Today’s message begins:

It’s time to go beyond everything you’ve learned.

Everything you’ve learned has been helpful. It’s been helpful toward willingness to take this next step. But without the step that we are taking together now, all that you’ve learned serves no real purpose toward awakening.

We have learned so much since we began Gentle Healing 678 days ago. It’s been an amazing journey of learning. Yet, today we step beyond all of that by becoming aware of just how addicted we are to mind.

This is a very, very important step.

I’ve never taken a 12-step program like Alcoholics Anonymous, but what I understand from friends who have been part of a 12-step program is this:

Admitting that there is a very serious problem—an addiction—that you cannot control is a critical first step if you are going to heal.

This first step isn’t an intellectual first step. It’s a deep, deep realization. For an alcoholic, drug addict, sex addict or gambler, it might come about when they finally do something far below anything they ever thought they were capable of, something so severe that it wakes them up in a very deep way to the realization that there is a problem and they do need help.

One purpose of the practices of Inner Ramana is to help us have that same very deep realization about our addiction to mental chatter. Fortunately, we do not have to do something horrible and extreme to finally have that realization. We simply have to practice as Inner Ramana asks us to practice.

I want to alert you that if you practice Inner Ramana well, mental chatter may become extremely uncomfortable. It might seem like it’s getting worse. It’s not getting worse; you are simply becoming more aware of it than ever before. You are beginning to really see  the problem—the addiction to ego.

As today’s reading says, without this step everything we’ve learned in the last 678 days serves no real purpose toward awakening.

Today, you are asked to say the mantra whenever you notice mental chatter, and then…

“with the coolness (maturity) of the quieted mind, look back at what the mind was telling you while you were listening to its chatter. Look for the “I” or “me” in the story or thought. Discover how the tricks and tumbles of the mind … in whatever direction it was turning in the moment …; notice how it was telling you about “I” or “me” separate from everything else.

On Day 286, we learned what learning is. When we learn, awareness pays attention to what is being learned, and it programs the learning into the brain.

So here’s what’s about to happen: We are going to learn to see the ego like we’ve never seen it before. Awareness will program that ability to see chatter into the brain, and we will begin to see more. As that seeing-program becomes more and more developed in the brain, we will see more and more, until we are seeing so much ego in our own mind that it is shocking! And that’s where the genuinely deep realization that we need help will come from—from seeing.

You aren’t going to have to wake up naked in a cemetery smelling like whiskey to realize that you need help, but you may feel just as shaken by the depth of your addiction.

Here’s something else we learned on Day 286:

As we learn, awareness sorts through previous programming in the brain 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.

In the last 678 days, you’ve been exposed to a lot of useful right-minded teachings. As you begin to see the ego and your addicted dependence on the ego, awareness will form relationships in the brain between those right-minded teachings and the seeing that is occurring. As these relationships are formed, you will begin to have insights.

An insight is a deep intuitive understanding. It is more than mere intellectual understanding. In other words, the teachings that have been previously learned will strike you in a new way, in a way that is genuine—authentically clear, real and directly meaningful.

So, today we begin to go beyond everything we’ve learned into an entirely new level of learning.

Note: Since this level of learning is new, at first you may not be good at it. You may not see mental chatter well at all. In fact, your first insight might be just how much you don’t  notice all of the chatter you are listening to.

Remember that awareness is programming the brain as you try to see chatter, and keep trying. As that program is more developed, seeing will happen more easily and naturally. So keep at it. This is one of the most important things you’ve ever done.

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

Today’s message speaks directly to your desire to awaken. Likely, somewhere deep inside, you already know everything today’s message has to teach, although the mind does not think about this knowledge. The mind’s thinking distracts us from the wisdom that is clear through today’s message.

Today, we are told that our primary interest now is to lose interest in the mind. That is to lose interest in mental chatter. Just as the only way to stop smoking is to stop smoking, the only way to stop listening to mental chatter is to stop listening to mental chatter. As today’s message points out, we can’t be free by quieting the mind for a little bit each day if we engage in mental chatter the rest of the day, just as you can’t quit smoking by not smoking from 7am-10am while still smoking the rest of the day.

In today’s message, Inner Ramana says:

I ask you to be my student.

If your heart says, “Yes,” to this invitation, read today’s message very carefully. Notice how much you love its instruction. Read it lovingly two or three times! And then give your best effort to practicing the mantra and surrender today.

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

As we saw yesterday, in the language of The Teachings of Inner Ramana, Self-realization is the equivalent of true perception, which is awakening to consciousness. One is “awake” when one awakens to reality, the First Principle of God.

Today’s reading says that quieting the mind is essential to Self-realization. It also says that the purpose of the mantra is to help us quiet the mind. That is the same as saying that the purpose of the mantra is to help us disengage from mental chatter.

Today’s reading shares four guidelines for effective use of the mantra. Please review the guidelines carefully so you can remember them and practice the mantra in the way today’s reading recommends. Also, remember to practice surrender today as it was taught on Day 296.

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

In order to have clarity regarding today’s reading, it is helpful to remember that there are two states of mind and beyond mind.

The first state of mind is deluded. When one is deluded, she believes she is a person in a world. She values mental chatter as her real thoughts.

The second state of mind is true perception. One who perceives with true perception is disengaged from mental chatter. He follows spontaneous intuition. He has the experience of being human in a world, but he is aware that everything is consciousness. In today’s reading, one who experiences this state of mind is referred to as Self-realized.

Beyond mind is beyond perception entirely. As we learned on Day 292, there is no sense of self in awake reality. The body that is perceived by others as the awakened one is moved by consciousness—by “the code”—but there is no sense of ‘I am.’ There is no interpretation, no mind and no world beyond mind. Only the absolute exists.

In order to move from deluded to Self-realized, it is helpful to live as if you are Self-realized  before you are Self-realized. By living as if you are Self-realized, you awaken into the Self-realized state.

How do you live as if you are Self-realized?

1. Remember that fear (upset) does not come from circumstances in the world, and resolving situations in the world does not transcend fear. You transcend fear by remembering reality. When you experience fear, practice rest-accept-trust, awareness-watching-awareness or look at your thoughts with clarity.
2. Practice surrender as it was taught in yesterday’s reading. Live by following intuition instead of mental chatter.
3. When you find yourself caught up in thoughts about the world, let go of mental chatter by practicing the mantra. Thoughts about the world include thoughts about your personal life, your work, the personal life of others, politics, and etcetera.

Today is a good day to begin living as if you are Self-realized. That doesn’t mean you should pretend you are Self-realized. That doesn’t mean you should be dishonest with yourself about your state of mind. It simply means this: Live your life by following the three recommendations above.

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

On Day 286, we learned that awareness programs the brain through a process called “learning.”

Some of what is learned and programmed into the brain is helpful to the experience of being human, like ‘drinking water is good for the body’, and ‘drinking floor cleaner harms the body.’ However, a lot of what is learned is untrue, like ‘I am a person in a world,’ and ‘I am bad.’

Today’s reading begins by saying:

We are going to learn not to listen to the mind. We are going to learn not to listen to the mind, first, by listening to another Voice, which speaks through the mind, but does not speak from mind, for mind or with mind.

In this context, ‘mind’ is mental conditioning (programming).

Humans have come to rely on mental conditioning as if it is their survival mechanism. Unfortunately, the basis of mental conditioning is wrong—the idea ‘I am a person in a world’. Since the basis of mental conditioning is wrong, mental conditioning as an interpretive mechanism is entirely unreliable. That’s why thought, perception and emotions are unreliable.

If mental conditioning knew ‘I am consciousness having a temporary human experience,’ it would interpret differently. That interpretation would be right interpretation, and it would lead to true perception. However, mind is unable to know  ‘I am consciousness having a temporary human experience.’ Mind can have that thought. That thought can be learned and programmed into the brain, but that thought is not knowledge, because being is knowing, and mind cannot be. Only life-awareness can be.

The genuine experience of true perception comes from you (life-awareness) beyond conditioning.

You cannot be a slave to conditioning and know yourself as beyond conditioning too. You need to free yourself from conditioning in order to know true perception.

Today’s reading says:

We are going to learn not to listen to the mind, first, by listening to another Voice, which speaks through the mind, but does not speak from mind, for mind or with mind. This Voice can see mind and it sees all that mind sees when it looks through mind, but it is outside of mind, so it is not confused by reality.

Spiritual intuition comes from knowledge, which is beyond mind, and yet it sees and understands the conditioning of mind. It knows the faces that you perceive as your family members. It knows their names. It can utilize the programming that steps on the brake when you see a stop sign, and etcetera. Yet, it is fully aware that you are not a person in a world. It is the knowledge of consciousness, and it sees with true perception.

Intuition is the Voice of wisdom. It comes from knowledge, and it utilizes the brain, so it is fully trustworthy. However, until you are free from believing mental chatter, intuition will seem like something other than you. You can see it as your Higher Self, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Ramana, or any other helpful symbol, but as long as you are even a partial slave to conditioning, it is better to see intuition as your guide than to see it as yourself.

Why?

Mental chatter is very tricky. Mental chatter will take the idea, “Intuition is you beyond conditioning,” and distort it into “I am the will that is beyond mind.” Once you adopt that idea, you will not use surrender to discern between mental chatter and knowledge that comes from beyond mental chatter. Once you believe, “I am the will that is beyond mind,” mental chatter is in control again, because it is viewed as the right-mind (at least somewhat, which is enough to keep mental chatter in control as ‘me’. Reference Day 286.)

Intuition comes from you beyond mind, but the mind and its ideas, its perception and its will are not  intuition. That’s why you need to surrender.

Begin practicing surrender as it is taught in today’s reading. Also, continue to practice the mantra. These two practices used throughout the day help to break the addiction to mental chatter.

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