Just Another Ordinary Day in Heaven

              “Heaven is here. There is nowhere else. Heaven is now. There is no other time.”

(M-24.6:4-7)

 

Lately, there have been articles written here that speak of the ordinariness of truth—pure consciousness—and how it is always here. You may hear or read this in other places, too. Certainly, the everpresence of truth was something that Liz here had often heard and came to experience. But applying the word ordinary to truth was something she came across only relatively recently. So, what was expected was that when ego fell away and truth was fully revealed, it would be remarkable. She expected that the veil of ego covered something different from her usual experience so when it was gone, something different would be exposed. This expectation was largely due to overblown mystical experiences, which Liz thought revealed what A Course in Miracles calls the real world and were indeed out of the ordinary and remarkable. But those turned out to be powerful physiological responses to pure consciousness rising to conscious awareness. Oh, how ego glommed onto those! (It loves drama.) Ego’s inflated ideas of heaven block the awareness that the ordinary, everyday experience here all along is heaven. It is the experience of consciousness, of existence, that you have right now. Decades ago, Liz felt after those overblown experiences of light and love and joy passed that something was taken away. In fact, they were illusions, which she came to see when they came again. But what she didn’t see when they passed was she was left in heaven.

Soon after consciousness shifted here, there was an episode where “You can’t see that you can see” was heard often as ego was going through terrible death throes. This was misunderstood to mean that there was something lovely here that was just out of sight. No effort, though, could bring it to sight. But more than that, there was no sense of it being nearby. Despite those words and the sense that they were trying to convey something important, everything seemed as usual. This was confusing because it was clear a significant change had occurred, yet in many ways nothing had changed! Now, it is understood here that what “You can’t see that you can see” meant was “You already see and always have.” It didn’t feel any different because it wasn’t. Consciousness was, is, and always will be, well, consciousness. Ego was the foreigner in consciousness, so consciousness did not change when ego fell away. It was simply revealed to be heaven.

 Later, there was an episode of a shocking sense that there was a different experience of existence occurring. However, once again, there was no new experience. Existence seemed as it always had. And, again, no sense that there was something lovely nearby, just out of reach. In fact, that was how it felt before ego fell away, so didn’t The Shift mean it was supposed to be here? That sense of shock turned out to be a remnant of ego’s experience that something had changed. But what would seem new to ego was not new to existence. It isn’t that heaven is something new to be seen and experienced but that the consciousness and existence already seen and experienced is heaven. Heaven is ordinary after all.

When ego sits in your conscious awareness it projects the idea of heaven away from your usual experience. Ego says heaven is lofty, distant, extra-ordinary. When you hear, “We are all in heaven together” you may think it means we have souls or spirits somewhere special while we “dream” we are outside heaven. But what it means is that right now, right here, in our usual experience of consciousness and existence, we are in heaven.

Now, you may be despairing because you look around the material world and wonder how this could be heaven. Or you may be looking into your own mind and wonder how it could be heaven. But heaven is not the things that appear in consciousness; it is consciousness. The world and ego are appearances in consciousness—in heaven. Heaven is not some lofty, distant place of unimaginable beauty, but the ordinary, everyday experience of consciousness you are used to—just without ego. And without ego, the ordinary is revealed to be lovely, not dramatic. It is not overpowering love and joy, but peaceful, quiet, and gentle wholeness and lighthearted happiness.

Don’t go looking for this. If you do, you will overlook it because it is right here. Wait for truth to reveal itself. And anyway, what seeks is ego and what ego finds is ego. Consciousness is not the “I”—that is ego and just appearing in consciousness. Consciousness is not an identity—that is ego and just appearing in consciousness. Consciousness is not a self—that is ego and just appearing in consciousness. Consciousness—heaven—is the space or field in which the ideas of “I”, identity, and a self appear and play out. And consciousness is untouched by these appearances, these illusions to which the ordinary seems lofty and distant and extra-ordinary. 

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