Week 5. Spiritual Principle
Our Bodies
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So, pertaining to our spiritual movement, let’s talk about our bodies.
“The body is a finite entity, created to be self-contained but also to self-destruct. It was created with a need for constant maintenance, a maintenance that requires toil and struggles. Every inch of its surface is a receiver and transmitter of information, yet it carries additional tools such as eyes and ears to enhance its communication and to control what goes in and what goes out. It is as susceptible to pain as to pleasure. It contains the means for joining, but for joining that is of a temporary nature. It is as capable of violence as gentleness. It is born and dies in a state of helplessness.”
— Mari Perron, A Course of Love
Anything else?
“While the body seems to tell you what you feel and bid you act in accordance with its feelings, how can this be so? The body by itself is neutral. But as long as you attribute the body with bringing you pleasure, the body will bring you pain as well. You cannot choose one without the other, because the choice is the same.”
— Mari Perron, A Course of Love
And like the illusion of separation created by our thoughts and their perception of space and linear time...
“We think we’re separate because we have bodies, when in truth, we have bodies because we think we are separate. The Course says that the body is ‘a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea.’ But that doesn’t mean the body is bad. Like everything else within the world of form, the mind ascribes to it either fearful or loving purposes. The ego’s use of the body is to maintain the illusion of separation. The ego uses the body for attack, pleasure and pride. The Holy Spirit’s use of the body is to heal that illusion.”
— Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love
Therefore…
“I am not this body. I am in this body, and this is part of my incarnation and I honor it but that isn't who I am.”
— Ram Dass
Which means…
“The boundaries of bodies are the least of all things.”
— Leonardo da Vinci
However, unfortunately…
“Most people's reality is an illusion, a great big illusion. You automatically have to succumb to the illusion that ‘I am this body.’ I am not George. I am not really George. I am this living thing that goes on, always has been, always will be, but at this time I happen to be in ‘this’ body.”
— George Harrison, I, Me, Mine
This means…
“Our real identity lies not in our body, but in our spirit. ‘The Christ in you inhabits not a body,’ says the Course. Neither is another person’s body who they really are, either. The body is an illusionary wall that appears to separate us, the ego’s chief device in trying to convince us that we are separate from each other and separate from God.”
— Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love
Therefore…
“We are slowed down sound and light waves, a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos. We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.”
— Albert Einstein
Which means…
“My soul is the mirror of the universe, and my body is its frame.”
— Voltaire
Which also means…
“We are not these bodies, just souls having a bodily experience.”
— George Harrison
And…
“At the end of the day we're all spirits having a physical experience.”
— Mahershala Ali
Therefore, to spiritually evolve we must…
“Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.”
— Wayne Dyer
Because ultimately…
“Each of us has a soul, but we forget to value it. We don't remember that we are creatures made in the image of God. We don't understand the great secrets hidden inside of us.”
— Saint Teresa of Avila
Therefore…
“We aren't bodies at all, who we are is the love inside us, and it is that love alone that determines our value.”
— Marianne Williamson
Which means…
“Who I am inside determines how I feel about my body instead of the other way around.”
— Alanis Morissette
And…
“Beauty is the enemy. We try to conquer not feeling beautiful all our lives. It's a battle that can't be won. There's no definition of beauty. The only way to achieve beauty is to feel it from inside without breaking down into individual physical attributes.”
— Miley Cyrus
Therefore…
“I am beautiful no matter what they say…”
— Christina Aguilera, Beautiful (lyrics)
Anyone else?
“You can’t find beauty around you when you don’t find it inside.”
— Paul Stanley, Face the Music: A Life Exposed
“I sincerely feel that beauty largely comes from within.”
— Christy Turlington
“Beauty comes from within – It shines through our eyes, the mirrors of the soul.”
— Pamela Anderson, Open Journal
“Beauty fades. Your spirit is forever.”
— Beyoncé
“Give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and inward may be one.”
— Socrates
“Everyone deserves to believe they are beautiful.”
— John Lennon
So, in conclusion, pertaining to our bodies and this spiritual movement…
“When your separated self whispers to you, ‘Your body is but a fact,’ all you need tell yourself is, ‘I am still willing to believe otherwise.’”
— Mari Perron, A Course of Love
What we all must understand to create Heaven on Earth is that we are not our bodies.
Like everything in our Earthly existence, the body is merely matter—which makes it an illusion, existing exclusively in the world of form, where we experience our separated self in the dimension of duality as “I” or “me.”
However, the body is different from the rest of our perceived physical existence because our true Self—our spirit—resides within it. That’s it.
This still means we are not our bodies, but spirit (consciousness) experiencing the illusionary physical aspects of a body.
And like the illusion of time and matter, the perception of our bodies can feel very influential and all-powerful. We experience pleasure and pain, form self-perceived images, and witness fragility and aging. Because of this, the experience of our bodies in the world of form can become all-consuming.
As long as we collectively identify primarily as bodies, absorbed in physical existence, we will never create Heaven on Earth.
Ultimately, our bodies play a major role in the illusion of separation—but they don’t have to. In time, we will consciously evolve to believe otherwise: that we are not our bodies, but the spirit that resides within, where the kingdom of Heaven infinitely exists.
Through coordinated and collective spiritual practices that emphasize spirit over form, we will learn to move beyond identifying with the physical body and begin to identify with spirit—where our true, eternal beauty resides.
And in that realization, words can’t bring us down.