VII. The Body as a Means of Communication, P 10
10 Healing is the result of using the body solely for communication. Since this is natural it heals by making whole, which is also natural. All mind is whole, and the belief that part of it is physical, or not mind, is a fragmented or sick interpretation. Mind cannot be made physical, but it can be made manifest through the physical if it uses the body to go beyond itself. By reaching out, the mind extends itself. It does not stop at the body, for if it does it is blocked in its purpose. A mind that has been blocked has allowed itself to be vulnerable to attack, because it has turned against itself.
I remind myself that the body is just a vehicle that mind uses to experience separation. I am not the body and that is a very important thing for me to remember. I feel like the body, but I am not the body. If I believe I am the body then I am going to be very protective of it. Being protective I will justify defense of the body and since attack is a defense, I will justify attack as normal and necessary.
If I believe I am a body, I believe that I am, necessarily, separate from others since I would end at my body. Separation would then be a fact. This would make salvation impossible since salvation is the return to God. God is whole and separation and attack cannot enter into God or God would no longer be God. He would be ego.
As I remember that I am spirit, I am not bound by the body. I am learning that I do not stop at the body. In truth, I am beginning to see the body as a thought in my mind projected outward, rather than me in a real thing called a body. Knowing that I am not the body there is no need to defend it, nor do I believe that anyone else is their body. I imagine us as light hanging out in bodies so that we can have this experience. Seeing it this way helps me to understand that we are one.
I am not consistent in this belief. I often feel like I am this body and I still defend it in a number of ways. But because I have come to doubt that this is true, and I have come to accept, at least in concept, (and really more than just in concept) that I am spirit, I am free to extend past the body. The way this unfolds in my life is that when I am in my right mind, I see past appearances and behold the other as my brother even when he doesn’t know who he is.
I see with the eyes a sick body, but I know that it is an illusion and that my brother is light and light cannot be sick. I see an angry brother attack me with words, or even physically, and I know that only an illusion attacked another illusion. My brother continues to be light and love and I continue to be light and love, and nothing is actually done because light and love cannot be harmed.
Someone I have had problems with in the past (when I forgot who I was) said something unkind to me. I felt the ego response in my mind. I felt it, and I watched as it formed words of defense and urged me to return the attack. Because I forget my true identity at times I do not always extend love, but on this day I was filled with the joy and peace of God and I could afford to laugh at the ego response. Instead of hunkering down in the body and planning a retaliatory attack, I extended beyond the body (ego) and offered love instead.
There was a time when this would have felt like a sacrifice, like I was giving up something in order to do the “right” thing. But it did not feel like that at all. I just felt like love and the natural thing to do was to share that love. I allowed the insult to flow past me like it had not occurred, like it could not hurt me because it couldn’t. When I remember what I am, ego attacks are harmless and meaningless. I moved the conversation into something helpful, something kind.
As I said, I do not always remember what I am and so I sometimes respond as a body to a body rather than as love to love. But each time I have a holy moment like the one I had with this brother, I am less likely to forget the next time. Each of those moments is precious and I am grateful for them.
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