What is the Body? 14

The following series of posts, begun on May first, are taken from Ken Wapnick’s, Journey Through the Workbook of a Course in Miracles, Vol. Seven, pages 69-72.  They represent a radical alternative to our ‘normal’, everyday view of the human body and our traditional views of spirituality.  This view is both horrifying and exhilarating.  See what you think.   It’s best not to swallow these ideas whole, nor reject them out of hand.  What’s best is to chew them over, mull them and reflect upon the rare occasions when the ideas seem to explain your experience.  The Course itself is believed to be channeled by Jesus as a correction to what’s been done with his ideas.

“’Your safety lies in truth, and not in lies.’  This is the principle of the Atonement. We, however, told the Holy Spirit that we do not believe Him, for our safety lies not There but in our separated self—the ego and its cherished body. ‘Love is your safety.  Fear does not exist. Identify with love, and you are safe.  Identify with love and you are home. Identify with love, and find your Self.’

“On a practical basis this means identifying with love by reflecting it throughout the day: recognizing that you and I do not have separate and conflicting purposes.  Thus does forgiveness establish the awareness of our shared goal: finding the ‘ark of safety’ in which is found the fulfillment of God’s promise to His Son.  We close with the following passage on this newly chosen purpose for the body:

“’Your home is built upon your brother’s health, upon his happiness, his sinlessness, and everything his Father promised him.  No secret promise you have made instead has shaken the Foundation of his home.  The winds will blow upon it and the rain will beat against it, but with no effect. The world will wash away and yet this house will stand forever, for its strength lies not within itself alone.

“’ It is the ark of safety, resting on God’s promise that His Son is safe forever in Himself.  What gap can interpose itself between the safety of this shelter and its Source?  From here the body can be seen as what it is, and neither less nor more in worth than the extent to which it can be used to liberate God’s Son unto his home.  And with this holy purpose is it made a home of holiness a little while, because it shares your Father’s Will with you.’”

What is the Body? 13

The following series of posts, begun on May first, are taken from Ken Wapnick’s, Journey Through the Workbook of a Course in Miracles, Vol. Seven, pages 69-72.  They represent a radical alternative to our ‘normal’, everyday view of the human body and our traditional views of spirituality.  This view is both horrifying and exhilarating.  See what you think.   It’s best not to swallow these ideas whole, nor reject them out of hand.  What’s best is to chew them over, mull them and reflect upon the rare occasions when the ideas seem to explain your experience.  The Course itself is believed to be channeled by Jesus as a correction to what’s been done with his ideas.

“’Then let us wait an instant and be still, forgetting everything we thought we heard; remembering how much we do not know.  This brother neither leads nor follows us, but walks beside us on the selfsame road.  He is like us, near or far away from what we want as we will let him be.  We make no gains he does not make with us, and we fall back if he does not advance.  Take not his hand in anger but in love, for in his progress do you count your own.  And we go separately along the way unless you keep him safely by side.’

The body is not holy in itself, as attested to by Jesus’ many references to it as mere dust, but is made holy because of the purpose given it by the right mind.  “You will identify with what you think will make you safe.  Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you.’  We believed our individual self was safe with the ego, and, again, at that moment we no longer had chose the ego thought system of preparation, we became it.

“‘The concrete part [of the mind] believes in the ego, because the ego depends on the concrete.  The ego is the part of the mind that believes your existence is defined by separation.’ On the other hand, when we realize the ego has lied and cannot make us happy, we gratefully choose Jesus as our teacher and his love as our identity—the choice for real safety.  As we continue our journey, we learn to accept that identity and none other.”

What is the Body? 12

The following series of posts, begun on May first, are taken from Ken Wapnick’s, Journey Through the Workbook of a Course in Miracles, Vol. Seven, pages 69-72.  They represent a radical alternative to our ‘normal’, everyday view of the human body and our traditional views of spirituality.  This view is both horrifying and exhilarating.  See what you think.   It’s best not to swallow these ideas whole, nor reject them out of hand.  What’s best is to chew them over, mull them and reflect upon the rare occasions when the ideas seem to explain your experience.  The Course itself is believed to be channeled by Jesus as a correction to what’s been done with his ideas.

“’ The Son of God extends his hand to reach his brother, and to help him walk along the road with him.  Now is the body holy.  Now it serves to heal the mind that it was made to kill.’  It is not difficult to see that the body’s purpose is to perpetuate the principle of one or the other; my body exists at the expense of yours; I do not walk to Heaven with you, but on top of you—I put you down so I become superior.

“The body was specifically made so we could project our guilt and sin onto others, making them the ones God will ultimately punish, not ourselves who have become the innocent victims.  Thus the ego uses the body to attack with; pushing others into the sludge of sin, so we can ascend to Heaven on the wings of innocence.

“When we turn to Jesus, however, he helps us realize we cannot return home, nor remember God’s Love if we hold a grievance against anyone.  To do so makes real the thought system of sin, but seen in others, not ourselves.  We thus exchange the principle of one or the other for together or not at all.”

What is the Body? 11

The following series of posts, begun on May first, are taken from Ken Wapnick’s, Journey Through the Workbook of a Course in Miracles, Vol. Seven, pages 69-72.  They represent a radical alternative to our ‘normal’, everyday view of the human body and our traditional views of spirituality.  This view is both horrifying and exhilarating.  See what you think.   It’s best not to swallow these ideas whole, nor reject them out of hand.  What’s best is to chew them over, mull them and reflect upon the rare occasions when the ideas seem to explain your experience.  The Course itself is believed to be channeled by Jesus as a correction to what’s been done with his ideas.

“’The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity.’  The body is the means because it is the only thing we know, being unaware of the mind.  Jesus helps us understand, however, that what we feel and perceive with our bodies are projections of the mind’s thoughts. 

“Even more to the point, they are projections of a wish that we be proven right and God wrong—the ego’s ultimate purpose for the body.  Indeed that is the purpose of the body’s death—to allow us to say to God: ‘Eternal life is a lie.  You are wrong again.’  Yet can the body’s purpose be changed—the goal of these lessons—as we read again:

“’Though it was made to fence him into hell without escape, yet has the goal of Heaven been exchanged for the pursuit of hell.’  The body does not change; the mind’s purpose has changed because we have changed its teacher.”

What is the Body? 10

The following series of posts, begun on May first, are taken from Ken Wapnick’s, Journey Through the Workbook of a Course in Miracles, Vol. Seven, pages 69-72.  They represent a radical alternative to our ‘normal’, everyday view of the human body and our traditional views of spirituality.  This view is both horrifying and exhilarating.  See what you think.   It’s best not to swallow these ideas whole, nor reject them out of hand.  What’s best is to chew them over, mull them and reflect upon the rare occasions when the ideas seem to explain your experience.  The Course itself is believed to be channeled by Jesus as a correction to what’s been done with his ideas.

“’Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it.’  Everything in the world is a projection of thought, and since ideas leave not their source, and the key thought in our minds is fear---coming from sin and guilt---the body embodies fear.  Indeed, we all live in fear, potential or actual.  If we do not get enough oxygen, for example, the terror rises in our hearts; when our specialness needs are not met, fear of loss is inevitable.

“’But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think, that it is for.’ The all-important theme of purpose returns.  Once again, Jesus is not asking us to deny our bodies, but simply to choose him as our teacher.  Thus will we learn the proper use of the body—a classroom to help us question the ego’s purpose and change our minds.

“This is the question [What for?] that you must learn to ask in connection with everything.  What is the purpose?  Whatever it is, it will direct your efforts automatically.  When you make a decision of purpose, then, you have made a decision that will remain in effect unless you change your mind.”

What is the Body? 9

The following series of posts, begun on May first, are taken from Ken Wapnick’s, Journey Through the Workbook of a Course in Miracles, Vol. Seven, pages 69-72.  They represent a radical alternative to our ‘normal’, everyday view of the human body and our traditional views of spirituality.  This view is both horrifying and exhilarating.  See what you think.   It’s best not to swallow these ideas whole, nor reject them out of hand.  What’s best is to chew them over, mull them and reflect upon the rare occasions when the ideas seem to explain your experience.  The Course itself is believed to be channeled by Jesus as a correction to what’s been done with his ideas.

“’The body is a dream.  Like other dreams it sometimes seems to picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is born.  For only love creates in truth, and truth can never fear.’

“We experience happiness when our special love objects work well for us, but we have learned that every dream is born of fear, including the cosmic dream of the physical universe.  When we choose to be in a state of love, however, fear is impossible, for ‘perfect love casts out fear.’  The opening of ‘The Gifts of God’ clearly articulates the dream’s fearful origin, and its undoing through acceptance of God’s gift of love.

“’Fear is the one emotion of the world.  Its forms are many…but it is one in content.  Never far, even in form, from what its purpose is, never with power to escape its cause, and never but a counterfeit of joy, it rests uncertainly upon a bed of lies.  Here it was born and sheltered by its seeming comfort.  Here it will remain where it was born, and where its end will come….  If you were certain…fear would be laid aside as easily as joy and peace unite on love’s behalf.  But first there must be certainty that there can be no love where fear exists, and that the world will never give a gift which is not made of fear, concealed perhaps, but which is truly present somewhere in the gift.  Accept it not, and you will understand a gift far greater has been given you.’”

What is the Body? 8

The following series of posts, begun on May first, are taken from Ken Wapnick’s, Journey Through the Workbook of a Course in Miracles, Vol. Seven, pages 69-72.  They represent a radical alternative to our ‘normal’, everyday view of the human body and our traditional views of spirituality.  This view is both horrifying and exhilarating.  See what you think.   It’s best not to swallow these ideas whole, nor reject them out of hand.  What’s best is to chew them over, mull them and reflect upon the rare occasions when the ideas seem to explain your experience.  The Course itself is believed to be channeled by Jesus as a correction to what’s been done with his ideas.

“To review – on the one hand the ego says the body will protect us, and on the other it says the body will die, as will we.  However, I –the ego—will live on.

“Therefore, the ego has us believe, as this paragraph states, if oneness were the case we would no exist.  Once this is established in our minds as a pattern, we relive it over and over as bodies.  We continually victimize others, above all by having it appear as if they are victimizing us.  As paradoxical as it may seem, the greatest victimizers are the innocent victims, because they are the ones the world never suspects.

“Yet are we all victimizers and victims to each other, because we are split-off parts of the same victimizing and victimized thought.  Again, Jesus shows us the ego’s strategy for what it is.  If we could ever look at it, we would realize its absolute insanity.  Not only is the ego vicious, un-kind, and merciless to us and everyone else, it is insane—part of its plot to have us believe that what is true does not exist, and what does not exist is true.”