Flesh or Spirit?

 You see the flesh or recognize the spirit.  There is no compromise between the two.  If one is real the other must be false, for what is real denies its opposite.  ...On this one choice does all your world depend, for here have you established what you are, as flesh or spirit in your own belief. If you choose flesh, you never will escape the body, as your own reality, for you have chosen that you want it so.  But choose the spirit , and all of Heaven bends to touch your eyes and bless your holy sight, that you may see the world of flesh no more except to heal and comfort and to bless. 

ACIM Chapter 31: VI:1:1-8

These are beautiful words.  They follow the poetic passage that Eckhart Tolle recited a few days ago( see entry for Thursday). These words above drew me in more than that passage he recited did.  I read along with Tolle from my beat up and heavily underlined and side noted version of ACIM and my eyes were pulled  down the page to "You see the flesh or recognize the spirit." I knew I had to come back to them.

What is Spirit?

So we have a choice of what we can focus our consciousness on when we think of who we are: the flesh...the separate little body with its overactive and problematic  personal mind or that which lay beneath it: what the Course calls "Spirit". What is spirit?  Right away, many of us have that tendency toward resistance when we hear that word "Spirit" , don't we? It draws up connotations of "woo-woo" mystical stuff like ghosts in the attic we try to contact  or that which only the truly enlightened understand.  But spirit is just a word...it points to what is unseen, what is powerful, what is not understood and that which moves all...does it not? To me, spirit is simply the essence energy of who we are beneath these forms we are in, which is pure consciousness.  It is not something one can find on dissection of the human body but that does not mean, because it lacks material form, that it is not 'real'.  You know thoughts and feelings are real ...do you not?  They cannot be found on dissection of the human body either. So just because we cannot "see" something with our limited human vision ...doesn't mean it isn't real.  We need to look at the word" spirit" with open but practical eyes. 

The Choice

So when we think of Self we can either "see" the  flesh, which can be observed with our human eyes, or we can recognize the spirit, which cannot be seen with human eyes. We can continue to focus on that which is limited but easier to focus on because it has materiality, or we can focus on that which we cannot "see" but we "know" is there on blind faith. If I focus all my attention on the flesh and things desired by the flesh I may not recognize that which exists beneath the flesh.  The Course goes on to say, "There is no compromise." It has to be one or the other.  Our consciousness needs to remove its attention off the body and its worldly needs if it wants to recognize Itself. 

What is Real Denies Its Opposite

When we are so absorbed in materiality, including the body and its needs, we will deny the reality of spirit.  (Ask a scientist if spirit is real). If we put all our attention on the unseen essence of who we are...we will deny the reality of the body. (Ask an enlightened yogi if the  body is real). 

Our World Becomes That Which We Choose to Look Upon.

Now, if I focus all my conscious attention on "me" as a body in  the material world...my world is going to be challenging...full of unpredictability and change as I grasp and cling to whatever might make me feel a bit okay inside, a little more stable amidst the flux.  The body in this view separates us from one and other, from our Source, leaving us to feel alone, vulnerable,  and at the mercy of everything else out there in this material world. When I choose to see the world through the body I am going to be full of fear and resistance to what is. I am going to be "stuck" here in this almost 'hellish'  world of form.

On the other hand, if I choose to see Spirit...to focus my conscious attention on the non material nature of Self...then I will be freed by Heaven's Grace.  ( Again Heaven and Hell are just words...concepts ...pointers, okay?) The world I look upon will be "blessed" because my vision is "blessed" with the clarity of Heaven ( pure consciousness). It is love we find through this perception, not fear.

How we view the world is based on how we see ourselves. Let's rephrase that: It is based on how we choose to see ourselves. It is not so much about not seeing the body,  but the willingness to see beyond the body...to recognize that we are more than body, that who we are will remain after the body is gone and that there is a greater way to view the world than through the body's eyes. The Course goes on to say: 

Are you a body? So is all the world perceived as treacherous and out to kill. Are you a spirit, deathless, and without the promise of corruption or the stain of sin upon you? So the world is seen as stable, fully worthy of your trust; a happy place to rest in for a while, where nothing need be feared, but only loved.  ACIM Ch 31: VI: 5:5-8

We were given the will to choose which version of the world we will look upon  and which eyes we see through: the body's or spirit's. What do you choose?

All is well.