Judgment creates the sense that the imposter self is ‘me.’ Judgment is the “I know” and “I’m right” mind—the resistor.
NTI Romans teaches two practices as the antidote to judgment. Those two practices are acceptance and surrender.
Why does NTI teach two practices as the antidote to judgment?
NTI teaches two antidotes, because there are two types of judgment.
One type of judgment divides everything into good and bad, liked and disliked, desired and not desired, etcetera. That type of judgment creates the appearance of many things.
Yesterday, we saw that acceptance (existence-loving-existence) is the antidote that undoes the many things and collapses them into one thing, which is experience. When this collapse occurs, only two things remain, the experiencer and the experience.
The second type of judgment is decision-making. Decision-making creates the sense of ‘me who decides.’ Surrender is the practice that removes the sense of ‘me’ as the one who decides.
You might remember that NTI teaches there are four stages on the spiritual path: The Search, Purification, Service and True Perception. The third stage is the period of surrender. NTI Acts 22 says:
The third stage on the path with Me is the stage of guidance or service. This is the time when the merging will occur. … This is how the merging occurs. It is through your own willingness to surrender to Me. … What seemed to be separate gradually becomes one, until it is evident that “separate” never was.
Consider this related quote by Ramana Maharshi:
Surrender is giving oneself up to the original cause of one’s being. Do not delude yourself by imagining this source to be some God outside you. One’s source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.
When you are not surrendered, there is a feeling of “me” making “my own decisions.” As you fall more deeply into surrender, you lose the sense of “me deciding,” and you experience everything as one ongoing flow of happening. You cannot separate yourself from the ongoing flow of happening. You know only one flow, one existence, one consciousness.
The Loving All Method and surrender practiced together undo both types of judgment—the judgment of good or bad and the judgment ‘I decide”—so both the experienced (the many things) and the experiencer (the decider) are undone, and only non-dual (not two) consciousness remains.
Thoughts of Awakening # 330
Peace comes from true knowledge,
but true knowledge is not learned
or gained.
True knowledge is
within the peace of your Heart
now.
When panic strikes
go to the Heart for guidance.
Trust implicitly
the guidance of the Heart.
Do not think about its guidance.
Accept it.
Do not worry about what will come next.
Trust the guidance of the Heart
is always available.
This is the way to peace
in every moment
of now.
From our Holy Spirit
Homework for this week
- Practice daily meditation for 30-60 minutes each day.
- Practice the “Loving All” Method.
- Thoughts of Awakening, 330-336
*If you don’t already have it, order The Seven Steps to Awakening. That will be our text for Year 3.
