The Value of the Trinity
“Consciousness is the receptive mechanism, receiving messages from above or below; from the Holy Spirit or the ego. Consciousness has levels and awareness can shift quite dramatically, but it cannot transcend the perceptual realm. At its highest it becomes aware of the real world, and can be trained to do so increasingly. Yet the very fact that it has levels and can be trained demonstrates that it cannot reach knowledge.” (C-1.7)
Knowledge is A Course in Miracles’
term for God, where consciousness—or the term the Course
prefers, perception—is the term for the part of God’s Mind that seems to
be split between an illusory experience of separation from God (ego) and an Awareness
(consciousness, perception) of Oneness with God (Christ/Spirit).
Knowledge, or God, is both
quantitatively and qualitatively different from consciousness. Nevertheless, while
consciousness never becomes Knowledge, Knowledge extends into
consciousness as a Consciousness (Awareness, Perception, Realization) of God.
This Consciousness may evolve from an intellectual acceptance of God to an experiential
awareness of God and possibly to a realization of oneself as God-in-consciousness.
And this is where we come to the value of the concept called the Trinity—God
(Causeless Father/Whole), Christ (God’s Son/Part), Spirit (God’s/Christ’s
Extension into consciousness).
(This is not the traditional
Christian use of the term, which is that God exists as three coequal parts).
God is One. This means God is
the Only, God is All, God is Whole, and God is the same
throughout. God extends only God. Consciousness is the result of the idea
that something not of God has arisen in God. But, as God is only God, not-God
can only seem to exist. It is an illusory idea that is undone even as it
arises, splitting consciousness between Truth (God) and illusion (ego). The
Trinity is a concept in consciousness that explains What of God one can perceive
or realize in consciousness while making it clear Knowledge of God is beyond
consciousness. What of God one can be aware of in consciousness is called Christ.
Christ is the Source of Spirit, the experience of God-in-consciousness,
as Teacher or as Self. So, Christ bridges consciousness and Knowledge (God) and
Spirit bridges ego and Christ in consciousness.
For a visual representation
of this, imagine a blank piece of paper represents God. Now, if you took a
pencil and poked that paper lightly, the graphite left behind would represent
the idea of not-God (ego in individual consciousness). Christ would be
the paper beneath the graphite from the pencil. Spirit would be the fibers of
the paper that interact with the graphite. And consciousness would be that
interaction of paper fibers and graphite—the dot made by the poke of the pencil.
Because of the limitation of the dot, all the paper fibers can know of its
source and reality is the paper beneath the dot. It cannot know the entirety of
the paper until the graphite is completely gone.
God’s Creations, or Extensions—Christ
and Spirit—are Unchanging and Eternal as They are of God. But their delineation
from God as concepts and experiences and realizations in consciousness are
temporary as consciousness is temporary. God as a Triune does not go beyond
consciousness.
While one is in
ego-consciousness (the experience that consciousness is reality), Spirit can be
experienced as Comforter, Teacher, Guide, etc. And if ego falls away, one
realizes they are Spirit, of God-beyond-consciousness, and that consciousness
is a false, passing experience. Consciousness is then transforms into a
perception of the real world, a reflection of God’s Glory.
If all you know of God is
What you experience of God—Spirit—in consciousness, it is understandable that
you think that is all there is to know. Strictly speaking, it is not wholly
inaccurate to use the terms God, Christ, and Spirit
interchangeably, as God is One. But the terms, and the concepts behind them,
are useful for distinguishing illusion from Truth and consciousness from
Knowledge. After all, a bridge that reaches home only does so on one end. It is
not home itself. To think it is, is to be deluded. The journey is not complete
until the home end of the bridge is reached.
>>>>>
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.
Comments
Mind training involves both personal mind and spirit.
Without your efforts spirit cannot help.
The bodies eyes send what they “see” back to the mind.
The unhealed mind categories’ all messages from the eyes as “real” so they are believed to be true.
A student in mind training uses only two categories. Reality and Illusion.
The messages from the eyes are put into the either the Illusion basket or Reality basket.
In the beginning this is a ‘manual activity’ of the personal mind. You are doing it.
Spirit does the rest.
Forgiveness can seem difficult to understand as well as practice. The ego wants to be a part of the process and would have you see it this way. To begin practicing think of it as taking a letter to a mailbox and dropping it in and walking away. Once it is in the mailbox you don’t try to do the post offices job. Your part is done. With illusions we look at what is in front of us, think illusion and put it in the illusion basket and walk away. Our part is done. You can mail as many letters as you need to. The Holy Spirit may not need this but YOU do. This is a course in mind training.
“Like all lessons it is an illusion, for in reality there is nothing to learn. Yet this illusion must be replaced by a corrective device; another illusion that replaces the first so both can finally disappear. The first illusion, must be displaced before another thought system can take hold.” M.13.1.4-6