Today is our last day with our current special theme, so please take time this morning to read, “What is Salvation,” one more time. Also, contemplate Lesson 240 and spend some time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation:
Fear is not justified in any form.
Two days ago we noticed that our decisions are based on who we think we are. Fear is a decision. Whenever we are afraid, it is because we have decided to believe fearful thoughts in the mind. We have decided those thoughts are true, and this decision is based on who we think we are.
Look at some fearful situations. You may look at current fears or fearful situations that you remember. What is the identification that is the basis of the fear?
For example:
- I am afraid that I will die. My identification is with the body.
- I am afraid that I will run out of money. My identification is ‘powerless’.
- I remember a fear of facing someone. My identification was ‘guilty’.
- I remember a fear of inviting someone to spend time with me. My identification was ‘rejectable’.
- Etcetera.
Today’s lesson says, “Not one thing in this world is true.” Contemplate that statement as you look at your list of fears and the identifications that caused them. Practice this type of inquiry with each one:
- If nothing in this world is true, is this body what I am? What am I? (Pause and look at awareness.) Is awareness what I am? Is the body what I am? Which is more intimately what I am and which is more at a distance? Is awareness vulnerable like the body is vulnerable? Is it possible the body could die, and I would continue to live? Have I experienced death directly or is life all I know? Do I know that death is real or is death something that the mind imagines? (Look and see if death is something you know, like you know life, or is death only in the mind?) Does awareness have a concept of death? What am I? (Be still, and continue to notice awareness.)
- If nothing in this world is true, is ‘powerless’ what I am? What am I? (Pause and look at awareness.) Is awareness what I am? Is powerless what I am? Which is consistently me, and which is a passing idea or feeling? Is awareness powerless? Is it vulnerable? Or is awareness present and unaffected? What am I? (Be still, and continue to notice awareness.)
- If nothing in this world is true, is ‘guilty’ what I am? What am I? (Pause and look at awareness.) Is awareness what I am? Is guilty what I am? There may be the feeling of guilt, but what sees this feeling? What looks at it? Am I the feeling of guilt or am I that which is looking at it? Which one is more intimately me? Is awareness guilty or is it simply present, purely itself? (Be still, and continue to notice awareness.)
- If nothing in this world is true, is ‘rejectable’ what I am? What am I? (Pause and look at awareness.) Is awareness what I am? Is rejectable what I am? Which is consistently me, and which is a passing idea or feeling? Is awareness rejectable? Can I reject awareness? (Look and see if it is possible to reject awareness.) Can awareness see itself as rejected? (Look and see if awareness believes the concept of rejection.) Does awareness reject anything? (Look and see if awareness rejects or if it is perfectly open and allowing of everything.) What am I? (Be still, and continue to notice awareness.)
- Etcetera.
Notice that the questions changed slightly as I looked at each concept of identification. Let intuition guide your inquiry and your looking. We cannot let go of fear when we are identified with a vulnerable concept. However, as we realize the truth of what we are, which is eternally invulnerable, fear becomes meaningless.
