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.
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