In this video recording of a class (shared in one of the ongoing School For A Course In Miracles – SFACIM classes graciously hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise) we read and talked about Is Reincarnation So? (ACIM, M-24) from the Manual for Teachers of A Course In Miracles.
We may seem to re-incarcerate (reincarnate) about 10^44 times per second (that’s 1 with 44 zeroes after it!), daily, and perhaps about once a century; not one of these hallucinations is true! This elegant video animation of morphing faces is one of countless examples of how the form changes, yet the underlying content remains the same, at least from the perspective of pure non-dual metaphysics. We appear to inhabit countless forms – not even counting the physical garb, psychological masks, and personal surroundings that form the ever-changing backdrops of our ever-transforming dreams of individuality.
We voluntarily left perfect peace to engage in the “sturm und drang” (stormy drama) of being (or seeming to exist) in bodies … and the soundtrack of every body (regardless of the specifics) is ego’s battle cry designed to replace our Inner Kindness Teacher’s gentle, patient, kind, reassuring neutral response to all dream hero action figure stories with the calm (Bill Murray mantra) … “It just doesn’t matter” To egos, every bodily insult – the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune shout “It DOES matter, dammit!” … to which our Inner Kindness Teacher (outside the dream of space and time) gently, patiently smiles, awaiting our awakening from dreams of bodies, lifetimes, and specifics spawned from the crazy notion that we could be apart from Perfect Oneness. Non-duality looks at the misunderstanding of duality and sees a neutral nothing in every apparent incarnation of somethings and somebodies.
There are 895 (almost 900!) instances of “body” in ACIM. The Course refers to the body – the “poster child” instrument of separation, projection, and incarnation as completely neutral from the perspective of eternity, since anything that changes (from quarks to quasars, gluons to galaxies and certainly every (silly seemingly separate self) in bodily form cannot be regarded as real or of lasting value. Here are a few of these 895 references that refer to our vehicles of incarnation as engines of destruction, need machines, fences, guardians against Love, and many more descriptions that reveal the unworthiness of these ephemeral forms for our unlimited minds, merely having dreadful dreams of division.
“These eyes, made not to see, will never see. ²For the idea they represent left not its maker, and it is their maker that sees through them. ³What was its maker’s goal but not to see? ⁴For this the body’s eyes are perfect means, but not for seeing. ⁵See how the body’s eyes rest on externals and cannot go beyond. ⁶Watch how they stop at nothingness, unable to go beyond the form to meaning. ⁷Nothing so blinding as perception of form. ⁸For sight of form means understanding has been obscured.” (ACIM, T-22.III.6:1-8)
“Salvation does not ask that you behold the spirit and perceive the body not. ²It merely asks that this should be your choice. ³For you can see the body without help, but do not understand how to behold a world apart from it. ⁴It is your world salvation will undo, and let you see another world your eyes could never find.” (ACIM, T-31.VI.3:1-4)
“At no single instant does the body exist at all. ²It is always remembered or anticipated, but never experienced just now. ³Only its past and future make it seem real. ⁴Time controls it entirely, for sin is never wholly in the present. ⁵In any single instant the attraction of guilt would be experienced as pain and nothing else, and would be avoided. ⁶It has no attraction now. ⁷Its whole attraction is imaginary, and therefore must be thought of in the past or in the future.” (ACIM, T-18.VII.3:1-7)
“The body cannot know. ²And while you limit your awareness to its tiny senses, you will not see the grandeur that surrounds you. ³God cannot come into a body, nor can you join Him there. ⁴Limits on love will always seem to shut Him out, and keep you apart from Him. ⁵The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea. ⁶It draws a circle, infinitely small, around a very little segment of Heaven, splintered from the whole, proclaiming that within it is your kingdom, where God can enter not.” (ACIM, T-18.VIII.2:1-6)
“The Holy Spirit guarantees that what God willed and gave you shall be yours. ²This is your purpose now, and the vision that makes it yours is ready to be given. ³You have the vision that enables you to see the body not. ⁴And as you look upon your brother, you will see an altar to your Father, holy as Heaven, glowing with radiant purity and sparkling with the shining lilies you laid upon it. ⁵What can you value more than this? ⁶Why do you think the body is a better home, a safer shelter for God’s Son? ⁷Why would you rather look on it than on the truth? ⁸How can the engine of destruction be preferred, and chosen to replace the holy home the Holy Spirit offers, where He will dwell with you?” (ACIM, T-20.VIII.4:1-8)
Further insights into the body which reflects our attempt to carve a self out of Unity are in What Is the Body? (ACIM, W-pII.5)
Here are the first 3 paragraphs of Is Reincarnation So? (ACIM, M-24):
“1. In the ultimate sense, reincarnation is impossible. ²There is no past or future, and the idea of birth into a body has no meaning either once or many times. ³Reincarnation cannot, then, be true in any real sense. ⁴Our only question should be, “Is the concept helpful?” ⁵And that depends, of course, on what it is used for. ⁶If it is used to strengthen the recognition of the eternal nature of life, it is helpful indeed. ⁷Is any other question about it really useful in lighting up the way? ⁸Like many other beliefs, it can be bitterly misused. ⁹At least, such misuse offers preoccupation and perhaps pride in the past. ¹⁰At worst, it induces inertia in the present. ¹¹In between, many kinds of folly are possible.
2. Reincarnation would not, under any circumstances, be the problem to be dealt with now. ²If it were responsible for some of the difficulties the individual faces now, his task would still be only to escape from them now. ³If he is laying the groundwork for a future life, he can still work out his salvation only now. ⁴To some, there may be comfort in the concept, and if it heartens them its value is self-evident. ⁵It is certain, however, that the way to salvation can be found by those who believe in reincarnation and by those who do not. ⁶The idea cannot, therefore, be regarded as essential to the curriculum. ⁷There is always some risk in seeing the present in terms of the past. ⁸There is always some good in any thought which strengthens the idea that life and the body are not the same.
3. For our purposes, it would not be helpful to take any definite stand on reincarnation. ²A teacher of God should be as helpful to those who believe in it as to those who do not. ³If a definite stand were required of him, it would merely limit his usefulness, as well as his own decision making. ⁴Our course is not concerned with any concept that is not acceptable to anyone, regardless of his formal beliefs. ⁵His ego will be enough for him to cope with, and it is not the part of wisdom to add sectarian controversies to his burdens. ⁶Nor would there be an advantage in his premature acceptance of the course merely because it advocates a long-held belief of his own.”
In the first sentence of the third paragraph – “For our purposes, it would not be helpful to take any definite stand on reincarnation.” – we’re reminded that it’s not a good idea to stand on quicksand, let alone build a house there!
In the (Christian, King James) Bible we find “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matthew [6:34] … ACIM’s correction might be: Don’t obsess over future (fear) or past (dreams of sin) by imprisoning the present with guilt. We don’t need to rent a backhoe to dig up prior projections; we’ve got plenty of ego left to look at and forgive right now! While the topic of reincarnation may be fascinating and/or fashionable at times, our escape from the tyranny of our self-made need machine is always achieved NOW by listening to our Inner Kindness Teacher’s correction for ego’s condemning use for our body and what we project onto every other body, regardless of time or place. Again:
“⁵His ego will be enough for him to cope with …” (M-24.3:5)
We have plenty of special love/hate relationship forgiveness lessons to keep us busy in our present everyday lives – including the current accelerating celebrity culture that elevates and lowers specific figures in an ever-shifting landscape of heroes and villains – without adding past life “real” or imagined superstars to the mix. Does is really matter if you or I were Cleopatra or Cinderella, Genghis Khan or Goofy in a past life when the important question is what thought system am I choosing right now in this very moment? ACIM leads us away from celebrity culture and toward the Calm of Creation.
The teacher of God is, therefore, wise to step away from all such questions, for he has much to teach and learn apart from them (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/839#4:4 | M-24.4:4) … Step away from that thought system (vehicle for making a big deal out of differences among illusory distinctions such as glamorous or hideous) and no ONE will get hurt.
“The ego cannot oppose the laws of God any more than you can, but it can interpret them according to what it wants, just as you can. ²That is why the question, “What do you want?” must be answered. ³You are answering it every minute and every second, and each moment of decision is a judgment that is anything but ineffectual. ⁴Its effects will follow automatically until the decision is changed. ⁵Remember, though, that the alternatives themselves are unalterable. ⁶The Holy Spirit, like the ego, is a decision. ⁷Together they constitute all the alternatives the mind can accept and obey. ⁸The Holy Spirit and the ego are the only choices open to you. ⁹God created one, and so you cannot eradicate it. ¹⁰You made the other, and so you can. ¹¹Only what God creates is irreversible and unchangeable. ¹²What you made can always be changed because, when you do not think like God, you are not really thinking at all.” (ACIM, T-5.V.6:1-12)
In software engineering, computer programs typically have a “main event” loop process that looks for new input and then responds according to the values and instructions the programmer gives it. From the point of view of ACIM’s non-dual metaphysics, we’re either running an endless ego loop of looking at our current (past) life from the perspective of the insane ever-condemning thought system of making differences important to reinforce the belief in separation and therefore unconscious guilt for believing this was accomplished (shattering Perfect Oneness in a colossal dream) – or the Holy Spirit’s loop of looking at every specific from the perspective of the sane ever-forgiving thought system of making sameness important, elevating this compassionate truth above the desire for war. With these loop metaphors, we’re either reincarcerating ourselves (over and over and over again) as long as we’re running ego’s malware operating system … or we can (at any moment) hit the inner reset button to abort ego and jump to Holy Spirit’s operating of forgiveness and use that reinforcing loop instead. We do this way more often than we realize!
“4. To you who still believe you live in time and know not it is gone, the Holy Spirit still guides you through the infinitely small and senseless maze you still perceive in time, though it has long since gone. ²You think you live in what is past. ³Each thing you look upon you saw but for an instant, long ago, before its unreality gave way to truth. ⁴Not one illusion still remains unanswered in your mind. ⁵Uncertainty was brought to certainty so long ago that it is hard indeed to hold it to your heart, as if it were before you still.
5. The tiny instant you would keep and make eternal, passed away in Heaven too soon for anything to notice it had come. ²What disappeared too quickly to affect the simple knowledge of the Son of God can hardly still be there, for you to choose to be your teacher. ³Only in the past,—an ancient past, too short to make a world in answer to creation,—did this world appear to rise. ⁴So very long ago, for such a tiny interval of time, that not one note in Heaven’s song was missed. ⁵Yet in each unforgiving act or thought, in every judgment and in all belief in sin, is that one instant still called back, as if it could be made again in time. ⁶You keep an ancient memory before your eyes. ⁷And he who lives in memories alone is unaware of where he is.”
(ACIM, T-26.V.4:1–5:7)
Have you ever used the phrase “in a past life, I was …” referring to something you did in “this lifetime” but it seems so long ago, it now feels like antiquity? I’ve used this phrase {implying re-incarnation) in conversations where the words following that phrase included a variety of occupations and experiences such as sacred geometry author and blogger, TV repair technician, video broadcast industry hardware and software engineer, concert venue volunteer, process improvement consultant, new age networker, Macintosh user group newsletter editor, geodesic dome owner/builder, electronic music analog synthesizer builder, adult school instructor, community and public radio disc jockey, licensed private pilot, 3rd degree Freemason, photographer, artist, world traveler, pyramidologist, etc. (OK, I’ll stop!) You probably have a vastly different but equally lengthy list! Reviewing a few of these, I’m reminded how I’ve been identified with these roles – incarnations if you will – and used them both to connect my identity to others (in my saner moments) and admittedly in many more insane moments to maintain a disconnected identity. If we use our “past lives” as idols or symbols of special love (and the inevitable special hate) we’re missing the golden opportunity to re-purpose our current – or past that we’ve dragged into the present – experience for true forgiveness.
In the video of the class conversation below, we ran out of time and didn’t really get to the intended topics:
Are “Psychic” Powers Desirable? (ACIM, M-25) and Can God Be Reached Directly? (ACIM, M-26)
My “elevator speech” response to the first rhetorical question would be the same response that is implied throughout ACIM: It all depends on which of the only two teachers we engage with while doing anything in this world.
My response (at the end of the video in this post, with a very big grin*) to the other lesson’s rhetorical question was that there’s a toll-free number that Tim might want to email to the participants in the conversation.
* I’m using “very big grin” to replace the smiley face comprised of colon-dash-right-parenthesis I used to use frequently until I discovered that WordPress was expanding that emoticon into a ginormous yellow smiling disc!
… and thanks to Javiera for reminding us that carne is Spanish for meat; why would we want to keep trying to put Spirit into meat over and over again!? ¡Muy loco!
This video was recorded on March 20, 2023.
(I highly recommend Lyn and Tim’s almost daily SFACIM zoom classes!)
Related book recommendation which complements the topic of reincarnation – particularly the first part which details the lives of Jesus, Buddha and Mary Magdalene and how they followed Holy Spirit to go through and beyond bodily identification via the shared interest of waking up from the dream – just as we are doing now!
