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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What is the Second Coming?

This special theme ends by saying, “Pray that the Second Coming will be soon, but do not rest with that. It needs your eyes and ears and hands and feet. It needs your voice. And most of all it needs your willingness. Let us rejoice that we can do God’s Will, and join together in its holy light.”

As we have seen, the spiritual path is made up of four primary stages. The four stages lead to a final awakening that is beyond those stages completely. It is an awakening that is beyond perception. It is awakening to the First Principle of God, which is the Source and ultimate truth.

The Second Coming is awakening to the Second Principle of God, consciousness. That is the fourth stage of the spiritual path. Although it is an awakening, it is prior to the final awakening. Consciousness sees with true perception. It knows all things in manifestation as consciousness. Therefore, it knows all things are one.

Merging is the stage that leads to awakening as consciousness. This is a stage of surrender, when one continually lets go of anything that appears to be a separate will or separate self and surrenders into spiritual intuition and the recognition of consciousness. Awareness-watching-awareness meditation is an important part of this stage. Practicing surrender as it is taught in The Teachings of Inner Ramana is another part of this stage. The Loving All Method is also a wonderful practice during this stage of awakening.

Purification prepares you for merging. Purification is a stage of clearing away false beliefs and conditioning. It is a stage of untangling or undoing. It is also when most people discover spiritual intuition. Inquiry is a very important part of this stage. Focusing on one’s willingness, spiritual aspiration or desire for clarity is also very important. Awareness-watching-awareness meditation is helpful, because it can help you achieve some distance from the mind, which aids immeasurably in letting go. The Loving All Method helps you gain freedom from your emotions and judgments, which is also very helpful.

In fearlessness and love I spend today.

Today’s lesson says, “This day, my Father, would I spend with You, as You have chosen all my days should be.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj once said, “If you desire to be free, do not neglect the nearest step to freedom.”

Let’s spend this day with our Father by paying attention to our individual “nearest step to freedom.”

Ask this question:

What is my nearest step to freedom?
What do I need to know and do?

Let writing (or speaking into a recorder) lead you to the answer. 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.

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What is the Second Coming?

Our special theme says, “The Second Coming is one event in time which time itself can not affect. For every one who ever came to die, or yet will come or who is present now, is equally released from what he made. In this equality is Christ restored as one Identity, in which the Sons of God acknowledge that they are all one.”

This is a statement that says we cannot fail to awaken to consciousness.

Admittedly, it is possible that our awakening to consciousness will not happen in this lifetime. However, the special theme says, “For every one who ever came to die, or yet will come…”

That means that if awakening does not occur in this lifetime, it will occur in another lifetime. Awakening is guaranteed!

When we think of this lifetime as the only time we have, we are looking at this person as who we are. We are not this person.

To see that we also have other lifetimes in which we can accomplish this goal broadens our perspective of our self as more than this time-limited being with a particular name and history. It’s helpful to see that we are beyond that limit, because that is true.

At the same time, this lifetime is a perfect time to make every stride that we can in the direction of awakening. Maybe this will be the lifetime in which we awaken!

Whether this is the lifetime in which we awaken or not, as we saw in our contemplation yesterday, “this instant is the only time there is. … The only interval in which I can be saved from time is now.” Let’s use now well.

I will not fear to look within today

The lesson says, “Within me is eternal innocence, because it is God’s Will that it be there forever and forever. … I fear to look within because I think I made another will that is not true, and made it real. Yet it has no effects. Within me is the Holiness of God. Within me is the memory of Him.”

If you have listened to my teachings much at all, you have heard me speak of the ‘I am bad’ thought. This fear—the fear that ‘I am bad’—is one of the greatest obstacles to awakening. It keeps us stuck in the belief that we are something other than God. As NTI puts it:

You believe you have stolen yourself from God. That is to say, you believe you have made yourself separate from God’s Will. You believe it is your choice to follow God’s Will or your own, and you feel guilty for this choice, because you believe it is a sin to have made a will that is separate from God’s.

Your guilt, born of the choice to have a separate will, leaves you feeling unworthy of God’s Will. And so, out of your guilt and sense of unworthiness, you deny God’s Will by not hearing it, or by hearing it, but by not believing you are deserving to follow it.

There are several things you must look at here. First, you do have the desire to know and follow God’s Will. Hold that up as a beacon. That is your willingness. Let it guide you to your true Heart’s desire.

Secondly, the feeling that seems to be an obstacle to knowing and following God’s Will is the belief that you are unworthy of God’s Will. This is like a crafty trick. It is a loop that keeps you trapped within an illusion of yourself.

You think you are guilty because you want to serve a will other than God’s,

and

Your true desire is to serve God’s Will,
but your sense of unworthiness is an obstacle to that desire.

Do you see the loop in which you are snared? Can you see how your own belief in your guilt and unworthiness seems to lead you onto the path of increased guilt and additional unworthiness?

This is why I have come, to help you look at the upside-down reasoning within the mind that keeps you feeling trapped. And also to help you see that you are not trapped, because you can lay down this reasoning that makes no sense. When you lay it down and put it aside, you are free to know the reasoning of the Holy Spirit, which is right-reasoning and is joy.

If you are in the purification stage, spend today noticing the thoughts in your mind that continually tell you that you are ‘bad’ (guilty, unworthy, not good enough, etc.) Each time you notice one of these thoughts, realize that it is an ego preservation strategy and nothing more. Put faith in the fact that you are eternally innocent. Rest for a few moments as you hold that faith in your mind and heart. You don’t need to understand how you are innocent. You simply need to trust that it’s true.

If you are already purified from the ‘I am bad’ belief, let today’s lesson be a reminder of your desire to surrender completely, and therefore merge fully with consciousness.

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What is the Second Coming?

Our special theme says, “The Second Coming is the time in which all minds are given to the hands of Christ, to be returned to spirit in the name of true creation and the Will of God.”

That is an extraordinary sentence.

“all minds are given to the hands of Christ”

“to be returned to spirit”

“in the name of true creation”

“and the Will of God”

Please take time to contemplate this sentence today. What clarity comes to you as you contemplate this beautiful symphony of words? Be sure to write your clarity down, so you can return to it if it is forgotten later in the day.

This instant is the only time there is.

Today’s lesson is also incredible.

“I have conceived of time in such a way that I defeat my aim.”

“I must change my perception of what time is for.”

“Time’s purpose cannot be to keep the past and future one.”

“The only interval in which I can be saved from time is now.”

“The birth of Christ is now”

“present blessing”

“love is ever-present, here and now”

“Thanks for this instant, Father.”

Oh my goodness! What a glorious feast! It is a perfect combination of ideas to bring us into the heart.

Please contemplate these words from today’s lesson, just as you contemplated the excerpt from our special theme.

I can hardly wait to get this tip posted, so I can move into my own joyous and fruitful contemplation. The heart is already opening in anticipation of it.

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What is the Second Coming?

Our special theme says, “The Second Coming ends the lessons that the Holy Spirit teaches, making way for the Last Judgment, in which learning ends in one last summary that will extend beyond itself, and reaches up to God.”

Our last special theme, “What is the Real World?” shared the same teaching. Spiritual intuition leads us across a bridge that leads from the false self to truth. When we have reached the end of the bridge, spiritual intuition’s job is complete. God takes the final step to pull us into Itself. In today’s excerpt from our special theme, that step is called “The Last Judgment.” (We will look more at the “Last Judgment” later, because that is our next special theme.)

We’ve talked about the third stage of spiritual awakening as merging. This is the phase of disregarding the apparent personal will by following spiritual intuition until no separate will can be said to exist anymore. When merging is complete, there is realization of only one consciousness and one will. This is a highly awakened state where one is not tempted by the ego anymore. One lives a fully harmonious life that is centered in the still-point of God. This is the Second Coming. In NTI, it is called the fourth stage of awakening. However, it is not the last step in awakening. One step remains, which is God’s final step.

Here is how the final step is described in NTI 1 Corinthians:

The one that seems to be in the fourth stage is but a symbol of the truth that is. So this one must pass away also. But in its passing, 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.

Using the Four Principles of God as a symbol, this is awakening from the Second Principle, consciousness, to the First Principle, Source, which is ultimate truth.

Conflicting wishes cannot be my will.

Today’s lesson is focused on the third stage of the spiritual path, merging. However, this lesson is also useful to you if you are in the purification stage.

If merging is your primary focus now, use today’s lesson to increase your desire for surrender and your sincerity in that practice. Read today’s lesson in its entirety and with heart at least five times today. Let it give you a boost in enthusiasm. Also, practice surrender throughout the day.

If purification is your primary focus now, spend today noticing the thinking in the mind. Notice that your thinking does not have one goal. In one moment it prefers one solution to a specific problem, and in the next moment it criticizes that solution and prefers another. As The Teachings of Inner Ramana says:

The mind is not constant. The concerns of the mind for one day may be completely different than the concerns for another. If all of the concerns for one day are written down, it may be seen that concerns and imagined solutions conflict with one another, so that no true peace can be found with the mind. The solution of concerns creates new concerns. And so again, there is no peace with the mind.

This is why one must step away from the mind to find peace. Peace cannot be found with the mind.

Stepping away from the mind is as simple as losing interest in it. When the mind chatters, it chatters because you are listening. As you lose interest in what it has to say, because you know its answers are not your answers, the chattering of mind shall fade away.

Each time you notice the chaos of mind today, remove attention from thinking and place it with your willingness to lose interest in the mind, and then repeat today’s lesson, “Conflicting wishes cannot be my will.”

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What is the Second Coming?

Our special theme says, “Forgiveness lights the Second Coming’s way, …”

When we are learning to undo the ego thought system, one thing we learn is to let go of ego thoughts without speaking them or acting on them. This is important, because speaking them or acting on them fortifies them with our belief in their validity. That is the opposite of forgiveness.

Conversely, speaking from and acting on our choice to awaken strengthens that choice. It also sends a message regarding our sincerity to the creative principle, which results in a stronger response from Grace, one that is equal to our sincerity. This is why Nisargadatta Maharaj said, “strive for the coveted Grace with sincerity and honesty.”

Sincerity is more than a mental decision or emotional feeling. It is living from one’s convictions free of pretense, deceit or hypocrisy.

You cannot fool the creative principle. It responds to you as you are actually being in mind, heart, word and deed.

Are you ready to “strive for the coveted Grace with sincerity and honesty”?

The gift of Christ is all I seek today.

As you read and contemplate today’s lesson, also contemplate your sincerity as it is defined above. Do this without judgment. We aren’t interested in finding ourselves guilty, lacking or bad. We are simply interested in determining if there have been limits to the Grace in our life, because there have been limits in our motivation to live from our decision to awaken.

If we are limited, Grace responds in a way that is equal to our sincerity.
Likewise, if we remove all limits, Grace responds in a way that is equal to our sincerity.

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