What is the Body?

Our special theme says, “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.”

This is what I wrote this morning as I contemplated that excerpt from our special theme:

I am free to let my brother be as he is, and to love him without interference. What would interfere with my open love? Believing judgments would interfere; holding expectations would interfere; being self-centered and self-absorbed would interfere with my open love for my brother. Therefore, I am free not to believe the judgments that appear in this mind. I am free not to expect anything from my brother. I am free to remove attention from my mind and pay attention to who ever (or whatever) is in front of me.

I realize that what I have written may seem different than the words that are written in the special theme. In my experience, that sometimes happens when I contemplate the written word with the right mind.

For me, “extends his hand” is an image that represents open love. “Help him walk along the road” is an image that represents allowing him to walk his path his way, without interference from me. “Now is the body holy” represents peaceful presence rather than a mind that thinks it knows how everyone (and everything) else should be. Being in peaceful presence returns me to the remembrance of myself as presence, which the judging mind was made to hide.

Let all things be exactly as they are.

Today’s lesson confirms the interpretation I received from my contemplation of today’s special theme. Although the words contemplated from the special theme could have been interpreted differently, … for example, one might think that s/he is to help others along this path by teaching them to follow this path, … the lesson is clear that acceptance and allowance are the right-minded way to be. Since “fixing” a brother is not the same as allowing him to be as he is, only one of those two interpretations can be right-minded. The other demonstrates how the wrong mind thinks.

As you go through the day today, focus on the Loving All Method, especially with the people that you encounter in person, through television or online media, and in your thoughts.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation:

Being in Love

What is the Body?

Since we have been contemplating this special theme, we have looked at several ways the body deceives:

• It seems like life-awareness is a byproduct of the body’s physical processes.
• It appears that “my awareness” and “your awareness” are separate.
• The body dies, which seems to prove that we are not the one awareness that is eternal nature.
• The body emphasizes duality and differences because it can be healthy or sick, fit or injured, strong or weak, etcetera.
• The body acts out thoughts that are believed, which gives those thoughts more apparent reality.
• When we are identified with the body, it seems like we experience the world and duality directly, and we are affected by them.

Our special theme says, “Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it.” And in most cases, it does.

However, our special theme goes on to say, “But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for.”

Today, please contemplate the purpose you would like the body to obey. Also, contemplate how the body can be used/moved differently in order to follow that purpose.

My heart is beating in the peace of God.

Earlier in Gentle Healing, we created visualization plans for ourselves. We contemplated those plans for 6 weeks. Similarly, today’s lesson is a visualization plan. Notice it is written in present tense, as if it is already lived.

“Peace fills my heart, and floods my body with the purpose of forgiveness. Now my mind is healed, and all I need to save the world is given me. … I am the messenger of God, directed by His Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held forever quiet and at peace within His loving Arms.”

If this vision feels right for you, contemplate today’s lesson throughout the day as it is written. However, if you feel called to a different vision, write your own vision, and contemplate it instead. You might feel called to spend a day with the vision that you wrote previously, when we spent 6 weeks with our visualization plans, or you might feel called to a completely new vision that feels right for you now.

Remember to write your visualization plan in present tense language. A vision might arise as you contemplate the purpose you would like the body to follow.

Note: We will not spend six weeks with this visualization plan, so be with it lovingly today.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation:

Awareness in the Body

What is the Body?

Our special theme says, “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.”

Two days ago we looked at the duality of the body itself. For example, it can be healthy or sick.

Yesterday we looked at how the body acts out the fearful thoughts that we believe. For example, it can become angry, deceitful or violent.

Today, let’s look at the dream of the body as me.

When we believe the body is me, we are affected by the duality that the senses perceive. We appear to experience the world directly. It seems to have a direct effect on us.

Is that true? Do we experience the world directly?

Let’s investigate and see what we discover.

I am going to lead you in an inquiry exercise. Some of you have experienced an exercise similar to this with me before. Read through all of the instructions, and then practice the inquiry on your own.

1. Find a sensitive spot on your finger and pinch it. Feel the pain. Notice that it appears you are directly experiencing the pain.
2. You can stop pinching your finger.
3. Close your eyes. Get in touch with awareness, that which observes, looks or sees.
4. Once you are in touch with awareness, pinch your finger again, but this time look at the pain from the position of awareness.
5. What is your experience when you look at the pain from awareness? Do you directly experience the pain or do you see the body experiencing pain?

Many of you will be able to see that you do not directly experience the pain. As awareness, you do not feel pain, but you can see that the body does feel the pain. It is as if you are one step away from the pain. The pain is an indirect experience for you.

(Note: This is the way I typically feel pain now, which is why pain is not as bothersome to me as it is to some people. I am certainly aware of the pain that the body feels, but I relate to pain from one step away. I see the pain. It isn’t a direct experience.)

When we identify with the body as me, we project attention into the body. With attention projected into the body, we appear to directly experience what the body experiences. We feel pain; we feel emotions; etcetera.

However, when we identify with awareness, attention is naturally with awareness. From the position of awareness, we witness the body and its experiences. As the witness, we are aware of the body’s experiences, but we are one step away from those experiences. We don’t have the sense of experiencing them directly.

That means that our experience of life will be more fearful if we identify with the body, because the experience will seem more direct. It will seem as if we are at the mercy of duality.

However, if we identify with the witness, we do not feel affected by duality. The experience is one of equanimity. Our happiness or contentment is untouched by the body’s experience of duality.

My holy Self abides in you, God’s Son.

The unaffected awareness that witnesses the world’s duality but does not experience it directly is the same unaffected awareness for everyone. Although the body’s “fence” creates the experience of “my awareness” and “your awareness,” it is the same awareness.

One way to see this is to listen to another person describe awareness. His/her experience is the same as your experience. The experiences are not different, because you are both looking at and describing the same awareness.

Today, we contemplate ourselves as awareness. As often as you remember, take a few moments to notice yourself as the witnessing presence. If needed, pinch your finger and look at the pain. Notice over and over throughout the day that you see the pain, but you do not experience it directly.

Each time that you notice yourself as awareness, remember that everyone is that same awareness. It is one light, shining through many minds and bodies. Today we focus on the one light, not the many forms.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation:

Loving Consciousness Description B

What is the Body?

Our special theme says, “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.”

Yesterday we looked at the duality of the body itself. (For example, health and sickness.)

However, that isn’t the only way the body “can quite suddenly revert to fear.” The body also reverts to fear when we become worried, angry, jealous, deceitful, violent, and so on. The body acts out fearfully when we believe the ego’s thoughts of fear.

Our special theme says, “But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for. The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity.”

In other words, we can use this experience of being a human in a body to wake up from the ego’s illusion. That is what we are doing when we decide to meditate instead of doing something else. That is what we are doing when we decide not to act out from worry or anger, but to inquire into our thoughts instead. As we change the purpose given to the body, the body behaves differently.

Creation’s gentleness is all I see.

Today’s lesson says, “I have indeed misunderstood the world, because I laid my sins on it and saw them looking back at me. How fierce they seemed! And how deceived was I to think that what I feared was in the world, instead of in my mind alone.”

This is reminiscent of our last special theme, “What is Sin?” Our ideas of what should be and should not be create a fearful world of duality. Duality is fearful, because it cannot be trusted. A lover can become an enemy. A leisurely drive can become a deadly automobile accident. A secure job can be lost. A smart and happy child can become addicted to drugs. And the examples continue.

For as long as we remain caught in the ego’s illusion by believing the ego’s thoughts, we experience duality, which includes all of the fear that comes with duality.

To become free of duality, we need to stop believing the ego’s judgments of what should be and should not be. We need to become gentle ourselves by abiding in love instead of in judgment.

Today we will continue to focus on love by practicing Loving Consciousness meditation and the Loving All Method.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation, I recommend this meditation:

Loving Consciousness Description A

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:

Introduction to Loving Consciousness Meditation

What is the Body?

Our special theme says, “The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts. … For within this fence he thinks that he is safe from love.”

We are involved in a very deep contemplation right now. Although we seem to be looking at the body, we are really looking at the mind. We are looking at the mind’s idea that my life-awareness is separate from the life-awareness in others.

I’d like to share the story of Ramana Maharshi’s physical death.

Sri Ramana’s body suffered from sarcoma for many months from early February 1949 until his death on April 14, 1950.

When his devotees, fearing his death, begged him to cure the body, he responded by saying, “Why are you so attached to this body? Let it go.”

His devotees continued to plead with him. They did not want to see him die. They thought they were losing him forever. He replied “Where can I go? I shall always be here.”

On the evening of his death, as the devotees sat on the verandah outside the room that had been specially built for his convenience during his illness, they spontaneously began singing “Arunachala Siva.” On hearing it, Ramana’s eyes opened and shone. He gave a brief smile of indescribable tenderness. From the outer corners of his eyes, tears of bliss rolled down. He took one more deep breath, and then no more.

At that very moment, 8:47 p.m., what appeared to be an enormous star trailed slowly across the sky passing to the northeast towards the peak of Arunachala. Many saw this luminous body in the sky, even as far away as Bombay. They ascribed this phenomenon to the passing of their Master.

I shared this story, because I have contemplated this story many times. What I see in this story is one who no longer believed in the “fence” of the body. I see one who knew life-awareness is one, one life-awareness. This is why he said, “Where can I go? I shall always be here.”

He is here, now, in every living thing, because he is life-awareness. And we are too.

My holy vision sees all things as pure.

Our lesson says, “Father, Your Mind created all that is, Your Spirit entered into it, Your Love gave life to it. And would I look upon what You created as if it could be made sinful?”

In order to realize clarity, we can continue our practice of replacing the word “sin” with other words. For example, we might ask, “Would I look upon what You created as if I can determine what should be and what should not be?”

Let me share a little more from the story of Ramana Maharshi’s death:

As already mentioned, Ramana’s devotees wanted him to cure himself. When this request was made, he responded, “But the [one with knowledge of reality] has no will of his own. Nor is he identified with the body and the ills to which it is heir. … Did I ask the tumor to come so that I may tell it to go? It came of its own accord. What then has my will got to do with it?”

When Ramana’s devotees took it upon their selves to treat his body, he said, “It is for us to witness all that happens.”

I share this story, because I have also contemplated it many times. It seems that Ramana had completely transcended the idea of “should be or should not be.” To him, everything was life-awareness. Or as he put it, there is only the Self.

Interestingly, Ramana’s devotees arranged four operations and other treatments, which he submitted to. He did not resist dying, and he did not resist treatment when it was arranged for him. For Ramana, there was no “should be or should not be.” He was the witness of all that occurred, and all appearances were pure.

Today, let’s continue to contemplate life-awareness as one life-awareness. Let’s realize there are no separate parts that should not be. Nothing can happen that is out of alignment with the whole. The Loving All Method fits well with this contemplation.

If you have 30 minutes for a meditation today, consider this meditation again, because it is a good fit with our current contemplation:

AWA Description Z

You might also enjoy meditating to light sounds of nature. If so, try this Youtube video:

Relaxing Nature Sounds of the Forest

In addition, here is a song to listen to today. You may listen before meditation, after meditation or at any point during the day to assist with today’s contemplation. When you listen, please sit and listen without being engaged in any other activity:

Forever Here by Peter Makena

What is the Body?

Our special theme says, “The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts. It is within this fence he thinks he lives, to die as it decays and crumbles. For within this fence he thinks that he is safe from love. … The body will not stay. Yet this he sees as double safety. For the Son of God’s impermanence is ‘proof’ his fences work, and do the task his mind assigns to them.”

Death is not a thought that most humans cherish. Most people believe they would prefer not to die. Yet, our special theme says the opposite. It says that we see death as “double safety.” Is that true?

Let’s test it. Which of these ideas do you find most comforting?

1. Your body will die, but your personality-mind will continue in a spiritual afterlife where you will rejoin with your loved ones who have passed over.
2. Your body-personality will die, but you will be reincarnated as another body-personality.
3. Your body-personality-mind will die, but life continues beyond your body-personality-mind in all living humans, animals, insects, sea life, plants, etcetera.

Most people will pick #1 or #2 as most comforting. To most people, #3 seems like ‘I no longer exist’ even though life continues as other things.

Look carefully at what our special theme says. It says:

“The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts. … The body will not stay. Yet this he sees as double safety. For the Son of God’s impermanence is ‘proof’ his fences work, and do the task his mind assigns to them.”

If we believe that we can cease to exist while other things live, we believe we are separate from those other things. The ‘fence’ seems to work.

Contemplate this today. Do you believe that your body-personality-mind must survive death in some way in order for you to survive? Or, can the body-personality-mind die while you continue as the life that permeates all living things?

If this contemplation scares you, remember that ego is terrified of no sense of individuality. Let the fear be as it is. Don’t try to change it. Simply remember that this fear comes from ego, and continue the contemplation.

Let me perceive no differences today.

Today’s lesson asks, “Why should I perceive a thousand forms in what remains as one? Why should I give this one a thousand names, when only one suffices?”

One name that could suffice for the whole is life-awareness.

A human is life-awareness. A cat is life-awareness. A lizard is life-awareness. A beetle is life-awareness. A fish is life-awareness. A tree is life-awareness. You are life-awareness.

It is one life-awareness. Life-awareness is one.

Contemplate this today.

Here is a summary of today’s contemplations:

1. Do you believe that your body-personality-mind must survive death in some way in order for you to survive? Or, can the body-personality-mind die while you continue as the life that permeates all living things?
2. Contemplate life-awareness as what you are, one life-awareness, life-awareness as one.

If you have 30 minutes for a meditation today, I recommend this meditation again:

AWA Description Z

If you have time and would enjoy a second meditation today, I recommend this meditation as your second meditation. It is 40 minutes long:

Am I the Body?

Before beginning our new special theme, I would like to review each of the special themes that we’ve already contemplated.

What is Forgiveness? Forgiveness is recognizing yourself as the unaffected Self. Therefore, “what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred.” Forgiveness “looks, and waits, and judges not.”

What is Salvation? Salvation is healing by “failing to support the world of dreams … it lets illusions go. By not supporting them, it merely lets them quietly go down to dust. And what they hid is now revealed …”

What is the World? It is a “false perception” where “mechanisms of illusion … go to find what has been given them to seek.” Yet, “all perception can be given a new purpose. … Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete.”

What is Sin? Sin is ignorance or outward focus. “Sin gave the body eyes… The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself. … Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined issuing from thoughts that are untrue.”

What is the Body?

“The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts.”

When I say that you are life-awareness-presence, you are able to pause the thinking, look and see that is true. To deny that you are life-awareness-presence is ignorance too insane to actually believe. The ego may be able to ignore this fact by attracting attention to thought, but it cannot hide this fact if one redirects attention toward the Self.

However, belief in the body as what you are distorts the fact that you are life-awareness-presence. Although you are able to look and see that life-awareness-presence is what you are, the belief that you are the body makes it seem like the body is primary and life-awareness-presence is secondary. It makes it seem like the body was born, and then life-awareness-presence arose as a byproduct of the body’s birth. It also enables you to imagine that when the body dies, life-awareness-presence dies too.

Is it true that life-awareness-presence is a byproduct of the body? Does life-awareness-presence exist because the body breathes, the heart pumps blood and the brain functions?

Does life-awareness end when the bodily functions cease?

Close your eyes and look to see what claims life-awareness-presence as “mine.” What says “my awareness”? Is it the body or is it the mind?

What says “my body”?

If you watch subtly, you will find that the mind is the one that imagines the body is primary and life-awareness is secondary. Thought says this is true.

Does the fact that thought says it’s true make it true? Is thought a reliable source?

Contemplate this throughout the day today.

God is my refuge and security.

Our special theme says, “The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts.” And then it goes on to say, “For within this fence he thinks that he is safe from love.”

Here’s another way to say this: The mind feels safe within the perception of individuality. The mind is terrified of no sense of individuality.

However, are you the one that thinks this way? Are you the mind or are you the life-awareness-presence that is aware of the mind?

What is your truth?

The lesson says, “I will identify with what I think is refuge and security.”

If you think the mind is your refuge and security, then you will identify with thought, and because thought identifies with the body, you will identify with the body too.

However, if you feel your refuge and security lie with the unaffected Self, you will identify with it, and because you identify with it, you will not identify with thought.

Contemplate this today too.

Here is a summary of the questions you will contemplate throughout the day today:

1. Is thought a reliable source?
2. Which is my refuge and security, thought or unaffected life-awareness-presence?

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation again today:

AWA Description Z

What is Sin?

Our special theme says, “There is no sin. Creation is unchanged.”

What is creation?

You are creation. What you are is what A Course in Miracles means by the word, “creation.”

Let’s revisit yesterday’s analogy:

At the surface of the ocean, waves appear. Each wave is temporary, like the body and the personality. The water in the waves appear to be affected by the weather, just like you seem to be affected by the world and the mind’s thoughts. However, the water that is part of the wave isn’t really affected. It may sometimes appear calm and sometimes appear highly agitated, but it is always water. It doesn’t become blood or seaweed. It is forever unaffected by the weather.

At the same time, at the depth of the ocean, the water is untouched by even the appearance of being affected. The weather at the surface does not reach the depths at all.

In the same way, your true Self is not affected at the surface, where there is the appearance of affected. And the appearance of affected does not exist at all within the depths of your Self. At the depth, there is no judgment, no duality, no ignorance and no outward focus.

As this analogy makes clear, both at the surface and at the depth, you remain what you have always been, life-awareness. You have never not been life-awareness, and you shall always be life-awareness.

Let me remember God created me.

Today, let’s contemplate what “I” and “me” really mean. Typically, when the mind uses these words, it refers to itself. It refers to thought as “I” and “me.”

However, that is not what “I” and “me” really mean. “I” and “me” are pronouns used to refer to one’s self, and thought is not a self.

When the mind uses “I” and “me” to refer to itself, it is a misuse of those terms. When we believe thought is “I” and “me,” we are confused about what we are.

Ramana Maharshi said:

That which rises as “I” in this body is the mind. If one inquires as to where in the body the thought “I” rises first, one would discover that it rises in the heart. … Even if one thinks constantly “I,” “I,” one will be led to that place.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

Self-Inquiry Meditation

What is Sin?

Our special theme says, “There is no sin.” That means, there is no judgment. There is no duality. There is no ignorance. There is no outward focus.

Is that true?

Yes. That is all true for the true Self.

It is very difficult to explain how there is no judgment, duality, ignorance or outward focus for the true Self while also admitting that attention goes out to judgment and duality while ignoring truth.

Let me use an analogy:

The best analogy I know is the analogy of the ocean. At the surface of the ocean, waves appear. Each wave is temporary, like the body and the personality. The water in the waves appear to be affected by the weather, just like you seem to be affected by the world and the mind’s thoughts. However, the water that is part of the wave isn’t really affected. It may sometimes appear calm and sometimes appear highly agitated, but it is always water. It doesn’t become blood or seaweed. It is forever unaffected by the weather.

At the same time, in the depths of the ocean, the water is untouched by even the appearance of being affected. The weather at the surface does not reach the depths at all.

In the same way, your true Self is not affected at the surface, where there is the appearance of affected. And the appearance of affected does not exist at all within the depths of your Self. At the depth, there is no judgment, duality, ignorance or outward focus at all.

Our function now is to return the unaffected attention, which has been at the surface, to the depths of the Self, so it may know itself as it has always been.

Let me remember that there is no sin.

Today we contemplate the depths of the Self. We realize that awakening is realization of the depth as our truth. We accept that at the depth, there never has been judgment; there never has been duality; there never has been ignorance; and there never has been outward focus. The depth of the Self has always been only aware of itself.

If you have 30 minutes for meditation today, I recommend repeating this meditation from yesterday:

AWA Description Z