Like yesterday’s reading, today’s reading encourages us to see purification through to its completion regardless of how difficult it gets during the process. It says:

I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. Keep your eyes fixed on the door as you go through your final temptations. Remember that no one can keep you from walking through that door but you.

The reading points out that as long as you believe your conditioning, the “world is your shepherd.” That means that you are merely reactive, in the same way sheep fearfully react to a shepherd who shouts and swings his staff. You are herded about by your thoughts, perceptions and emotions. You may think you are independent, but you are like a dumb robot that performs according to programming without choice.

The reading also says:

But when you have left these beliefs behind as tiny wisps of air that are not noticed, you shall see the world differently. It shall not be your shepherd. It shall be your banquet table. And at this table, you shall feast daily, joyously with me.

Consider these two poems, one by St. Francis of Assisi and one by the Sufi saint, Rabia:

Wring Out My Clothes
By St. Francis

Such love
does the sky now pour,
that whenever I stand in a field,
I have to wring out the light
when I get home.

This Choir
By Rabia

So amazing this choir of
socks, shoes, shirt, skirt, undergarments,
earth, sky,
suns, and moons.
No wonder I too, now
sing all day.

Consider carefully what you really want; to be a slave to conditioning, or to experience the world with love and joy, like Francis and Rabia did.

Do you want to be one of the few who persevere?

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

Today’s reading encourages us to disregard the ego voice in the mind and complete the purification process. The reading is thorough and clear. We all do well to read carefully, and then follow the advice given in today’s reading.

First, it advises us about how to be with  the ego voice in order to let go of it. We are advised:

• To see it as confusion.
• Not to hate it or fight it.
• Not to be afraid of noticing it or hearing it.
• To look right at it, and then disregard it.

Awareness is being (is’ing), so it be’s with  whatever is present. Awareness lets go of ego by being with it without believing it.

Next, the reading advises us to go through the darkest and toughest experiences of purification. You can only complete the purification process by going all the way through it. To stop and revert to your conditioning, because purification has become difficult and you are more comfortable with your conditioning, is not to purify.

Let’s review St. Clare’s quote from Day 269 again:

Never forget that the way which leads to heaven is narrow; that the gate leading to life is narrow and low; that there are but few who find it and enter by it; and if there be some who go in and tread the narrow path for some time, there are but very few who persevere therein.

You can be one of the very few who persevere. You just have to want truth realization more than anything else, including more than feeling better sooner.

Here’s a quote from St. Benedict that is also worth considering today:

Don’t be addicted to your own self-image or to anything else that promises cheap fulfillment or an easy escape from problems.

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