Choosing a Better Story

            After the shift in consciousness here I had the sense of making a 180-degree turn in outlook. It felt like the turn radius of something huge, like a ship that makes a long arc to turn around instead of the neat U-turn of a small car. It felt like I had been looking at things backwards and now I would see things from the correct point of view. It took a while to come to fruition. It turns out that what appears in consciousness is a predetermined expression and aspiration—trying to reach a goal—was just part of the expression, it was nothing real, because there was no one here that needed to get somewhere. The appearance that there is, is just that—an appearance. It is ego’s story, and it is just a depiction of an idea.

The thing is, I can share what is seen in enlightenment, but I cannot teach it in such a way that it becomes your living experience. If you cannot see that what is appearing in consciousness is only an expression, you cannot force yourself to see it. And anyway, it doesn’t change the movement to act or to refrain from acting, thoughts, and feelings to see these are only expressions. What does change when you see this is you understand that they are nothing and the space in which they appear is everything.

What can change are the stories, which is what something like A Course in Miracles is for. In ego’s world, choice and willingness make sense. If you have harsh interpretations of what has occurred or is occurring, you can be given another story by your inner teacher. This is what the Course shows you: You are never bothered by something that happened in the past. You have feelings of bother about what happened in the past. You don’t fear what may happen in the future. You fear how you will feel about what happens. You fear bad feelings; you fear they may overwhelm you, that you may not be able to cope. And these feelings are due to stories, the way you frame, what has or may occur. So, change the story and you shift your experience away from bother and fear.

There is no benefit in bypassing the awareness of an inner teacher because you want to pretend to be more spiritually advanced. But there is great benefit in growing your awareness of and trust in your inner teacher. Liz’s ego life with her inner teacher as constant companion was the best way to live. Relief from the ego’s harsh stories was always available. It was the best kind of “brain washing” and exposed how what occurred was neutral because it was open to interpretation. Stories, and therefore feelings, could change.

Seeing an illusion is not delusional. Believing in it is delusional. But that is the state of ego, an idea that believes in itself, in the reality it makes. However, as long as an illusion appears as reality, you can choose how you see it, whether you will follow the inner teacher of truth or pure ego.

The shift in consciousness also revealed that for ego here, the Course was its deepest delusion. To pure consciousness, the Course is what a lovely fairytale is to ego. It is just a different kind of story. For ego here, the delusion was not wanting a better way, having a relationship with the inner teacher, or practicing the Course, but thinking that these were something real. It hid its belief in itself in the Course even as truth rising to conscious awareness was expressed through these desires and practices. This could not be helped and was only revealed as ego has fallen away. 

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