Today’s reading is another collection of pithy statements for contemplation. Here’s how I recommend reading NTI 1 Peter 5:

1. As you read, write down any statements that stand out to you as especially important or meaningful.
2. After you have finished reading, go back and contemplate the statements you wrote down.
3. Write what comes to you as you contemplate those statements. If you are guided into deeper journaling, follow that prompt.

It’s likely you will have a very insightful experience with today’s reading if you contemplate it as I’ve recommended. Don’t feel like you have to contemplate every sentence in the reading. Ask inner wisdom to help you know which sentences/paragraphs are for you.

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

Today’s reading is about two specific misperceptions: fear, and the belief that you are a person.

The Misperception of Fear

In order to let go of fear, it is helpful to notice what fear really is. Fear is nothing but imagination. It is negative fantasy. Whenever you are afraid, it is because you are imagining what might happen, and “you are imagining fearfully.”

Today’s reading says:

To live without fear is to live without imagining. This is to stay in the now and in the heart of true desire.

Whenever you are in fear, pause and notice what is actually happening. Notice that you are imagining.

We can all imagine many fearful scenarios and live a life of anxiety and fear, but why? Why use our minds and attention that way? Is there a benefit to entertaining fearful imagination?

Look at fear. Question your fears. Are they something you choose to hold on to?

The Misperception that You are a Person

On Day 245, we saw that the idea, “I am a person,” is the mistake of believing that manifestation is primary and life is secondary. Life is seen as belonging to a specific manifestation, so when the manifestation ends, life ends too. The mind believes that life is fragile and temporary. That is the root cause of fear.

Today’s reading says:

You are not a person now, and you have not been a person before. There is no person from this lifetime or any other that you must let go of, because there has never been a person. There has only been the thought of persons, and the thought of persons is not real.

What are you?

Ultimately, you are life-awareness, the First Principle of God, but before you realize that, you will realize that you are consciousness, the Second Principle of God.

Let’s review the four principles again:

First Principle of God– Pure, unmanifest, life-awareness; abstract, unlimited potentiality.

Second Principle of God– Consciousness, also known as I Am or Spirit. It can be called “the thought of spirit” since it is a thought born out of (evolved from) the unlimited potentiality of the First Principle.

Third Principle of God– The ongoing activity of creation, which occurs naturally through the declarative  interaction of consciousness with that which is witnessed. (“Declarative” means that consciousness uses believing attention to maintain what it witnesses as true and meaningful.)

Fourth Principle of God– Manifestation, which is the realm of appearance (experience and images). NTI Romans called it “a picture-thought within the thought of spirit.” (Reference Day 150.)

The Second Principle of God gives believing attention to persons, including the personal dramas (thought, emotion and perception), and believes it is person. However, it is consciousness.

As today’s reading says:

You are not a person now, and you have not been a person before. There is no person from this lifetime or any other…, because there has never been a person.

All there has ever been is the thought of persons combined with believing attention on the resulting appearances, experiences and story thoughts.

What I think, I see. (Persons)
What I see, I experience. (Lifetimes of people)

“I” is consciousness.

It might be helpful to listen to a short audio on reincarnation. This audio may help you see that people are ideas, which are temporarily manifest and experienced by consciousness. People are not actual. Consciousness is actual, and it experiences itself as people.

16 ½-minute audio

Today’s reading says:

What does this mean?

It means that you believe in illusion, but illusion is not the truth of you. It means that you look on misperception (the person), but you are the one that declares  misperception is true.

If you declare that you are a person, you can also reverse that declaration.

How do you do that?

~ Let go of believing the stories that appear in the mind.
~ Live from your knowledge of truth.
~ Practice awareness-watching-awareness.

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

Yesterday’s tip said:

Everything that you see,
and the way in which you see it,
is a reflection of your feelings and your beliefs about you.

The “you” in this sentence is inclusive. It includes the body-mind-personality that you identify with as your self, and it also includes everyone and everything.

Contemplate this:

I am in God.
God is in me.
God is all.
All is God.

You can also substitute “Self,” “Spirit” or “Consciousness” for God in the previous contemplation. For example:

I am in Consciousness.
Consciousness is in me.
Consciousness is all.
All is Consciousness.

There is no separation or differentiation in that. It is a contemplation that points to the essence of truth.

Today’s reading says:

Whatever you see that seems to separate you from others is a misperception, and it has arisen within your awareness, that it may be let go through your decision to be free of it.

Check with your heart. Are you ready to let go of every idea that points out differences among people as if those differences represent who people are?

Don’t misunderstand me. There are differences among people, and to deny those differences would be foolish. For example, some people are very ambitious for their goals and other people don’t seem to want to do anything except drink alcohol and watch TV, but do those differences actually mean anything about who the people are? Aren’t both the ambitious one (rajasic) and the idle one (tamasic) life-awareness? Aren’t they both simply believing the thoughts in their mind, thoughts that are given to them through the script generated by the creative principle? Are there any real differences at all?

Today’s reading says:

There is no judgment in the world. There is only judgment within your mind.

Let’s consider a tree for a moment. Does a tree judge the ambitious character and the idle character as different? As better? As less? As right? As wrong? As needing to change?

The enlightened human mind is more like the tree. Oh, it sees things that the tree cannot see. That’s true. However, it’s way of being with what it sees is the same as the tree. What the enlightened mind sees does not affect the enlightened one’s way of being, and the enlightened one does not project judgments on what it sees.

Are you ready to let go of misperceptions that block the enlightened mind so you can see with freedom and be in joy? It is up to you, because when an unenlightened thought comes into the mind, you are the one who decides to give it value and attention. You can, just as easily, choose to see it as something you do not want.

If you are ready to be free, pay careful attention to today’s reading. Choose to live life with the purpose of healing every misperception that arises for you.

What is healing?

To heal is to correct. In this case, to correct is to remove value (attention) from that which you’ve placed value on, but in reality it is valueless.

What has value?

Your truth has value.

Look to a tree as a representation of truth. The tree is like the enlightened mind. It does not judge the ones who gather under it, and the ones who gather under it do not affect the tree. For the tree, there are no differences at all.

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