues to identify with the mind and remains subject to the mind’s highs, lows, misperception and general agitation.

Today’s reading asks you to be “a conscious-minded teacher of yourself.”

What does NTI recommend that you consciously teach yourself?

It recommends that you consciously teach yourself what you want.

A conscious-minded teacher teaches intentionally and deliberately. The teaching doesn’t happen by accident. You are actively involved in helping yourself realize that awakening (truth) is the only thing you really want.

It is as Michael Langford teaches in Chapter 4 of The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss:

70. Thus the key to bringing the ego to an end is the intensity of the desire for freedom.

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

72. Reflect on #71 above.

73. Eagerness is another word for the desire for freedom.

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

75. He would like to rise to the surface, but he is being held underwater.

76. See how intense his desire is to rise to the surface.

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

78. After one minute, how the intensity of his desire has increased.

79. After two minutes underwater, the desire for oxygen and therefore his desire to rise to the surface, is ten times greater.

80. After three minutes underwater, his desire to rise to the surface is one hundred times greater.

81. After four minutes underwater, his desire to rise to the surface is one thousand times greater.

82. How great, how intense is his desire?

83. That is how intense your desire for liberation must become.

As today’s reading says:

Desire is the foundation from which all else springs forth.
Be true to your true desire, and it shall lead you truly.

As Nisargdatta Maharaj said:

The desire to find the Self will surely be fulfilled, provided you want nothing else. But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else. If in the meantime you want many other things and are engaged in their pursuit, your main purpose may be delayed until you grow wiser and cease being torn between contradictory urges.

Today is a good day to ask inner wisdom how you can most effectively teach yourself that awakening is all you truly want.

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

Today’s reading is about your current life situation, whatever it is. Whatever your health is like, whatever your financial situation is like, whatever your daily work is, whatever your personal relationships are, and etcetera—every detail  of your current life is absolutely perfect  for your awakening. There isn’t one single detail about your life that is a mistake. Every bit of it is exactly as it is, because you are ready to awaken, and this is the life that will awaken you.

When we live our daily life with this attitude, we awaken more quickly. If we judge some aspect of our life as “wrong,” and wish it were different than it is, we delay awakening. We misperceive the gift as a burden, so we do not accept the gift, and we do not use the gift for the purpose it was given.

I have come to see myself as still. I am still, and life circumstances are like a movie that plays in me. I enjoy the show, whatever it is. If, for a moment or two, I do not enjoy the show, I return my attention to my Self. When I do, peace returns, and then joy returns, and forgetfulness is forgotten.

When one sees herself as still, one does not see a reason for the movie as it is. It simply is as it is.

If you do not see yourself as still, you believe you are a character in the movie. You feel tossed about by the circumstances of the current scene. This is a misperception about what you are. This misperception is your only problem.

While you are susceptible to misperception, the movie has a reason or purpose. Its purpose is your awakening. Everything that happens in the movie (the world) is to help you see that you are not in the movie. You are still (unaffected), and the movie is in you. Accept the movie (especially your life circumstances) as having this purpose and this purpose only. Use the movie for your awakening, and you will awaken from the dream that you are a character in the movie.

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

I love NTI James 1. There are several statements in this chapter that I remembered vigorously (with active mental strength) as I went through my awakening process. These statements helped when I felt tired, vulnerable, uncertain or afraid.

Here are the sentences and phrases that came up in my mind repeatedly for several years exactly when I needed them the most:

Trust in all things.

Whenever I noticed my mind spinning with a story of fear, I would whisper to it and say, “Trust in all things.” Now, trusting all things has replaced fear as a habit. I still do not know what will happen in the future, but I trust it, whatever it is. Therefore, I am happy and at peace.

Trust the healing process.

Sometimes the healing process feels extreme. Situations that arise seem really difficult. Emotions are strong. The mind’s stories are anything but helpful. Whenever this occurred, I remembered that everything is for my healing, and I chose to trust the healing process. That helped me to face everything with healing as my only purpose.

Trust your own mind; it will rest.

Sometimes the mind spins and spins and spins with a story, and it seems like it will never stop. When this happened to me, I remembered, “Trust your own mind; it will rest.” I visualized it as an old fashioned wind-up toy that was currently all wound up, and I knew that if I didn’t wind it up again by giving it my believing attention, it would eventually wind down and stop. I trusted that, and I waited in trust for the chatter to die down on its own.

Listen within, with true desire as your focus.

I knew that if I went within with any goal other than my spiritual aspiration as my focus, ego would advise me. It was not beneficial to go within while wanting people to respect me, while wanting my daughter to be nice to me, while wanting more money, and etcetera. Before going within to seek guidance, I always came into contact with my desire for awakening first. I made sure that was the only thing  I wanted. With awakening as my only purpose, I asked for guidance, and I knew what I received was from inner wisdom and could be trusted as such.

Use all things to practice the true desire of the Heart.

For several years, every situation from simplistic to complicated had one purpose for me; its purpose was my awakening. I felt like I was under the surface of the ocean, and my only goal was to get to the top where I could live in the fresh air. Now, I feel like I live life in the fresh air. I breathe easily and naturally. Life is joyous. However, occasionally I slip, briefly, under the water again. Hence, my purpose now is stabilization. I still use all things to practice the true desire of the Heart, but my spiritual aspiration has been updated. Instead of awakening, my current spiritual aspiration is to be awake now. For me, all situations are an opportunity to be awake now. For you, all situations are an opportunity to practice your current spiritual aspiration. That’s all anything is for.

To listen, but not to practice, is to be like a man who looks in the mirror, but then goes away and forgets what he saw.

Like many of you, I used to receive incredible guidance as I wrote with inner wisdom during contemplation, but then I would walk away from my notebook, forget about the guidance and live my day from the mind and from my conditioning. This sentence from NTI James 1 reminded me to stay with the guidance that I received. Keep that mirror with me, and look at it throughout the day. By continually looking in the mirror—by reviewing guidance and actively practicing it—I knew I would come to know my Self.

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

Please read and contemplate the following commentary in the same way that you read and contemplate the Thought of Awakening. The commentaries are designed to enrich your understanding.

~Commentary on Awakening~

 As one travels the seeming spiritual path, one is awakened one realization at a time. Each realization is a precious Gift from the Seat of Knowledge given to one who has readied himself to receive it.

Realizations are like opening one’s eyes after a heavy night of sleep. If one is grateful for the realization, one will open his eyes more and focus his Heart on it. But if one allows the sleepiness of night to again overtake his heavy eye lids, the realization is lost for a time while the depth of slumber is again experienced and cherished.

Let each realization be a time of awakening. Stay with it and appreciate it until you have fully awakened to the Knowledge that has come knocking at your door.

~From our Holy Spirit

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

The error that is the ego is attaching life to manifestation and identifying with that. It is attaching life to a body, a mind, and a personality, and then feeling that you are that. When you make the mistake of pinning life down to a specific form and identifying with that form, you also see form as alive, as if the form is primary and life is both secondary and temporary. That’s why you believe in death.

In reality, life is primary and eternal. Every aspect of manifestation is temporary, shifting and changing. And you are life, not the temporary form that you experience now.

To let go of ego is to let go of identifying with a specific manifestation as you and to let go of seeing others as specific manifestations. It is to fully accept that manifestation comes and goes, and life is beyond all manifestations. Life is the source of all manifestations; it is the essence of all manifestations, and life is what you are, just as it is what everything is.

The purpose of today’s reading is to help you accept this truth. Admittedly, it is not the truth the ego wants to hear. The ego (identification with a specific form) wants to believe it is eternal, but that simply isn’t the truth, nor will it ever be the truth.

Read today’s reading slowly and contemplatively. I recommend taking notes again today. Taking notes will help you absorb today’s teaching. You can also review and further contemplate your notes, which will further aid in absorbing this important teaching.

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

NTI Hebrews asks you to be the leader of your own awakening. Yesterday we saw that you lead yourself to awakening through faith in truth, because whatever you have faith in is extended to you through the creative principle.

Today’s reading is a summary of tips written to one who has decided to lead his/her way to awakening. I recommend taking notes as you read today. Taking notes will help you remember today’s tips. You can also review your notes, which will further aid in remembering the tips.

There is one tip I would like to highlight from today’s reading. It says:

Have compassion for yourself,
and be firm in your [true] desire.

The ego does not know how to be firm for something and have compassion when you “fail” in your intentions too. The ego either chooses not to be firm, because if it doesn’t make the decision to be firm it doesn’t have to worry about failing, or the ego makes a firm decision and then judges harshly each time you do not meet your own expectations.

The heart is naturally firm for truth and always compassionate regarding errors. In this context, the heart can be defined as “awareness with natural intention.”

For example, when a baby is learning to walk, that baby is awareness with the natural intention to walk. It is firm in its intention to walk. It also does not harshly judge its falls as failures. Interestingly, the baby’s heart is so perfectly set on the intention to walk, the baby doesn’t need to have compassion when it falls. There is absolutely no judgment in the baby’s pure intended-awareness, so there is no need for compassion. However, in your case there may be judgment when you slip or fall. When there is judgment, be compassionate (forgiving) with yourself.

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

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.

For some people, NTI Hebrews may seem harsh, because it asks them to let go of people, things and circumstances that they love and enjoy. Others may feel guilty, because they aren’t ready to let go of those things. If you judge NTI Hebrews as harsh or if you judge yourself as guilty, you are looking at a form of the “I am bad” thought. Whenever this thought is seen, whether it is projected onto someone or something else or felt as a “fact” about you, it is rising into consciousness so that you can let go of it.

If you experience judgment or guilt as you read and contemplate NTI Hebrews, consider reviewing NTI 2 Thessalonians.

Today’s reading says:

The one sacrifice that ends sin and guilt forever is not a sacrifice at all. It is but the remembrance and acceptance of all that has always been true. It is the release of what isn’t and the re-acceptance of what is. It is a return to the realization of the truth of what you are.

Many of us go through a phase when we feel like we are asked to sacrifice something (or many things) for truth realization. That’s because the mind believes it gets happiness or love from the objects it is attached to in the world. However, as has already been pointed out, those things are passing—shifting and changing—anyway. Nothing in manifestation stays the same or lasts. To believe that manifestation is the source of our happiness is the cause of suffering.

True happiness comes from Self-realization, because our true nature is  happiness. In this realization there is no loss at all.

Why?

Because once you realize the Self, happiness is natural, and  manifestation continues as it did before. Manifestation doesn’t die away when you realize the Self. As long as the body lasts, it continues in manifestation and it experiences manifestation. Yet, you see with clarity. You know what everything really is, and you are able to appreciate its temporary appearance too. There is no sacrifice in that.

Today’s reading says:

God is Love. … Rest yourself within your Heart. Here your true desire is known, because here the truth of God is known. Then rise up and practice in joy.

If you feel that NTI Hebrews is asking you to sacrifice something you love or enjoy, take time to go within. Get in touch with your Heart. Let it reassure you about the truth, and then, only when you feel genuinely revitalized toward your spiritual aspiration, continue the practice of letting go of dreams.

Allow letting go to come from the heart, not from a sense of obligation. Remember, motive matters. (Ref: Day 177)

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