Lesson 45
God is the Mind with which I think.
W-pI.45.1. Today’s idea holds the key to what your real thoughts are. 2 They are nothing that you think you think, just as nothing that you think you see is related to vision in any way. 3 There is no relationship between what is real and what you think is real. 4 Nothing that you think are your real thoughts resemble your real thoughts in any respect. 5 Nothing that you think you see bears any resemblance to what vision will show you.
If the lessons are new to you, it must have been startling to be told that nothing you see with your eyes is real and that your eyes aren’t real either and cannot see. I mean, what do you do with that? Jesus gave us the answer to that yesterday when he told us that we see with God. Real seeing is called vision in the Course and it is not a function of the eyes but of the mind. We have vision available to us all the time because it is of God and God is in us and we can reach the Light (God) through meditation.
If what we see with our eyes was strange, the fact that what we believe are our thoughts are not really our thoughts might be disquieting. Our minds are filled with noise that we call our thoughts and yet, this chatter is not really our thoughts, they are the ego thoughts and are meaningless. The good news is that like our ‘seeing’ has an alternative, these thoughtless ideas can be replaced with the thoughts we think with God.
W-pI.45.2. You think with the Mind of God. 2 Therefore you share your thoughts with Him, as He shares His with you. 3 They are the same thoughts, because they are thought by the same Mind. 4 To share is to make alike, or to make one. 5 Nor do the thoughts you think with the Mind of God leave your mind, because thoughts do not leave their source. 6 Therefore, your thoughts are in the Mind of God, as you are. 7 They are in your mind as well, where He is. 8 As you are part of His Mind, so are your thoughts part of His Mind.
What an extraordinary paragraph this is! We think with the Mind of God. We think with the Mind of God! We share thoughts, God and I. What I experience in the world is a reflection of those thoughts. For instance, I feel love toward someone and this is a reflection of the Thought of Love that I share with God. I behave with compassion and kindness toward others and that is a reflection of the Thought of Love that I share with God.
The thoughts I think with God do not live my mind because thoughts leave not their source and my mind is one with the Mind of God. No matter how confused I am in this world, and no matter how I obscure these Thoughts, they remain in my mind as they remain in the Mind of God. Another way I see this idea of thoughts not leaving their source is that I am a Thought in the Mind of God and this cannot change because thoughts leave not their source.
W-pI.45.3. Where, then, are your real thoughts? 2 Today we will attempt to reach them. 3 We will have to look for them in your mind, because that is where they are. 4 They must still be there, because they cannot have left their source. 5 What is thought by the Mind of God is eternal, being part of creation.
My real thoughts are not in my split mind, they are in my holy mind, or I might say that they are in the Christ Mind. Because they have not left their source, I can find them and that is what we are learning to do.
W-pI.45.4. Our three five-minute practice periods for today will take the same general form that we used in applying yesterday’s idea. 2 We will attempt to leave the unreal and seek for the real. 3 We will deny the world in favor of truth. 4 We will not let the thoughts of the world hold us back. 5 We will not let the beliefs of the world tell us that what God would have us do is impossible. 6 Instead, we will try to recognize that only what God would have us do is possible.
The ego-mind insists that this is not possible and tries to prevent it. But Jesus reminds us that nothing can hold us back and that He would not give us an impossible task. What we do is deny the unreal and seek the real. We deny the world in favor of the truth. I sometimes have the experience of seemingly unrelated thoughts coming into my mind. If these are thoughts of grievances or judgments, fear or guilt thoughts, I look at them with the Holy Spirit so they can be undone. Sometimes there are thoughts that are really just nonsense chatter for the most part. That is the resistance of the ego-mind. It is distraction. I look at these too, with the Holy Spirit, and let them go.
Then if that doesn’t stop me, thoughts that seem to be important come into my mind and I might be tempted to stop and take care of this important task. But that is just further distraction and I ask the Holy Spirit to remind me later of anything that needs my attention. The ego’s last-ditch effort is to insist that I can’t do this, that the thoughts will just keep coming, and that I don’t have any way to stop them. But I don’t have to stop them; I can look at them without judgment and then let those thoughts alone. I will do that because I want to find my real thoughts, the thoughts that reflect truth.
W-pI.45.5. We will also try to understand that only what God would have us do is what we want to do. 2 And we will also try to remember that we cannot fail in doing what He would have us do. 3 There is every reason to feel confident that we will succeed today. 4 It is the Will of God.
It is the Will of God that we be happy and that we be in full communication with each other and with Him. This is a step toward the fulfillment of His Will so we cannot fail. Even if it feels like we failed to find our real thoughts, we did not fail. Failure is not possible and it is only an ego thought that we did. That we made the effort will make the next effort easier and more likely to bring us exactly what we seek, so we cannot think of it as a failure. And we might succeed this time. It is entirely possible. If I feel reluctant to believe this, I give that thought to the Holy Spirit, too.
W-pI.45.6. Begin the exercises for today by repeating the idea to yourself, closing your eyes as you do so. 2 Then spend a fairly short period in thinking a few relevant thoughts of your own, keeping the idea in mind. 3 After you have added some four or five thoughts of your own to the idea, repeat it again and tell yourself gently:
4 My real thoughts are in my mind. 5 I would like to find them.
6 Then try to go past all the unreal thoughts that cover the truth in your mind, and reach to the eternal.
W-pI.45.7. Under all the senseless thoughts and mad ideas with which you have cluttered up your mind are the thoughts that you thought with God in the beginning. 2 They are there in your mind now, completely unchanged. 3 They will always be in your mind, exactly as they always were. 4 Everything you have thought since then will change, but the Foundation on which it rests is wholly changeless.
Look how carefully Jesus prepares us to succeed. He assures us that the thoughts that we thought with God in the beginning are still in our mind, completely unchanged. We have not done anything in the world that has affected who we really are. Our untrue thoughts have changed everything we experience here, but they cannot change creation and we are creation. We will succeed because all we need to succeed is in our mind and we have all the Help we need to find them.
W-pI.45.8. It is this Foundation toward which the exercises for today are directed. 2 Here is your mind joined with the Mind of God. 3 Here are your thoughts one with His. 4 For this kind of practice only one thing is necessary; approach it as you would an altar dedicated in Heaven to God the Father and to God the Son. 5 For such is the place you are trying to reach. 6 You will probably be unable as yet to realize how high you are trying to go. 7 Yet even with the little understanding you have already gained, you should be able to remind yourself that this is no idle game, but an exercise in holiness and an attempt to reach the Kingdom of Heaven.
When I read this paragraph, I cry. I am so touched by his words. This practice is an exercise in holiness and we are trying to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. Where is this Kingdom? It must be within my mind because that is where I am instructed to look. Jesus talks about an altar dedicated to God the Father and God the Son. He tells us in the Text that altars are devotions.
I used to be devoted to the ego and then I was divided in my devotions and this is a really uncomfortable place to be. Over time, I have looked with the Holy Spirit at the beliefs that were in opposition to the truth and released them. Now I am devoted to God. Only once in a while do I turn back to the altar we erected for the ego, but I don’t worship there anymore. It is a bleak and dreary place and doesn’t call to me like it used to.
W-pI.45.9. In the shorter exercise periods for today, try to remember how important it is to you to understand the holiness of the mind that thinks with God. 2 Take a minute or two, as you repeat the idea throughout the day, to appreciate your mind’s holiness. 3 Stand aside, however briefly, from all thoughts that are unworthy of Him Whose host you are. 4 And thank Him for the Thoughts He is thinking with you.
Earlier in the lessons, Jesus suggests that we approach everything with love, appreciation, and openmindedness. This is the very attitude I use for this lesson. I am profoundly grateful for the lesson that will return me to the Kingdom. I am profoundly grateful that creation is eternal and cannot be affected by my dreams of separation and that all I need to return Home is given me. My mind is open and receptive to this help.