ACIM Chapter 8. VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, P 3-5

ACIM Chapter 8. VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, P 3-5. If you use the body for attack, it is harmful to you.

VII. The Body as a Means of Communication P 3

3 If you use the body for attack, it is harmful to you. If you use it only to reach the minds of those who believe they are bodies, and teach them through the body that this is not so, you will understand the power of the mind that is in you. If you use the body for this and only for this, you cannot use it for attack. In the service of uniting it becomes a beautiful lesson in communion, which has value until communion is. This is God’s way of making unlimited what you have limited. The Holy Spirit does not see the body as you do, because He knows the only reality of anything is the service it renders God on behalf of the function He gives it.

How do I teach others that they are not bodies? By not attacking them. Only bodies can attack or be attacked, so by not attacking and by not defending against attack, I teach myself and others that we are not bodies. And, of course, the opposite is true as well. In defense and attack, I teach that we are bodies and separate and limited. It is in my defenselessness that my safety lies.

As a salesperson, I used to think of my customers as a means to earn a living and other salespeople as competitors, enemies who were a threat to that goal. This is how the ego uses the body. It promotes separation and thinks of its needs as different from, and more important than, the needs of others. It can be very single-minded in getting its own needs met.

I learned to see this differently.

As I began to experience more mind healing, I began to see my customers and even my competitors in a different way. Instead of seeing bodies that could be used to meet my perceived needs, I began to see brothers and sisters. I began to see opportunities to practice kindness and to extend love. I began to ask the Holy Spirit how He would have me serve God in these relationships.

Now, with this practice, I recognize when I am misusing the body by putting it into service to the ego, and I ask for correction. Usually, my vision shifts pretty quickly, but even if fear blocks that shift temporarily, I know the goal, and I persist. I want to use the body as a communication device rather than a separation device. I want to teach myself and everyone else that we are one in spirit regardless of the appearance of separation.

VII. The Body as a Means of Communication P 4

4 Communication ends separation. Attack promotes it. The body is beautiful or ugly, peaceful or savage, helpful or harmful, according to the use to which it is put. And in the body of another you will see the use to which you have put yours. If the body becomes a means you give to the Holy Spirit to use on behalf of union of the Sonship, you will not see anything physical except as what it is. Use it for truth and you will see it truly. Misuse it and you will misunderstand it, because you have already done so by misusing it. Interpret anything apart from the Holy Spirit and you will mistrust it. This will lead you to hatred and attack and loss of peace.

My body will be whatever it is I decide according to the use to which I put it. It will reflect that use, and if I identify with the ego, it will always be attack or loss in one form or another. How I see another body will depend on my interpretation, and that depends on what use I have given mine. So, what I see in myself or in another is completely dependent on what I think and what I believe.

I’m thinking about how I used my body this weekend. I used it to communicate as I willingly and gladly stepped back and allowed Spirit to speak through me with no desire to direct the words or give them meaning apart from His. I used my body to communicate as I did my son’s chore for him as an expression of love; a quiet gift, a little surprise, an expression of appreciation.

But at times during the day, I listened to the ego.

I misused my body while shopping. I wrapped myself in my own little world and spared not a smile or acknowledgment to those around me. I misused my body as I used it to attract the admiration of its decorations. And equally when I used it to repel joining, thus attacking our oneness. Another way I misused it was when I taught myself that my discomfort was caused by my body. How ridiculous that was as if the body is creative and could cause anything.

So, it was a mixed bag for me, and that reflects my decision for God. My decision is not absolute. But as I think about it, my decision is much stronger than it used to be. Even as I write this, I accept the atonement for the lapses into unconscious thinking. I know I will continue to choose for God over and over. I will do it until that is the decision I make every time. I feel a sense of anticipation as I look forward to another day of opportunity to use my body as the communication device it is.

VII. The Body as a Means of Communication P 5

5 Yet all loss comes only from your own misunderstanding. Loss of any kind is impossible. But when you look upon a brother as a physical entity, his power and glory are “lost” to you and so are yours. You have attacked him, but you must have attacked yourself first. Do not see him this way for your own salvation, which must bring him his. Do not allow him to belittle himself in your mind, but give him freedom from his belief in littleness, and thus escape from yours. As part of you, he is holy. As part of me, you are. To communicate with part of God Himself is to reach beyond the Kingdom to its Creator, through His Voice which He has established as part of you.

Jesus is telling me a lot in this short paragraph.

Loss is impossible.

I can believe I am lost when I think of my brother as a physical entity.

We are holy.

We are part of each other and part of Jesus.

Through His Voice, which is part of us, we communicate with God Himself.

Someone I know was behaving badly.

I saw the behavior, but I didn’t believe it. I know this is not who he is. Rather, it is just a reaction to the fearful thoughts in his mind. So, I didn’t correct him or berate him. I didn’t judge him, even in my thoughts. I didn’t attack him because I wasn’t, at that moment, attacking myself. And I felt close to God, and so, I felt close to the truth of my own power and glory.

My steadfast belief in myself made it possible for me to hold that same certainty for my friend and helped him return to peace. Whether he is aware of it or not, he experienced a shift. That shift will help him the next time his fear thoughts are triggered. My decision to see the truth instead of the confusion that his fear thoughts were causing strengthened my own faith. Now, it will be easier to make that same decision the next time I am faced with a choice about how to see my brother.

My eyes show me a physical entity with all the frailties that go with the belief that using a body is the same thing as being a body. I can choose to believe what I see, or I can choose to believe what I know. Each time I choose to use my spiritual vision, I come closer to full remembrance of my true nature. Remembering that to do less is an attack on both myself and my brother motivates me to be vigilant in my choices.

I was learning I didn’t be afraid of God.

When I first started the study of A Course in Miracles, I was not comfortable with the idea of communicating with God. I was too afraid, too full of self-loathing. I liked the idea of communicating with the Holy Spirit. This seemed safer. But now, with more mind healing and less fear, I am ready to accept that the Holy Spirit is the Voice for God. I know that when I speak to the Holy Spirit, I am speaking to God. And that when the Holy Spirit speaks to me, God is speaking to me.

I am not alone in returning my mind to the Kingdom. I am fully joined with all my brothers, including Jesus. And I am also joined with God through the Holy Spirit, which He placed in my mind for that purpose. How could I experience loss of any kind except that I choose to willfully turn from my own power and glory? Alone, I can do nothing, but then I am never alone. And in my true Self, which includes my brothers and my Father, I can do all things.

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