These thoughts do not mean anything. Today we begin a practice of meditation. The workbook lessons are guiding us, helping us to train our minds to meditate. And the first three lessons are: “Nothing I see means anything,” “I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me,” and “I do not understand anything I see.” These first three lessons are the very beginning of letting go of all meaning of what is perceived, all meaning of the linear perceived world of time and space. It’s like the first three lessons are opening the lid of a can, and then, as we peel that lid off, we are told these thoughts do not mean anything. So today’s lesson is the first lesson from Jesus that is addressing thoughts. The first three lessons’ addressed perception, and now, lesson number four addresses directly the thoughts of a sleeping mind. So, we now make the attempt to stop, and watch, and sink within toward “Be still and know that I am God”, toward the truth of our being. Move away from the temporary, the ephemeral, the fleeting, and inward towards certainty. Focus on this idea for today, “These thoughts do not mean anything.”
Depression
What Is the Ego Belief System?
This world was made to reinforce guilt; its only useful purpose is forgiveness. We want to remove the obstacles to the awareness of Love’s presence. The popular acronym for ego is “edging God out.” More exactly, the ego is a death wish, it is the belief that there is no God, it is the belief that Love is impossible, and it is the belief in separation. Some people ask, “What is the point of the ego?” The only answer is the ego doesn’t have a point. In fact, being an illusion is being unreal. Reality is the point. The ego is a denial of Reality.
Desire of Your Heart
Why hold on to a little autonomous role, even that of being a spiritual person? Nothing repetitive, no spiritual ritual, will take you to the holy instant. Only the desire of your heart will take you home. You can have a spontaneous Awakening just from following your intuition. What Jesus is saying in A Course in Miracles can be paraphrased as, “You can see this world without any help. But you need help to see another world. You need help to have spiritual vision. You need a lot of help to come back to remember who you are as the Christ. Yet you can see this world without help.”
Your Transcendent Life
The mind has become the slave of the body, doing meaningless things. You are a transcendent being. Use the body as a miracle worker for the glory of God, as a blessing for the whole universe. You are headed for joy and peace! In this illusion, the body has become the end—pleasure, comfort, and convenience are all for the body. In the Kingdom of Heaven, minds don’t work to give the body a life because there is no body to have a life. Everything is reversed here. Here, mind seems private and separate and has its own private thoughts and that it has to work out life.
Coming Into Consistent Right-Mindedness
In a world of opposites, forgiveness isn’t positive. In fact, “A Course in Miracles” states, “The miracle does nothing. All it does is to undo.” (T-28.I.1:1-2) So, we could even call a miracle a positive thing, in the sense that all it does is undo. The journey from the ego’s perspective is very disheartening, challenging, disconcerting, frustrating, irritating. In fact, a vast amount of the stages in the development of trust are very difficult to go through. With this forewarning, it is no surprise when the floor drops out and we experience intensity. But it is only inevitable that the floor will no longer drop. Eventually, we experience lasting stability in mind. This is no small gift.
Unworthiness and Miracles
Fear of experiencing miracles comes from our deep-seated unworthiness that we are not worthy of love. We need new experiences—miracles—that contradict our limited sense of self. We are afraid to drop the mask and experience our power because we think we misused our power and are afraid of experiencing it again. The ego would keep us small. So, “A Course in Miracles” reminds us of how worthy we are. You are worthy of experiencing miracles. The mind has a deep sense of being not worthy, but the Spirit is trustworthy and worthy of your trust in Him. The belief in being unworthy of love runs deep in the mind, but it is a worthy task to allow feelings of unworthiness to come up for healing. Healing is something you’re worthy of, and you can embrace your own self worth now.
Cause and Effect
Sadness is a form a depression. In “A Course in Miracles,” when Jesus talks about depression, he says that depression comes form being deprived of something you want and do not have, but we must remember that we are deprived of nothing except by our own decisions. We must decide otherwise. The ego will associate this feeling with a specific form, but the image is never the cause. Everything you experience is your decision. By contrast, the Holy Spirit is always calling you into present joy. There are no goodbyes in the holy instant. Follow guidance spontaneously.
From Fear to Love
In this “A Course in Miracles” Toowoomba, Australia gathering, David and his friend Rob discuss the journey from a point of fear to love. Overcome the grips of fear and forgiving, and open to the experience of God’s Love. When we discover what it takes to let go of the ego, there is an intense amount of fear. We are completely unaware of this fact in our normal lives because we have endless places to project it onto. Yet just having the willingness to go through the fear and open up to love is enough. We don’t need to be concerned with conquering the ego because we will be given all we need to walk through our fear. We’re even given brothers to walk through the fear with.
Following the Holy Spirit and Relationships
David explains how listening to and following the Holy Spirit brings peace and joy, as old relationships seem to be let go and new relationships that serve the Holy Spirit’s purpose come into awareness. Jesus says in A Course in Miracles that the only right use of judgment is asking yourself, “How do I feel?” If you start to get prompted to call certain people, and after the call you feel a certain vitality, then it shows the prompt came from the Holy Spirit. You listened, followed, and got the experience. If you find yourself being depressed, feeling fatigued or dispirited, and saying, “Wow, I’m glad I got that over with.” Then the prompts are coming in from guilt. All these relationships have guilt in them. Now the Holy Spirit is saying, the way out of the guilt is giving all the relationships to the Holy Spirit.
Body Image and True Desire
The world is set up as an identity substitution and the mask we wear as a body image is very shaky. People make a list of pros to try to offset the cons (negative feelings), but there’s an underlying fear. When you get down to the underpinnings, you can see that it’s taking a lot of energy to keep the mask in place, and it’s really not worth it. The ego has many tricks though, to make us believe that if I could just change this thing or that thing, I would be happy. We might think we would be happy if we could have our “ideal body image”, but it’s actually not true. Trying to create a perfect body image is an endless pursuit.
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