What is the Christ?

Speaking of Christ-consciousness, our special theme says, “Your mind is part of His, and His of yours. He is the part in which God’s Answer lies; where all decisions are already made, and dreams are over.”

While we were on Lesson 267, we spent the day with a visualization plan. It might have been Lesson 267 as it was written, the visualization plan you wrote earlier in Gentle Healing, or a new visualization plan. This is the plan I was with that day:

I forget about anything I am not called to by God. I joyously answer all of God’s calls, no matter how big or how small. I am completely surrendered, completely in love, and awakening to truth at the perfect pace, God’s pace.

My visualization plan is in the same vein as the excerpt I have quoted from our special theme today. Today’s excerpt and my vision point to the easy path, the path of being completely surrendered in trust to spiritual intuition.

From our human perspective, awakening is not complete. However, from the perspective of Christ-consciousness, it is complete. In fact, from the perspective of consciousness, non-awakeness has never happened.

Realizing the perspective of consciousness, a wise human relaxes into the current experience. Relaxing necessarily includes tuning into and following spiritual intuition, since the wrong mind is agitation.

From a human point-of-view, what we know about everything is extremely limited. The wise human becomes comfortable with not knowing and lives in the mystery in joy by following intuition in the moment. The wrong mind, which thrives on agitation, worries, tries to figure things out and tries to control everything toward an outcome that is decided upon in the mind.

If we see Christ-consciousness as our truth and the human as a temporary experience, we relax and enjoy the ride. If we see humanness as our reality, we tend to struggle against the unknown and undesired.

The stillness of the peace of God is mine.

As today’s lesson says, “Perhaps we are now ready for a day of undisturbed tranquility.”

Are you ready to trust that consciousness is your reality? If so, you can relax, and watch the human dream from the stillness of reality.

The lesson also says, “If this is not yet feasible, we are content and even more than satisfied to learn how such a day can be achieved. If we give way to disturbance, let us learn how to dismiss it and return to peace.”

It is helpful to pause whenever disturbance arises. Notice that you are aware. Notice awareness is always present, regardless of the current human experience. Happy or sad, at peace or agitated, healthy or sick, in love or lonely—awareness is always present as you.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

Loving Consciousness Description E

What is the Christ?

Our special theme says, “Christ is the link that keeps you one with God, and guarantees that separation is no more than an illusion of despair, for hope forever will abide in Him.”

This sentence is an invitation for us to become clear on the difference between what is true and what is not true.

Let’s look at the definitions of true, or real, and not true, or illusion.

Yesterday we learned about consciousness, which is the realm of creation and the ability for creation. Consciousness is the direct creation of source. Therefore it is an extension of source and the same as source.

“True” and “real” point to that, to the essence of consciousness and source, which is changeless and eternal.

Temporary appearances are made of consciousness. They are an extension of consciousness just as consciousness is an extension of source. Yet on the surface, they appear to be something other than consciousness. They appear to be thousands upon thousands, actually billions of different names and forms. The temporary things they appear to be are “not true.” They are “illusion,” because each of these things is actually more than it appears to be. Each thing is not its temporary appearance, but the eternal essence of its source.

To become clear on what is true and what is illusion, we will continue to focus on awareness in ourselves and on life in the living things that we encounter throughout the day.

How can illusions satisfy God’s Son?

Today’s lesson asks, “Can dreams content me? Can illusions bring me happiness? What but Your memory can satisfy Your Son?”

Temporary appearances occupy the mind. Temporary appearances give the mind something to think about. Since things are always coming and going, shifting and changing, the mind remains very occupied. This is life to the mind.

However, we are not the mind, and what is life to the mind is actually agitation or suffering for us. It’s like keeping our attention with the restless waves on a stormy sea, fearing what will happen to the wave, while ignoring the changeless nature of the sea at its depths. Focusing on the surface is suffering. Realizing and abiding as the depth is peace.

The practice we have already committed to today is also the practice that will bring us to realize peace. It is the practice of focusing on the depth instead of the surface. We will focus on awareness in ourselves, and we will focus on life in each living thing that we encounter today. It doesn’t matter if the people we encounter seem happy, angry, or afraid. The life in each one is the same. Life-awareness is the changeless depth of our source.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

Loving Consciousness Description D

What is the Christ?

“Christ” is a symbolic term. As a symbolic term, it can mean different things to different people. However, if we look carefully at our new special theme, we can see clearly what this term means in A Course in Miracles:

Christ is God’s Son as He created Him. He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another, and with God as well. … He abides unchanged forever in the Mind of God.

Christ and God’s Son are synonymous, and they both point to what many people call consciousness. In some traditions, consciousness is the first creation. It is also the only direct creation of the source, since all other “creations” were created through consciousness. This is similar to the Bible’s claim, if “the Word” is seen as synonymous with Christ or consciousness. At John 1, the Bible says:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

It’s important to remember that terms are symbols, and because they are only symbols, terms are not used consistently. Because terms are used differently at different times, we need to reach an understanding that is beyond terms.

Let me paint a simplistic picture that will help us understand Christ-consciousness.

At the highest level of truth, the source exists. The source is a mystery, often represented by darkness. It is unmanifest life teeming with potential.

Out of this potential, consciousness arises. Consciousness is awareness, but it is more than that. It is like a canvas that potentialities can be painted on. It is also the divine mechanism, or paint brush, that enables creation. Through its beingness, ongoing creation happens. Without consciousness, nothing else could be.

This is Christ. It is what we are beyond our experience of human. The humans that we appear to be are temporary appearances in the consciousness that we are.

Christ’s is the vision I will use today.

Today’s lesson says, “Today I choose to look upon what Christ would have me see, to listen to God’s Voice, and seek the witnesses to what is true in God’s creation. In Christ’s sight, the world and God’s creation meet, and as they come together all perception disappears.”

The lesson concludes with a prayer:

Father, Christ’s vision is the way to You. What He beholds invites Your memory to be restored to me. And this I choose, to be what I would look upon today.

To behold Christ’s vision, focus on awareness in yourself and on life in every living being. Let everything be as it appears, without asking it to appear differently, while you stay focused on the life that is the same in all living things.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

Appreciating Life

Note: The music in this meditation is a bit loud (or lively) in the first few minutes, but then it settles down nicely.

What is the Body?

The last paragraph of our special theme says:

You will identify with what you think will make you safe. Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you. Your safety lies in truth, and not in lies. Love is your safety. Fear does not exist. Identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love, and you are home. Identify with love, and find your Self.

What do I identify with? It’s possible that the mind will answer this question truthfully. For example, if you are identified with the body and with fear, the mind may give that answer. However, sometimes the mind will say, “I am identified with love,” or “spirit” or “awareness,” when that isn’t true.

How do we know, with honesty, what we are identified with? NTI Philippians recommends that we watch the body. Since the body follows the thoughts that we believe and value, the body will demonstrate what we are identified with. NTI Philippians, Chapter 2 says:

The way you operate in the world is a reflection of your faith and your belief. For the way you operate is not action, but the image of the expression of thought.

Trust that you do not know yourself, because you have not observed that closely until now. Realize that your purpose is to ensure that your faith is placed with the motive you have chosen. Be clear on this purpose, and then observe yourself.

What is it that you find yourself doing? Why are you doing it? Is that action evidence that your faith is placed with your motive, or are you finding that you have placed your faith elsewhere?

Be careful that you do not judge that which you see and observe. Separate yourself from the body. See the body as not you. See it merely as evidence of thought that is in your mind. See it as a learning device and nothing else.

When you look at the body, which is showing you what you have asked to see, what is it that you discover? What do you learn about your mind?

Realize, now, who you are as you watch this body and learn from it. Realize that you did not know, and so you lived in ignorance before. But now you do know, and it is your will to correct the ignorance you lived by before.

Be grateful for this body and all it is teaching you, for in partnership with this learning device you will correct the mind. You will bring faith into alignment with motive through your own desire to do so.

So today, watch the body with the desire to learn what you are identified with. The goal today is self-honesty.

I will not use the body’s eyes today.

The lessons says, “Christ is our eyes today. And through His sight we offer healing to the world through Him, the holy Son whom God created whole; the holy Son whom God created one.”

We have already set a purpose for today. We are using today to discover what we are identified with, the body-mind or life-awareness-presence. As we watch the body in order to make this discovery, we may see things we are tempted to judge. Instead, let’s watch the body with Christ-eyes. Let’s bring healing energy to whatever we see by watching with the Loving All Method instead of with self-judgment.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

Brain Relaxation

What is the Body?

Our special theme says, “You will identify with what you think will make you safe. Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you.”

What do you believe makes you safe? Do you trust the mind that tells you how things should be and should not be? Are those judgments your guide to safety? Or do you trust life-awareness-presence, which simply is with whatever appears to be?

Please contemplate these questions today.

My sight goes forth to look upon Christ’s face.

It is common to believe that a person is not demonstrating Christ if s/he is rude and unhelpful. It is extremely common to believe that the person who shoots and kills several people is not demonstrating Christ.

How can we be expected to see Christ’s face in people like these when they clearly demonstrate the wrong mind instead of the Christ mind?

The answer lies in choosing the Loving All Method over the judging mind.

We each will see based on the mind we see through. If we see through the judging mind, we will see good and bad—things that seem Christ-like to us and things that don’t. However, if we see with life-awareness-presence, we see life-awareness-presence in everything, and that is Christ.

Notice that today’s lesson asks for our mistakes to be revealed. Anytime we do not see with the Loving All Method, a mistake in our mind is there to be revealed. That means that if we see something we feel we cannot love, accept or emotionally allow, we are in our wrong mind.

If you discover that you are in your wrong mind today, apply the Loving All Method to that. Love, accept or emotionally allow the fact that you have slipped into the wrong mind. That doesn’t mean that you should indulge the wrong mind. When you shift to the Loving All Method, you shift out of indulgence into the right mind’s perception of the mistake. It might feel like stepping back from the wrong mind without judging it. It might feel like resting and letting the wrong mind unwind or settle down. Although the wrong mind may remain present in awareness for a time after shifting to the Loving All Method, you should be able to feel a difference regarding your inner way of being with it.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation today:

Loving Consciousness Description C

What is the Body?

Our special theme says, “The Son of God extends his hand to reach his brother, and to help him walk along the road with him. Now is the body holy. Now it serves to heal the mind that it was made to kill.”

This is what I wrote this morning as I contemplated that excerpt from our special theme:

I am free to let my brother be as he is, and to love him without interference. What would interfere with my open love? Believing judgments would interfere; holding expectations would interfere; being self-centered and self-absorbed would interfere with my open love for my brother. Therefore, I am free not to believe the judgments that appear in this mind. I am free not to expect anything from my brother. I am free to remove attention from my mind and pay attention to who ever (or whatever) is in front of me.

I realize that what I have written may seem different than the words that are written in the special theme. In my experience, that sometimes happens when I contemplate the written word with the right mind.

For me, “extends his hand” is an image that represents open love. “Help him walk along the road” is an image that represents allowing him to walk his path his way, without interference from me. “Now is the body holy” represents peaceful presence rather than a mind that thinks it knows how everyone (and everything) else should be. Being in peaceful presence returns me to the remembrance of myself as presence, which the judging mind was made to hide.

Let all things be exactly as they are.

Today’s lesson confirms the interpretation I received from my contemplation of today’s special theme. Although the words contemplated from the special theme could have been interpreted differently, … for example, one might think that s/he is to help others along this path by teaching them to follow this path, … the lesson is clear that acceptance and allowance are the right-minded way to be. Since “fixing” a brother is not the same as allowing him to be as he is, only one of those two interpretations can be right-minded. The other demonstrates how the wrong mind thinks.

As you go through the day today, focus on the Loving All Method, especially with the people that you encounter in person, through television or online media, and in your thoughts.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation:

Being in Love

What is the Body?

Since we have been contemplating this special theme, we have looked at several ways the body deceives:

• It seems like life-awareness is a byproduct of the body’s physical processes.
• It appears that “my awareness” and “your awareness” are separate.
• The body dies, which seems to prove that we are not the one awareness that is eternal nature.
• The body emphasizes duality and differences because it can be healthy or sick, fit or injured, strong or weak, etcetera.
• The body acts out thoughts that are believed, which gives those thoughts more apparent reality.
• When we are identified with the body, it seems like we experience the world and duality directly, and we are affected by them.

Our special theme says, “Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it.” And in most cases, it does.

However, our special theme goes on to say, “But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for.”

Today, please contemplate the purpose you would like the body to obey. Also, contemplate how the body can be used/moved differently in order to follow that purpose.

My heart is beating in the peace of God.

Earlier in Gentle Healing, we created visualization plans for ourselves. We contemplated those plans for 6 weeks. Similarly, today’s lesson is a visualization plan. Notice it is written in present tense, as if it is already lived.

“Peace fills my heart, and floods my body with the purpose of forgiveness. Now my mind is healed, and all I need to save the world is given me. … I am the messenger of God, directed by His Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held forever quiet and at peace within His loving Arms.”

If this vision feels right for you, contemplate today’s lesson throughout the day as it is written. However, if you feel called to a different vision, write your own vision, and contemplate it instead. You might feel called to spend a day with the vision that you wrote previously, when we spent 6 weeks with our visualization plans, or you might feel called to a completely new vision that feels right for you now.

Remember to write your visualization plan in present tense language. A vision might arise as you contemplate the purpose you would like the body to follow.

Note: We will not spend six weeks with this visualization plan, so be with it lovingly today.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation:

Awareness in the Body

What is the Body?

Our special theme says, “The body is a dream. Like other dreams it sometimes seems to picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is born.”

Two days ago we looked at the duality of the body itself. For example, it can be healthy or sick.

Yesterday we looked at how the body acts out the fearful thoughts that we believe. For example, it can become angry, deceitful or violent.

Today, let’s look at the dream of the body as me.

When we believe the body is me, we are affected by the duality that the senses perceive. We appear to experience the world directly. It seems to have a direct effect on us.

Is that true? Do we experience the world directly?

Let’s investigate and see what we discover.

I am going to lead you in an inquiry exercise. Some of you have experienced an exercise similar to this with me before. Read through all of the instructions, and then practice the inquiry on your own.

1. Find a sensitive spot on your finger and pinch it. Feel the pain. Notice that it appears you are directly experiencing the pain.
2. You can stop pinching your finger.
3. Close your eyes. Get in touch with awareness, that which observes, looks or sees.
4. Once you are in touch with awareness, pinch your finger again, but this time look at the pain from the position of awareness.
5. What is your experience when you look at the pain from awareness? Do you directly experience the pain or do you see the body experiencing pain?

Many of you will be able to see that you do not directly experience the pain. As awareness, you do not feel pain, but you can see that the body does feel the pain. It is as if you are one step away from the pain. The pain is an indirect experience for you.

(Note: This is the way I typically feel pain now, which is why pain is not as bothersome to me as it is to some people. I am certainly aware of the pain that the body feels, but I relate to pain from one step away. I see the pain. It isn’t a direct experience.)

When we identify with the body as me, we project attention into the body. With attention projected into the body, we appear to directly experience what the body experiences. We feel pain; we feel emotions; etcetera.

However, when we identify with awareness, attention is naturally with awareness. From the position of awareness, we witness the body and its experiences. As the witness, we are aware of the body’s experiences, but we are one step away from those experiences. We don’t have the sense of experiencing them directly.

That means that our experience of life will be more fearful if we identify with the body, because the experience will seem more direct. It will seem as if we are at the mercy of duality.

However, if we identify with the witness, we do not feel affected by duality. The experience is one of equanimity. Our happiness or contentment is untouched by the body’s experience of duality.

My holy Self abides in you, God’s Son.

The unaffected awareness that witnesses the world’s duality but does not experience it directly is the same unaffected awareness for everyone. Although the body’s “fence” creates the experience of “my awareness” and “your awareness,” it is the same awareness.

One way to see this is to listen to another person describe awareness. His/her experience is the same as your experience. The experiences are not different, because you are both looking at and describing the same awareness.

Today, we contemplate ourselves as awareness. As often as you remember, take a few moments to notice yourself as the witnessing presence. If needed, pinch your finger and look at the pain. Notice over and over throughout the day that you see the pain, but you do not experience it directly.

Each time that you notice yourself as awareness, remember that everyone is that same awareness. It is one light, shining through many minds and bodies. Today we focus on the one light, not the many forms.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation:

Loving Consciousness Description B

What is the Body?

Our special theme says, “The body is a dream. Like other dreams it sometimes seems to picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is born.”

Yesterday we looked at the duality of the body itself. (For example, health and sickness.)

However, that isn’t the only way the body “can quite suddenly revert to fear.” The body also reverts to fear when we become worried, angry, jealous, deceitful, violent, and so on. The body acts out fearfully when we believe the ego’s thoughts of fear.

Our special theme says, “But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for. The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity.”

In other words, we can use this experience of being a human in a body to wake up from the ego’s illusion. That is what we are doing when we decide to meditate instead of doing something else. That is what we are doing when we decide not to act out from worry or anger, but to inquire into our thoughts instead. As we change the purpose given to the body, the body behaves differently.

Creation’s gentleness is all I see.

Today’s lesson says, “I have indeed misunderstood the world, because I laid my sins on it and saw them looking back at me. How fierce they seemed! And how deceived was I to think that what I feared was in the world, instead of in my mind alone.”

This is reminiscent of our last special theme, “What is Sin?” Our ideas of what should be and should not be create a fearful world of duality. Duality is fearful, because it cannot be trusted. A lover can become an enemy. A leisurely drive can become a deadly automobile accident. A secure job can be lost. A smart and happy child can become addicted to drugs. And the examples continue.

For as long as we remain caught in the ego’s illusion by believing the ego’s thoughts, we experience duality, which includes all of the fear that comes with duality.

To become free of duality, we need to stop believing the ego’s judgments of what should be and should not be. We need to become gentle ourselves by abiding in love instead of in judgment.

Today we will continue to focus on love by practicing Loving Consciousness meditation and the Loving All Method.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation:

Loving Consciousness Description A

What is the Body?

Our special theme refers to the body as a dream. It says, “Like other dreams it sometimes seems to picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is born.”

This speaks of duality. As we looked at our last special theme, we saw that outward focus, judgment and duality are the means by which the mind “seeks to let illusions take the place of truth.” And the “body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself.”

That means that the duality of the body, including its ability to be healthy and sick, for example, is part of the mind’s effort “to let illusions take the place of truth.”

I enjoy feeling healthy. I enjoy a body that is strong, flexible and pain-free. However, the body doesn’t always fit that description. If I begin to judge the body by deciding how it should be or should not be, aren’t I falling into the mind’s choice to deceive itself?

Here are some judgments that we commonly make about the body:

• Healthy or sick
• Fit or injured
• Strong or weak
• Attractive or unattractive
• Fat or thin
• Young or old
• Capable or handicapped
• Normal or deformed
• Okay or dying

Are you able to see your ideas of “should be and should not be” in that list?

Our current special theme says, “Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it. But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for.”

Some people interpret that to mean that we can make the body be what we define as good by choosing truth as our purpose. For example, we can make the body healthy, fit, and strong and avoid sick, injured and weak. However, isn’t that still belief in what should be and should not be?

As I said above, I enjoy feeling healthy, and if there are steps I can take to keep the body healthy or to return it to health when it is sick or injured, I will most likely take those steps. However, does that mean I need to judge sickness or injury as “should not be”?

If my purpose is to let go of the ego illusion, don’t I serve my purpose better by loving all experiences exactly as they are?

I am surrounded by the Love of God.

Today’s lesson says, “Father, You stand before me and behind me, beside me, in the place I see myself, and everywhere I go. … There is no source but this, and nothing is that does not share its holiness. … We come to You in Your Own Name today, to be at peace within Your everlasting Love.”

Today we contemplate all things as love. This is sometimes challenging, since the mind judges what should be and what should not be, and we often believe the mind’s judgments. It is common to believe that cancer should not be, mass shootings should not be, etcetera.

How do we see these things as love?

I could go into an explanation of love that might be somewhat satisfactory to the mind, but the truth is that the mind doesn’t see love. The mind sees its illusions of duality. The way we come to see that all things are love is to let go of the ego and its illusion. The way we do that is by ceasing to participate in the ego’s illusion—let go of believing the mind’s stories and judgments—and focus our attention on practices that point to truth.

Today we will focus on love by practicing the Loving Consciousness meditation and by practicing the Loving All Method.

The Loving Consciousness meditation is similar to Awareness-Watching-Awareness except that as you watch awareness, you also love, appreciate and cherish it.

As a review, I recommend this guided meditation today. It is 30 minutes long:

Introduction to Loving Consciousness Meditation