LESSON 10

Jesus tells us that this is the second time that this idea has been used. The first time was in Lesson 4. The only difference is a change from "These thoughts" to "my thoughts do not mean anything." In Lesson 4, we were told,  "This is a major exercise, and will be repeated from time to time in different form." (W.4.3.1) 
Why would this Lesson be so important? To address that question, we need to look at what is said in the text. If we look at Chapter 21, Introduction, we read that "Projection makes perception." (T.21.IN.1.1)(ACIM OE T.21.I.1)  This is a significant statement, but what exactly does it mean? To start, we need to see the connection between our thoughts and what we perceive. We think our thoughts are real, but Jesus tells us that our minds are actually blank. We are holding thoughts and ideas in our minds that are not real. They are meaningless thoughts projected out to show us a meaningless world. But we all believe that there is a real world outside of our minds that we can see with our eyes and experience with our senses. The world seems to reflect reality, yet we are told "The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. Though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition." (T.21.IN.1.2)(ACIM OE T.21.I.1) Thus, all that we are seeing in the world comes from our thoughts. They are not good or bad thoughts, only meaningless because they come from a false belief that we could be separate from God. This is important because it is the basis for forgiveness. If the world is not real, but only a projection of our thoughts, then we are not the victim of the world and we can change how we see it.
  
We project our meaningless thoughts out and now see them as what appear to us to be real images in a world that seems real to us. What starts in our minds as thoughts is actually the source of the images we see. We have it backward, because we think it is the world that acts on us and that we are innocent victims at its mercy. If I hold a thought that someone is hurting me by what they have said or done, then I am perceiving my own belief that I can be hurt, that my reality is that of a body, and that there is someone outside of my own mind that has power to hurt me. All of these beliefs are false. When given to the Holy Spirit for His interpretation, He reminds us that this seeming attack is a call for love from a brother. Nothing else is happening. It is much like our nighttime dreams where something real seems to be going on, but it is all coming from our minds. We only see the unreality of the dream when we wake up from it. In the same way, this is a world of illusion and it is not real. It is just our dream. We are holding a belief system about the world as being outside of our own thoughts, but it is simply a reflection of our thoughts.

What do we do when we are feeling distressed, troubled, unhappy about a situation in our lives? We try to make changes in the world don't we? We try to solve the problem by changing something "out there." Yet Jesus reminds,  "Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world." (T.21.IN.1.7)(ACIM OE T.21.I.1) Because we currently hold the belief that the world is separate from our thoughts, we try to work with the effects of our thoughts, but working with effects cannot bring real change. The only change that has meaning is to heal our misperceptions. We can only do that by seeing that what we are seeing is false. It has no meaning because it comes from a meaningless thought. We don't see that the cause of everything we see in the world is our own thoughts. We are asked to look at our thoughts without selection or judgment and remind ourselves that the thought about____ does not mean anything. Our minds are full of thoughts and ideas that don't mean anything. We are to try to look at these thoughts with no personal attachment. What this means is that the 'you' that is looking is not the one that is thinking the thoughts.
 
Apply this practice to "all the thoughts of which you are aware, or become aware in the practice periods." (W.10.1.1) Jesus tells us, "The reason the idea is applicable to all of them is that they are not your real thoughts." (W.10.1.2) What are our "real thoughts?" The thoughts that currently occupy our minds do seem like real thoughts, don't they? Yet we are told that there is no reality to what we think we think! Jesus says we don't really know our real thoughts. He says that we "have no basis for comparison as yet." (W.10.1.4) And we won't until we have some experience of our real thoughts behind the illusory thoughts that we are thinking. When we do have an experience of our real thoughts, he says we "will have no doubt that what you [we] once believed were your [our]  thoughts did not mean anything." (W.10.1.5) What we have assurance of, however, is that real thoughts are currently in our right mind while illusory thoughts come from our wrong mind, which is the part of the mind that has identified with the ego thought system of separation. The right mind is where the truth of what we are is hidden from us by our illusory thoughts. It is where the Holy Spirit waits for us to turn to Him for His reinterpretation of what we are currently thinking. What is wonderful is that we have the decision making power within us to change what we believe simply by bringing our false thoughts to the truth, and thus experience the miracle, where our false perceptions are shifted.
  
Does that mean that we deny what we see in the world as just an illusion? Definitely not, as that would just be a denial of what we currently believe. It only means that we look at our thoughts and be willing to acknowledge that they do not mean anything. Currently I am involved in addressing a difficult situation that seems to have no easy solution. Lawyers are involved and everything seems tenuous. What a tremendous opportunity for me to look at all of my obsessive concerns and all of my neurotic future projections as I remember that "My thought about [this situation] does not mean anything." (W.10.4.3) When I acknowledge that maybe there is another way to see this situation, I am willing to be shown. When I think that I know how to see this situation and what to do, I am using my own past experience to try to solve a problem in form that seems beyond solving. When I do that, I do not make way for the Holy Spirit to reinterpret how this situation can be used for healing my wrong perception. His purpose is that I might use every situation that shows up for me to see that I don't understand and can be shown another way. There is a miracle behind every problem that I perceive.

Today we search our minds for "all the thoughts that are available to you, without selection or judgment." (W.10.4.4) "You might imagine that you are watching an oddly assorted procession going by, which has little if any personal meaning to you." (W.10.4.6) We are practicing a kind of detachment here. We are simply witnessing our thoughts. We are told, "Try to avoid classification of any kind." (W.10.4.5) It matters only that I look at the thoughts and watch them pass by without any judgment. Who is it that is looking at thoughts that include odd assortments of worry, hatred, anger, jealousy, sadness, frustration, discomfort, fantasies, planning, anticipation, strategizing, discomfort or whatever? My mind may be chewing on a grievance against someone, strategizing how to get even, looking at how to fix a relationship, solve a problem, or a myriad of odd assortment of thoughts. When I step back to a place outside of this thinking mind, then I can join with Jesus or the Holy Spirit, or whatever the symbol of eternal love is for you, and watch the self that is doing this thinking. This thinker is just a character in the dream, but the aware mind behind the dream figure can step out of the dream and become the observer of this character that is thinking what it believes are meaningful thoughts. It is an important exercise because "This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe." (W.10.4.3) Incredible as that sounds, the basis for what I believe is that I have actually left the truth of who I am and separated from Love! It is my belief that I am now different and separate from you and everyone else and have a special, individual self that I call Sarah.

It is not an easy exercise, because our thoughts are so much on automatic pilot that we are not aware of them most of the time. And when we try to look at what we are thinking about, it can be difficult for the untrained mind to do.

If any of these exercises are a strain, we should then reduce the time to less than a minute. Just be aware of any resistance. It will be there! Try not to judge the thoughts that come up. It is helpful to recognize that they are not important, meaningful, good, bad, big, insignificant, beautiful, or tragic. They are nothing. When we categorize them and put judgment on them, we are believing that what is actually nothing, and means nothing, is indeed important and something. I find that if I am feeling particularly vengeful or angry, I judge myself for these kinds of thoughts and reactions. I think of them as bad thoughts. I then think of myself as not loving and not spiritual. Or I judge that some of my thoughts are meaningful and important. Based on those judgments, I think of myself as loving or spiritual, but we need to remind ourselves that it is important to look at all thoughts without judgment. Behind these thoughts is where the truth lies. Judging our thoughts simply makes them real and important. They are not!

The purpose of what we are doing in this exercise, is to recognize the blocks that are keeping our real thoughts away. These thoughts cover over the truth of who we are and also keep us from hearing guidance from the Holy Spirit. Our thoughts are what keep us from recognizing the Self that wants to reveal Its Self to us, yet we are afraid to know it. Who will I be without my thoughts, I may wonder? We have used all kinds of words and ideas about ourselves in constructing who we think we are. This self-concept that we have constructed, and the world that we think is real, is all that covers over the mystical, which we think we have lost. Yes, we have lost our way, but we can never change who we are as the Christ Self. This journey is about coming to awareness of this Self. We may be nervous about what it means to know the Self that we are, but that is just another meaningless thought.

The power is in us to do our part. No one can do it for us. As Jesus reminds us "You may still complain about fear, but you nevertheless persist in making yourself fearful. I have already indicated that you cannot ask me to release you from fear. I know it does not exist, but you do not. If I intervened between your thoughts and their results, I would be tampering with a basic law of cause and effect, the most fundamental law there is. I would hardly help you if I depreciated the power of your own thinking. This would be in direct opposition to the purpose of this course. It is much more helpful to remind you that you do not guard your thoughts carefully enough. You may feel at this point it would take a miracle to enable you to do this, which is perfectly true. You are not used to miracle-minded thinking, but you can be trained to think that way." (T.2.VII.1.)(ACIM OE T.2.V.93)
 
Love and blessings, Sarah

A Course in Miracles 

 

Chapter One

Introduction to Miracles

I. Principles of Miracles continued

44. ⁷¹ Miracles arise from a miraculous state of mind. By being one, this state of mind goes out to anyone, even without the awareness of the miracle worker himself. The impersonal nature of miracles is because the Atonement itself is one, uniting all creations with their Creator.

 

45. ⁷² The miracle is an expression of an inner awareness of Christ and the acceptance of His Atonement. The mind is then in a state of grace and naturally becomes gracious both to the host within and the stranger without. By bringing in the stranger, he becomes your brother.

 

46. ⁷³ A miracle is never lost. It touches many people you do not even know and sometimes produces undreamed of changes in forces of which you are not even aware. That is not your concern. The miracle will always bless you.

 

⁷⁴ The miracles you are not asked to perform have not lost their value. They are still expressions of your own state of grace, but the action aspect of the miracle should be Christ-controlled because of His complete awareness of the whole plan. The impersonal nature of miracle-mindedness ensures your grace, but only Christ is in a position to know where grace can be bestowed.

 

47. ⁷⁵ Miracle-mindedness means miracle-readiness. Readiness means that you should always keep your perceptions straight, so that you will always be ready, willing, and able. These are the essentials for "listen, learn, and do." You must be ready to listen, willing to learn, and able to do. Only the last is involuntary because it is the application of miracles which must be Christ-controlled. The other two, which are the voluntary aspects of miracle-mindedness, are up to you.

 

48. ⁷⁶ Awe is an inappropriate response to miracles.

⁷⁷ Revelation is literally unspeakable because it is an experience of unspeakable love. Awe should be reserved for revelation, to which it is perfectly and correctly applicable. It is not appropriate for miracles because a state of awe is worshipful. It implies that one of a lesser order stands before a greater one. This is the case only when a Soul stands before its Creator. Souls are perfect creations and experience awe only in the Presence of the Creator of perfection.

 

⁷⁸ The miracle, on the other hand, is a sign of love among equals. Equals cannot be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality. It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to me. An elder brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience and a reasonable amount of obedience for his greater wisdom. He is also entitled to love because he is a brother and also to devotion if he is devoted. It is only my devotion that entitles me to yours. There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from God. The main difference between us as yet is that I have nothing else. This leaves me in a state of true holiness, which is only a potential in you.

 

⁷⁹ "No man cometh unto the Father but by me" is among the most misunderstood statements in the Bible. It does not mean that I am in any way separate or different from you except in time, which does not really exist at all. Actually, the quotation is more meaningful if it is considered on a vertical rather than a horizontal axis. Regarded along the vertical, man stands below me and I stand below God. In the process of "rising up," I am higher. This is because, without me, the distance between God and man would be too great for you to encompass.

 

⁸⁰ I bridge the distance as an elder brother to man on the one hand and as a Son of God on the other. My devotion to my brothers has placed me in charge of the Sonship, which I can render complete only to the extent to which I can share it. This may appear to contradict the statement, "I and my Father are one," but there are still separate parts in the statement in recognition that the Father is greater. (The original statement was "are of one kind"). The Holy Spirit is the bringer of revelations. Revelations are indirectly inspired by me because I am close to the Holy Spirit and alert to the revelation-readiness of my brothers. I can thus bring down to them more than they can draw down to themselves.

 

49. ⁸¹ The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. Miracles do not involve this type of communication because they are temporary communication devices. When man returns to his original form of communication with God, the need for miracles is over. The Holy Spirit mediates higher to lower communication, keeping the direct channel from God to man open for revelation. Revelation is not reciprocal. It is always from God to man. The miracle is reciprocal because it involves equality.

 

50. ⁸² The miracle is a learning device which lessens the need for time. In the longitudinal or horizontal plane, the recognition of the true equality of all the members of the Sonship appears to involve almost endless time. However, the sudden shift from horizontal to vertical perception which the miracle entails introduces an interval from which the doer and the receiver both emerge much farther along in time than they would otherwise have been.

 

⁸³ The miracle thus has the unique property of shortening time by rendering the space of time it occupies unnecessary. There is no relationship between the time a miracle takes and the time it covers. It substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands of years. It does this by the underlying recognition of perfect equality and holiness between the doer and the receiver on which the miracle rests.

 

⁸⁴ We said before that the miracle abolishes time. It does this by a process of collapsing it and thus abolishing certain intervals within it. It does this, however, within the larger temporal sequence. It establishes an out-of-pattern time interval which is not under the usual laws of time. Only in this sense is it timeless. By collapsing time, it literally saves time. Much as daylight saving time does, it rearranges the distribution of light.

                                                  

 ACIM OE TX. CH 1, I 

 

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