Truth Reclaiming

           Imagine a significant plot of land. It has grass and trees and shrubs. There are animals and insects, bacteria and fungi living there. The wind blows, rain and snow falls, the sun beats down. Life thrives. And then, one day, someone comes and builds a house on the land. It’s really no big deal because nature, life, continues around it and it will, left to its own devices, take it over. But the builder comes to live in the house. They build a fence to keep animals out, they spray pesticides regularly to hold the insects at bay, they landscape the property inside the fence to keep nature away from taking over the house, and they maintain the building to withstand the wind, rain, snow, and sun.

Still, sometimes animals and insects, rain and snow make their way into the house, the sun eats away at the fence and roof and siding of the house, and the grass and plants require persistent tending to hold them off. It is hard work to deny nature.

Then one day the builder is gone. And indeed, over time, nature takes over.  The sun and wind and rain and snow take their toll on the fence and house. The grass, trees, and bushes run wild and break through the roof and cause small holes in the walls. Animals and insects, bacteria and fungi move in. Bit by bit the house and fence collapse and turn to dust and no trace is left of them or their builder.

This is an analogy for what has gone on in this mind since The Break when pure consciousness (truth) broke fully into conscious awareness, causing ego to fall away. The land is consciousness, the fence and house are the material world and mental structures ego built, and ego was the builder/occupant. Ego left but its world and its thought system remained to fall away. They have only ever been appearances without meaning to pure consciousness, and as they fall away, pure consciousness easily reclaims the space they occupied. It isn’t concerned with what was there or with what remains to fall away. They were never real to it anyway. The idea of ego, of denial-of-truth, never interfered with pure consciousness, which only had to wait patiently for it to run its course and fall away so pure consciousness could resume in the space it had occupied.

What is this like? Some experiences are familiar because, after all, truth has always been here and there was some awareness of truth here for a long while. These have become more pronounced without ego downplaying them. The person (body and personality) and her life are recognized to be neutral and to have no meaning in themselves. And more interesting, new experiences are unfolding. For example, time breaking down and finding a compelling here that is not a place and a now that is timeless. It has been 9 years since the process of ego falling away began and 8 since The Break and yet it feels as though it has been just this timeless moment all along. Time and process fall away with ego. All sense of continuity, past or future, is melting away and the constant is found to be here, abundant, free, expansive, happy, and peaceful. Things appear and fall away. There is nothing to hold onto them or to resist them.

This herenow is not something attained through practice. The most practice could muster was the present between the past and future of time. The bright and shiny herenow is revealed to simply be what is here when ego is not. Right now, this is the most noticeable new experience to be revealed as not new at all but what was here all along. There have been glimpses of others yet to fully unfold.

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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

nicci said…
liz, a clarification is needed:
"This herenow is not something attained through practice." yes.. this is aligning with what is unfolding here.. but the falling away of ego that is growing this herenow awareness (what a process!) does appear to be the result of practice.
has this been your experience?

in any event, this post has been very helpful and i can feel the distinction taking me deeper. grateful ever.

ACIM Mentor said…
Nicci, no, what I experience now just comes, it has not been the result of practice or of invitation. All practice did was help me maintain the awareness I already had. Practice meant I was experiencing what I already experienced more often, so, "growth" in that sense, but it did not cause the herenow I experience now to come.
nicc said…
ah. this has put a new light on what is occurring.... thank you ever. n
Anonymous said…
Is our seeming experience of the atonement taking place in the brain or mind?
ACIM Mentor said…
In your mind. The brain, and the rest of the body, and the whole material world, is just an appearance in your mind.

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