In A Course in Miracles Jesus makes it clear
that it's not what we do in the world that's important,
it's how we do it, or better with whom we do it,
whether we do it with the ego or we do it with him or the Holy Spirit.
Nonetheless, we all believe we are bodies, otherwise we would not be here.
Our experience here obviously is that of a body
relating to other bodies and we all have bodily needs,
both physical as well as psychological,
and we have to exist in the world and we have to do things in the world.
Nonetheless, our work with the Course is not meant to be
to be manifest in terms of what we do,
but much more what the decision is in our minds
in terms of which teacher we will choose
and which thought system we would identify with.
And whatever thought system we identify with is what will
extend through us, and that's what is manifest in the world.
There's a section in the text, "I Need Do Nothing," that
that was originally a personal message to Helen
at a time when she was involved with making a decision in the world.
And the point of the message was that I need do nothing,
namely that we don't have to define problems in the world
and then need to do something about them,
that we recognize that the only real problem is in our minds
and that's what we have to do something about by choosing again.
That line, "I need do nothing," can also be taken to mean
that I need to do nothing on my own,
namely that what I do I should not do with my ego,
which is what it means to do something on our own,
but rather we do it with Jesus as our teacher.
And when he guides us, what he would guide us in
is learning to be forgiving and to see everyone
as being essentially the same having a common interest
rather than the divisive interests that divide us.
So what that means is that as we live our lives,
that while we clearly have to do things in the world,
we want to do them with a different teacher.
This is what helps us adopt a posture
on the one hand of being normal in the world,
namely that we look like everybody else as the beginning of Lesson 155 says.
We dress like everybody else. We speak like everybody else.
We eat food the way everybody else does. We have sex the way everybody else does.
We amass money like everyone else does, and there is nothing
inherently good or bad about any of that.
What is important, once again, is that as that lesson says
that our foreheads are serene and we smile more frequently.
That whatever it is we do, we do peacefully.
It does not mean that we turn our backs on the world.
It does not mean we resign from our jobs or leave our families,
because after all all this is an illusion
and we don't want to indulge in special relationships, missing the whole point.
The problem is not what we do in the world.
The problem is not what's wrong with our relationships
person-to-person or body-to-body.
The problem, again, is whether we do it under the aegis of guilt
or we do it under the aegis of forgiveness.
So the focus in this course is always not on what we do,
but once again, with whom we do it.
So we live our lives like everyone else does.
We live our lives normally. We do what everyone else does
in the world, but we do it in a different way.
Once again, we smile more frequently and our foreheads are serene.
And that's the way we both learn what this course is saying,
by shifting our focus from the body to the mind and we also teach.
Because by being right-minded, we are saying to everyone
with whom we come into contact, the same right-minded choice I made
you can make because we are the same.
That you could choose to see peace instead of this.
You could choose a miracle instead of a grievance.
You could choose not to attack, not to accentuate differences,
not to indulge in our specialness which separates us
but instead we could choose to see everyone is the same.
So, once again, I highlight the fact that as Course in Miracles students
we don't stop being normal. It doesn't mean
because we are asked to place the future in the hands of God
as Lesson 194 says that we cancel all insurance policies.
That makes no sense when you live in a world
in which we need to have some kind of insurance.
It doesn't mean that you don't lock your cars
and park on a city street inviting people to just steal them.
This is not helpful to you and it's not helpful to the person who steals your car.
It means that you do what everyone else does
but you do it in a different way, serving a different purpose.
Rather than serving the purpose of keeping us rooted in the dream,
it now serves the purpose of awakening us from the dream.
What keeps us here is separation which makes the world real.
What helps us leave this world or the thought system that made this world
is recognizing that nothing in this world
has the power to take away the love and the peace of God from us.
And that love and that peace is in our minds,
but since we made bodies and live here in the world as bodies,
the world then becomes a classroom in which we're taught
to return to the mind where we could choose again.