The ego’s fundamental wish is to replace God. In fact, the ego is the physical embodiment of that wish. For it is [the wish to replace God] that seems to surround the mind with a body, keeping it separate and alone, and unable to reach other minds except through the body that was made to imprison it.
…it is perhaps not so apparent why holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.
[When you hold a grievance] you are not dealing here with what the person is. On the contrary, you are exclusively concerned with what he does in a body. You are doing more than failing to help in freeing him from the body’s limitations. You are actively trying to hold him to it by confusing [the body] with him, and judging them as one.
And every grievance that you hold insists that the body is real. It overlooks entirely what your brother is. It reinforces your belief that he is a body, and condemns him for it.
…while the body stands at the center of your concept of yourself, you are attacking God’s plan for salvation, and holding your grievances against Him and His creation, that you may not hear the Voice of truth and welcome It as Friend.
The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. It is the body that is outside us, and is not our concern. To be without a body is to be in our natural state. To recognize the light of truth in us is to recognize ourselves as we are. To see our Self as separate from the body is to end the attack on God’s plan for salvation, and to accept it instead. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 72, W-pI.72.2:1-3;3:1;4:1-4;5:6-8;7:4;9:1-5. See also ACIM Lesson 72 Insights.)
This lesson explains why the affirmation, “I am not a body. I am free. I am still as God created me,” is the most frequently repeated affirmation in the Course. Insisting that we are a body is a defense against accepting our Self as God created us. When we see a brother as a body, and judge what the body does, we are turning our back on God. We are choosing separation over the joyous oneness of God’s Love.
But we have the means in our mind to choose once again. With the Holy Spirit’s help, we can learn to let go of the belief in separation and in bodies which symbolize separation. As we let ourselves be taught by the Holy Spirit in our minds, we learn to let go of our identification with the body and accept the Self that God created as Love, at one with Him.
Our practice today is to hold our minds open to the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of all that we perceive.
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