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Study of the Text, Chapter 8: VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, Paragraph 9 10-1414

VII. The Body as a Means of Communication P 9
9 In this world, not even the body is perceived as whole. Its purpose is seen as fragmented into many functions with little or no relationship to each other, so that it appears to be ruled by chaos. Guided by the ego, it is. Guided by the Holy Spirit, it is not. It becomes a means by which the part of the mind you tried to separate from spirit can reach beyond its distortions and return to spirit. The ego’s temple thus becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit, where devotion to Him replaces devotion to the ego. In this sense the body does become a temple to God; His Voice abides in it by directing the use to which it is put.

My practice of asking the Holy Spirit to decide for me is helping me to use the body as the communication devise it could be. It feels so good to do this, so freeing. Even when I am feeling guilty or regretful about something I said or did, I ask Holy Spirit to decide for me how I should feel about this, because I know I am not meant to suffer and so I must have decided on my own what my actions meant.

My body is the vehicle I use to navigate the illusion and though I made it for the purpose of experiencing separation, I am ready to awaken from this dream now, and so I have decided to use it for the purpose of awakening instead. Up until now the body has been the home of the ego, in service to the part of the mind that chose separation. Now it is becoming the home of the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God. It is becoming a temple devoted to my Father and used for His purposes.

I say becoming rather than is, because I still fall back into ego sometimes. But more and more my devotion to the Christ mind is strengthening and so my loyalty is shifting. As this happens, I use the body to extend love rather than to defend myself and to attack a perceived enemy. I feel so much better when I do this. I feel happy and peaceful, and I see brothers instead of enemies.

I see that in listening to the ego I believe that I must be my own guide, and that I must find a source for what I need. For instance, I must find the best source of income, and then I must defend that source even though that means attacking perceived threats. When I ask Holy Spirit to decide what my fearful thoughts and defenses mean, I remember that the job is not my source and that if I leave everything to Holy Spirit I can relax and enjoy what is before me without feeling the need to defend it.

The fear about the future falls away. The fear of loss falls away. With nothing to defend, the need to see my brother as my enemy becomes senseless and it falls away, too. I am free to enjoy my life without the constant anxiety of protecting it. I am free to love, and when I was defensive that was not true.

Now I also understand better why it is that in my defenselessness my safety lies. In using my body for the purposes of Love, there is no concern for myself, and no need to defend anything. Without being in defense mode, I am aware of my safety.  In God’s Hands I am perfectly safe.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 8: VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, Paragraph 8 10-13-14

VII. The Body as a Means of Communication P 8
8 There is nothing so frustrating to a learner as a curriculum he cannot learn. His sense of adequacy suffers, and he must become depressed. Being faced with an impossible learning situation is the most depressing thing in the world. In fact, it is ultimately why the world itself is depressing. The Holy Spirit’s curriculum is never depressing, because it is a curriculum of joy. Whenever the reaction to learning is depression, it is because the true goal of the curriculum has been lost sight of.

Why is the curriculum of the world depressing? It teaches me that the way to be happy is to win and this keeps me in constant competition with everyone. I cannot win every time so I can only be happy sometimes. Even when I win, what is my prize? A short adrenaline rush, bragging rights for a bit. That is the most I can hope for. Is this a prize worth sacrificing perfect peace, eternal happiness, unbroken communication with God, Heaven?

In winning, I lose. I lose everything worth having. I am whole, complete; in God and with my brothers I am an eternal Divine being, but to win over a brother I must be separate from all that. I must be an individual separate small and vulnerable self who sometimes wins and sometimes loses. How is that a goal that I would want? And when I achieve it, what have I achieved? And the achievement is always momentary, followed by fear of loss. This is why the curriculum of the world is depressing.

I cannot learn the world’s curriculum because it is senseless.  It promises me happiness but there is no happiness in the world. It promises riches only to teach me fear of loss. It promises love, only to teach me to defend against the thing I want. At its best it gives me a goal and means to achieve the goal and once achieved I realize it is not worth the effort. I am no happier, and only more discouraged.

The Holy Spirit’s goal has always brought me happiness and it is true happiness. He shows me the beliefs in my mind that are hurting me and as I let go of them I discover what they hid from me, my true self. I have, step by step, won for myself peace and joy, and in so doing discovered there is no one to compete with. My joy and peace grow as I give what I received. My win is everyone’s win.

There can be no loss because I am winning what was always mine and what could never be lost. It comes at no cost to me because I give up nothing of value to have it. Because the win is inevitable and the prize was always mine anyway, there is no fear of loss. And for the same reason, the joy of the win is eternal.

So if I feel depressed or even simply unhappy or less than joyful, I know I have lost sight of my goal. I have a purpose and that purpose was not chosen by the ego part of my mind. My purpose was given me by God. My goal is to awaken from the dream of separation. Knowing my goal and having a clear vision of how to achieve it, I walk steadily toward the Kingdom.

When I become distracted by some lesser goal that will not fulfill my purpose, I temporarily lose my way. I now this has happened because I am not at peace and happiness is like a light that flickers on and off to finally be extinguished and leave me in darkness. But even from this darkened frame of mind, I can rediscover my purpose because the Holy Spirit holds it for me in constant and patient readiness knowing I must return my attention to the only thing that promises me unending joy and peace.

This was once a hope in my mind, but through choosing God over and over, and being answered every time; through witnessing that answer and experiencing the love that it brings into my awareness, hope has become certainty.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 8, VII.The Body as a Means of Communication, P 7. 10-19-14

VII. The Body as a Means of Communication P 7
7 The Bible says, “The Word (or thought) was made flesh.” Strictly speaking this is impossible, since it seems to involve the translation of one order of reality into another. Different orders of reality merely appear to exist, just as different orders of miracles do. Thought cannot be made into flesh except by belief, since thought is not physical. Yet thought is communication, for which the body can be used. This is the only natural use to which it can be put. To use the body unnaturally is to lose sight of the Holy Spirit’s purpose, and thus to confuse the goal of His curriculum.

Again, in this paragraph I am reminded that I can make form through my belief, but I cannot make it real. My thoughts are powerful and what I believe, is true for me, and so becomes my experience. I am perfectly safe, however, because they do not become reality. Still, my experience can be one of extreme suffering if I misuse the power of thought, and real or not, this is not something I am willing to continue. That is why I am a student of the Course and why I am willing to be led to the truth that has always been in my mind, but which I have hidden from myself with the illusions I made.

I am also, again, being reminded that I have made an illusion of a body and have used that body to prove to myself that I am separate. Because I am ready to awaken from this dream, the Holy Spirit is helping me to use the same body to guide me from the illusion. Instead of using the body to prove I am separate, I am learning to use it to prove I am one with all other Sons of God. I do this as I use the body for communication. As he says, this is the only natural use to which it can be put.

I use the body to maintain the illusion of separation when I judge others as if they really were others. I use it for communication when I look past the behavior and the visual impact of my brothers and sisters and see the light of their being instead. It is a seeing that has nothing to do with the eyes. It has taken me a long time, it seems, to experience this. I began by trying to see with the body’s eyes something different and this didn’t work. Then I would ask to see more or to see differently, but I could only see what I believed. I could only see in others what I saw in myself.

As I continued to accept the Atonement consistently and my mind began to heal, I was treated with moments of clarity in which I saw only love everywhere I looked. Now it is expanding so that it is happening more often. I am also very much more aware of when I am judging or even when I am off my game and feeling isolated. It feels uncomfortable and wrong, and I want to move out of that feeling. I think that one big difference is that, more often than not, I am automatically rejecting the ego judgments that flow through the mind, and what is really there simply shows its self to me. I think this is using the body for communication.

I have known for awhile now that I have a purpose and no matter what kind of process I was passing through, or how confused I became in my ego mind, I remained true to that purpose. So while I have slipped in and out of ego thinking, I have not forgotten for long what I am here to do. Maybe this guiding vision of purpose is what alerts me to the misuse of the body.

When I return, however long or however briefly, to using the body for separation purposes, I have moved away from my purpose and I feel that. It is like being unmoored, drifting and lost, and because I have been exposed to the certainty and safety of the Holy Spirit’s purpose for me, I feel the loss acutely. I return my mind to Him as quickly as I can, and gladly give my body over to His use.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Study of the Text, Chapter 8, VII. The Body as a Means of Communcation, P 6. 10-8-14

VII. The Body as a Means of Communication P 6
6 Rejoice, then, that of yourself you can do nothing. You are not of yourself. He of Whom you are has willed your power and glory for you, with which you can perfectly accomplish His holy Will for you when you accept it for yourself. He has not withdrawn His gifts from you, but you believe you have withdrawn them from Him. Let no Son of God remain hidden for His Name’s sake, because His Name is yours.

I am intrigued by the last sentence, “Let no son of God remain hidden for His Name’s sake, because His Name is yours.” How do I remain hidden? I hide my true nature beneath a thin veneer of ego. I see myself as weak and vulnerable. I pretend to be sad and fearful and filled with guilt. I refuse to look at the power and glory that remain in me because God put it there. Now the Son of God is hidden and all I see is my little made up self.

This smallness is not God’s Will for me. He wants me to know my Self and to live from that Self. He wants me to be joyful and peaceful. My Father wants me to return to full, unbroken communication with Him. If the ego was truly a creation and I was actually alone as this self, I could not do this. I would be stuck in the maddening cycle of wrong-minded thinking. But I am not alone.

I am joined with my brothers, with Jesus, with my God. I have His Voice as a permanent part of me, guiding, healing and comforting me. Through His Voice, God speaks to me all through the day, gently reminding me of my Home and my true nature. I am one with All That Is, and there is nothing I can do about that. In this Onenes, I am holy, I am powerful, I am glorious! I can blind myself to this truth, but I cannot change it, and through the power and glory that was given me I can come out of hiding as soon as that is my desire for myself and all my brothers.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text, Chapter 8: VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, Paragraph 5 10-7-14

VII. The Body as a Means of Communication P 5
5 Yet all loss comes only from your own misunderstanding. Loss of any kind is impossible. But when you look upon a brother as a physical entity, his power and glory are “lost” to you and so are yours. You have attacked him, but you must have attacked yourself first. Do not see him this way for your own salvation, which must bring him his. Do not allow him to belittle himself in your mind, but give him freedom from his belief in littleness, and thus escape from yours. As part of you, he is holy. As part of me, you are. To communicate with part of God Himself is to reach beyond the Kingdom to its Creator, through His Voice which He has established as part of you.

Jesus is telling me a lot in this short paragraph.

Loss is impossible.
I can believe I am lost when I think of my brother as a physical entity.
We are holy.
We are part of each other and part of Jesus.
We communicate with God Himself through His Voice which is part of us.

Someone I know was behaving badly. I saw the behavior but I didn’t believe it. I know this is not who he is, but is just a reaction to the fear thoughts in his mind. I didn’t correct him or berate him. I didn’t judge him, even in my thoughts. I didn’t attack him because I wasn’t, in that moment, attacking myself. I felt close to God and so close to the truth of my own power and glory.

My steadfast belief in myself made it possible for me to hold that same certainty for my friend, and helped him return to peace. Whether he is aware of it or not, he experienced a shift that will help him the next time his fear thoughts are triggered. My decision to see the truth instead of the confusion that his fear thoughts were causing strengthened my own faith. Now it will be easier to make that same decision the next time I am faced with a choice about how to see my brother.

My eyes show me a physical entity with all the frailties that go with the belief that using a body is the same thing as being a body. I can choose to believe what I see, or I can choose to believe what I know. Each time I choose to use my spiritual vision I come closer to full remembrance of my true nature. Remembering that to do less is an attack on both myself, and my brother, motivates me to be vigilant in my choices.

When I first started the study of A Course in Miracles I was not comfortable with the idea of communicating with God. I was too afraid, too full of self-loathing. I liked the idea of communicating with the Holy Spirit. This seemed safer. But now, with more mind healing and less fear I am ready to accept that the Holy Spirit is the Voice for God, that when I speak to the Holy Spirit I am speaking to God, and that when the Holy Spirit speaks to me, God is speaking to me.

I am not alone in returning my mind to the Kingdom. I am fully joined with all my brothers, including Jesus. I am also joined with God, through the Holy Spirit which He placed in my mind for that purpose. How could I experience loss of any kind except that I choose to willfully turn from my own power and glory? Alone I can do nothing, but then I am never alone, and in my true Self, which includes my brothers and my Father, I can do all things.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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