The Atonement and Conscious Awareness
God, being All, must contain the idea of Its Own opposite. But being All, God cannot have an opposite. The idea of not-God is simultaneously undone as soon as it arises because it is impossible.
But within the idea of
not-God is the idea of time, the opposite of Timelessness. And in time,
it seems as though the idea of not-God arose long ago and will be undone in
some indefinite future. The “space” in which this moment of undoing is depicted
like a story is called consciousness.
Everything that appears in
consciousness—nonmaterial and material forms, thoughts, feelings—is an
expression of consciousness. Within itself, consciousness seems to be split
into many expressions of itself, seemingly-individual consciousnesses. In
individual consciousnesses, the idea of not-God is represented by ego
and the Idea of God is represented by Spirit.
An individual consciousness
has three parts:
Conscious awareness. This is what appears in immediate
awareness. It consists of what the body’s eyes see but also thoughts, feelings,
and perceptions in immediate awareness. What is in conscious awareness is what
an individual consciousness thinks of as their “world.”
The subconscious. This
is what is just out of conscious awareness, largely because there is a limit to
what can be held in conscious awareness. So, what is in the subconscious is
eventually accessible to conscious awareness. (“I know I put my car keys
somewhere near the front door…”)
The unconscious. This
holds what is not in conscious awareness or the subconscious, including both
personal thoughts and memories and the rest of consciousness as a whole.
Since consciousness is split
between Spirit and ego, when ego is in conscious awareness, Spirit is still
here in the subconscious or unconscious. And as long as ego is still active in
an individual consciousness, when Spirit moves forward in conscious awareness,
ego is in the subconscious or unconscious.
Consciousness is the vacillating
movement of the idea of not-God and the Idea of God, of ego and Spirit, of
darkness and Light depicting the Atonement, that moment of the idea of not-God
arising and being simultaneously undone. As this movement depicts a moment
already over, it is predetermined. Consciousness is a depiction, or expression
of an impossible idea and its undoing, not for bringing something about. This
is why it does not have to be taken seriously.
As ego is only an idea, it
does not really exist. But as the idea opposed to God, it must assert its own
reality to seem to compete with God. This only occurs in consciousness, not in
God, so ego is determined to make consciousness real. It does this by
identifying with a neutral expression of consciousness, a person. And it makes
its world, its reality, in conscious awareness, what is appearing in
immediate awareness, what appears to be “the world” or “reality” in
consciousness.
Although the Atonement is depicted
at all levels of an individual consciousness, it is not complete until it is
manifested in conscious awareness. Notice that spiritual practices are
concerned with bringing God’s Spirit to conscious awareness. Notice that
ego’s resistance is to God’s Spirit in your conscious awareness. When we
speak of someone who is realized, enlightened, or awake,
we mean someone for whom the ego has fallen away and only God is reflected in
their conscious awareness.
Ego uses the subconscious and unconscious to build a deep timebound story with repressed thoughts and memories for the person with which it identifies. Held in the unconscious, unseen, unexamined, these thoughts and memories build a sense of reality for ego. But as Spirit moves forward, they are illuminated, and come to conscious awareness. Beside Reality’s Representative—Spirit—they are exposed as only ego’s stories for the person, and the Atonement is made manifest in conscious awareness.
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