Question asked of Liz Cronkhite:

I get a lot of comfort from reading A Course in Miracles (ACIM) but I have to admit I have not had some of the spiritual experiences that others say they have. I feel guilty to say this, but I’m not sure I really believe everything I read and frankly I’m not always sure I believe in a God…

Liz’s answer:

First, I want to point out that the feeling of comfort that you have when you read A Course in Miracles is the Holy Spirit (Teacher of Truth) within you. So that is one spiritual experience that you do have. It’s important to recognize that you do feel the Holy Spirit when you read ACIM so that you can recognize the experience in other contexts as well.

There is never any reason to feel guilty for being honest. In fact, you cannot move forward without first acknowledging to yourself what you are truly experiencing. There are two lies that people commonly perpetrate against themselves on a spiritual path that are huge obstacles to peace. One is thinking that “belief” is all that is required. But “belief” is only a decision to intellectually accept something as true whether or not you have experienced it as true. It’s really a con that you play on yourself. You either experience God (Reality; True Being) as real or you do not. So “believing in” God means nothing. Experiencing God is the goal and leads to true peace.

The other lie that many perpetrate against themselves is blind “faith” in God. But you either trust God or you do not. Pretending to trust God when you do not really do so only increases your fear, stress, and guilt. Trust comes after many, many experiences of God because God is a wholly different experience from the one that you are used to in your identification with a limited body/self. You cannot force trust. You either feel it or you don’t.

Acknowledge your doubts to the Holy Spirit, even if you are not certain It exists. You have nothing to lose being open and willing to experience God. If God turns out not to exist then everything stays the same. You won’t gain anything, but you won’t lose anything, either. And if God turns out to be true then you gain Everything. Even after many experiences of God I often fell into doubt and I’d say, “I don’t know if You exist but I’m willing to experience You if You do.” More important than the words was a feeling of true openness. And always something occurred within me to show me that my True Being is beyond the limited experience of the self.

In time, after many undeniable experiences of God, you will not give power to the doubts. The ego (personal thought system) will never accept that God is real, but it speaks only for itself, never for you. You will know that God is real and release the ego.

Liz’s Blog, ACIM Mentor

There is only AWARENESS.

Sages have called this by many names—God, Pure Spirit, I AM THAT AM, Absolute Reality, the Nondual Self, Brahman/Atman, Being-Awareness-Bliss, Tao, Unborn Buddha-nature, Dharmakaya, Zen Mind, Clear Light, the One, and so on.

Awareness, while being entirely open, transcendent, formless, changeless, timeless, spaceless, and world-less, is also THIS which is right now looking, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, thinking, intuiting. Awareness has also manifested ItSelf as all these sensible/perceptible objects—namely, the various sights, sounds, textures, smells, tastes, thoughts, memories, emotions, psychic impulses and other momentary arising-vanishing formations or phenomena.

Awareness is thus WHO YOU REALLY ARE and EVERYTHING EXPERIENCED, that is to say, Awareness is WHAT EVERYTHING ESSENTIALLY IS. The phenomenal universe of minds and bodies (99.9999999999% empty space at the subatomic level, according to physics) is the marvelous, mysterious “dream-play” of Divine Awareness. In other words, all worlds of form(on physical and subtle levels) are the expression of formless Awareness. All changing “things” are manifestations of the unchanging NO-THING (the transcendent Awareness-Spirit-God-Self) that YOU ARE.

You cannot know, perceive, find or grasp Awareness as an object of experience, since Awareness is fundamentally not an object. Rather, Awareness is the eternal Subject (one might even say: Awareness is THIS which subsumes and transcends the subject-object split). Therefore, YOU can only BE Awareness, abide as THIS Awareness, remain as THIS, flourish as THIS, shine as THIS, and freely function from THIS Awareness. You cannot touch or look at formless Awareness, just as a fingertip cannot touch itself or the eye cannot directly see itself. In short,though Awareness is not knowable or perceivable as an object, Awareness is quite live-able and be-able, because YOU ARE THIS AWARENESS.

Everyone is always actually coming from or functioning from pure Awareness. But not everyone is conscious of This. A kind of Divine sport, mischief or play (Sanskrit: lila) is rampant, wherein beings (who are, after all, the God-Self in disguise) appear to have forgotten their real nature. They masquerade in various forms of egotism, not living in/as Divine Love. They appear to be caught in various states of greed, aversion, shame, anger, frustration, fear, euphoria, boredom, confusion, despair, and so on.

How, then, does it “feel” to be awake to one’s real identity as Divine Awareness? Direct experience along with the testimony of sages reveals that Divine Awareness is most authentically and gloriously being lived when the following enlightenment factors are present:

• A sense of utter freedom and simplicity, akin to “zero-gravity.” Behavior is spontaneous, free-flowing, unstuck, unfixated. One is simply available and motivated only to love and serve all beings as OneSelf.

• No more being trapped in narrow, exclusive identifications with a petty “me” (“my” needs, roles, opinions, abilities, emotions, possessions, etc.).

• No more felt-sense of separation between a “me over here” and a “you/it/them out there.” Rather, there is the nondual intuition of profound oneness with all beings as their very Heart. One “loves thy neighbor as thySelf,” and his or her true Self is right HERE, zero-distance from “my” true Self. There is just this Omnipresent Open Divine Reality, the Self in Whom all beings live, move and have their being.

• No manipulative pulling or pushing of experience with heavy, binding likes-dislikes, attachments-aversions, greed, lust, anger, fear, disgust, hate, and so on. (Various emotions may arise from time to time, but are immediately or fairly quickly recognized and “seen off” as not being one’s real nature but merely passing Divine dream-expressions, and so are dissolved in Clear-Light Awareness.)

• Whatever happens in the manifest world of forms (the phenomenal field of unmanifest Awareness) is not resisted or denigrated, but loved and appreciated as the poignant, playful expression of Spirit. And, most paradoxically, there is a strong but spontaneous Divine motivation within this non-resistance and sense of inherent perfection to remedy injustices, right wrongs, heal traumas, and help improve conditions for all sentient beings and the commonweal. The Self of all selves is in profound nondual empathy with all selves, who are the poignant personal play of THIS Supra-personal One Awareness-Isness-Aliveness.

• One is quite content to just be, not driven by any restlessness or a sense of dilemma into the busy-ness of egocentric “having and doing.” One is deeply relaxed, living out of the peace of “deep sleep wakefulness” (as sages paradoxically call it), even in the midst of helpful actions.

• Genuine happiness prevails, not restless giddiness: a simple bliss, not dependent on circumstances or people for fulfillment. The essence here is being clear, not “getting high” through agitated euphoria or rushes of adrenaline.

• Though fallible aspects of the personality may still infrequently arise, their healing transformation happens lightly within an overall Taoist sense of “perfection perfecting itself perfectly.”

• One is in Love, radiant as Love, always dying into and reborn as Love in each timeless moment…. Love for and as the Self of all selves.

If there is somehow the feeling that “you” aren’t authentically living from True Nature, the Real Identity or Spiritual Awareness, there is nothing “you” as an ego-sense can really “do.” Spiritual realization occurs spontaneously via the Grace of Awareness, not as the result of causative ego-efforts.

Yet being in the presence of true sages is a big help. Enlightenment communicates itself—not as a dualistic “transmission” but as a profound type of “resonance” within the Self-same Self.

Sages have also given some classic counsel on ways for the ego-sense to subside, for the personal consciousness to open up to the clarity and emptiness-fullness of Supra-personal Consciousness. That is to say, for the spontaneous full awakening to THIS REALITY which is “always already the case”:

Just BE—and no need to get restless or make a big deal out of just being. Just deeply relax andlet go of all sense of being a thing-like “me.” Let selfish self dissolve (“die”) into Being. Detach and abide as the undisturbed Witness from all sensations, thoughts, memories, emotions, self-images, and whatever else may be fixating you. (Whenever formations arise in consciousness, there is just watching and letting go of them, moment by moment…) Empty out. Dwell as no-body, no-mind, no-thing. Remain as the pure Absence which manifests “the Presence” of consciousness, energy, experience, relationship, totality. Be quite simple and uncomplicated, without struggle or striving or posturing. Come from natural depth, not the surface mind, though in fact YOU, the real YOU, are the totality of surface and depth, inside and outside, everything and No-thing.

Remember that there is no need to become pure Awareness—YOU already are THIS in your original truth. Let body-mind function spontaneously, freely and lovingly according to the Divine Will, and simply stay or abide as what YOU always fun-damentally are: the vast, spacious, seamless, unlimited, radiant expanse of Clear Light-Awareness. Know that, amidst all the changing aspects of your world, YOU are the Changeless One that has been and will be unchangingly HERE throughout “your” lifetimes. Underlying all perceptible forms and persons, YOU are the formless Awareness that is miraculously “dreaming” these forms and persons. This Awareness is complete and unimprovable—the pristine openness/emptiness/fullness of Divinity.

Moreover, this Divine Self of Absolute Awareness, YOUR real identity, is not “in the world.” No, the world is in YOU, it floats in Awareness like an amazing dream. The world is the mysterious, poignant expression of this creative Awareness, which is eternally savoring all kinds of experiences of ItSelf while being utterly free of all experience.

Beyond/before/during all forms and experiences, AWARENESS ALONE IS … right HERE (closer than the body-mind-ego), the Groundless Ground of All, the Only Being, the Pure Experiencing of all experiences.

May all be awake as this Absolute Being, this Divine Love, this incomparable Bliss, this perfect Freedom.

The real Truth is that all are already AWAKE as this ONE REALITY.

© Copyright 1990 by Timothy Conway, Ph.D.
Posted with Permission from Enlightened Spirituality

Questioner: How, sir, may I fix my mind on God?

Sri Ramakrishna: Repeat God’s name and sing His glories, and now and then visit God’s devotees and holy men. The mind cannot dwell on God if it is immersed day and night in worldliness, in worldly duties and responsibilities; it is most necessary to go into solitude now and then and think of God. To fix the mind on God is very difficult, in the beginning, unless one practices meditation in solitude. When a tree is young it should be fenced all around; otherwise it may be destroyed by cattle.

There are three ways of meditating: think of God while doing your duties, or meditate on Him in a secluded corner of your house, or meditate on Him in a wood. And you should always discriminate between the Real and the unreal: God alone is real, the Eternal Substance; all else is unreal, that is, impermanent. By discriminating thus, one should shake off impermanent objects from the mind.

Questioner: How ought we to live in the world?

Sri Ramakrishna: Do all your duties, but keep your mind on God. Live with all — with wife and children, father and mother — and serve them. Treat them as if they were very dear to you, but know in your heart of hearts that they do not belong to you.

A maidservant in the house of a rich man performs all the household duties, but her thoughts are fixed on her own home in her native village. She brings up her master’s children as if they were her own. She even speaks of them as “my Rama” or “my Hari.” But in her own mind she knows very well that they do not belong to her at all.

The tortoise moves about in the water. But can you guess where her thoughts are? There on the bank, where her eggs are lying. Do all your duties in the world, but keep your mind on God.

If you enter the world without first cultivating love for God, you will be entangled more and more. You will be overwhelmed with its danger, its grief, its sorrows. And the more you think of worldly things, the more you will be attached to them.

First rub your hands with oil and then break open the jack-fruit; otherwise they will be smeared with its sticky milk. First secure the oil of divine love and then set your hands to the duties of the world.

But one must go into solitude to attain this divine love. To get butter from milk you must let it set into curd in a secluded spot: if it is too much disturbed, milk won’t turn into curd. Next, you must put aside all other duties, sit in a quiet spot, and churn the curd. Only then do you get butter.

Further, by meditating on God in solitude the mind acquires knowledge, dispassion, and devotion. But the very same mind goes downward if it dwells in the world. In the world one only thinks of “worries” and “gold.”

The world is water and the mind, milk. If you pour milk into water they become one; you cannot find the pure milk any more. But turn the milk into curd and churn it into butter. Then, when that butter is placed in water, it will float. So, practice spiritual discipline in solitude and obtain the butter of knowledge and love. Even if you keep that butter in the water of the world the two will not mix. The butter will float.

Together with this you must practice discrimination. “Woman” and “gold” are impermanent. God is the only Eternal Substance. What does a man get with money? Food, clothes, and a dwelling-place — nothing more. You cannot realize God with its help. Therefore money can never be the goal of life. That is the process of discrimination. Do you understand?

Questioner: Yes, sir.

Sri Ramakrishna: Consider: What is there in money or in a beautiful body? Discriminate and you will find that even the body of the most beautiful woman consists of bones, flesh, fat and other disagreeable things. Why should a man give up God and direct his attention to such things? Why should he forget God for their sake?

Questioner: Is it possible to see God?

Sri Ramakrishna: Yes, certainly. Living in solitude now and then, repeating God’s name and singing His glories, and discriminating between the Real and the unreal — these are the means to employ to see Him.

Questioner: Under what conditions does one see God?

Sri Ramakrishna: Cry to the Lord with an intensely yearning heart and you will certainly see Him. People shed a whole jug of tears for wife and children. They swim in tears for money. But who weeps for God? Cry to Him with a real cry.

Longing is like the rosy dawn. After the dawn out comes the sun. Longing is followed by the vision of God.

God reveals Himself to a devotee who feels drawn to Him by the combined fore of these three attractions: the attraction of worldly possessions for the worldly man, the child’s attraction for its mother, and the husband’s attraction for the chaste wife. If one feels drawn to Him by the combined force of these three attractions, then one can attain Him.

The point is, to love God even as the mother loves her child, the chaste wife her husband, and the worldly man his wealth. Join together these three forces of love, these three powers of attraction, and direct them all to God. Then you will certainly see Him.

It is necessary to pray to Him with a longing heart. The kitten knows only how to call its mother, crying, “Mew, mew!” It remains satisfied wherever its mother puts it. And the mother cat puts the kitten sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes on the floor, and sometimes on the bed. When it suffers it cries only, “Mew, mew!” That’s all it knows. But as soon as the mother hears this cry, wherever she may be, she comes to the kitten.”

~ From The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna