The Body Is a Tool

“The body is a tool made for your use in maintaining the illusion of your separation.  That it has seeming power can only be because you think you put your power there.  If this were true, much power indeed would it wield.  But what you have made cannot be invested with the power of creation without your joining with it.  (A Course of Love, 10.1)”

Affirmation:  “Let me deemphasize the body today.”

Reflections:

1 – Joining?

We do not and cannot join physically with all whom we meet.  That physical joining is limited to very few, or just one.  So what type of “joining” does this passage imply?

2 – Joining = of the Spirit

The joining that we must do is not of the body.  It is of the spirit.  The body is meant to affirm our separation from each other.  The body, like all illusions, fails us in this purpose.  We learn from living in separate bodies that we are not very happy being separate.  So how might we join?

3 – Join in Holiness

We join in holiness, in holy relationships that have, in many cases, been transformed from special relationships.

4 – Join in Minds

We join in minds as well as in spirit, but we do not leave it to our minds to determine all that we need to know.  We listen to our hearts.  And in the listening, we learn that we are not meant to walk along and and to be lonely.  We are made for each other and for God.  There is no better way to live.

4 – Power of the Body

What type of power could the body wield?  Only matters of power and prestige.  The ego.  The things of this world that are tangible.  Success.  Vanity.

5 – Perishable

You get the picture.  Do we really, truly, in our wholeheartedness, want such perishable things?  Let us be glad that their value will not last for us, for in them we lose ourselves.  We instead want the peace, joy, harmony, and serenity that God grants to all who turn to Him.  And He grants this peace, I believe, even to those who have not yet learned that turning to Him is the complete answer.  He is the God of the secular and profane as well as the religious and spiritual, for we are all His children, and He does not forget His own.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would join in spirit and mind with all whom I meet today.  Help me to do so purely.  I know that You do not deemphasize the physical in A Course of Love, but today we are not considering physical joining.  I wish the joining that will bring me closer to being a co-creator with You.

I wish for those things which will last.  And the perishable, tangible things of this world, some of which are necessary for survival, will not last.  I know that You want my material needs met also, but today I focus on the things of the spirit.  May my egoic mind, still a burden in many ways, just diminish in intensity as I seek for the things of the spirit.

Be with me today, as always.  I know that You are with me, for life just keeps getting better and better.  My prayers are being answered, and You are guiding me to find the answers.  Thank You.

Amen.

The Distinction between A Course in Miracles & A Course of Love

“Where the original Course in Miracles was a course in thought reversal and mind training, a course to point out the insanity of the identity crisis and dislodge the ego’s hold, this is a course to establish your identity and to end the reign of the ego.  (A Course of Love, P.8)”

Affirmation:  “Let us end the reign of the ego.”

Reflections:

1 – An Overview

This is a concise statement that will be amplified later on in A Course of Love.  It makes a clear delineation between A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.  We are led, farther on, to the understanding that we need further instruction, because with what do we replace the reign of the ego?  A Course of Love is Jesus’s next step in clarification for us.  To end the reign of the ego is a negative, but to live “establish your identity” is a positive.  Let us add our thought to his, the thought of our heart, to try to understand and to ask for a heartfelt key to our real identity.

2 – Jesus

We are children of God, and we are brothers to Jesus.  He has already walked the pathway, and in A Course of Love, later on, he says that accepting him is a necessary prelude to the pathway that we have chosen.  Of course, we learned in A Course in Miracles that there are other teachers, but we who are studying together have chosen Jesus as our guide, and it behooves us to accept him fully into our heart.  He can help us, even if we remained somewhat detached from him, but he can help us so much more if we truly invite him into our hearts.  Then the glorious blessings are not stopped by doubt.

3 – End of the Ego

So the reign of the ego ends when we have been through the whole trilogy of A Course of Love.  The first volume, which we are considering in the next several months, is still a learning experience.  Later on, we will find out that there is a time for learning to cease, and for observation to be our way in this world.  But I am getting ahead of ourselves.  For now it is enough to know that the truths of A Course of Love give us a certainty of salvation that we may have missed until now.  And A Course of Love (ACOL) gives us reassurance that our own imperfections do not truly matter.  Jesus can and will step in to correct mistakes that we have not been able to change (this is also a tenet of ACIM).

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

My ego is what gets me in trouble.  It is weakened somewhat, in that I am not nearly as overtly goal-driven, in  an egoic sense, as I used to be.  I no longer thrive on competition (nor feel demoralized by competition).  So again today I ask that You help me to step aside from the egoic mind and to truly let the weakened ego just die.  When I say this, I am thinking of the ego as a part of myself that is actually an insane part of my mind.

I would follow my spirit, informed by You, from my depths.  By this I mean the Self that knows far better than my personal self what I should do next with my life.  And “next” means tonight and tomorrow, as well as years down the road.

Be with me as I seek to follow the way that Jesus points out for all of us.  May I be a good steward of the thoughts that we see in this coursework, and may I interpret with a clear mind and heart what my spirit understands.

Amen.

This Is a Day of Stillness and Peace

ACIM Workbook Lesson 291 – for Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Affirmation:  “This is a day of stillness and of peace.”

“This day my mind is quiet, to receive the Thoughts You offer me.  And I accept what comes from You, instead of from myself.  I do not know the way to You.  But You are wholly certain.  Father, guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You.  Let my forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of You return to me.  (WB444)”

Reflections:

1 – To Forgive, Be Quiet and Still

This lesson indicates the primacy of forgiveness, if we are to find our way home.  And we need to be quiet if we are to find our way home; we need to still our minds.  Too much rushing about, and too much stress, will make emotional storms that will cause anger and attack to accompany us on our journey (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM).

2 – The Memory of God Returns

We learn that the “quiet path” leads to God (see above prayer).  And when our forgiveness is complete, the memory of God returns.

3 – Studying the Workbook

As with much of the information in the second part of the Workbook, these prayer capsule the lengthier explanations given in the Text.  We would not be ready to champion forgiveness unless we had studied the Text (in many cases, though this is an interpretation of ACIM).  Jesus says that we must make our own choice of which to read and study first, though he does also say that we must go through the Workbook if we are to call ourselves “teachers of God.”  (He does not specify how many times, beyond one, that we ought to go through the Workbook.  Many students/teachers of ACIM make the decision to go through the Workbook year after year.)

4 – The Memory of God Returns = Awakening

The return of the memory of God is another way of saying that we have awakened.  And God Himself makes the choice of when we are ready for this blessing.  Our forgiveness of all is a prerequisite, as this prayer makes certain.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I move ever closer today toward Awakening.  I do not ask with pride or with haste.  You are the One Who makes the decision.  In the meantime, I am content.  I know the end of the pathway is assured us all.  May we walk with patience the path that is set before us.

May I learn all that You would have been glean from the Workbook.  Thank You for including many summary parts of the Text.  Thank You for the reverence of the passages, for they inspire my day a great deal.  Be with my brothers and sisters as we seek to remember You.

Amen.