Developing Christ Consciousness by Jocelyn Graef: Part 7 in Great Awakening
Yes. We are wishing to welcome you. We are Li Chen. We wish to speak tonight on the topic of developing Christ Consciousness.
First, we will begin with helping you to understand — or perhaps perceive in a different way than you do — what Christ consciousness actually is and the ways this is attained.
This begins with the powerful experiential knowledge that God is directly within you. That you are aspect of God. When you are understanding this beyond the intellectual recognition, fully understanding this through some powerful direct experience, then you begin to see all of creation in every experience through new eyes, with new understanding. Understanding that all you are looking upon is actually an aspect of you, as well. That you are an aspect of that rock, that tree, that other being, that dog, that blade of grass, that star and so on.
This is the concept of oneness that is so much more than a concept, for this is the greater reality. Very difficult to understand this directly when you are in the human experience, for the corporeal is the illusion of separation. Tremendously complex to discuss all these various aspects in this spectrum, so we will try to keep quite simple here.
So. Now you are experiencing this oneness, this truth of oneness. What this is teaching you, among many other things, is that every thought, every idea, has a greater truth around it. This does not mean that you need to understand the details of this greater picture. Christ consciousness simply begins with the recognition that you are an aspect of all. You are an intrinsic part of all that is.
You who are Christian celebrate the presence among you of the great master you have called Jesus. He was a fully realized human being. Not the only one by far, but one who has been most greatly recognized in your western cultures.
Fully realized. What does this mean? Means that he was in as perfect alignment with God as is possible within the confines of human experience. This is Christ consciousness — alignment with God. Without the taint of ideas, philosophy, social conditioning, ego, fears or hopes, for all these things are of the smaller, personal aspect of the separation experience of human existence.
This Jesus was like perfect vessel, great empty vessel, for God to fill up with greater knowledge and wisdom. As he walked through his life, he was studying with his mind, learning the wisdom of all that he experienced of the greater truths that are found in all religions everywhere.
God does not hide in religion and certainly God is not only found in one religion. In fact, religions are often preventing you from direct experience of God through the dogma and philosophical re-directing. Religions do not give you the tools for direct experience of God. Religions do not teach how to have direct conversation, to go deeper and access the God that is living within each of you, waiting for you to open this door so that conscious mind can be in direct communication with God.
Your Jesus was studying all these religions. This was helping mind to understand more fully what was occurring within him, in his greater aspects, the higher levels of his being. As he went through his life, he lived and taught this great motto: “Let it be thy will, O Lord, not mine.” This is the doorway to developing Christ consciousness.
When you are going through ego-death, you will not cease to be you —good heavens, you will always be you, with your personality, your humor, your faults and your warts; these will always be there. Even the greatest of saints retained their individuality. Ego-death is rather the giving up of your will, this illusion of being in control, of being able to shape your life and move forward all by yourself.
As we are often saying, there is no “all alone.” All is done in partnership. All of creation is interacting with other aspects of creation, whether this is perceived by you or not. So then was your Jesus moving through his life, being a vessel for these miracles to come through, giving the teachings he came to give. And through all the years of study and experience, he came to know the bigger story around all the great teachings that already existed.
The miracles would occur through and around him as result of his alignment with spirit. Do not think that these miracles were pre-meditated. Jesus was quite as amazed as the multitudes of witnesses when these miracles would occur. For example, the turning of water to wine and appearance of the loaves and fishes to feed the masses, were as astonishing to him as everyone else. All he know was that there would be enough food and drink for all. He knew this from his place of greater knowing. He did not know how the people would be fed, only that they would.
When Jesus was healing, this was always a great miracle and a great wonder for him as well as those receiving and witnessing the miracle. He, too, was in amazement and wonder and gratitude at the magnificence of how spirit moved through him.
He could never tell what spirit would do, how spirit would work through him, yet he walked in alignment with spirit, giving up SELF to make room for the greater aspect of God within him to manifest in the world. He was not preventing spirit from working through him.
What this developed was his discernment. Your Jesus was quite selective in those he would work his healings on and those he would single out for conversation, for he had the wisdom to understand that gifts are to be given only where they can be received, and the discernment to see who could truly receive.
This is the meaning of this biblical phrase, “Do not cast pearls before swine.” This is not to be taken as one being greater than another, but simply to have the discernment to give the gift where it can be received. It is not a gift if it cannot be understood or used.
In this manner, discernment is also an aspect of Christ consciousness. Discernment is the single most important ingredient to developing and working with your inner guidance, spirit, God — however you are wishing to label this facet, this aspect of creation, this essence of all that is. For without discernment, how can you even know what is spirit, what is hope? What is from truth, what is from desire?
Discernment is the ability to differentiate between what is greater truth and what is not. What is hope or fear as opposed to what truth really is. This is discernment. To recognize what IS.
Q: How do you develop discernment?
A: This is a partnership with unconditional love. Unconditional love is, by nature, highly impersonal. With unconditional love, there is no expectation, no requirement for return. It is, simply put, a profound acknowledgment of God within all that is. And an honoring of this God within all things. Far easier to have this acknowledgment for one such as your Mother Teresa than for homeless one who is drinking himself senseless each chance he finds. This differentiation is based in judgment, where unconditional love is recognizing that God is found in equal measure in all, beyond the smallness of personal preference.
When you can incorporate unconditional love as a true knowing that all are equal in God, you can then begin to move through the smallness and encompass the greatness of all. This encourages you, teaches you that judgment is quite different from discernment.
Judgment is rather a result of social philosophical training, of attitudes of the mind, rather than discernment of your heart, your being.
We recommend here that you begin the discipline of meditation if you are sincerely seeking. Commit thirty minutes each day to this discipline. This is a direct doorway, bringing you to direct experience of God. This will bring you profound truths — not from your mind, but far deeper, far greater. We will not deny that you may not be able to understand the experiences you have, yet the resonance, the power of the spirit is undeniable.
Perhaps you will experience something you will seek to understand with our mind for the rest of your life. This is the beginning of direct partnership with God. This changes you permanently. This goes beyond all the aspects of the mind that are so powerful, so filled with illusion and delusion, that are so distracting, so diverting. Brings you directly to God.
Developing Christ consciousness is no small thing. Takes many lifetimes. Many lifetimes of desiring to achieve the full realization of who you truly are in your essence. Yet it need not take so long always. It is a process of letting go. Of giving up self so that God may move through you. This causes much fear amongst people, this idea of giving up who they think they are. This is simply a misunderstanding, for you do not give up who you are, you become far more than you are, than you have ever been before.
When you are experiencing ego-death — “Let it be thy will, O Lord, not mine” — this is giving up self, willfulness, for something far greater, for greater aspect of self to move in the world and give service to the world. As you do this, you are developing deeper compassion for brothers and sisters in body.
Very difficult to be in human form — all these darknesses, all these doubts. All these feelings of being so alone. This ends as you experience ego-death. As you open yourself up and pray for something greater to move through you, what awaits you is a greater joy and a greater love. Personal problems then become very small. You begin to understand that your own personal struggles are serving to make you more compassionate to your fellow humans, and you are able to serve more completely as result.
Q: In other lives have we built Christ consciousness, or just in this life are we to build it?
A: You are each one on your own path, with different agenda, different tasks to fulfill. Though you are all here to participate in this great time that is awakening now on this planet, you each have personal tasks as well.
The working toward the development of Christ consciousness is simply a personal choice that you will come to in your own time and in your own way. This is assured. This is one of the final great lessons before you are stepping off the cycle of reincarnational progress and are able to move beyond. This is a requirement. When you are achieving this is entirely your own decision. Your choice.
Q: Are there any signs when we can tell we are starting to experience ego-death?
A: This is not something that is part of conscious thought. It is old Buddhist joke, you see, that when you are realizing, “Oh! I am enlightened” you are no longer enlightened. It is in the experience of it, not the thinking about it. It is process, it is incremental. You are experiencing this through the partnering with your own inner guidance system, the God within you.
The wider you open this door, the harder you are working to develop the ear to hear the whispers. The whispers then become louder voices, clearly heard. You learn to honor this by taking action in the world as directed by guidance. For this is where partnership comes in, the directives are given. You must learn to hear them. Once you are learning to hear them, then you must act on them.
This requires much faith at first, for you do not know what you will experience and indeed are never given foreknowledge of the outcome. So this is a walk in faith, this partnership. It is only by acting on your guidance that you are finding out if this was truly guidance, or rather a hope or a fear or an idea. Something based in the mind or something greater. When you are following guidance you are cared for — perfectly — in all areas of your life.
Focusing on this discipline of leaning to discern guidance is building you up, bringing you out. Brining spirit more present in your life through actions in all that you do, all that you think.
Much of this process can be very painful, for this involves letting go of those ideas that are not based in truth. Each one of you is filled with many of these ideas. How can you not be? You are raised with all these teachings — the philosophies, the dogma, the “should” — these are absorbed into your consciousness and reacted to without thought. So a part of the development of Christ consciousness is unlearning much of what you think you know.
Some of these ideas are quite magnificent and elaborate, but so sorry, not necessarily part of truth. Again, you discover this through direct experience which develops discernment. So this becomes a shedding process as well as a building process. Shedding the desires, shedding the willfulness, shedding the ideas, makes you far more powerful in your life and being. Far more joyful and effective in the world. Always has practical application. Always makes you of greater service to the world.
Yet this does not mean this will always be joyful. Can be most terrifying to let go of belief system that has upheld you, that you cling to, for this is perhaps your only identity. Yet, if that is not based in truth, how can you grow and emerge?
Oftentimes when you are on your unfoldment path, these ideas that are not based in truth, and therefore not serving your growth, are taken away from you. Then the pain comes, for, like house of cards, your entire philosophical belief system is crashing down around your feet. You no longer know what is true, no longer know what to believe in.
We can tell you this — if you get to the point where you are feeling as though you are in complete darkness, remember that you are not alone. Cannot be alone. God is within you, struggling to emerge more powerfully in your life and the world. God seeks direct expression to you and through you. Is up to you to develop the ability to be in partnership here. Not through ideas, but through following the simple directives. God is very simple. God is needing you. God is calling you.
You are perhaps waking up one day knowing that you must call person on telephone and say “thank you,” acknowledge this person. You do not know why, you are just feeling this is something you must do. The result will be very powerful when you honor these messages. You do not need to know why. Perhaps you will learn why, but not necessarily. In these simple ways, God is moving through you and moving you to action. Very simple.
There is a saying in your Bible, “Many are called but few are chosen.” This is inaccurate translation. God is not having favorites here for you are each one God’s dear treasure. You are each one God. The accurate translation here is, “all are called, but few respond.” Only a few can hear or understand or discern the call, for it takes preparation and training for this. This is what this passage is truly speaking of.
Q: How can the many who are called be the few who are chosen? How can the few who are chosen help the many who are called, to be lights?
A: All are chosen. This is what we are saying. Each one of you is chosen. Because you have free will, you can choose either to respond or ignore the call. There is no judgment either way. We are knowing that if you can hear the call, if you are able to respond to the call, what awaits you then is more powerful joy than you have ever known. Ever. And in this way you will be directed to do God’s work in the world. This is highly individual from moment to moment. You cannot know how God will use you. Be assured it will be in the perfect way according to your talents. This is where the courage comes. You are not making decision about how you will be used, only about whether you will join with God or not. God is knowing your abilities far better than you can begin to understand yourself. And the way guidance is working, you will know what you are to do on the eve of your doing it. There are no promises, no guarantees. It is simply a matter of desiring to be a vessel for God to work through. What you are feeling called to do, do. It is in the doing that you will discover what awaits you truly.
Q: What about the Christ consciousness of today — the real meaning of the Second Coming, and why it’s so important for us to understand this development?
A: The Second Coming is, as we have so often spoken about, not an embodiment of the one known as Jesus. It is rather the awakening of the Christ within each one of you. For this is happening within each one of you according to your ability to respond and welcome and move forward with this.
Greatest need is always met with the greatest service. The times on this planet when great Master teachers have been coming is a reflection of the need for these Masters, as well as a reflection of the ability to receive their teachings.
Q: Apparently, the more I try to learn and try to understand, the more I become aware of how little I know. Can you help with this?
A: Let us give you great gift here: We can tell you truly that you know nothing. This is cause for great celebration, for when you are recognizing that you know nothing, you do not require yourself to have any answers. You do not burden the mind with the false responsibility of having to “know.”
This is the beginning step to a greater joining. This is the beginning of knowing God. When you can acknowledge, each one of you, that you truly do not have any answers, this empties the vessel. If you are no longer believing your beliefs, then you are empty vessel, to be filled up with a greater knowledge, greater love, greater wisdom, from a source far more powerful that the little mind.
You are filled up from direct experience, not ideas. You do not find God through the thinking process, rather you have direct experience of God and it is this that you think about.
Jocelyn Graef can be contacted through email at jegraef@comcast.net
Great Awakening: Part 1 by Jocelyn Graef
Great Awakening: Part 2 by Jocelyn Graef
Reincarnation & Karma by Jocelyn Graef (Part 3)
Purpose of Life by Jocelyn Graef: Part 4 of Great Awakening