What is the Real World?
Our special theme says, “As we look upon a world forgiven, it is He Who calls to us and comes to take us home, reminding us of our Identity which our forgiveness has restored to us.”
In the excerpt from The Experience of No-Self by Bernadette Roberts, which we contemplated yesterday, Bernadette wrote, “The onset of this second movement is characterized by the falling away of self and coming upon ‘that’ which remains when it is gone.”
Similarly, Ramana Maharshi said, “Not letting the mind go out, but retaining it in the Heart is what is called ‘inwardness’. Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as ‘externalization’. Thus, when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine.”
What do you see when you contemplate these three quotes together? Can you see that “Identity,” “that” and “Self” are all the same, even though Bernadette calls that “no-self”?
Spend time with this contemplation before continuing with today’s tip.
Only an instant does this world endure.
The lesson says that today’s thought “is a thought which can be used to say that death and sorrow are the certain lot of all who come here, for their joys are gone before they are possessed, or even grasped. Yet this is also the idea that lets no false perception keep us in its hold, nor represent more than a passing cloud upon a sky eternally serene.”
I quoted Ramana Maharshi today, while looking at the special theme. Here is more of that same quote:
When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain and the sense organs, the gross names and forms appear; when it stays in the heart, the names and forms disappear. Not letting the mind go out, but retaining it in the Heart is what is called “inwardness”. Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as “externalization”. Thus, when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine.
If you contemplate today’s workbook lesson along with this quote, you will see that letting our attention go outward towards the world and thoughts is the cause of suffering and illusion. Alternatively, keeping our attention inward leads to joy and truth realization.
Today is the last day with our current special theme. It is a good time to review the work that you did with this special theme, and reach a helpful conclusion.
The work you did included:
- Listing some of your perceptions as you looked at the world, and then labeling each of those perceptions as fear or peace.
- Selecting one fearful perception and inquiring into it.
- Using a form of writing recommended by Adyashanti, called “meditative self-inquiry,” to discover what you need to learn about the selected perception and then to ask how you can teach what you need to learn in order to learn it.
- Determining which phase of awakening you are currently in—purification, merging or waiting—and then based on that, what your primary function is now.
What summarized lesson can you take from all of this work? How do you put it into practice? Is there something you can do to remind yourself so you do not forget to put it into practice?
Answering these questions will result in some form of ‘inwardness’ that is fully right for you now. It will be your guidance—your current step—and “exactly what to do to be restored to Heaven and our true Identity.”
If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:
