OrEd-T-18.7-Dreams and the Body.2
56. Yet, leaving the body without my guilt upon it is the only way I can escape. The place I set aside to house my vengeance and hate is not a prison, only an illusion of myself. Universal communication, an eternal property of the mind, is limited by the body. The universal communication is internal. Mind reaches into itself within itself. There are no limits, and no outside. I am within mind, and mind is within me. There is nothing else.
57. The body seems to surround me, shutting me off from others, but the body is not there. Only in illusions can God's Son can be separated from himself and his Father. Though he believes in illusions, this is not his reality. This is not the way God created reality. There are no orders of reality in God's Creation. God did not put a barrier between Himself and me, and I cannot put a barrier around myself. And love must be forever like itself, changeless and without alternative forever. This is the truth.
58. Everyone has experienced a sense of being transported beyond himself. We who have begun to reach within, have begun to reach our shared Identity together. We are surrounded only by God, and there can be no limit on what He encompasses. This feeling of liberation far exceeds the dream of freedom sometimes experienced in special relationships. It is the sense of actual escape from limitations.
59. I will consider what this transportation really entails, and realize it is a sudden unawareness of the body. The mind enlarges to encompass something else as we join and become united. Both become whole as neither is perceived as separate. We give up the illusion of limited awareness and lose our fear of union. Love instantly replaces fear, extends to what has freed us, and unites with it. We are certain of our Identity, and have escaped from fear to peace, asking no questions, and merely accepting peace. By not letting the mind be limited by the body, we have accepted joining, Oneness, and peace.
60. This can occur regardless of the physical distance which seems to be between what I join and me, our respective positions in space, and our 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, sight, thought, memory, and even a general idea with no specific reference. Yet in every case, I joined it without reservation, because I love it and would be with it. And so I rush to meet it, letting my limits melt away, gently setting aside all the 'laws' my body obeys.
61. There is no violence at all in this escape. The body is not attacked, but simply properly perceived. It does not limit me, merely because I would not have it so. I am not 'lifted out' of the body. Only the body cannot contain me. I go where I would be, not losing, but gaining a sense of self. In these instants of release from physical restrictions, I experience much of what happens in the holy instant. There is the lifting of the barriers of time and space, the sudden experience of peace and joy, and above all, the lack of awareness of the body, and no questioning whether all this is possible.
62. This is the irresistible appeal of the holy instant, and is possible because I want it. With my desire for it, the sudden expansion of the self takes place. The holy instant calls to me to be myself within its safe embrace. There the limiting laws are lifted for me, and I am welcomed into freedom. I am willing to release the limits I placed on love, to join with love where it is, and answer the gentle call to be at peace.
Jesus invites me to this place of refuge, where, by a quiet 'melting in', I can be myself in peace.
