Yesterday, I told a story about a woman with five daughters. In that story, the daughters were asked to remove their Disney Princess costumes, \u201cand become my daughters again.\u201d Of course, each girl already was the woman\u2019s daughter. No one really had to remove the costume to \u201cbecome\u201d the daughter.<\/p>\n
The same is true with you. You do not need to remove your false beliefs and conditioning in order to become truth. You are truth now. And yet, you do need to let go of your false beliefs and conditioning, just as the girls did need to take of the costumes\u2014if not for strawberry shortcake, then later, for some other reason, like to get ready for bed, to bathe, or to go to school the next day.<\/p>\n
Why do costumes need to be removed? Because they aren\u2019t truth.\u00a0The costumes did not represent who the girls were. The costumes weren\u2019t real. They were temporary.\u00a0Beliefs and conditioning do not represent what you are. They aren\u2019t reality. They are temporary.\u00a0The spiritual journey is one of taking off the temporary\u2014like one takes off a costume\u2014and returning to the foundational reality.<\/p>\n
How does one do that?<\/p>\n
Nisargadatta Maharaj said, \u201cAll you need is to listen, remember, ponder. It is like taking food. All you can do is to bite off, chew and swallow. All else is unconscious and automatic. Listen, remember and understand — the mind is both the actor and the stage. All is of the mind and you are not the mind. The mind is born and reborn, not you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said, \u201cForget the known, but remember that you are the knower. Don’t be all the time immersed in your experiences. Remember that you are beyond the experience ever unborn and deathless. In remembering it, the quality of pure knowledge will emerge, the light of unconditional awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, \u201cThe more earnest you are at remembering what needs to be remembered, the sooner will you be aware of yourself as you are, for memory will become experience. Earnestness reveals being. What is imagined and willed becomes actuality — here lies the danger as well as the way out.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is to be remembered? \u201cThe ‘I am’. Give your heart and mind to it, think of nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n
And one final instruction from Nisargadatta Maharaj: \u201cJust remember steadily what you want, and reject the incompatibles.\u201d<\/p>\n
These quotes are the heart of today\u2019s reading. First, contemplate these quotes, and then read today\u2019s reading from NTI. Put your heart into the contemplation and the reading, and you will experience great profit, which brings me to another Nisargadatta Maharaj quote:<\/p>\n
Remember that you are.
\nThis is your working capital.
\nRotate it and there will be much profit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, I told a story about a woman with five daughters. In that story, the daughters were asked to remove their Disney Princess costumes, \u201cand become my daughters again.\u201d Of course, each girl already was the woman\u2019s daughter. No one really had to remove the costume to \u201cbecome\u201d the daughter. The same is true with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101,88],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-gentlehealingtips-year2","7":"category-sidebar","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n