ACIM Chapter 8. VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, P 1, 2. Attack is always physical.
ACIM Chapter 8. VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, P 1, 2
VII. The Body as a Means of Communication
1 Attack is always physical. When attack in any form enters your mind you are equating yourself with a body, since this is the ego’s interpretation of the body. You do not have to attack physically to accept this interpretation. You are accepting it simply by the belief that attack can get you something you want. If you did not believe this, the idea of attack would have no appeal for you. When you equate yourself with a body you will always experience depression. When a child of God thinks of himself in this way he is belittling himself, and seeing his brothers as similarly belittled. Since he can find himself only in them, he has cut himself off from salvation.
When I first read this, I wondered if this could be true; that attack is always about the body. Then I realized that, yes, it is. For instance, one day, I had attack thoughts. I thought my neighbors were being too loud and interfering with my concentration. That means I was equating myself with a body, right? I felt tired and distracted. Body again. I felt like I needed to hurry and that I wasn’t going to get through. Need a body living in time and space for that.
I resented everyone who interrupted me.
Again, some bodies came into play, and I found them guilty of being my problem. I had not gotten enough sleep and so I had trouble focusing. Writing it out like this, I see that the distractions were always about other bodies, and my frustration with the day seemed to be equally between them and my own lack of sleep. Anything that stems from the idea of separation is about bodies, is mostly about myself vs others.
We obviously have bodies here, but what I have noticed is that when we equate ourselves with these bodies, we have problems. When I identify with my ego self, the body and personality of Myron, I get all wrapped up in her story. It is a natural consequence of ego identity that I perceive attack and defend myself. The idea of separate selves, unconnected with each other, creates an atmosphere of comparison, contrast, and competition.
Time is part of the separation story. I have to get this body moving and get to this other space in a timely manner. Otherwise, some other body is going to be unhappy with me. All these other bodies seem to be determined to keep me from doing what I absolutely have to do. It is all their fault. Life becomes a war that I feel I have to win, and everyone is my enemy, just obstacles to my plans. Well, except for a few “special” bodies designated as “loved ones.” And even they get booted into the enemy camp sometimes.
There is good news.
I have discovered that I can live in a body without identifying with the body as self. I have not succeeded in doing this all the time. But having done it at all, I know I will succeed. In the Course, Jesus tells us that we can learn to listen to only the Voice for God, even here. The more often I choose that Voice, the less I think of myself as this body. I more often now identify self as spirit.
When I think of myself as spirit, I feel expansive about life and toward my brothers and sisters. They no longer seem to infringe on my space because I have no space that is not their space, too. I don’t blame them for whatever is going on with me because as spirit, I know that I choose my life and everything that happens to me in this body. My brothers and sisters are playing at life with me, not fighting against me.
When I identify closely with spirit rather than with ego, everything feels different. I feel close to everyone. I feel like they are working on my behalf, that the world is for me rather than against me. And I see no gap between us. Yes, we are playing in bodies, pretending to be this one and that one, but I can’t believe in the separation, and I don’t take the game too seriously. I certainly don’t get mad at someone else for living their story. It becomes more interesting than obstructing.
Sometimes, it feels like I have a split personality.
I will be the happy someone who finds life fascinating and feels treasured by others and by the universe itself. Other times, I feel like my whole day is devoted to defending myself from everyone who shows up for my story. After one of those days, I am exhausted, and generally, by the next morning, I am feeling ridiculous and regretful. I look back on how I felt and reacted, and I can’t believe I attacked so often during the day.
Today’s Lesson says the stillness of the peace of God is mine. It doesn’t say it could be mine, but that it is mine. I can keep the regret for yesterday if I prefer regret, but the peace of God is mine, so I can choose that if I want. Instead of regret, I can laugh at yesterday and at my choice to see bodies and identify with this body. I wasn’t able to choose peace that day, but I am able to see what I did and how that feels, and so now, make a different choice. Those difficult days were not wasted days because, from them, I learned that I don’t want to attack or be attacked. I learned that I want to return my mind to God and to the peace of God.
VII. The Body as a Means of Communication P 2
2 Remember that the Holy Spirit interprets the body only as a means of communication. Being the communication link between God and His separated Sons, the Holy Spirit interprets everything you have made in the light of what He is. The ego separates through the body. The Holy Spirit reaches through it to others. You do not perceive your brothers as the Holy Spirit does, because you do not regard bodies solely as a means of joining minds and uniting them with yours and mine. This interpretation of the body will change your mind entirely about its value. Of itself it has none.
The body has no value of itself. You wouldn’t guess this by the way the body is glorified in this world. The more beautiful and the more perfect the body, the more esteem it is given. People even tend to judge the person according to the body it is using, as if a sick or imperfect body were an indication of the state of the soul that is abiding as that body.
You would think that the body is a god. We spend so much time protecting it, glamorizing it, decorating it, and worshipping it. And yet, Jesus says it has no value of itself. Of itself it was made by the ego mind to stand for separation, as proof we are not connected to each other or to God, and as proof that we are unlike God. But everything made by the ego mind to prove separation, can be used by the Holy Spirit to undo separation.
I was checking into a hotel one night.
The clerk was new at her job and was slowly and uncertainly checking me in. As I noticed my eyes rolling and my fingers tapping in impatience, I remembered that this is the use the ego has for bodies. In my frustration, I was assigning needs to this body that were not being met in a timely manner. She had given different goals to her body, and that was her focus. I didn’t see our sameness in that moment; rather, I saw her as an obstruction to what I needed. That took me up short.
I saw this holy, Divine Being, disguised as the body of a hotel clerk, as merely an obstruction to the perceived needs of this body. Let us all bow down before the body, which takes precedence over kindness and whose needs are more important than love. Let us use this body to prove, once and for all, that there is no oneness, only many separate needy bodies scrambling to get their desires met before it is too late and someone beats them to it. What a sad and depressing little story of deprivation this is.
As I saw that moment for what it was, I changed my mind. I didn’t want my room in a timely manner. I didn’t want to be treated with respect. Nor did I want to put this body on a pedestal for all to worship. I just wanted to know this woman as my sister and self, and so that is what I asked for. No, I didn’t freak out the clerk; it was the Holy Spirit I spoke to. I asked Him to heal my mind so that I could allow the body to be used for a different purpose.
“I give this body to You today, Spirit.
Please use these feet to bring this body where you need it to be. Work through it to bring us together. Please speak through this mouth words that bring understanding. Use these hands to bring comfort and ease. Spirit, this body was made to symbolize and sustain separation; convert it to Your use so that it might become a symbol of oneness instead.”
To read Pathways of Light insights of this section, CLICK HERE.