Christ-consciousness Is the Awareness that God Is Everything

1 – Creation

“Just as the creation story had to start somewhere—so you had to start somewhere. . . . Thus there must be a difference between life-consciousness and Christ-consciousness, since you have been life-conscious without being Christ-conscious. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 17)”

2 – Eternity

We have been in eternity for a very long time. There is no way to recall when we were separated from God in illusion. After this happened, we were conscious of life, but no longer of union, no longer of Christ-consciousness. And no longer did we see God as our Friend. The die was cast; we were outside of the Garden of Eden.

3 – Life-conscious

We have thus been life-conscious. Now we seek to become Christ-conscious, though this is not totally in our control. God, as Union, makes this decision. But we are part of God. God is everywhere, and everything. He is the All, the One, the union that we seek to experience now.

4 – Christ-consciousness – a Definition

“You have been told Christ-consciousness is neither God nor man but the relationship that allows the awareness that God is everything. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 17)”

5 – Who We Are

This quotation gives a definition of Christ-consciousness that will aid our discovery and recreation of Who we are. We have a relationship with God, when we have reached Christ-consciousness, that is different from the egoic state of mind. We are living in wholeheartedness, a union of mind and heart that Jesus described in A Course of Love’s original volume.

6 – God

Do we really believe that God is everything? Do we really believe this? Let us entertain the possibility that the earth, indeed the universe, is not God’s handiwork, but, so to speak, His Body. Out of what would He create, if not from Himself? Try to open your mind a little to encompass this great idea. The idea will tease you out of thought, get you out of your mind. And knowing that this Body of God is Love personified, we can rest easy. We do not have to have primordial fears.

7 – The “I Am”

“Christ is the ‘I Am’ of God, the expression of ‘I Am’ in form, the animator and the animated, the informer and the informed, the movement, being, and expression of creation. Christ is that which anointed form with the ‘I Am’ of God. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 17)”

8 – Elevated Self of Form

Here we are verging into the “elevated Self of form.” This phrase, so far as I know, is unique to A Course of Love. Only A Course of Love comes up in a Google search, and the phrase is used only in my own blog. So we see that in A Course of Love, Jesus is not negating the body, but elevating it to something better than it has ever been. We will still be physical, on this earth and in this world, but everything else will have changed in Christ-consciousness.

9 – Physical Form

To think that form, physical form, was anointed the “I Am” of God in the elevated Self of form is a gigantic statement, a truly momentous choice to make in this world.

10 – Drive

“What is the drive that kept you reading the Course, caused you to enter this dialogue, kept you examining, kept you attempting to move beyond learning to a new means of knowing? Christ-consciousness. This is why it was said in the beginning pages of the Course that the Christ in you was the learner. The Christ in you is what was created to inspire movement beyond simple awareness to knowing. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 17)”

11 – Christ

The Christ in us is apparently present in embryo form long before we are gifted with Christ-consciousness. The Self that is Christ has always been within; God has always been there. We may be aware, in an intellectual sense, that Christ is within, but this awareness will soon move to knowing, which is a much bigger concept.

12 – Knowing

Knowing is comforting. It is beyond perception, which is our normal mode of operating with the outside world. When we know something, we are certain in a way that no other kind of awareness can give us. We don’t need proof when we know. Jung was once quoted as saying that he knew that God existed: “I don’t think, I know.” Certainly he was a mystic as well as an intellectual, and his word does help us to realize that men of great intellect are not dissuaded from belief by intellectual doubts, at least not always.

13 – Study

So it has been the Christ within Who has led us to study diligently A Course of Love. We might extrapolate from that that the Christ within also led us to study diligently A Course in Miracles. We have not been walking in the dark. Christ, our real Self, has been influencing us all along. A great comfort to realize.

14 – Challenged Patterns of Learning

“There have always been individuals who challenged the predominant patterns of learning because of the strength of their connection to Christ-consciousness. While no one has more access to Christ-consciousness than another, some exhibited more willingness to let that consciousness be their guiding force—that by which their being gained movement and expression. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 17)”

15 – Inner Direction

The more inner-directed among us have allowed their inner Christ to have full influence on them. These are individuals who are not peer-pressured to the same extent as others of us. And many of us move to inner direction when we realize that inner direction is the only thing that can take us home in God.

16 – Jesus

Leaders in the spiritual realm have been pioneers in following the Christ within. And sometimes they suffered for it, Jesus of course being the most obvious example.

17 – Access

So we all have the same access, but not all listened to this access to the same extent. Not all heard what the Christ Self was trying to say.

18 – Time of Christ

“What Jesus represented or demonstrated has now been realized, which is why this is called the time of Christ. The ‘time’ of Christ, whom so many associate with Jesus Christ, represents the ‘time’ of fulfillment of the way of Jesus. What could be taught and learned has been taught and learned. Now it is time to move beyond what could be taught and learned to what can only be realized through relationship. Now is the time of the final revelation of what can be realized, or made real, through following the example life of Jesus. (A Course of Love: Dialogues)”

19 – Time of Learning

We have been in a time of learning, a time that emphasized the mind. As we move into Christ-consciousness, we are bade to come into knowing. The mind and its learning have fulfilled their time. We are now to move into the sustaining of Christ-consciousness, rather than simply the maintenance of this state intermittently.

20 – Acceptance

The way of Jesus was acceptance, and the realization of an example life. It was Christ-consciousness through teaching and learning. Now we are coming into a different form of Christ-consciousness, through relationship, which is exemplified in the life of Mary, his mother. We have “learned” all that we can; we are encouraged now to live with our feelings in relationships. We will truly “know.” And this knowing is beyond needing proof of any kind. It is the fulfillment of all that the sustaining of Christ-consciousness can offer to us.

21 – Mary

“Christ-consciousness was represented not only by Jesus, but by his mother, Mary. Mary, like Jesus, realized full Christ-consciousness and full expression of Christ-consciousness in form. Each did so in individual ways, ways that revealed the choices available to those who would follow them. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 17)”

22 – Relationship

Day Seventeen affirms that Mary also realized Christ-consciousness. But as Jesus accepted, and was an example life, Mary taught through relationship. And it is this time of relationships in which we find ourselves now. The final paragraph in this chapter begins, “Thus we enter the ending stage of what can be realized through fulfillment of the way of Jesus and the beginning of the fulfillment of the way of Mary.”

23 – Christ-consciousness in Mary

We learn that Mary also realized Christ-consciousness. We learn also that the example life of Jesus was one of “doing,” and that Mary’s life was one of “being.” The being aspects are relationship-oriented, and are not so much out in the world. Jesus needed the support of the “being” of Mary to fulfill his work. All of us need the support of both types of personalities: doing and being. There are aspects of both in each of us, but previously the “doing” has received most attention. Being is coming into its own, though, as the wave of the future.

24 – Second Coming of Christ

This generation will see the culmination of the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus never says anything about what he means by this in regard to physicality. Whether or not there will be another incarnation is left to doubt. But the understandings of this era do place it squarely in the Second Coming. And we can be grateful that this is so.

25 – Teaching and Learning

“What could be taught and learned has been taught and learned. Now it is time to move beyond what could be taught and learned to what can only be realized through relationship. Now is the time of the final revelation of what can be realized, or made real, through following the example of Jesus. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 17)”

26 – Doing and Being

We are still now following the example of Jesus: Most of us are doing, as opposed to simply being. The time will come when this will change.

27 – A Change

“Thus we enter the ending stage of what can be realized through fulfillment of the way of Jesus and the beginning of the fulfillment of the way of Mary. This ending stage of the fulfillment of the way of Jesus is the stage of interaction with the world, the time of miracles, the death of the old way and the birth of the new. (Dialogues of A Course of Love, Day 17)”

28 – Doing

We are now in this ending stage of the time that we will be constantly doing. We do miracles (when prompted by Jesus). We work in the world. But later on our real work will be inner work, work that will find its genesis in relationships one to the other. We will then truly know what love is all about.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I am so used to learning. I have sought You in so many ways, and now I am tired of seeking. You, through Jesus, tell me that the time of learning is over, that knowing will happen now. Thank You. I realize that I have longed for this, without realizing what I longed to reach.

May I reach out to others through more loving relationships to them. This heralds the time of Mary, and,, while I do not fully comprehend what this means, I know that the living out of it will make it clearer. Jesus, please guide me in this new phase of my development as a spiritual being.

Thank You for the gifts with which I have been blessed this day. Today has been good, and I pray that tomorrow will be likewise. Thank You for the insight that You have granted me today, but may I not be tempted to think of any insight in an egoic way. I would be rid of the ego, though I also know that turning aside is best. A frontal assault on the ego would be resistance, and that would only cement it further in my mind. Be with me as I move into living in an ego-less state. Be with all of us as we do this.

Amen.

Glass in which the Ego Sees its Face Is Dark Indeed

“If you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. That you do listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings and your behavior. Yet this is what you want. This is what you are fighting to keep, and what you are vigilant to save. Your mind is filled with schemes to save the face of your ego, and you do not seek the face of Christ. The glass in which the ego seeks to see its face is dark indeed. (T-4.IV.1)”

Affirmation: “I would hear the Voice for God today.”

Reflections:

1 – Holy Spirit

A Course in Miracles is written for the time of the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, the Universal Inspiration. A Course of Love is written for the time of the second coming of Christ, though in this trilogy no predictions are ever made about a physical second coming of Jesus. Now that we are taking a look, again, at part of ACIM, we need to realize that there is great importance in listening for the Voice. Do we actually hear anything? Probably not. If we did hear something, we probably would fear for our sanity.

2 – Guidance

But the guidance of the Holy Spirit comes in promptings, feelings, intuition. The guidance comes in a chance word overheard from friends or even strangers. The guidance from a word written in a book that we are reading. And there are innumerable other ways that the Holy Spirit speaks. (“The Gift of Guidance,” available in this blog as a lengthy article, identifies ten common ways that the Holy Spirit speaks to us. Click on “Articles and Book Reviews” in the bar at the top of the screen.)

3 – The Voice

At this point in reading ACIM we are still listening to our ego. We don’t know anything else to do. The idea that there is a Voice that can accurately tell us what next to do is foreign to us. It means relinquishing our own judgment, and we find this difficult, because the world has focused on educating our judgment to try to make sound decisions in this world. ACIM takes the opposite tack.

4 – No Harm

It is important to know that guidance, the Voice, the Holy Spirit, will never counsel us to say or do anything that is harmful to ourselves or to others. So we need to test our this guidance until the guidance becomes a reliable guide for us. The ego is wily, and we can sometimes interpret the voice of the ego for the Voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is quiet; the ego is raucous. The Holy Spirit is gentle; the ego is insistent. We will not be forced in any way by the Holy Spirit. It is always our decision to follow Him.

5 – Pathway

And the decision to follow becomes easier as we see how much more smoothly our pathway becomes.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I listen to guidance today. I say this to You a lot, and I do mean it. I find that my life flows much more smoothly with the helps that You give me. Thank You.

May my brothers and sisters have a good day today. And may I as well. The day is starting off brightly, and I have hope. Thank You for that hope.

Amen.

Time of Second Coming of Christ Is Here

“I [Jesus] have said that contrast is a favored teaching device of the Holy Spirit.  But I have not yet said that the time of the Holy Spirit is ending even though I have stated that the time of the second coming of Christ is here.  (Treatises of A Course of Love:  Treatise on the Art of Thought, 7.4)”

Affirmation:  “I welcome the time of the second coming of Christ.”

Reflections:

1 – Guidance in a New Era

This passage will be of especial interest to students of A Course in Miracles, for ACIM was focused on following the Holy Spirit for guidance, very specific guidance in daily life.  The Holy Spirit was defined as the Universal Inspiration (from ACIM).  How do we get guidance in this new era?

2 – Holy Spirit

I think that we look to the Christ within, the Self/Christ that is one with God.  This Self can be misunderstood by our personal (or “little”) self, but if we are vigilant, we will choose aright when we look within.  If we listen to our hearts and minds in merger for wholeheartedness, we will not feel bereft to hear that the time of the Holy Spirit is ending.  He was with us for 2,000 years, beginning with Pentecost (described in the New Testament).  His role, Jesus seems to be saying, is ending because we have moved beyond Him.

3 – Second Coming of Christ

When the second coming of Christ is upon us, we will see and know much that we only dimly recognize now.  We will be able to contrast the past with the present, and we will welcome a future that is better in all respects to what preceded it.  We will love with a greater love, and we will respond from a full heart.  Our brothers and sisters will truly be soul mates–all of us (an interpretation, not stated in ACOL).

4 – A Welcome

Let us welcome the time of the second coming of Christ, even though, of course, we do not as yet fully understand what such a time can bring us.  The contrast between the old and the new will be instructive to us.

5 – Better World

And we will live in a better world.  A heaven on earth.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for the assurance that the time of the Second Coming of Christ is upon us, though nowhere does Jesus promise that this means a physical return.  He is silent on that question.  And so we must wonder:  Will the Second Coming be metaphorical, or will it be a fleshly being?

I do not have to torture myself with these questions.  The Answer will be as right as the question.  

May all of us come to understand, as time goes by, what the Second Coming really means, and may we thank You for that understanding.

Amen.

Miracle-Mindedness

“[W]hat happens when this oneness is accomplished is that divine memories arise to replace perception.  This is miracle-mindedness.  The accomplishment of this state of being is what you are here for.  It is your return to your Self.  It heralds the return of heaven through the second coming of Christ, the energy that will bridge the two worlds.  (Treatises of A Course of Love:  Treatise on the Art of Thought, 6.9)”

Affirmation:  “I seek oneness today.”

Reflections:

1 – Divine Memories

There is much of importance summarized in this short passage for today.  We do want divine memories to replace perception, for divine memories include memories of the real world, and the real world is not one seen through perception.  Perception is always inaccurate, to one degree or another.  It is true that miracles themselves are perceptual (from A Course in Miracles), but they are the highest form of perception.  And when we have reached miracle-mindedness as a constant state, we will know our Self/Christ.  And we will embody the elevated Self of form.  We will have reached Christ-consciousness.  And heaven will be with us, for which we do not have to die.

2 – Promises

These are genuine promises made in the Treatises of A Course of Love.  And when believed, these promises are enormously liberating.  We know that we can experience heaven on earth, even before we in fact do experience it.  We also see snatches, glimpses, of heaven on earth before this state is continuously experienced.

3 – Time of Christ

We are, according to the trilogy of ACOL, in the time of the second coming of Christ.  The books never identify if there is to be a physical embodiment of Jesus again.  The spiritual entity of Jesus is with us, though, for certain.  He comes in response to one unequivocal call, a statement from A Course in Miracles that I have often quoted in this blog.  I have found it to be true.  Not that I have seen a vision, but that I have experienced the calm that comes from imagining that Jesus is near.  And does he not immediately calm the heart as the first step to all healing?  Distraught people do not usually believe that healing is possible, and belief in healing is necessary, if we can believe the New Testament, and I believe that we can.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would replace my perceptual memories today with divine memories.  This is a step toward the sustaining of Christ-consciousness.  And You are there for me, as is Jesus.  Never let doubts come to me.  May I have no dark night of the soul.  And, if trouble comes, may I always know to Whom to turn–You.

We are living in the time of Christ.  This is a great blessing.  This world does not seem yet to recognize this, for this world is very troubled.  But the healing of our world will come, and I believe sooner than we think.

Be with us today for a good day.  I ask this so often, because a string of pearls, like good days, is a beauty to behold.  Help me to know Your guidance today, and to follow it unflinchingly.

Amen.