Lesson 119: Review of
Lesson 107: Truth will correct all errors in my mind, and
Lesson 108: To give and receive are one in truth.
My ego is having a big problem with today’s lesson, especially this line:
“I am mistaken when I think I can be hurt in any way.”
Obviously, this lesson wasn’t written during a time of pandemic, when bodily threats that can hurt and kill us lurk behind every product we pick up at the grocery store. The ego, of course, is concerned first and foremost with the body. It is its home and it is always on the lookout for any threats to it.
Nobody wants to get sick. Nobody wants to die. The ego is especially keen to keep us fixated on our bodies – what they look like, how they feel, how we use them to experience the world around us.
A Course in Miracles is not so much concerned with the body. According to its philosophy, we only created this bodily world because we have forgotten that we truly are not bodies at all – but are actually thoughts in the mind of God who have never left their divine home. The bodily world, then, is where we have landed in our forgetfulness and everything we see and experience here can be used by the Holy Spirit to remind us of our true, spiritual identity.
And that’s all well and good when a virus isn’t lurking around the corner to take you out. But, here’s the thing – there’s always something in this world that can take you out in bodily form. If it’s not a virus, it’s a car crash. If it’s not a car crash, it’s a house fire. If it’s not a house fire, it’s you slipping in the shower and hitting your head. If it’s not any of those, then you simply die when your body gets too old and tired to do its biological job anymore.
Either way, your body is on limited-time warranty.
The body, of course, can be hurt in many and various ways. We experience fear when we associate our entire identity with this vulnerable bodily state. There are threats around our bodies in every moment – but the Course is trying to point us beyond this form of illusion to the truth – the reality of who we are isn’t a body. Who we truly are can never be harmed in any way, shape, or form.
How does that comfort us during a time of pandemic? For many, it may not comfort us at all – and that’s because the body is paramount to us. For me, though, the truth about myself – that I can’t ultimately be harmed – helps me to see not just past my own bodily weakness, but the bodily weakness of others. I should be caring about the world not because there are other bodies in it, but because all those bodies are infused with the Holy Spirit like mine is. We are all in this together, not just because we face a common bodily threat, but because we are all here to remember who we are.
When we realize the truth about ourselves, the threat to our bodies is over. We will realize that their function is one of communication – to teach us who we truly are what we need to realize we’ve never left our true home within God.
Our discomfort over this lesson is a good sign, says Hafiz, because it means we are on the verge of waking up. He writes:
“It is good if something gnaws at your innards
until you come to real terms with your potential.
“God, like a flea, may bite you somewhere to get
your focus to shift.
“The Holy, like a good poem, may enter you
and coax your mind … to wade out to more
interesting internal space.”
Photo by DJ Johnson on Unsplash