Lesson 10

Lesson 10

My thoughts do not mean anything.

This idea applies to all the thoughts of which you are aware, or become aware in the practice periods. The reason the idea is applicable to all of them is that they are not your real thoughts. We have made this distinction before, and will do so again. You have no basis for comparison as yet. When you do, you will have no doubt that what you once believed were your thoughts did not mean anything.

This is the second time we have used this kind of idea. The form is only slightly different. This time the idea is introduced with “My thoughts” instead of “These thoughts,” and no link is made overtly with the things around you. The emphasis is now on the lack of reality of what you think you think.

This aspect of the correction process began with the idea that the thoughts of which you are aware are meaningless, outside rather than within; and then stressed their past rather than their present status. Now we are emphasizing that the presence of these “thoughts” means that you are not thinking. This is merely another way of repeating our earlier statement that your mind is really a blank. To recognize this is to recognize nothingness when you think you see it. As such, it is the prerequisite for vision.

Close your eyes for these exercises, and introduce them by repeating the idea for today quite slowly to yourself. Then add:

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

The exercises consist, as before, in searching your mind for all the thoughts that are available to you, without selection or judgment. Try to avoid classification of any kind. In fact, if you find it helpful to do so, you might imagine that you are watching an oddly assorted procession going by, which has little if any personal meaning to you. As each one crosses your mind, say:

My thought about ___ does not mean anything.
My thought about ___ does not mean anything.

Today’s thought can obviously serve for any thought that distresses you at any time. In addition, five practice periods are recommended, each involving no more than a minute or so of mind searching. It is not recommended that this time period be extended, and it should be reduced to half a minute or less if you experience discomfort. Remember, however, to repeat the idea slowly before applying it specifically, and also to add:

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

 

Journal

Something I realized this morning is that for all these years I have just been paying lip service to this idea. I noticed that because this morning it is different. My thoughts really don’t mean anything. They are not important. A friend on Facebook has an idea about what something in the Course means. He is willing to argue for his version and he feels the need to get others to believe he is right. He thinks he needs to be right. He thinks his thoughts mean something and therefore he must defend them and spread his good news.

I know how he feels. Over the many years that I have studied the Course, I have had ego “revelations” that I firmly believed in. I have wanted everyone to know about them and to believe them with me. I have even had understandings that were very helpful and have thought that it was necessary for others to know what I now know. Slowly, this has changed. An example of this occurred recently when I read something in the Course that I had not noticed before and it really helped me.

Once I saw it there, I was surprised that I had not known this before. It was so helpful to me that I wanted everyone to know about it, but no one else seemed to be aware of its significance or to be interested in it. I wondered if I was completely wrong and was being unhelpful in sharing. I wrote to Regina and told her what was going on and asked her if I was seeing this all wrong. Regina said the most helpful thing she could have. She said that if it can be put into words it is not truth. Here is what matters: Is it helpful? She said the way I was using it was helpful to me and I should continue to use it.

I still use it, and I talk about it when it is appropriate to the conversation. I no longer think that anyone else needs to know it or believe it or use it unless that is where their Inner Guidance takes them. I no longer believe my thoughts about all that mean anything. When my friend was arguing his point on Facebook, I understood how he felt, but the thought that went through my mind was this. Do these ideas that we are attached to help us wake up? Or do they just distract us and separate us further?

I am happy to let him believe what he believes at this moment. Maybe one day I will believe it along with him, or at least find it helpful. I am happy to believe what I believe at this moment. I am happy if all that changes in the next moment. None of it means anything because it is just thoughts in the ego mind. It is a weirdly strange and wonderful place to be for someone who has been chasing THE truth all her life. It is freeing. And more importantly, it leaves a place in my mind for truth to reveal itself in whatever way is helpful to me.

NTI Romans Chapter 2 cont.

The Holy Spirit goes on to explain that when judgment was applied, something new was made, so our experience began immediately. Now we had two options and so we had to choose. Did we want to laugh at this idea and remain in Reality, or did we want to explore this new idea that while not real could be interesting? Well, we know which option we chose. This exploration required that we believe what we had done was real even though it was only fantasy and so here we are.

This is the moment that we lost our way because having to choose judgment again, we judged ourselves for making this choice. In ACIM, Jesus says that we took a detour into fear and guilt. This must have been quite a shock for us never having experienced anything like it. We became engrossed and lost our way out as we lost our identity. All the while, nothing was happening, there was no sin and nothing we did has ever been real and so we are perfectly safe even as we believe in danger.

“Judgment is the tool that built the world, and judgment keeps the experience alive. But judgment came from nothing but an impossible idea and the desire to think about it some more.”

No wonder Jesus tells us to give up judgment. He talks about this all the time in A Course in Miracles, but here in NTI, the reason we must relinquish judgment finally becomes crystal clear to me. I also see great resistance to this idea within my own mind. I am of two minds about this. No surprise there, we do have a split mind. I don’t want judgment anymore and when I notice that I am judging, I quickly give it over and ask the Holy Spirit to judge for me.

On the other hand, I seem to be unwilling to simply stop judging. I forget all about my decision to relinquish judgment for periods of time until judgment gets me in trouble and suddenly I remember. I don’t kid myself about the “forgetfulness.” It doesn’t just happen. It is a decision I make and then I make a choice to forget I made it. I could become discouraged about this and even sink into guilt, but the next paragraph is what keeps me from doing so.

“All judgment is fantasy. Judgment spins fantasy. Judgment is a way to explore. It is a game, a folly, and nothing more. It has no purpose and makes nothing real. Judgment is a web of meaningless thoughts given only the power of fantasy and absolutely nothing more.”

Whew! Thank goodness for that.

Past Entries

My thoughts do not mean anything. Jesus says that this idea will help release me from all I now believe. I want to be released from the thoughts that are keeping me in bondage to the ego thought system. That was not always true. At first this all sounded like gibberish, with just a tiny bit of anxiety behind it. When I noticed the anxiety at all, I thought it was because it is hard to take serious statements that don’t make sense to me. In retrospect, I realize it was because the part of the mind still interested in the illusion was feeling threatened.

When we decided to make an image of something that was not God, we also made a decision to remember not to laugh at it, that is, we decided to take it seriously. That decision is what made believing in the world possible. It was like a guard at the gate of our mind. When we begin to doubt the world we see, the guard tries to pull us more deeply into the illusion by whatever means; confusion, fear, guilt or distraction.

What is happening now is that we are ready to return to reality, and the way to do that was also set into place. Jesus calls this solution the Holy Spirit. It stands ready to awaken us from this dream of separation the moment we are ready. It responds to our desires, rather than to our words. In this way, we awaken slowly and gently according to our true readiness.

Jesus also gave us A Course in Miracles and other helpful tools to make Awakening easier. Today, in the lessons we are reminded that these thoughts we think we think are actually meaningless. He has already told us this, but we need to be reminded because we have used these thoughts to play the game of separation and to keep it going.

The guard we designed to keep the game afoot is going to use these thoughts to convince us that we want to take the illusion seriously. To do so it must convince us that the thoughts are real and essential to our safety. It tries to convince us we are our thoughts; that we think, therefore we are.

As we open our mind to the Holy Spirit, He will help us remember that this is not true. These thoughts we think all day long and even in our dreams, are just part of the illusion and are not real at all. As long as we continue to believe in these thoughts and to think they are real, we will not be aware of our true thoughts. Of course, if you want to experience an illusion this is absolutely necessary, but if you are ready to return to reality, then it is time to remember that your thoughts do not mean anything.

So in this lesson, Jesus is emphasizing two points. The thoughts I think I think are so meaningless that when I think them I think of nothing. My mind is actually blank. The second thing, and this takes the sting out of it, is that I actually do have real thoughts and I will become aware of them as I allow the meaningless thoughts to be removed from my mind.

One is left wondering what it would be like to actually think, to have real thoughts. To discover the answer to this, we are given this lesson which tells us that our thoughts do not mean anything, and we are told that this will free us of all we now believe. Obviously, it is only my beliefs that keep me imprisoned in my own fantasy and now I have the key.

When I first did this lesson it was for the purpose of cracking open the door and letting a little light in. Today, I feel excited to think about doing this lesson and I see how I can use it to fully awaken if every time I have an ego thought that encourages the illusion, I simply remember that thought does not mean anything.