Christ is Maker of the Atonement

          “A clear distinction between what is created and what is made is essential. All forms of healing rest on this fundamental correction in level perception.” (T-2-V.A-12. [2])

 Early in A Course in Miracles it makes a distinction between what is created and what is made. In the Course, Creation means God’s Extension of God, Which is called Christ, and anything else is brought into being or made. This distinction is important, and radical when it is new to the reader, because the Course tells us Creation is Reality and anything made is illusion.

Only God is Real is the whole radical teaching of the Course. The liberation from guilt and fear that you seek is in the realization of this. And this liberation is what the Course calls forgiveness or salvation or healing.

God, being All, must consider Its Own opposite. But being All, God cannot have an opposite. The idea of not-God is undone the moment it arises. But within the idea of not-God there is time, and time makes it seem as though the idea of not-God arose long ago and will be undone in some indefinite future, giving rise to the experience of consciousness. As time and consciousness do not extend God, they are not God’s Creation. They were made.

In one of my early experiences as I began to shift consciousness, I was standing in Costco when I expanded and knew everything and everyone I saw, and the whole world beyond, was in me, and I loved it all as my Beloved. That everything was in me was not a new idea to me, and it was more than just an intellectual idea for me. I had been aware of it for a while. But now I realized it.

As I explained in my last article, when I have Oneness experiences, I experience Oneness and there are appearances as well. I am not one with the appearances. And in this experience in Costco, and many others that were to follow, I experienced Oneness, but I didn’t feel One with what appeared. I felt I was the Source or Author of all I saw. In fact, I felt like a creator and all that appeared was my beloved creation. But I knew this was not creation as the Course uses the term. It was not, extension, the experience of Oneness. So, what was this experience as Author?

That was nearly five years ago. Much has unfolded in this mind, and shared in this newsletter/blog, about the Atonement, by which the Course means the correction of the perception of separation from God. I now understand that what unfolds in consciousness is the moment of the idea of not-God arising in God’s mind and being simultaneously undone by God’s All-encompassing nature unfolding in time like a story. Although time and consciousness are not-God and made, not created, their unfolding ultimately expresses the correction of the perception of separation from God. Consciousness and time are the Atonement.

As God is All, God is never absent, even in made illusions. A false idea arose and was instantly undone by God’s All-encompassing nature, meaning as soon as consciousness arose, it belonged to God. Time, which was meant to lead away from God, was now to lead back to God.

In time, this is represented in consciousness by the Presence of Spirit, God’s Extension in consciousness through Christ. As Part of God, Christ co-creates with God in God—Christ extends God (They are One). But regarding time/consciousness, Christ is Maker of the Atonement through Spirit. What I feel in Author experiences when I know all that appears is in me, is my Self (Christ) as Maker of the Atonement. What appears is not my extension (creation), but rather my expression. Appearances express what is over the way a play expresses a script already written. It is as though I watch a play I wrote. And I love it, not for what appears, but for the Theme it expresses, which is the Atonement, which is Love, which is my Self.

Of course, once seen, the Atonement is complete and recognized to never have been necessary. Only time makes it seem appearances represent something significant occurring now, rather than express the undoing of an impossible idea that has passed. When I discuss appearances/consciousness/time/the Atonement (all the same thing) it can seem I give them meaning. But as I explained a few weeks ago, just because appearances take a certain shape (Atonement) it does not make them real. A work of fiction has a theme, but that does not make it nonfiction.

"The Holy Spirit is described throughout the course as giving us the answer to the separation and bringing the plan of the Atonement to us, establishing our particular part in it and showing us exactly what it is." (C-6.2)

However…until you see illusion is illusion (if such be the role you are to play), you will live in the world as your reality and it will have meaning for you. The temporary (time-bound) meaning the Course offers is the awareness of the role the person with which you identify plays in the Atonement. You can live in the world with the Atonement’s Maker’s (Christ’s) Extension, Spirit, as your Comforter, Teacher, and Guide, as It knows what is to happen.  This makes for a more harmonious experience of consciousness until, if it be your role to play, you know Christ as your Self and see illusion as illusion.

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If you have a question the answer to which you feel may be helpful to others, send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and I will answer it in this newsletter/blog.