IX. The Holy Instant and the Attraction of God, P 4
4 It is impossible to divide your strength between Heaven and hell, God and the ego, and release your power to creation, which is the only purpose for which it was given you. Love would always give increase. Limits are demanded by the ego, and represent its demands to make little and ineffectual. Limit your sight of a brother to his body, which you will do as long as you would not release him from it, and you have denied his gift to you. His body cannot give it. And seek it not through yours. Yet your minds are already continuous, and their union need only be accepted and the loneliness in Heaven is gone.
Journal
I am being told that I need to give my full allegiance to God rather than continuing to divide it between God and ego. I understand this doesn’t work, doesn’t make me happy and now I am told that it prevents me from using my power to create. I have all the reason in the world to remember my function and my one goal.
As Jesus does throughout the Course, he is reminding us that we are all in this together. We help each other to wake up. This is the only way it will work. Letting go of grievances is another way to think of this. I separate myself from my brother if I hold a grievance against him. If I separate us, I keep myself in hell. So the gift that my brother offers me is the opportunity to forgive him and thus to accept the Atonement.
Jesus talks about releasing my brother from his body by not limiting my sight of him to his body. If I am holding a grievance, I am limiting my brother to his body. It is only what we do and say that is judged and that is done within the body. I know a woman who I try to avoid. I see her in and as her body with no regard for her as she truly is.
She talks endlessly about her problems with no apparent desire to solve them. I would like to give her something but it would mean spending time with her and I dread the long monologue about how mistreated she is. This is an example of keeping her in her body. I see her as her body/personality and I react to that. Now, an interesting thing is happening. While there is still that ego reaction to her, I am also beginning to see her light.
It is not something I see with my eyes, but something that happens in the heart, vision rather than sight. It shows up as a sincere interest in her, and as a softening when I am around her. Sometimes I can listen to the whole conversation without casting about for someplace else to put my attention. I feel different about her in a way that is hard to explain. While my ego still reacts to her ego, there is something in me that loves her. I think I am releasing her from her body and, so, me from mine. I am beginning to accept our union.
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