What is the Holy Spirit?

Our special theme says, “From knowledge, where He has been placed by God, the Holy Spirit calls to you, to let forgiveness rest upon your dreams, and be restored to sanity and peace of mind.”

Or, as The Teachings of Inner Ramana says:

World-focused thought is always an error. It is attachment. Therefore, it is dreaming or remaining deluded.

To help people with world-focused thoughts by providing world-focused solutions is assisting one to dream. Therefore, the Awakened One, who has accepted the role of continuing the awakening, will not assist in world-focused concerns by providing world-focused answers. The Awakened One will assist world-focus by observing the filter with the one who has a desire to awaken.

In an earlier tip, I wrote about the difference between everyday intuition and spiritual intuition. This difference is not something we need to analyze. For example, if we have a feeling to talk to someone, we do not need to analyze whether that is coming from everyday intuition or spiritual intuition. It is always good to follow intuition, so we can simply follow the intuitive feeling in trust.

However, it is helpful to know there are two types of intuition. Everyday intuition makes life in the world easier. Spiritual intuition is the intuition that awakens us from the world entirely.

Since spiritual intuition has a very specific purpose, it also has a very specific focus. It’s helpful if we respect its focus. For example, it is a mistake if we ask spiritual intuition, “How can I make more money?” or “Should I stay in this relationship or leave?”

These questions are world-focused questions. Spiritual intuition has the function of awakening you from the world entirely. It cannot awaken you from the world and guide you in the world too. That would be confusing its purpose.

As The Teachings of Inner Ramana says, “The Awakened One will assist world-focus by observing the filter with the one who has a desire to awaken.”

“The Awakened One” is a synonym for the Holy Spirit and spiritual intuition. The “filter” is a synonym for the mind and thought. So, Inner Ramana teaches that spiritual intuition responds to world-focus by helping you observe, or inquire into, thought.

If you ask spiritual intuition a question, and you want a world-focused answer, spiritual intuition will remain silent. If you are really interested in an answer to your question, the ego will step in and fill that void. In other words, it is the ego that answers world-focused questions.

You can receive clear answers from spiritual intuition if you ask questions that are focused on its purpose.

For example, instead of asking, “How can I make more money?” you might say, “I feel unsafe. How shall I look at this?” Other good questions are “What will you share with me about this?” and “What is it that I need to see in my mind?”

Instead of asking, “Should I stay in this relationship or leave?” try describing how you feel in the relationship, and then ask, “What guidance do you have for me?”

When you seek an answer from spiritual intuition, it is good to ask open-ended questions. Don’t attempt to lead spiritual intuition by putting a possible answer in your question. For example, don’t ask ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions.

Spiritual intuition is the inner teacher, so its answers have the focus of teaching and pointing toward truth.

Everyday intuition is different. Everyday intuition provides world-based intuitive information and guidance in the moment. If you ask, “What am I to do now?” it will answer. If you ask, “What am I to do next month?” it will not answer. It will remain silent. Again, if intuition remains silent and you really want an answer to your question, ego will step in and fill the void.

Both forms of intuition are there to guide you, and it is helpful for you to follow both forms of intuition. Just remember that spiritual intuition is the inner teacher with the purpose of helping you awaken, and everyday intuition only responds to questions about right now. If you keep these simple rules in mind, it will help you to invoke intuition instead of ego.

Note: Occasionally guidance comes in, uninvited, that sets a goal or direction for you. If this type of guidance comes, you will recognize it. It has a distinct feeling to it that is different from ego. However, it is always best not to ask for future-based guidance. Your role is to stay focused with now.

My holiness shines bright and clear today.

Our lesson says, “Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. I ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the thoughts to which it has been sent by me. And I will ask for only joyous things the instant I accept my holiness.”

If you look carefully at today’s lesson, you will see that it indicates we will receive based on our identity.

If I see myself as a vulnerable person in the world, and I believe the thoughts in the mind are my thoughts, my experience will be based on that identification.

If I see myself as the unaffected witness, my experience will be based on that identification.

What we identify with is the most important decision that we make in each moment.

I am able to comfortably identify with the unaffected Self now, and that identification feels genuine for me. However, it didn’t always feel genuine. There was a time when I would have felt like a fake if I had identified with unaffected awareness as myself.

It’s not helpful to identify with the idea that you are an affected person, so if you are not yet to the place where it feels genuine to identify with unaffected awareness, what are you to identify with?

The Teachings of Inner Ramana has a recommendation:

The one who chooses to listen to me and follow me is the awakening of your true Self, so do not doubt your willingness to listen and follow me. That is you. And by listening to that desire, you listen to your Self.

In other words, Inner Ramana suggests that we identify with our willingness to awaken as we transition from identification as a person to identifying with the unaffected Self.

As you go through the day today, if you feel genuine identifying with the unaffected Self, please do. However, if that feels like too much of a stretch for you, identify with your willingness to realize truth. Let, “My holiness shines bright and clear today,” be a reminder to identify with one or the other in lieu of identifying with the ego experience.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

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What is the Holy Spirit?

The Teachings of Inner Ramana says:

Fear comes simply from not knowing reality. Therefore, the only answer to fear is to let go of what is false and to remember reality as true. Discarding the world is as simple as remembering that it isn’t true. This is as simple as living from within instead of from without. One who is forgetting the world takes his cues from within.

“Discarding the world” is the same as seeing that we are unaffected by it. It is the same as being in the world, but not of it. It is also what our special theme means when it says:

If you but knew how much your Father yearns to have you recognize your sinlessness, you would not let His Voice appeal in vain, nor turn away from His replacement for the fearful images and dreams you made.

Although this language is highly symbolic, our “sinlessness” in this context is our unaffectedness. The previous paragraph from our special theme could be translated into less symbolic language in this way:

Your yearning for truth is the yearning to know your unaffected Self, which is your truth. When you realize how strong this yearning is in you, you will cease to listen to ego; you will listen instead to spiritual intuition. You will let spiritual intuition guide you to the realization of your Self. You will stay in the awareness of your Self, and see all things through the lens of truth. In this way, all you will see is truth, and you will rejoice at what you see.

As The Teachings of Inner Ramana says, “This is as simple as living from within instead of from without.”

If we look at the world as a movie or a play, we can also say that it has two directors. One director is the ego. When the actor is too caught up in the play of the world, the ego shouts its directions, and the actor blindly follows. This actor has forgotten that the play is a play and believes s/he is affected by everything that is happening.

The other director is intuition. In order to hear this quieter director, who whispers instructions quietly from within the actor, the actor must remember that s/he wants to hear the director’s instructions. To do this, the actor must be more focused within than on the play. Certainly, there is awareness of the play, but the actor is turned inward to discover what s/he is to say, do, not say or not do as the script of the play unfolds.

I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.

Today’s lesson says, “Loss is not loss when properly perceived. Pain is impossible. … This is the truth, at first to be but said and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally accepted as the truth. I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.”

The thoughts that hurt come from the ego. They are thoughts that rise up from the belief that we are affected by the world.

In order to change all thoughts that hurt, we must change directions and directors. Instead of being focused outward, we change direction and focus inward, always inward.

Outward results in fear and suffering.
Inward realizes wisdom, peace and trust.

Remain focused inward today by practicing surrender as it is taught in The Teachings of Inner Ramana.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

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