ACIM Chapter 8. VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, P 9, 10

ACIM Chapter 8. VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, P 9, 10

VII. The Body as a Means of Communication P 9

9 In this world, not even the body is perceived as whole. Its purpose is seen as fragmented into many functions with little or no relationship to each other, so that it appears to be ruled by chaos. Guided by the ego, it is. Guided by the Holy Spirit, it is not. It becomes a means by which the part of the mind you tried to separate from spirit can reach beyond its distortions and return to spirit. The ego’s temple thus becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit, where devotion to Him replaces devotion to the ego. In this sense the body does become a temple to God; His Voice abides in it by directing the use to which it is put.

My practice of asking the Holy Spirit to decide for me is helping me to use the body as the communication devise it could be. It feels so good to do this, so freeing. Even when I am feeling guilty or regretful about something I said or did, I ask Holy Spirit to decide for me how I should feel about this, because I know I am not meant to suffer and so I must have decided on my own what my actions meant.

My body is the vehicle I use to navigate the illusion.

And though I made it for the purpose of experiencing separation, I am ready to awaken from this dream now. So I have decided to use it for the purpose of awakening instead. Up until now the body has been the home of the ego, in service to the part of the mind that chose separation. Now it is becoming the home of the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God. It is becoming a temple devoted to my Father and used for His purposes.

It has taken some time to make the decision to use the body only in service to God. But more and more, my devotion to the Christ mind is strengthening, and so my loyalty is shifting. As this happens, I use the body to extend love rather than to defend myself and to attack a perceived enemy. I feel so much better when I do this. I feel happy and peaceful, and I see brothers instead of enemies.

There are other threats I learned to see differently.

I see that in listening to the ego, I believe that I must be my own guide and that I must find a source for what I need. For instance, I must find the best source of income, and then I must defend that source even though that means attacking perceived threats. Or, I ask the Holy Spirit to decide what my fearful thoughts and defenses mean. Then, I remember that the job is not my source, so I leave everything to the Holy Spirit. Thus, I can relax and enjoy what is before me without feeling the need to defend it.

The fear about the future falls away. The fear of loss falls away. With nothing to defend, the need to see my brother as my enemy becomes senseless, and it falls away, too. I am free to enjoy my life without the constant anxiety of protecting it. I am free to love, and when I was defensive, that was not true. Now I also understand better why it is that in my defenselessness, my safety lies. In using my body for the purposes of Love, there is no concern for myself and no need to defend anything. Without being in defense mode, I am aware of my safety.  In God’s Hands, I am perfectly safe.

VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, P 10

10 Healing is the result of using the body solely for communication. Since this is natural it heals by making whole, which is also natural. All mind is whole, and the belief that part of it is physical, or not mind, is a fragmented or sick interpretation. Mind cannot be made physical, but it can be made manifest through the physical if it uses the body to go beyond itself. By reaching out, the mind extends itself. It does not stop at the body, for if it does it is blocked in its purpose. A mind that has been blocked has allowed itself to be vulnerable to attack, because it has turned against itself.

I remind myself that the body is just a vehicle that mind uses to experience separation. I am not the body, and that is a very important thing for me to remember. Though I sometimes feel like the body, I am not the body. If I believe I am the body, then I am going to be very protective of it. Being protective, I will justify the defense of the body, and since attack is a defense, I will justify the attack as normal and necessary.

If I believe I am a body, I believe that I am necessarily separate from others since I would end at my body. Separation would then be a fact. This would make salvation impossible since salvation is the return to God. God is whole, and separation and attack cannot enter into God, or God would no longer be God. He would be ego.

As I remember that I am spirit, I am not bound by the body.

I am learning that I do not stop at the body. In truth, I am beginning to see the body as a thought in my mind projected outward rather than me in a real thing called a body. Knowing that I am not the body, there is no need to defend it, nor do I believe that anyone else is their body. I imagine us as light hanging out as bodies so that we can have this experience. Seeing it this way helps me to understand that we are one.

I am much more consistent in this belief than I once was. I sometimes marvel that I feel like I am this body when so obviously, I am not. When that happens, I defend it in a number of ways. But the more certain I become that I am not body but spirit, the more freely I extend past the body. The way this unfolds in my life is that when I am in my right mind, I see past appearances and behold the other as my brother. Thus, I know this for him when he forgets who he is.

I see with the eyes a sick body, but I know that it is an illusion and that my brother is light and light cannot be sick. I see an angry brother attack me with words or even physically, and I know that only an illusion attacks another illusion. My brother continues to be light and love, and I continue to be light and love, and nothing is actually done because light and love cannot be harmed.

One time, I felt attacked by some unkindness from a friend.

I felt the ego response in my mind. I felt it, and I watched as it formed words of defense and urged me to return the attack. Because I forget my true identity, at times, I do not always extend love. But on this day, I was filled with the joy and peace of God. And so I could afford to laugh at the ego response. Instead of hunkering down in the body and planning a retaliatory attack, I extended beyond the body (ego) and offered love instead.

There was a time when this would have felt like a sacrifice. As if I was giving up something in order to do the “right” thing. But it did not feel like that at all. I just felt like love, and the natural thing to do was to share that love. I allowed the insult to flow past me like it had not occurred, as if it could not hurt me because it couldn’t. When I remember what I am, ego attacks are harmless and meaningless. I moved the conversation into something helpful, something kind.

As I said, I do not always remember what I am.

At those times, I respond as a body to a body rather than as love to love. But each time I have a holy moment like the one I had with this brother, I am less likely to forget the next time. Each of those moments is precious, and I am grateful for them. And when I do act as if we are these bodies I react rather than respond. But then, I remember that I am still as God created me. Only love is real, so nothing happened. Since nothing happened, there is nothing to feel guilty for and nothing to regret. Thus, the foray into ego was brief and then forgotten. Where is guilt now?

Listen & Receive
You will find joy in it.

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