We are very invested in our way of seeing things. We trust in our observations and believe in what our senses tell us. We believe there is a world already here when we were born. In other words, we think the world was always in place yet we read in this Lesson that this is not so. The world is a picture of what is in our own minds.
"The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning
.
"
(W.132.4.1-2) This Lesson is very clear in its statement---there is no world! Indeed, it is startling to hear this said over and over in this Lesson and throughout the Course. Our minds have a hard time accepting it, so Jesus makes a case for why this must be so. We may want to push this thought away.
"Not everyone is ready to accept it, and each one must go as far as he can let himself be led along the road to truth
.
"
(W.132.6.4) If we don't get it this time, there may be a later time, or maybe another lifetime, when we will return to learn it.
The thoughts we hold about the world make it real for us
. "Your mind must give it meaning. And what you behold upon it are your wishes, acted out so you can look on them and think them real."
(W.132.4-2-3)
Since the world we see is just the effect of our thoughts, Jesus gives us the analogy of a madman, hallucinating. What we call seeing is not seeing at all but more like image-making. These images are projections of the thoughts in our minds. Yet we are told it is fruitless for us to directly question the reality of the world, for this is like trying to convince a madman that his hallucinations are not real. Instead, we are encouraged to question the thoughts in our minds. What must I be thinking to see a frightening world, a sad world, a challenging world, or an exciting world? The thoughts and beliefs I hold become what I picture of the external world. Thus, the world becomes a perfect witness of what is in my mind.
"Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change accordingly
.
"
(W.132.5.2) When we become willing to look at our thoughts and to question them, we start the process of healing. Healing happens when we become aware of our thoughts and beliefs and are willing to see that we are wrong about everything. The world is the screen on which we project our thoughts. The thoughts are in our minds and the good news is that they can change because we are the ones holding them. Everything we are seeing is our misperceptions. It is only our insistence that we are right about our opinions and judgments that keeps the mind bound to its perspectives. To admit that I don’t know anything is to be willing to be open to a new way of seeing.
Jesus says,
"But it is pride that argues you have come into a world quite separate from yourself, impervious to what you think, and quite apart from what you chance to think it is."
(W.132.6.1) In other words, we keep making the case that we are simply victims of this world and are not responsible for making it moment by moment! We resist taking responsibility for our projections that are seen on the screen of the world. Yet this is precisely what we are asked to do. We are asked to take responsibility for what we perceive.
Our minds are powerful. Our stories of being victimized by the people and events of this world do not come from the world at all but from the way we choose to give meaning to these events. Our beliefs alone give the world its power.
"What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs?"
(W.132.1.1) They are false beliefs, and they originate with the ego. We learn that the beliefs we hold can be dismissed, recognizing they have no power except the power we choose to give them. They keep us invested in the illusion when we invest in the stories, beliefs, and thoughts we hold.
What we need to do is take responsibility for our thoughts and recognize their power.
"Belief is powerful indeed
.
"
(W.132.1.3) Bringing these beliefs to awareness and taking responsibility for the meaning we give to everything that shows up will start the process of shifting our perspective about the world.
"Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change accordingly
.
"
(W.132.5.2) That is why Jesus says,
"Yet is salvation easily achieved
,
for anyone is free to change his mind, and all his thoughts change with it."
(W.132.2.1) As our thought system shifts from sin, guilt, fear, suffering, and death to forgiveness, peace, healing, innocence, and holiness, everything changes. Our minds are where the source of our freedom lies because we can choose to release all that is false. This is good news because we are now no longer at the mercy of events outside of our own minds!
Don asked me to follow him to the body shop to have his car fixed. I told him I did not know the way there and asked him not to lose me. As we were driving, he chose to run a yellow light, leaving me to sit at the red light. I felt angry that he had not stopped to wait for me. I judged him for being inconsiderate of me. Fear set in, as I did not know how to get there on my own. All kinds of thoughts crossed my mind as I worried about what to do now, and why he would do this to me. The voice of the ego can get very obsessive. Watching my mind, I reminded myself that I was, in that moment, creating my reality. Then I asked myself these questions: "Will what I am thinking and feeling impede my path or enhance it?" "Will it solidify the ego's dream or help me awaken from it?" and "Do I really want to hold onto a thought that is hurting me?" Holy Spirit, help me to see it differently. I realized I could choose peace and reminded myself that my goal was peace.
I actively resisted buying into the ego harangue and affirmed that I would not listen to it. I was willing to trust that all would be well and that I would be guided to where I was to go. As I kept driving, I spotted his car up ahead with several cars driving slowly in front of me, which prevented me from catching up with him. I smiled as I thought about how it was my dream and therefore completely malleable. As this thought came, the cars all moved away to the side and there I was right behind him! Our part is to make space in our minds for the shift to take place from murder to miracles. When we do, the world shifts accordingly. This is what the miracle does. This is what willingness to tune into our intuition offers us. It reminds us that there is never anything wrong. We just need to align our minds with Spirit and ignore the rants of the ego. They do not belong in our pristine minds. They are part of the false self that we are not.
In holding thoughts of attack, I actually seek for what I
". . . do not want to find."
(W.132.2.4) When I change my mind, all my thoughts change with it. Now, I no longer want anger and attack and I’m motivated to find what I truly want, which is peace. Stubbornly holding onto our positions keeps us in hell. If we don't want to suffer, we need to change our minds. The idea is to close the gap between the time spent in holding onto grievances and in choosing forgiveness. Jesus reminds us that we are not stuck with the way things are. We are free to change our minds and recognize that when we change our minds, we change the source of our beliefs. This means the source of our thoughts has shifted from the ego mind to the true Source in the mind, which is our Divine Self. With this shift, we experience miracles. This takes willingness and determination not to buy into how things appear based on our senses but to question our perspectives and ask for the help of our inner Teacher. It brings us to the present moment.
"The present now remains the only time. Here in the present is the world set free."
(W.132.3.1-2) When we are willing to undertake the healing of our own minds, healing extends to the world through us, as there is only one mind.
"For as you let the past be lifted and release the future from your ancient fears, you find escape and give it to the world
.
"
(W.132.3.3)
"You have enslaved the world with all your fears, your doubts and miseries, your pain and tears; and all your sorrows press on it, and keep the world a prisoner to your beliefs
.
"
(W.132.3.4) We think our pain and tears are our own personal experience, yet he begs to differ, claiming that our pain bodies, as Eckhart Tolle calls them, keep the world prisoner to our sorrows. We enslave the world with our thoughts and beliefs and force death on it. Thus, we hold the world in bondage to the ego thought system. It is held in place by the illusion of time, with the beginning and end of this thought system being death. The reason he says the world began with death is because God had to die if we were to exist. In other words, God had to give up His life for us to live. It is a belief we hold of "one or the other." Both can’t exist in Oneness.
What is our source? Where did we come from? Jesus says,
"Now the source of thought has shifted, for to change your mind means you have changed the source of all ideas you think or ever thought or yet will think."
(W.132.2.2) Isn't it interesting to contemplate our source? How did we get here? The collision of egg and sperm is said to be the beginning of us, yet Jesus assures us, we are eternal and always have been. There is no beginning or end.
"Perhaps you think you did not make the world, but came unwillingly to what was made already, hardly waiting for your thoughts to give it meaning. Yet in truth you found exactly what you looked for when you came
.
"
(W.132.4.4-5)
Don't we all have the experience of wondering what we are doing here? We may, as children, have said to our parents, "I didn't ask to be born." I certainly challenged my parents with this thought! I clearly believed it was not my choice to be born. I had thoughts of being a victim of my circumstances, thinking I had been placed in the wrong home. I did not feel like I belonged in this family. The fact is that we did choose to come. We chose all the circumstances of our lives. It is our dream. We are the dreamer and we write the script for the dream we choose to experience. A veil of amnesia fell across our minds when we arrived here. We wanted a home for our individuality and specialness and a separate self. We got the experience we wanted, which was a world that would prove that we are innocent victims of circumstances beyond us.
"There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies your ultimate release. Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change accordingly. Ideas leave not their source. This central theme is often stated in the text, and must be borne in mind if you would understand the lesson for today. It is not pride which tells you that you made the world you see, and that it changes as you change your mind
.
"
(W.132.5.1-5) What an important paragraph! Our release lies in recognizing that the world is a projection of our minds. We read here and in the text,
"Ideas leave not their source
.
"
(W.132.5.3) The guilt in the mind is projected out and now it is seen as forms in the world that we have come to believe are external realities.
Because we think the world exists as independent of our minds, it follows that we would think the cause of our problems comes from the world, which is acting upon us. In other words, we see the world as cause, and we are its effect. If this were the case, we could only be released from our pain if the world were to change in our favor. Fortunately for us, we have it all backward. The fact is that the world is an effect of our thoughts, but because those thoughts can be changed by choosing against the ego thought system, we have the power to change our perspective on the world. We have reversed cause and effect. The truth is our minds are the cause and the world is the effect. This requires looking at our thoughts and beliefs with great honesty, taking responsibility for everything that seems to happen to us, seeing it all started with our own thoughts, and being willing to bring them to the truth. This is the recognition that the world we see is nothing but
". . . the outside picture of an inward condition
.
"
(T.21.IN.1.5) (ACIM OE T.21.I.1) All it does is mirror to us what is unhealed within. Therefore, it is very helpful to our healing as a witness to what is in the mind.
We don't have power over what seems to be done to us, but we do have power over our thoughts.
"The power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world. You can decide to see it right."
(T.12.VII.9.1-2) (ACIM OE T.11.VIII.70) When we experience the world attacking us, we have an opportunity to look within at our own self-attack, our unworthiness, our anger, and our guilt. When our minds are healed and our perception is free of guilt, we will see a benign world where there is no blame, attack, or pain. It is not about anything changing in our external world. There will be changes in our outward condition as the mind is healed, but more than that, our perception of everything will change. No matter what is happening, with our changed perception, we will only see everything as either love or a call for love. We can't see a guilty world without having guilt in the mind.
Jesus tells us that to believe there is a world outside our minds is arrogance. In other words, we insist that we know better than God. If the world is real, God must be responsible for the problems of the world. We think it is humble to proclaim that we could not have made the world. We think only God has that power. Jesus says it is humility to acknowledge we made the world. To believe there is a world outside our minds is to insist we are right about what reality is and what God is. How can there be a separate world if there is nothing outside the Mind of God, just as there is nothing outside our own minds? Ideas leave not their source! If the world were real, the reality of God’s Oneness must have been destroyed. While Jesus assures us that we are powerful indeed, we don't have the power to change who we are as eternal beings or who God is. We can be truly thankful that we can’t change the truth of what we are or our reality as One with God.
We come from the eternal and formless Mind of God and are made in His image. As we loosen our thoughts from all we think the world of form is, we become a channel of energy from this invisible field of love, which is our Source. All of us are God's Thoughts, individualized by our belief in separation from our Source. The only reason we don't live from this place of Oneness is because of our belief in separation and our investment in our false thoughts. Now we are called to question those thoughts and beliefs and recognize that we don't know anything; but as little children with beginning minds, we are willing to be taught. We are not what we have, what we do, what others think of us, separated from everyone else, and separated from God. We are a part of our Source. God is not apart from our minds.
Our real nature does not fit this world. Our false thoughts made this world. They can't be our real thoughts because we are told,
"Yet if you are as God created you, you cannot think apart from Him, nor make what does not share His timelessness and Love
.
"
(W.132.11.1) Our real thoughts could not have made this world because the world is unlike God. There is no time and space in God's reality, and we are as God created us. Our reality is outside of time and space as well. Therefore, we do not even inhabit this world nor this body. Jesus says,
"To free the world from every kind of pain is but to change your mind about yourself
.
"
(W.132.10.3)
When the student is ready to know the truth about themselves,
"Their readiness will bring the lesson to them in some form which they can understand and recognize
.
"
(W.132.7.2) Some have come to this understanding through near-death experiences. Some have had experiences of a mystical nature,
"And some will find it in this course, and in the exercises that we do today
.
"
(W.132.8.1) As we discover what we truly are by allowing love to move through us, we realize, increasingly, that the world of illusion is incompatible with the truth of what we are. Loosing the world is all about freeing ourselves from guilt through the Holy Spirit. As our thoughts are transformed, we transform the world. The world is simply the effect of our thoughts.
"
I loose the world from all I thought it was, and choose my own reality instead
.
"
(W.132.17.2) The one who chooses is the one this Course is aimed at. When we turn away from the voice of the ego and ask for help from Jesus, we are willing to be taught.
It is up to us to choose when we are ready to resign as our own authority, and instead, turn to the Holy Spirit. This means we must stay vigilant in watching our thoughts and in asking to be shown another way of seeing. This is what forgiveness is all about. It is about watching our thoughts and taking responsibility for our projections. Every grievance, every expectation, every wish, every plan, every worry, frustration, and anxiety, when seen, can be released. We can let our minds be changed, quietly, when we are ready, and it does not matter where and when this happens. We might be on our deathbed, in prison, in a holiday resort, at our workplace, or in our homes. We do not have to try to escape our current situation. The setting is irrelevant. It is the decision that is important. When we bring our illusions to the truth, our thoughts are healed. When we let go of our grievances, then peace, and joy prevail.
The world of time---of past, present, and future---does not exist. It is the present that
". . . now remains the only time"
(W.132.3.1) where the healing takes place.
"Here in the present is the world set free. For as you let the past be lifted and release the future from your ancient fears, you find escape and give it to the world."
(W.132.3.2-3)
Our experiences of release, of peace and of joy, convince us of the reality of our Source, and the recognition that we did not create ourselves. We are not our own source. Remember that the focus today is not on denying the reality of the world or simply dismissing it as illusion but looking instead at what we are projecting onto it and seeing how we are defending ourselves against perceived dangers.
What do we want to believe about ourselves today? What is real? The ego? The body? Or do we accept our Identity as God created us? We get constant affirmation from the world of who we are as separate individuals, but this is about the false self. Our Being is not what the world has affirmed about us. What we have come to believe about ourselves, as a result of past conditioning, is completely false. Isn't this a liberating idea? Yet it is also an idea that brings up fear and resistance, which we need to be aware of and bring forth for healing. Remember that courage and honesty are needed to be willing to look at all our false perceptions. As we do this healing work today,
". . . healing comes to many brothers across the world, as well as to the ones you see nearby, as you send out these thoughts to bless the world
.
"
(W.132.16.1) We are still in God. We have never left our Source. It is not an easy concept to get, yet Jesus says when we get it, we will know our own reality. Whenever we have the experience today of feeling victimized by something or someone outside of ourselves or we feel distressed, it is a trigger for us to notice we are looking outside ourselves to feel better.
"I who remain as God created me would loose the world from all I thought it was. For I am real because the world is not, and I would know my own reality."
(W.132.15.2-3)
"Then merely rest, alert but with no strain, and let your mind in quietness be changed so that the world is freed, along with you
.
"
(W.132.15.4.1) This requires stopping, looking, and bringing our thoughts to the light of truth.
Love and blessings, Sarah
