Love Holds Everything
. . . remembering love in a loveless place
Only bodies see other bodies. This is not a problem! If we meet, and you see a body, it's okay. Seeing other bodies is a thing all bodies do, like sneezing or sleeping. It's not a crisis.
The crisis is when we unquestioningly associate the body with the self - when we identify with bodies. The body wants food and we say "I am hungry." So-and-so walks into a room and we say, "they will complete me."
That's ego weaponizing perfectly natural functions of the body. It takes the body's natural recognition of appetite - for food, for physical connection - and makes it about the self. It limits the self to the body, to the body’s appetites, thus fracturing Creation. Ego's basic argument is, many bodies = many selves and many selves = conflict.
The ego's goal is to destroy peace but leave our desire for peace intact. It wants us to seek peace but never find peace (e.g. T-12.IV.1:4). If we are seeking peace, then we are denying the truth that we are peace. That is all ego needs to keep on trucking.
To the Holy Spirit, many bodies = many opportunities to remember that God does not create in pieces. There is one creation. Remembering this is what miracles are.
There is a tendency to fragment, and then to be concerned about the truth of just a little part of the whole. And this is but a way of avoiding, or looking away from the whole, to what you think you might be better able to understand . . . A better and far more helpful way to think of miracles is this: you do not understand them, either in part or in whole. Yet they have been done through you (T-16.II.2:1-2, 4-5).
Love does not see bodies. Love is not alarmed when bodies notice other bodies, any more than it's alarmed when bodies sneeze or take a nap. Love sees the ocean, not the wave. It does not do separation. But nor does it undo separation, because Love knows that separation is not real.
This is why it is so important in our ACIM practice to discern between ego and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit undoes the blocks to our awareness of Love, all of which are erected by ego, and all of which have to do with our identification as bodies.
The better we are at recognizing the Holy Spirit, and following its teaching, the more readily we remember what we are in truth, which cannot be contained in a body any more than it can be contained in a coffee mug.
The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. It is the body that is outside us, and is not our concern. To be without a body is to be in our natural state. To recognize the light of truth in us is to recognize ourselves as we are. To see our Self as separate from the body is to end the attack on God's plan for salvation, and to accept it instead (W-pI.72.9:1-5).
Please understand that this has nothing to do with what bodies do. When we remember we are Love, when we know that our function is to love in a loveless place, then the body naturally becomes a perfect vessel for love's demonstration and application.
We will know exactly what to do - yoga, volunteer at a soup kitchen, apologize to a friend, march on Washington, whatever. We won't always know why it's what to do in a given moment, but so what? We're here to help salvation, not direct it.
When it is enough for you to know that the Holy Spirit knows, then you will know peace, because you will know that the Holy Spirit denies us nothing. Wherever God's plan for salvation is accepted, it is already accomplished (W-pI.72.9:6). What a gift!
Don't get lost in the metaphysics. Don’t trip on explanations, yours or anybody else’s. Somewhat paradoxically, one of the best ways to learn that we are not a body is to really get to know the body. Go for a walk, sit zazen, bake bread, paint your toenails.
And if that doesn’t do the trick, try this: commune with someone who isn't here in the flesh. I understand the form of Love is different when we remember our dead dogs and deceased friends, parents and partners, but is Love Itself different? Go into this!
People say sometimes, what is love. The answer is, Love holds everything. Not everybody likes that answer! They say it doesn't answer the question, what is love.
But listen. You and I aren't confused what love is. Deep down, we know what love is. The problem isn’t one of knowing, it’s one of fear. We're scared we're unworthy of Love. We're scared we can't handle the scale of Love. We're scared that our loneliness and pain, our guilt and our fear, place us outside Love forever.
But we only believe all that because we believe the body contains us. It doesn't. It can't. Love holds everything. Truly, what else could the Voice for God teach us? What else could we teach each other?
Love,
Sean
Just cogitating: It's interesting: Spirit doesn't know separation, but the world thinks it knows it, and both wants and hates it, thus making it appear "real." I've lived a long time already and the older I get the more I recognize that I have "separated" from many, many people in the sense of not being being physically around them any more. This is not a source of sadness or regret. Some of those people I would enjoy seeing again, but there are a lot of them that I don't have any wish to be near. And yet I don't *feel* separated from any of them. I believe the Course when it says there is no such thing as separation. We are One and always have been and always will be. Whew. That's a relief! At that level there's no question of "like," or "attract," or "reject" or joining bodies; there's only love that demands nothing as compared to the worldly push to "fix" separation--which idea only reinforces the false idea that separation exists.Not to mention it has left a lot of dead bodies behind it, such as domestic abuse victims. I love my (bodily) separated friends, even those at whom I was angry, or who'd had their fill of me, but I guess my point is that we can relax; we don't have to have lunch and hash it all out.
Thank you so much Sean, the following quote by you made my heart leap bc I often times forget “his promise.” “remember that God does not create in pieces. There is one creation. Remembering this is what miracles are.” 🙌💕
I live in South Jersey in a very crowded area just outside of Philly. I’m not a big sports fan but I have to tell ya that the energy here is electric with the Eagles headed to the Superbowl. I notice that everyone is smiling, no longer caring what each others political views are, or if you’re black, white, LBTQ, wealthy, poor ect. We’re all United.
But then you realize that there is the villain, the other team. Not unlike 9/11 when we seemed United as a country and we seemed kinder to one another. But again there was a villian.
It’s a desire to feel oneness, sameness. So you’re quote “God doesn’t create in pieces” really hit home for me that we already are. Thank you for reminding me. Much love for you and your messages.