What is the Last Judgment?

Our special theme makes each of the following statements:

• … perception gives a silent blessing and then disappears, its goal accomplished and its mission done.
• The final judgment … sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless.
• Bodies now are useless, and will therefore fade away to nothingness …

The three previous statements refer to perception, the world and bodies as having completed their mission and no longer having a purpose. Now they are useless. These statements are worth contemplating.

If perception’s mission is done, doesn’t that mean it had a mission? If the world and bodies “now are useless,” wasn’t there once a purpose and use for them?

Since none of us are at the point of the last judgment, we are each still at the point where perception has a mission, the world has a purpose and bodies are useful.

What are perception, the world and bodies for?

Let writing (or speaking into a recorder) lead you to the answer to this question. Start by writing the answer that feels true to you. Write to the boundary of your knowledge, and then wait to see what truth comes from beyond the boundary of your current knowledge.

I seek a future different from the past.

Today’s lesson says, “From new perception of the world there comes a future very different from the past. The future now is recognized as but the extension of the present.”

This means that prior to purification and the completion of merging, our future is based on our past.

How is that possible?

It’s possible because we hold onto the past and to what we think we learned from the past, and then we see the current moment through that lens. Since we are seeing with a filter based on the past, that perception is fed into the creation principle, which results in a future based on expectations that were derived from the past.

What a mess!

Why should we keep building a future based on past confusion?

It is time to be with the present, now, in a different way, so that our new way of being is fed into the creative principle, which will result in a future different from the past. As the prayer in today’s lesson says, “Father, we were mistaken in the past, and choose to use the present to be free.”

Let’s add a step to our practice of letting go of judgment. Today, practice in this way:

1. Look when judgment happens.
2. Silently inquire to discover the past in this current judgment. For example, you might ask, “What idea did I believe in the past that has caused this current judgment?”
3. Notice the perception of separation that is caused by judgment.
4. Remember your desire to see without separation or confusion.
5. Let go of your judgment simply because it conflicts with what you truly want.

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What is the Last Judgment?

Our special theme makes each of the following statements:

• And this the judgment is in which perception ends.
• … perception gives a silent blessing and then disappears, its goal accomplished and its mission done.
• … without a function in Christ’s sight, [the world] merely slips away to nothingness. There it was born, and there it ends as well. And all the figures in the dream in which the world began go with it.

Imagine that you are born with poor eyesight. Your eyesight is so poor, that you often mistake one thing for another, because you cannot see well. One day you realize that the cause of your confusion is poor eyesight, and so you get glasses, which corrects your eyesight. Now you can see clearly. As a result, your confusion also disappears. This is like awakening from ego-consciousness to Christ-consciousness. What both forms of consciousness have in common is a type of seeing. With ego-consciousness, there is poor eyesight, which leads to confusion. With Christ-consciousness there is clear eyesight and clarity. Using this symbol, the final awakening is like having no eyes at all.

In the previous paragraph, “eyes” are a symbol for the sense of self. The poor eyesight is like the wrong sense of self, the idea that you are a person in a world. That leads to a lot of confusion about everything. The corrected eyesight is like the divine sense of self, knowing one’s self as consciousness. There is great clarity and right-mindedness with everything. But the final awakening is no sense of self. It is like no eyes in the previous analogy. There is nothing to see, because there is no sense of self (no eyes) to see it.

This is what the mind cannot imagine. The sense of self cannot imagine the final awakening. That is why the final awakening is fearful to our current sense of self. That is also why there is an intermediate stage between ego and truth, the stage of Christ-consciousness. Although many people misinterpret this stage as the final awakening, it is actually a stage that prepares us for the final awakening. Christ-consciousness could be thought of as a new beginning—the start of a second maturation period.

As NTI says:

The purpose of your life in the fourth phase of living on earth (Christ-consciousness) shall not be different than the purpose at any other time. Only now, in the fourth phase, the distractions have been erased. In letting yourself become an empty shell, you freed yourself from the desire for distraction. Now, in the fourth stage, your focus is complete. Now you know what you want, and you want it wholly.

During the fourth phase, there are no distractions. During the fourth phase, there are no fears. There are no doubts, and there is no feeling of guilt. There is only a knowing of what is true and a life that is the willingness for acceptance

Now let a new perception come to me.

The prayer in today’s lesson says, “Father, there is a vision which beholds all things as sinless, so that fear has gone, and where it was is love invited in.”

The plan for awakening from ego-consciousness to Christ-consciousness, which is a transformation of the sense of self, is gentle. Instead of having the sense of self ripped away from us, which would also end everything we know and believe to be true, there is a gentle transformation to a state of ‘no fear’ first. This state of ‘no fear’ or Christ-consciousness is our current goal. Although it is helpful to know that it is not the end of the path, we do not need to think about the final awakening yet. In fact, we can’t think about it. It is beyond the capability of our imagination. So, we will take one step at a time as we travel from fear and judgment to love and acceptance. That is the journey we are on now.

As we have already learned, as we do our part on this path of awakening, Grace responds to us and does its part. Using the analogy of the caterpillar and butterfly, our part is like building the cocoon; what happens in the cocoon is Grace’s part. However, if we do not do our part—build the cocoon—Grace does not have the means to do its part.

Today, let’s be as earnest as we can be as we continue to surrender our judgments. Here are the steps again:

1. Look when judgment happens.
2. Notice the perception of separation that is caused by judgment.
3. Remember your desire to see without separation.
4. Let go of your judgment simply because it conflicts with what you truly want.

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What is the Last Judgment?

Our special theme says, “The final judgment on the world contains no condemnation. For it sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless. Without a cause, and now without a function in Christ’s sight, it merely slips away to nothingness.”

Terms can be very confusing, so I will do my best to simplify the meaning that lies beyond any and all terms regarding awakening. Of course, to do this I will need to select and use some terms.

Ego – Ego is sometimes used to refer to the wrong mind. When “ego” refers to the wrong mind alone, it is completely transcended when the mind becomes purified and merged. However, “ego” can also be used as a more general term that means “sense of self.” When ego refers to a sense of self, even the ‘I am’ presence could be called ‘ego,’ although few people use that term in this way. The ‘I am’ presence is a divine sense of self rather than a personal sense of self. It is the sense of a subject, even if the only thing this subject is aware of is itself, (ie., consciousness aware of consciousness.)

Christ-consciousness – At the point where the sense of self is non-dual—that is, it is consciousness aware of consciousness—the sense of self remains, but it is seldom referred to as ego anymore. The divine sense of self is what A Course in Miracles calls “Christ.” Christ literally means “anointed one.” To be anointed is to be chosen by divine selection. It is fair to say that the sense of self as consciousness is by divine selection since it is created from source. It is the first sense of self. However, it is not awakening to the state that is prior to sense of self.

Nirvana or Manonasa – “Nirvana” means “blown out.” That means the sense of self is blown out like a candle is blown out. Manonasa means “mind annihilation,” which is the total annihilation of the sense of self. Both Nirvana and Manonasa are referred to as the final death of the ego. The Biblical term for this awakening is “the second death.” This awakening is beyond any sense of self, even a divine sense of self. It is also beyond perception entirely, since there is no longer a self to perceive. The mind, or sense of self, cannot imagine this awakening.

The last judgment is awakening from Christ-consciousness into Nirvana.

Here is another symbolic way of looking at this:

1. Duality consciousness, commonly referred to as ego, is like a caterpillar. This state is prior to any awakening.
2. The spiritual path is like the cocoon. The caterpillar enters the cocoon in order to transform, although it doesn’t know what it will transform into.
3. When it emerges from the cocoon, it is a butterfly. This is like the divine sense of self. Whereas the caterpillar saw the world from the ground, the butterfly has a completely different point-of-view. Yet, there is still a self with a point-of-view.
4. Nirvana is awakening beyond the butterfly and world perception entirely. Even the butterfly is seen to be a temporary phenomenon.

I see all things as I would have them be.

Today’s lesson begins with, “Perception follows judgment.”

As we saw yesterday, the ego’s purpose for judgment is to create the appearance of “me” and “not me.” Therefore, if we believe judgment, we perceive “me” and “not me.”

Let’s continue the practice that we used yesterday to surrender our judgments. By doing this, we surrender the mechanism of separation:

1. Look when judgment occurs.
2. Notice the perception of separation that is caused by judgment.
3. Remember your desire to see without separation.
4. Let go of your judgment simply because it conflicts with what you truly want.

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What is the Last Judgment?

The first paragraph of our new special theme says:

Christ’s Second Coming gives the Son of God this gift: to hear the Voice for God proclaim that what is false is false, and what is true has never changed. And this the judgment is in which perception ends. At first you see a world that has accepted this as true, projected from a now corrected mind. And with this holy sight, perception gives a silent blessing and then disappears, its goal accomplished and its mission done.

A Course in Miracles and NTI tell the story of two awakenings. The first is the awakening from a deluded state of mind, also known as duality, to a pure state of mind, known as non-duality. It is awakening from the belief in manifestation as truth to realization of everything as consciousness. In my map, which is called The Four Principles of God, this is awakening from the Fourth Principle of God to the Second Principle of God.

However, another awakening remains. That is awakening from the Second Principle of God to the First Principle of God. That is the awakening that our current special theme points to. Notice it says, “And this the judgment in which perception ends. … perception gives a silent blessing and then disappears, its goal accomplished and its mission done.”

Or as NTI puts it, “…you pass from a final illusion of beauty to Beauty that cannot be contained in illusion. You pass from form, which reflects Light, to Light, which shines into form.”

In other words, there is one awakening, which is awakening to Christ. And then there is a second awakening, which is awakening into the Father. This could also be called awakening to the ‘I Am’ presence, and then awakening into its source.

As we continue to walk the spiritual path individually by being fully in the phase of awakening that we are currently in, which for most of us is either purification or merging, we will also look ahead of us in order to become clear on the destination and the landmarks along the way. This will help eliminate the ego’s ability to confuse us into thinking we have arrived at the destination when we have not.

I judge all things as I would have them be.

Today’s lesson speaks of judgment as “a weapon used against the truth.” It says that judgment “separates what it is being used against, and sets it off as if it were a thing apart.”

This is something you can see today. Judgment, as it is used by the ego, reconfirms over and over that there is a ‘me’ and ‘not me.’ It does not matter what you judge against. With each judgment the ego whispers its judgment into your mind—”me and not me.”

Notice this today. Look whenever you judge anyone or anything. If it is as simple as judging the weather, notice there is a ‘me’ and the weather, which is ‘not me.’ If it seems like a righteous judgment, notice there is a ‘me’ that is right and others—’not me’—who are wrong. Every time the ego uses judgment, judgment is used to separate.

After noticing the separation that comes from judgment, “make a gift of it to Him Who has a different use for it.” In other words, surrender your judgment because you don’t want to perceive separation anymore. No more thought is required than this. If you think too much about it, thinking may lead you right back into ego and the belief in separation. Do not think. Simply:

1. Look.
2. Notice the perception of separation that is caused by judgment.
3. Remember your desire to see without separation.
4. Let go of your judgment simply because it conflicts with what you truly want.

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