Once, he who was everything and perfect, dreamed a dream. In his dream, he wondered what it would be like to be more than everything and be better than perfect. Already, we can see that this was ridiculous logic, even for a mind asleep. Nevertheless, it persisted and in his dream he left his home in his Father's house, and wondered far away. This was the first separation; the "tiny mad idea" that there could be anything more than everything or anything better than perfect. His Father was aware the Son, the Christ, dreamed a troubled dream, and in it appointed a guardian to remember for the Son where and who he really was.
Drifting in a timeless, spaceless void, the Son saw his two companions, his two choices, the guardian (Holy Spirit) given him by his Father, and his own self-made image he called "ego.” At this point he could either travel with Holy Spirit or ego. He made his choice and went with ego. True to his instruction, Holy Spirit went with the Son also, although he, the Son, did not recognize it. Once embarked on his journey with ego, the Son promptly forgot who he really was and where he "came from". The choice for ego was the second separation.
At this point, although he couldn't quite remember the details, the Son had a very uneasy feeling that he was sinful and guilty of something (for having deserted his Father) and felt awful. His companion, the ego, said, "I've got the solution for you!" and created his own god, a wrathful, vengeful father whose fault the whole thing was. So now the Son's sin and guilt could be transferred to the ego's god and he, the Son, was relieved of having to deal with them. This then was the third separation and the Son conveniently forgets the first and second and having chosen the ego over the Holy Spirit.
But now, a new threat appears because the son realizes that the ego's god is looking for him to punish him and he is afraid. The ego tells him to run and hide and find a place where god will not find him. In a tremendous explosion of mind, universes, worlds, and bodies are made in which the Son decides to hide. "Explosions" continue over and over until the Son and the universe fragmented countless times, a "veil of forgetfulness" descends and he forgets who he is and where he "came from". The world with all its sin, guilt, fear, and fragmentation is established with each part of the Son blaming each other part and seeing himself as the helpless victim. His original "light" is covered over with layers of "blankets of darkness" so that he no longer can see his own light or be aware that it ever existed at all. This was the fourth separation.
The ego's god has now been established firmly as a god of vengeance and punishment at the head of a church of required dogmas, rituals and sacrifices. Penances are required to avoid judgment and eternal damnation. As final surety, the ego has advised that the only purpose of the Holy Spirit, should he be encountered, is to drag the Son back to god to receive his punishment. Therefore, it would be better to avoid any thought or contact with the Holy Spirit at all costs. Thus is the ego firmly established, and depended upon by the "wandering" Son.
Fortunately, there is a Happy part to this Dream. Holy Spirit has faithfully followed the Son, is part of him, and only waits in infinite patience and love for the Son to rediscover Him. Also it is a comforting relief to know that the Dreamer does not have to retrace his steps back through the maze of his dream, but has simply to realize who he and all the other parts of the Sonship are. This is done by seeing only the true Spirit of Light that each is. Each is as they always were, a perfect Son of God as Part of the Christ. By reaching out and taking the hand of the Holy Spirit, who has never left, he can again see the Light and awaken from his dream.
The beginning of awakening is to realize who we really are, join with
the Holy Spirit and part company with the ego. See only the purity
and innocence in your brother Sons and yourself and extend only Love because
that is what the Spirit of You is. As the process broadens, Truth
will be recognized and Peace experienced.
It was a glorious day. Excitement was high in the air. The sun was shining and there was great hub-bub and confusion among all the multitude of voyagers assembled in preparing to depart on the Great Adventure. There was no thought of our Creator, no thought about leaving Home; all attention, hopes and expectations were on the Adventure and what we would discover there. Some thought of brave new lands, some of sparkling riches, some of alliances and relationships. In innocence, everyone was leaving Life as he had known it for the wonder, excitement, adventure and searching for something “else,” something “more”, something “more special” in which he could experience himself as special, important and “more” than he was at Home.
So the procession began to form up with all manner of marchers, bags, banners, and accoutrements. I was selected and given the great honour, privilege and responsibility of carrying the chart, the map, so that we would always know our route, how we came and, of course, how we could get back Home. This “map” was a very large mirror, which carried the reflection of Home, the route, ourselves, and consequently all the directions and instructions for our journey and the means for our return. I felt the privilege and responsibility very sincerely and deeply as I began to walk forward.
In the journey, I was descending a very long flight of stairs. As I stepped down, I was careful to maintain my grip on the sides of the mirror, but part-way down, I stumbled, lost my grip, and watched in horror as the mirror crashed downward step after step breaking over and over coming to rest in countless small pieces at the foot of the stairs.
My feelings of adventurous expectancy and responsibility turned to absolute all—consuming despair, anguish and utter hopelessness as I knelt among all the broken pieces, futilely trying to sweep them “back together” with my arms, knowing it was impossible to do. Not only was I “lost forever” outside of Home but so were all the other travellers who were counting on me to preserve the map. It was all my fault. We were now all doomed to nothing forever. This feeling, for me, is what ACIM calls guilt.
Then, as I looked more closely at each of the tiny pieces, each reflected itself and as well the total whole like a hologram that the mirror had always reflected. In each broken fragment I recognized the One and the way Home.
AND FROM ACIM©: -
“You who believe that God is fear made but one substitution.
It has taken many forms, because it was the substitution of illusion for
truth; of fragmentation for wholeness. It has become so splintered
and subdivided and divided again, over and over, that it is now almost
impossible to perceive it once was one, and still is what it was. That
one error, which brought truth to illusion, infinity to time, and life
to death, was all you ever made. Your whole world rests upon
it. Everything you see reflects it, and every special relationship
that you have ever made is part of it.
You may be surprised to hear how very different is reality from what you see. You do not realize the magnitude of that one error. It was so vast and so completely incredible that from it a world of total unreality had to emerge. What else could come of it? Its fragmented aspects are fearful enough, as you begin to look at them. But nothing you have seen begins to show you the enormity of the original error, which seemed to cast you out of Heaven, to shatter knowledge into meaningless bits of disunited perceptions, and to force you to make further substitutions.
That was the first projection of error outward. The world arose to hide it, and became the screen on which it was projected and drawn between you and the truth.” (T-18, I:4,5.)
This illusion originally came to me in a meditation, and represented to me the descent, “the fall”, of man, the apparent fragmentation of the whole, the unfulfilled “trust” in guarding and transporting the original “reflection”, the holographic sameness of the pieces, each being the whole and also me. The deep feelings of despair and hopelessness being overcome by the unexpected and incredulous sense of holographic “oneness,” made this “dream” a profound learning experience.
If one will show a little willingness, look just the shortest
distance imaginable, the answer will be found. The answer is waiting
in infinite patience where it always was. It’s only a matter of remembering
and choosing to see things differently. Perfect peace and
happiness awaits the one who chooses it. It is not a matter of penitence,
pilgrimage, or payment, because it already belongs to you; all you have
to do is look in the right way to see it. The way is open, the destination
sure. It is time to awaken to reality just as easily as you
chose the dream. It all depends upon how you want to see it.
You have to remove the dark blankets of beliefs, opinions, pet ideas, etc.
to allow your mind to expand and see the “big picture,” not your little
world, and come to the full realization of just exactly who and what
you really are and where you have always been.
A PERSONAL VIEW OF PROCESS
(Note: The following is offered as a PERSONAL POINT OF VIEW, to help explain our perceived process “below the line.” While based largely on ACIM© thought, it is my concept of our “life-death” cycles, developed in self-meditation, over time. It should not be misconstrued as pure Course.)
To attempt to explain God, life and its purpose, process and destination is impossible within the limits of our language and linear thinking. This is because all these “things” exist in dimensions that we can’t understand at our present stage of intellectual and communicative development. Heaven may more nearly be described by music than language, but still the void in communication is immense. To attempt an explanation is almost blasphemous as well as useless, and leads us into the trap as described by Voltaire:
“In the beginning, God created man, in his image
And ever since, man has been returning the compliment.”
However, man must give expression to his own path, to whatever degree his intellectual, historical and educational background will allow. As there, is no constant in this life except change, the following is offered by a student on his own path and stage of spiritual development in hope that others may find it instructive while on their path. Some of it is fact, some popular theology, some theory; but all is given in sincerity.
Again, we cannot think in the abstract. So we say, “In the beginning was God.” Actually, there is no beginning just as there is no end. Perhaps circular thought, then, is more accurate than linear. In any case, we must start with an unknown -- “God,” and state not that God was, nor God will be, but God Is. Next, that God is the Absolute expression of Love, Truth, and Unity. The property of Love and Truth is that it must (to meet its own description) extend itself outward. As an absolute, there is no place or time (even if such things existed) that it would not flow. To setter understand this principle, but to keep it within the ken of our reason, we are told that God “extended Himself” by creating His Son, the Christ, being all living things. It should be remembered at this point that we are talking of pure thought (to us as expressed through mind). Therefore, “all living things” would be presupposed to possess a mind, and of a certain level of intelligence (at least enough to comprehend the basic principles involved). This is not to place limits on different “living things” and so make them separate (and consequently better than each other), but rather to unite or join them together through mind. So that once “living things” have reached their own intellectual evolution to that point, they are automatically joined as part of the Christ.
At this point (a condition popularly called heaven), while God and the Christ are in perfect unity of love, truth, peace, and happiness in eternity, we must introduce the twin villains of time and space.
This is done only to help explain (in our language) the condition in which we believe we find ourselves. Next, a series of “things” happened. Some of the Christ, The Sons of God, fell asleep in heaven and began to “dream.” In their dream, they wondered what it would be like to have an existence separate from heaven and God. As most dreams are, this was a “silly” dream as nothing could possibly be more or different than everything and perfect. In that dream and its subsequent manifestation was the birth of the “ego.” God, being all-knowing and a loving father, realized his Son was dreaming and created and put into his mind the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, to watch over the Son and help guide him out of his dream and back again to his waking state in heaven.
The Dreamer, (in his dream) left heaven and descended “below the Line" into a Silver Cloud of All-Knowing. In this thought-state he did not have knowledge, but was aware of knowledge. Eventually, after much formations and cataclysm, galaxies, universes and worlds were formed. Choosing some of these as suitable to further his dream, the Son of God chose to inhabit them. The rest, as they say, is history. Inasmuch as our own planet Earth is concerned, there is history to show that there have been five complete and total “World Ages," beginning from a very primitive man, through all his developments, to the pinnacle of a highly developed society, only to be almost totally annihilated by natural disasters. Sometimes by flood, sometimes by instant freezing (global tilt), etc. This is an interesting, informative, and instructive study of its own! Some teachers say that there are to be a total of 7 World Ages before total extinction of planet Earth. We are now in the 6th World Age.
Perhaps the process of life can best be illustrated by
the following sketch:
Regardless of where the Son of God decided to live, he remained connected to the Cloud of All-Knowing (sometimes called “The Real World”) by a silver cord. This is more like a “thought frequency" than a visible cord, although some claim to have photographed it or have "seen" it in near-death experiences. The cord connects us on earth’s plane from our conscious (everyday) mind through our subconscious and super conscious minds back to the universal mind in the Cloud of All-Knowing. Certain clairvoyants (like Edgar Cayce) could attune themselves and gain access to the almost infinite memory bank contained within, or through, the Silver Cloud. It is like a huge library of past (and future) information. As all minds are connected through it, one so attuned can also access another living person’s mind as well. Such is mental telepathy, E.S.P., forerunners, etc.
Upon death in one’s life experience, the silver cord is broken and is quickly withdrawn, like an elastic, back into the Silver Cloud. Once there, the thought-mind may then have the choice of self-assessment (help is available, if needed), and a decision made as to whether further lessons need to be learned, if so, when and in what sphere. It must be remembered that there is no time or space in the Silver Cloud, so it doesn’t matter if the new lessons or lifetimes are undertaken then or in a few hundred or a few thousand years.
The purpose of life (as we know it) is for us to remember who and where we really are. However, since the original separation took place so long ago, it’s impossible for us to remember, and even very difficult to conceive of. Some people will get a very definite mindset against remembering, and so, “time” is greatly extended. All will realize it in time, when they do is voluntary. In any case, it seems ridiculous to suppose that we can remove all the blocks and “dark blankets” with which we have covered over love’s light even in a mere 70 years, so it would seem many of us will “return again and go still further” until all the lessons are learned and we are able to remain in the “Happy Dream” of the “real world” of the Holy Spirit. We would not be here, in Earth, if we weren’t partly ego, so we must realize we are supposed to be this way. The thing that we must recognize, however, is what to do about it. Get a good healthy ego going, get it out in front of you, look at it for what it is, laugh at it and make the choice for Spirit. This will be a continuous process, but should be easier to recognize, easier to do and bring more peace and happiness each time.
The actual mechanics of the process is to realize that we own guilt (just for being here, if nothing else); that we have either (a) projected that guilt out on other people or things so we can attack it there and be “guiltless” ourselves or (b) turned it inwards, attacked ourselves and made ourselves sick (mentally or physically, or both). The second step is to bring that guilt back inside our own mind, where it really is anyway. The third step is to blow it away, like the down of a thistle and remember that we are completely sinless, innocent children of God. The fourth step is to ask the Holy Spirit to replace our wrong-minded thinking with his right-minded thinking of the miracle of forgiveness, which brings healing through joining. What we are trying to remember is that we are all one with each other and finally one with God.
I find this easiest to think about in the example of a hologram. If the original projection is “cut up” into any number of pieces, and then those pieces are projected, they will not show just the part they are but will show a picture of the total whole, the original from which they came. While they are a part, they are also a part of each other and are also the whole. Such are we, who are all a part of each other, while also still (an extension of) the whole, God (The First Cause).
The destination of life is somewhat different for us than it is for God. God is. He knows it. He knows that His Son is dreaming but has complete confidence in the Holy Spirit to awaken him, as he is part of Him. Besides loving His Son, he wants him to be as co-creator and companion-by-choice. So He knows that His Son will awaken to Him, only the “time” is at the choice of the Son, when his dream is ended.
Our “problem” is that so much “time” has elapsed, we have fragmented
over and over, and now there are so many individual minds to deal with
and to “re-join.” Ignorance of the situation and/or resistance to
it is also very prevalent. However, the situation is such that the
only one we are really responsible for is ourselves as it is our own mind
we must change and remember who and where we really are. So as we travel
our own path to the re-discovery of our own light, we should forgive others
(and ourselves) for what they did not do and offer love as asked, or is
appropriate. Instead of darkness, look for light in others.
In any situation ask, “What is the most loving thing I can do/think?”
In this way miracles are given to others and atonement is
sought for oneself.
“I AM ABOUT MY FATHER’S BUSINESS”