ACIM Mentor

            One of the first things consciousness here noticed when the center shifted from ego to Spirit was the sense of personal learning and the growth that comes from that were gone. In what were once learning situations, it felt it was merely discovering information. Consciousness does not have an “I” of its own. And Spirit does not learn. So, as ego withdrew from the center of consciousness, information was revealed (like the correct orientation of ego, consciousness, and Spirit to each other), but there was no longer a false “I” to feel it was “learning something” that led to personal, growth, development, or evolution. However, consciousness here defaults to framing experiences in personal terms. It was distorted by ego to think this way. And in fact, its language, which reveals how it thought, was constructed by and for ego, making it awkward to communicate without the personal perspective. In writing, this is not too difficult. Consciousness he...

              Last week, I wrote again about two approaches to nonduality . One is that consciousness is God. And the other is God is beyond consciousness. I pointed out it can be difficult to discern which approach a certain teacher takes because sometimes they have not sorted it out for themselves. They may confuse consciousness with the Presence of Spirit in consciousness. I will explain why here. Consciousness represents duality in two ways. It seems to be a part of God sort of “carved out” for the idea of not-God to play out. So, it seems there are two realities, God and consciousness. And within itself, consciousness is split between the idea of not-God (ego) and the idea of God (Spirit), because God is All and cannot be wholly absent anywhere, not even in a false construction of reality. Ego is an idea in consciousness that denies the Onlyness of God through the assertion that consciousness is reality, either the only reality or a reality be...

            There is confusion out there in nonduality communities about consciousness (also called awareness or perception ) as there are conflicting teachings about whether consciousness is God or if God is beyond consciousness. I’ve written about this often, but as I keep running into this confusion, I revisit it here. First, I will define consciousness experientially rather than theoretically. Thoughts, ideas, feelings (both emotional and physical), energies, and the entire material universe are appearances and experiences that express consciousness. To some degree, everyone is aware of an individuated consciousness, or mind . For some more focused on experiences, the mind may seem incidental. But for others, the mind is more important. They may grow their awareness of mind more and more, through study,   meditation, and contemplation. Eventually, they may even become aware that their seemingly individual mind is not in a body (an appearance)...

             Referring to what was written in last week’s article further clarifying consciousness and what A Course in Miracles teaches about mind:   “May i ask, what is the difference between mind & consciousness? . . . and if my mind is part of God’s then i am so confused!  and so grateful that you care to clarify these terms!” – YH   I use the term “your mind” to refer to an individual consciousness. Upper case Mind in my writing would refer to God. A Course in Miracles doesn't sort out consciousness. It says it is not concerned with precise terminology or with getting into the structure of individual consciousness. Its emphasis is on experience over theory, which will lead to clarity. So, what it means by "you" depends on context. There are only two choices, ego or Christ. Christ   is the "your mind" in phrases that indicate "your mind is part of God's Mind." >>>>   If you have a ...

              All consciousness does is register the presence of either ego or Spirit. Much like memory foam, it receives the impression of one or the other, but it would bounce back to its original state—emptiness—if no thought system were there. It belongs to neither. What are these thought systems? Ideas. Spirit is the Idea of God. Ego is an idea opposed to God. Registering the presence of these ideas as thought systems is all that is going on in seemingly individual consciousnesses. Thoughts and feelings in consciousness are induced by ego or inspired by Spirit. What consciousness hears and feels as “I” is whichever thought system occupies it at the moment. The “I” feels the same either way, which is why it is confusing and makes it seem consciousness is the ”I”. But consciousness does not have agency. It is a “receptive mechanism”, as A Course in Miracles calls it. So, the experience of “I”, or identity , in consciousness simply means a thoug...

              In ego-consciousness, you can become aware of God within you—Christ. You can grow this awareness. You can learn to trust Christ’s Spirit (Holy Spirit) as your Guide, Teacher, and Therapist and make It your Constant Companion as you go about the world. In fact, you can make being in the world about being with Spirit. You can be a Spirit-centered person. This will help you to detach from ego, to mitigate the pain of ego. In my experience, it was the only way to live in ego-consciousness with any peace and happiness. But what you cannot do is make Spirit take center in consciousness, which causes ego to fall away. This is what is commonly called “awakening.” No amount of spiritual practice can bring this about. At most, it can prepare you for it, if it is to happen. And it is not necessary for it to happen. Ego will fall away, it will “die”, one way or another, either through awakening in consciousness or the death of the body. It is onl...

            Sometimes I am asked, “What do you see with spiritual Sight?” In A Course in Miracles , spiritual Sight is called right or true perception , the perception of the Holy Spirit , or the real world . Some seem to expect to see a different material world or to only see loving actions between bodies in the material world. But spiritual Sight does not involve the body’s eyes or the material world. It is a perception (consciousness) of the mind. Spirit sees Spirit, which can also be called Its Self, Love, or Unity (Oneness). The reason this is hard to understand until you have the experience is because ego obscures the perception of the mind by projecting its perceptions onto material forms seen by the body’s eyes. Spirit extends Spirit. And ego also extends itself but denies it is seeing itself. (Projection = extension + denial) Another way to put this is Spirit’s Seeing is only content —the content of the mind, which in Spirit’s case is only...

            Ego falling away from the center of consciousness allows for ego, consciousness, and Reality (Spirit) to be seen correctly and in their correct orientation to each other. Before this consciousness shifted from ego to Spirit, I said, and taught, “I am mistakenly identified with ego.” This was incorrect. There was no “I” apart from ego to be mistakenly identified with it. Ego is a false identity in itself , not the false identity of something else. Consciousness is a neutral space that registers the presence of ego or Spirit but does not identify with them. When ego held center in consciousness, its “I, I, I”, “me, me, me” was only itself. Ego did make it seem consciousness was an identity by projecting its identification on an appearance in consciousness, a person (body/personality). Ego lived in and as and through the person. It made it seem consciousness was an alternate reality to God. It distorted consciousness into something it was not. ...

          There are two similar experiences in the spiritual process that I think are important to distinguish because I have heard both referred to as “awakening experiences”, yet one occurs at the beginning of ego’s undoing and the other at the end. While they have a lot in common, they are obviously distinct stages. The first one is equivalent to the Period of Undoing in A Course in Miracles . (See the Manual for Teachers, Development of Trust, M-4.I.A). This is when Truth (God) dawns in your conscious awareness, transcending mere intellectual belief, and you know It is real and you know It is within you. You may not yet know It is all that is real, but It is here now in your awareness and will not leave you. This can be a joyous time, though not always wholly as it is often accompanied by a sense of loss, within as well as in your material life. And ego is threatened, although its full resistance to this dawning awareness may not come until later. You ma...

             Some readers and clients express confusion over whether A Course in Miracles is truly a nondual teaching. It is, but their confusion is because the Course’s foundational theory (its ontology and theology) is nonduality (only God is real) but its practice does not seem to be. That is because the practice meets you where you are, in ego-consciousness, or duality (the experience that both consciousness and God are real). Yet, the practice means to lead you to experience God (Holy Spirit, Christ) which will show you that only God is real. The introduction to the Course points out that you don’t need to seek for God (Love) but for your obstacles to God. Those are ideas that make separation from God—duality—seem real to you. Undoing them is what the Course is for. The Course leads you to an awareness of the Holy Spirit, or God in consciousness. Growing your trust in the Holy Spirit is how you grow your awareness of God’s Reality. And i...

  (This questioner [CS] had many questions, which are answered in last week’s and this week’s articles. I present each question and then its answer.)   “How are we to understand the 10 year restructuring  process given the recognition that time is a  ‘structure of ego’ that ‘seems to grant reality to consciousness’? Can the seeming reality consciousness of ego be understood in relation to what Jung refers to as the symbolic archetypes of collective unconsciousness where there is a shared unconscious belief system expressed within linear constructs of time and space across which the trajectory of life, birth and death appear to unfold sequentially…" I have been told that there is a ten-year process that follows a shift in consciousness from ego- to Spirit-consciousness like I experienced. I suspect it is more a de -structuring rather than re structuring process. However, as I described, I do not experience it as time passing, but rather that I am still as this pro...

            (This questioner [CS] had many questions, which are answered in this week’s and next week’s articles. I present each question and then its answer.)   “…Jung stated: ‘There are forms or images of a collective nature which occur practically all over the earth as constituents of myths and at the same time, as individual products of unconscious...These [archetypes] are imprinted and hardwired into our psyches.’ Considering the nature of ego and its structures as it correlates with Jung's collective unconscious archetypes in ‘Facing the Structures Left Behind’ (last week’s article), an encompassing understanding is sought with respect to how the terms ‘consciousness’, ‘awareness’, ‘conscious awareness’, and ‘unconsciousness’, are expressed or could be applied respectively to:   ‘Ego is the idea that consciousness is reality, and its structures are ideas and beliefs that uphold this idea [and] symbolize ego, the personal...

            A client who has read many awakening stories reminds me that after the shift in consciousness from ego to Spirit, one embarks on a ten-year process. Well, this month is five years, so I’m halfway there! It’s hard to believe it’s been five years. Oh, sure, if I look at all that’s unfolded in this mind since then, I can see where it took that much time to do so. But in the normal course of things, many different things happen in five years, and for me, only one thing has been occurring for five years, this process. It’s like I’ve been standing still while all this has gone on around me. After some things I’ve seen this week, I understand this process better. When I was confused about ego’s persistence after it seemed to fall away, a couple of people told me of others who described it as the ego “winding down”, like when you stop peddling a bicycle but continue to roll forward until the momentum is used up. I felt it like the “echo” of ego wa...

         I had a whole other article written for this week. I was revisiting the idea that you need to face your stories of trauma to get past them. I used an example from a writer I’ve mentioned before and then went into what was going on with me at that time. I seemed to be facing memories from when Liz was seven. I had a whole story of the effect those experiences had on the former life. It all made sense, seemed to explain a great deal. It was emotional, sad, and I spent hours speaking with Hannah about it, I didn’t get much sleep… And twenty-four hours later, it all collapsed in the awareness that none of that happened, I only thought it did. This did not apply to just the story that had occupied my mind for a day. That whole life, that whole experience of existence, did not occur. I wrote before about how time collapses into now for me. The past is only an idea in my mind now. It has no reality, it cannot hold up, these bouts back into delusion notwith...

          There are two ways in which the term unconditional love is used. One refers to Love that did not arise from any condition , like a person or a relationship, because It is What is. It is God’s Love and It rises spontaneously in your experience. You cannot make It happen. This definition is what many spiritual teachers mean when they use the term unconditional love .          The other refers to a form of personal love that many think of as ideal, even spiritual. It arises from psychological wholeness. It is “ I will love you, no matter the conditions.” Therefore:   Unconditional love means “I will love you, even if we are no longer together.” It does not mean, “I will stay with you under any conditions.” Unconditional love means, “I will love you, even if you change.” It does not mean, “I will stay with you, even if you change.” Unconditional love means, “ I will love you, even if I change.” It does not mean, “...

             When I write or speak about everything occurring in time and consciousness being predetermined as the depiction of the Atonement, or the moment of the idea of not-God arising and being simultaneously undone, readers and clients present certain questions. I answer a few common ones here.   “If everything is predetermined, why should I do anything?”   You will find your person doing things (or refraining from doing them), because this is the Atonement being depicted through your person . Knowing it is predetermined does not change how your expression of consciousness experiences consciousness. You feel desire or not, you feel motivation or not, you feel moved to act or not, you feel moved to make changes or not, you have a particular mood at any given moment, you find choices and decisions are required and you make them. All thoughts, feelings, and actions are the Atonement moving through consciousness. What you can ta...

           “Liz, you use the word ‘perfect’ often. In the past it has had one definition that is generally understood, but as used with the course it has become flexible depending on the situation in which it is used. If Jesus had a grave, he would be turning over in it. For instance, Jesus appreciated Edgar Cayce’s work but was always quick to point out his errors. Good work but not perfect. Your use of the word seems to have a different purpose. As a believer in predestination as part of the course you seem to use the word to bolster an interpretation or opinion. In this definition perfect and not perfect are allowed at the same time. This is getting uncomfortably close to reincarnation, not in form but intent.  There is an interpretation of the Course as I understand it, that takes away the need for this juggling. In any case would you explain your use of “perfect” and your intent.” —Anonymous   I believe you refer to my use of the word “per...