Seek Truth, Not Its Effects


A few weeks ago I wrote about Truth and Its effects and not confusing them. What inspired that article was my reading of Jan Frazier's book, When Fear Falls Away.  While the book was directly useful to me by validating my experience and helping me to delineate the distinction between psychological wholeness and spiritual Wholeness, I felt something was missing from her story. And that was Truth Itself. This is what reminded me to turn inward to Truth. And, as it always does, this caused important shifts for me.
            I first wrote about this in March, 2017, after I’d realized, with great relief, that love and peace, and joy were only effects. Like everyone I chased these, but chasing them misses the point. Truth is the point, not Its effects. They are important because they indicate Truth is here, but to seek them for themselves is to lose sight of Truth.
            When the Golden Light of Love burst into my mind in August of ’17 I was so caught up in It that I almost forgot about Truth Itself. When I remembered, I felt relief. All tension left me.
            I had this experience again when I was going through the dismantling of my former life. I was so consumed with it I’d forget the shifts were caused by my awareness of Truth. Truth, not the shifts in my consciousness or in my outer life, is What matters. Because Truth is the truth!
And it happened again the other day. I was comparing the ego’s (personal thought system’s) limited world and the Vision of Spirit, Which reflects the Love I am back to me. At the time I was putting together my next collection of articles for publication and came across an article in which I discussed the difference between a Revelation (a direct experience of Truth) and a higher miracle (reflection of Truth). I finished that article with “But I can tell you, as joyous as the reflection is, it is as different from Heaven as a photon is from the sun.” And woooosh! All the tension left my body.
Only the Truth is true. Anything else, even Its reflections (miracles), are illusions. To chase Truth’s reflections is to chase illusions. The reason I feel relief each time I remember Truth is, well, truth, is because I experience the true forgiveness that A Course in Miracles teaches. The higher state of consciousness that results, where the Love I am is reflected back at me everywhere, always, is not forgiveness, but the state of forgiveness. It is an effect, not a cause.
It doesn’t make sense to seek a higher state of consciousness. Instead, grow your awareness of Truth and the higher state of consciousness will result.

>>>> 
If you want to benefit from my experience and lighten your process, email me at Liz@acimmentor.com to set up an appointment for mentoring. Learn more at www.acimmentor.com.

Comments

will said…
Liz, Is the Observer a part of the personal mind or does it exist outside it?
will said…
Liz, I'm going through the archive for that info, thanks.
will said…
The blog is not a rejection. "I'd realized with great relief, that love, and peace and joy, we're only effects."

The Course can be difficult because it gives no ground. We can fall into worshipping Love and peace and joy, A New Age ecstasy. "This is the goal of the Course," only it isn't. It is a sign post shaped like an arrow saying "This Way."
will said…
I live in the center of the New Age universe. I'd better leave that story for another time...
Atmos said…
What a beautiful "coincidence". I just sat down to write a new article about the topic to not mistake truth for pleasure or its effects, and wanted to search for a quote from the course, but "accidentally" opened your blog instead of the ACIM online version - and there is your article, expressing perfectly the point I wanted to write about.
Thank you, Liz for writing this article for me - so I can now shut my PC down and enjoy the still conversation with Truth :)
will said…
Liz, so when you said it was with relief you realized love, peace, joy were only an effect, it was the awareness that when the limited separate mind with its limitations looks out and sees God it interprets what it sees as love, peace, joy instead of Truth?

The working my way through understanding what you are saying leaves me with a very profound awareness of the difference between understanding and experience.It is a strong reality check. A little awe inspiring what you are going through.
will said…
'Ego coming in the back door.'

You are a student of ACIM.
ACIM teaches you the ego does not exist.
You understand ACIM to say you must get rid of the ego to make progress.
That is the ego talking to you.
If you must get rid of it then it must exist.
Around and around you go.
nicci said…


my experiencing of peace and joining in Love only ever occur as the effect of forgiving when i am aligned in the holy instant with my Inner Teacher, the HS. they don't occur for me as a result of self identification. the ego can and will easily slip in the back door and commandeer the experience, and i recognize this has happened because the quality of the experience, particularly the peace, shifts noticeably, and becomes an identity rather than an effect of resting in the Presence ("abiding in the word"). it is then a matter of training my mind in choosing to shift my attention back to the Inner Presence that is my teacher.

i share this for those of you listening who have also had this experience of being in the "Presence of the Alternative". to realize it is from a Source not of the personal self is not worship. it is trust building. and the developing of that trust is what we are assured will lead us to the Truth.

endless Love, n
ACIM Mentor said…
Will, I felt relief when I recognized that love and peace and joy are only effects because I realized pursuing them was still pursuing illusions. When I am in the Awareness of Truth (Holy Spirit) it is a completely different consciousness than personal consciousness. I cannot help but see Love reflected back at me (the Real World in ACIM). But that is only a reflection of That Which I am aware of. Pursuing that would be like thinking the image in the mirror was the actual body being reflected.

Your other post: ACIM says you must come to see the ego is not real. That's a little different from saying you have to get rid of it. You are correct that fighting it or pushing it away only makes it more real to you. Seeing it is not real dissolves it in your mind.
will said…
So is your awareness the mirror and the mirror is Truth?

ACIM Mentor said…
One's awareness is the mirror. The Truth would be the body reflected in the mirror.
Francis said…
Liz you began substituting the word Truth for tor the Holy Spirit, but abstraction of all these man made words must fall away during direct revelation. Does it? I ask because I noticed that many of your readers seem to intellectualize a great deal of what you are saying. The Course brings this to our attention with it’s words are symbols of symbols statement. Some people come to where you are with out ever picking up the big blue book. ACIM is a mind training course and it’s task is the reversal of thought a very monumental achievement if accomplished. It sits on many a shelves around the world half read because it could not break the hold of the ego. It is very repetitive in nature. I think Jesus being once a living being in the world knew what he was up against in the pull of the ego when he gave it to Helen. Truth is tough to know much less experience I suspect. I recall the Helen dream and the scroll and the “God Is” moment. The course is about saving time so I ask you as someone who has advanced quite a bit more than most and is trying to convey your experience to others who think they are in a world of time in space, do you when did the reversal really took hold in your mind? Congratulations you made it.
Francis said…
I apologize for the last sentence. It should have read ...Do you recall when you felt the reversal taking place?
ACIM Mentor said…
Francis, in direct Revelation there is only Truth (God). It is far beyond words and thoughts. There are no forms of any kind. Even the idea of forms does not exist There. In fact, no ideas exist There!

Actually, I use Truth for God and Awareness of Truth for the Holy Spirit.

It took me 3 1/2 years to recognize the ego had fallen away. The recognition has been gradual, as I seem to have adjusted to each "new normal" along the way and only finally put together what happened earlier this year.
will said…
Frances, You are right. But we can only begin at the starting line.
The starting line is words.
Unknown said…
This article cleared my confusion about the Truth and the effects of Truth.. The effects of Truth is great however, I had been getting caught up in these effects and forgetting the point to keep in mind is the TRUTH.. its easy to get caught up in the effects.. I believe the ego use these effects to lure us from the TRUTH.. so cunning our ego.. always seeking to be special... thank you and thank you Francis for your wise words..
will said…
Liz, agreed.

About two or three months ago someone new to the blog was making a comment to you about people getting caught up in the ego wanting to kill itself. I'm paraphrasing from my rather poor memory:) Anyway I couldn't for the life of me understand what he meant. The comment I made above about the ego coming in the back door was my realization of what he was saying and what it meant to me.
will said…
To add: I was describing the learning process of students. We don't go from truth to truth to truth. We wander around quite a bit before the pieces fall into place.
ACIM Mentor said…
Will, was it about the ego wanting to kill itself or kill you? I've never been aware of the ego wanting to kill itself. For me it's all about its own continuation. But it certainly wanted to "kill" me (teaches me I'm not What I am).
will said…
I thought it was about killing itself. That was why I didn't get it. I'll see if I can find it just out of curiosity.
will said…
Liz, Dec. 4, blog.
will said…
Liz mentioned she had been reading Jan Frazier. I have been reading and listening to Rupert Spira. I enjoyed it, got excited a few times but this morning I came back down to earth. What he is teaching works towards the goals he is trying to reach. There is an awful lot of paths that lead to awareness of God and a lot that purport to. All who are on a path have enthusiasm for their particular Way.

When I stumbled onto ACIM my searching phase ended which was and is a relief. One of the problems with searching is you begin to mix up different paths. A little of this, a little of that. Learn some of the lingo for one and the next has a little bit of a different shade to it. There are only so many words to choose from Ha! This leads to skipping across the surface of all of them.
Spira's path puts consciousness or awareness as the goal with the intent being this is God. In Chapter 3 of the text puts consciousness and perception coming from the same source. It is saying (text) God can only create or extend himself. Perception does not meet that criteria.
The Buddhist faith is moving towards a different end point than ACIM. Which is fine, all of it is fine! But for students the mixing of paths eliminates depth. You are back to skipping the surface like a rock when it is thrown.
nicci said…
ron,
thank you for sharing your experience of practicing forgiveness. it has given strength to mine today.
endlessly grateful, n

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