“A question is meant as a limit on love – whatever the question.”
D: Doug;
N: Nieca;
D: We are wanting to solve at the level of form, even while remembering there is no solution there. Solving through form reflects the wrong teacher (because it’s us trying to figure out what to do, instead of asking “which teacher am I choosing?”) Ego can only offer us the problem and a pseudo solution – ego can never offer us peace. Pleasure and pain have the same purpose – whether we like ‘it’ or not is irrelevant … what is relevant is which teacher we look with (at what we like or don’t like.)
We think the body is the problem (it’s getting old, it’s too fat, it’s going to die.) This is what we want to work with – to take that problem to Jesus, and say “I’m giving this over as a problem. I’m not looking for a magical solution.” I’m just listening… not asking how to feel better in my body. I’m just listening with an open mind – not with a question. A question is meant as a limit on love – whatever the question. Asking how to lose weight is telling Jesus what my problem is and what needs to be solved.
N: It’s a statement, a demand.
D: It’s often a statement or a demand posing as a question.
Regarding your ‘to do’ list … you don’t have to fight against the list. You give that up if you’re ready. Give that list to Jesus as a sign that you won’t put that ‘to do’ list between him and you; that you’d rather listen to him than have help with your list. His Answer is the experience of God’s love that informs the answers to all of our specific questions. If your mind is comfortable and at peace, what difference does it make how far you get along your to-do list?
When you and I problem-solve, we join at the level of mind – and we teach ourselves to do this by seeing shared interests rather than separate interests. We do this with each other first (in this special relationship), and then extend it out to others (generalizing it) – both being forms of practice for us.
The love we share is a symbol of the reflection of God’s Love if we are right-minded. How readily we confuse symbol with source! You symbolize love for me in a form that’s perfectly acceptable for me. The fear of losing you, our special relationship – is sticky for me. I want to cling to the form and experience, rather than recognize that the form and experience are just reflections of the love that’s always available. I don’t have to hold onto you to hold onto Love! How I interfere with love is by deciding it has to be in a particular form – it’s how I place a limit on Love because it’s now embodied in you (as if it could be embodied!)
I know that the loss of my mother’s body was not the loss of my mother’s love. You and my mom are intertwined in my mind – because I make that transference so readily in terms of how you come through my filters. The fear is that I could lose love … which makes loss real for me. By holding that fear, I keep fear alive. The ego likes this – because it’s all about form and specialness bargains.
N: We attach ourselves to a form. We become attached to avoiding it or acquiring it.
D: Yes. That is why Jesus spares no ink in his course helping us make a clear distinction between form and content. Form always refers to the level of illusion. This is the world our body’s senses report and includes the body and it’s brain. Content, conversely, always refers to what transpires at the level of mind. Jesus makes it very clear that the mind is where all the power is.