The Weird Associaton of God With Death
Any discussion of death is really pointless because it is about the individual self, which doesn’t exist. How can one meaningfully answer what happens to what isn’t real when something equally unreal happens to it?
Actually, the individual self – the body/ego -- is death because it doesn’t exist. And because it was made to represent the death of God. The body/ego is supposed to be the “proof” that God has been overcome, and the inevitable “death” of the body is supposed to be the ultimate proof of this. So when you identify with the body/ego you are identifying with death.
However, even some experienced students of the Course seem to think the only way to reach God is through the “death” of the body. This despite the Course emphasizing throughout that you are in God now and 365 lessons teaching you how to reach an awareness of this! Every student at some point asks, “Why don’t I just kill myself and go back to God?” Think what they are saying: They can reach God only if they destroy the body. They are saying the body is real and powerful – so powerful it can keep the awareness of God from them.
Other students have indicated to me that they are waiting for “death” to be with God again. Not only are they saying, again, that it is the body that is holding them back from God, but that they assume they will awaken to God at the moment of the body’s destruction. If they cannot accept God now, what makes them think they will when the body is destroyed? Why, if we are automatically back in God at the moment of the body’s destruction, would we need A Course in Miracles or any other teaching to lead us to awakening? Why wouldn’t God just wait for us to destroy our bodies if our awakening at that moment was inevitable?
Behind these ideas is the fear of God right now, and the unwillingness to accept that you have made the body/ego and that you can put it aside – right now. It has no power over you; it exists only in your mind. If you choose to awaken right now, your body/ego would simply become a communication device to help you bring awakening to other minds. And when you were done with it, it wouldn’t die of injury or illness or old age. You would simply put it aside.
The awareness that the individual self is not real is the end of death and the way to awaken to Life. There is no part of God that dies and anything that can be destroyed or put aside is not part of God -- and therefore is not real. There are no individual spirits, but One Spirit. Each who puts aside individuality and chooses to awaken remembers this One Spirit and knows it in everyone and for everyone. And those who choose to not awaken delay the full awakening of the Part of God Which dreams. This instant and every instant you are deciding if the Son of God awakens or continues to dream.
www.acimmentor.com
Actually, the individual self – the body/ego -- is death because it doesn’t exist. And because it was made to represent the death of God. The body/ego is supposed to be the “proof” that God has been overcome, and the inevitable “death” of the body is supposed to be the ultimate proof of this. So when you identify with the body/ego you are identifying with death.
However, even some experienced students of the Course seem to think the only way to reach God is through the “death” of the body. This despite the Course emphasizing throughout that you are in God now and 365 lessons teaching you how to reach an awareness of this! Every student at some point asks, “Why don’t I just kill myself and go back to God?” Think what they are saying: They can reach God only if they destroy the body. They are saying the body is real and powerful – so powerful it can keep the awareness of God from them.
Other students have indicated to me that they are waiting for “death” to be with God again. Not only are they saying, again, that it is the body that is holding them back from God, but that they assume they will awaken to God at the moment of the body’s destruction. If they cannot accept God now, what makes them think they will when the body is destroyed? Why, if we are automatically back in God at the moment of the body’s destruction, would we need A Course in Miracles or any other teaching to lead us to awakening? Why wouldn’t God just wait for us to destroy our bodies if our awakening at that moment was inevitable?
Behind these ideas is the fear of God right now, and the unwillingness to accept that you have made the body/ego and that you can put it aside – right now. It has no power over you; it exists only in your mind. If you choose to awaken right now, your body/ego would simply become a communication device to help you bring awakening to other minds. And when you were done with it, it wouldn’t die of injury or illness or old age. You would simply put it aside.
The awareness that the individual self is not real is the end of death and the way to awaken to Life. There is no part of God that dies and anything that can be destroyed or put aside is not part of God -- and therefore is not real. There are no individual spirits, but One Spirit. Each who puts aside individuality and chooses to awaken remembers this One Spirit and knows it in everyone and for everyone. And those who choose to not awaken delay the full awakening of the Part of God Which dreams. This instant and every instant you are deciding if the Son of God awakens or continues to dream.
www.acimmentor.com
Comments
I must be doing something wrong because I just cannot deal any more and nothing is working. Seems the harder I try, just makes things beyond hard. Can I just die and get another try? Something.
It sounds like you may be clinically depressed and you should seek professional help. If you cannot afford a therapist, there should be a mental health center in your area that can work with what you can afford. Please seek help as soon as possible. It is not a fact that life is hard, only a perception and you can change that.
Thanks for this article. It was very clear. I have been studying ACIM intensely for the past 5 years and the hardest thing for me has been dissociating myself from the body (in a positive sense).
My husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer at age 48. When I asked him how he felt about the news he said 'it will solve a lot of problems.' Later he expanded on those problems; the failure of his marriage (it was anything but a failure but we did have a lot of conflict), the problems with his family (he hadn't been talking to 2 of his 3 sisters and his mother at the time of his diagnosis) and the negativity of being male.
He did allow his mother back into his life when he was dying but they fought just as hard as ever literally to his last conscious moments. 2 1/2 years after his death I had a visitation in which he pleaded with me to go and see his mother because she wasn't letting go of him.
As you can imagine, I had a lot to deal with following his death but thank God I was led to ACIM. When I read 'the world is not left by death but by truth,' I just knew this was my way out of my own deep pain. I'd had suicidal thoughts all of my life and always held it in the back of my mind as a way out when things got too unbearable.
My father had deserted the family when I was 5 and committed suicide when his whereabouts became known 15 years later. My mother had suffered recurrent nervous breakdowns after his departure. So I didn't have good role modelling for dealing with life's problems.
I really understand Anonymous's predicament and I hope s/he took your advice. There really is no point in killing the body although it is a perfectly understandable response by someone who feels so disconnected from who they really are.
Could you please explain a little more about how the ego/body is only in the mind?
I understand how the ego thought system is in the mind but I don't understand how the body is in the mind as well. I'd love to have this confusion cleared up because it's been bothering me for a long time and haven't been able to find an answer to satisfy me.