On Day 261, I shared a story about the joy I felt when I recognized a fly on a toilet seat at a truck stop in New Mexico. I say “recognized,” because the joy didn’t come from what the eyes saw or what the mind defined those images as. Joy came from natural recognition—life-awareness recognizing life-awareness. It wasn’t one recognizing another. It was one recognition—Self-recognition.

Today’s reading refers to “the seeing that recognizes the Christ.” That seeing is the recognition I’m referring to. It doesn’t come from thinking metaphysical thoughts. It comes from a natural light in the mind that shines forth and sees only itself—only light…only life….only Self—and there is no thought in it.

I remember a conversation I had with some spiritual students around a dinner table one evening several years ago. Some felt that when we become enlightened, we suddenly know everything that can be intellectually known. They said the enlightened are Einstein-like in their knowledge, and they can tell the future, etcetera. It was a very grandiose idea of enlightenment.

Today’s reading says:

We know only that the truth is true, but in knowing this is all Knowledge given, for there is nothing else to know.

In other words, the knowing that caused my heart to leap with joy when I saw the fly on the toilet seat is  true knowledge. That recognition is the only knowledge that has any real value at all. That’s why Ramana Maharshi used to ask people who had incredible book knowledge, “But do you know the Self?”

Today’s reading also says:

Seek only the truth and the truth will find you.

That means that whenever you notice attention is not with truth, shift attention to truth. By keeping attention with reality—with life-awareness—you come to recognize life-awareness in all.

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

One key to effective discernment is knowing what to give attention to and what not to give attention to, because it isn’t meaningful; because it isn’t real, because it is temporary instead of eternal.

A second key to effective discernment is letting feeling guide the decision above.

Thinking can be extremely deceptive. You can’t trust thinking to help you discern the wrong-mind from the right-mind, but you can trust feeling.

Whenever you feel content, open, and free, you are in the right-mind. Whenever there is an interruption of any kind to content-open-free, you are giving attention to the wrong-mind.

I chose the word “content” instead of happy or joyous, because sometimes humans are serious, such as when they are looking at a problem that needs to be resolved, and sometimes humans are sad, like when a loved one passes away, etcetera. However, the right-mind is content with seriousness when seriousness is appropriate and content with sadness when sadness is appropriate, etcetera.

Contentment is an underlying permanent feeling. Sometimes other feelings are appropriately present too, but when one is with the right-mind, the other feelings do not cover  contentment. They are present with  contentment.

If contentment is lost (covered up), attention is with the wrong-mind.

A third key to effective discernment is self-honesty. You can lie to yourself about whether you were content or not while you were swearing at the driver in the car next to you, but lying to yourself will not help you reach the freedom that is called enlightenment. Self-honesty is a very important key.

Today’s reading says:

When any thought does not feel like Love, you may put it aside as false.

That is another way of saying, whenever you do not feel content-open-free, attention is with the wrong-mind. You can disregard what you are giving attention to—because isn’t meaningful; because it isn’t real, because it is temporary instead of eternal—and return attention to the right-mind and to truth.

The reading also says:

Existence cannot be denied, because it is.

Sometimes, when believing-attention goes deeply into false ideas, we can have deep feelings that are not anything like content-open-free. Sometimes content-open-free can be so far from our current experience that we can’t recall the feeling those words point to. However, there is one intuitive knowing-feeling that is never covered up. It is always present, and we can always turn our attention to it. That is existence.

In any moment, no matter how angry you are, … no matter how guilty you feel, … regardless of how ashamed you feel, and etcetera; in any moment you can notice that you exist. In fact, you couldn’t be angry or feel guilty, etcetera, unless existence was there to feel it. So, in any moment you can turn attention from whatever has captured attention and focus on existence instead. Simply notice that right now you exist, and keep attention there.

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

You cannot read today’s reading from the idea, “I am a person,” and understand it. “I” cannot mean “me and not others.” “I” must mean consciousness, and it must include all things in manifestation as  “I,” or the meaning in today’s reading will be lost.

For example, today’s reading says:

The world that you see comes from the thoughts that you think.

That doesn’t mean, “Hey, Regina. The world that you see comes from the thoughts you think.”

Regina is a character. That sentence speaks to consciousness, and consciousness experiences itself as each character.

We are one consciousness, and the world appearance comes from us as one consciousness.

Before reading today, take a few minutes to contemplate one consciousness. Realize you are not the character you identify with. You are consciousness. Everyone and everything is one consciousness, and you are that.

Don’t think about this idea. Just be with it. As today’s reading says:

The thinking mind cannot follow this thought because the thinking mind believes in separation, …

If any part of today’s reading is not clear to you, ask inner wisdom for clarity.

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

Today’s reading is too good to read quickly. It begins with a reinterpretation of Jesus’ crucifixion. Many of us were taught that Jesus died for our sins. Today’s reading says that Jesus “released the sins of the world as illusion … and returned himself to the Awareness of God,” and then it asks us to make the same decision.

Are you ready to give no more meaning to illusion?

Are you ready to give all of your love and attention to truth?

Today’s reading shares a couple of ‘tests’ we can give ourselves in order to be honest with ourselves regarding our own spiritual progress.

First, we are asked to notice how we feel about others. If there is anyone we “do not love truly,” there are misperceptions in our mind that still need healing.

Next, we are asked to notice if some things in our lives have higher priority than other things. If some matters have more meaning to us than others, we do not yet see all things as God. The only exception to this test is when truth has more meaning than illusion.

I hope you decide to read today’s reading slowly and contemplatively. I recommend taking notes as you read today.

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

Today’s reading opens by saying:

We proclaim the Word of Life.

A word can be a declaration, so the essence of the statement above is this:

You are Life!
(said with great declaration and emphasis)

Today’s reading also says:

God is an awareness that is pure,
because it looks on only that which is wholly true.

This is God. And God, as an awareness, exists within you.

That means that when you see life and only life, you see with God-awareness.

Here’s an example:

Recently, while traveling in New Mexico, I stopped to go to the bathroom at a truck stop. When I went into the toilet stall, my heart leapt with great joy when I saw a fly resting on the toilet seat. It actually took the mind another second or two to realize it was looking at a fly on a toilet seat in a truck stop. When that was realized, I laughed, because I knew most humans would not understand the great joy I felt.

The joy was natural and spontaneous, prior to thought. It was God-awareness leaping for joy when it recognized its Self. It didn’t see a fly on a toilet seat in a truck stop. It saw life-awareness!

Life-awareness experienced life-awareness and felt great joy being aware of itself.

On Day 254, I gave the example of a tree as a representation of the enlightened mind. I said that the tree does not judge the people who gather under it, and the people who gather under it do not affect the tree. Of course, the tree does not see people gathered under it. In order to see people, the tree would need a brain. However, the tree does see. Actually, it would be more correct to say that the tree knows. The tree knows the life-awareness that is gathered under it as people, and the tree experiences joy. That joy is the joy of life-awareness in the presence of life-awareness.

For more understanding, watch this 3-minute video about my experience as an apple.

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