Today, Inner Ramana introduces us to self-inquiry and Self-inquiry, which are two different forms of inquiry. You were introduced to both forms of inquiry in Gentle Healing Year 1, and you’ve been using both forms of inquiry ever since you were introduced to them. As you will see, these are not new practices for you.

We practice self-inquiry whenever we question thought in order to discover false beliefs or to notice that thought isn’t me. Some forms of self-inquiry are Root Cause Inquiry and Byron Katie’s, “The Work.” Another form of self-inquiry is the form that’s taught through Inner Ramana. That is asking, “Who thinks this thought?” (For example, “Who wishes she would stop talking?” or “What says, ‘I am too busy to meditate?’)

Through self-inquiry, you see the attachment to mind, and then you can choose to break the attachment to mind. When I say, “You  see the attachment to mind,” and “You  break the attachment to mind,” I am referring to awareness, because that is what you are.

When you become aware that you (awareness) are giving believing-attention to mind, you (awareness) can shift attention and break the attachment to mind.

Remember, you are not mind. You are the one that casts attention on mind as if it is you.

We practice Self-inquiry when we put attention on awareness instead of mind. Self-inquiry is looking deeply at awareness until awakening to infinite awareness occurs. Awareness-watching-awareness is a form of Self-inquiry.

When you read today’s reading, do not read the last paragraph too quickly. It’s very important to see when you think mental chatter is you  thinking. The last paragraph of today’s reading teaches us to use self-inquiry to discover that belief.

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

Yesterday we contemplated this definition of sacrifice:

An act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.

We are asked to sacrifice our attachment to mind in order to awaken to true perception.

Do you feel that’s a worthy sacrifice?

Is it a sacrifice you want to make?

As we’ve learned before, desire is the most important factor in awakening. If you really want to sacrifice the attachment to mind and awaken to true perception, you will follow through and do that.

How?

By using the practices that we’ve been introduced to:

1. Daily reading and contemplation
2. Journaling with inner wisdom
3. Awareness-watching-awareness meditation
4. The loving all method
5. Surrender
6. Practicing the mantra
7. Questioning mental chatter to see if it is “me”

Eventually, you will be able to drop the first two on the list and live with practices 3-7.

One who desires awakening makes spiritual practice the focus of his/her daily life. Today’s message refers to that as devotion. Devotion is living from within. We awaken from the dream through devotion.

Today’s message also says:

Devotion is a slow process.

That means when we are devoted, we aren’t quick to react. Instead, we check within before responding to any outer stimulus. Instead of living from the fast-paced chaos of mind, we are deeply surrendered within.

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

NTI Luke 7 says:

There are expectations in your mind regarding truth, but these expectations are based on what you know within your slumber. They are not based on knowledge or Life. They are based on interpretation, or death.

What do you expect of Me? Where is it that you think I am leading you to?

Free yourself from these thoughts, and open your mind to Me unfettered by expectations. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of Me.

Inner Ramana teaches that the way to awaken from the dream (from delusion to true perception) is to break the attachment to mental chatter. As today’s message points out, that includes breaking the attachment to mental chatter about spiritual ideas.

If I think I know what enlightenment looks like or how an enlightened one behaves, then I think I know. If I think I know, that means I think the mind is me  thinking.

Thinking I know anything that doesn’t come from pure observation is identifying with mind. (Observation is not pure if it is interpreted through mental chatter.)

This is difficult to accept when we are heavily identified with mind. It’s hard to accept this, because of the underlying belief that giving up attachment to mind is giving up me. It feels like the ultimate sacrifice.

As inner wisdom said to Lanae last week:

To sacrifice the self is to request remembrance of the true Self.

We cannot be attached to ‘me’ and know the true Self too.

That is demonstrated in today’s message by the difficulty I had hearing Inner Ramana on the day this message was written. As soon as Inner Ramana started talking to me about my desire to think about and talk about Self, I had trouble hearing Inner Ramana.

Why?

Because the mind started to chatter about when I think about and talk about Self. As soon as I listened to chatter as me  thinking, the voice of inner wisdom faded. I could not be identified with mental chatter and hear inner wisdom too. In order to write the message that you will read today, I had to continually, repeatedly break the attachment to mental chatter and return my attention to inner wisdom.

This is very important to understand.

When we think we know something, inner wisdom is blocked. When we think we can figure ‘this’ out, inner wisdom is blocked. When we are lost in mental chatter, inner wisdom is blocked.

To know the Self, including inner wisdom and intuition, the self (our identification with mind) must be sacrificed.

Before going to today’s reading, contemplate this definition of sacrifice:

An act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.

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