1. Study Guide and Commentary
ACIM® Text, Chapter 19,
The Attainment of Peace
Section I, Paragraphs 7 to 16
Healing and Faith (Part 2)
Legend:
Sans serif text = Material from ACIM 3rd edition (FIP)
Italic sans serif text = words emphasized in all caps in Urtext
Bold sans serif text = alternate or omitted material from the Urtext
Typewriter text = editorial comments
strikethrough sans serif text = Not in Urtext, in FIP edition
Overview of the Section
This section contains a wonderful discussion of healing in relation to the body and the mind. Two sections which very much parallel the thoughts here are Workbook Lesson 136, “Sickness is a defense against the truth,” and Manual Chapter 5, “How is Healing Accomplished?” I highly recommend reading both of these sections along with the one we are studying. Note how all three indicate that knowing the ego’s purpose for sickness is a key to understanding what healing really is and really does.
Reviewing what has been said in the first six paragraphs:
1. Peace only comes through an uncompromising dedication to truth, and faith that extends to everyone involved.
2. We can offer healing to everyone in every situation when we come without the body, releasing each other from any demands, giving them to the Holy Spirit with faith in everyone to do their part.
3. Bodies cannot heal, cannot make themselves sick, and do not need healing. Health or sickness is wholly a function of how the mind perceives the body, and what purpose is given to to.
4. Perceiving one another as a body is to be faithless, making union impossible. Sickness may result.
5. Faith removes all limitations, unites and heals, removes obstacles that separate, and is dedicated to the truth of what we are.
6. Mixing illusion with truth leads to the belief that the body must be healed, rather than the mind.We must realize that sickness is in our minds, and give up our belief that we are bodies, and that external factors can affect our health.
Paragraph 71
7. 1Truth and illusion have no connection. 2This will remain forever true, however much you seek to connect them. 3But illusions are always connected, as is truth. 4Each is united, a complete thought system, but totally disconnected to each other. [Where there is no overlap, there separation must be complete.] 5And to perceive this is to recognize where separation is, and where it must be healed. 6The result of an idea is never separate from its source. 7The idea of separation produced the body and remains connected to it, making it sick because of the mind’s [its] identification with it. 8You think you are protecting the body by hiding this connection, for this concealment seems to keep your identification safe from the “attack” of truth.
• Study Question •
7. “The result of an idea is never separated from its source” (7:6). What is the application of this idea to the body and sickness?
A. In order to heal the body we must heal the mind first.
B. The body is the result of the mind’s idea of separation; it is the mind alone that needs healing.
C. Our identification with the body keeps us safe from truth.
•
Continuing the theme of the need for undivided dedication to the truth, Jesus makes the point that illusion is, by definition, not the truth. There is no connection. Partial dedication, with some truth, some illusion, is simply not possible, no matter how hard we might try to make the connection (7:1–2). Either we are a body that contains a mind, or we are a mind that contains the illusion of a body. We can’t be both. And identification with either the body or the mind has far-reaching consequences. Our choice of identity gives birth to a complete thought system (7:4). The two thought systems are mutually exclusive; there is absolutely no overlap between them.
Clearly, then, it is the idea of separation (that is, the ego, which is “the part of the mind that believes your existence is defined by separation” (T-4.VII.1:5)) that produced the body, and even makes our bodies sick. (Why the ego makes the body sick is explained in several ways elsewhere in the Text.2) So it is the idea of separation, in our minds, that must be healed (7:5–7). We are reluctant to recognize the connection of our thoughts to our bodies, and we hide it, because we think that recognizing it would threaten our identification with the body (7:8).
The body represents the gap between the little bit of mind you call your own and all the rest of what is really yours. You hate it, yet you think it is your self, and that, without it, would your self be lost (T-28.VI.4:1-2).
Paragraph 8
8. 1If you but understood how much this strange concealment has hurt your mind, and how confused your own identification has become because of it! 2You do not see how great the devastation wrought by your faithlessness, for faithlessness is an attack that seems to be justified by its results. 3For by withholding faith you see what is unworthy of it, and cannot look beyond the barrier to what is joined with you.
• Study Question •
2. Paragraph 8. There are a number of terms and phrases used in this paragraph that need to be clearly linked with their antecedents. In the columns that follow, link the term or phrase in column A to its meaning (drawn from this and the preceding paragraph) in Column B. (Draw lines, or write out “A - 3” type answers.)
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Column A |
Column B |
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A. this strange concealment |
1. seeing the reality beyond the body |
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B. faithlessness |
2. Sickness |
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C. results of our attack |
3. the body |
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D. faith |
4. hiding the fact that the body is connected to the idea of separation |
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E. the barrier |
5. letting sight stop at the body; identifying someone as a body |
•
As the study question says, it’s important here to understand what various terms refer to. The first such term is “this strange concealment” (8:1). It’s a reference to the final two sentences of the preceding paragraph; read them over now, and you’ll see that “this strange concealment” is referring to the way our ego mind keeps the fact that the idea of separation produced the body and is still connected to the body. Jesus expresses his wish that we understood the devastating effects this has on our mind (8:2–3). Mistaking the body as our self is faithlessness, and amounts to an attack on ourselves. Without faith, we “see what is unworthy of” faith; that is, our self-perception stops at the body, at what is frail, troublesome, the source of pain and temptation—very much unworthy of our faith, and very separate from our brothers and sisters. We can’t see past the body (the “barrier”) to “what is joined with you”—that is, we cannot see in ourselves or others the spirit that is shared by us all.
9. 1To have faith is to heal. 2It is the sign that you have accepted the Atonement for yourself, and would therefore share it. 3By faith, you offer the gift of freedom from the past, which you received. 4You do not use anything your brother has done before to condemn him now. 5You freely choose to overlook his errors, looking past all barriers between yourself and him [your self and his], and seeing them as one. 6And in that one [One] you see your faith is fully justified. 7There is no justification for faithlessness, but faith is always justified.
• Study Question •
3. According to this paragraph, how does faith manifest, or what does it mean to have faith in our brother; that is, what do we do “by faith” (9:3–6)?
•
How does healing occur? Through faith (9:1). But this is something other than what we normally understand by the phrase, “faith healing.” If “faithlessness” means allowing our sight to stop at the body and to identify them with their body, then, in this context, “faith” must mean seeing past the body to the reality of spirit in one another. Faith, he says, shows that we have accepted the Atonement for ourselves and want to share it with others (9:2). Once again, we need to be clear on what accepting the Atonement means: accepting the fact that you are one with God and always have been, that you remain as God created you, and not what you made of yourself: guiltless, eternal spirit, wholly loving and wholly lovable. To share the Atonement, then, means seeing others in that same loving, forgiving light. And that is faith.
When you have faith in another person, you are offering them the same “gift of freedom from the past” that you received when you accepted the Atonement for yourself (9:3). You choose to completely overlook your brother’s past mistakes, and do not find reason in his past behavior to condemn him in the present (9:4–5); instead, you see him as whole, and guiltless.
The word “them” at the end of sentence 5 seems at first (in the FIP version) to refer to “all barriers,” but the original wording (“your self and his” instead of “yourself and him”) and the next sentence makes it clear that it refers to the seemingly separate selves that are now seen as one. “That one” must refer to the single Self, the Christ, which is what we see when we look past all barriers. You look beyond all barriers between you, whether physical (the body) or mental (guilt); you recognize that his self and your self are One Self (9:5), a shared Self that (unlike our bodies) fully justifies your faith (9:6). And, since that Self always exists and always will, unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable, “faith is always justified,” and there is never any justification for withholding faith (9:7).
Paragraph 10
10. 1Faith is the opposite of fear, as much a part of love as fear is of attack. 2Faith is the acknowledgment of union. 3It is the gracious acknowledgment of everyone as a Son of your most loving Father, loved by Him like you, and therefore loved by you as yourself. 4It is His Love that joins you and your brother, and for His Love you would keep no one separate from yours. 5Each one appears just as he is perceived in the holy instant, united in your purpose to be released from guilt. 6You see [saw] the Christ in him, and he is [was] healed because you looked on what makes faith forever justified in everyone.
• Study Question •
4. According to the way this paragraph defines faith, which of the following are faith? (More than one)
A. Trusting a person to keep their word.
B. Expecting a person not to act as an ego.
C. Acknowledging a person as a Son of God, loved by God just like you, and loved by you as yourself.
D. Seeing that a person shares your purpose of being released from guilt.
E. Expecting a person to meet your needs as you define them.
•
When our perception stops at the physical, fear is a natural result, fostering our belief that we are in danger of attack and must attack to protect ourselves. We see one another as separate beings with separate interests that compete with our own separate interests. Faith is fear’s opposite. It goes hand in hand with love (10:1). Faith in a brother means that you are acknowledging your union with him; there are not two selves, but One Self (10:2). Once you truly accept Atonement for yourself you cannot stop there. By its very nature, Atonement extends to “everyone.” If you are the Son of the most loving Father and loved by Him, and if everyone shares the One Self, what is true of you must be true of everyone. Since you share the same Self, you must therefore love everyone “as yourself” (10:3). This is the true meaning of Jesus’ words in the Bible about the second greatest commandment: He quoted Leviticus 19:18, which says, “…you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18 NRSV). Notice, it does not say “as much as yourself” but “as yourself.” It is the affirmation of union.
God loves you both equally; that is what joins you together. To experience God’s love for yourself involves refusing to withhold your love from anyone (10:4). If God loves him, how can you not? By faith, you see everyone as you see them in the holy instant. They share your purpose to release and be released from guilt (10:5). Everyone deserves your faith because the Christ is in everyone. When we see another person in this way, they are healed (10:6).3
Paragraph 11
11. 1Faith is the gift of God, through Him Whom God has given you. 2Faithlessness looks upon the Son of God, and judges him unworthy of forgiveness. 3But through the eyes of faith, the Son of God is seen already forgiven, free of all the guilt he laid upon himself. 4Faith sees him only now because it looks not to the past to judge him, but would see in him only what it would see in you. 5It sees not through the body’s eyes, nor looks to bodies for its justification. 6It is the messenger of the new perception, sent forth to gather witnesses unto its coming, and to return their messages to you.
• Study Question •
5. Several additional things are said in this paragraph about faith. Identify the one not mentioned here.
A. Faith is a gift from God through the Holy Spirit.
B. Faith sees a brother as already forgiven, free of guilt.
C. Faith sees in a brother only what it desires to see in you.
D. Faith is not merited in some cases.
E. Faith does not see through the body’s eyes nor attempt to justify itself by what another body shows us.
•
Where does this kind of faith come from? The Course seems to be asking a lot of us, and if it is up to us to somehow generate the faith to see everyone as guiltless, and to love everyone as part of our Self, as God loves them, I think we are doomed to failure. But that’s not where this faith comes from. “Faith is the gift of God, through Him Whom God has given you” (11:1). This is precisely what the Apostle Paul says in the Bible:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—” (Ephesians 2:8 NRSV).
Faith is the gift of God. Jesus explains that this gift comes to us through the Holy Spirit, Who was given to us, thus underscoring the fact that this is a gift. Lesson 121 expands upon the role the Holy Spirit plays in teaching us forgiveness. I’ve underlined the words that show more of what the Holy Spirit does for us:
"Forgiveness is acquired. It is not inherent in the mind, which cannot sin. As sin is an idea you taught yourself, forgiveness must be learned by you as well, but from a Teacher other than yourself, Who represents the other Self in you. Through Him you learn how to forgive the self you think you made, and let it disappear. Thus you return your mind as one to Him Who is your Self, and Who can never sin.
“Each unforgiving mind presents you with an opportunity to teach your own how to forgive itself. Each one awaits release from hell through you, and turns to you imploringly for Heaven here and now. It has no hope, but you become its hope. And as its hope, do you become your own. The unforgiving mind must learn through your forgiveness that it has been saved from hell. And as you teach salvation, you will learn. Yet all your teaching and your learning will be not of you, but of the Teacher Who was given you to show the way to you" (W-pI.121.6:1-7:7).
When we look at one another with our ego’s and body’s eyes, we judge one another as undeserving of forgiveness. We see guilt and we can’t get past it (11:2). To have faith in the other person, we would have to forget about everything they have done. It seems to us that we would be pretending that they have not done what we judge them for. We’d be lying to ourselves, and we just can’t do it. This is the dilemma that is discussed in Workbook Lesson 134; I suggest you turn to it and read at least the first eight paragraphs. The key idea there is that we are not overlooking anything real; we are overlooking “what is not there.” Rather than lying to ourselves, we are acknowledging the truth.
What we see is not a sinner needing forgiveness; faith shows him or her to us as already forgiven and free of guilt (11:3). We recognize that the past is gone, and we see him or her now. We want to see our own innocence, so innocence is what we see in the others (11:4). Faith does not use the body’s eyes, nor does it look at outward behavior to justify itself (11:5). Faith is the choice of a different way of seeing, which looks for and finds witnesses to the truth about us all (11:6).
Paragraph 12
12. 1Faith is as easily exchanged for knowledge as is the real world. 2For faith arises from the Holy Spirit’s perception, and is the sign you share it with Him. 3Faith is a gift you offer to the Son of God through Him [the Holy Spirit], and wholly acceptable to his Father as to Him. 4And therefore offered you. 5Your holy relationship, with its new purpose, offers you faith to give unto your brother [each other]. 6Your faithlessness has [had] driven you and him apart, and so you do [did] not recognize salvation in him [each other]. 7Yet [But] faith unites you in the holiness you see, not through the body’s eyes, but in the sight of Him Who joined you, and in Whom you are united.
• Study Question •
6. (a) We think we have to develop faith or work at it, but how does faith actually come about?
(b) What part does the holy relationship play in having faith?
•
Here in 12:1, Jesus refers to what was said about the real world and knowledge back in T-11.VIII.4–5, T-12.VIII.8, and most recently in T-18.IX.11:
This course will lead to knowledge, but knowledge itself is still beyond the scope of our curriculum. Nor is there any need for us to try to speak of what must forever lie beyond words. We need remember only that whoever attains the real world, beyond which learning cannot go, will go beyond it, but in a different way (T-18.IX.11:1-3).
Just as attaining perception of the real world provides the necessary condition for complete transfer to knowledge, so does fullness of faith. In fact, faith arises from that transformed perception, and is evidence that you share the perception of the Holy Spirit (12:2). When our spiritual eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit to see the real world, our brothers are part of it, and our faith in them is the inevitable outcome that we offer to them (12:3). In offering the gift of faith to others, we receive it ourselves (12:4).
A holy relationship is the perfect context in which to give and receive faith (12:5). It brings people together who, in the ego’s blindness, had been driven apart by faithlessness. Their sight had stopped at the body, unable to see “salvation in each other” (12:6). Now, in the holy relationship, they are joined by faith in each other; with the vision of Christ they perceive the holiness in one another (12:7). Joined in common purpose and vision, they see one another as their savior.
Paragraph 13
13. 1Grace is not given to a body, but to a mind. 2And the mind that receives it looks instantly beyond the body, and sees the holy place where it was healed. 3There is the altar where the grace was given, in which it [the mind] stands. 4Do you, then, offer grace and blessing to your brother [each other], for you stand at the same altar where grace was laid for both of you. 5And be you healed by grace together, that you may heal through faith.
• Study Question •
7. Based on the similarity of this description to earlier passages, what do you think the “holy place” (13:2) containing the “altar” (13:3) is?
A. The sanctuary of a church.
B. The holy instant we share, in spirit, with a brother.
C. The mind which receives grace.
•
“Grace” (13:1) is another word for God’s gift, by which faith is given us (12:3). Grace is a gift, something unearned and unconditional.
What has been given you? The knowledge that you are a mind, in Mind and purely mind, sinless forever, wholly unafraid, because you were created out of Love. Nor have you left your Source, remaining as you were created. This was given you as knowledge which you cannot lose (W-pI.158.1:1-4).
The initial example of grace is the gift of creation. We were given life, made in the image and likeness of God, purely as a gift of divine love. It is a gift that cannot be taken back. We are purely mind. No wonder he tells us here that grace is given to a mind, and not to a body (13:1). But there is an aspect of grace that is experienced in this world:
"Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear" (W-pI.169.2:1).
When I am confronted with hatred and fear, when all the physical evidence is telling me, “Be afraid! Watch out! Defend yourself!”, how is it possible for me to, in that moment, believe in the love of God and to respond with love, and without fear? For me as a separate individual, it isn’t possible. The ability to do so is a gift of grace. Moments like that are when we need to pray, “Help! Let me see this differently.”
The word “Instantly” (13:2) also has certain implications (cf. 10:5), seeming to relate this kind of vision to the holy instant. When grace is given, the mind “looks instantly beyond the body” (13:2). What we see is the altar where our mind was healed (13:3). What we are looking at—or perhaps I should say looking through—is our brother’s or sister’s outward appearance. We are seeing past her or his body and ego to the holy place the altar within.
The Course explains that, "These altars are not things; they are devotions" (T-5.II.8:7). The altar is the place in your mind that holds what you are devoted to. Another thing the Course speaks of our placing on the altar is lilies, representing forgiveness.4 When Jesus speaks in this paragraph of offering grace and blessing to each other, and of grace having been laid on the altar for both of us (13:4), it certainly includes mutual forgiveness and loving acceptance of one another. We are healed as we offer the gift of grace to one another. This is why our holy relationships are such a fertile ground for spiritual growth and advancement. In fact, sentence 4 is an injunction, a directive from Jesus. It directs us to offer grace and blessing to each other, and to be healed by grace together (13:4–5). The healing that takes place within the relationship is what enables the relationship partners to extend that healing by faith in others as well.
Paragraph 14
14. 1In the holy instant, you and your brother stand before the altar God has raised unto Himself and both of you. 2Lay faithlessness aside, and come to it together. 3There will you see the miracle of your relationship as it was made again through faith. 4And there it is that you will realize that there is nothing faith can not forgive. 5No error interferes with its calm sight, which brings the miracle of healing with equal ease to all of them. 6For what the messengers of love are sent to do they do, returning the glad tidings that it was done[,] to you and your brother who stand together before the altar from which they were sent forth [, together].
• Study Question •
8. After reading 14:1, check your answer to the previous question. From this paragraph and what has gone before, what do you think is the most accurate interpretation of, “Lay faithlessness aside, and come to it [the altar] together” (14:2)?
A. Taking time with a brother to recognize your common goal, and to pray together to bless one another.
B. Within my own mind, looking beyond the appearances of the body in myself and my brother, to bring him (or her) with me to see both of us with the forgiving and loving perception of the Holy Spirit.
C. Stop sleeping in on Sunday and go to church together.
•
As T-18.VII, “I Need Do Nothing,” told us, joint holy instants are the Course’s means for saving us time. That’s the message here as well. That holy altar, the quiet place within, exists for us all, and in particular, for the two (or more) people involved in a holy relationship. Jesus is asking us, in our relationships, to set aside all the barriers we’ve erected: judgments, perceptions from the past, belief in littleness and limitation of one another, and to come together to that altar (14:2). That is where we will “see the miracle of your relationship as it was made again through faith” (14:3). This transformation of a relationship is perhaps the most tangible miracle we can experience.
A miracle inverts perception which was upside down before, and thus it ends the strange distortions that were manifest. Now is perception open to the truth. Now is forgiveness seen as justified (W-pI.pII.13.2:3-5).
When we revision our relationship in the light of the holy instant, we “will realize there is nothing faith can not forgive” (14:4). There is no unforgivable sin. Faith can calmly look on all things and easily bring healing to them (14:5).
The Course says elsewhere, "When you want only love you will see nothing else" (T-12.VII.8:1). If we send out messengers of love, looking for love, witnesses to love is what they will find and what they will show to us (14:6).
The contradictory nature of the witnesses you perceive is merely the reflection of your conflicting invitations. You have looked upon your mind and accepted opposition there, having sought it there. But do not then believe that the witnesses for opposition are true, for they attest only to your decision about reality, returning to you the messages you gave them. Love, too is recognized by its messengers. If you make love manifest, its messengers will come to you because you invited them (T-12.VII.8:2-6).
“Messengers of love.” This phrase (or variations such as “love’s messengers”) will recur several times over the next few sections, so it’s good to consider what they are. They are our thoughts, our choices of what we want to perceive.
Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward (W-pII.304.1:3-4).
Perception follows judgment. Having judged, we therefore see what we would look upon. For sight can merely serve to offer us what we would have. It is impossible to overlook what we would see, and fail to see what we have chosen to behold. How surely, therefore, must the real world come to greet the holy sight of anyone who takes the Holy Spirit's purpose as his goal for seeing. And he cannot fail to look upon what Christ would have him see, and share Christ's Love for what he looks upon (W-pII.312.1:1-6).
It may help to repeat what are, for me, two paragraphs that give us very practical, down-to-earth instruction in how to send out messengers of love:
Dream softly of your sinless brother, who unites with you in holy innocence. And from this dream the Lord of Heaven will Himself awaken His beloved Son. Dream of your brother's kindnesses instead of dwelling in your dreams on his mistakes. Select his thoughtfulness to dream about instead of counting up the hurts he gave. Forgive him his illusions, and give thanks to him for all the helpfulness he gave. And do not brush aside his many gifts because he is not perfect in your dreams. He represents his Father, Whom you see as offering both life and death to you.
Brother, He gives but life. Yet what you see as gifts your brother offers represent the gifts you dream your Father gives to you. Let all your brother's gifts be seen in light of charity and kindness offered you. And let no pain disturb your dream of deep appreciation for his gifts to you (T-27.VII.15:1-16:4).
Paragraph 15
15. 1As faithlessness will keep your little kingdoms barren and separate, so will faith help the Holy Spirit prepare the ground for the most holy garden that He would make of it. 2For faith brings peace, and so it calls on truth to enter and make lovely what has already been prepared for loveliness. 3Truth follows faith and peace, completing the process of making lovely that they begin. 4For faith is still a learning goal, no longer needed when the lesson has been learned. 5Yet [But] truth will stay forever.
• Study Question •
9. We have discussed earlier, in paragraph 1, the particular order of things: Faith leads to peace; peace prepares the way for truth. Which of these three is our primary learning goal?
A. Faith
B. Peace
C. Truth
•
Faith and faithlessness are words that characterize the messengers we send out. Faith sends messengers of love; faithlessness sends messengers of fear and judgment. They could equally well refer to forgiveness and unforgiveness. This paragraph makes some clear references to “The Little Garden” (T-18.VIII). Faithlessness keeps us imprisoned in our barren little kingdoms of separateness; faith prepares the way for the Holy Spirit to transform our relationship into a holy garden (15:1). Notice that “little kingdoms” is plural while “holy garden” is singular, showing the kingdoms have joined.
Faith brings peace, preparing the ground, which opens the door for truth to enter our minds and our relationship, transforming the prepared soil into a lovely garden (15:2). The order is faith—>peace—>truth. Faith simply begins the process, preparing the way. Peace comes and enables us to accept truth into our minds. From where we begin, our learning goal is faith (15:4). Faith is needed when we do not see the truth; once truth has entered, faith is no longer needed. Truth then remains forever (15:5).
So aim toward having faith in one another. It can bring about joint holy instants, where you meet at the altar and experience mutual healing, perceiving the truth about each other.
Paragraph 16
16. 1Let, then, your dedication be to the eternal, and learn how not to interfere with it and make it slave to time. 2For what you think you do to the eternal you do to you. 3Whom God created as His Son is slave to nothing, being lord of all, along with his Creator. 4You can enslave a body, but an idea is free, incapable of being kept in prison or limited in any way except by the mind that thought it. 5For it remains joined to its source, which is its jailer or its liberator, according to which it chooses as its purpose for itself.
• Study Question •
10. As paragraph #1 said, our dedication is to “the eternal” (16:1) or to the truth (15:5; 1:1), which includes the truth of what we are: an idea, not a body (16:4). With that dedication, we are learning “how not to interfere with it [the truth]” (16:1), that is, we are learning to lay faithlessness aside and to have faith. Try, in your own words, to summarize in three or four sentences what this section has been trying to teach us.
•
Truth, we are told, will stay forever. That is what we are to be dedicated to: “to the eternal” (16:1). This sums up the entire section, which began with considering “when a situation has been dedicated wholly to truth” (1:1). There we saw that faith (i.e., dedication to the truth, to the eternal) led to peace, which, as we have seen, then opens the way to the apprehension of truth. In a way, faith is dedication to the truth: “Now faith is [the] substantiating of things hoped for, [the] conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, Darby). Faith substantiates or proves; it demonstrates the truth of Truth! This is the purpose of our holy relationships, to call forth and demonstrate the truth of our Being.
Dedication to the eternal entails looking on the eternal within each other, the spirit given by God, rather than the ephemeral, the temporary aspect of the body and its behavior. Learning “not to interfere with it and make it slave to time” means, I think, not allowing our perceptions of another person’s ego, appearance, limitations, or behavior to block out the eternal truth of their divine being. If we see another as enslaved to their body and their past, we have done it to ourselves. Whatever we do in that regard, thinking we are doing it to another, we are also doing to ourselves. Any negation of the eternal truth in another person equally applies to us (16:2). But we are not subject to the limitations of time, space, and perception. We all have been created “slave to nothing, being lord of all” (16:3). “Lord of all”! That’s a title that I’ve never seen applied to anyone but Jesus, at least in Christian circles, and here is Jesus himself saying it applies to all of us.
We are not bodies! We are ideas. Yes, bodies can be enslaved, but you cannot enslave an idea (16:4). An idea cannot be imprisoned or “limited in any way except by the mind that thought it” (16:4). The only way we can be imprisoned is if our mind imprisons us. These final two sentences are a bit confusing, but I think they mean that even our body is really an idea of our mind, which will be imprisoned or freed according to the choice of our mind. If we choose to live for God, and for love, and for healing, that is how our body will manifest. If our dedication is to the eternal, to the truth, and to the substantiating of Truth in our relationships, our bodies will reflect that.
The Holy Spirit teaches you to use your body only to reach your brothers, so He can teach His message through you. This will heal them and therefore heal you. Everything used in accordance with its function as the Holy Spirit sees it cannot be sick. Everything used otherwise is. Do not allow the body to be a mirror of a split mind. Do not let it be an image of your own perception of littleness. Do not let it reflect your decision to attack. Health is seen as the natural state of everything when interpretation is left to the Holy Spirit, Who perceives no attack on anything. Health is the result of relinquishing all attempts to use the body lovelessly. Health is the beginning of the proper perspective on life under the guidance of the one Teacher Who knows what life is, being the Voice for Life Itself (T-8.VIII.9:1-10).
Answer Key
1. B
2.
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Column A |
Column B |
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A. this strange concealment |
4. hiding the fact that the body is connected to the idea of separation |
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B. faithlessness |
5. letting sight stop at the body; identifying someone as a body |
|
C. results of our attack |
2. sickness |
|
D. faith |
1. seeing the reality beyond the body |
|
E. the barrier |
3. the body |
3. By faith we offer our brother freedom from the past; we do not use the past to condemn him, choosing to overlook his errors and looking past all barriers between us, to see ourselves as one in the Christ, in Whom faith is fully justified.
4. C and D
5. D
6. (a) Faith comes from sharing perception with the Holy Spirit. It comes as we join Him in seeing the holiness in both of us. (b) The holy relationship offers us faith to give to our brother.
7. B
8. B
9. A.
10. Summary: We are learning to have faith in our brothers and ourselves, which means seeing past the body’s sickness or behavior to the eternal reality of one another as the pure, changeless idea of God, the Christ, the Son of God. We are learning to lay aside what our body’s eyes tell us (which always leads to judgment and condemnation), because allowing sight to stop at the body is seeing a brother as a body, which is faithlessness. Instead, we are asked to enter the holy instant, with our brother, there to receive grace from the Holy Spirit which allows us to share His faith and His perception, a vision in which forgiveness becomes wholly justified.
Appendix 1
Application: Think of someone who you have more or less given up on. Then say this to him or her:
I have faith in you, [name].
I have faith in your nature as God’s Son.
What you have done in the past is irrelevant.
It cannot compromise my faith in you.
I do not use anything you have done before to condemn you now.
I freely choose to overlook your errors.
I look past everything that would separate us, including our bodies.
I see the two of us as one.
And in that one, I see that my faith in you is fully justified.
Application: Thinking of this same person, say the following:
In my faith in you, [name], I have no fear of what you will do.
My faith in you is an acknowledgment that you are a Son of my most loving Father.
You are loved by Him as I am, and therefore loved by me as myself.
It is His Love that joins us.
And for the sake of His Love, I would not keep you separate from my love.
I see you only according to how you look now, in the holy instant.
I see the Christ in you.
And thus I look on what makes faith forever justified in everyone.
Realize that if you say and really mean these lines, this person will be healed by your faith.
1 This paragraph in the FIP version has been unusually distorted by editing. First, an entire sentence was left out between sentences 4 and 5. Sentence 5 begins with the phrase, “And to perceive this is to recognize where separation is.” “This” obviously refers to what immediately precedes the statement—but FIP has deleted that sentence! The statement about where separation is located, without the missing sentence, makes little sense. Separation lies in the gap between the thought systems of truth and illusion, which have no overlap. What needs healing is the idea of separation.
In sentence 7, the Urtext has “its identification with it,” where the FIP version says “the mind’s identification with it.” The change made by FIP, no doubt intended to clarify what was meant by “its,” actually misleads somewhat. The first part of the sentence clearly refers to the fact that “the idea of separation” is what “remains connected” to the body, so clearly “its” refers to “the idea of separation,” not to “the mind.” The idea of separation (and the emphasis on “idea” is there in the Urtext) produced the body and the idea of separation makes the body sick because of the idea’s identification with the body. It’s the idea, the thought of identification with the body, that is at issue; not the mind itself.
2 Some reasons why the ego makes the body sick include: We hate the body for the harm it does, its attacking behavior, separateness, superficial pleasure-seeking, sensory information, and frailty and littleness. We use the body to “guilt” others, a “look at what you’ve done to me” ploy. The ego attacks the body to prove to us that we are separate and vulnerable.
3 Robert Perry and Greg Mackie, in their Course commentary, The Illuminated Text, Volume 5, present a suggestion for applying the thoughts of paragraphs 9 and 10 to “someone whom you have more or less given up on.” I’ve included it as Appendix 1.