I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
As Creations of a Loving God, we are Love Itself (e.g., (W-pI.67.6:4). The body is not love! The body is merely an aspect of our physical experience, much like the world (T-2.IV.3:8). Love is an abstraction; Love is a law. To effectively remember this, we have to come to a different state of being, one that is receptive and open, and unafraid of radical shifts in perception and thought.
That shift is challenging and in no small part requires a miracle.
One way to do this – a way particularly favored by A Course in Miracles – is to come to gratefulness, and to dwell there. When we are grateful, we are very near to Love. When gratitude informs our decision-making, the world appears differently. Our problems are less problematic; they become more like lessons that we learn. Every situation becomes a way of connecting with our brothers and sisters in order to remember together our shared innocence.
The only way for us to do this is to be in relationship with the Holy Spirit. And not a casual relationship. We need to be honest in our sharing and disciplined in our listening. We need to be good dialogue partners and we need good dialogues. It has to be an all-in relationship. Only then will we realize the holiness that is our inheritance.
The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. He walks with me in love. And I give thanks to Him for showing me the way to go (W-pII.215.1:2-4).
We are invited to take this very literally! If we are unsure about whether to go out with friends later, we can ask the Holy Spirit should we go. If we are confused about an ACIM lesson, we can ask the Holy Spirit for clarification. If we’re struggling to fall to sleep, we can ask the Holy Spirit for helpful suggestions.
Accordingly, the Holy Spirit’s responses can be very literal and, to our prejudiced mind, insufficiently spiritual. Drink less coffee. You need to rest, not party. Reread the first sentence of the lesson and stay with it. The form of the answer becomes an extension of love in a mind willing to remember – and extend – love, without insisting it knows better.
Father, a miracle reflects Your gifts to me, Your Son. And every one I give returns to me, reminding me the law of love is universal. Even here, it takes a form which can be recognized and seen to work (W-pII.345.1:1-3).
The Holy Spirit wants to help us here and now. It is a fascinating and sometimes confusing aspect of A Course in Miracles that is teaches us from within separation and illusion how to undo separation and illusion. It is as bodies in a world that we learn we are not bodies and there is no world.
This helpful guidance – and the liberation to which it ultimately points – both inspires and is sustained by gratitude. When we realize how clearly and directly the Holy Spirit guides us, we naturally become grateful. Our gratitude makes it possible to bring to the Holy Spirit increasingly challenging “problems” because we are confident we will not be left alone with them.
How do I love someone I actually hate? How do I forgive this person who murdered my child/raped me/botched my father’s surgery? What if I don’t want to be happy? These seem harder, which is not a crisis. The Holy Spirit is a gentle and patient teacher.
Gratitude is the hand we hold as we go into the seemingly impossible questions and quandaries. Love is the answer we are given, by the Teacher who will not abandon us, because he speaks for Love.
