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Study of the Text, Chapter 8, VII. The Body as Means or End, P 5. 10-30-14

VIII. The Body as Means or End, P 5
5 It is still true that the body has no function of itself, because it is not an end. The ego, however, establishes it as an end because, as such, its true function is obscured. This is the purpose of everything the ego does. Its sole aim is to lose sight of the function of everything. A sick body does not make any sense. It could not make sense because sickness is not what the body is for. Sickness is meaningful only if the two basic premises on which the ego’s interpretation of the body rests are true; that the body is for attack, and that you are a body. Without these premises sickness is inconceivable.

Understanding that a sick body makes no sense because sickness is not what the body is for, helps me to loosen the hold the belief in sickness has on me. When my body is sick, I am reminded that this could only appear to be true if I accept the ego’s use for the body. The ego thinks the body is for attack and that I am a body.

To further simplify, I understand that attack occurs only where there is the belief in guilt. If I believe that someone is guilty I have attacked that one. If I attack anyone I have attacked myself, or to put it another way, if I see anyone as guilty, I have attacked myself. None of this could happen unless I thought I was a body. Only bodies attack and if I did not believe any of us were bodies, I would never see guilt.

This paragraph is very important because Jesus is telling us that if we did not use the body to attack and if we did not believe we are bodies, then sickness would be inconceivable. I could throw away my medicine and never see another doctor if I let go of the idea that I would attack my brother or myself. To know myself as spirit and never to confuse myself with the body would insure perfect health for the body.

The next time I feel sick or am in pain, I will remember that I must have used this body for attack, otherwise it would not be possible for it to be sick. The solution must be forgiveness. Actually, I know this. I rarely get sick, and when I do, I know what caused it. So I ask for the Atonement for my mistaken belief that I am a body, and I ask for the Atonement for the belief that attack has any value at all.

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