Let’s be honest. Most of us still believe the body is the main character
in the story… in the dream. We talk about Oneness (we are all One), about spiritual truth (repeating “I’m not a body, I’m free” ten times a day), about forgiveness (it’s all an illusion)… but deep down, we still think we are a body.
We point to our reflection and say: “This is me.”
We compare our bodies to others. We try to heal them, fix them, improve them, maintain them, spiritualize them… and call that awakening.
But in A Course in Miracles, there’s a sentence that hit me like a small thunderbolt:
“To identify with the body is to attack yourself.”
(T-8.VIII.1:5)
So the moment I point to the body in the mirror and say “me”…
I’m attacking ?
ACIM says : yes! You are attacking yourself, because you
choose illusions over truth. You limit yourself, give yourself boundaries,
you make yourself become a symbol of separation.
And when I identify with that symbol…when I call it me
I’m saying: I am not You (Mind)…I am not Spirit…I am this thing with a name and a story and a skin.
And then the ego gets to work. I get sick. I get tired. I get old.
I feel guilt, and call it back pain.
I feel fear, and call it a tight chest.
And I secretly hope that if I just fix the body… everything will be okay again.
The Course doesn’t shame us for this.
But it also doesn’t let us off the hook.
It says:
“If you are sick, how can you object to the ego’s firm belief that you are not invulnerable?”
(T-8.VIII.3:3)
Ouch.
So sickness becomes ego-proof. Proof that I am a body. Proof that I’m vulnerable. Proof that separation must be real: look, it hurts!
(Okay, I know, this sounds harsh. But what if, just for one minute, we stop resisting it… and just try it on as truth).
Acim continues and says : …it is a set up!
The ego doesn’t just use the body. It uses it to fight against the Mind…the real Mind. Why? Because the Mind holds the power to undo the ego completely.
So what does the ego do?
“The ego uses the body to conspire against your Mind.”
(T-8.VIII.4:1)
It recruits the body as its little soldier. Then it whispers: “This is you.
This is where you begin and end.”
And because we believe it…we protect it, decorate it, defend its feelings, and spiritualize its story.
And all the while, the ego is clapping:
“Perfect. As long as you believe you’re the body, you’ll never look for the truth.”
So again, It’s a setup.
And we fall for it…not because we’re evil, but because we’re confused.
We don’t have to hate the body, or “transcend” it, or punish it, or heal it obsessively. We just have to stop calling it Me.
That’s all.
Because the moment we stop defending it as our identity…
we can finally hear the gentle truth that’s been waiting underneath all along. And here it comes and yes repeat it ten times a day:
“I am not a body. I am free. I am still as God created me.”
(W-199)
When I see that in me, I start to recognize it in you, and the space between us begins to melt. That’s where Oneness truly begins.
Not in theory. Not in nice quotes. But in the holy moment I stop being this body… and start remembering what I really am.
With love and light,
G.