What is the Body?
Our special theme refers to the body as a dream. It says, “Like other dreams it sometimes seems to picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is born.”
This speaks of duality. As we looked at our last special theme, we saw that outward focus, judgment and duality are the means by which the mind “seeks to let illusions take the place of truth.” And the “body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself.”
That means that the duality of the body, including its ability to be healthy and sick, for example, is part of the mind’s effort “to let illusions take the place of truth.”
I enjoy feeling healthy. I enjoy a body that is strong, flexible and pain-free. However, the body doesn’t always fit that description. If I begin to judge the body by deciding how it should be or should not be, aren’t I falling into the mind’s choice to deceive itself?
Here are some judgments that we commonly make about the body:
- Healthy or sick
- Fit or injured
- Strong or weak
- Attractive or unattractive
- Fat or thin
- Young or old
- Capable or handicapped
- Normal or deformed
- Okay or dying
Are you able to see your ideas of “should be and should not be” in that list?
Our current special theme says, “Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it. But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for.”
Some people interpret that to mean that we can make the body be what we define as good by choosing truth as our purpose. For example, we can make the body healthy, fit, and strong and avoid sick, injured and weak. However, isn’t that still belief in what should be and should not be?
As I said above, I enjoy feeling healthy, and if there are steps I can take to keep the body healthy or to return it to health when it is sick or injured, I will most likely take those steps. However, does that mean I need to judge sickness or injury as “should not be”?
If my purpose is to let go of the ego illusion, don’t I serve my purpose better by loving all experiences exactly as they are?
I am surrounded by the Love of God.
Today’s lesson says, “Father, You stand before me and behind me, beside me, in the place I see myself, and everywhere I go. … There is no source but this, and nothing is that does not share its holiness. … We come to You in Your Own Name today, to be at peace within Your everlasting Love.”
Today we contemplate all things as love. This is sometimes challenging, since the mind judges what should be and what should not be, and we often believe the mind’s judgments. It is common to believe that cancer should not be, mass shootings should not be, etcetera.
How do we see these things as love?
I could go into an explanation of love that might be somewhat satisfactory to the mind, but the truth is that the mind doesn’t see love. The mind sees its illusions of duality. The way we come to see that all things are love is to let go of the ego and its illusion. The way we do that is by ceasing to participate in the ego’s illusion—let go of believing the mind’s stories and judgments—and focus our attention on practices that point to truth.
Today we will focus on love by practicing the Loving Consciousness meditation and by practicing the Loving All Method.
The Loving Consciousness meditation is similar to Awareness-Watching-Awareness except that as you watch awareness, you also love, appreciate and cherish it.
As a review, I recommend this guided meditation today. It is 30 minutes long:
