Lesson 201
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1 (181) I trust my brothers, who are one with me.
No one but is my brother. I am blessed with oneness with the universe and God, my Father, one Creator of the whole that is my Self, forever One with me.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Review: It is very easy to make exceptions to this, sometimes by leaving out someone or by trusting some things about a person, but not other things about him. But the lesson does not say I trust some of my brothers some of the time. If I make exceptions then I have undone this lesson. It is very clear that my brothers are one with me; an exception would infer that there is some separation, some small gap between us that would allow one to be different from another. The peace of God is complete and so there cannot be a part of us that is out of accord with another part. By the same logic, if I am trustworthy in most cases but in one case I am not, then there is no peace.
When someone says something that seems ego based and is clearly not in accord with the Course, I notice and I think to myself that my brother is wrong. I do not trust them because I have decided they don’t know what they are talking about. But I am undoing the ego, so how can I not notice what they are saying? Am I supposed to agree with them when I clearly hear the ego? It feels confusing to me, so I asked Jesus about this. He helped me to look at one specific incident which would stand for the rest.
A friend and I were discussing an idea in the Course on which we had what seemed like opposing beliefs. When I asked Jesus how I could see this differently, he told me to notice that I had been thinking up defenses to my point of view all day long. I kept discarding each defense because I would notice that no matter how I couched the words, they felt like an attack to me. He reminded me that defense is attack and a spiritual defense is still an attack.
Jesus also reminded me that I could trust my brother just as he could trust me. If there is any error in his mind, then I could trust that in perfect timing he would allow a correction. He does not need my help. Jesus also helped me to see that my need to defend myself was pointing to an error in my own mind that needed correction. My dear brother was helping me to see that I was afraid to see opposing views, that I felt my own thought system threatened by the opposition.
I quickly brought this thought to the Holy Spirit for correction and He gently placed in my mind the reminder that I do not know anything, and this is good. The emptiness of not knowing provides a place for the truth to come. Not knowing is not threatening, rather it is inviting. I feel so grateful for all the help I receive; I am grateful to my brother for helping me to bring up this fear that I could bring to the truth, and I am grateful for the peace which settles into my mind as I remember to trust my brother who is one with me. I am as God created me.
And Now:
Here is what I know now. My brother is simply as God created Him, pure and perfect, holy and whole. Everything else is my own dream. When I see something in my brother that is not congruent with the truth of our nature as God’s Son, I am confused and need to look within with the Holy Spirit. I can then allow the Holy Spirit to untangle my thoughts and remove what is not true. It makes me laugh at how I used to think that my brother’s seeming faults had anything to do with him.
Regina’s Tips
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
I trust my brothers, who are one with me.
When most of us read the word “brothers,” we immediately think of the body-minds of others. The body-mind is not what our brothers are. This is also why we do not need to replace the word “brothers” with “brothers and sisters.” When we contemplate this lesson, we are not looking at a body-mind; we are looking at sexless awareness-life-presence. “Brothers” in this idea is a symbol for that which is beyond changing form, for that which is constant.
As you contemplate the idea for today, contemplate awareness-life-presence, which is what our brothers are and what we are.