Friday, August 7, 2015
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.”
The Course says that we are so much more than just our bodies. In fact, Jesus says we are not considered a body at all. This sometimes requires some mental gymnastics. How can we be not a body at all when we live in a body in the world? We have to have some way to get around. While we are in the world at this present level of consciousness we don’t know any other way to live. We may evolve and get to a place where we can be just spirit riding around without a body. But presently this is what we are working with. Our job is to forgive ourselves for how stressful it is for us to live in a body. The body seems to require much of our energy to maintain. This may feel frustrating and most certainly a far call from a sense of inner peace.
This is why Jesus in the Course makes the point that we are not a body at all. Don’t worry- this doesn’t have to be confusing and therefore an idea that we try to avoid. Jesus gives us this truth which may push the buttons of our ego’s hold on things. This may fly right in the face of the ego and our ego may buck and rebel this idea thinking this is a crazy idea that we are not a body at all. The reason Jesus teaches us this is because our worldly lives with the ego in control is a place where the body seems to be the number one rule- in what we do and how we approach living. Since our bodies need lots of time and effort they seem to be the primary ones in control. However Jesus is teaching us here that our bodies are not at all what matters in our day to day lives as much as we have experienced our bodies to be at the rudder of the ship.
Jesus says we are not a body at all- our egos are certainly always telling us that we are. And for most of us we have lived most of our lives believing we are a body because this is what we see and feel, and the world seems to be part of the picture of our body’s home. What Jesus wants us to do is understand that the body is simply a tool. It has no greater importance. Jesus asks us to completely let go of our idea that our bodies run the show. God says that we are spirit in truth and we are all energetic essences.
Our bodies are temporal and in time and will all decay. This is why they are not inherently of God because their time on earth is limited. This is why we don’t want to identify with them. If we do we necessarily will be as limited as they. This is why Jesus goes to such effort to simply help us perceive differently. Jesus wants us to know that our bodies exist for our use- while we are temporarily on earth. But God wants us to know that bodies are just what helps us get around. We are meant to in no way identify with them because they are not perfect and eternal like God.
We have to forgive this fantasy that our bodies are anything more than useful tools to us. The Course asks us to understand that we simply do not want to be attached in any way to our bodies- that’s why Jesus says “we are not bodies” at all. When we view our bodies differently then we will stop having stress and emotional upset about our bodies. This is why we have to go to the extent of saying the bodies aren’t real at all. We just want to take this more extreme stance for a moment while we adjust our relationship with our bodies. We hold simultaneously that the body isn’t real, while we also believe a body is a useful tool. Then we hold this information about the body and we will be able to live within it in harmony because we can then stop trying to make the body other than it is.