Lesson 19

Lesson 19

I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.

The idea for today is obviously the reason why your seeing does not affect you alone. You will notice that at times the ideas related to thinking precede those related to perceiving, while at other times the order is reversed. The reason is that the order does not matter. Thinking and its results are really simultaneous, for cause and effect are never separate.

Today we are again emphasizing the fact that minds are joined. This is rarely a wholly welcome idea at first, since it seems to carry with it an enormous sense of responsibility, and may even be regarded as an “invasion of privacy.” Yet it is a fact that there are no private thoughts. Despite your initial resistance to this idea, you will yet understand that it must be true if salvation is possible at all. And salvation must be possible because it is the Will of God.

The minute or so of mind searching which today’s exercises require is to be undertaken with eyes closed. The idea for today is to be repeated first, and then the mind should be carefully searched for the thoughts it contains at that time. As you consider each one, name it in terms of the central person or theme it contains, and holding it in your mind as you do so, say:

I am not alone in experiencing the effects of this thought about _______.

The requirement of as much indiscriminateness as possible in selecting subjects for the practice periods should be quite familiar to you by now, and will no longer be repeated each day, although it will occasionally be included as a reminder. Do not forget, however, that random selection of subjects for all practice periods remains essential throughout. Lack of order in this connection will ultimately make the recognition of lack of order in miracles meaningful to you.

Apart from the “as needed” application of today’s idea, at least three practice periods are required, shortening the length of time involved, if necessary. Do not attempt more than four.

 Journal

With the very first thought that came to mind, I had two immediate and strong responses. The first was that this thought is creating effects and I am experiencing them. Is this something I want to sustain? Do I want these effects in my life? I already knew that my experiences come from my thoughts, but looking at the thoughts one at a time like this made this idea real in a different way.

I was aware of the emotional response to that thought and I could see what it was going to do to my life if I continued to believe it. The ego mind didn’t see a way out of believing it, but Spirit reminded me that it was just a thought. Thought has power only if I believe it and choose to keep it. I can just as easily accept the opposite thought as true. This is what I did.

The second response was the realization that this thought, if believed, would produce effects that would touch all of the Sonship. Jesus was right when he said it seems to carry with it an enormous sense of responsibility. That was exactly what it felt like to me. But, while it is a responsibility, it is also an opportunity.

When I notice a dark thought in my mind, I have a choice to make. I can keep that thought and continue to believe it, and thus empower it, or I can use this opportunity to enlighten not just my mind, but also our shared mind. This is my purpose, after all, and I can choose to be glad of it just as easily as choosing to feel burdened by it.

Past Entries

I am not alone in experiencing the effects of seeing. I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts. I am not alone. And there is no separation in my thoughts and what I see. Cause and effect are never separate. Thank you, God, for that. You are my Cause and I am your effect and we can never be separate.

I am one with all of my brothers and sisters. I have said that since I started the study of A Course in Miracles, but at some point, I began to believe it. It is shifting from a concept I want to believe, and becoming my experience. Not completely. Not yet. I still push against it at times and so it is not yet my experience, but I always notice when I am resisting it and I realize that resistance is futile (as the Borg say ~smile~).

I can pretend that I am separate from my brothers and from God, but I cannot make it true, and pretending to be separate is lonely and frightening. I pray that this thing I have done be undone for me, in spite of the ego fear of oneness. The ego mind wants to be alone, but I am not the ego. I am remembering what I am.

I was thinking of the last time I insisted I was separate from someone and I realized that I do this in many little ways all day long. It would be discouraging if I didn’t realize that I have so much help. The idea of minds being joined is never entirely welcome to us as we realize that this means that we have no private thoughts.

The idea of privacy and private thoughts are part of the separation belief. If I am part of the whole, part of God, an aspect of Self, how could I think alone? How could I see alone? There is no alone if all is one. What would we be alone from? Even the bit of progress I have made in accepting this fact has changed everything about the way I live my life.

I now treat others as I would want to be treated, because how I treat everyone is how I treat myself. Well, I do that most of the time, and when I fail to remember that I am one with all, I notice it quickly because it feels so wrong. I think that I notice it because it feels like I was unkind to myself, and that, of course, is exactly the case.