The Difference Between the Movements of the Atonement and Spirit

             A Course in Miracles teaches that consciousness—this experience of being a person in a world—is the Atonement, or the depiction of the correction of the idea of separation from God. This means that there are two parts to consciousness/the Atonement—the false idea, represented by ego, and its correction, represented by Spirit. Therefore, everything that unfolds in consciousness is the Atonement, whether ego or Spirit. But this does not mean that everything that unfolds in consciousness is Spirit.

As consciousness depicts a moment that has already occurred—the idea of not-God arising and simultaneously being undone by God’s All-encompassing nature—how it unfolds is already predetermined, or, as the Course puts it, “the script is written.” In that sense, whatever occurs, even ego, is a perfect movement of the Atonement. But only the movement of Spirit is the movement of Spirit.

As one develops their awareness of Spirit and advances spiritually, their movement is determined more by Spirit and less by ego. In other words, their movements come less from a sense of separation from God and more from the awareness of God.

Here's an example:

 Heidi felt her strong feelings represented her authentic nature and followed just about every strong feeling she had. As ego dominated her consciousness, strictly speaking she wasn’t wrong. Most of her strong feelings were expressions of ego. Her life was chaotic, unstable, and full of drama. Eventually, however, she got tired of this. She went to see a therapist in the hopes of stabilizing her life.

She didn’t realize this, but this drama-fatigue was Spirit moving forward in her consciousness. She had been following ego almost exclusively. Spirit was moving forward to correct this.

The therapist was not overtly spiritual either, but she was aware of an “inner stability”, or “better nature”, or simply just of the process of “growing up” whereby one learns to question their impulses and consider their likely outcomes rather than to just go with every feeling. She helped Heidi become aware of a “more mature aspect” of her mind. Heidi began to think before she acted, she realized it was not wise to simply follow her feelings, she made healthier choices, and her life became more stable.

 While everything Heidi did before, during, and after her course of therapy was the movement of the Atonement, only the correction of questioning ego’s every urge to express itself was the movement of Spirit. If she had remained in her unstable, drama-filled life, it would still have been the expression of the Atonement, but it would not have represented the movement of Spirit.

If Heidi stopped there, much of her life would still be an expression of ego with the occasional movement of Spirit coming in to correct. But if she moved on to a spiritual approach and grew her awareness of Spirit within, her life would depict ego less and Spirit more. Her life would manifest the Atonement. Either way, it's all the expression of the Atonement, if not all the movement of Spirit in the Atonement. 

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