[acimlessons_list] Lesson 294 - October 21

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 294 - OCTOBER 21 

"My body is a wholly neutral thing."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* READ the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* PRAY the prayer, perhaps several times.

* MORNING AND EVENING: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* HOURLY REMEMBRANCE: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* FREQUENT REMINDERS: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* READ THE "WHAT IS" SECTION slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: Think of a number of features of your body that you
either like or dislike. With each one, say:

      I see this [name the bodily feature] as [good, bad].
      It is neither good nor bad.
      It is a wholly neutral thing.

Commentary

This statement sums up the Course's attitude towards the body. It is
"neither good nor bad" (2:2); it is <neutral>. It derives its value or its
harm from the use to which we put it, the purpose that it serves. 

There is a view of the body that sees it as inherently good, always
deserving that we respect its wishes. If I am sexually aroused by someone I
should indulge that urge. If I am hungry I should eat; if I am tired I
should sleep. All repression of physical desires is wrong. This view is
incorrectly identifying the body with my self. It deifies the body and makes
it not only good, it makes it God. 

There is another view that sees the body as inherently evil. Therefore I
must master and repress all my bodily urges. This approach denies that the
body is in any way an expression of my self. It makes a devil of the body.
It produces endless guilt over every physical desire. 

The body, says the Course, is not good and not bad. It is neutral. Not
sinful, nor sinless. Its only usefulness is in awakening from the dream, or
in communicating salvation. Such an approach does not make the mistake of
identifying myself with my body. It does not make me wrong for having urges,
nor does it make me wrong for ignoring some of those urges. It neither
exalts nor condemns the body. It accepts the body as a tool, useful for the
purpose of truth and nothing else. It sees no purpose in purely bodily ends.


The lesson states, "I am a Son of God" (1:1). And I am not "another thing,"
"mortal and corruptible" (1:2-3). God did not create the mortal and
corruptible body, and a Son of God has no use for what must die (1:4). Yet
if the body is seen as a neutral thing it "does not see death" (1:5). Why?
Because "thoughts of fear are not invested there, nor is a mockery of love
bestowed upon it" (1:5). We (apparently) experience death when we see the
body as evil ("thoughts of fear") or as good ("a mockery of love"). Holding
the body as neutral "protects it while it has a use" (1:6). In other words,
to the mind that is healed, the body is immortal until its work is done. It
lasts as long as it is needed for the mind's purposes of healing in this
world, and then it is simply "laid aside" because it no longer has a purpose
(1:7). This is not <death> but simply the end of the body. As <The Song of
Prayer> puts it, "We call it death, but it is liberty" ( S-3.II.3:1).

When a mind that is healed no longer needs the body, the body is simply laid
aside. "It is not sick nor old nor hurt. It is but functionless, unneeded
and cast off" (1:8-9). There have been a few who have experienced this kind
of bodily end that is not death. Robert tells me of reading of a Tibetan
monk who, one day, announced to his followers that his work in the body was
almost finished and that he would be leaving the body in a few months. He
named the exact date. And on that day, he sat in meditation in full lotus,
and simply left. He was "not sick nor old nor hurt." His body was simply
"unneeded" any more. 

How can we attain to such a high state, and such a gentle death (if it can
even be called "death")? The lesson indicates that our path lies in the
direction of gradually coming to see our bodies as "of service for a while
and fit to serve, to keep its usefulness while it can serve, and then to be
replaced for greater good" (1:10). It is neither a burden nor an end in
itself. It is simply a tool. We use it, in this dream, "to help Your plan
that we awaken from all dreams we made" (2:3), and for nothing more than
that. Seeing the body as neutral is what protects it while it has a use in
this plan. As we align our minds with God's plan, we value the body for its
usefulness in fulfilling the plan, and not for itself. We neither exalt it
nor abuse it. We do not strive either to keep the body or to leave it. We
simply use it to fulfill our function. 

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 4: W-pII.8.2:3-6

When we see the real world, "Nothing but rest is there" (2:3). No conflict,
no "battle." I think that when I truly see the real world, there will be
very little or no sense of urgency. There is a kind of attitude towards
spirituality that instills what is almost a mode of panic: "We have to fix
things, we have to get it right, and right away!" This is not rest. The
sight of the real world is a restful sight, one that fills us with assurance
that "nothing real can be threatened" ( T-In.2:2) and therefore there is no
need for panic.

"There are no cries of pain and sorrow heard, for nothing there remains
outside forgiveness" (2:4). I do not think this means that we become
indifferent to the world's suffering. In the Text, the Course tells us:
"Love always answers, being unable to deny a call for help, or not to hear
the cries of pain that rise to it from every part of this strange world you
made but do not want" ( T-13.VII.4:3). What I think this line means is that
the cries of pain and sorrow are not heard as witnesses to fear, but as
calls for help, as something requiring a response of love rather than a
response of terror. The healed mind that sees the real world is not
distraught by the cries of pain and sorrow because it knows that
"nothing.remains outside forgiveness." Nothing is beyond hope or help. 

        And the sights are gentle. Only happy sights and sounds can reach
        the mind that has forgiven itself. (2:5-6) 

Underneath the sounds of fear, the mind that has forgiven itself hears the
hymns of gratitude (see W-pII.293.2:2).  The song of love is louder than the
dirge of fear. Everything that is seen carries in it the note of redemption.


        There is a way to look on everything that lets it be to you another
        step to Him, and to salvation of the world. (W-pI.193.13:1)