What is the Christ?
“Christ” is a symbolic term. As a symbolic term, it can mean different things to different people. However, if we look carefully at our new special theme, we can see clearly what this term means in A Course in Miracles:
Christ is God’s Son as He created Him. He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another, and with God as well. … He abides unchanged forever in the Mind of God.
Christ and God’s Son are synonymous, and they both point to what many people call consciousness. In some traditions, consciousness is the first creation. It is also the only direct creation of the source, since all other “creations” were created through consciousness. This is similar to the Bible’s claim, if “the Word” is seen as synonymous with Christ or consciousness. At John 1, the Bible says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
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.
Christ’s is the vision I will use today.
Today’s lesson says, “Today I choose to look upon what Christ would have me see, to listen to God’s Voice, and seek the witnesses to what is true in God’s creation. In Christ’s sight, the world and God’s creation meet, and as they come together all perception disappears.”
The lesson concludes with a prayer:
Father, Christ’s vision is the way to You. What He beholds invites Your memory to be restored to me. And this I choose, to be what I would look upon today.
To behold Christ’s vision, focus on awareness in yourself and on life in every living being. Let everything be as it appears, without asking it to appear differently, while you stay focused on the life that is the same in all living things.
If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:
Note: The music in this meditation is a bit loud (or lively) in the first few minutes, but then it settles down nicely.
