Ask: Shouldn't we avoid labels and see Christ in everyone?

           A couple of weeks ago I posted an article in which I referred to someone on the national stage as a narcissistic sociopath. The article was about projection, but some have taken issue with me labeling someone. (More on labels at the end of this article.)  They ask, aren’t we supposed to see Christ in everyone?

Let me share the experience here with that idea.

When Liz here was first a student of A Course in Miracles she had the spontaneous mystical experience of seeing the reflection of a self that was not Liz “in another” for a brief time. It was an experience of oneness. She understood this self to be universal, not limited to her, or to the other. She didn’t call this Christ at the time but knew this experience of oneness was what was meant by Christ. (It could also be called holiness or divinity or true self). The experience faded but was never forgotten.

Although she referred to it as seeing the universal self “in another” the universal aspect of the experience revealed it was not “in” the other. It was more like thinking of the other was the doorway into the vision of one consciousness that wiped out “me” and “other”. In other words, it was merely coincidental that it was that particular person with which she had the experience. This was not something ego wanted to see, because it wanted this to be a relationship with special significance. But the experience belied that.

That experience came spontaneously and could not be conjured, but Liz went on and practiced the ideas in the Course, including trying to see Christ in others as she had with that person. But she couldn’t. In time, she became frustrated with this and with trying to forgive as the Course teaches, seeing what seemed to cause an upset was not real. (These are, of course, related practices.) That was not happening either. But there were two things that worked for her, communing with God daily and her ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit (the teaching aspect of Christ). She decided, screw it, she was going to forget everything else and focus on just those two things. And in so doing she stumbled into forgiveness! When with others, she stopped trying to see Christ “in” them but instead turned her mind to Christ (Holy Spirit). She saw Christ instead of the other and knew Christ was real, not the person.

This made too much sense. Because, after all, how was she to see Christ “in” another? In the body that was not real? Certainly not in the ego. How about their personality, which varied so much from person to person, and always had its darker side? It could only be that she would see Christ instead of another. Even if Liz was to visualize something symbolic, like light, to represent Christ, it would still be the light instead of a person. This was in line with the experience that had come spontaneously, seeing something universal, not specific.

And this was also in line with so much else that Liz was experiencing, her mind shifting away from the world, not further into it in a loving or “spiritual” way. When oneness experiences came again and Liz was able to be with them for a longer time, she discovered she was not one with what she was looking upon. She was experiencing oneness—really, onlyness—and there was something appearing. It did not matter what the appearance was or how she personally saw it. The oneness experience was quite apart from what was appearing, not just to the body’s eyes, but also Liz’s thoughts and feelings.

When peace came here, it did not come to ego. When the enlightened mind came to stay in conscious awareness here, it did not come to or change ego. Ego went on as it had always been, albeit now with growing discomfort as its contrast to peace was made obvious.

This revealed two consciousnesses, two worlds, that do not intersect. This is not duality, because one is real and the other is an illusion—only appears to be real. Ego (illusion) struggled to reconcile them to make itself real but that would never happen. Ego didn’t change into truth; it fell away. 

The consciousness called Christ is here, completely untouched by the person and ego, or any other appearance or experience. There is no “practice” of seeing Christ in others or even instead of them because it is here. But it is not here “in” Liz. So, Liz does not pretend to not see and experience what she does see and experience, right or wrong, good or bad, light or dark, love or fear, truth or illusion. Without ego, there is nothing “working on” Liz to make her self-actualized or spiritually correct or a good person. Liz and the remnants of ego still falling away are quite apart from truth and will never be made into truth. Truth and illusion are never reconciled.

Teachings like the Course have been revealed here to be a better way in ego consciousness, they are not truth. Liz is not enlightened, but there is a consciousness of truth here. Liz cannot teach that consciousness, but she can teach the better way that was experienced when ego was here. And that better way was fostered by looking at ego’s projections and taking responsibility for them, which is what that article was about.

(About labels: They are a shorthand way to communicate with each other. If I say, “Bob is a clown” then you know he is either a performer who dresses up in strange clothes and a lot of make-up or he jokes around a lot. (Or maybe both.) Labels save a lot of explaining.

No one ever complains when a label has a positive connotation. If I say “Sue is a sunny person” someone might disagree, but no one will say she shouldn’t be labeled. The issue is not with labeling, but with the hearer’s discomfort with a label. And, again, we are back to projection, the meaning the hearer gives to the label that so disturbs them.)

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