Today we begin a new special theme, “What is Salvation?” Salvation is an idea that has no meaning in truth. Awareness-life-presence is unchanged, so it does not need salvation.
At the same time, attention, which is the moving aspect of presence, has the ability to taste anything it dips into. Since it has dipped deeply into thought, emotion and appearance, it has become confused about what it is. It is like sunlight that shines through a stained glass window. It has taken on the appearance of red and green and blue. However, attention has identified with the appearance, thereby forgetting that it has no color at all.
Salvation is undoing this misidentification. The means of salvation is “failing to support” the misidentification. We do that in two ways:
- Forgiveness. Instead of believing thought, emotion and appearance, and instead of acting based on belief, we watch thought, emotion and appearance without acting from it. We abide as presence. When we are not able to do that easily, we use inquiry or another forgiveness tool to help us see through and detach from mistaken beliefs.
- Awareness-watching-awareness meditation. Instead of going out into appearance, attention is brought back to its source. When attention pays attention to presence, it sees that it is one with presence and the same as presence. It therefore remembers itself as presence and drops the confusion that it is appearance.
Father, I will but to remember You.
Appearance is full of variety. Therefore, it is tempting to mind and attention. When mind and attention are unleashed, they jump around from one desire to another.
There is nothing wrong with experiencing temporary appearance. Attention was created so that we can experience appearance. However, the grasping energy of desire is a distortion of this ability. I call it a distortion because it is based on a sense of lack. It is based on the idea that I am not fulfilled within my beingness, so I need something else from outside of me to fulfill me.
When we looked at Lesson 185, we looked carefully at our desires. We asked, “Why do I want this thing that I desire? What do I expect to get from it?” We saw that what we really seek is the peace of truth realization. We seek the fulfillment of knowing our Self. That is our true desire.
Today, we remember this again.
If you have 30-minutes for meditation today, and you would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation:
