The Will to Awaken

"The real world is the state of mind in which the only purpose of the world is seen to be forgiveness.  No rules are idly set, and no demands are made of anyone or anything to twist and fit into the dream of fear.  Instead, there is a wish to understand all things created as they really are.  And it is recognized that all things must first be forgiven, and then understood." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section V, 1:1 & 4-6

I've been thinking a lot this year about the seeming process of awakening, and the shedding of the false self that is required.  As St. Paul put it, "I die daily" so that "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."  This beautiful thought is beloved in Christianity, but is also largely revered as a poetic and idealistic sentiment, not as a literal process that requires our willingness.  Even those charismatic Christians who see it as literal still hang on to the notion of a little self that is saved by the God/Man, Jesus Christ.  They don't see that this simply perpetuates their false view of themselves as separate from God, weaker and imperfect. 

And whose will was it that these imperfect creatures exist?  Certainly not God, Who creates all things in His Holy Mind and so eternally extends HimSelf.  The Spirit of God did not and could not create imperfection.  How could the imperfect exist in the absolute harmony and perfection of God, the eternally One and Whole?  So what seems imperfect must be an imperfect perception only, a false sense of what eternally IS.  

The will to awaken is the willingness to constantly release each and every perception that arises, and give it to the part of our mind that remains aware of our eternal Oneness with God... the Holy Spirit.  This is what forgiveness is... and this is the process of Atonement, the interlocking chain of forgiveness that results in the Awakening of the One Son of God, even within the dream separation.

So what is the will to awaken?  And why do so very few seem to have it?  ACIM tells us that "The Call is universal.  It goes on all the time everywhere.  Many hear it, but few will answer.  Everyone will answer in the end, but the end can [seem] a long, long way off." -- (ACIM; Manual for Teachers 1.2:4-5 & 7-9)  In other words, we have a vested interest still in the dream.  After all, it's our dream... and we continue to question how these very beautiful and desirable parts could need our forgiveness and release.  Can't we just forgive all the bad stuff and keep these parts we like, the parts that we're comfortable with, the parts that speak to us of tradition and continuity within the dream?

Our teacher and guide is uncompromising.  Jeshua said, "A man must lose his life in order to save it."  Yikes.  This is not what our egos want to hear. 

How do we find the will to awaken?  How do we release the mental resistance that flails about and questions our very sanity?  I'd like to tell you there's an easy way through this passage, but the Truth is that the only way out is through.  You will pass through this fire, and you will not be burned. 

On the other side of all seeming turmoil is the perfect peace of realizing that there never was a problem... we have always been right here, safe in God.  On this side, we simply keep giving our perceptions to the Holy Spirit and following the directions of the Voice within.  This perfect trust will be reinforced as we are willing to follow the Holy Spirit's Voice instead of our own fearful imaginings.  Forgive and follow the Voice.  Forgive and follow the Voice.  This is the will to awaken.

"A major hindrance in this aspect of learning is the teacher of God's fear about the validity of what he hears.  And what he hears may indeed be quite startling.  It may also seem to be quite irrelevant to the presented problem as he perceives it, and may in fact confront the teacher with a situation that appears to be very embarrassing to him.  All these are judgments that have no value.  They are his own, coming from a shabby self-perception which he would leave behind." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 21. 5:1-5