Separation - What's in it for me?

Nov '23 in Feed

This came up today in the Year 1-3 Daily Lesson live via

(this bro asks really great questions, ya'll). We recognize a somewhat advanced perspective, since the question would not occur to the one who still believes salvation is available within the dream. This question also marks a profound inflection point on the spiritual path. ACIM eventually lands us in the understanding that we are an extension of God, and our purpose is to enable God to experience Itself. We can think of separation and Oneness as two sides of the same coin or polarities similar to hot/cold, masculine/feminine or the yin/yang. We can't know hot without the experience of cold or masculine without feminine; each is only known by and from the perspective of the other, and neither has relevance without both. This is how we can think of separation and Oneness fitting together, and this idea extends into unreality vs. reality and dreaming vs. awake. We literally fall asleep into the illusion of separation to provide God the experience (many, many trillions of experiences) of awakening to the reality of Oneness. Ultimately, that "why am I here" breaks down into a divine mystery but whatever it is, it's no different from a surfer turning up the wave just to surf back down, or the skier/snowboarder carving left so they can again carve to the right. We get to do that forever in love and in service to God.💜 I'm reminded of a beautiful scene at the end of Wes Anderson's film Asteriod City where the story characters, who are all playing the role of actors in play (how fitting is that!), begin chanting "You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep." This is like a Zen riddle and when followed to where it points the divine mystery appears, symbolized by the extraterrestrial offering up the asteroid that is the centerpiece of the entire film. Blessings. 🙏

You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep. - YouTube

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