ACIM Daily Lesson: 6. What Is the Christ? 1. Christ is God’s Son as He created Him.
6. What Is the Christ?
6.What Is the Christ?
1.Christ is God’s Son as He created Him. ²He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another, and with God as well. ³He is the Thought which still abides within the Mind that is His Source. ⁴He has not left His holy home, nor lost the innocence in which He was created. ⁵He abides unchanged forever in the Mind of God.
We are the Christ; it is the only thing that is true about us. Everything else is illusion. Bodies are an illusion. The world is an illusion. These stories we think of as our lives are illusions. We are not each one a separate Christ; we are the Christ as one. In each of us is the Christ Mind, and as we learn to see only that in each other, we will see that we are united and one with God. As this occurs with more frequency, the mind will awaken, and we will have completed the cycle, returning our attention to paradise, where we will abide for a while again before letting that illusion go as well.
We are the Christ.
2.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. ²Your mind is part of His, and His of yours. ³He is the part in which God’s Answer lies; where all decisions are already made, and dreams are over. ⁴He remains untouched by anything the body’s eyes perceive. ⁵For though in Him His Father placed the means for your salvation, yet does He remain the Self Who, like His Father, knows no sin.
Christ is God’s Son as He created Him – this is what we are. But to identify with this Self, I must first release my identity with this body. A body cannot be the Christ. A body cannot be a Thought in the Mind of God. Nor can a body be one with other bodies. The idea of bodies represents the desire to be forever separate from each other and from God. The Christ is the certainty that this is not us. We are, as one, the Christ.
The Christ is the part of us that is real.
3. Home of the Holy Spirit, and at home in God alone, does Christ remain at peace within the Heaven of your holy mind. ²This is the only part of you that has reality in truth. ³The rest is dreams. ⁴Yet will these dreams be given unto Christ, to fade before His glory and reveal your holy Self, the Christ, to you at last.
4.The Holy Spirit reaches from the Christ in you to all your dreams, and bids them come to Him, to be translated into truth. ²He will exchange them for the final dream which God appointed as the end of dreams. ³For when forgiveness rests upon the world and peace has come to every Son of God, what could there be to keep things separate, for what remains to see except Christ’s face?
The Christ, the home of the Holy Spirit, is the only real part of us. It is where we remain one and at peace. It is our holy mind. Everything else is a dream, but we can give these dreams to the Holy Spirit. There they will be translated into truth and traded for the final dream, the dream of a forgiven world, what Jesus calls the real world.
The Face of Christ
5. And how long will this holy face be seen, when it is but the symbol that the time for learning now is over, and the goal of the Atonement has been reached at last? ²So therefore let us seek to find Christ’s face and look on nothing else. ³As we behold His glory, will we know we have no need of learning or perception or of time, or anything except the holy Self, the Christ Whom God created as His Son.
Here, Jesus uses the Face of Christ as a symbol of forgiveness. It represents the goal of Atonement met; learning and perception are no longer needed. When we look at anyone and everyone as representing only the Face of Christ, we will be ready for God to reach down and take us up to Him. The nightmare will be over.
Forgiveness is something I understand.
I know how to do this. So this is the most comfortable part for me to think of. I know that I am mistaken when I think I or someone else is guilty of anything. Yes, the character in their story is guilty, but we are not these stories. We, the Children of God, are innocent and remain innocent no matter what is done in these dreams.
I can see past the dream character to my dear brother who is as he was created, seeing in him the Face of Christ. But I cannot make any exceptions to this. I cannot look on any dream character and think it is real and still see the Face of Christ. I am reminded by Jesus that there is no one in these bodies, not in mine nor in yours. The Christ in you inhabits not a body. ²Yet He is in you. ³And thus, it must be that you are not within a body. (ACIM, T-25.in.1:1-3)
Regina’s Tips
Christ and God’s Son are synonymous, and they both point to what many people call consciousness.
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.
My Thoughts
As Regina points out, words are symbols, and as Jesus says, they are but symbols of symbols and thus twice removed from reality. Sometimes students of the Course argue over concepts within the Course because these symbols are not always used consistently. This can cause confusion if students seek absolutes where there are none. It is more helpful to take the Course as a whole and not turn an idea upside down because of a word whose symbolism is misconstrued.
Regina’s vision of Christ-consciousness is close enough to my vision of it to suit me. I noticed that I prefer God as light instead of darkness, but does that matter? Not at all. I noticed another thing. In her definition of Christ, there is only oneness, absolute non-dualism. And though the Course implies non-dualism, I notice that stated so clearly as Regina has done, I felt discomfort.
I think most of us are uncomfortable with this idea.
It is probably true that most people don’t like the idea that our personal self does not survive our return to God. I look at those reactions with the Holy Spirit so that He can heal my mind and prepare me for whatever comes next. Here is the sentence that was most meaningful for me. “The humans that we appear to be are temporary appearances in the consciousness that we are.” This is what I accept fully and with joy.
This is something I wrote in the past.
I think it is helpful because it deals with ideas that are most relevant to us right now.
We are learning that Christ is the sum of all that God created, and we are all part of Christ. Christ is untouched by anything seen in the world and continues as was created forever without interruption of any kind. Christ is the link that keeps us connected to God. Salvation lies within Christ.
I love this sentence: “Home of the Holy Spirit, and at home in God alone, does Christ remain at peace within the Heaven of your holy mind.” My mind is holy, and in its holiness is Heaven. When I do not feel like I am in Heaven, I am not in my real mind. But my real mind remains untouched by my despairing dreams, safe from my illusions.
The thought that comes to me and comforts and reassures me is that since Christ remains at peace within my mind, peace is always available to me. No matter what chaotic story I may be telling myself, peace is still accessible to me because it has gone nowhere.
Jesus seems to be using Christ and Holy Spirit interchangeably.
And since I am part of Christ, I am also part of the Holy Spirit, and we are all part of God. There is no separation. I try to envision this and my mind, which is still concrete in its thinking, and I cannot.
I do see why it is that Christ’s vision is our goal. We see the end of dreams and a world at peace through Christ’s vision. I felt this was an impossible goal for the longest time because I could not do it. Now I understand that my desire to end dreams makes it possible for the Holy Spirit to translate them into truth for me. In my willingness to awaken, the dream is ending, slowly at first but more quickly now, because as I experience the peace of God, what else could I want?
Is it possible to live as Christ even here?
I think it is. As I watch the mind for thoughts of separation, perception, projection, and time, and I become willing to bring those thoughts before the Holy Spirit to be reinterpreted, I move closer and closer to that awakened state. Truly, that is all I am doing. I am noticing what is not Christ and choosing not to believe it. I do this through the Holy Spirit in my Christ Mind because I cannot look to a dream to interpret itself. In surprise, I see how simple salvation is.