Getting Physical with Christ

Who knew Love could be so simple?

I'll be hosting a free, 1-hour discussion group on the first ten lessons of A Course in Miracles on Sunday, May 21 at 11 a.m., EST. If you'd like the Google Meet link, let me know. You can reply to this email or leave a note in the comments.

"Special" and "holy" are frames - they are ways of seeing - and they are in the mind. They are responsive to us - to what we are in truth. We choose between them. They are most clear in the decisions we make about what to do in our lives. Sleep with this person, become vegan, practice nonviolence.

The body simply tags along, reflecting our decisions, which reflect our frame.

The Christ in you inhabits not a body. Yet He is in you . . . His purpose folds the body in His light, and fills it with the Holiness that shines from Him (T-25.in.1:1-2, 3:4).

In the context of separation, the form that Love takes will vary. Its variance is driven by a lot of factors - cultural factors, genetic factors, spiritual practices, et cetera. Some people we want to sleep with, some we want to build community with, some people it's a chore just to be civil. But it's all the same: it's all communion.

When we choose the frame of holiness - which is the Holy Spirit, who is the part of our Mind that remembers God is Love, and knows it is an extension of Love in Creation - then the form our living takes will not worry us so much. Who we sleep with, who we break bread with, who we need to keep our distance from.

Most of us don't get worked up about whether we prefer to listen to music while driving or not. When we need to pee, we don't make metaphysical demands of our kidneys. Yet when sex or food enters the picture, the potential for existential crisis just mushrooms.

The ACIM trick is not fall for the crisis by trying to solve it, but rather to see that the whole thing arises because we are confused about what we are. We think we're bodies in a world. But we aren't bodies and there is no world. There is no crisis; we can’t be lonely. We can’t be empty.

It cannot be that it is hard to do the task that Christ appointed you to do, since it is He Who does it. And in the doing of it will you learn the body merely seems to be the means to do it. For the Mind is His. And so it must be yours (T-25.I.1:1-4).

It's okay if this makes no sense. It's making no sense just means we're still confused, and confusion is not a crime. It’s just a chance to choose again the Holy Spirit's frame of holiness. And holiness will be healing, and the healing will produce different effects in the world.

When Jeremiah was a little boy and had a hard time sleeping, I would lay with him in his bed until he fell asleep. Sometimes I would tell him stories, sometimes I would rub his back. That was the form of love then! I was good at it, and it made me happy. But Jeremiah grew up and needs my presence differently. And so - imperfectly but willingly - I adapt.

I don’t insist on the form Love takes. I let the Holy Spirit show me the form and, to the best of my ability, say “yes” to it.

Same with co-workers. Same with fellow Course students. Same with Chrisoula. The work is not to find the form of love that ends the search for Love, but rather to be sure that we remain teachable, willing and flexible in the context of the relationships that are given to us. Holiness is not perfection but willingness. It’s open-minded and cheerful. It remembers - and honors - its Creator.

All relationships are special, when seen through the lens of the ego, which magnifies differences and emphasizes judgment. But all relationships are holy, when seen through the lens of the Holy Spirit, which emphasizes equality and service.

The message and the messenger are one. And you must see your brother as yourself. Framed in his body you will see your sinfulness, wherein you stand condemned. Set in his holiness, the Christ in him proclaims Himself as you (T-25.I.2:6-9).

Again, it is easy to become confused here. People are attractive or they have money or some insight around spirituality, so we want them. Or we have abandonment issues and can't handle being alone. All our relationships have the potential for dysfunction built into them, because we can view all of them through the lens of the ego.

Again - I repeat this because it is so hard to remember - the work is not to heal the relationship but rather to choose the Teacher, the Holy Spirit, who knows the relationship is already healed, because of what we are, together, in truth.

Life flows easier when I accept that the work is to focus on the decisions being made at the level of mind, which always reflect the frame I adopt, the ego's or the Holy Spirit's. When the body really is seen as just tagging along, a helpful communication device for Love, then what the body does and who it does it with, become less concerning.

The form the Love takes shifts and adapts to circumstance, and we yield to it. We surrender to it. There is nothing else to do.

Love,
Sean