Lesson 199: “I am not a body.  I am free.”

This lesson says, “The body’s purpose now is unambiguous.  And it becomes perfect in the ability to serve an undivided goal.” 

The Course says that we are not our bodies.

When we let the egos speak for us, then, the ego has us trying to find satisfaction in the world and to try to use our bodies to make the illusion as real as possible. 

We try to use the body to satisfy that ego longing to be filled.   Our bodies are the ego’s temporary playthings because they gradually disappear.

We are asked to realize our bodies are simply temporary vehicles for our mind to use.

The problem is that we try to find freedom in our bodies and it can never be found here.

Therefore, this puts us always in a position of living wrongly because we are desiring to find an answer in a never-ending-hopeless endeavor. 

The body is never good to try to fill the ego’s fantasies.

This is always a road to despair because it never works. 

Thus we are asked not to do it.  We generally have a lifetime history of thinking about the nature of our bodies being a certain way.

Sometimes people think they are healthy or they think they often get sick. We all have this long history telling us what the body is good for.  We have the ego telling us that our bodies are always failing us in some way, or are always deteriorating to some degree all the time.

We can be filled with the ego’s frustration about this. 

The body seems like a part time help and we need a full time body to function.

The Course says that the amazing thing is that now we can see the body from a totally new perspective.  

Our bodies are meant to serve us in this life.  They give us all the help and support we can ever want.  We just need to trust that God will give us all the experiences we need.

God has given us the perfect tool. 

That is what our bodies are- a simple tool to give us the way to get home. 

We need to not make the body responsible for more than is appropriate.  

The Course says that God loves us so much, that while we are on the earth in our existence of mind, God gives us the body to take care of whatever business there the Holy Spirit deems appropriate.  

That means there is absolutely nothing to have concern over.  We don’t have to hope our body will do what is needed.

We can instead of questioning God’s plan, just sit and enjoy it.

The problem is often that when we think the body is meant to do other things than it is, then the intention within us gets misaligned with God’s purpose. 

When we overlook our intention or get out of touch with God’s Will, then we end up having a split goal in our minds. 

When we do, our minds become less powerful because we are not clear what we want and what we believe.  

The Course reminds us that our alignment within ourselves and with God makes us incredibly powerful. 

We are meant to just come back to that part of us that is open to joining with God’s purpose.