The last time we spoke about how the Course is frequently
accused of taking all the fun out of life.
The problem with our discussion then, if it's left there, is that
it'd be very difficult for people not to be tempted, then feel guilty
because they have fun here. Because they enjoy video games
or they have vacation plans, or they like a nice meal,
or they enjoy sex, or they want to have a lovely time
just taking a walk in a beautiful nature scene
and they feel guilty because these were things that would give pleasure
and could constitute fun. And the last thing in the world
this Course wants is that people would feel guilty.
The whole point of Jesus' whole message is the undoing of guilt,
not the reinforcement of guilt.
So then how does one handle this?
And the way one handles this is to realize that the step
to go from here to there...our experiences in this world
and the there being the Real World and then Heaven...is that
it is a process.
There's that very important passage near the end of Chapter 27
in The Dreamer of the Dream where Jesus says
that it would be too terrifying for us to awaken from the dream suddenly
And instead God wants us to have these gentle dreams
or what early in the text is called the happy dreams, in which we go
step by step. Forgiveness is a process.
And while in principle we could be still and instant and go home,
as one workbook lesson says...we just snap our fingers
and be back home just choosing the Holy Spirit as our teacher...
within the illusory world of time it is a process.
And there are so many passages in this Course that talk about this.
In The Development of Trust section in the manual
there are six stages in the development of trust
and it is very clearly seen as a process of a gentle, step by step
undoing of our belief in the reality of guilt...our belief in the reality
of the separation...our belief that the ego was telling us the truth
and Jesus is lying to us. And it's a process not because it has to be,
it is a process because, once again, our terror would be so great
that we'd be abruptly lifted up and hurled into reality,
as one passage says in the text.
It doesn't work that way. It is a slow, step by step, gradual process
of awakening. And this is because our identification with the body
is so strong...our identification with this physical, psychological self
that we call by our name, that has a history, that we identify with,
that has certain problems and concerns and difficulties
that we struggle with...all of this is our identification
and we are not asked to give it up.
All we're asked to do is to shift the purpose for our being here.
So the ego's purpose for our being in the body
is to indulge all of our specialness needs and concerns,
which reinforces guilt, and reinforces the entire thought system of guilt.
The Holy Spirit's purpose, which is the correction, is to use
our experiences as bodies as a classroom, in which we gently,
once again, learn His lessons that teach us that the thought system
we have been espousing, that we have identified with,
is not true.
The Course tells us that the miracle establishes that we dream
a dream and its content is not true.
Not that we awaken from the dream.
Not that we even change dreams from the unholy dreams
to the happy dreams of the Holy Spirit,
only that we recognize that it's not true.
So we are not asked to deny our bodies.
We're told early on in the text that this would be a particularly
inappropriate use of denial to deny our physical experiences in this world.
So there is nothing wrong in using your body as an instrument
of happiness, of pleasure seeking, avoidance of pain, or having fun.
The problem is in giving it a reality it doesn't have.
The problem is in saying it is salvation, that I have to do such and such
with such and such a person in order to feel good about myself.
That's the lie, and that's what we give up.
We're told several times in the Course that the Holy Spirit does not
take our special relationships away from us. He transforms them.
And that means He changes their purpose
So once again instead of seeing our body as a potential prison,
or potential source of happiness and pleasure,
we see the purpose of the body as a classroom
in which we ultimately learn that we are not our bodies
but we are decision making minds.
So then it's extremely important that we don't make the mistake
that, not only Course students have made, but followers of
spirituality almost from the beginning of time have made,
where they localize sin in the body and then they have to starve the body out.
I Need Do Nothing, that section in the text is particularly clear about that point.
Sin is not in the body...sin is an illusory thought system
that the mind chooses.
So that if you simply change what you do with your body
saying I'm going to starve out my body's need for pleasure,
and for fun, and satisfaction, and you don't change your mind,
then nothing will happen. You'll simply indulge in what Freud calls symptom substitution.
You go from one mistake to another. So instead of indulging
your body, what you might do is starve your body.
So from becoming a libertine you may
then choose to become an aesthetic, and all that's happening
is you're just shifting what you're using your body for...
instead of pleasure you're now using it for pain,
somehow believing that God will be pleased and you are atoning for your sins.
What you do with your body is not important.
With whom you do what you do with your body is not important,
on the level of form. What is important is with whom
you use your body on the level of the mind...the Holy Spirit or the ego.
So there's nothing wrong with what your body does or does not do.
The problem is whether you do it with the teacher of guilt or
the teacher of forgiveness. So the key, as always with this Course,
is that our focus has to shift from the body to the mind.
And as I quoted in the previous talk, the Course
tells us the only real pleasure is in doing God's Will.
And God's Will is found by our choosing our right mind.
It has nothing to do with our body.