Ask: Could you discuss the idea of the Holy Spirit?

         “I would like to see a discussion on what Christianity calls Holy Spirit.  As I see it, Christianity does not have exclusive ownership of it, it's just called something else in other spiritual teachings such as, spirit, consciousness, or presence. As I see it, it's the awareness that we all are…” – HC

 You are correct that there are universal experiences, some of which some call the Holy Spirit. I doubt there will ever be agreement on what any term means or to what experience they should be applied. It is up to the beholder to label their experiences. Most of us try to find labels that come close to how the experience is experienced or, if we are part of a tradition, to apply the label to what we think the label is supposed to mean in that context.

A Course in Miracles uses the term Holy Spirit for one’s inner teacher. It is the Voice for God in each of us that can reveal to us our part in the plan of the Atonement (correction of the perception of separation from God). It is the Bridge, or Correction, between God and us, or Knowledge and perception. It also says Jesus, along with you in your corrected state, is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit needs you to fulfill its role of correcting the perception of separation from God.

Spirit is an interesting word, in English anyway, as we use it to refer to so much, although it seems consistently something the body’s senses do not perceive but the mind does. For example, a sense of someone dead or far away is often referred to as their spirit. (“I sensed his spirit was near.”) We speak of the spirit of an endeavor, meaning its theme or goal. (“The spirit of the gathering was unity.”) We ask if someone is in “good spirits”, meaning, are they in a good mood? Something that is “spirited away”, is taken away in secret. Alcoholic drinks used to be referred to as spirits, no doubt because of ignorance over how they changed one’s mood. The original Latin for the word was spirare, which means breathe, and was later spiritus, which means breath. Holy was put in front of the word to denote something sacred or divine rather than ordinary and mundane, but still something perceived by the mind rather than seen in the material world. Lately in these articles it has been explained that ego senses something beyond itself in consciousness and translates this into something it can understand (and that is usually about ego) and the idea of Holy Spirit is a fine example of this. This is how it makes its religions and spiritualities.

You define Holy Spirit as “the awareness that we all are”. So be it, for you. For those who have an experience and use that term, they know for themselves what Holy Spirit means. The difficulty in defining it is for those who have not had an experience to which they feel it applies. They want to know what experience to look for so they can apply the label accurately. But, if they do have an experience, they’ll know that this is what to call the Holy Spirit.

 >>>> 

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ask: Any insights on accepting not having the partner and family I want?

“I am 39 and single, childless. I have spent the last 15 years doing everything (and at times letting go) to find a partner (and be the best I can be and absolutely everything under the sun) and have a family. This has not happened. I am a few months shy of 40, and am accepting the painful truth that it hasn’t and probably will not happen (I am not prepared to have a child on my own). It is so hard not to judge this as 'devastating' and 'wrong'.  I can’t even judge it as 'for the best' or 'meant to be'. I can’t seem to connect to the HS in my mind at the lesson or truth of this. There is shock, grief and denial. I’ve been able to accept spiritual understanding with so many things, but not this. In saying that, I am definitely in a process right now, and am quite certain I will come out the other side- I always do. Insights?” - HE             The first thing you need to clarify for yourself is that what does or does not ha...
Read more

Committed to the Spiritual Process

If you’ve been reading my blog/newsletter for the past few weeks then you know significant things have occurred in the life of this mind. Four years ago the ego (personal thought system) fell away. I didn’t realize it fully and I spent three and a half years personally in a rather barren place in this mind, though there was peace in the rest of my mind. I did feel done with the world, but I didn’t know what that meant. I just stayed with the feeling, wondering what would come next. The next thing arrived in this mind last summer with a subtle shift from emptiness to a delicious Spaciousness. This was followed by beautiful Golden Light, Love, and Joy filling the Space. Bewilderingly, an effect of this was a romance novel! From there, the Light and the shifts continued. During this time a client in Australia whom I have called Zelda in these articles, but whose real name is Hannah, became a friend as well. We grew closer over several months and began to experience a lot of sync...
Read more

Why It Is Important to Accept the "Dream" As It Is

A Course in Miracles teaches us that Reality is formless, eternal Being extending without limit. It likens our experience of Reality’s opposite - a universe of time-bound, limited form - to a “dream”. It isn’t real but it sure seems real when you think you are in it. Sometimes students ask, “If it’s a dream, why can’t anything be true? Why can’t reincarnation or unicorns or a ten-thousand year old earth or humans with wings or human civilization as the result of beings from other planets, etc. be true in the dream?” What they imply is that since it is a dream it can be anything one wants to dream it is Very simply, the dream cannot be anything but what it is because it is over. The “dream” is what the “dream” was . When ACIM says you are always looking at the past it means this on two levels: As a self you look at the present through the filter of your personal past. But on another level the entire experience of the universe of form is over or “past”. The idea of the opposit...
Read more