Previously, we saw that by separating from God, we created the first and only lack: the lack of God. This lack fragmented and transformed into thousands of needs. These needs were projected onto the body, and now it seems that the body is what lacks things and requires our attention. We also said that the body is the symbol of separation. Feeling its needs and working to satisfy them is the way to prove that separation is real.
When someone asks you to tell them about yourself, isn’t the story you tell them the story of your body? The place and date where your body was born, the house where your body lives, the partner your body is with, the illnesses your body has gone through, the countries it has been to. The body is the “hero,” the protagonist, of your movie. Everything revolves around it. We see the body as a full-fledged person.
Since we are so deeply identified with the body, it’s natural that we want to tend to its needs. It’s expected that we want to pamper it, protect it, and listen to it. The body asks, and the mind obeys by seeking what is needed to appease its desires. From this perspective, the idea that the body itself doesn’t need anything sounds absurd. However, this is what the Course teaches. It is explained in Chapter 27:
The dreaming of the world takes many forms, because the body seeks in many ways to prove it is autonomous and real. It puts things on itself that it has bought with little metal discs or paper strips the world proclaims as valuable and good. It works to get them, doing senseless things, and tosses them away for senseless things it does not need and does not even want. It hires other bodies, that they may protect it and collect more senseless things that it can call its own. It looks about for special bodies that can share its dream. (CE T-27.X.2:1-5)
What this paragraph means is that we have designed a system of thought that teaches us it’s fundamental lesson: “… that it [the body] is cause and not effect, and you are its effect and cannot be its cause.” (CE T-27.X.3:4).
Let us remember that the body only became part of our experience after we decided to separate from God. The body is an effect of the mind and has never ceased to be so. The truth of this idea is stored within us and constantly surfaces, although we do not take it very seriously.
For example, when we hear someone judge another by their physical appearance, we think they are a shallow person. Intuitively, we know that what is inside is what matters. When we hear that others are treated as if they were objects, we also feel indignation. We are inspired by stories of people who overcame their physical limitations thanks to their willpower because deep down, we know that the body is like a prison, and the mind longs to be free.
Through the ages we have imposed onto ourselves a system of thought that teaches and reinforces the idea that the body is cause and the mind is its effect.
This system of thought starts with the idea that the body has its impulses and needs like feeling cold, an impulse that tells us the body requires clothing and other accessories.
To procure these things, we need money, and to have money, we must work hard.
We strain the body for strips of paper, metal discs, and numbers on a bank screen. We invent countless meaningless activities to obtain those strips of paper. But do we stop when the need is met?
Instead of simply meeting a specific need, we end up squandering money on things we neither want nor need. Who cannot relate to this? Who has not wasted money on things they never used? Who has not bought things they truly did not need? We work hard to obtain something we will later discard. What sense can this make?
Yet, this system makes so much sense to us that we use the same strips of paper and metal discs to hire other bodies to do the work for us. Their job is to collect “more meaningless things” for ourselves. We also look for that special person with whom to share the illusion of acquiring more money that can be wasted on more unnecessary things. Possessing for the sake of possessing is one of the ego’s slogans. Like everything from the ego, it ends up being circular reasoning. Money serves the body, and the body serves money. The mind remains a victim of this cycle.
Jesus has a good sense of irony. When seen in this light, the entire system becomes laughable for how absurd and senseless it is. Can you see the absurdity of it all too?
Many have dared to point out the absurdity of the system. For example, in 2008, as a result of a financial crisis, the “Occupy” movement emerged as a way to protest financial injustices. There are also anti-consumption movements that highlight the absurdity and danger of centering society around the idea of constant consumption of goods and buying products. These and many other similar groups protest the system because they can see the harmful effects it has on people and the environment. However, no group points out that the real problem is that we incorrectly believe the body governs itself.
In this world, we see these problems as something very serious. We think that money is simply a fact we must live with because the body needs things. There is no doubt that we have learned very well the central lesson this system wants to teach us: the body is cause and not effect.
To prevent such an absurd system from spiraling out of control, we created rules and laws to follow. The Course assures us that, although we feel bound by these laws, we will feel deep liberation when we realize they are not really laws but part of a madness. It says this in Lesson 76 of the Workbook:
Think of the freedom in the recognition that you are not bound to all the strange and twisted laws you have set up to save you. You really think that you will starve unless you have stacks of green paper strips and piles of metal discs. You really think a small round pellet or some fluid pushed into your veins through a sharpened needle will ward off death. You really think you are alone unless another body is with you. (CE W-76.3:2-4)
It is insanity that thinks these things. You call them laws, and put them under different names in a long catalog of rituals that have no use and serve no purpose. You think you must obey the “laws” of medicine, of economics, and of health. Protect the body, and you will be saved. (CE W-76.4)
These are not laws but madness. (CE W-76.5:1)
There are many examples of these laws. For instance, the idea that we must earn a living. In the psychotherapy supplement of the Course, it says that we believe “it is ushered in by the belief that there are forces to be overcome to be alive at all.” (P-2.V.1 ).
That is, we think that life must involve effort for it to exist.
Another fundamental law is the law of supply and demand. In this world, supply is always limited, and needs are said to be infinite. According to the laws of the world, we think it is not our natural right granted by God, but a privilege we must fight for. Since supply is limited, we think we are in competition with others, who take away what we seek to live.
Jesus reminds us, however, that this law is madness and that by freeing ourselves from it, we will feel deep relief.
Let us then do what he proposes. Close your eyes for a few minutes and take time thinking about:
how you would feel recognizing that you are not bound by the laws of economics.
how you would feel realizing that you don’t have to make any effort to earn a living.
how you would feel recognizing that all those laws that seem to bind you are madness and that only the laws of God govern you.
Observe how you feel.
Isn’t that a goal you would like to achieve? Wouldn’t you put your body in service to this goal?
Practice
We have already seen that we tend to focus our lives on pleasing the body and put all our efforts into accumulating things that can satisfy it. We need to center the mind early in the day so that the goal is different. Today, we will introduce an additional element to our practice with this purpose. We will dedicate ourselves to starting the day well.
In the Morning
Dedicate about 15 minutes in the morning to the following practice:
Close your eyes and set your mind to look honestly, without deception.
Identify the beliefs you have about the laws of this world that you think you must obey. For example: “If I don’t eat, I’ll die,” “If I don’t earn money, I could get evicted,” “If I don’t take my medication, my illness will worsen,” etc.
For each belief, observe how that law makes you feel, especially when you imagine breaking it.
Release each belief with these words, said slowly and with full confidence that they will take effect:
“I believe that ---------, but that is not true; I am governed only by the laws of God.”
For example:
“I believe that I would starve if I had no money, but that is not true. I am governed only by the laws of God.”
If you practice correctly, your mind will naturally reach a state of silence where you will find no more beliefs, and you will experience peace.
Spend the remaining time staying in that state and remind yourself that this is the state you wish to remain in for the rest of the day.
During the Day
Since we have accepted the system we live in as normal for so many years, it is understandable that one morning meditation will not make it disappear immediately. For this, we need constant practice that offers a saner alternative.
Throughout the day, stay alert for any thought that suggests you must serve the body or that the body must serve money. These may include thoughts of anxiety about your work or desires to indulge the body in some craving. Be especially mindful of thoughts related to shopping or goals you want to achieve.
Whenever you catch yourself having a thought aimed at pleasing the body or achieving goals that serve the body, immediately respond with the truth:
“This thing I believe I need is not what will make me happy. I will be still and listen to the alternative God offers me.”
Always remember that the words should be spoken slowly and with attention to the meaning they carry. For example, when you say “I will be still to listen,” do exactly that.
Additionally, set a timer on your phone to remind you every 20 minutes to keep your focus throughout the day:
“Today I will not waste time trying to prove to myself that the body commands me.”
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