Thank you Pixels for the image
Lesson 262
Let me perceive no differences today.
Father, You have one Son. And it is he that I would look upon today. He is Your one creation. Why should I perceive a thousand forms in what remains as one? Why should I give this one a thousand names, when only one suffices? For Your Son must bear Your Name, for You created him. Let me not see him as a stranger to his Father, nor as stranger to myself. For he is part of me and I of him, and we are part of You Who are our Source, eternally united in Your Love; eternally the holy Son of God. We who are one would recognize this day the truth about ourselves. We would come home, and rest in unity. For there is peace, and nowhere else can peace be sought and found.
We who are one would recognize this day the truth about ourselves. We would come home, and rest in unity. For there is peace,
A Course in Miracles (p. 1615). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition.
The essence of Oneness to see the Unity pictured in the seeming separate.
“When we use the terms that refer to a separate self, we know that separate self is made of countless non-self elements. We can release the name and dwell in the truth of emptiness. This is the teaching on conventional designation.”
“When we refer to the body as “body,” we are applying a label to reality. The word “body” is a designation, an appellation, or a convention. We agree to call it “body,” but in fact the label itself is not the body, just as the map is not the territory”
Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Other Shore (p.73-75). Parallax Press. Kindle Edition.
Col. 2.19 “…Christ, who is the head of the body. Under Christ’s control the whole body is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God wants it to grow.” (Good News Translation; [GNT])
1Cor. 12.12-14 “Christ is like a single body, which has many parts; it is still one body, even though it is made up of different parts. In the same way, all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free, have been baptized into the one body by the same Spirit, and we have all been given the one Spirit to drink. For the body itself is not made up of only one part, but of many parts…” [GNT]
What is the “Body” in Spiritual terms?
Thich Nhat Hanh in his New translation of the Heart Sutra opens our eyes to the Buddhist teaching of emptiness. To be empty is to be empty of something, we cannot be empty of nothing. He points out we are not solitary individuals on this earth and we are actually empty of any one thing that is our body that there is really no such thing as a “body” alone by itself. We are all made of non-body ingredients but when brought together, when the conditions are ripe, will create a body after the design of the maker. If even one of the building blocks are absent there would be no “me”.
To help us understand the lesson of emptiness he uses a piece of paper as an example of it being made of non-paper components: the clouds to provide rain for the growth of the tree, the sun to provide energy for the trees growth and how the sun and rain also nourish the logger to be able to harvest the tree. His illustration, as I began to contemplate it, showed me the loggers parents are also in the piece of paper and every bit of nourishment required for them as well. In fact I see now how everything and everyone that has ever lived from the beginning of the world were necessary just to bring me one piece of paper.
For me just to have my breakfast in the morning—which some say is the most important meal of the day—requires the dedication and effort of the entire cosmos so I can have my bowl of oatmeal and a piece of toast. The same requirement is there for my wife as well and the rest of humanity, a mind boggling, cacophony of whirling, dancing energy. And no one, absolutely no one, is free from this web.
We are just touching on the physical—our depend-dance on everyone or inter-dependent arising of the physical is just the illustration of larger truths the psychological and Spiritual connection of all mankind/the Adamah of oneness. One being, One life, One Spirit that unites us all. Baptized into One by the Spirit as illustrated at Pentecost as we’ll see later.
All of this just to keep our bodies alive! But the big surprise our bodies are NOT alive. They have no life of their own, like our many machines, can only serve us if given outside power. We have designed them to mimic our bodies because that is all we know. And it frightens the living daylight out of us to face a world without this outside source energy. We need some kind of insight into the origin of this energizing power, without it we are left in true darkness.
Hence the need for God. Yep the original “Pandora’s Box” and yes the box is open and the lid was thrown away millennia ago, in spite of those who claim to have found it.
Since we depend on others in this world for keeping our bodies alive why would we want to exclude anyone from their particular motivation for living, the very life needed to provide the world it’s sustenance. Is it not a persons hope of a life in the physical that keeps 99% of the world motivated to even get up in the morning.
Our bodies and the energy needed to sustain them is merely an illustration of the larger truth camouflaged by this symbol.
What is the Christ, in Spiritual terms?
Apostle Paul uses the body as our introduction to the supportive principle sustaining Life. He calls the Christ the head of the body and also the body itself. The original meaning of “Christ” was the Greek translation of the Jewish word “messiah”. The Messiah was expected to be an individual who would rise up and free Israel from its oppressors. And yet Paul—who knew very well the hope of Israel—changed the meaning of Messiah from an anointed King to an Ecclesia/group, a universal one at that—considering his blinding conversion—sending him to a broader vision of many, many people all joined into one purpose under one head. And as he points out in 1 Cor. 12 this Ecclesia has an uncountable number of parts—more than Paul ever would have imagined—including cells, atoms, DNA, on and on.
This multiplicity in the “body”—a hint of Gods desire for a unified world—is symbolized by the happening on the day of Pentecost. Every person listening to Peter heard him in their own language. Luke takes care to list 16 different towns, regions and countries who heard the message that day and afterwards counted three thousand people added to the their number. Then further on in Acts 3:21 Peter mentions that Jesus will remain in Heaven until the “restoration of all things”(RSV). What does this “all things” refer to if not people changing their minds (repentance as he points out) and returning—the restoration of all things— to the Oneness of God as was before the great deception written about in Gen.3. We are to change our thinking about our knowledge of good and evil.
We are to leave that foolish belief behind, it has never served humanity.
To point out the sequence of events for the second coming, according to Peter—Jesus won’t be coming back until the restoration of all things. What is He is waiting for? For us to restore humanity, He is waiting for humanity to recognize it is ALL ONE as it was before the great deception, before we believed in good and evil. We are to work for a world that works for everyone.
What is the Son, in Spiritual terms?
The big breakthrough of progressive revelation is what The Course calls Gods Son.
Lesson 252
The Son of God is my Identity.
1. My Self is holy beyond all the thoughts of holiness of which I now conceive. ²Its shimmering and perfect purity is far more brilliant than is any light that I have ever looked upon. ³Its love is limitless, with an intensity that holds all things within it, in the calm of quiet certainty. ⁴Its strength comes not from burning impulses which move the world, but from the boundless Love of God Himself. ⁵How far beyond this world my Self must be, and yet how near to me and close to God!
- Father, You know my true Identity. ²Reveal It now to me who am Your Son, that I may waken to the truth in You, and know that Heaven is restored to me. (ACIM, W-252.1:1–2:2)
Our identity never changed. How could anything God made in His own image ever be corrupted? Impossible!
God does have one Son as has been taught since Christianity became a system of codified belief, but I think as Paul and Peter were attempting to proclaim that the One Son is humanity itself. Peter’s “restoration of all things” symbolized by the conversions of people from different nations, and Paul’s teaching about the body of Christ are the first hints that this is so. The Course tells us that when we look at another person we are really seeing a member of the body of Christ as we ourselves are. Like Jesus pointed out if we do something to even the least of humanity we are doing it unto him.
The Courses main theme is forgiveness. It is forgiveness that brings us together and unforgiveness that separates us. “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matt.25:40 NIV
In this bible section we have the entire crux of the matter; forgiveness joins us to Christ the King and and unforgiveness keeps us separated from the Christ resulting in continued suffering and the fires of our own hatred. It’s our choice.
The metaphysical meaning of “King” is of course the ruler of our own consciousness the head of the body and if we forgive the smallest or the people we think the least worthy of it then and only then have we crossed the bridge consciously because we have the seen the many as one and this least one is vital to the restoration of the world to Christ consciousness.
This “King” also reminds us of the Messiah theme mentioned earlier. The One we have been waiting for, the hope of the world, that will set things right again, now we are told how this will happen by showing if we forgive the least of these we do it unto the King or if we choose to remain in our resentment we actually do that to the King as well. What we do to one we do to all—the Body of Christ.
The entire message of Jesus and the Course is: The greatest miracle of all is when an ancient hatred has been laid to rest. Forgiveness is the only way.
“…[Father] forgive us our sins AS we forgive our neighbor.”
There is an illustration in The Course that the only way to get into heaven is by holding the hands of the people in front of us and behind us.
4. You who hold your brother’s hand also hold mine, for when you joined each other you were not alone. (ACIM, T-18.III.4:1)
⁵I hold your hand as surely as you agreed to take your brother’s. ⁶You will not separate, for I stand with you and walk with you in your advance to truth. ⁷And where we go we carry God with us. (ACIM, T-18.III.5:5-7)
⁹The hand of Christ is all there is to hold. ¹⁰There is no journey but to walk with Him. (ACIM, T-24.V.7:9-10)
5. Stand still an instant, now, and think what you have done. ²Do not forget that it is you who did it, and who can therefore let it go. ³Hold out your hand. ⁴This enemy has come to bless you. ⁵Take his blessing, and feel how your heart is lifted and your fear released. ⁶Do not hold on to it, nor onto him. ⁷He is a Son of God, along with you. ⁸He is no jailer, but a messenger of Christ. ⁹Be this to him, that you may see him thus. (ACIM, S-1.III.5:1-9)
A musical call to see a better way from Ben Harper. Peace and blessing,
God is Good 