II. SECTION 8. What is the Real World?
Lesson 294. My Body Is A Wholly Neutral Thing
- I am a Son of God. And can I be another thing as well? Did God create the mortal and the corruptible? What use has God’s beloved Son for what must die? And yet a neutral thing does not see death, for thoughts of fear are not invested there, nor is a mockery of love bestowed upon it. Its neutrality protects it while it has a use. And afterwards, without a purpose, it is laid aside. It is not sick nor old nor hurt. It is but functionless, unneeded, and cast off. Let me not see it more than this today; of service for a while and fit to serve, to keep its usefulness while it can serve, and then to be replaced by greater good.
- My body, Father, cannot be Your Son. And what is not created cannot be sinful nor sinless, neither good nor bad. Let me, then, use this dream to help Your plan that we awaken from all dreams we made.[1]
Today Jesus asks us to consider if we can be a Son of God and be an aging, decaying, falling apart mortal body as well. Jesus asks us what use God would have for that which dies, which turns to dust. Jesus also offers us a concept which sets us free from the vain, illogic of all that would confuse us, lead us astray, and keep us from recognizing our true identity in Him – the body is a neutral thing – it is not full of fear nor does the body mock love. It simply serves as a useful device in which to learn of separation, to learn of disunity, to learn the hard lessons that send us back to the path toward Home.
In last year’s post, I was not being fresh when I asked you to imagine God having a penis and testicles, a belly button and vestigial nipples. In our hearts we know that God does not have an anus or sit on a heavenly toilet to take a poop! He does not wake up with morning wood. His stomach does not rumble with hunger; he does not lick his chops over roasted meat or burnt offerings of baby animals. When we consider how vain and silly we are as humans to make the Divine in our earthly image, we come to understand that we are created in His Image only in our Holy Spirits, our holy Selves. Our bodies serve as the symbol of our separation from Him, taking our unity and trading it in for individuality, differences, and disunity.
In today’s lesson, Jesus corrects our misconceptions about the body. He addresses the false teachings that we have been indoctrinated with, the idolatry that we have engaged in most unwittingly, the mistaken ways in which we have worshipped that which is not of God. While we live in the body it is neither sinful nor saintly. It is neutral. It is used by Holy Spirit to teach us the lessons we learn about being apart from God. We learn how fragile we are without Him. We learn how vain and silly, cruel and dangerous we are without Him. We learn that no matter what we do as separated beings we amount to be a big fat zero without Him. Our bodies can only be laid aside when we find our way to Him. There is no more use for a separate body. It is laid aside. It is cast off.
Today we are thankful for our bodies. They served a purpose in our past; they serve a purpose now. Our bodies are not sinful nor are we supposed to worship them or identify with them. Our bodies separate us from Creation; they distinguish us. Before we find our path to God, our bodies serve our egos; after we find the path to God, our bodies serve our holy Selves. We will not see them for anything else – we will not grow too attached to them and begrudge the time which will come to let them behind and replace them for the greater good!
In our devotional prayer for today, Jesus asks us to recognize that our body that our bodies cannot be God’s Son. We are not to hate or despise our bodies and blame them for our shame and sinfulness. We are not to idolize our bodies and believe that we are going to take them with us to our eternal home. We use the illusion of bodies in order to awaken from all the dreams of separation in which we engaged.
Ask God to reveal this truth to you today. Allow your mind to be freed of the false teachings about the body that has steeped us in confusion about our identity in Christ and our role in this world for centuries. As we awaken from the stupor of illusion, the real world comes into focus. There we behold the truth about God and about ourselves. Happiness floods our being as we are delivered from thoughts of fear and ignorance and accept the love, joy, and peace which are our rightful inheritance as Sons of God.
[1] A Course In Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 294. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition, (1992). p. 445.
Audio credit: the friar patch @ www.eckiefriar.com
