Christ-Consciousness: The Great Choice of the Soul

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Christ-Consciousness: The Great Choice of the Soul

(Edgar Cayce Reading 288-36)

Reading 288-36 teaches that every soul comes into the earth for a purpose. Cayce says, "The soul comes for the express purpose of manifesting in materiality." Earth is not simply a place to earn a living, seek pleasure, or endure hardships. It is a school for the soul. Every day provides opportunities for the soul to express what it truly believes and loves. According to Cayce, the important question is not how much knowledge we possess but what we do with that knowledge. He says, "What the soul, the body, does ABOUT that it knows, that it may manifest that it, the soul, worships as its ideal." In other words, our actions reveal our true ideal. Jesus taught the same principle when He said, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" (John 13:17).

The central theme of this reading is the Christ-Consciousness. Cayce says, "If that ideal is the Christ-Consciousness, well. If that ideal is selfish developments... then these must bring rather the fruits of such into the experience of the soul." The Christ-Consciousness is not merely believing in Christ or speaking His name. It is allowing the spirit that was in Christ to become active within our own thoughts, attitudes, and actions. It means choosing love over selfishness, forgiveness over resentment, faith over fear, and service over personal gain. This agrees with Paul's instruction: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5). The goal of the soul is to awaken to the divine presence within and gradually become more like Christ in daily living.

Cayce explains that every person faces a choice between two paths. He writes, "There is today set before thee life and death, good and evil, and what ye choose with the will of thine own soul - upon that depends what the growth of the soul will be." This echoes the words spoken through Moses: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19). Every thought, attitude, and action either strengthens the Christ nature within us or strengthens the selfish nature. Spiritual growth is not determined by circumstances but by choices. The soul develops through thousands of small decisions made every day.

One of the strongest messages in this reading is that selflessness is the doorway to Christ-Consciousness. Cayce says, "Selflessness is as that to which each must attain, in Him." Many people seek spiritual experiences, psychic abilities, or hidden knowledge, but Cayce repeatedly teaches that true spiritual growth comes through forgetting self in service to God and others. Jesus demonstrated this throughout His life when He said, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister" (Matthew 20:28). The more we focus on serving, loving, and helping others, the more room we create for the Christ spirit to work through us.

The reading also explains why people often become discouraged on the spiritual path. Cayce observes that many people profess faith with their words but do not live according to their profession. He says, "THESE become the stumblingblocks to many." Many seekers have lost faith because they were disappointed by religious people. Cayce's advice is not to judge Christ by imperfect followers. Instead, he says, "Impersonality becomes the watchword." This means looking beyond personalities and focusing on spiritual principles. Our eyes should remain on Christ rather than on the weaknesses of people. The Bible gives the same instruction: "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).

Another important lesson concerns fear. Cayce says, "When there is giving away to fear, to doubt, to avarice, to greed... such souls banish from their own selves the spirit of truth and life." Fear closes the door to spiritual growth. Faith opens it. The Christ-Consciousness cannot fully express itself where fear rules the mind. Jesus repeatedly told His followers, "Be not afraid." Cayce closes part of the reading with the comforting words, "Be not afraid, it is I saith the Lord." This reflects Christ's words to the disciples during the storm: "It is I; be not afraid" (John 6:20).

The reading teaches that all problems can be met through Christ. Cayce writes, "In the knowledge that He, the Christ, stands in self's stead in the abilities to meet each of those conditions... if the faith, the hope of the promise in Him will be held first and foremost, then all problems may be met in Him." The soul is not expected to overcome difficulties alone. Christ becomes the helper, strength, and guide for every challenge. This agrees with Paul's declaration: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).

One of the most beautiful sections of the reading focuses on the two great commandments. Cayce reminds the seeker of Christ's teaching: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy might, thy mind, thy soul... and thy neighbor as thyself." Cayce points out that before Christ, these truths were often taught as doctrines. Christ demonstrated them in action. Therefore, he says, "Not only proclaim, but rather let the acts of thy mind in thought and the deeds in thine body be those proclaiming influences." True spirituality is not measured by what we say but by how we live. Jesus Himself said, "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20).

Perhaps the most practical teaching in the entire reading appears when the entity asks how to balance individuality and selflessness. Cayce answers, "Let the expressing be the INDIVIDUALITY of the Christ rather than a personality or an individuality of self." He then gives a simple spiritual practice: "Ask thine self, 'What would the Christ have me do?'" This question can guide every decision. Before speaking, before reacting, before making a choice, we can pause and ask what Christ would do in the situation. This transforms daily life into a continual practice of Christ-Consciousness.

Cayce also warns against passive goodness. He says, "Be not PASSIVELY good but as ACTIVELY good!" Christ-Consciousness is not merely avoiding wrongdoing. It is actively expressing goodness. It means showing kindness, helping others, speaking truth, encouraging the discouraged, and serving wherever opportunities appear. Jesus went about "doing good" (Acts 10:38). The Christ spirit is always active, creative, and loving.

One of the deepest statements in the reading is, "Use that thou hast in hand." Cayce repeats this principle several times. Spiritual growth does not require perfect circumstances. We do not need to wait for a better job, a better church, a better relationship, or a better environment. God asks us to use what is already before us. The place where we are today is the place where Christ can be manifested. This reflects Jesus' teaching: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10).

The reading ends with a call to surrender. Cayce warns against trying to tell God how He should arrange our lives. He says, "This was the rebellion in heaven, and is the rebellion in the soul of man - telling God what to do with His own!" Instead, the example of Christ is given: "Not my will... THY will be done in me." The highest expression of Christ-Consciousness is complete trust in God's wisdom and purpose. When the soul learns to say, "Thy will be done," fear loses its power, peace enters the heart, and Christ begins to live more fully through the individual.

The message of Reading 288-36 is simple yet profound: the Christ-Consciousness is not a mystical state reserved for a few saints. It is the daily choice to love God, love others, serve selflessly, forgive freely, trust completely, and ask continually, "What would the Christ have me do?" As we do this, the promise becomes real: "I am with thee always even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). Through such living, the soul gradually awakens to the Christ within and fulfills the purpose for which it entered the earth.

EDGAR CAYCE READING 288-36

You will give a mental and spiritual reading for this entity, giving the original purpose of entrance into this solar realm of experience, trace the mental and spiritual development from the beginning through the various stages of experience, and give such guidance as the entity needs in carrying on from the present, considering the apparent problems which confront her at this time and her desire to understand and meet them.

EC: Yes, we have the entity and the soul development of this entity, [288], present in this room.

In entering each experience the soul comes for the express purpose of manifesting in materiality under the environs and under those things builded in the experience of the entity, or of hereditary influence of that soul also.

In meeting any experience, as has been given, it, the meeting, whether it be for development or retardment is as to what such an entity does with the knowledge as pertaining to the Creative Forces in all the activity. What the soul, the body, does ABOUT that it knows, that it may manifest that it, the soul, worships as its ideal.

If that ideal is the Christ-Consciousness, well. If that ideal is selfish developments, or the aggrandizing of activities in the carnal forces, then these must bring rather the fruits of such into the experience of the soul.

And, as has been the warning, there is today set before thee life and death, good and evil, and what ye choose with the will of thine own soul - upon that depends what the growth of the soul will be.

That the environs and the hereditary influences are in the mental and soul experiences of each is evidenced by that manifested in the experience of that soul respecting those things that arise as stumblingblocks or as retardments in the experience of each soul. What has been and is being accomplished by such a soul in each day of activity depends upon whether the ideal is high or low, or whether the belief and faith is such as to make for selflessness in the experience.

For, the assurance has been given from the Father-Creator of life, light, hope and immortality in the earth, that through the Son and the belief in Him He is able and willing to supply that necessary strength in the experience of each soul to meet those emergencies, to meet those vicissitudes in life, to meet the needs in every way and manner; this is constantly shown in the soul of every entity in the material life. Yet many find that self-expression and the personalities of individuals appear to be such as to make for stumbling rather than aid, even when by the word of mouth those individusls or personalities PROFESS WITH their tongues their hope, their faith, in that same light.

THESE become the stumblingblocks to many. Hence impersonality becomes the watchword for all under such experience. And selflessness is as that to which each must attain, in Him. For, as He has said, in love, in faith, in hope, in charity, there are those activities and reflexes from same that show that the spirit of the Master aids in all such expressions in the manifested life of individuals and souls.

And when there is giving away to fear, to doubt, to avarice, to greed, to all those things that are the fruits of darkness, such souls banish from their own selves the spirit of truth and life in every activity.

There is in each experience, as has been shown for this entity, that which has been both good and bad; yet in the knowledge that He, the Christ, stands in self's stead in the abilities to meet each of those conditions that have been builded as but a portion of the structural body of the soul, if the faith, the hope of the promise in Him will be held first and foremost, even as has been given as to what is the whole law and gospel pertaining to the experiences of man, then all problems may be met in Him.

For, as was said of old by all that proclaimed a name, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy might, thy mind, thy soul," and He gave that as likened unto it in a manifested form. Before His entrance finally into the earth it was rather as a tenet, yet He fulfilling the law then PROCLAIMED, "and thy neighbor as thyself." This He did in the body. Would ye be like Him? Then not only proclaim, but rather let the acts of thy mind in thought and the deeds in thine body be those proclaiming influences that thou hast walked and talked with Him in thine inner conscience.

THIS, then, is the manner; for this is the promise unto all that have proclaimed the name. If ye love Him keep His commandments, for they are not grievous to bear, but taking the cross - even as He - march in the van of the promise, "I am WITH thee ALWAYS even unto the end of the world." Not condemning in any, for that thou condemnest in another comes home as chickens to roost in thine own conscience.

So, in the activities of self make known; not so much by speech but rather in the loving activities of mind, of body, and the result is the development in the soul.

Be patient in tribulation. Be WORTHY in the cares that are before thee day by day, knowing that He is able to keep that which is given unto Him. "Be not afraid, it is I" saith the Lord.

Ready for questions.

(Q) What was the exact date of physical birth? [See 288-1, Par. 1, 2 saying the soul entered "late in the evening".]

(A) As has been given.

(Q) The exact time?

(A) As has been given.

(Q) Between one and three Monday morning [1/30/05], as my mother gives?

(A) Between one and three, as given.

(Q) In manifesting in the present, just where should I draw the line between being a non-entity and expressing my individuality?

(A) Let the expressing be, as has been given above, the INDIVIDUALITY of the Christ rather than a personality or an individuality of self. Be selfless in Christ.

Ask thine self, "What would the Christ have me do?" Don't be afraid, but be rather ALIVE in that thou doest.

When thou hast acted unseemly, what has been the promise, what is the manner He has taught thee to pray? "As I forgive, may I be forgiven." Ask forgiveness, and He may forgive thee.

For, as has been given, as has been expressly given in this and in many expressions of how there are the manifestations of the Christ: As ye show forth the Lord's death in that ye humble yourselves that ye may approach does not mean, as He showed in His life, that ye set as PASSIVELY good but as ACTIVELY good! For GOOD can only proceed from good. Good may not be done that evil appears. For, like ONLY begets like. This is an irrefutable law, whether in spirit, in mind, or in body. LIKE BEGETS LIKE!

(Q) Why do I feel such a love for my present environment at times and at others such a revulsion?

(A) Meeting self face to face in the mirror of life.

What is life? God! Facing God with the problems in self's experience, and as these are reflected then there may be revulsions in self and there may be gloryings - not in self, of the Christ - live within thee; but the GLORY in the Christ, that thou may the better manifest Him.

(Q) Why do I feel the same way with regard to certain people?

(A) More in the MENTAL reflection in people and people's activities. For, LIFE in peoples is active - the reflection of what? That from which IT emanated. Like good, can life come from death? Yea, ye say, the body dieth that life might be freed in abundance in the material world. Yea, but it FEEDETH rather upon that body in the material; so does the soul grow. For, as He gave, "In patience possess ye your souls." Then, the soul must feed upon dead patience that it may GROW into an abundant life. Then, as reflected in the lives of persons, individuals, there is the germ of life as from the soul of God, and as they manifest in manners that make for those expressions that are revolting or praiseworthy, so do they reflect in thine experience in manifested form.

"Use that thou hast in hand" has ever been to those that would manifest God's love, manifest the spirit of truth or manifest the devil. Using that in the manner for the glorification of self, even as Life itself, makes manifest evil. Using that in hand for the manifestation of the spirit of truth and life and justice, manifests what? The spirit of truth, Life, that came into the world as the Word and was made manifest in flesh and dwelt among men. That LIFE, that Light, is in ALL expressions of light, life, hope, joy, in the earth today. For, He sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for those that name His name; those that manifest in the material world in the mire and in the slough of despair, though the soul sinks into the grimes of hate and of all things that make for the very sloughs of forgetfulness, as He has said, "Though ye make thy bed in hell" He is there to quicken thee - and USING the very things about thee as the growth into LIGHT in the darkened places.

(Q) Why do I feel such a strong inner urge to remain a part of and help in the [294] household, apart from the Work itself, and again as if I want to separate my association with the Work from my personal relations with the household?

(A) The turmoils, the strifes that come with indecisions as to what is the will of the Father respecting varied relationships. Materiality is the keynote of expression in much of the doubt. Yet, as has been given, "there in the corner where you are," there in the place ye find yourself; whether in this, that or the other household, this or that or the other environ; according to that as is given through the spirit of truth, WILL the will to do HIS biddings, whether the sun goes up or the sun goes down.

(Q) Can they be separated, and the BEST result?

(A) If that is the decision, would be BETTER that they separate. For, each tub, ["Every tub must stand upon its own bottom." John Bunyan.] each barrel, each body, each soul, answers to that within itself. And as to whether in this environ or that environ is that thou hast in HAND used. To WISH to be in another environ, to WISH that this or that change might be, is to build a stumblingblock in self. HIS will, not THY will!

How did the Master answer? "If it be possible, let this cup pass; not my will. For this purpose came I into the world. THY will be done in me."

Do thou likewise.

(Q) Should I try to build up a social life apart from the Work, or is it best for it to continue to be blended?

(A) Do that thy heart and - most of all - thy soul prompts thee to do, for to give whether to do this or that is not the prompting even of God. "Use that thou hast in hand" has He said to every man. But find in that that ye do that you glorify His name, and FULFIL in thine body, in thine mind, in thine soul, those purposes that are HIS to do with thee!

(Q) What changes could I make in my present routine or mode of life to better all concerned?

(A) It's still asking the same old questions over and over again. Use that thou hast in hand today into or unto the glory of God and not of self, and tomorrow those things necessary to be done are shown thee. Dost thou want to tell God how to use thee? Let God use thee as HE sees fit! Dost thou choose to tell thine neighbor as to how he should serve God? Rather shouldn't thou choose to ask God to USE thy neighbor, with THINE help, as GOD sees fit - and not as THOU seest fit? This was the rebellion in heaven, and is the rebellion in the soul of man - telling God what to do with His own!

We are through.