Atonement: Experiencing the Holy Instant

by Paramananda Ishaya

I had no idea how completely my life would change; from that very instant, suspended in eternity, a seed had begun to unfold within my awareness. My first introduction to the power of A Course In Miracles came when I was 12 years old, I curiously asked my father about it because he seemed to be enchanted with it. In 1986, an awakening had begun to shift his life through the practicing of A Course In Miracles. I remember the radiance of the presence that was subtly supporting my curiosity in the book. A gentle whisper to my heart, a powerfully silent welcoming, and an invitation to the atonement.

I stared at the book as it lay on the coffee table in the middle of the room, then I picked it up. The bookmark was placed in the lesson section so I turned to lesson one. Stillness ensued as I watched my awareness melt into infinite peace so familiar, and natural. The experience was of an obvious reality; a state brought about by the lesson, by the teacher; a view different from what the world had shown me up until that point. 365 lessons, one for each day, to re-write the programs, judgments and beliefs we have accepted as our reality. How beautiful.

Maybe it is because it is so natural and familiar that we forget this simple experience of reality, or maybe it is that we slip back into the habitual programming that we have adopted from the world. Whatever the reason, I was soon to forget it and continue my life as if asleep to reality, dreaming as we all do, a seeming endless fantasy of changing images and thoughts, leading us in a maze of time. But thank God reality is real, so powerful that an instant of eternity holds sway over all ego beliefs in time. The mind may forget, but the heart does not ever forget the ascendant reality of the holy instant full of Christ, guided by holy spirit and lived in God.

Not worth reflecting on, the emotional ups and downs, fearful idols, painful thoughts, complex ideas and dramatic displays continued as time went on. Fleeting glimpses of peace between the dancing images on the screen of the ascendant. The atonement waiting then began to have more pull as my heart lost interest in useless pursuits and began searching for lasting peace. I could no longer deny my self, nor live in this world, life seemed to crash into me making it extremely difficult to live in any sane way. In a moment of confusion, questioning my sanity, I was moved into the course where the answer was plain. My sanity was in the ascendant (whatever that was), in the atonement. My perception had begun to be more refined. with more clarity of thought, as I recognized I will never be full of heart until I permanently experience the reality of perfect peace.

As my perception of reality became clearer, and the bridge to heaven closer, my mind became more frustrated. My concepts, thinking and perceptions of reality could not bring me any peace. Engaging the ego for so long as a means for salvation, and ironically to unite with Christ, had failed. (Failure from the egos point of view is success in terms of awakening). Feeling like a failure, wasting years, striving for the truth, for enlightenment, for peace, I gave up, holding nothing. Feeling crushed and defeated, having to face the humility of not knowing anything and not being able to find peace or even have the ability to help a single person reach any lasting peace, I surrendered. In one holy instant, I embraced the atonement or rather the holy spirit embraced it for me. Unknowing, like a baby, in innocence giving up all concepts, thoughts, opinions as my heart cried out in silence If there is a God, help, I cant do it, I don't know how. Trust

The door again opened, just for a sweet instant, as if a second before I was 12 again having the same eternal experience. As if Christ had been walking beside me through all my life, waiting for my mind to cease its illusion for a split second so the holy spirit could reveal the eternal divine nature and resting so I could receive the gifts of the kingdom from the infinite ascendant.

Then, again eclipsed by habit I moved-on in life, a little less arrogant, more open to guidance from the universe.

Then it happened. Rolled up in a perfect package with a beautiful bow, I received a gift too good to be true, the kind of infinite good that we all sense can be true but don't really believe is true. Fortunately, belief is not required and has nothing to do with reality. Truth is true, an eternal kingdom this instant, a door open for all, an ever present path through the door into the kingdom of heaven. A path that is so easy and simple that it is overlooked with our complex minds. With joy I was told about the Ishayas Ascension. Ishaya means Christ consciousness.

After learning the Ishayas Ascension, I entered through the door to everything, to the holy instant, to the atonement. A Course in Miracles is written from the ascendant to the ascendant about the ascendant for the ascendant in the ascendant, ascendant meaning the forth state of consciousness. Like a door it leads into the holy instant of atonement, to Christ, the holy spirit and to God. The author of the course writes to our true nature as a higher state of consciousness, it is written directly to the Christ! It is from that level of our awareness that we resonate with what the course teaches us. It is from that infinite space that we become mirrors of the Christ, we become Ishayas (for Christ) and for Christ we become open doors into perpetual peace and an infinite expanding presence.

Now being able to enter the door as a choice on my part, I began to ascend all limitations, all ego dynamics, false idols. PRAISE, GRATITUDE, and LOVE are the steps with which these attitudes ascend. An ever ascending stairway into heaven and reality describes the mechanical techniques of ascension. Why mechanical? Because this is a true teaching, the techniques are directed into the atonement, they are from the door. There is no beating around the bush, no indirect long and twisted path that is for the ego and the ego wants to change who we are. We cannot change who we are because God created us. We can only delay our peace. That is why the techniques are direct and mechanical, they don't waste time because they are eternal statements of truth and God doesn't believe in time. They are eternally present and interwoven into fabric of creation.

Ascending is an effortless rising beyond of limitation to experience the atonement any time we introduce the ascension attitude. Continued ascension results in the experience of perpetual perfection and awareness of the holy instant. Finally dissolving all barriers, illusions, separation, as the door expands, our awareness becomes infinity expressed in the ascendant, which constitutes an experience of infinite unity, forever unfolding in perfection, in bliss.