LESSON 12  

This idea corrects "a major perceptual distortion." (W.12.1.1) What is that distortion? It is that the world has meaning. It is that the world is the cause of how we feel. We think that when we are upset it is because of something that has happened to us from outside of ourselves and we are hapless victims. And so we end up blaming people and circumstances in the world for our situation. "I would be happy if my car started, if it weren't so cold out, if so and so did not disturb my peace, if my job were less demanding, if I had the right relationship." In other words, I'd be happy if the world weren't so upsetting, so frightening, so sad, so violent, so insane, or so disappointing, etc. Yet Jesus says, "All of these attributes are given it by you. The world is meaningless in itself." (W.12.1.3-4).
  
We have this perceptual distortion, but it does not mean we should deny what we are experiencing. The idea is to see where the experience is coming from, which is our own meaningless thoughts. We give our meaning to these thoughts. It all comes from the belief that we are separate and alone and that we are guilty of having left our home with God. As a result of this meaningless belief, we hold a thought system based on sin and guilt. But the sin and guilt in our minds are so intolerable to us that, in order to feel better about ourselves, we project it onto situations, people, and circumstances in the world, believing that they are the cause of what we are feeling. This, of course, makes us the victims of outside circumstances. This lesson is a step in recognizing that it is our perceptual distortion that we are making the world responsible for. The world is meaningless. It is our meaning that we put on it.

Last night, I was watching a PBS program about various places in the world that are under siege---Sudan, Northern China, Syria, North Korea and many others. As I was listening to the program, I watched my judgments about this world being insane, frightening, sad and violent. (1.2) Yet this lesson says it is, in fact, none of those things. It is meaningless, and it is only its meaninglessness that upsets me. Nothing else. Any attribute that I ascribe to the world is one I have given it. Of course, in this dream, the events of this world have disastrous consequences, but the consequences are only in the illusion. What we are learning to see is that we can choose to be an observer of the world and to watch the projections that we put on people, circumstances, and events. We can learn to be attentive to our thoughts and observe how we are responding to the world that we think we are seeing.

Whether you watch these kinds of events on TV or read the papers, or choose to avoid doing so, what is important is whether your actions depend on your belief that there is something real out there. If you don't want to look, because you think it is all real, it is the same mistake.

The reality is that we are not actually upset because of what we see in the world. What upsets us is that the world is a meaningless world. The meaning that we put on the forms of this world is our own, and we are invested in the meaning that we give everything. In fact, it is important for us to be right about the meaning that we give to everything, but this lesson reminds us that the world is meaningless and "What is meaningless is neither good nor bad." (W.12.5.1) This is important because "a 'good world' implies a 'bad' one, and a 'satisfying world' implies an 'unsatisfying' one." (W.12.3.6) Whatever it is that keeps us invested in this world keeps us from recognizing that the only reality is Oneness.
  
"But because it is meaningless, you are impelled to write upon it what you would have it be." (W.12.5.4) We are not ready to accept the meaninglessness of our own thoughts. The world and all of our thoughts about it are there to make us forget who we are as One with God---as Love. In fact Jesus says,"The world was made as an attack on God." (W.PII.Q3.2.1) In other words, we made it as a place to hide from our belief in sin and fear of God's punishment. Thus, for us, the world serves as a block or distraction to remembering who we are. It was made to keep out of our awareness the truth of who we are.

All of the thoughts we have about this world are blocking the truth. They are blocking the message of the Holy Spirit, Who calls to us to remember who we are. Believing that there is a world outside of Oneness is a false belief. Believing that there could be something outside of everything is impossible. It all comes from the same meaningless thought that I could be separate from God and on my own. Everything in the world is a shadow of that one meaningless thought projected out. It is a meaningless thought because we can't separate from God. It can't happen. That is what the Atonement Principle assures us. We can only be unaware of our true reality, which is behind all of these meaningless thoughts. But just because the thought is meaningless, does not mean that it has no power. After all, our whole world arose from this thought of separation and is held up by the power of our belief.
  
"If you could accept the world as meaningless and let the truth be written upon it for you, it would make you indescribably happy." (W.12.5.3) Our compulsion to give everything we see our meaning is a defense against the truth. Our fear is that if we don't fill all the spaces with our own meaning, then the truth of who we are would shine through. "Beneath your words is written the Word of God." (W.12.5.7) We can't know it until our own meaning, that we have given everything in the world, has been released. Yet it is a process. Our preference is to be right about ourselves rather than be happy. We have a big investment in our specialness and our individuality, even if we are not happy. Doing these exercises daily supports us in our intention to wake up. It is not a process of trying hard to get this, but ultimately about surrendering into it.

Jesus asks, "Would God have left the meaning of the world to your interpretation? If He had, it has no meaning. For it cannot be that meaning changes constantly, and yet is true." (T.30.VII.1-3)(ACIM OE T.30.VIII.82) Each of us gives the world the meaning that we think it has, and we change our mind about that meaning from time to time. Thus there is no consistency in the interpretations that we have given the world. The questions remain, "Why does a meaningless world upsets us? If the world has no meaning,  how could we have meaning?" The meaning I put on the world is my meaning and I think that what I think matters and is important. Thus, we are afraid of knowing the truth, because we value our separate existence, and in it we can feel powerful, superior, and special. That is why we write our meaning on everything. If we did not do so, God's meaning would show up in the space left free of our own meaning, and that is what we fear.

In our practice today, we are to look around quite slowly, and as we glance from one thing to another we give whatever our glance rests on equal time and attention. No one thing has more value than anything else.

As I look around my office, I see a picture of myself on a mountain top. I see a commemorative medal given me for significant service to the country. I see a gift from my deceased husband. I recognize that I am giving them all some kind of meaning based on thoughts from the past. These I judge as 'good' thoughts. Then I see the clutter in my office. I see disorganization everywhere. I see the dust on my desk. I see my bills that need to be paid before the deadline. I see emails that have not been answered. I see my appointment book. And as I look at these things, I feel a disturbance in my mind until I remind myself that everything I see has equal value. (2.7) It is all meaningless. It only has the meaning I have given it. It is all just forms empty of any meaning except that which I give them. My mind wants to linger on that which I think I find distressing. "Why, then, should a meaningless world upset you?" (W.12.5.2) Again, it does not matter if we don't understand this right now. Application of the idea is all that is asked of us.

The application of these lessons is about undoing our false beliefs. "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false." (T. 16.IV.6)

Today we will practice removing our meaning from the world and recognize that we do not know what anything means. We have taught ourselves that we suffer because of the things that happen to us. We have taught ourselves that we are victims of this world. Yet we have, in fact, chosen to use this world to hide the truth from ourselves of who we are. We are now at least somewhat willing to surrender our meaning to allow the Truth to show us Its meaning.

For this practice three or four times, for one minute or less look about slowly, shifting your glance at regular time intervals. As you look about, say, "I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world, a hostile world, a sad world, a wicked world, a crazy world," (W.12.3.2) and so on, using whatever descriptive terms occur to you. This includes positive ones such as a good world, a satisfying world, a wonderful world, and a peaceful world, but remember that these attributes imply their opposite. This is not the world on which God's truth is written that would make you indescribably happy. At the end we add, "But I am upset because I see a meaningless world." (W.12.4.4) Our gentle teacher does not want us to strain in doing this exercise, so terminate it if you feel strain. Do not push yourself or bring more guilt into your life, if you find you can't follow the discipline that is suggested.
 
Love and blessings, Sarah

A Course in Miracles 

 

Chapter One

Introduction to Miracles

I. Principles of Miracles continued

51. ⁸⁵ The miracle is the only device which man has at his immediate disposal for controlling time. Only revelation transcends time, having nothing to do with time at all.

 

⁸⁶ The miracle is much like the body in that both are learning aids which aim at facilitating a state in which they are unnecessary. When the Soul's original state of direct communication is reached, neither the body nor the miracle serves any purpose. While he believes he is in a body, however, man can choose between loveless and miraculous channels of expression. He can make an empty shell, but he cannot express nothing at all. He can wait, delay, paralyze himself, reduce his creativity to almost nothing, and even introduce a developmental arrest or even a regression. But he cannot abolish his creativity. He can destroy his medium of communication but not his potential.

 

⁸⁷ Man was not created by his own free will alone. Only what he creates is his to decide. The basic decision of the miracle-minded is not to wait on time any longer than is necessary. Time can waste as well as be wasted. The miracle-worker, therefore, accepts the time-control factor gladly because he recognizes that every collapse of time brings all men closer to the ultimate release from time in which the Son and the Father are one.

 

⁸⁸ Equality does not imply homogeneity now. When everyone recognizes that he has everything, individual contributions to the Sonship will no longer be necessary. When the Atonement has been completed, all talents will be shared by all the Sons of God. God is not partial. All His Children have His total love, and all His gifts are freely given to everyone alike. "Except ye become as little children" means that, unless you fully recognize your complete dependence on God, you cannot know the real power of the Son in his true relationship with the Father.

 

⁸⁹ You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness. You never really wanted peace before, so there was no point in being told how to achieve it. No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some way that he needs it. While the concept of lack does not exist in the creation of God, it is very apparent in the creations of man. It is, in fact, the essential difference. A need implies lack by definition. It involves the recognition that you would be better off in a state which is somehow different from the one you are in.

 

⁹⁰ Until the "separation," which is a better term than the "fall," nothing was lacking. This meant that man had no needs at all. If he had not deprived himself, he would never have experienced them. After the separation, needs became the most powerful source of motivation for human action. All behavior is essentially motivated by needs, but behavior itself is not a divine attribute. The body is the mechanism for behavior. The belief that he could be better off is the reason why man has this mechanism at his disposal.

 

⁹¹ Each one acts according to the particular hierarchy of needs he establishes for himself. His hierarchy, in turn, depends on his perception of what he is-that is, what he lacks. A sense of separation from God is the only lack he really needs to correct. This sense of separation would never have occurred if he had not distorted his perception of truth and thus perceived himself as lacking. The concept of any sort of need hierarchy arose because, having made this fundamental error, he had already fragmented himself into levels with different needs. As he integrates he becomes one, and his needs become one accordingly.

 

⁹² Unified need produces unified action because it produces a lack of ambivalence. The concept of a need hierarchy, a corollary to the original error that man can be separated from God, requires correction at its own level before the error of perceiving levels at all can be corrected. Man cannot behave effectively while he operates at split levels. However, while he does, correction must be introduced from the bottom up. This is because he now operates in space, where concepts such as "up" and "down" are meaningful. Ultimately, space is as meaningless as time. The concept is really one of space-time belief.

 

⁹³ The physical world exists only because man can use it to correct his unbelief, which placed him in it originally. He can never control the effects of fear himself because he made fear and believes in what he made. In attitude, then, though not in content, he resembles his own Creator, Who has perfect faith in His creations because He created them. Belief in a creation produces its existence. That is why a man can believe in what no one else thinks is true. It is true for him because it was made by him.

 

⁹⁴ Every aspect of fear proceeds from upside-down perception. The more truly creative devote their efforts to correcting perceptual distortions. The neurotic devotes his to compromise. The psychotic tries to escape by establishing the certain truth of his own errors. It is most difficult to free him by ordinary means because he is more consistent in his own denial of truth. The miracle, however, makes no such distinctions. It corrects errors because they are errors. Thus, the next point to remember about miracles is:

 

52. ⁹⁵ The miracle makes no distinction among degrees of misperception. It is a device for perception-correction, effective quite apart from either the degree or the direction of the error. This is its true indiscriminateness.

 

⁹⁶ Christ-controlled miracles are selective only in the sense that they are directed towards those who can use them for themselves. Since this makes it inevitable that they will extend them to others, a strong chain of Atonement is welded. However, Christ-control takes no account at all of the magnitude of the miracle itself because the concept of size exists in a plane that is itself unreal. Since the miracle aims at restoring the awareness of reality, it would hardly be useful if it were bound by the laws which govern the error it aims to correct. Only man makes this kind of mistake. It is an example of the foolish consistency which his own false beliefs have engendered.

 

⁹⁷ The power and strength of man's creative will must be understood before the real meaning of denial can be appreciated and relinquished. It is not mere negation. It is a positive miscreation. While the miscreation is necessarily believed in by its maker, it does not exist at all at the level of true creation.

 

53. ⁹⁸ The miracle compares what man has made with the higher level creation, accepting what is in accord as true and rejecting the discord as false. All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the higher creative level, and therefore do not exist at all. To whatever extent a man is willing to submit his beliefs to this test, to that extent are perceptions corrected.

 

⁹⁹ In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along the following lines:

 

   And if fear exists,
  Then there is not perfect love.
  But only perfect love really exists.
  If there is fear,
  It creates a state which does not exist.

 

¹⁰¹ Believe this and you will be free. Only God can establish this solution, and this faith is His gift.

 

                                                  

 ACIM OE TX. CH 1, I 

 

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