ACIM Mentor

              So, here’s what’s going on: “You are at home in God, dreaming of exile…” (T-10.I.2) You are of God, therefore you are already Perfect. Everything else is a dream. God being All must consider It’s Own opposite. But, being All, God cannot have an opposite. So, the moment the idea of the opposite of God arose, it was undone. But this impossible idea contains time, the opposite of Timelessness (Eternity). So, within the idea, it seems as though the idea of not-God arose long ago and will be undone in some indefinite future. The way A Course in Miracles puts this, the idea was given to Spirit, God’s Extension through Christ in time. So, time—or consciousness, illusion, or dream—is the Atonement , or an expression, or story, of undoing of an impossible idea that was over as soon as it was thought. So, everything that happens in time is predetermined. All thoughts, feelings, and actions are part of a complex tapestry of undoing unfolding. There is nothing to do but wat

            Watching your mind. Seeing through ego. Staying present. These are things that occur naturally in Spirit-consciousness. Until then, in ego-consciousness, you practice these things to mitigate the discomfort of ego. When teachers have shifted consciousness, they share these things, and it is almost as though they are saying, “Here, practice this, and you will attain the consciousness I have.” But Spirit-consciousness is not attained . It happens if it is going to happen. No practice brings it about. Last week, I wrote about being of God. Some want to know how this awareness is practiced , but it is not. This is the realization of Spirit-consciousness. What I have discovered is that ego-consciousness, or identification with the person/ego, was the manifestation of opposition to God. I could not do anything about that opposition in ego-consciousness but experience it and eventually recognize it. For a long time, I felt it as the 15%, or black box in the corner of my mind

             A Course in Miracles makes a distinction between God, Christ, and Spirit, while also explaining they are One. God is Source, and Christ and Spirit are God’s Extension (or Creation in the Course ). This is not merely to use familiar Christian symbols. The distinction is made because it is different to have a Source than to be the Source. Let me use again my analogy of sun and sunlight to illustrate this. If God were the sun, then sunlight would be Christ, Earth would be consciousness, and where sunlight reaches Earth would be Spirit. Sunlight is the sun’s extension as Christ/Spirit are God’s Extension. Sun and sunlight are one because a sun shines (extends) light. God and Christ/Spirit (Love, Wholeness, Peace, Happiness) are One because God’s Glory extends without limit. But cause and effect flow in only one direction. Sunlight establishes the sun’s causation , but it never causes the sun, just as Christ/Spirit establish God’s Causation but they never cause God. Ear

             Last week, I briefly mentioned some of the wonderful experiences I’ve had lately. Since I often write about the difficulty I’ve had, I thought I would elaborate on some of the good stuff. I also said in last week’s article that my awakening was not unfolding as I expected. The unexpected has not been all bad. I ended my memoir ( A Memoir of Christ: A Student of A Course in Miracles Awakens , available here) with a journal entry from this past May. In it, I described a wholly new experience. I was thinking about the darkness I passed through, and I felt a chuckle burble up from someplace within I had never felt before. The chuckle came with a joyful feeling of how silly —referring to the darkness. Those experiences were washed away as my feelings instantly lightened. This was true forgiveness! I felt this experience heralded a “world shift”, by which I meant a shift in my experience of what is real. Since, I have had more experiences of what I call the Cosmic Chuckle .

             A common theme in my writing once I began to shift consciousness was “this is not unfolding as I expected.” I didn’t know that I could not know what to expect. To a large degree, spiritual teachings have come down through contemplatives, who live a unique life away from the world, follow a strict tradition, and therefore have every reason to know from predecessors what to expect. As I said last week, students of A Course in Miracles do not have, and will never have, such a tradition. We follow Spirit and for each of us, our way will unfold uniquely. Keep this in mind as well when you read stories of awakenings and wonder which teacher’s experience is authentic and which is not, as they can sound so varied. I hear and read a lot of judgment from students who say things like, “No one who is awakening would say that, do that, think that…” Oh, you don’t know what they are called to think, say, do! If it is you part to awaken, you don’t know what you will be called to think,