The ego’s fundamental wish is to replace God. ²In fact, the ego is the physical embodiment of that wish. ³For it is that wish 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.
⁴A person says something you do not like. ⁵He does something that displeases you. ⁶He “betrays” his hostile thoughts in his behavior.
You are not dealing here with what the person is. ²On the contrary, you are exclusively concerned with what he does in a body. ³You are doing more than failing to help in freeing him from the body’s limitations. ⁴You are actively trying to hold him to it by confusing it with him, and judging them as one.
…every grievance that you hold insists that the body is real. ⁷It overlooks entirely what your brother is. ⁸It 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. ²It is the body that is outside us, and is not our concern. ³To be without a body is to be in our natural state. ⁴To recognize the light of truth in us is to recognize ourselves as we are. ⁵To 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, W-72.2:1-3;3:4-4:4;5:6-8;7:4;9:1-5. See also ACIM Lesson 72 Insights.)
We cannot be at peace while we identify with a body. The body is a limit made to hide the Self God created as His Son. But God and His Creation cannot be limited, except in fantasies. We have accepted the fantasy of separation with the wish for specialness.
We believe the body is our identity and accept its vulnerability. We believe we can harm and be harmed and must constantly defend the body. We hold grievances against other bodies that seem capable of harming us.
The Self we are knows no limitations and disregards the body as meaningless. Our Self knows it is joined in the one Self that unites us with everyone. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to help us recognize the one Self that joins us with everyone. In that recognition, we will find peace.
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