A Course in Miracles Workbook Daily Lesson 5. What Is the Body? Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lessons 5. What Is the Body? The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts.

5. What Is the Body?

1. The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts. ²It is within this fence he thinks he lives, to die as it decays and crumbles. ³For within this fence he thinks that he is safe from love. ⁴Identifying with his safety, he regards himself as what his safety is. ⁵How else could he be certain he remains within the body, keeping love outside?

We made the body to create the illusion of separation. We made the body to separate parts of our Self from other parts. And so, we think that as long as we are in this body, we are safe from love. How very strange that we would want to be safe from love. Thinking about it, though, I see that this was true for me.

I see that I avoided getting too close because I believed that love was dangerous and that it inevitably led to suffering. I also believed it protected me from God because God is Love. And it would have been impossible to have this life experience in a body if I remembered the love of God. That love would draw me into Him. Then the stories would be over, and I would no longer have a separate and special self.

2. The body will not stay.

²Yet this he sees as double safety. ³For the Son of God’s impermanence is “proof” his fences work, and do the task his mind assigns to them. ⁴For if his oneness still remained untouched, who could attack and who could be attacked? ⁵Who could be victor? ⁶Who could be his prey? ⁷Who could be victim? ⁸Who the murderer? ⁹And if he did not die, what “proof” is there that God’s eternal Son can be destroyed?

That these bodies die proves that our fences work. We can go on pretending that the world we made is real. The adventures continue, and we can play hero in our own dramas for as long as we want to. I understand how this must have been enticing at one time and even protective. Once we accepted guilt into our minds, the fear of God would have made the world necessary as a protection.

I suppose that coming back over and over felt safer than facing the music and accepting our punishment. But there is no punishing God, and He judges that we remain as He created us, deeply loved and cherished. Now, I can’t imagine staying in the stories. The way we treat each other is sickening, and I no longer desire to win at anything. When I see some subtle desire to be right in opposition to my brother, I look at that desire with the Holy Spirit so that my mind can be corrected.

3. The body is a dream.

²Like other dreams it sometimes seems to picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is born. ³For only love creates in truth, and truth can never fear. ⁴Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it. ⁵But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for.

This is a good view of the body as the ego’s intended use. It is what keeps us separate, and separation is why we suffer. It keeps us safe from love and safe from God. Because we seem to live in it and because it seems to meet our purpose, we think, “This is me.” It gets sick, and it dies, and thus it seems we have further proof that we overcame the Will of God, Who thought He created me to be eternal and unchanging.

Clearly, that is not the case.

Just look at the body to see that we are right. And how could we be one? Look how we attack each other; look at what victims we are. Could that happen without bodies? The body is a loyal servant to the ego. But Jesus says we can use the body for a different purpose by changing what we think it is for. I am dedicated to doing this.

4. The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity.

²Though it was made to fence him into hell without escape, yet has the goal of Heaven been exchanged for the pursuit of hell. ³The Son of God extends his hand to reach his brother, and to help him walk along the road with him. ⁴Now is the body holy. ⁵Now it serves to heal the mind that it was made to kill.

How do we do this? We decide on it. Our decisions are very powerful and what we decide on is true for us. I decide the body is to be used to help me return my mind to sanity, which is what happens. I give it the job of extending a hand to my brother and walking home with him, and the body becomes holy.

5. You will identify with what you think will make you safe. ²Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you. ³Your safety lies in truth, and not in lies. ⁴Love is your safety. ⁵Fear does not exist. ⁶Identify with love, and you are safe. ⁷Identify with love, and you are home. ⁸Identify with love, and find your Self.

I strive to be in a state of love all the time. That is why I choose peace even when it seems impossible and why I love whatever is happening, knowing love is the only state that is real. I am teaching myself that fear does not exist and that in love, I am safe. And, I am teaching myself that I am love, and when that is complete, I will find my Self.

I am determined to give the body a new purpose.

The body is a dream, which is why it can go from pleasure to pain at the drop of a hat. But like any dream, it serves a purpose, and we can give it a different purpose when we give it to the Holy Spirit for His use. We can use it to awaken the Sonship. Jesus says we can extend a hand to a brother, which is a good visual to express the desire to love one another rather than be at war with each other. It is a good symbol of forgiveness.

As we release the desire to judge each other and we forgive instead of project guilt, we extend love. We do this when we help someone in trouble or smile at the waitress waiting on us at our favorite restaurant. We do this when someone attacks us, and we do not react. Now he sees he didn’t hurt us, and so he knows that he is not guilty. We do this when we accept everyone where they are without needing them to be different.

And we use the body for the Holy Spirit’s purposes through our words, actions, and thoughts.

We identify with what makes us feel safe. We thought that being separate was safe, and we were wrong. It only makes us lonely and afraid. When we use the body on behalf of everyone, it becomes a symbol of love, and love is what makes us safe. It is through love that we find our Self and return to God.