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78 Love knows no bodies and reaches to everything created like itself. Its total lack of limit
is its meaning. It is completely impartial in its giving, encompassing only to preserve and keep complete what it would give. In your tiny kingdom, you have so little! Should it not, then, be there that you would call on love to enter? Look at the desert, dry and unproductive, scorched and joyless, which makes up your little kingdom. And realize the life and joy which love would bring to it from where it comes and where it would return with you.
"The Purpose of the Body"
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Workbook for Students
Part I ~ Review VI
Introduction
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1 For this review, we take but one idea each day and practice it as often as is possible. Besides the time you give morning and evening, which should not be less than 15 minutes, and the hourly remembrances you make throughout the day, use the idea as often as you can between them. Each of these ideas alone would be sufficient for salvation, if it were learned truly. Each would be enough to give release to you and to the world from every form of bondage and invite the memory of God to come again.
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Workbook for Students
Review VI ~ Lesson 209
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I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
[189] I feel the Love of God within me now.
1 The Love of God is what created me. The Love of God is everything I am. The Love of God proclaimed me as His Son. The Love of God within me sets me free.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
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Lesson ARCHIVE
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Course in Miracles
Original Edition
Text
Chapter 18
The Dream and the Reality
IX. The Purpose of the Body
par 71-83
[PAUSED FOR WEEKEND]
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71 It is only the awareness of the body that makes love seem limited. For the body
is a limit on love. The belief in limited love was its origin, and it was made to limit the unlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical, for it was made to limit
you. Can you who see yourselves within a body know yourself as an idea? Everything you recognize you identify with externals, something outside itself. You cannot even think of God without a body or some form you think you recognize.
72 The body cannot
know. And while you limit your awareness to its tiny senses, you will not see the grandeur which surrounds you. God cannot come into a body, nor can you join Him there. Limits on love will always seem to shut Him out and to keep you apart from Him. The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea. It draws a circle, infinitely small, around a very little segment of Heaven splintered from the whole, proclaiming that within it is your kingdom, where God can enter not.
73 Within this kingdom the ego rules, and cruelly. And to defend this little speck of dust, it bids you fight against the universe. This fragment of your mind is such a tiny part of it that, could you but appreciate the whole, you would see instantly that it is like the smallest sunbeam to the sun or like the faintest ripple on the surface of the ocean. In its amazing arrogance, this tiny sunbeam has decided it
is the sun; this almost imperceptible ripple hails itself as the ocean. Think how alone and frightened is this little thought, this infinitesimal illusion, holding itself apart against the universe. The sun becomes the sunbeam's "enemy" which would devour it, and the ocean terrifies the little ripple and wants to swallow it.
74 Yet neither sun nor ocean is even aware of all this strange and meaningless activity. They merely continue, unaware that they are feared and hated by a tiny segment of themselves. Even that segment is not lost to them, for it could not survive apart from them. And what it thinks it is in no way changes its total dependence on them for its being. Its whole existence still remains in them. Without the sun the sunbeam would be gone; the ripple without the ocean is inconceivable.
75 Such is the strange position in which those in a world inhabited by bodies seem to be. Each body seems to house a separate mind, a disconnected thought living alone and in no way joined to the Thought by which it was created. Each tiny fragment seems to be self-contained, needing each other for some things but by no means totally dependent on their one Creator for everything and needing the whole to give them any meaning, for by themselves they do mean nothing. Nor have they any life apart and by themselves.
76 Like to the sun and ocean your Self continues, unmindful that this tiny part regards itself
as you. It is not missing; it could not exist if it were separate, nor would the whole be whole without it. It is not a separate kingdom, ruled by an idea of separation from the rest. Nor does a fence surround it, preventing it from joining with the rest and keeping it apart from its Creator. This little aspect is no different from the whole, being continuous with it and at one with it. It leads no separate life because its life is the oneness in which its being was created.
77 Do not accept this little fenced-off aspect as yourself. The sun and ocean are as nothing beside what you are. The sunbeam sparkles only in the sunlight, and the ripple dances as it rests upon the ocean. Yet in neither sun nor ocean is the power that rests in you. Would you remain within your tiny kingdom, a sorry king, a bitter ruler of all he surveys who looks on nothing, yet who would still die to defend it? This little self is not your kingdom. Arched high above it and surrounding it with love is the glorious whole, which offers all its happiness and deep content to every part. The little aspect which you think you set apart is no exception.
78 Love knows no bodies and reaches to everything created like itself. Its total lack of limit
is its meaning. It is completely impartial in its giving, encompassing only to preserve and keep complete what it would give. In your tiny kingdom, you have so little! Should it not, then, be there that you would call on love to enter? Look at the desert, dry and unproductive, scorched and joyless, which makes up your little kingdom. And realize the life and joy which love would bring to it from where it comes and where it would return with you.
79 The Thought of God surrounds your little kingdom, waiting at the barrier you built to come inside and shine upon the barren ground. See how life springs up everywhere! The desert becomes a garden, green and deep and quiet, offering rest to those who lost their way and wander in the dust. Give them a place of refuge, prepared by love for them where once a desert was. And everyone you welcome will bring love with him from Heaven for you. They enter one by one into this holy place, but they will not depart as they had come, alone. The love they brought with them will stay with them, as it will stay with you. And under its beneficence, your little garden will expand and reach out to everyone who thirsts for living water but has grown too weary to go on alone.
80 Go out and find them, for they bring your Self with them. And lead them gently to your quiet garden and receive their blessing there. So will it grow and stretch across the desert, leaving no lonely little kingdoms locked away from love and leaving you inside. And you will recognize yourself and see your little garden gently transformed into the Kingdom of Heaven with all the love of its Creator shining upon it. The holy instant is your invitation to love, to enter into your bleak and joyless kingdom, and to transform it into a garden of peace and welcome.
81 Love's answer is inevitable. It will come because you came without the body and interposed no barriers which would interfere with its glad coming. In the holy instant, you ask of love only what it offers everyone, neither less nor more. Asking for everything, you will receive it. And your shining Self will lift the tiny aspect which you tried to hide from Heaven straight into Heaven. No part of love calls on the whole in vain. No Son of God remains outside His Fatherhood.
82 Be sure of this—love has entered your special relationship and entered fully at your weak request. You do not recognize that love has come because you have not yet let go of all the barriers you hold against each other. And you will not be able to give love welcome separately. You could no more know God alone than He knows you without your brother. But together you could no more be unaware of love than love could know you not or fail to recognize itself in you.
83 You have reached the end of an ancient journey, not realizing yet that it is over. You are still worn and tired and the desert's dust still seems to cloud your eyes and keep you sightless. Yet He Whom you welcomed has come to you and would welcome you. He has waited long to give you this. Receive it now of Him, for He would have you know Him. Only a little wall of dust still stands between you. Blow on it lightly and with happy laughter, and it will fall away. And walk into the garden love has prepared for both of you.
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Sarah's Reflections
Review VI ~ Lesson 209
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
[189] I feel the Love of God
within me now.
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Sarah's Commentary:
The Introduction to this Review tells us to remind ourselves hourly,
"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."
A
"deep relinquishment"
(W.RVI.IN.3.8) is called for
"of everything that clutters up the mind, and makes it deaf to reason, sanity and simple truth."
(W.RVI.IN.3.8) What clutters up your mind today? What are the beliefs, worries, concerns, or distractions in the way of the love you are? These are thoughts that block love from our awareness. When this happens, we are not able to hear the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Introduction to the Review proposes that
"When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim your freedom from temptation, as you say: This thought I do not want. I choose instead
---[Today’s Lesson]
I feel the Love of God within me now."
(W.RVI.IN.6.2-3) I am as God created me. I am love, not this false self that I have come to believe I am. Today, I start my day by determining the kind of day I want. I remember that
"Anger is never justified. Attack has no foundation."
(T.30.VI 1-2) (ACIM OE T.30.VII.70) Whenever I am tempted to become angry or to attack, I ask for the help of the Holy Spirit that I might experience peace throughout the day.
Today, we claim the power to create, which we can do when we
"become vigilant only for God and His Kingdom."
(T.7.I.2.8) (ACIM OE T.7.I.2) Jesus tells us,
"To create is to love. Love extends outward simply because it cannot be contained."
(T.7.I.3.3-4) (ACIM OE T.7.I.3) God's love created us because His love cannot be contained. It keeps flowing outward, and when we accept ourselves as love, we cannot help but extend love because it too cannot be contained.
"The ego, on the other hand, always demands reciprocal rights, because it is competitive rather than loving. It is always willing to strike a bargain, but it cannot understand that to be like another means that no bargains are possible."
(T.7.I.4.1-2) (ACIM OE T.7.II.4) When we bargain, we lose sight of our reality. It is all about trying to get something we believe is lacking in ourselves, but Jesus reminds us that
"To gain you must give, not bargain,"
(T.7.I.4.3) (ACIM OE T.7.II.4) because in giving, you but give to yourself.
Jesus is our example of a healed mind. He gave only love to the Kingdom. He said this was because he knew his reality only as God's Son. We don't believe that we are only love. We believe we are love some of the time, but also bodies and personalities with variable moods. We believe we are two selves in conflict. Yet Jesus has come to remind us of who we really are in truth. He has given us a spiritual technology, through this Course, which, when applied, brings us home to our Self.
We are only one Self.
"What you believe you are determines your gifts, and if God created you by extending Himself as you, you can only extend yourself as He did."
(T.7.I.5.2) (ACIM OE T.7.II.5) The ego has no gifts to give, as it is only about taking for itself, though pretending to be kind and loving. It puts on a pretense in order to get what it wants, knowing it must give something in order to get.
To undo the ego is to undo our false beliefs about ourselves. Any belief, any self-concept, any concern, or any issue we grapple with today is what blocks awareness of our true Self. By turning over our misguided perceptions to the Holy Spirit, the truth shines through us. Today, we are asked to remain vigilant for the Kingdom by watching our thoughts. The truth is in us in the silence of our right minds. We are created by God, and as such, we have all His attributes. As we connect to our Source, we extend love, and in this extension, we create in the same way God created us.
I was aware, yesterday, of how much I wanted to be "left alone." It was not a happy state, and there was no peace. I looked at the thoughts of wanting space from my brothers. I have had a pattern of wanting to escape whenever I feel conflict or tension in a relationship. I recognize how much I still value the little gap between myself and my brother because I still see love as treacherous. I feel safety in my aloneness.
Our fear of love reflects our fear of God. It is
"The greatest obstacle that peace must flow across. . ."
(T.29.I.3.2) (ACIM OE T.29.I.3) It reflects the fear of God's punishment, that we hold in the mind, for our perceived sins. Jesus reminds us that we keep our brothers at a distance because
"A cautious friendship, and limited in scope and carefully restricted in amount, became the treaty you had made with him. Thus you and your brother but shared a qualified entente, in which a clause of separation was a point you both agreed to keep intact."
(T.29.I.3.8-9) (ACIM OE T.29.I.3)
"It is the symbol of a promise made to meet when you prefer, and separate till you and he elect to meet again."
(T.29.I.4.3) (ACIM OE T.29.II.4)
"The body saves you, for it gets away from total sacrifice and gives to you the time in which to build again your separate self, which you truly believe diminishes as you and your brother meet."
(T. 29.I.4.7) (ACIM OE T.29.II.4) Though we made this agreement with our brother, we made a more binding agreement with our Father to return to Him.
The gap we value between ourselves and our brothers is the same gap we want to maintain with God. While I can profess that I am not a body and that I feel the love within me now, I need to do the work of releasing the fears that maintain the desire to escape. This is where vigilance in watching our thoughts becomes so important. When we state, "I want my space," or "I need to establish boundaries," we are really affirming separateness. Too much closeness can start to feel threatening, demanding, invasive, and smothering. We value our independence. For me, it has been a lifelong process of establishing my independence and my fear of being controlled. Being controlled felt dangerous and made me feel vulnerable. Getting in touch with these fears allows for the healing. We can’t heal what we won’t acknowledge.
When we look at the darkness, with the light of Jesus beside us, these fears lose their power. Thus, the ego program can be exposed. The ego is nothing but thoughts we hold to be true. The ego is nothing, and it is nowhere. However, when we identify with our thoughts, we become what we are thinking. If I hold beliefs that I am stupid, unworthy, or bad, these beliefs become my identity, but they do not constitute the truth of what I am. Therefore, we can safely look at these beliefs as they do not define us. Who is it that does the looking anyway? The mind that is the observer of our thoughts is where sanity resides. Yes, it takes courage, honesty, and vigilance because our vulnerability is exposed, but the result is greater freedom and lightness. We experience more joy and peace until the final doubt-thought can be released and only awareness shines forth. The love we are, which illuminates our minds and brings freedom, no longer has to be defended or demanded. It simply is.
Today, use the Lesson to remind yourself of the truth and try to remember to use it in any situation where you feel tempted to judge or attack. The truth is that we are not different. We are both set free when one of us remembers there is only God's love and nothing else is true about anyone.
"The Love of God is what created me. The Love of God is everything I am. The Love of God proclaimed me as His Son. The Love of God within me sets me free."
(W.209.1.2-5)
We continue to do our daily practice with morning and evening meditations of fifteen minutes, repeating the Lesson and then spending time in silence, being attentive to guidance from the Holy Spirit throughout the day. We continue hourly practice, reminding ourselves of the thought for the day and expressing gratitude to the Holy Spirit for His presence in our minds. We continue to bring awareness to the thoughts that block the truth about ourselves. We listen for guidance and bring the Lesson to our minds as often as possible throughout the day. If anything tempts you to lose your peace throughout the day, use it as another opportunity to apply the Lesson in a form that addresses the issue. As an example, you might choose to say, "The Love of God within me sets me free from this difficult situation that I seem to be facing."
Love and blessings, Sarah
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Allen Watson's
Workbook Commentaries
Allen joined Robert Perry in forming the Circle of Atonement in 1993 in Sedona, Arizona where Allen led retreats and workshops and authored many books based on “A Course in Miracles.” One of his most popular books is:
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