Today’s reading is about death and life. One might say it teaches why we die and how we can gain eternal life, but those words are not the correct expression of the teaching. Those words are not the correct expression of the teaching, because that which dies cannot gain eternal life, and that which has eternal life cannot die.

In short, we are confused about what we are.

Humans tend to believe that we are individual body-mind-personalities in a world filled with other body-mind-personalities. This is the belief in separation. But as NTI points out, “The Spirit of God is one,” and “What is one cannot be separate and live.”

Let’s imagine that a person takes a knife and begins to dissect a living body. (I know, it’s not pretty to imagine this, but stay with me. I have a point to make.) The person cuts open the body cavity and takes the internal organs out of the body, and places them in separate places on a large table. Will those separated organs live?

Of course, the answer is ‘no.’ As NTI says, “What is one cannot be separate and live.”

When we believe we are individual body-mind-personalities in a world filled with other body-mind-personalities, we metaphorically cut up the Spirit of God in separate pieces, placing each piece in a separate location. (For example, this is me, here. That is John, over there.) Like the organs separated from the body, these separated beings cannot live.

“But the good news is that separateness is but illusion, and so death is illusion too.”

It’s not the separate body-mind-personality that lives. It’s the truth that lives, and it lives because separation has never occurred. “This is the truth I would have you learn.”

Humans identify with the body-mind-personality they appear to be. Typically when humans become involved in spirituality, they think they are on a path that will lead to ‘me’ being eternal. But ‘me’ is like a separated organ lying on a table. It has no hope of being eternal.

The spiritual path isn’t a means to eternal life for ‘me.’ The spiritual path is the means to discovering that I am not ‘me.’ It is the means to waking up from the idea that I am ‘me.’ And in this awakening, we realize what we truly are and that is eternal. The temporary body-mind-personality will come to an end, but the Spirit of God (life) continues, and I am that.

At a deep level, we all know this is true. This is what my dad explained to me on a hike in Southern Missouri. (Reference the tip for ACIM Workbook Lesson 358.) However, to the degree that we are identified with the body-mind-personality, we don’t want the truth to be true. That’s why NTI says:

If you choose to be blind, you will be blind, but blindness is your choice. I come to help you see, if you are willing. There is so much I want to show you! I want to show you the truth of who you are, the sweetness of your freedom and the glory of Heaven! But you must choose to open your eyes. I cannot do that for you.

The body-mind-personality is a temporary manifestation. Like a beautiful flower, it will die. However, just as we can enjoy beautiful flowers, we can love body-mind-personalities. It is our joy to do so! But loving something and thinking it is ‘me’ is not the same thing. We are here to “find the truth, and your truth will be you.”

Today’s reading promises a movement from the way we see now, to a new way of seeing, to truth realization. What we need to do to proceed is let go of our current way of thinking. The inner Teacher will help with that, if we are willing.

In the Year 1 tip based on ACIM Workbook Lesson 362, I shared this excerpt from Floyd Henderson’s book, The Final Understanding:

So many take their favorite teaching method and its teachings as the final step, adopting a religious or spiritual persona and fixating in that role for the remainder of the manifestation…doing spiritual stuff and eating spiritual stuff and wearing spiritual stuff and—in all of their spiritual doingness—living in what they take to be a most non-natural, supernatural, “elevated,” “higher” (and yes, “separate and different”) manner.

NTI addresses this same stumbling block in one of my favorite paragraphs in the entire book:

The search for truth is not truth itself, so do not stop there. Many have heard this call to search and have accepted it, but they have stopped, thinking themselves complete. You are not complete until you are Truth, so do not stop at the call. It is your beginning, but it is not your end. To find the truth, you must walk until your end.

This is what was so important about the last section of A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students. We learned that there are two awakenings, awakening to unity consciousness and then awakening beyond unity consciousness, beyond the pure I Am presence, beyond subject awareness. It is so important to know “keep going.” Even when you think you are complete, keep going. We are blessed to have this knowledge.

Today’s reading cautions us “not to judge the symbols. Do not look for truth there.” This is the same as the teaching from NTI Revelation, Chapter 1, which says, “Do not idolize anything within the world or any symbol or any thought that is sent to lead you from the world. Hold to them as they are useful, but let them go when their usefulness has past. You are to keep moving by letting go until you find yourself with nothing left to hold onto.”

In other words, the spiritual path can be a final obstacle that we get stuck on. Our favorite spiritual teacher can be a final obstacle that we get stuck on. Our favorite scripture or spiritual teaching can be a final obstacle that we get stuck on. Even our own clarity can be a final obstacle that we get stuck on. We want to avoid these common ego traps, which are a lot like quick sand. First we get stuck, and then we are sucked in and swallowed.

That’s why one of Awakening Together’s five core values is:

We affirm one true Self as the only truth. We live this value by embracing what is helpful on the path of awakening without idolizing any spiritual doctrine as truth.

We are here to become empty of everything, “to keep moving by letting go until you find yourself with nothing left to hold onto.”