The First Ten Lessons

This idea will release me from all that I now believe.
ACIM-W-10:4:3

As promised:

I will begin going through the lessons in ACIM but cannot stress enough this is my interpretation only.  If you are interested in learning through this curriculum, get a copy of the workbook and do the exercises yourself as expertly directed there.

A Summary of the First Ten Lessons ACIM: Workbook

The first ten lessons from A Course In Miracles basically signifies what the whole course is about: the importance of training the mind to get beyond what it has been conditioned to believe, to the truth of who we are.  I guess, it really isn't a training but an undoing of learning, a guide that allows us to see what is important by getting beyond our preoccupation with what is not important.  Each of the ten initial lessons encourages the student to look around their external world surroundings (very briefly) and then  into their minds to question what they see there. By so doing, the student should realize that what they see is never as it has appeared to them for so long. 

This teaching in regard to looking outward and inward to examine  reality is not unique to ACIM. Many wise masters throughout the years have taught the need to examine our reality. Socrates said "A life  unexamined is not worth living." Buddha taught, "We live in an illusion and appearance of things."  Patanjali taught that the entire outside world is based on our thoughts and mental attitude (Satchidananda pg 5)

Lesson 1-10

The things of the external world once examined do not really mean what we have come to believe they mean.   They in fact, don't  mean anything (Lesson 1) . We have given all objects of form  a false meaning and once we remove that meaning,  we realize we do not understand any of it. (Lesson 2 & 3)

If we take this questioning gaze into our minds we will realize that our thoughts are like the things we see and they too mean nothing nor do we understand them. (Lesson 4).  That means when we get upset about something we are never upset for the reason we think we are.  We have a  usual tendency to grasp at an external reason for our being angry, sad, offended etc and to categorize our  forms of upset into a hierarchy of degrees.  When we examine our thoughts and feelings  we need to remind ourselves that there are "...no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to our peace of mind." (Lesson 5) Whether we are upset by someone forgetting to put the toilet seat down or upset about a diagnosis of cancer...it has the same effect on our peace of mind.

We are upset because we see something that isn't there in each of these forms of upset. (Lesson 6).  And what we see is the past in each object and thought or upset we experience.   We think we know what a cup is, for example,  because we were taught in the past about a "cup".  Everything we label... be it an object, a thought or an emotion is based on what we were taught about it in the past so we really do not see it as it is now ( Lesson 7).  We seem to spend most of our  time stuck in thoughts of the  past and  we are usually so preoccupied with the past that we see nothing as it is now.  (Lesson 8) All the past conditioning, labelling, naming, and teaching that we received about the things we see now is in the way of us really seeing them. ( Lesson 9) 

Once we take each thought we are thinking and own it, recognizing that it doesn't mean anything,  we will be able to let go of some of that conditioning and the beliefs that hold us back. (Lesson 10)

Other teachings say the same thing

The initial lessons hint at the need to get beyond our preconceived notions about things, our mental modifications that stand in our way of finding the peace of mind that is our natural inheritance. This is also what yoga is all about. " If you can control the rising of the mind into ripples, you will experience yoga."(Satchidananda, page 3) It is also the premise of Buddhism that the root cause of  all suffering is in our minds.

So these very potent and effective lessons are just one way to get to a very universal truth.  If you want to explore this curriculum,  I encourage you to try them one at a time in the way you are instructed to by studying the workbook.

All is well

ACIM: Workbook, lessons 1-10

Satchidananda, Sri Swami ( 2011) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yogaville: Integral Yoga publications