Today’s ACIM Lesson

Lesson 12: I am upset because I see a meaningless world.

Speaking for myself, I feel afraid seeing a meaningless world because that means random violence, cruelty and chaos to me. But what Jesus is telling us is that the world only has the meaning we assign to it. The ego set the world up to embody and symbolize separation from God. The world, in and of itself, is a neutral thing. When used by the Holy Spirit, the world symbolizes Union and reflects God’s Love.

Lesson 12 gives us a “correction for a major perceptual distortion.” We have believed, unconsciously, what the ego has told us about the world. Jesus gives us exercises that challenge, what has until now, been absolute to us: that, as yesterday’s lesson illustrated, our thoughts, not external objects and events, determine the world we see.

If we can accept the world as meaningless, or neutral, and let God’s Truth be written upon it for us, it would make us indescribably happy, says Jesus. We have “written” meaning upon the world to make sense of it but that hasn’t worked. If we can trust Jesus, we will see that “Beneath your words is written the Word of God.” How beautiful!

Jesus goes on to tell us, “the ultimate purpose of these exercises” is to allow our words to be erased so that we can see God’s Word. As I open myself to this, something Loving slowly moves through my heart and brings tears to my eyes. Healing is in process. Miracles are swirling within like gentle snowflakes, pure and purifying.

Lesson 11: My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.

The key to forgiveness lies in today’s idea (My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world) because it leads to a reversal of the thinking of the world.

Instead of assuming that the external world is happening to us, Jesus introduces a new idea: our thoughts determine the world we see.

Today’s idea, we are told, “contains the foundation for the peace, relaxation and freedom from worry that we are trying to achieve” and “in this idea is your release made sure.”

Lesson 10: My thoughts do not mean anything.

Jesus tells us that What we believe and take for granted as our real thoughts are not real thoughts.

The first nine lessons have been offering a new way of experiencing ourselves, if we are open to it. We began with “the thoughts of which you are aware are meaningless, outside rather than within; and then stressed their past rather than their present status.”

Jesus is trying to get through to us that what we have taken for thoughts “means you are not thinking.” As we get better at recognizing “not thinking” this prepares us for true vision, the Holy Spirit’s way of thinking.

We are to introduce the central theme of today’s lesson by telling ourselves:

This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe.

Then we do the exercise, willing to surrender everything we thought we thought to a new way of thinking.

Lesson 9: I see nothing as it is now.

According to Jesus, the recognition that we do not understand anything is the key to spiritual awakening. When the idea that we really do not know anything becomes appealing, the heart lifts knowing it is on its way Home.

“There is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this:

I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself.” T-31.V.17:6-7

Resistance to this idea is to be expected and Jesus’ mind training is showing us how to be undeterred by resistance. Resistance is experienced as becoming distracted, tolerating interruptions to your practice, boredom, feeling angry, self-critical, etc. Anything that regularly steers you away from doing the Course exercises is resistance.

Application is everything: “Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it.” This is the purification practice mentioned in Miracle Principle #7: Miracles are everyone’s right, but purification is necessary first.

The willingness to practice with Workbook lessons, despite resistance, is all that is needed.

Lesson 8: My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.

This is what stands out:

Preoccupied – My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts, that is, pre-set to be occupied with thoughts about the past to keep me from grasping the present, which is the only “time” there really is.

Projection – I am only seeing my thoughts (which is not real thought) projected outward.

Purpose – Mind training.  Jesus is helping us see how we have been sabotaging ourselves by obsessively thinking about the past and the future.  And he is showing us how to search so we can begin to discern between what seems to be and Reality.

The three Ps 🙂

Lesson 7: I see only the past.

Everything we believe is rooted in time …

We take time for granted. The sun rises, the sun sets. A day has gone by. Time is before our eyes. Why should we doubt it?

Yet, Jesus, in his Course, says that we “need new ideas about time.”

New ideas about time is going to change our minds about everything. And that is good.

This is not a pipe by Rene Magritte

Lesson 6: I am upset because I see something that is not there.

There is the feeling of upset. There is the presumed source of that upset. And there is the seeing of something, which Jesus tells us, is not there.

We are lifting the cover of Pandora’s box and, with Jesus by our side, discovering that the darkness within is just a coverup for the Light that lies beneath.

What our eyes see are not what it appears to be. We do not need to get ahead of ourselves and try to force spiritual vision. We just need to follow directions. And forgive ourselves when we don’t adhere to them perfectly.