What God did not create does not exist. And everything that does exist exists as He created it. The world you see has nothing to do with reality. It is your own making, and it does not exist.
ACIM-W-14:1:2-5
Meaningless World
In the next ten lessons of A Course in Miracles we, as students, are encouraged to begin correcting and reversing the way we think. We begin by looking at how our "meaningless" thoughts are effecting the way we perceive the world. (Lesson 11). We seem to think the world out there is responsible for what we see and for what makes us upset. We also think that we are upset because the world we see, with our distorted thinking, seems so frightening or sad or violent but we are really upset because we see a meaningless world. We think we are happy when we see a nice world or a good world but it is the same distorted thinking. There is no "nice" or no "bad" anywhere but in our minds.
Meaningless us?
Part of us (the ego) wants to be able to describe things in this way...to look out and see these distinctions. When we see a meaningless world instead it is upsetting. (Lesson 12). I believe it is upsetting because we realize that if the world has no meaning, it cannot be the source of our suffering. That would mean that we are and that makes us feel the vulnerability, self-loathing and inadequacy we have worked so hard to run away from feeling. If the world is not the source of the problem then there is something really wrong with us. That feels terrible to the ego dominated mind. We therefore need to write our own stories, dramas, roles, thought streams etc to give meaning to what is meaningless, to take us away from this sense of vulnerability that feels so uncomfortable. That is where ego comes in.
Ego vs God
Recognizing a "meaningless" world, as we are encouraged to do in ACIM, also creates fear in us because what ego has created ( the story, the narration, the drama, the ideas, concepts and images) seems to compete with the truth that God creates. We feel we are caught in a war between ego's version of reality and God's. Feeling separated and puppets to our egos which would rather us feel like victims to a harsh outside reality than responsible for teh way we "edge God out" , we feel we are in competition with God. (Lesson 13) .
God did Not Make the Meaningless World: Our Thinking Did
Then in Lesson 14 we are encouraged to rationalize why God could not have created a meaningless world.(See the opening quote). Reminds me of the teaching from Patanjali's Sutras, The entire outside world is based on your thoughts and mental attitudes. The entire world is your own projection. (Satchidananda, pg 5) This concept may be hard for us to actually swallow and believe at first. Especially when we are instructed to think of the specific things we fear and repeat to ourselves "God did not create cancer "( for example)...therefore cancer isn't real". That is not going to initially feel like truth but the more we practice, the more we wake up...the more this truth sinks in. If God didn't create it, than it can only be in our mind.
Our Thoughts are Meaningless Images
Because our thoughts appear as clear images in our minds and we believe we think them...we cannot see them as the "nothing" they actually are. (Lesson 15). They seem so real. Image making using our thoughts and physical eyes takes the place of seeing clearly. The practice in Lesson 15 encourages us to repeat This ____is an image that I have made, as we look around at whatever we see.
Once again we are reminded throughout all the lessons not to be selective or to discriminate what we see...all of it is equally meaningless and equally as much an image in our mind as anything else.
Our Thoughts Are Not Neutral: They Create The World We See
So if everything, absolutely everything, is a result of our thoughts we need to realize that our thoughts have an effect on how we see reality. Everything we see is a result of our thoughts. (Lesson 16) Thought are never idle and will bring us either peace or war, love or fear. Though reality is neutral...our thoughts cannot be. We are encouraged to look at all the thoughts that pop into our head (and not discriminate or level them in degree of importance) and remind ourselves that This thought about______is not a neutral thought because we have no neutral thoughts.
The good news is that though they are all equally destructive, they are equally unreal. Thoughts are not big or little, powerful or weak. They are merely true or false.
In Lesson 17 we are reminded that we cannot see neutral things because what we see is a result of our thinking about these things. We are encouraged to glance around ( making no distinctions) and say out loud or to ourselves, I do not see a neutral _____[wall, desk, plant, body etc], because my thoughts about______________are not neutral.
Not Alone
In the next lessons we are reminded that our minds are joined and therefor we are not alone in experiencing the effects of our seeing (Lesson 18) and the effects of our thoughts. ( Lesson 19) Thinking and its results are really simultaneous, for cause and effect are never separate.
Willing to See Correctly
And in Lesson 20, we commit to being willing to see correctly. The lesson reminds us that we are not seeing now. It encourages us to train our minds so that we do..You want to be happy. You want peace. You do not have them now, because your mind is totally undisciplined, and you cannot distinguish between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, love and fear. You are now learning how to tell them apart. And great indeed will your reward be.
In a nutshell...it is our minds that take us away from peace and Love when our thinking and vision is distorted. We need to change the way we think so we change the way we see the world.
All is well.
ACIM ( 2007) A Course in Miracles: Combine Volume: Workbook Lessons 11-20. Foundations For Inner Peace
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