I Am Not A Body. I Am Free - A Course In Miracles Ebook

I A M N OT A B ODY I A M F REE

Personal Direction By Jesus Christ In A Course In Miracles

I Am Not A Body I Am Free: Personal Direction by Jesus Christ In A Course In Miracles Published by A Course In Miracles Online in Ebook format only, and is freely available on request. To request a copy of this Ebook please sign up here.

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Was There a Physical Resurrection? My body disappeared because I had no illusion about it. The last one had gone. It was laid in the tomb, but there was nothing left to bury. It did not disintegrate because the unreal cannot die. It merely became what it always was. And that is what “rolling the stone away” means. The body disappears, and no longer hides what lies beyond. It merely ceases to interfere with vision. To roll the stone away is to see beyond the tomb, beyond death, and to understand the body’s nothingness. What is understood as nothing must disappear. I did assume a human form with human attributes afterwards, to speak to those who were to prove the body’s worthlessness to the world. This has been much misunderstood. I came to tell them that death is illusion, and the mind that made the body can make another since form itself is an illusion. They did not understand. But now I talk to you and give you the same message. The death of an illusion means nothing. It disappears when you awaken 3

and decide to dream no more. And you still do have the power to make this decision as I did. God holds out His hand to His Son to help him rise and return to Him. I can help because the world is illusion, and I have overcome the world. Look past the tomb, the body, the illusion. Have faith in nothing but the spirit and the guidance God gives you. He could not have created the body because it is a limit. He must have created the spirit because it is immortal. Can those who are created like Him be limited? The body is the symbol of the world. Leave it behind. It cannot enter Heaven. But I can take you there anytime you choose. Together we can watch the world disappear and its symbol vanish as it does so. An then, and then… I cannot speak of that. A body cannot stay without illusions, and the last one to be overcome is death. This is the message of the crucifixion; there is no order of difficulty in miracles. This is the message of the resurrection: Illusions are illusions. Truth is true. Illusions vanish. Only truth remains. 4

These lessons needed to be taught but once, for when the stone of death is rolled away, what can be seen except an empty tomb? And that is what you see who follow me into the sunlight and away from death, past all illusions, on to Heaven’s gate, where God will come Himself to take you home.

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At no single instant does the body exist at all. It is always remembered or anticipated, but never experienced just now. Only its past and future make it seem real. Time controls it entirely ...

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Introduction For this review we take but one idea each day, and practice it as often as is possible. Besides the time you give morning and evening, which should not be less than fifteen minutes, and the hourly remembrances you make throughout the day, use the idea as often as you can between them. Each of these ideas alone would be sufficient for salvation, if it were learned truly. Each would be enough to give release to you and to the world from every form of bondage, and invite the memory of God to come again. With this in mind we start our practicing, in which we carefully review the thoughts the Holy Spirit has bestowed on us in our last twenty lessons. Each contains the whole curriculum if understood, practiced, accepted, and applied to all the seeming happenings throughout the day. One is enough. But from that one, there must be no exceptions made. And so we need to use them all and let them blend as one, as each contributes to the whole we learn. 7

These practice sessions, like our last review, are centered round a central theme with which we start and end each lesson. It is this: I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. The day begins and ends with this. And we repeat it every time the hour strikes, or we remember, in between, we have a function that transcends the world we see. Beyond this, and a repetition of the special thought we practice for the day, no form of exercise is urged, except a deep relinquishment of everything that clutters up the mind, and makes it deaf to reason, sanity and simple truth. We will attempt to get beyond all words and special forms of practicing for this review. For we attempt, this time, to reach a quickened pace along a shorter path to the serenity and peace of God. We merely close our eyes, and then forget all that we thought we knew and understood. For thus is freedom given us from all we did not know and failed to understand. 8

There is but one exception to this lack of structuring. Permit no idle thought to go unchallenged. If you notice one, deny its hold and hasten to assure your mind that this is not what it would have. Then gently let the thought which you denied be given up, in sure and quick exchange for the idea we practice for the day. When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim your freedom from temptation, as you say: This thought I do not want. I choose instead --And then repeat the idea for the day, and let it take the place of what you thought. Beyond such special applications of each day's idea, we will add but a few formal expressions or specific thoughts to aid in practicing. Instead, we give these times of quiet to the Teacher Who instructs in quiet, speaks of peace, and gives our thoughts whatever meaning they may have. To Him I offer this review for you. I place you in His charge, and let Him teach you what to do and say and think, each time you turn to 9

Him. He will not fail to be available to you, each time you call to Him to help you. Let us offer Him the whole review we now begin, and let us also not forget to Whom it has been given, as we practice day by day, advancing toward the goal He set for us; allowing Him to teach us how to go, and trusting Him completely for the way each practice period can best become a loving gift of freedom to the world.

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Day 1 LESSON 201 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I trust my brothers, who are one with me. No one but is my brother. I am blessed with oneness with the universe and God, my Father, one Creator of the whole that is my Self, forever one with me. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 2 LESSON 202 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I will be still an instant and go home. Why would I choose to stay an instant more where I do not belong, when God Himself has given me His Voice to call me home? I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 3 LESSON 203 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I call upon God's Name and on my own. The Name of God is my deliverance from every thought of evil and of sin, because it is my own as well as His. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 4 LESSON 204 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. The Name of God is my inheritance. God's Name reminds me that I am His Son, not slave to time, unbound by laws which rule the world of sick illusions, free in God, forever and forever one with Him. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 5 LESSON 205 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I want the peace of God. The peace of God is everything I want. The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life, while I abide where I am not at home. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 6 LESSON 206 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. Salvation of the world depends on me. I am entrusted with the gifts of God, because I am His Son. And I would give His gifts where He intended them to be. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 7 LESSON 207 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I bless the world because I bless myself. God's blessing shines upon me from within my heart, where He abides. I need but turn to Him, and every sorrow melts away, as I accept His boundless Love for me. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 8 LESSON 208 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. The peace of God is shining in me now. I will be still, and let the earth be still along with me. And in that stillness we will find the peace of God. It is within my heart, which witnesses to God Himself. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 9 LESSON 209 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I feel the Love of God within me now. The Love of God is what created me. The Love of God is everything I am. The Love of God proclaimed me as His Son. The Love of God within me sets me free. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 10 LESSON 210 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I choose the joy of God instead of pain. Pain is my own idea. It is not a Thought of God, but one I thought apart from Him and from His Will. His Will is joy, and only joy for His beloved Son. And that I choose, instead of what I made. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 11 LESSON 211 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I am the holy Son of God Himself. In silence and in true humility I seek God's glory, to behold it in the Son whom He created as my Self. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 12 LESSON 212 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I have a function God would have me fill. I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain illusions of the world. Only the function God has given me can offer freedom. Only this I seek, and only this will I accept as mine. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 13 LESSON 213 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. All things are lessons God would have me learn. A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me, in place of thoughts I made that hurt me. What I learn of Him becomes the way I am set free. And so I choose to learn His lessons and forget my own. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 14 LESSON 214 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I place the future in the Hands of God. The past is gone; the future is not yet. Now am I freed from both. For what God gives can only be for good. And I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 15 LESSON 215 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. Love is the way I walk in gratitude. The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. He walks with me in love. And I give thanks to Him for showing me the way to go. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 16 LESSON 216 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. It can be but myself I crucify. All that I do I do unto myself. If I attack, I suffer. But if I forgive, salvation will be given me. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 17 LESSON 217 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. It can be but my gratitude I earn. Who should give thanks for my salvation but myself? And how but through salvation can I find the Self to Whom my thanks are due? I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 18 LESSON 218 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. Only my condemnation injures me. My condemnation keeps my vision dark, and through my sightless eyes I cannot see the vision of my glory. Yet today I can behold this glory and be glad. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 19 LESSON 219 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I am not a body. I am free. I am God's Son. Be still, my mind, and think a moment upon this. And then return to earth, without confusion as to what my Father loves forever as His Son. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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Day 20 LESSON 220 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. There is no peace except the peace of God. Let me not wander from the way of peace, for I am lost on other roads than this. But let me follow Him Who leads me home, and peace is certain as the Love of God. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

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E

veryone has experienced what he would call a sense of being transported beyond himself. This feeling of liberation far exceeds the dream of freedom sometimes hoped for in special relationships. It is a sense of actual escape from limitations. If you will consider what this "transportation" really entails, you will realize that it is a sudden unawareness of the body, and a joining of yourself and something else in which your mind enlarges to encompass it. It becomes part of you, as you unite with it. And both become whole, as neither is perceived as separate. What really happens is that you have given up the illusion of a limited awareness, and lost your fear of union. The love that instantly replaces it extends to what has freed you, and unites with it. And while this lasts you are not uncertain of your Identity, and would not limit It. You have escaped from fear to peace, asking no questions of reality, but merely accepting it. You have accepted this instead of the body, and have let yourself be one with something beyond it, simply by not letting your mind be limited by it. 31

This can occur regardless of the physical distance that seems to be between you and what you join; of your respective positions in space; and of your differences in size and seeming quality. Time is not relevant; it can occur with something past, present or anticipated. The "something" can be anything and anywhere; a sound, a sight, a thought, a memory, and even a general idea without specific reference. Yet in every case, you join it without reservation because you love it, and would be with it. And so you rush to meet it, letting your limits melt away, suspending all the "laws" your body obeys and gently setting them aside. There is no violence at all in this escape. The body is not attacked, but simply properly perceived. It does not limit you, merely because you would not have it so. You are not really "lifted out" of it; it cannot contain you. You go where you would be, gaining, not losing, a sense of Self. In these instants of release from physical restrictions, you experience much of what happens in the holy instant; the lifting of 32

the barriers of time and space, the sudden experience of peace and joy, and, above all, the lack of awareness of the body, and of the questioning whether or not all this is possible. It is possible because you want it. The sudden expansion of awareness that takes place with your desire for it is the irresistible appeal the holy instant holds. It calls to you to be yourself, within its safe embrace. There are the laws of limit lifted for you, to welcome you to openness of mind and freedom. Come to this place of refuge, where you can be yourself in peace. Not through destruction, not through a breaking out, but merely by a quiet melting in. For peace will join you there, simply because you have been willing to let go the limits you have placed upon love, and joined it where it is and where it led you, in answer to its gentle call to be at peace.

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eyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle. And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all. The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity. Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not. This is the vision of the Son of God, whom you know well. Here is the sight of him who knows his Father. Here is the memory of what you are; a part of this, with all of it within, and joined to all as surely as all is joined in you. Accept the vision that can show you this, and not the body. You know the ancient song, and know it well. Nothing will ever be as dear to you as is this ancient hymn of love the Son of God sings to his Father still. 34

And now the blind can see, for that same song they sing in honor of their Creator gives praise to them as well. The blindness that they made will not withstand the memory of this song. And they will look upon the vision of the Son of God, remembering who he is they sing of. What is a miracle but this remembering? And who is there in whom this memory lies not? The light in one awakens it in all. And when you see it in your brother, you are remembering for everyone. Welcome Home.

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