Preface. What It Says. 7 – 10. Jesus: “The Self that God created needs nothing. It is forever complete, safe, loved and loving. It seeks to share rather than to get; to extend rather than project. It has no needs, and wants to join with others out of their mutual awareness of abundance.
By comparison, the special relationships of the world are destructive, selfish and childishly egocentric. Yet, if given to the Holy Spirit, these relationships can become the holiest things on earth. In fact, they become the miracles that point the way on the return to Heaven.
The ego uses its special relationships as a final weapon of exclusion and a demonstration of separateness. The Holy Spirit transforms them into perfect lessons in forgiveness, in joining and awakening from the dream of separation. Each one is an opportunity to let perceptions be healed and errors corrected. Each one is another chance to forgive oneself by forgiving the other. And each one becomes still another invitation to the Holy Spirit and to the remembrance of God.
Perception is a function you have given to the body, and therefore the body represents a limit on awareness. Perception sees through the body’s eyes and hears through the body’s ears. It evokes the limited responses which the body can make. The body then appears to be largely self-motivated and independent, yet it actually responds only to the intentions of the mind. If the mind wants to use it for attack in any form, it becomes prey to sickness, age and decay!
If instead, the mind accepts the Holy Spirit’s purpose for the body, it becomes a useful way of communicating with others, invulnerable as long as it is needed, and to be gently laid by when its use is over. Of itself it is merely neutral, as is everything in the world of perception. Whether it is used for the goals of the ego or those of the Holy Spirit, depends entirely on what the mind decides it wants.
The opposite of seeing through the body’s eyes is seeing with the vision of Christ, which reflects strength rather than weakness, unity rather than separation, and love rather than fear. The opposite of hearing through the body’s ears is receiving communication through the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit, which abides in each of us. His Voice at first seems distant and difficult to hear because the ego, which speaks for the little, separated self, at least ‘seems’ to be much louder.
This comparison, however, is actually reversed! The Holy Spirit speaks with unmistakable clarity and overwhelming appeal. No one who does not choose to identify with the body could possibly be deaf to His messages of release and hope. Nor could he fail to accept joyously the vision of Christ in glad exchange for his miserable picture of himself.”
Note: Each morning I sit down at my computer, bring to the screen the cited paragraphs of the Course, read them a word at a time while asking my inner guidance for what will make the meaning clear to me in common language I can understand. I ask for clarification and it is given; a comma here, a preposition there, paragraph breaks not in the material before. I think it more correct to refer to what is in quotes as “reflections,” as they are captioned on the RMMC website where several samples appear. They are not verbatim quotes from the Course, but neither are they “interpretations” on my part. Sometimes I do add an observation in another paragraph preceded by >>>.
This careful, meticulous approach to studying the Course was suggested by Ken Wapnick, who stated often that the Course is broader, richer and deeper than most students realize. Once I began again in working through the material, asking the Holy Spirit’s help, I discovered I was being guided. When in doubt, I muscle test, as I learned from Dr. David R. Hawkins, whose books, videos and workshops combining Course teachings with biblical, Hindu and Buddhist practice have been most helpful to me with the Course. Peace – Ron