Ask: Is there some way to speed up knowing that only God is real?
“…I'd like to know more about the experience that only God
is real. Are there any references to this experience in any of the 5 Course
books/supplements? Do we have any way to speed up experiencing only God as
real? Does this experience grow and mature, is it permanent once experienced
initially or does it come and go in our mind? Tell us what you can about this
please.” - JK
There
are many descriptions throughout the books of A Course in Miracles of the experience that you have when you know
that only God (Truth) is real. Here’s one that is characteristic of them:
In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no
burdens, no anxiety, no pain, no fear of future and no past regrets. In
timelessness you rest, while time goes by without its touch upon you, for your
rest can never change in any way at all. (W-109.5)
The means for
“speeding up” your awareness that only God is real is what the Course calls the “holy instant”. The
holy instant is any moment that you choose to turn inward and touch God. This
can be anything from just a few seconds that you take anytime during the day to
a more formal meditation where you set aside a block of time to quiet your mind
and commune with God. Chapter 15 in the Text discusses the holy instant in
depth. The holy instant is such an essential practice that once it is introduced
in the Text it is referred to again and again.
Your practice of
the holy instant demonstrates your willingness to become aware that only God is
real. One experience of God is not usually enough to shift you fully to the
awareness that only God is real. And initially you are not going to have some
sort of experience of God every time you invite it because you won’t
necessarily be truly open to it. But once it happens you will be motivated to open
to it again. You will be able to use your memory of the experience in your
practice of the holy instant to remind you that want the experience.
The experience of an instant, however
compelling it may be, is easily forgotten if you allow time to close over it. It
must be kept shining and gracious in your awareness of time, but not concealed
within it. The instant remains. But where are you? To give thanks to your
brother is to appreciate the holy instant, and thus enable its results to be
accepted and shared. To attack your brother is not to lose the instant, but to
make it powerless in its effects. (T-17.V.12)
The holy
relationship is how to extend the experience of the holy instant as you go
about your day. A holy relationship is any relationship where you choose to
come from your awareness of God rather than from the ego (personal thought
system) as you relate to another. Once you have had some experience of God in a
holy instant you can extend this awareness by choosing to put aside the ego’s
judgments and stories for yourself and others. You let the ego’s judgments come
up and then you let them go. You remind yourself that only the experience of
God within you is real. You are already whole in God. You don’t need others to
make you whole. You don’t need them to change to make you happy. You don’t need
to fix them because they, too, are already whole in God, even if they are not
aware of this.
The effects of the
holy instant are cumulative. You never lose what you experience in one even if
you turn back to the ego afterward. As you have more and more experiences of
God and extend these in your relationships with others it will sink in that
only God is real. This will be so gradual and natural that you won’t even know
that it has occurred until you have experiences that show you that you have
changed. You will find that you do not react to situations in the world as you
once did. You have an awareness of Something within you that is solid and
unchanging and more real to you than the world. In your awareness of It you feel
whole and safe no matter what seems to be occurring in the world.
>>>>
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Comments
The definition of 'Subtle' is "delicately complex and understated; delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyze or describe." I think a good way to describe what that feels like is to remember what it feels like when you are trying to live without it. Powerlessness, fear of the future, walking around this dream completely susceptible to whatever may happen and knowing that as a deep gut level experience. It led me to keep drinking. What is going on between me and the Holy Spirit seems to be about discipline. Learning mental discipline. Learning to be more focused on the holy instant. When I wander off having it not be days before I wander back. When I'm listening to my ego remembering to get centered. Like muscle memory, like learning to play the piano. For me the Holy Instant is simply when I am aware of that subtle feeling in my chest. I don't think there has to be any more to it than that. Increased awareness, like learning to play the piano or learning a new language, it takes time. Chances are I won't wake up being able to speak Russian tomorrow. The catch is there are some people, only a very few, who do wake up knowing how to speak Russian and you know where that leads your ego:)