This is the first idea we have had that is related to a major phase of the correction process; the reversal of the thinking of the world. It seems as if the world determines what you perceive. Today’s idea introduces the concept that your thoughts determine the world you see. Be glad indeed to practice the idea in its initial form, for in this idea is your release made sure. The key to forgiveness lies in it.
My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.
The difference between this exercise and the past exercise is that the lesson begins with the more specific “my thoughts” rather than the more generalized, “these thoughts”. According to ACIM, “The emphasis is now on the lack of reality of what you think you think.” Not only are the thoughts outside of us meaningless. So are the thoughts within us. The presence of these meaningless thoughts means we are not thinking. Our mind, in reality, is blank.
This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe.
This idea obviously follows from the two preceding ones. But while you may be able to accept it intellectually, it is unlikely that it will mean anything to you as yet. However, understanding is not necessary at this point. In fact, the recognition that you do not understand is a prerequisite for undoing your false ideas. These exercises are concerned with practice, not with understanding. You do not need to practice what you already understand. It would indeed be circular to aim at understanding, and assume that you have it already.
That’s reasonable. It’s impossible to teach something new to someone who thinks they already understand everything. That’s why it is so important to maintain an open mind. (Although not so open your brains fall out.)
Marianne Williamson says of this lesson that we are often so filled with baggage and scripts about what has happened before that we can’t see a situation as it is now. We are unable to live in the present with all of that baggage. Every day is different so don’t bring yesterday’s drama into today. Let today be different.
This idea is, of course, the reason why you see only the past. No one really sees anything. He sees only his thoughts projected outward. The mind’s preoccupation with the past is the cause of the misconception about time from which your seeing suffers. Your mind cannot grasp the present, which is the only time there is. It therefore cannot understand time, and cannot, in fact, understand anything.
The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here. To think about it at all is therefore to think about illusions. Very few have realized what is actually entailed in picturing the past or in anticipating the future. The mind is actually blank when it does this, because it is not really thinking about anything.
This created a fairly involved conversation with my husband who has been a long-time student of Buddhism. He says this is a concept he has encountered before, just not exactly in this way. “Your mind cannot grasp the present, which is the only time there is.” From a Buddhist perspective, you are asked to empty your mind in order to “see” reality. But Course is possibly offering a much more practical approach in terms of the Western mindset. We are enamored by rational thought in the west and have a tendency to hold on to our thoughts as reality more so than do traditional Eastern cultures. So Course approaches this tendency rationally – and it is rational: “The only wholly true thought one can think about the past is that it is not here.”
Think about this a minute. We all know that when we observe the sun, the moon, or the stars, we don’t see them as they are now because it takes a while for light to travel. When we look at the sun, we see it as it was 8.31 minutes ago, not as it is now, because it is 8.31 light minutes from the earth. It takes 8.31 minutes for us to feel the sunbeams that travel from the sun. We aren’t experiencing the sun as it is now, either. We are experiencing it from the past. The same is true if you are petting a dog. You don’t experience the sensation instantaneously. There is a gap between the time you touch the dog and register the experience. The experience actually exists in the past.
To complicate matters even more, as was indicated in a previous lesson, we experience things based upon our past perceptions. My husband used a good example: You see a boulder on the side of the road and assume it is heavy because your past experience of boulders is that they are heavy. But for some reason, you decide to pick up the boulder and realize it is made out of styrofoam and isn’t heavy at all. What you thought was a boulder was based upon past perception, not it’s actual reality. The same is true of people. We often have an immediate reaction to people based on our past perceptions of other people.
The older we get, the more we realize that our perceptions can’t always be trusted, which is why people claim that often, wisdom comes with old age. You begin to know that you don’t know. And if the only rational truth we can actually hold on to about the past is that it is not here, then every other rational understanding is necessarily illusory at some level. This doesn’t make it non-important. We do feel the sun on our skin and physical laws continue to apply. It simply points to the fact that rational thought (which applies to physical laws) is nested within something larger than itself. It isn’t all there is.
When I first encountered this lesson, it created a HUGE shift in my understanding. When it said, “look at a cup”, I picked up my coffee cup and literally looked at it.
Do you see a cup, or are you merely reviewing your past experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of a cup against your lips, having breakfast, falling to the floor and breaking, and so on?
If you had never seen a cup before, would you know what it is for? If so, how? Based on past experiences of similar items, right? You don’t see the cup as it is, you see it according to your experiences of it, which are always in the past. If you only know what the cup “is” based on your past experiences, do you actually see it?
No. We see only the past because we project our past experiences onto the present. ACIM says that this idea is particularly difficult to believe at first. Yet it is the rationale for all of the preceding ones.
It is the reason why nothing that you see means anything.
It is the reason why you have given everything you see all the meaning that it has for you.
It is the reason why you do not understand anything you see.
It is the reason why your thoughts do not mean anything, and why they are like the things you see.
It is the reason why you are never upset for the reason you think.
It is the reason why you are upset because you see something that is not there.
Everything we believe is rooted in time. We believe we see a cup because our belief is rooted in time.
The exercises with this idea are very similar to the preceding ones. Again, it is necessary to name both the form of upset (anger, fear, worry, depression and so on) and the perceived source very specifically for any application of the idea.
That last one finally made the whole exercise make sense. There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind.
Apparently, Robert Skutch was married to Judith Skutch, He talked about himself in the third person which was kind of weird. A lot of Journey Without Distance was weird to me. It seemed like an advertisement for ACIM, which I suppose would make sense because Robert Skutch once wrote advertising copy for a living. I found it to be so overly simplistic that I know had I read this before I had actually studied ACIM on my own, I would have thought of ACIM as nothing more than a cheap new age philosophy.
Here is an example from p. 120: “Judy made a short speech of thanks for all the miracles that had happened to allow the books to be born in the way they had. Starting with Helen’s images and the Voice, she went straight through the list all the way down to the miracle of how the publishing of the books had been financed. And as she held the three volumes in her hands, she – and everyone else in the room – knew without a doubt that through listening to their inner voices, A Course in Miracles had been beautifully guided to its perfect birth.
Everyone in the room knew without a doubt? Beautifully guided to its perfect birth? Blechy new age marketing.
Needless to say, I don’t exactly trust the content of this book. I was left wondering if perhaps the main players that Skutch talks about had taken serious advantage of Helen Schucman? That tends to happen to geniuses. People often exploit them or undermine them in some devious way for their own gain. I’m not saying that happened, just that I had never considered it until after reading this book.
A lot of people recommend Journey Without Distance as the perfect introduction to A Course in Miracles. Personally, I think you would be much better off studying the text on your own for a while (or with a group) before reading Skutch’s book, my blog, or anything else for that matter. I think it is very important to form your own opinion about any spiritual discipline, then compare your opinion to the opinions of others.
There are no small upsets.
They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind.
The last time I did these lessons, we had a neighbor who liked to listen to the football game from his truck radio very loudly on Saturday mornings while he was working in the garage. It could be heard clearly through our bedroom window and muffled through our den which ruined my wonderful Saturday morning reading sessions. The reason it upset me was because I encountered an internal battle. If I were a “nice, sweet” person, it wouldn’t have bothered me. But it did.
I don’t like being thought of as a controlling bitch. I want to be sweet and nice. So I never once said anything about how loud this man’s radio was, completely resenting the poor guy the entire time he lived next door to us. The problem, of course, wasn’t my neighbor or his radio blaring from the driveway. The problem was that I was wrapped up in my image, and that image was based upon expectations set in my past.
When I was a girl, I used to pray to God to make me “sweet”. I’d make New Year’s resolutions about it and remind myself every morning, “today I am going to be sweet” (which meant meek and mild). Of course, I never figured out how to make it happen. But the fact that I’m not sweet still upsets me.
This thought about ___ does not mean anything.
It is like the things I see in this room [on this street, and so on].
* This thought about my throat constantly hurting does not mean anything.
* This thought about my son driving safely does not mean anything.
* This thought about the cats being hungry does not mean anything.
* this thought about what to cook for dinner does not mean anything.
* This thought about actually liking cauliflower soup does not mean anything.
* This thought about why my husband gaseped does not mean anything.
* This thought about my foot not hurting at the moment does not mean anything.
* This thought about how squeaky our floors are does not mean anything.
* This thought about wishing I could get rid of our crappy carpet does not mean anything.
* This thought that the plants might need watering does not mean anything.
* This thought that I wish it would rain does not mean anything.
* This thought about how much rain we have had does not mean anything.
* This thought about what it would be like to have a drought does not mean anything.
It thoughts go on and on and on and on.
To be repeated no more than three or four times during the day.
The point of the exercises is to help you clear your mind of all past associations, to see things exactly as they appear to you now, and to realize how little you really understand about them. It is therefore essential that you keep a perfectly open mind, unhampered by judgment, in selecting the things to which the idea for the day is to be applied. For this purpose one thing is like another; equally suitable and therefore equally useful.
* I do not understand that plant.
* I do not understand that Van Gogh print.
* I do not understand that cat.
* I do not understand those tiles.
* I do not understand that fan.
* I do not understand that blackboard.
* I do not understand that oven.
* I do not understand those curtains.
I do not understand anything I see in this room.
I do not understand anything I see through that window.
I do not understand anything I see.
