BE THE SECOND COMING
Guidebook to the Embodiment of the Christ Within: A Personal Journey, Our Collective DestinyBy HOPE IVES MAURANBalboa Press
Copyright © 2011 Hope Ives Mauran
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4525-3662-0Contents
Preface............................................................................31. Hope's Journey..................................................................72. Shadrach........................................................................153. The Meditations.................................................................214. Explaining the Unexplainable....................................................295. What Is Christ Consciousness?...................................................416. Date with Unity.................................................................497. The Power to Manifest...........................................................618. Why Christ Consciousness?.......................................................739. Surrender.......................................................................8110. How to Communicate with Your Inner Christ......................................8911. The Earth in Christ Consciousness..............................................9912. The Cleanup Detail: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual.....................10913. Transformation to Christ Consciousness.........................................127Appendix A: Exercises to Loosen Your Perspective...................................137About the Author...................................................................141Bibliography.......................................................................143Endnotes...........................................................................147
Chapter One
HOPE'S JOURNEY
April 21, 2008, I was naked and lying face down on a massage table when Mary, my friend, a spiritual healer and massage therapist, whispered softly in my ear, "You made a commitment before you even came to earth. You committed to embodying the Christ consciousness, and the time for it to come into fruition is in the next five years." A flash of recognition came to me. Oh, of course! I thought as I breathed a sigh of relief. You know that sensation when something that you feel but haven't been able to find words for is finally spoken? An underlying tension that I had held forever dropped; I didn't even realize I was holding that tension until I let it go. It was replaced by a feeling of peace. I got up from the massage table and dressed as usual, but something had shifted. Truth was present almost like another person had entered the room.
I had been wondering where my spiritual journey would lead. Having read over a hundred spiritual books, I was searching for something and never would have dared to call it "Christ consciousness," which sounded religious and out of reach. Mary had been offering me guidance whenever she came to town, and many really transformative and wonderful things had resulted. So, I trusted her clarity and her source. I took her words seriously and committed myself to fulfilling that pre-birth pledge and discovering for myself just what it meant! Not surprisingly, my ego, that part of me that loves to separate itself from others by being special, liked the lofty goal. So, like bringing an unruly friend on a delicate mission, we set off on this quest with a destination that only the truest parts of me would complete.
* * *
The words "Christ consciousness" were like a beacon of light guiding me ahead during a confusing period of my life. They offered a hopeful vision and destination, because a year earlier my decade-long, almost insatiable thirst for spiritual understanding and wisdom had precipitated a move to the country. I moved alone, without my husband and youngest son, which seemed selfish and foolhardy to some of my friends and family. Others admired my courage and willingness to take a spirit-guided leap into the unknown.
I had been caught in a painful dance between leaving and staying, I was unhappy staying and scared to leave. I felt like I had one foot on the dock and one in the boat, and the boat was drifting away from the dock—I didn't know what to do. The marriage was not serving my husband or me, and I was unable (or unwilling) to find another solution. As I drove over a rise one day and saw the cliffs on the Shawangunk Ridge ahead of me, my guides said to me, "There's home." But I didn't get it. The second time they said it, a few weeks later, I was able to hear and feel it. I decided to find a house and move, as that second call ended up being the pull I needed to move out of my indecision and inertia. I was moving away from my married life and the dream and security that it once held, but what was most excruciating was that I was leaving my youngest son, as well.
It had become more and more difficult to fit myself inside the definition of "wife." Although I still loved my husband and didn't want to hurt him or our three children (two of whom were off at college), a part of myself was dying. It became clear that the only way I knew to save myself was to dissolve the marriage—or, perhaps more accurately, complete it. In addition, I didn't like who I had become when I was with my husband, entrenched emotional patterns held me captive and I didn't know of any other way to move out of them. Reluctantly, I moved beyond the marriage, but toward what, I had no idea.
Shortly thereafter, a new man came into my life, orchestrated deftly by the guides, (and amazingly supported by my husband.) He brought an opportunity for healing on many levels and yet created even greater irreconcilable extremes in my life.
And so I found myself living in the country in a house near the end of the cliffs, while my youngest child stayed with his dad one and a half hours away. This allowed my son to remain at the school he loved and in a familiar neighborhood where he had friends. It was extremely difficult; I wanted to be there for him as I always had been, but I knew that modeling for him being true to my spiritual self was also a gift in some ways. The theme of separation, the need to reconcile two irreconcilable realities, was everywhere in my life. My old life was broken in pieces, and the vision for my new life was hazy and didn't fit into any molds I was familiar with. Isolation and humility are perfect incubators for transformation. My retreat to the literal and proverbial "wilderness" left me feeling like I was in free fall with no floor or walls to define my world. It was terrifying and freeing at the same time, and it forced me to live in the moment; to look forward toward the future or back at the past were too painful. I kept a Louis L'Amour quote on a card by my kitchen sink, and it gave me a hopeful shift in perspective many times. It said, "There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning."
Difficult times can offer great gifts on a spiritual level. I shed many layers of conditioning with regard to my expectations, obligations, and assumptions about what was most important. Seeing life through society's eyes simply didn't work anymore. Society's values alone didn't take into account my spiritual longing and whatever it was that was calling me. Being on a spiritual rather than a religious path, there was no obvious way to accommodate that calling. For months and years after my move, I tried to figure out how to put my life back together, to make the people I loved happy and be happy myself. But it was like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle that simply didn't fit, and it made me crazy.
The situation eased considerably when I finally realized that accepting life as it is (as opposed to resisting it) gave me peace and allowed me to find the gifts in the form that my new life had taken. Surrendering, I gently hit bottom and was then able to settle into a new and more balanced perspective. Instead of focusing on what I didn't have, I realized what I did have. I had deep alone time and time with my son, family and friends. I had always needed time alone, but I hadn't known how to balance my own needs with the needs of the children and the nurturing of the family.
Nature's beauty and healing energy supported me and reminded me of life's sacredness. I reconnected with the land, which helped me to feel connected to everything around me. Nature gave me the opportunity to see the unity of all, even in the anguish of separation that felt so real. A saving grace was that I was mostly able to understand the ups and downs I was going through as just part of a process I was in, and I felt my only choice was to hang on and try to enjoy the ride.
* * *
So this is how I found myself two days after my massage with Mary, sitting in bed around 4 a.m. with my laptop on a pillow, heeding a call from my guides or the Divinity within me. They asked me to take a half hour each day to allow the "wisdom that flows through me" to express itself on paper, and they gave me this title for a book: Guidebook to Christ Consciousness: A Guidebook for the Transcendence of Human Thought Patterns and the Movement Out of the Prison of the Illusion That We Are Simply and Only Individuals in a Physical Realm and to the Truth of our Unity, Our Oneness Beyond the Physical Evidence, and the Transformation to the Resurrected Christ, as Demonstrated by Jesus. How's that for a mouthful of a title?
My guides were asking me to co create a guidebook, like a manual for the planting of vegetables or the assembling of an elaborate toy. I had to get over my incredulity that I could actually do this and proceed. Knowing that I was essentially just the scribe at first made the task manageable, yet just opening to "the wisdom that flows through me" didn't result in the structure or substance of a book. I also realized that inherent in the assignment to write a guidebook was the need to demonstrate the Christ within myself. With that not insignificant pressure, my confidence eroded, and I stopped writing.
* * *
A year after the guidebook assignment, I remembered that tucked away in a binder were the written records of a miraculous series of meditations that I had had ten years before. It was in 1999 that my guides first helped me to embody the Christ, so I realized that I already had embodied the Christ! The memory of what it felt like to be the Christ from the inside made me realize that the Christ is indeed within me; "the divinity within" me was real, not just words that I wanted to believe. I knew them as Truth. This gave me the courage to begin writing again.
After my embodiment of the Christ, my guides took me to see Jesus, so I knew he existed and that it was possible to converse with him. I also had another experience with him that I illustrate below, so I knew he wasn't just a lofty historical figure, but a real presence.
When my son, James, was about two, I was pushing his stroller down a country road in Rhode Island. A car came barreling down the two-lane road toward us, never shifting toward the center as most cars do when they see a pedestrian. I shoved the stroller off the road into the underbrush, got off the asphalt, and turned to scowl at the driver, exclaiming, "Jesus! #!*%!" under my breath. As I watched the car go by, in my mind's eye I saw Jesus, his arms through the roof of the car, his body streaming out behind, and his hands holding the steering wheel! His head was turned toward me, and he was smiling as if to say, "Nothing to worry about; you're safe." I was transported instantly from fear to joy. I felt so taken care of!
The book changed again when I realized that I could also speak to Jesus directly to ask him to define Christ consciousness and the path to getting there. I offer my conversations with Jesus here, conversations I have in my head, in the same way that I speak to my guides. Who am I to speak to Jesus personally? It wasn't something I set out to do. Yet, my spirit's commitment to embody the Christ energy has forced me to release my sense of unworthiness to do such a thing. I am no one special. However, I have learned to attune in a way that allows these words to come through. I feel quite certain that all of us have gifts, and being a channel is one of mine. Perhaps it is through giving life to our gifts and talents that we all open to express our Christ within. The Christ energy is present within all of us; our inner Christ is the truth of who we really are, if only we can allow it to be. In accessing this part of ourselves, perhaps we also awaken others to the Christ within themselves.
Through meditations that my guides taught me to do in which I modeled the unconditional love of Christ, I caused something in the heart of another human in Yugoslavia that impacted the physical world. So the guidebook continues with this story of Christ embodiment. Upon the first hearing, the story may seem fantastic, but imagine what is possible when we allow the Christ or Divinity that we truly are to express itself through us. Before I can share the story, first I need to tell you about Shadrach.
Chapter Two
SHADRACH
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." This familiar quote by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin became true for me in 1998 when I learned how to converse with Shadrach, a nonphysical guide and teacher—the older, wiser spiritual aspect of my physical self, my Divinity within. He had always been in my head somehow. The name Shadrach had been floating through my awareness for as long as I could remember. He inhabited my thoughts and had all my life. So, teasing his individual presence from the matrix of my mind was a profound transition that opened up a brand new world to me. We conversed (sometimes on the computer and sometimes just in my head), and my world cracked wide open, expanding to the size of the universe. His answers were clear and made sense and radiated with unconditional love. He gave me advice on many subjects, exhorting me, "Life waits for no one to be a better person tomorrow. Whatever your plans for change and evolution, charge ahead with them."
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do all that Shadrach suggested. Though he was filling my mind with wisdom and encouragement, I rarely found the focus or will to put it into practice for more than a few seconds at a time. I realize now that this was because channeled words have a specific quality of energetic vibration that speaks directly to our spirits. Our lives, however, are mostly not run by our spirits. A changing stream of selves with differing needs and wants (our minds, hearts, bodies, egos, training, inner wounded children, and so on) run our lives, and they are all of different vibrations. The spiritual journey is the process of getting all parts of ourselves on the same vibrational frequency and aligned to a higher purpose. For me, this is like trying to train a ragtag army into a unified force that acknowledges the spirit's authority.
Shadrach affirmed the magic of earthly life for me: "There is always meaning in things if you search for it. Your life will be filled with joy and emotion to a dizzying extent." With this knowledge, the world around me became a conscious, living being, infused with loving connections and communications. My heart opened to the birds, trees, and flowers, and they began to convey messages. I felt my intuition strengthen and magic return to my life, which my traditional education and reliance on science alone had so effectively dulled. Before my spiritual awakening, I had been one of the "I need to see it to believe it" folks. As I opened to the spirit's presence in my life, my heart opened. I found myself crying at the simplest things, such as the beauty of sunlit dewdrops on the grass or a story in the newspaper about people helping others.
Shadrach encouraged me to slow down, to be more present, and to use my time in a different way. I learned to be still, both physically and internally, more than I ever had before. One theme reappeared often: "The best thing for you to be is joyous."
"I will try," I replied, "but sometimes it is a struggle to find that place of joy."
"The place you will find it is within, not without. Go within. Be quiet in yourself. Make time for prayer and concentration. Make time to be still and sit in wonder of the web of life as you have come to know it. This will help you find your joy."
I realize now that joy opens up communication with our divine selves, and that's really the whole point! This was counter to what I was taught. In my puritan heritage, the focus was on duty. Joy wasn't spoken of or valued for the potent energy that if brings to life.
All Life Is One
One day, as I was driving, I asked why so many animals were killed on the road. Shadrach said that they were offering themselves as a reminder that they are present in the land and that they wish to be considered when we do things that affect them. I wished I could help them to convey this message more succinctly! It was also a relief to hear that the animals had chosen to die in that way! Afterward, instead of feeling sad when I saw a furry lump on the road, I felt a surge of gratitude for each animal's communication to us and its ultimate sacrifice. I wanted to honor the animals, so I asked what I could say that would do that. Shadrach said, "All life is one. May you be blessed." I say that whenever I pass an animal on the road now.
Shadrach's words enabled me to see beyond the seemingly harsh physical evidence of life to a purposeful perspective in which I understood that things were happening for a reason. It gave me a lighter perspective about life and also helped me to realize that from the vantage point of our spirits, death is an illusion. Our bodies may die, but there is a part of us that continues to live on. Adding the dimension of the nonphysical to my world gave me more choices about how to respond to life, and my perspective shifted from seeing earth from close up to seeing her from a greater vantage point. The change gave me an intense awareness of the bigger picture being enacted on earth while also opening my heart and causing tears to flow whenever something that expressed our unity came to my attention.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from BE THE SECOND COMINGby HOPE IVES MAURAN Copyright © 2011 by Hope Ives Mauran. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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