PART II. SECTION 6: WHAT IS THE CHRIST?
Lesson 272 How Can Illusions Satisfy God’s Son?
- Father, the truth belongs to me. My home is set in Heaven by Your Will and mine. Can dreams content me? Can illusions bring me happiness? What but Your memory can satisfy Your Son? I will accept no less than You have given me. I am surrounded by Your Love, forever still, forever gentle and forever safe. God’s Son must be as You created him.
- Today we pass illusions by. And if we hear temptation call to us to stay and linger in a dream, we turn aside and ask ourselves if we, the Sons of God, could be content with dreams when Heaven can be chosen just as easily as hell, and love will happily replace all fear.[1]
Notes and Personal Application As the truth becomes apparent to us, the world can longer keep us in bondage to its lies, it fears, its temptations. The longer we stay in the world the less enchanted we become with it, no matter how enamored we may be at the outset. Our Father knows this – He made us in truth, He made us in Love, He made us for Heaven. That is where we belong. That is where we find meaning, joy, and happiness. We can dream of finding happiness here in ego world, but we are setting ourselves up for bitter disappointment. No matter what tree we are barking up in order to shake out some pleasure, some promise, some gratification, this world demands too hefty a ransom of blood, sweat, and tears for its highly overrated indulgences and fleeting satisfactions.
As long as we are living for the body we are slaves to the body. Our whole lives revolve around its needs. From the time we are born until the time we die, we are at the mercies of our hunger, thirst, need for shelter, warmth, pre-programmed drives for sex, power, and a sense of belonging. The world swarms with a sea of humanity with built-in cravings that can only be satisfied in a momentarily, ongoing basis. Our text teaches us that our separated egos are as if each briny droplet has separated itself from the ocean while thinking it is all of it.
For the undone ego, the whole of creation revolves around our bodies, our needs, our affections, and affectations. Bodies are a cleverly devised substitute made by the ego to imprison, manipulate, and degrade the Sons of God. If you believe that God created us from dust, you must ask yourself what kind of Father would do that. Jesus teaches us in the text that if we end up here in a body, we chose separateness. We took our Godhood and traded it for humanity. We were promised that separateness would make us bigger and better than God only to find that separateness is a nightmare of uncertainty, beastliness, and false pride. When we begin to realize how controlled we are as bodies by their dependence on food, water, sex, cravings, drives, and urges, we can no longer glorify the body or kid ourselves that our bodies are made by a loving God. Our bodies were designed to be manipulated. A perfect Creator could not make an imperfect creation and it does not take long in the body to realize that it is not a blessing but a curse. Understanding this, not being afraid to look at this, to study this, to reflect upon it, to take a stand against any teaching that would say otherwise, is critical to our understanding of the Course, Atonement, and our ultimate salvation.
In today’s lesson we acknowledge the truth for we see that it belongs to us. We remember who we are and where we belong. We wake up and say, “Hey, this is not reality! I am not this body. I am a Son of God! No matter how much I may enjoy some things of this world, this world is a twisted replica of my true Home. I am through with its lies. I am through with its unequal playing fields, rivalries, drama, decay, destruction, and death. I come from a place of freedom, love, joy, and peace that is forever gentle and eternally certain, safe, and right. I come from a place of mutuality and unity. I can find no happiness in a world where some people are rich and others are poor, some people are intelligent, and some people have an intellectual disadvantage, some kids are born healthy and others are handicapped from birth. I am over food chains, hideous hierarchies, and the trite inner circles of ego. I remember who and what I am, I remember where I belong, and I am through with this nightmare!”
Today we pass illusion by – Jesus recounts in paragraph two. We have no desire to stay in la-la land of temptation, false promises, and ridiculous posturing. We turn our back on hell for now we see it for what it is – a nightmare from which the unwary are trapped in cycles of denial, despair, and death. We choose Heaven where love replaces all hellish dreams.
Today if you are still confused about the difference between our egos and our holy Selves, ask the Lord to reveal your ego to you, to help you see what you must stand against, what you must lay down in order to not only start your journey home to Him but to remain on the path that leads us home.
The ego lurks in our mind, posing as our Self, feigning friendship while plotting our shame, sorrow, despair, depression, and eventual demise. Some people, even teachers of the Course, will advocate for the ego, but while we are not called to attack our ego, we are called to see it for what it is and deny it any say in our life. The ego is the symbol of separation from God. As long as it can imprison our mind and distract us by its constant, pointless chatter we are blinded to the truth about our identity as God’s Son.
Once we recognize it for what it is, we can pray today’s prayer in empowered humility. Our hymn of praise becomes The Truth Belongs to Me! My Home is Set in Heaven by Your Will and Mine, O Lord! The illusions of this world can never tempt us again.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 272. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition, (1992). p. 432.
Audio credit: the friar patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 