The tip on Day 134 said:
Something is real when it actually exists and has fixed properties. … The world does not meet this [criteria]. …
Why is it important to remember that the world isn’t real?
When you think the world is real, you subconsciously believe it has fixed properties and will not change. For example, if you believe you are headed for disaster, possibly financial ruin or a failed relationship, you subconsciously believe the situation is fixed and will not change. If you believe you are worthless or guilty, you subconsciously believe worthlessness or guilt is a fixed fact about who you are. If you believe the world is fearful, you accept that as a fact, and you are subconsciously waiting for the next terrible thing to happen.
Today’s reading reemphasizes that. It says:
The mind that believes in the world believes what it experiences to be true. And so it lives the experience as if it is true, and it suffers heartache.
Even though we experience the world as real if we believe it is real, the reading reminds us that is not the truth. It says:
Life is not in the world. Life is beyond the world. …
You are Life, and you are truth also, so you must not be in the world.
I was never one who could believe that I am not in the world. By that, I mean that I could not turn that teaching into a belief in the way that one might believe Jesus was resurrected from the dead or there is an afterlife in a place called Heaven. I could not turn the idea, “You are not in the world,” into a belief, because my daily experience is that I am in the world. Turning that teaching into a belief felt like too big of a lie to me.
However, as I practiced awareness-watching-awareness, I began to experience myself as awareness instead of as a body-mind. As awareness, I can see that I am not in the world. I can see that the world is in me.
David Fishman has often pointed out that the word “belief” has “lie” in the center of it:
be~lie~f
That’s a nice symbol to keep in mind, since we typically confuse our beliefs with what we know to be true. For example, one who believes that Jesus was resurrected typically does not realize he doesn’t know that Jesus was resurrected.
Instead of believing that you are not in the world, I recommend practicing awareness-watching-awareness. Through watching awareness, you come to know yourself as awareness (consciousness), and then you see that the mind, body and world are in you.
Note: The next tip will be available tomorrow morning after 3:50am ET at this link.
