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201 (2006) 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.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: Whew. That's a lot of repetition, JC.
JC: Well, you may have noticed how quickly you forget.
MT: So that's my mantra for the next 20 days. I call these the sandwich lessons.
JC: But in this case, the meat is on the outside, the bread in the middle. If you really learned this one lesson, you would know them all: you are not a body. Everything I say in thousands of pages is meant to break the identification with your body, and to allow Spirit to soar.
MT: I don't know what else to write. Please work your magic.
JC: It's not magic. I work miracles.
MT: OK, JC. Work a miracle here.
JC: I love you. God loves you. I think you are feeling quite unlovable right now, and there is no need. You gain nothing by setting yourself apart from God, so come back where you belong.
MT: I get irritated at the repetition.
JC: You mean, the repetition irritates your ego. Your Self would like nothing better than to undo all the changes the ego has tried to make, and to go back to the original state: to be as God created you. To be free again. To be Spirit. But your ego is threatened.
MT: What about the bread in the middle: I trust my brothers, who are one with me?
JC: If you are one, you trust. If you trust, you are one.
MT: There's naive trust, based on denial, and there's real trust, based on oneness. Real trust dips into the awareness of God's presence in all of us.
JC: I couldn't have said it any better.

202 (2006) 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.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: I want to go to bed, that's what. JC, remind me of God's love. I feel stuck on this plane, with all its pain and ugliness. I need beauty and cheer. I need a different way to see this situation.
JC: Let me hold your hand, your beautiful hand that has served you well all these years.
MT: I feel like a good cry, JC.
JC: My shoulder is here, all yours! You are sad. . .
MT: It's hard for me to receive love. That's where the tears are--that someone might take the time to hug and comfort me. I've always had to be the strong one. Such a promise, to "be still an instant and go home"! I want to go home to God. The love on this plane, it comes and goes. People are busy. They have agendas, and they are needy themselves.
JC: But, to "be still and instant and go home" happens moment by moment. You don't need to wait for the death of the body. You can be there right now. It is something that happens between you and God.
MT: I will be still an instant and go home. Thank you, JC.

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.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

Here is the Course in a few words. I will be still an instant and go home. There is truth and beauty, comfort and safety in them. How I have longed to go home! I thought death might take me there, because here I could not find peace. But you walk with me, JC, wherever I go, whatever I do. I just didn't know how true that was, how beautiful, comforting and safe.

As the day dawns, let me be still an instant and go home. In the noonday sun, let me be still an instant and go home. As the day ends and tender night envelops all things of Earth, let me be still an instant and go home. I have not changed. I am still as God created me.

203 (2006) 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.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: Good morning, JC. I feel terrible this morning. I can see how one might
die from a toothache--after all, the infection has no way to drain.
JC: I know you will be seeing the dentist today. It is time.
MT: How did I bring this upon myself? What lessons has Spirit to offer me?
JC: That you are not this body. That no matter what goes on in the body,
Spirit can soar.
MT: But I'm angry. I am angry at the pain. Angry at God. I don't like
feeling this way. I want the pain to go away.
JC: Medical science has built a universe of procedures, potions, and pills
around the human longing to banish pain. What medicine does not do is to
acknowledge the source of the pain, so medicine can never really heal.
MT: This is hard, JC. I'm so used to regarding pain as punishment, God as
the Avenging Angel with a sword, the body my only reality.
JC: And the God I brought back into your life? The loving, all-giving God,
the Presence you are reminded of, when you see that drop of dew reflecting
the light of dawn? The silence that is sweeter than the tenderest music?
This is your reality. Everything else is a dream, and does not exist.

203 (2006) 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.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

>Think not He hears the little prayers of those who call on Him with names of idols cherished by the world.

MT: Let's see . . . I want peace, but I call on Botox. I want peace, but I call on the cardiologist. I want peace, but I call on the 8-gig Ipod, the new coffeeshop downtown, the latest movie release. You really hit me with this one, JC.
To fess up, there's this old habit I have of looking down on nuns who go around mumbling: "god, god, god". They are the superstitious ones, I the cool atheist. So I want to see this differently. I cannot do this lesson while condemning those who do this lesson!
JC: Remember the awesome feeling of the tropical forest. Remember the clear water of the creek you loved so well. Remember the silence of the woods. How can you not call on God, if God is who you are? This was made for you. Back off of the path made for someone else.
MT: So you are talking about a connection with Nature. Nature does seem as close to God as I get, while I reside in this body.
JC: Every living thing breathes God, is God. How could it move, evolve, change if it were not for the life that is God?
MT: The life that is God . . . the life that moves me, the life that I breathe. I call upon God's Name today.

204 (2006) I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
The name of God is my inheritance.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: The name of God is my inheritance. I am not one of the Tarziers, I am one of the Gods. God is my last name. I would be so easy to get all puffed up with this, JC. I can see doing so in my early days with the Course, and losing my way in a long ego detour.
JC: The antidote to hubris is to know: God is the Cause, we the effect. We are forever effects of God, and that is good. You can never be father to the Father.
MT: So I belong to a very aristocratic family that I did not create. It is a given. Family was there to begin with, I am the baby!
JC: A beloved offspring, doted on, a white lace crib your first bed.
MT: That's such a comforting image, JC. I've always felt like the surplus child--not quite dumped in the trash can, but not really welcome either. I felt like one more burden on my traumatized parents. I tried so hard to go light on them!
JC: So now you can replace this with the sweet memory of your God-family. You do not need to go light on God. There is enough love to go around, fill everybody's cup, and spill over the edges. It is a cornucopia of love, this God-family. We embrace you. You are wanted, loved, appreciated, for ever and ever.

205 I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
I want the peace of God.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: OK, JC, I wait for guidance. Suddenly I feel "done" with the Lessons. What shall I do now?
JC: The answer came to you yesterday: you need do nothing.
MT: Well . . . just go for a hike? Lurk in these groups I have made into my life and companionship?
JC: It is fine to lurk. It is not a problem.
MT: I feel so grateful, JC. Grateful that we finally put Bill to rest (or that he put himself to rest). Grateful that I was able to help my grandkids with their fears. Grateful that we've moved on, that there is change and evolution.
JC: Today you walk in gratitude. Today you let go of the need to "do" and answer the call to "be." Fill your body with the air the angels breathe. Enter the Father's house today.

205 (2006) I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
I want the peace of God.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: I have not changed over the eons of time. I am still as God created me, and I cannot be otherwise. Anything else is a dream, and does not exist. To want the peace of God above all things of Earth, that is my inescapable karma, written in stone. What else could I want, when the peace of God is everything?
JC: Are you trying to talk yourself into thinking this way?
MT: This is the lesson I want to learn. I buy into the illusion from time to time. Pretty much most of the time ; ) But you've installed a magnificent BS detector in my thinking! Even in the grip of an illusion, your voice talks to me: "what do you want that for? An instant, and it will be gone. The new car will get scratched, the big house will impress your friends, you will have impressed friends, and then what?" I am thankful for that. It's been quite an evolution, JC, this study of the Course.
JC: If you only take away, you become depressed. Now your task is to walk with God. To have the experience of God be a constant presence in your life, your ground of being. This is the new beginning you've been searching.

206 (2006) 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 not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: I feel quite a bit better now, with my magic pills. Don't knock magic pills, when they can ease human suffering.
JC: It is not a sin to take a magic pill, or ten, or twenty. It only delays the inevitable return to God. You don't need to ease suffering--your real need is to go beyond it, to a state where suffering is impossible. Where you are free, because you are in your God-nature.
MT: I worry a lot about human suffering. Such rivers of tears in the past century, and now, once again, men take up arms against each other. We didn't learn anything.
JC: Some have cursed God, the world, and themselves. Others used suffering as an opportunity to invite God in.
MT: What about your own suffering? I guess even then, as your body died, you sought to be an example for the rest of us.
JC: I didn't do it to be an example. It was the only way I could die. I was incapable of ego thoughts by then.
MT: I don't know what to say. Where shall we go with this difficult subject? It is so central to our Judeo-Christian heritage.
JC: Only this: suffering is of the ego. Suffering comes from fighting what is. Physical pain is a very different experience, when suffering is removed from it.

207 (2006) I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I bless the world because I bless myself. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: If my brothers and I are one, then to bless one is to bless all. So much for my belief in separate bodies. How could I, then, rip off my brother? How could I not share the glory of God's creation with one and all? The ego made up such a monstrosity. This is truly the Second Coming of Christ. You come back in everybody, JC--at least in all those who have ears to hear. Tell me, is this indeed so?
JC: How could it not be so? I tried to show you, in myriad ways, how ending the separation brings about the Second Coming. Not in one separate body, but spread out through the Sonship.
MT: It will be quite a task to crucify you this time, if your presence is spread out like you say!
JC: So today, remember: you are not a body. You have been freed. You are still (never were not) as God created you. Today, bless yourself so you can bless the world. The world needs the Christ, more so now than at any time in history.

208 (2006) 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 am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: Is it just a coincidence that when the lesson has me say, "I am not a body," my body acts up in a big way? Reminds me at every turn of its miserable existence?
JC: That's your ego acting up. Pay no attention to it.
MT: To some extent, I detach from the body. But only, I suspect, because I don't know what true detachment is. I can't control pain with my mind, for example. I reach for the ibuprofen.
JC: Pain is your ego screaming for attention. What do you do with a child that throws a temper tantrum?
MT: I send the child to time out.
JC: Should you do any less with your ego? Time out! The peace of God is shining in me now! I am free!
MT: Guess I haven't tried that. I give in to pain when it tells me the body is real. What a wimp I am.
JC: You have been much too indulgent with your ego, this much is true. What about now? Summon the peace of God, and it is yours. Strength and light are in you. They only need to be awakened. You do not need to crawl on the dirt as a snake does. You can soar with the eagles.
MT: Truth be told, I feel more like an earthworm. I want to dig into the soft dirt and hide.
JC: Perhaps it is time to dig in and hide. But do it because you want to, not because you are forced to. Do it from love, not shame, weakness, or sullen resentment.
MT: To change my mind about what is. . . that's so powerful.
JC: It will move heaven and earth.

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 am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: Peace? Shining?
JC: Yes, the Light of God shines in the darkest chambers. How could it not? The power you use to make darkness, and think you see in it, comes from God too.
MT: I want to be Spirit, JC. I want to let go of this way of seeing.
JC: The words say one thing, your actions say another. This is not an idle pursuit for spare moments. This wanting must be woven into the fabric of your days, the tapestry of your life.
MT: Well, I have immeasurably more tenderness toward myself than I did thirty years ago. For that I am thankful. It hurts to see my children stuck in places I inhabited so long ago, and to see my grandchildren building up the same structures of pain. But I am free--or freer than at any time past.
JC: Now you see that you cannot "save" others. Forgive their suffering, needless as it is. When you no longer project an aching world, the ache will be gone.
MT: My task is to extend peace, that peace be given me.

209 (2006) 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.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: I am grateful for your help yesterday. Things turned out fairly well. Thanks for relieving me of my old paranoia. I am able to join with medical staff, instead of fighting them. Big improvement. I summoned you, and you were there with me.
JC: As I said, I will never leave you comfortless.
MT: So, where am I at today? I'm ready to feel well. I am ready to be healthy--to get ready for the weekend, perhaps get back on my bike soon. Inactivity really bugs me. Now remind me of the love of God, please!
JC: I am by your side. I watch over you. Angels hover all about and brush your cheeks with their wings. You are God's Beloved. Your Family waits for your return Home with open arms and a table dressed with white linen, silver and crystal, heavy with the finest food. Know that you were always wanted, and that God Himself is incomplete without you.

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.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: I don't really feel the love of God within me now. It's only an idea, a possibility. Perhaps you can help!
JC: I am by your side. I watch over you. Angels hover all about and brush your cheeks with their wings. You are God's Beloved. Your Family waits for your return Home with open arms and a table dressed with white linen, silver and crystal, heavy with the finest food. Know that you were always wanted, and that God Himself is incomplete without you.
MT: God? Incomplete?
JC: You make God incomplete for yourself and your brothers, when you reject Oneness. It does not have an effects in the Real World, but it does have grievous effects in the world of perception. It is the misuse of the power bestowed on the Sonship by God Himself.
MT: So remind me again, JC.
JC: Look into the Light that is not of this world. Observe the luminescence of a single drop of water on a leaf. In it, all there is, is.

210 (2006) 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.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: I hate reviews.
JC: Feeling better, aren't you?
MT: Yes. Getting back to health. Now that I'm out of bed, it's back to the old dilemma: what to choose today. I used to see the world through my Dad's eyes, then I learned to see the world through my husband's eyes (or else!), and the last 25 years have schooled me to see the world through God's eyes. Or my own. It was easier to rely on another human being. If something went wrong, I could always blame him.
JC (quietly): There is no blame. The Son of God is free. And you do not need to choose alone, because I will choose with you. You never go alone.
MT: I choose with the ego, or I choose with God. It is really not a choice at all, when you look at it.
JC: Only God's plan for salvation will work. Other plans only derail you.
MT: Today I choose the joy of God. I will take with me Bobby McFerrin's song: "Don't worry. Be happy."
JC: And not from denial, but from trust. Today, choose the joy of God over pain. Rejoice over the smallest gifts.
MT: This is all about attitude, isn't it. The gifts of God are all around me, but my eyes have to be open to see them. Thank you, JC.

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.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

MT: Happiness is a choice. There is a book by that name.
JC: And so is pain. But in the ego world, both come unbidden from external circumstances. And so are you at the mercy of a world you did not make.
MT: I know it is so, but in the moment, I still forget.
JC: Thus, the call is to reconnect, daily, hourly. To ask for help. That is the only prayer: help me see this differently. You call on a power that is not the ego's.
MT: And the body? I do not know how to talk and walk and act without a body.
JC: Know the possibility, and pray to be shown. Offer a little willingness. That is all that is required.

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