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SearchWhat is "consciousness" as you use the term?
Question:
I recently read where you wrote, "Consciousness (split mind) seemed to come into 'existence' with the belief in separation from God, from Oneness." Do you mean ego-consciousness, the ordinary self-awareness that appears to exist in a body and has a name and so forth? I ask because I use the term 'consciousness' to mean that which creates and animates the illusory form; that which is an Aspect of God and never leaves His Mind—a part of the Mind of God. My understanding is that this Consciousness, being an Aspect of God, is eternal and plays and plays and plays, extending Love first in one direction, then in another, including making up and pretending to experience an illusion of separation complete with amnesia about Reality.
Answer:
Thanks for taking the time to write. I use the term "consciousness" as it is used in "A Course in Miracles." ACIM states:
"Consciousness is the receptive mechanism, receiving messages from above or below; from the Holy Spirit or the ego. Consciousness has levels and awareness can shift quite dramatically, but it cannot transcend the perceptual realm. At its highest, it becomes aware of the real world, and can be trained to do so increasingly. Yet the very fact that it has levels and can be trained demonstrates that it cannot reach knowledge."
"Revelation unites you directly with God. Miracles unite you directly with your brother. Neither emanates from consciousness, but both are experienced there. Consciousness is the state that induces action, though it does not inspire it."
"Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split introduced into the mind after the separation, making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator. Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego. The ego is a wrong-minded attempt to perceive yourself as you wish to be, rather than as you are. Yet you can know yourself only as you are, because that is all you can be sure of. Everything else is open to question."
"The means of the Atonement is forgiveness. The structure of "individual consciousness" is essentially irrelevant because it is a concept representing the "original error" or the "original sin." To study the error itself does not lead to correction, if you are indeed to succeed in overlooking the error. And it is just this process of overlooking at which the course aims."
"Very quietly now, with your eyes closed, try to let go of all the content that generally occupies your consciousness. Think of your mind as a vast circle, surrounded by a layer of heavy, dark clouds. You can see only the clouds because you seem to be standing outside the circle and quite apart from it. From where you stand, you can see no reason to believe there is a brilliant light hidden by the clouds. The clouds seem to be the only reality. They seem to be all there is to see. Therefore, you do not attempt to go through them and past them, which is the only way in which you would be really convinced of their lack of substance."
Consciousness is synonymous with split mind. It receives messages from "above" or "below,” the Holy Spirit or the ego. It is the focus of the mind training lessons in the ACIM Workbook and can be trained to reach the forgiven world that Jesus calls the "real world." This is the “dreamer of the dream” Perspective that I speak of frequently, which is a state of consistent peace and non-judgment. Revelation and miracles emanate from the Light beyond consciousness. God and Christ, Being Pure Eternal Abstract Light and Oneness, have nothing to do with consciousness, which is ‘split’ into illusory levels. In this sense, there is no "God Consciousness," for Oneness and split mind are not reconcilable. God and Christ are True and consciousness is make-believe or false. God and Christ are Spirit and consciousness is the belief that there is something else in addition to Spirit. Awakening could be described as the release of the make-believe "something else."
Creation is the Light beyond consciousness. Consciousness, being the domain of the ego, does not have creative ability. God creates the Eternal and the ego or error "makes" the finite, temporal, illusion of time-space. It is consciousness which seems to unlearn the ego (or split) and thus learn of forgiveness (perceived wholeness), yet the quotation above saying "it cannot reach knowledge" reflects the realization that consciousness is an illusion which must disappear before remembering the Knowledge of Heaven or Pure Oneness.
You wrote: "I use the term 'consciousness' to mean that which creates and animates the illusory form; that which is an Aspect of God and never leaves His Mind—a part of the Mind of God. My understanding is that this Consciousness, being an Aspect of God, is eternal and plays and plays and plays, extending Love first in one direction, then in another, including making up and pretending to experience an illusion of separation complete with amnesia about Reality." Christ never leaves the Mind of God, yet consciousness is the belief that Christ has left the Mind of God. Creation extends Eternally and as ACIM states: "God knows not form." Christ is an Eternal Idea in the Mind of God. It is the ego domain of consciousness which seems to be "...making up and pretending to experience an illusion of separation complete with amnesia about Reality." God does not forgive, for God has never condemned, yet forgiveness (release or letting go) applies to consciousness and thus to releasing the obstacles (what was ego-made) so that the mind can remember God, Christ, and Eternal Creation.
One of the key metaphysical ideas for understanding the importance and necessity of forgiveness of illusion, and the release and detachment from the judgment of the world, is stated in ACIM as follows: "The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what is fear except for love's absence? Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him. Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts." God Is. Christ is Awake in the Mind of God. The mind which sleeps and dreams of images appears to play with idols, toys of its own making, yet the Holy Spirit uses what was made to go far beyond what was made. The Holy Spirit Made a waking Dream cleansed of judgment. The Holy Spirit knows the distinction between the real and the unreal, and the judgment of the false AS false is the only meaningful judgment to be made. This Atonement is the gateway to freedom beyond all dreaming - to remembrance of Self as Christ in the Mind of God. God and Christ are Abstract Eternal Love, and the seeming world of parts and specifics is the veil which HAS BEEN forgiven.
The Kingdom of Heaven is within. I will use the metaphor mentioned in the ACIM Workbook. If Divine Mind were a vast Circle of Light and if this Circle was seemingly surrounded by dark clouds of false belief and perception, consciousness would be the illusory experience of being "outside" of the Circle. In sinking beneath the clouds of illusion, the experience is One of Pure Light. In Truth, Light cannot be surrounded or circumscribed, for Light is literally the Allness of God and Christ Which Know Perfect Oneness. I rejoice in the forgiveness of illusion, for a Child of God cannot be limited in awareness except by illusory belief. And happily, this need not be.
I love You forever and ever,
David