True Love is Seeing Beyond the Body

I am not a body. I am free.

                              - A Course in Miracles

One of the most profound lessons I have learnt by becoming a mother is that we really are not our bodies.

Although I had already studied this concept – and tried to take it in and experience it – I only really knew it to be true when I became pregnant both times with my children.

I already had a very strong sense of the other end of things. I have felt my grandmother with me very strongly always. She died when I was only very tiny and yet I have always felt a very real and tangible connection with her.

But being pregnant and knowing the souls who were preparing to come into this experience and into their bodies was my real learning ground.

I didn’t consciously try to experience this. It was as simple and obvious as having a cup of tea with somebody and just absolutely knowing them – who they are, what they stand for, what their character is.

With my son, I even had a dream very early on and awoke just knowing that I had met him in his late teens. He was a beautiful young man and, when I look at him as a two-year-old right now, I can see that I did indeed meet him. I came into contact with the essence of who he is in a way that my mind could understand and connect with.

Now the really important thing for me about learning this truth ties in with the nature of love and loving those around us.

Because when we understand that we are not our bodies, we can really learn to love and see others. And to really see somebody is to see their essence - the true part of them that exists beyond the personality, self-concepts, what they say and do - beyond what presents itself to us on the surface.

We are here for the purpose of loving and being happy and sharing our love with others.

We come into bodies to learn and we choose how it will be and what our curriculum is.

To love somebody from this foundation is the only way to truly love.

Because true love recognizes our oneness with another, not our separateness. Realising that we are not our bodies - and connecting with each other's essence - is the first step on this journey.