The ego’s fundamental wish is to replace God. In fact, the ego is the physical embodiment of that wish. For 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.
A person says something you do not like. He does something that displeases you. He “betrays” his hostile thoughts in his behavior.
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 [his body] by confusing it with him, and judging them as one.
…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. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 72, W-pI.72.2:1-4;3:4-4:4;5:6-8;7:4;9:1-4. See also ACIM Lesson 72 Insights.)
The appearance that we are a body seems to be an indisputable fact. What the body sees and touches, the pain it experiences and its ultimate end in death “prove” that it is real. But a proof based on a false premise leads to a false conclusion. The body is no more than a projection of the false belief that separation is real.
Our unquestioned belief that separation is real blinds us to the reality of our oneness in Love. Yet the Light of truth remains in our mind. In every moment we can call upon the Holy Spirit to shine the Light of truth on our perceptions to heal our mind. With His help we will remember our natural state at one with the Love of God, perfectly safe and in peace.
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