What is the Body?

Our special theme says, “You will identify with what you think will make you safe. Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you.”

What do you believe makes you safe? Do you trust the mind that tells you how things should be and should not be? Are those judgments your guide to safety? Or do you trust life-awareness-presence, which simply is with whatever appears to be?

Please contemplate these questions today.

My sight goes forth to look upon Christ’s face.

It is common to believe that a person is not demonstrating Christ if s/he is rude and unhelpful. It is extremely common to believe that the person who shoots and kills several people is not demonstrating Christ.

How can we be expected to see Christ’s face in people like these when they clearly demonstrate the wrong mind instead of the Christ mind?

The answer lies in choosing the Loving All Method over the judging mind.

We each will see based on the mind we see through. If we see through the judging mind, we will see good and bad—things that seem Christ-like to us and things that don’t. However, if we see with life-awareness-presence, we see life-awareness-presence in everything, and that is Christ.

Notice that today’s lesson asks for our mistakes to be revealed. Anytime we do not see with the Loving All Method, a mistake in our mind is there to be revealed. That means that if we see something we feel we cannot love, accept or emotionally allow, we are in our wrong mind.

If you discover that you are in your wrong mind today, apply the Loving All Method to that. Love, accept or emotionally allow the fact that you have slipped into the wrong mind. That doesn’t mean that you should indulge the wrong mind. When you shift to the Loving All Method, you shift out of indulgence into the right mind’s perception of the mistake. It might feel like stepping back from the wrong mind without judging it. It might feel like resting and letting the wrong mind unwind or settle down. Although the wrong mind may remain present in awareness for a time after shifting to the Loving All Method, you should be able to feel a difference regarding your inner way of being with it.

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

Loving Consciousness Description C

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