Saturday, July 18, 2015
Lesson 199: “I am not a body. I am free.”
This lesson says, “The body is a limit. Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it where it can not be found.” We have this identity as a body and we think of ourselves as inseparable with it. The body is a great machine in what capacity it contains within. But the limits of the body’s scope are profoundly deficient. The body can’t exist without some shape and form in which to exist. This means that the body comes with a defined limit.
This is always bad news to our egos because our bodies are invariably the source of living in a prison that we think of as our body. The body is infinitely lacking regardless of how extraordinary and stupendous the body is. What we need to do is not see the body as something that we can depend on or whose limits we can get beyond. The body never changes and to base our happiness and contentment on this limited resource is certainly insane indeed. We need to remember this is just a mistaken identity. It appears that our mind is connected to our bodies so we easily confuse from where we came. We think that our energy is in form and of bodies.
What the Course asks us to do is halt our obsession of focusing on our body as some grand gesture about who we are. What we need to do is set aside any concept we may have about the body being the definer of who we are. Jesus asks us to take seriously our error of thinking. We so often believe we are what the body can offer in the world. What we want to do instead is entirely let go of this false belief. If we don’t then our insides will be conflicted. When we believe that we have a body’s motivation then we measure our lives and purpose by what our body makes.
This is invariably painful because it will always dramatically fall short. What we are asked to do is let go of our insistence that the body is our origin. We must release this insanity to God’s altar. Instead, we are asked to remember that God is our one and only Source. Never allow our minds to be misled by the insane notion that our body is the decider of who we are. When we choose God instead as our definer then we are not in conflict with ourselves. When we instead are choosing the ego’s and body’s land about what intention to bring, then our insides are a mess because we feel strongly about going in multiple directions with a vast variety of ways. This always feels terrible when we are conflicted because we feel out of sorts with ourselves.
This lesson reminds us to be unambiguous about our intention. When our minds are clear and with simply one path in direction then our stumbling ceases because we aren’t at the mercy of the whims of our egos. It seems like such a contrary task to find our freedom in what is not our bodies. This seems to be contrary to all of our notions regarding what appears to be our reality- the existence within a body. We have no way to disengage with our existence within the body in the current life, but it is possible to do it in our minds.
We can tell ourselves that the body is the temporary vehicle that was made solely for the purpose of God’s purpose. We absolutely will be able to do everything we need to do for the good of the world and humankind if we simply allow God’s will to be done. We need to simply let God’s plan be the one we will to follow. This is why we can surrender our attachment to trying to make our lives a particular out picturing of what we think is desirable, We can instead relax in the knowing that all is perfect as it is and then have no judgement whatsoever about our bodies and our lives. This then also contributes to our aligned intention and energy because we are not feeling guilty about what or what is not happening in our bodies when we identify with them solely. This is the way to peace.