Lesson 219: Review: “I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.”  “I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.”  “I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.”

This lesson says, “Without the power to enslave, it is a worthy servant of the freedom which the mind with the Holy Spirit seeks.” 

The Course gives us a totally unique way to view the body.  We hear from the world the body is meant to be our source of both highs and deterioration depending on what the ego enlists the body to do.  The ego makes the body real because the ego likes the game of pursuit in searching for joy there.  However, the body is temporary and withers and dies inevitably.  Therefore, relying on the body for our peace of mind and a sense of joy is never a method that will work because the body is undoubtedly full of problems.

The Course teaches us to not try to make the body into something it is not.  

The body is fragmented at any given time because that’s the nature of how the ego lives in and uses our bodies.  We are encouraged to not look to the body for anything that it is not meant to be.

The Course says the body is not real. 

This helps us to start to unlock some of that rigid need for control and thorough torment we have when the body fails in whatever way.  

The body is unreal and thus we can release some of that fierce attachment we have to trying to make the body into something it is not- our source of joy everlasting.

The Course teaches that we must have appropriate relationships with our bodies. 

First when we accept they are not real, we feel less intense about them.  We surrender some attachment in the accepting that the body is not real.

It works when we stay focused on it.  We can release some of that insane ego attraction to attachment over the body’s joys and potentials.

We must remember the body is not relevant beyond a certain point. 

The ego puts the body on a pedestal and we end up idolizing the body in some ways.  But then the ego gets upset when it falls from this pedestal.

The Course reminds us that it is not at all helpful when we try to get something from the body we can never get.

Our scheme is to get to the point where we understand that the body has an important purpose beyond what the ego’s flimsy plans. 

The Course reminds us that the body is meant to be used in God’s plan in whatever way God sees fit.  This means that we can stop being angry and resentful at the body for not measuring up.  The ego decides the body is also a source of guilt.

The ego uses the body to accumulate a gigantic arsenal of bother about what the body does. 

This never will leave us with any peace of mind.  The Course very clearly invites us to stop making the body used for something for which it is not meant to be used.

God says that we are meant to use the body for God’s agenda, nothing else. 

We can trust that everything that happens is all part of God’s plan.  God would not have it any other way.  This means we can actually be happy because nothing is wrong and what is not meant to happen will not happen.

God’s Universe works.

Therefore, we can spend all of our time appreciating our role in God’s plan and that we were given this body to use in the world while we live on the earth.

When we allow the body to be only used for God then we stop rallying against the body.  We can sit and enjoy it instead because we trust that God is doing exactly what needs to be done.

We must stop enslaving the body to try to carry out a will that is not meant for it. 

The Course says that perfect freedom is what we feel when we are not attached to making some other activity for the body that it was not meant to do.