Jesus is demonstrating to us in this lesson  that, while we are invested in who we are as bodies, we will be bound by the laws of this world. While the body is illusory we still believe in its reality. Jesus is not asking us to deny our bodies while we still believe in them nor to dismiss our experience here in this world.  In fact, it is this very experience that we can use in the undoing of the illusory nature of our body and the world. So we must not dismiss our experience as "just illusion" while we are believing in it. In fact, this world is a great classroom for us when we use it for the purpose of waking up from this dream.

Our belief in the laws of nutrition, friendship, finances, medicine,  etc. are not to be dismissed.  To deny our need for medicine, sleep, food, money, air, relationships while we still believe that we are a body would be inappropriate denial. It would be a confusion of the metaphysical level that is the level of absolute truth with the level of the mind where our identity with the body and the world is where we think we are. It is at this level of the body and the world that Jesus is showing us, in this and other lessons, that we have a choice between the wrong mind of the ego's thought system and the right mind of the Holy Spirit where we can choose to lessen the hold these laws have on us by choosing healing of our minds. While behavior will follow, it would be inappropriate to change our behavior without first addressing the mind. Having said that, it is our own minds that have chosen to identify with these laws and give them power over us. While laws seem to be external to us, there is nothing but our own minds that give belief to these laws.

But Jesus reminds us that it is not appropriate to deny our investment in the body while we still believe in it. He says: "The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. Its abilities can be and frequently are over evaluated. However, it is almost impossible to deny its existence in this world. Those who do so are engaging in a particularly unworthy form of denial." (T.2.IV.3:6-22) In the same way, it would be inappropriate to stop doing what we still believe has value to us. For example, not to eat foods we believe will sustain our health, not to take medicines that we think we need, not to lock the doors, or to avoid seeing a medical practitioner when we are sick, are all examples of how we might deny fear that is still in the mind related to the things of the body. Clearly we believe we are here, and we identify ourselves with the body believing that it is our reality. The thing that Jesus is helping us to see is that the laws we hold and the remedies we seek are all magic because they will not save us but neither do they condemn us to a life of victimization.  Magic provides us with a temporary relief of the symptoms but the only real healing is the healing of the guilt in the mind. True healing is in our eventual recognition that our reality is only Spirit.

Tomas Vieira's journey has been such an important teacher for me in this regard as he went through the process of using the illusion of sickness to awaken to the truth of his reality as Spirit. Nouk Sanchez, in describing this process, indicated that Tomas awakened quite some time before he left his body so that there was no individual, personal Tomas left. Thus the appearance of a suffering, sick body, was completely illusory. His identification with this separate self was gone. In this process he recognized that there was nothing about the body to be saved as all that would do is maintain the separation from his reality as Love. As reported by Nouk "He accomplished this by consistently choosing only peace in each moment when 'appearances' tempted him to believe that he was a body and not an eternal Being."

We are challenged in this lesson, to do precisely that. So while we are choosing to live by the laws of this world, we are being asked to see how senseless they really are so that we can see the   choice that is always available to us to see salvation where it really is, in our own minds. What we are being asked to shift is the purpose of these laws. So it is not about giving up money, our special relationships, exercise, foods we consider good for our health, and certainly not the air we breathe, but it is to recognize the purpose they hold in keeping us invested in the body and in this world. In other words, all of our attention is going on the effect (the body) rather than looking at the cause (our minds).

The reason that we feel so bound to the laws of this world is because we are looking for our salvation in the world. When we totally identify ourselves as a body and we want what the world has to offer, then it follows that we will be bound by its rules. Jesus says that we are binding ourselves to "laws that make no sense." (1.5) But we do so because we want to prove that this is what reality is. We want to prove that Jesus is wrong about us...that we are not spirit but, that we are bodies and that death is thus real. (1.6) Instead, we are encouraged to "look for it (salvation) where it waits for you, and there it will be found. Look nowhere else, for it is nowhere else." (2.4-5) He tells us to look for salvation where it is, and to be glad that it is not in the world but within ourselves. That is where we need to look. We will never find it in the things of this world. Not taking our bodies and our issues so seriously may be a good start.  There is something in us that knows that but there is also a lot of resistance. When we look honestly at our lives we can all see the investment we have in the body as it "puts things on itself that it has bought with little metal discs or paper strips the world proclaims as valuable and real. It works to get them, doing senseless things it does not need and does not even want." (T. 27.VIII.2:2-3) So in asking about purpose, in everything he says we need to ask, 'what is it for?'  "For nothing here but is defined as what you see it for." (T.29.VI.5.4)

This is a challenging lesson because it asks us to examine all of our beliefs. What does our salvation, (our happiness) depend on? This question was addressed in lesson 71 where Jesus talked of the fruitless search we engage in for salvation in things of this world and how these things have imprisoned us. "For what you think you need will merely serve to tighten up your world against the light and render you unwilling to question the value that this world can really hold for you." (T.13.VII.13) In other words, the more the things, events, and circumstances of our lives appear to serve us, the tighter the hold the world will have over us. Until we start to question everything, until we challenge the beliefs we hold, until we see that our investment in the things of this world do not bring us peace and joy, we will continue in an endless pursuit. Jesus tells us that we are very confused about pain and joy. "You no more recognize what is painful than you know what is joyful and are, in fact, very apt to confuse the two. The Holy Spirit's main function is to teach you to tell them apart."  (T.7.X.3:4-5)  Byron Katie used too tell a story how she could see two prisoners in the same cell, one was living in peace and perfection, the other was living in hell. Same world, same cell, different thoughts. The world is what it is; the only thing you can control is your story about it.

So today we are asked to look at what things we believe we need for our happiness. What do we give power to?  What rules do we have for our lives? What senseless things do we invest in? What do we feel bound by? If you don't exercise, eat ice cream, spend money on entertainment, do you feel guilty? What rules do you hold about nutrition, beauty, vitamins, friendship, reciprocity? Are these beliefs bad? No. They don't mean anything. The meanings we give them are in our minds. But they are all centered around our wish to believe in the reality of our body, that we are separate from each other and have to compete with each other, and that we need these laws to protect and preserve these bodies.  So we are very invested in preserving our ego and our body as a priority when we put all of our attention there. But now our priorities are shifting so that we can know ourselves as the pure and innocent creation of God-perfect, formless, forever loving and forever loved.

The seemingly reasonable and accepted rules for relationships serve the ego purpose of establishing expectations for how we and others should act in order to be happy. But all this does is to guarantee disappointment, unhappiness and grievances when they are violated. Jesus calls the laws that we believe in, our "strange and twisted laws." (3.1) Now we are asked to look at them, not to change them but to look at the purpose they serve for us. And by looking without judgment, we recognize the freedom in the recognition that we are not bound by these laws. (3.1) How can a Son of God be bound? Our spirit is always free.

Jesus is asking us to look at three specific areas in which we have a lot invested. They are money, sickness and special relationships. He says that we believe that we would "starve unless you have stacks of green paper strips and piles of metal discs" (3.2) We do think that there are pills and medicines that will "ward off disease and death;"(3.3)  and we   think we are alone unless another body is with us. (3.4) Again, we are being asked to look at our investment in these things. What fears come up when we think of sickness, death, lack, being alone?  We are really being asked to look at our attitude about these things. It is again, not about giving up having any money which is necessary in this world, but how do we deal with money.   How much do we try to hang onto it? We had an investment that ended up being wiped away due to fraudulent activity on behalf of the company. It was a significant amount. Several investors committed suicide when it became apparent that they would never retrieve the money. For us it was an opportunity to look at the value we put on money and to really work on the forgiveness so that peace became the most important goal in all of this.

Special relationships have a significant hold on us in terms of the 'laws' we hold about them. Whether those relationships are ones of special love or special hate, they are all significant in keeping us invested in the ego. When we hate them, then we may believe our salvation comes from seeing them suffer. When we think we love them, they keep us bound to our needs as they become idols to replace God. We feel we don't need God's Love when we have our own substitute for it.  Special love  is all about bargaining, in that we must give in order to get, all the time hoping to give as little as possible for as much as possible in return. It is about reciprocity. It limits us to the body as do all the laws that we hold.

Again, Jesus is not asking us to give up these laws but to question our investment in them. He is really not saying we should not have friendships, money, or that we should ignore the bodily needs. But he is reminding us that at the end of this journey we will recognize the illusory nature of the body. And instead of putting all of our attention on the effect, and making it the entire purpose of our existence here, Jesus is showing us that in focusing on our minds, everything that we have made can be used by the Holy Spirit for another purpose.

Think of some of the things that you believe. Do you believe that you would be happy if you lost weight, were in better shape, if there was peace in the world, if your hated political party was defeated, if you had a new car, if you had more money, if you had certain people in your life, if certain people left your life, if you had a better boss, if you had more friends, if people were nicer to you, kinder to you, respected you more, if you could live somewhere else,; if you could retire, and so on. Further, do you believe you would feel better if you just figured out which vitamins to take, how to keep yourself safe, healthy, how to protect your kids, how to increase your self esteem, and on and on. "It is insanity that thinks these things.  You call them laws, and put them under different names in a long catalog of rituals that have no use and serve no purpose.  You think you must obey the "laws" of medicine, of economics and of health.  Protect the body, and you will be saved." (4.1-4)

It all sounds reasonable in the world we live in doesn't it? I can relate to all of this. We spend each day obeying all of these laws. But they are not real laws. They are laws that we believe and obey because we do believe them. And because we do, we obey them until we question them and loosen our investment in them just as we question the reality of our body and the world. In the meantime, we simply take care of ourselves as long as we think we are a body. It would be self punishing not to do so which would hardly be loving. And it is not to feel guilty about taking care of our bodies. On the contrary, all of our experiences here we must give attention to so we can look at the beliefs that we hold and question them.

So this lesson is about loosening our beliefs and challenging our minds to recognize that regardless of how much effort we put into making ourselves believe we are in this reality, it is still only a dream and nothing we do will make it real. On the metaphysical level, our true Self lives only under the law of love. It is a law that only gives while the ego laws are about getting, keeping, maintaining. Our real happiness is about remembering that we are under no laws but the law  of love. Jesus says that even many so-called religions have set forth what is God's and what is ours, meaning that what belongs to God is holiness, omniscience, omnipotence while what is ours is limited and vulnerable. And we do believe we must obey them to keep us safe.

These lessons are about letting go of every value that we hold in the world. We are really looking   at changing our entire thought system. We are looking at changing our minds and thus loosening the grip that the world holds on us. We are working to surrender our unloving thoughts, which is the only way to our happiness. There is no other way. It is not about changing our jobs, our diets, our habits, our friends, our mates.  It is only about changing our minds. To give up the things we believe will bring us happiness will only create suffering as long as we think our happiness relies on these things. While the laws of the world, that the ego has made up, will not bring us happiness, we simply can't dismiss them. We have spent a lifetime learning them and while we think we are bodies, we will believe that these laws will protect us. They are all based on the belief that our salvation comes from protecting the body. When we step back from our laws and look at them from above this battleground, we can smile at them as we witness our beliefs about  these laws and not to take them so seriously.

The  laws of this world, which are actually belief in magic, imprison us. When we get this, "the light has come." In other words, when we get this, we will be enlightened. We will wake up from this dream of separation. We will see the illusion for what it is. We need to hear the truth so that our thoughts of guilt and separation can vanish. What really suffers is the mind. The mind is really hurting itself because of the guilt that is there as a result of attack thoughts. Then the mind hurts the body to make the body seem to be the reason for our suffering. This seems to protect the mind from the fact that it is the cause of the suffering and has simply displaced it on the body. The body thus becomes the scapegoat for the mind.  Now the body suffers and we ask for healing of the body when the only answer is healing of our minds. Now we try to save ourselves with medicine, which is called magic, which "has no meaning" (6.3). Why? Because it is trying to save the body, which does not exist. This hides from us the role of the mind. So medicine only has the illusion of an effect, which is why it is called magic. And it imprisons us to the "laws" of the world which are not real.

But we must remember as well that Jesus tells us it is impossible to deny our physical experience in the world. So we must remember that this lesson is not about not obeying laws of this world. We still need to eat; we need money to live; we need to protect our bodies; we need friends. But Jesus is reminding us that in truth there is no body so there are thus no real laws that bind the body. So what is important here is that he is not asking us to see our brother without a body but to see him as innocent. "Your question should not be, "How can I see my brother without a body?" Ask only, "Do I really wish to see him sinless?" And as you ask, forget not that his sinlessness is your escape from fear." (T.20.VII.9.1-3)Neither is he asking us to see ourselves without a body, or deny the body but he is asking us to notice how we are projecting our sins on other bodies and to bring those projections back to our minds so that they can be healed there. Currently we don't believe that we are not bodies. That is why we are reminded so often that we are as God created us, which is spirit.

Clearly we have significant resistance to accepting the fact that we are not a body. If we judge others for their psychological and physical concerns because they are course students and should know better, all we are seeing is our own self judgment. This is not helpful nor loving. When we see sin in ourselves we suffer and when we see it in others we attack.   But in this whole process of undoing the guilt in our minds we are called to be gentle with ourselves.  The degree to which you are gentle with yourself will be the extent to which you are gentle with others in their process. Only patience and gentleness is called for whether with ourselves or others. It is all the same.

The main thing that this lesson brings to mind is our resistance to the idea that salvation is not outside of ourselves. That the body is an effect and the mind is the cause. Ideas leave not their source. Fixing the body will never address the guilt that is in the mind and is projected on the body in order to protect the mind. The body is the place where the mind's guilt is hidden from awareness. The importance of recognizing that we can make another choice for our healing and happiness by looking for it where it is, which is in the mind and not outside of ourselves, is what this lesson is getting at. Thus instead of trying to change the effect, we are being asked to look at the cause and forgive it there.

Jesus is helping us to see that when we feel empty inside and want food, we are really trying to fill the lack we feel for fullness of God; when we look for money in the world it is because we feel impoverished by God and are looking for abundance in form; and we attempt to resolve our loneliness for God through our special relationships. So we are filling the emptiness, loneliness and lack as a result of our separation from God, with forms outside of ourselves, but they will never fulfill us.

Recognize today that the body and its laws were made to keep us from seeing the guilt that is in our minds. So the exercise today is about looking at the laws we hold and seeing how we have used them to replace the laws of God. Then we look at some of the laws that we obey, of nutrition, immunization, medication, bodily protection, friendship, reciprocity and step back from them and see how they are tied in to our belief in our bodily existence. Again we are not being asked to give them up but to look at our dependence on them and recognize that they are a reflection of the guilt in our minds projected on the body and thus are there to maintain the effect of our guilt which is the body.

Bring all of your misguided beliefs to the light for healing. Then we can truly know that we are totally safe and experience the freedom that comes from this.    I am under no laws but God's. I am free from all danger and tyranny. I am as I was created by Love.

My experience with this lesson is that I had restricted myself to rules that had to be met in my relationships, demands and expectations I had about how friends were to act, requirements I had about my need for a certain number of hours of sleep, requirements I had about how my house had to be kept, certain rules of etiquette, requirements for when and what I had to eat, and many  more. When I started to question these "laws" they started to loosen and many things changed over the years. So while I don't deny the bodily requirements that I have, I see that the worldly laws are all external while the miracle is an internal change that comes about through forgiveness.  The result has been increasing freedom, joy and blessings.

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