Ego-ized God

            In the past two weeks, I wrote about the spiritual ego as an effect of Spirit rising toward conscious awareness. A corollary to this is an ego-ized God, a version of God that does not question the reality of ego and consciousness, but rather validates them.

Let’s say God (Reality) is the sun, and the sun’s extension—sunlight—is Christ, and a house is consciousness. The house has an occupant, ego, and sunlight streams from outside the house into it through the window. This would be Spirit.

The sun is not concerned at all with the house or its occupant. The sun simply extends everywhere so its light extends even into the house. But the occupant of the house feels it and the house are all of reality and everything to do with the house is also therefore about it. So, when the sun streams in through the window, the occupant feels the sunlight is part of it and the house.  The occupant ignores the source of the sunlight, the sun beyond the house, because that would mean the occupant and its house are not all there is. In fact, it would call the occupant’s reality into question.

This is how it is for ego, which feels that it, along with its “domain”, consciousness, is reality and therefore everything in consciousness is about ego. Its idea of God does not call the reality of ego or consciousness into question. Therefore, Spirit, which is in consciousness merely because God is everywhere, to ego must be part of the reality of ego and consciousness. This validates ego as reality, it spiritualizes ego. And God as God is—Reality beyond consciousness—is denied.

Ego does more than anthropomorphize God. Even when ego can accept God is not like a person, its idea of God is there to serve the idea that ego and consciousness are reality. Ego will not say this outright, but it cannot accept an awareness of God that reveals that ego and consciousness are not real. So, God becomes ego-ized, and ego’s religions and spiritualities are shaped by ego to validate the reality of ego and consciousness. A prime example of this is ego’s sense of a “spiritual journey” over one or more lifetimes that grants meaning and purpose—reality—to ego and consciousness.

Yes, this means A Course in Miracles is no different from any other form of ego’s spiritualities and religions because it conflates ego and Spirit by speaking to ego as the “Son of God” and saying it has another part, Spirit. It would be more correct to say, “The Kingdom of Heaven is in consciousness with you” than to say, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you” as the “you” that takes in these words is ego. The Course describes very well how ego works and how ego makes itself miserable, and the relief it offers is to ego to be less miserable, for ego to transcend its harsher aspects, not for ego to fall away. The version of “awakening” the Course offers is for self-realization through an awareness of Spirit—an effect of Spirit rising to conscious awareness—not the enlightenment suggested by other versions of nonduality. After all, Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford asked for “another way” to be in the world, not for enlightenment. Many, however, read past the offer of self-realization to the deeper awareness that only God is Real, and take the Course in a different direction.

Only a few will come to see and understand the deeper forgiveness that the Course points to as ego falls away. By far, for most ego will remain the center of consciousness and, if Spirit rises toward conscious awareness, it will become spiritual and spiritualized and perhaps “serve” or be an “instrument” of an ego-ized God. Some may reach an advanced state of self-realization, as Bill Thetford did. Whatever happens, it is merely symbolic, because consciousness is just the play of ideas, of symbols. And ego’s spiritual transformation and ego-ized God, no matter what form they take, dimly represent the Reality of God, though ego will never accept God is beyond consciousness.

So, do not think that I am saying that a spiritualized ego and an ego-ized God are wrong. I am saying the opposite. They are the natural effect of Spirit rising to conscious awareness. I have been writing about the spiritualized ego and the ego-ized God because students sense the conflation and feel that a spiritualized ego and ego-ized God are “wrong”, mistakes to be avoided. And if the goal was for all to reach enlightenment, then it would be necessary to see them as a phase to pass through. But there is no goal for all as what is occurring in consciousness is an expression, a depiction, not to bring something about. Everything, always, is unfolding perfectly, and a spiritualized ego and an ego-ized God are symbols of the Atonement, of the correction of the perception that a reality apart from Reality (God) is possible.

Of course, ego cannot see beyond its own experience of itself as reality, it cannot accept the awareness that it is simply a depiction of an idea—a false one at that. In its sense of its own reality, it gives meaning, purpose, and value to what appears in consciousness. And what a teaching like the Course does is offer another way for ego to experience ego, one that is less painful, one that is inspired by God’s Love, not because God loves ego but because God’s Spirit is in consciousness with ego and It is Love and extends (shines its Light on) even to ego. The result is ego comes to express or depict the Atonement. So, what you can do when any conflict comes up because you read or sense that ego’s spirituality is false and that ego has made a false god, is look to the Spirit that inspires ego’s study and practice. The expression does not matter, its Inspiration is the only Truth in consciousness.

>>>> 

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.