Today’s reading teaches that there is a direct correlation between how we see now and how we want to see. For some, this may be hard to read. Often people want to believe that their desire for truth is stronger than it is. However, we can see how strong our desire for truth is by looking at exactly how we see (and experience) now.
Why do we want to believe that our desire for truth is stronger than it is?
As we learned in NTI Luke, we believe that we are inherently guilty for seeing ourselves as separate individuals. We feel guilty for seeing ourselves as some thing, because that isn’t truth; life is what we are. Interestingly, seeing ourselves as guilty is an ego preservation strategy.
How is it an ego preservation strategy?
Seeing ourselves as guilty is seeing ourselves as something. In order to see ourselves (and everything else) as it is, we need to let go of all beliefs that we have about what we are. We also need to let go of all beliefs about what others are, what the world is and what the world is supposed to be.
Today’s reading says:
When a man welcomes the Light fully, he ceases to be a man, and he becomes the Light. For the Light is a presence that denies the existence of man. It knows only the Light. … To know the Light is to know eternity.
It is as Floyd Henderson wrote in his book, The Blissful Abidance Series:
The entire contents [of the mind] must be discarded if you would “fill the cup” with that which can bring you something with a taste that can be enjoyed. There is no other way than the way of emptiness first, fullness second…
When all learned ignorance is tossed, then everything that also accompanies ignorance will go. … You will have returned to Your original nature … You will have tasted the sweet taste of the nectar of immortality.
Michael Langford teaches that the most important first step you can take toward awakening in this lifetime is to increase your desire for awakening.
Michael Langford teaches, “another great key is self-honesty.” He writes:
Self-honesty will help in all aspects of the quest for liberation. Self-honesty will help you to increase your desire for liberation.
That means that in spite of the ego’s tendency to pretend that our desire for awakening is greater than it is, it is actually most helpful to be honest about our level of desire. When we pretend that our desire is greater than it is, we hold onto the repressed belief that we are guilty. When we are honest without guilt, we let go of the belief that we are guilty. That is letting go of one of the ego’s core preservation strategies.
