This has been a rough week for
my little body. The weather in East Tennessee has been less than wonderful –
cloudy, rainy, chilly, overcast. It’s a great time to catch up on pre-spring in-house
honey-dos as well as outdoor yard and garden chores. So that’s what I was doing
most of the week. On Tuesday, while
re-grouting some tile, I rolled on my side and heard one of my floating ribs
crack and pop. It still hurts, but there’s no bruising or discoloration – so I
know nothing is cracked or broken and no cartilage has been torn. It is just
painful.
On Wednesday, I cleaned our
wooden deck from accumulated mildew. The deck is in the shade virtually all
winter. The mildew is as predictable as daffodils in the early spring. I use a
hand brush and a bowl of ammonia or bleach (Clorox) water. It was very stubborn
this year, so I decided to mix a little Clorox with the mostly ammonia water. I
know that a Clorox/ammonia mixture will give off chlorine gas and is very
dangerous in small, enclosed places – like showers and bathrooms. But I was
outdoors, there was a light breeze and the deck is about 5 feet off the ground
– chlorine gas is very heavy and sinks. It worked on the mildew like a champ –
but the chlorine gas also worked on me – snorting, coughing, and making the
skin on my hands become very sensitive. So much for being so very smart!
So, here I am – a sore rib and
still dealing with the residue of chlorine gas inhalation. After 48 hours my hands still smelled like a
public swimming pool. But I’ve learned that it is difficult to think of my Self
without my body. Afterall, I am not my body nor am I what I generally think. I
am an already-loved eternal spirit that is a part of the Mind of God. That’s
hard to keep in mind when my body is hurting and keeps itself front and center.
In ACIM’s Workbook for Students,
the explanation for the body is clearly spelled out in Lesson 72, “Holding
grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.” As you read this please
remember that “grievances” are having upsets, frustrations, being angry,
condemning, having judgments/opinions, relishing self-pity, having
expectations, trying to be in control, fighting to be right. In short, having a
grievance is being angry at the reality I seem to see because it does not
support my desire for separation and specialness.
From the initial paragraphs of
Lesson 72 (bolding is my emphasis):
1 While we have
recognized that the ego's plan for salvation is the opposite of God's, we have
not yet emphasized that it is an active attack on His plan, and a deliberate
attempt to destroy it. In the attack, God is assigned the attributes, which are
actually associated with the ego, while the ego appears to take on the
attributes of God.
2 The ego's
fundamental wish is to replace God. In fact, the ego is the physical embodiment
of that wish. For it is that wish that
seems to surround the mind with a body, keeping it separate and alone, and
unable to reach other minds except through the body that was made to imprison
it. The limit on communication cannot be the best means to expand
communication. Yet the ego would have you believe that it is.
3 Although the attempt
to keep the limitations that a body would impose is obvious here, it is perhaps
not so apparent why holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for
salvation. But let us consider the kinds of things you are apt to hold
grievances for. Are they not always associated with something a body does? A
person says something you do not like. He does something that displeases you.
He "betrays" his hostile thoughts in his behavior.
4 You are not dealing here with what the person is. On the contrary, you
are exclusively concerned with what he does in a body. You are doing more than failing to help in freeing him from the body's
limitations. You are actively trying to hold him to it by confusing it with
him, and judging them as one. Herein is God attacked, for if His Son is
only a body, so must He be as well. A
creator wholly unlike his creation is inconceivable.
5 If God is a body,
what must His plan for salvation be? What could it be but death? In trying to
present Himself as the Author of life and not of death, He is a liar and a
deceiver, full of false promises and offering illusions in place of truth. The body's apparent reality makes this view
of God quite convincing. In fact, if the body were real, it would be difficult
indeed to escape this conclusion. And every grievance that you hold insists
that the body is real. It overlooks entirely what your brother is. It
reinforces your belief that he is a body, and condemns him for it. And it
asserts that his salvation must be death, projecting this attack onto God, and
holding Him responsible for it….
7 This is the
universal belief of the world you see. Some hate the body and try to hurt and
humiliate it. Others love the body and try to glorify and exalt it. But while
the body stands at the center of your concept of yourself, you are attacking
God’s plan for salvation and holding your grievances against Him and His
creation, that you may not hear the Voice of truth and welcome It as Friend….
9 The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. It is the body
that is outside us and is not our concern. To be without a body is to be in our
natural state. To recognize the light of truth in us is to recognize ourselves
as we are…..
Although these messages are
mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this
message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual
journey.
Don
#4 March 2015
Copyright 2015
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