NTI opens with some practical advice about following guidance. I am not going to elaborate on that advice. I encourage you to spend time with the simple advice given. Marinate in it until it is absorbed, so you can live from that advice.

That takes me to what I do want to focus on in today’s tip.

The opening chapters of NTI refer to John the Baptist as “the observer, the one who told you sorting of thought is necessary. He is the one that called upon you to pay attention and choose a different way of thought.”

And then NTI goes on to say, “With the Spirit, you shall examine your thoughts. It is your true Spirit that will guide you to choose truly.” The opening chapters also refer to “the Son of God” as the one who will “perform the sorting for you.”

So what is the “observer,” “Spirit,” and the “Son of God”?

The observer is a conscious aspect of wisdom. It is often called the conscience. It is that twinge of knowing that every human is familiar with, whether they listen to it or not. Historically, John the Baptist encouraged people to repent. Our conscience does the same thing. It points out what is bad for us, and it encourages us to drop unwholesome habits and take up better ones. Although many people feel guilt when they do not listen to their conscience, guilt does not come from the conscience. The conscience is non-judgmental wisdom. Any sense of guilt comes from mind’s interpretation of you in relationship to your conscience.

“Spirit” and “Son of God” are synonymous in NTI, and they point to spiritually awake-consciousness, which is beyond the human conscience. “Spirit” or “Holy Spirit” is used in NTI in the context of divine Other, and “Son of God” is used to refer to you. However, ultimately the divine Other and you are the same one, so the terms are synonymous in the end.

It is fair to say that the aspect of wisdom known as Spirit or the Son of God is not conscious in most humans. It becomes conscious gradually when we are called to awaken. As we follow its guidance, it becomes more and more conscious. It is what I often call “spiritual intuition.”

One of our primary goals this year is to bring spiritual intuition more and more into our conscious experience by listening to it. Since it comes from awake-consciousness, it knows how to lead us to our awake-consciousness. Without spiritual intuition, you are left with only your conscience to guide you. Your conscience can help improve the human experience by removing many causes of suffering (if you listen to it), but it cannot take you beyond separation-consciousness (duality) to awake-consciousness (unity).

Here is a story from the Bible that represents the difference between conscience and spiritual intuition:

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’ …

People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. …

[He said,] “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” ~ Matthew 4:1-3, 5-6, 11-17

In the second year of Gentle Healing, we will focus on Thoughts of Awakening: 365 Thoughts for Contemplation. Originally these thoughts were called “Single, Quiet Thoughts.” These thoughts started coming to me during my morning contemplation while I was scribing NTI. They did not come at the rate of one per day. In fact, these 365 thoughts came to me slowly over about 4 years. I don’t really know why that is, but my guess is that I had to mature to a specific point spiritually in order to receive higher levels of thought, so there were delays between one group of thoughts and the next group.

Each of the 365 thoughts is intended for a full day’s contemplation. They are to be read and contemplated repeatedly throughout the day. If you read and contemplate each thought deeply for a full day, you’ll experience shifts towards true perception this year.

The best way to devote yourself to each thought is:

1. Read the thought in the morning, and spend time contemplating it.
2. Write as you contemplate the thought. (During tonight’s Gentle Healing meeting, I will demonstrate some ways to contemplate and write with these thoughts.)
3. Keep the day’s thought with you and review it multiple times throughout the day. The more you review it, the better. The goal is to absorb it as deeply as possible.
4. Also review whatever you wrote as you contemplated the day’s thought that morning. If what you wrote is long, you might not to be able to review it as often as you review that day’s thought, but review your writing enough to put it into practice. Practicing the guidance that came to you through your writing is the most important part of this process.

In addition to contemplating the Thoughts of Awakening, we will read a short amount of supporting material each day this year. We will read the three books that I was focused on during the time when the Thoughts of Awakening were received. Those books are NTI, The Teachings of Inner Ramana and The Direct Means to Eternal Bliss. We will begin with NTI. We will read NTI at the rate of about 2 pages per day.

During Year 2, I will not assign extra videos or audios. We will focus solely on the Thoughts of Awakening and the reading material just mentioned. I would rather spend more time with the inner teacher this year and less time with outer teachers.

As the facilitator for Gentle Healing, I would like to hear more about your process this year. During the first year, 45 minutes of our 2-hour weekly meeting was devoted to your sharing. In the second year, I will increase that to at least 1 hour per meeting, and if there is a lot of sharing, we may go longer. You are also invited to use that time to ask me questions. I always prefer that you ask your inner teacher before asking me, but if there is a question you don’t receive an answer to or if you have some doubts about the answer you received, you can ask me at the Gentle Healing meeting.

I will continue to write tips in our second year of Gentle Healing. I won’t write tips about each day’s thought for contemplation; I want you to write with your inner guidance without being influenced by me. My tips will focus on the reading material. You might find it helpful to read my tip before you read that day’s material. My tips will help focus attention for the reading.

Ken will post each day’s thought from Thoughts of Awakening as the Daily Contemplation on the Awakening Together website. It will come out each day on the Daily Update email. Also, you can download the Thoughts of Awakening ebook. I have saved the ebook to the Kindle on my iPhone for easy repeated access.

On Monday through Saturday, Karen Worth will post a 30-minute guided meditation based on the current day’s Thought of Awakening. Those meditation audios will come out on the Daily Update email. You can also access them by going to the Awakening Together website. They will be posted under Audios & Videos, Meditation Audios.

On Sunday, Karen will lead a meditation in the Sanctuary at 9:30am ET, just before our Weekly Gathering. The meditation will be based on the current day’s Thought of Awakening. The Sunday morning meditation will be replayed in the Sanctuary on Sunday evenings at 10pm ET.