Consciousness

Consciousness is the receptive mechanism, receiving messages from
above or below; from the Holy Spirit or the ego. Consciousness has
levels and awareness can shift quite dramatically, but it cannot
transcend the perceptual realm. At its highest it becomes aware of
the real world, and can be trained to do so increasingly. Yet the
very fact that it has levels and can be trained demonstrates that it
cannot reach knowledge.""Revelation unites you directly with God. Miracles unite you
directly with your brother. Neither emanates from consciousness, but
both are experienced there. Consciousness is the state that induces
action, though it does not inspire it."
"Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split
introduced into the mind after the separation, making the mind a
perceiver rather than a creator. Consciousness is correctly
identified as the domain of the ego. The ego is a wrong-minded
attempt to perceive yourself as you wish to be, rather than as you
are. Yet you can know yourself only as you are, because that is all
you can be sure of. Everything else is open to question."
"The means of the Atonement is forgiveness.
The structure of "individual consciousness" is essentially
irrelevant because it is a concept representing the "original error"
or the "original sin." To study the error itself does not lead to correction,
if you are indeed to succeed in overlooking the error. And it is just this
process of overlooking at which the course aims."
"Very quietly now, with your eyes closed, try to let go of all the
content that generally occupies your consciousness. Think of your
mind as a vast circle, surrounded by a layer of heavy, dark clouds.
You can see only the clouds because you seem to be standing outside
the circle and quite apart from it. From where you stand, you can
see no reason to believe there is a brilliant light hidden by the
clouds. The clouds seem to be the only reality. They seem to be all
there is to see. Therefore, you do not attempt to go through the
mind past them, which is the only way in which you would be really
convinced of their lack of substance."
Consciousness is synonymous with split mind. It receives messages
from "above" or "below," the Holy Spirit or the ego. It is the focus
of the mind training lessons in the ACIM Workbook and can be trained
to reach the forgiven world that Jesus calls the "real world." This
is the dreamer of the dream Perspective that I speak of frequently
which is a state of consistent peace and nonjudgment. Revelation and
miracles emanate from the Light beyond consciousness. God and
Christ, Being Pure Eternal Abstract Light and Oneness, have nothing
to do with consciousness (which is 'split' into illusory levels).
In this sense there is no "God Consciousness" for Oneness and split mind
are not reconcilable. God and Christ are True and consciousness is
make-believe or false. God and Christ are Spirit and consciousness
is the belief that there is "something else" in "addition to" Spirit.
Awakening could be described as the "release" of the make-believe
"something else."
Creation is the Light beyond consciousness. Consciousness, being the
domain of the ego, does not have creative ability. God creates the
Eternal and the ego or error "makes" the finite, temporal, illusion
of time-space. It is consciousness which seems to unlearn the ego
(or split) and thus learn of forgiveness (perceived wholeness), yet
the quotation above saying "it cannot reach knowledge" reflects the
realization that consciousness is an illusion which must disappear
before remembering the Knowledge of Heaven or Pure Oneness.
You wrote: "I use the term 'consciousness' to mean that which creates
and animates the illusory form; that which is an Aspect of God and
never leaves His Mind -- a part of the Mind of God. My understanding
is that this Consciousness, being an Aspect of God, is eternal and
plays and plays and plays, extending Love first in one direction,
then in another, including making up and pretending to experience an
illusion of separation complete with amnesia about Reality." Christ
never leaves the Mind of God, yet consciousness is the belief that
Christ has left the Mind of God. Creation extends Eternally and as
ACIM states: "God knows not form." Christ is an Eternal Idea in the
Mind of God. It is the ego domain of consciousness which seems to
be "...making up and pretending to experience an illusion of
separation complete with amnesia about Reality." God does not
forgive for God has never condemned, yet forgiveness (release -
letting go) applies to consciousness and thus to releasing the
obstacles (what was ego-made) so that the mind can remember God,
Christ, and Eternal Creation.One of the key metaphysical ideas for
understanding the importance and necessity of forgiveness of illusion and the release and
detachment from the judgment of the world is stated in ACIM as
follows: "The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes
fear. And what is fear except love's absence? Thus the world was
meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son
could be apart from Him. Here was perception born, for knowledge
could not cause such insane thoughts." God Is. Christ is Awake in
the Mind of God. The mind which sleeps and dreams of images appears
to play with idols, toys of its own "making," yet the Holy Spirit
uses what was made to go far beyond what was made. The Holy Spirit
Made a waking Dream cleansed of judgment. The Holy Spirit knows the
distinction between the real and the unreal, and the judgment of the
false AS false is the only meaningful judgment to be made. This
Atonement is the gateway to freedom beyond all dreaming - to
remembrance of Self as Christ in the Mind of God. God and Christ are
Abstract Eternal Love, and the seeming world of parts and specifics
is the veil which HAS BEEN forgiven.
The Kingdom of Heaven is within. I will use the metaphor mentioned
in the ACIM Workbook. If Divine Mind were a vast Circle of Light and
if this Circle was seemingly surrounded by dark clouds of false
belief and perception, consciousness would be the illusory experience
of being "outside" of the Circle. In sinking beneath the clouds of
illusion, the experience is One of Pure Light. In Truth Light cannot
be surrounded or circumscribed, for Light is literally the Allness of
God and Christ Which Know Perfect Oneness. I rejoice in the
forgiveness of illusion, for a Child of God cannot be limited in
awareness except by illusory belief. And happily this need not be.
I love You forever and ever!
David