LESSON 21. I am determined to see things differently.

As the lesson says, it is obviously a continuation and an extension of Lesson 20. What is new here is the discussion of upset as attack.

Attack thoughts are those thoughts that go unquestioned by you that speak both of justification for your attack and justification for continuing the war between you and your brothers. With every thought you make either war or peace. It is not up to you to decide how to be in relation to your brothers. That is preordained. You, along with your brothers, comprise the body of Christ—the one mind or indivisible consciousness.

Attack thoughts are very simply a way of maintaining your belief in yourself as a separate individual. For who here would curse his foot for making him trip and fall? You would not, as you recognize your foot is is one with you. Anger is merely a way of drawing boundaries around yourself. These are of course imaginary boundaries as you could never actually be separate from your brothers. The lesson asks simply that you not attempt to project your responsibility for the wish to remain separate on your brother. If you do so, you are particularly unlikely to perceive your believing attention as the actual source of your upset.

We choose that which we wish to experience. If you choose to continue to experience a world wherein there are attackers and victims, the justified and the un-justified, justice and vengeance, you continue to ask for this type of conflict by focusing on the “wrongs” that have been perpetrated upon you by seeming others. If we recognize our true desire–to know oneness as the truth of our being–it becomes obvious that anger is a step in the wrong direction. The lesson would have us focus on the anger thoughts in our minds, no matter how slight, so that we can see how we continue to play out an old wish—to see something other than truth. Again, this lesson is an opportunity to see old habits as just that and to let them go that we may begin to consciously pursue our true desire.

Lesson 20, I am determined to see.

In this lesson,  Jesus tells us “Your decision to see is all that is required” to see.  We know that a decision is a thought in the mind that we have determined is worth giving our attention to.  Regina calls this casting attention.  So with today’s workbook lesson, we are taking beginning steps towards casting our attention differently.  Today we practice every half an hour casting our attention on the thought, “I am determined to see.”

Jesus goes on to tell us in this lesson “What you desire to see you will. Such is the real law of cause and effect as it operates in the world.”  If you read Jacquelyn’s tip from yesterday it said, “The truth is that the entirety of what IS conspires to give us the experience we would have.  It could not be otherwise.”

Regina makes the same point with idea of casting attention, “We always receive what we cast attention upon.  Casting attention is wanting and we always get what we want because getting what we want is the nature of what we are.”

Jesus tells us it is a decision and what you desire you will see, but one may ask, “Why should I be determined to see?  Why is it important?  And what is it that I am I determined to see?”  NTI Ephansians tells us that seeing is true desire. “Know your happiness by realizing your truth and operating in it according to true desire.”  The whole is awakening to the true desire of the mind and that desire is to know Thyself.

So being determined to see means becoming consciously aware of the desire to know ourselves and awaken.  Alan Watts tells us that “We are here to discover that current awakeness that each of us has, but we are not aware of because we live on the surface.” (The Spiritual Journey as the Self). So let’s dive deep; let’s be determined to see and know ourselves.

LESSON 19. I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.

Today’s lesson introduces the idea of “private thoughts.”

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.

I have been associated with spiritual communities that have made “no private thoughts” part of their ground rules. I applaud their enthusiasm, but it is important to understand that we need not set ground rules for things that occur whether we like it or not. The truth is, we are all incapable of having private thoughts, because the body of Christ (consciousness) is one. What we would keep secret can never be. By our every thought, we ask for that which we would experience. Because there is only one consciousness with absolute creative ability, what we ask for is returned to us through that same consciousness. As we are told in NTI Ephesians 3:

When you think you are thinking alone, you are not. Your thoughts, which are heard by your brothers, are answered through them. This is the law of Love. This is why all things are Love. Only Love exists. Every experience that is given you is unequivocally the gift of Love given in answer to your request for Love.

In Kabbalah, we are told that God is a process and we are the process that is God.

The closest we can come to thinking about God is as a process rather than a being. We can think of it as “be-ing,” as verb rather than noun. Perhaps it would help us understand this better if we renamed God. We might call it God-ing, as a process, rather than God, which suggests a noun. …

We can relate to God as an interactive verb. It is God-ing. Moreover, from this perspective, creation should not be treated as a noun. It too is an interactive verb; it is constantly creation-ing. And, dear reader, you should not treat yourself as a noun–as Joan, or Bill, or Barbara, or John. With regard to God as an interactive verb, you are also verbs; you are Joan-ing, Bill-ing, Barbara-ing, or John-ing in relation to God-ing, just as I am David-ing. Each part in the universe is in dynamic relationship with every other part.  (Rabbi David Cooper, “God is a Verb”).

NTI Ephesians 3 confirms we are the process of creation.

You are a being made in God’s image through the process of creation that is God. In this way, you are the same as He. The process that you are is what you are. It is your truth. It is how you live and exist. What you do through your mind is made and created, not alone, but in conjunction through oneness with your brothers. Your relationship with your brothers is so perfectly bound, free, and loving in its operation, that all you can truly give them is gratitude. For without your brothers, you would not be and you would not experience. Your very existence is extended and experienced through them.

As Regina Dawn Akers has said, “Love is spirit giving through spirit, to spirit, that which spirit requests.”

We are often told that everything that exists is One. If this is so, wouldn’t the one be the giver, receiver and the thing given? How could there be anything outside of this Oneness? How could there be a private mind outside of this Oneness? The truth is that the entirety of what is conspires to give us the experience we would have. It could not be otherwise. This is why there are no idle thoughts. This is why there are no private thoughts.

To assume we could have private thoughts is to deceive ourselves about the source of our experience. It is to assume there is something outside of us that could somehow be separate from us. In addition, it is to assume that there are thoughts of which we should be ashamed; thoughts that tell people more than we want them to know about us; thoughts that make us vulnerable. It is these thoughts we would keep private. The wish for private minds and private bodies is the wish for separation. Let go this wish and with full knowledge of the truth that there can be no private thoughts, choose carefully the thoughts which you would activate by casting your creative attention.

There is one body of Christ. There is one law that governs us all. That is the law of Love. In this law, we are blessed to receive as we have asked. We begin to ask for clarity on purpose, on truth and on love by giving attention to only those thoughts that speak of the same.

Lesson 18, I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing

I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing because of what NTI Ephesians calls The Law Of Love.  “Through Christ all are bound together and there is no separateness.  This is The Law Of Love.”  This is made clearer when Holy Spirit says, “You believe your thoughts are private and have no effects beyond the brain you see as yours.  All of this is illusion and a misunderstanding of what you are.”  What you are was “created, not alone, but in conjunction through oneness with your brothers.”

NTI Ephesians likens the totality of what we are to a body; each person is like a nerve ending in the body, which feeds back into the body’s central system.  This body is made up of mind and spirit. The mind is the great receiver and the spirit, is the great deliverer, which is to say you are the  receiver of thoughts. You are not thinking thoughts.  Remember, you are the caster of attention and as you cast your attention on the thoughts you receive, you re-activate those thoughts.  And when you re-activate them, the thoughts get sent back into the world.  Others receive your activated thoughts and then they cast their attention on them. The thoughts are activated again and it goes into the central system and gets received by still others. This is called the Loop of Experience.

If the effects of my seeing (casting attention) are hate thoughts or fear thoughts or guilty thoughts or thoughts of unworthiness, those effects are felt by the un-conscious receiver.  What the un-conscious receiver of thoughts fails to understand is that it is these unevaluated thoughts of hate, or fear, or guilt or unworthiness that are being cast and re-cast into the world that are creating the very problems they would like to see vanish from the world.

What we are here to do is to become more conscious.  So when you don’t take interest, cast attention, or re-activate thoughts you let it go for everyone.  You take a little piece of the world’s hate, fear, guilt or thoughts of unworthiness and make them disappear.  You are not sending it back into the oneness.  You are changing the effects that we all experience.

Lesson 17, I see no neutral things

This lesson is central to the Course’s goal of mind-training, what we have called reprogramming the brain. As we were told in yesterday’s lesson, given that the whole world is created and maintained by the thoughts upon which we cast our attention (“the thoughts we think we think”), there is no such thing as an idle thought. In addition, as we are reading in NTI Ephesians, there are no private thoughts because the creative attention we give to thought is fed back into the “central system” or the “mind” of the one.

My thoughts about anything are based upon what I think I know of that thing, person, circumstance from the past. Every pattern, concept, judgment I use to interpret the things I perceive carries with it all the prejudices, emotions and intellectual “understanding” I have garnered from the past. Not only do I continue to operate in a way that is consistent with my past “learning,” I continue to feed what I think I have learned back into the collective consciousness. (Note: I sometimes find it helpful to think of the one mind in this way—as collective consciousness. However, this description is flawed in that it suggests that consciousness is something that is formed by collecting together the many when, in reality, there is only one consciousness).

The lesson begins:

This idea is another step in the direction of identifying cause and effect as it really operates in the world. You see no neutral things because you have no neutral thoughts. It is always the thought that comes first, despite the temptation to believe that it is the other way around. This is not the way the world thinks, but you must learn that it is the way you think. If it were not so, perception would have no cause, and would itself be the cause of reality. In view of its highly variable nature, this is hardly likely.

We are reprogramming our mind (and the mind of collective consciousness) to see that those thoughts upon which we place our creative attention are the cause of the world we see. With this knowledge, we are motivated to see the results of those thoughts (the images of the world) not as evidence of reality or “how things really are,” but as a guide to the ideas we have allowed to flourish in our world by continuing to think them. Lesson 16 emphasized this point:

Besides your recognizing that thoughts are never idle, salvation requires that you also recognize that every thought you have brings either peace or war; either love or fear. A neutral result is impossible because a neutral thought is impossible. There is such a temptation to dismiss fear thoughts as unimportant, trivial and not worth bothering about that it is essential you recognize them all as equally destructive, but equally unreal. We will practice this idea in many forms before you really understand it.

If cause and effect were reversed, the images we see in the world would indeed be the cause of our experience. The images we see in the world would not be subject to change by changing our thoughts about them. Indeed, we would be the relatively powerless victims we have imagined ourselves to be, who can make very little impact on the world, who seemingly have little power to relieve the suffering we see “out there” and within ourselves. That is not who we are. We do hold the creative power, not only to change the world we see, but to let that world be entirely undone.

The emphasis for those of us who have embarked on this journey to Truth is on the undoing – the atonement (correction) – of the misperception of who we are in relation to the world and in relation to each other. The first step in this journey is seeing the power of our thoughts. We begin to undo the world by recognizing what we have done. “I see no neutral things, because I have no neutral thoughts.” We will not try to have neutral thoughts. That is impossible. All thoughts to which we give creative attention have effects—in fact that is the very point we are taught in this lesson. Rather, by seeing that we have created the world, we give our willingness to see beyond the illusions we have created to the truth of our being.

Workbook Lesson 16, I have no neutral thoughts

Here are some definitions to consider while contemplating NTI Ephesians, especially chapters 3 & 4:

mind – a conscious substratum or factor in the universe; a complex of elements that feels, perceives, thinks, wills and especially reasons. (Note: A “complex” is a whole made up of complicated or interrelated parts. One definition of “reasons” is the sum of intellectual powers.)

spirit – an activating or essential principle that influences

Christ = consciousness. consciousness – the totality of conscious states (Note: A “state” is a mode or condition of being.)

This week’s reading is worthy of deep contemplation, and is highly related to today’s workbook lesson. Today’s workbook lesson says, “There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of ‘idle thoughts.’ What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle. Every thought you have contributes to truth or to illusion; either it extends the truth or it multiplies illusions.”

NTI Ephesians likens the totality of what we are to a body. It is as if each person is like a nerve ending in the body, which feeds back into the body’s central mechanism.

According to NTI Ephesians, this body is made up of mind and spirit, which really cannot be separated but are spoken of separately in order to help us gain understanding. The “mind” is referred to as “the great receiver.” The “spirit” is the great deliver. We are also told that each individual is a microcosm of this same mode of functioning.

Since we perceive ourselves as individuals, it is probably easier to look at this from the individual perspective first.

“Mind is the great receiver.” On an individual basis, this means that the thoughts that come into your mind are not really thought by you. They are received from the mind (the central system) of the totality. This is why yesterday’s workbook lesson said “you think you think.” You do not think thoughts. You receive thoughts, and then you either cast attention on them or you don’t.

When you receive a thought, the first decision that is made is whether this thought is worth attention or not. If it is decided that the thought is worth attention, attention is given. Attention is spirit, an activating agent. Once you cast attention onto a thought that has been received by mind, that thought is re-activated and sent back into the central system where it can be delivered as an influencing agent throughout consciousness. (Note: NTI calls the totality “Christ”, but “consciousness” is the appropriate non-religious term.)

So if we put this all together, here is an example of how this ‘loop’ works.

I receive a thought of attack in my mind. Maybe it shows up as a thought about the president or a thought about his protestors. I decide that thought is worthy of my attention and I cast attention on that thought. By casting attention on the thought, I reactivate the spirit of the thought, which is attack. This sends the spirit of attack back into the central system and it is redistributed upon the totality. It shows up in many ways: It shows up in the minds of others as attack thoughts, who most often will strengthen it by casting attention upon it; it shows up as violence and war on the world scene; it shows up as cancer in bodies; it shows up as one animal killing another for survival; it shows up as weeds taking over a landscape killing all of the other plants; it shows up as a violent storm, etc.

Or as another example, I receive a right-minded thought in my mind, like the thought to rest, accept and trust. This time, I decide this thought is worthy of my attention, and I cast attention deeply and consciously upon it. This idea of resting from false thoughts is blessed with the activating agent of my spirit and sent back to the central system. It is redistributed upon the totality and shows up in a variety of ways. Someone is given a spiritual book by a friend, and it ignites a new curiosity. Another who has been struggling in the spiritual path intellectually has his/her first genuine realization from within, and the spark of truth-seeking is reignited with new vigor; another person awakens; another begins teaching from the flow of spontaneous wisdom; a female lion feels compassion for an injured calf and protects it so it can heal in peace; a forest that was burnt down begins to regrow; a woman’s cancer spontaneously heals; a scientist suddenly realizes a cure for a disease that has plagued humans for generations; a polluted atmosphere begins to spontaneously regenerate itself, a new beautiful song comes through a young songwriter, etc.

NTI says there is a shift occurring. It is a shift from wanting something different than truth to wanting to know our truth. It also says, “Determine where within the the shift you choose to be and join the operation of the body there.”

There are no neutral thoughts. How will you cast attention?

Lesson 15, My thoughts are images which I have made.

For the past two weeks, we have been learning to see how we create our own experience by casting our attention. That is, some thought comes into our awareness and we imbue it with energy (give it life so to speak) by casting our attention on the thought. As we said, the first decision in this creative process is, this thought deserves my attention. We further enliven the thought by what gets added on after we accept the initial thought. From there, attention goes more deeply into the idea and makes additional judgments. Regardless of what those follow on decisions are, they lead deeper into the game of that thought and that thought becomes a ‘real’ part of my ‘world.’

The images referred to in this lesson are the things of this world. They are those things we perceive. But there is no difference in “things” and “thoughts.” All that exists is one–what can exist outside of oneness? Thus, all that we experience, including the objects within our experience have been created in the way described in NTI Romans. As NTI Ephesians, Chapter 2 explains,

Your mind is of God. This we have already established. Being of God, it is the same as God. This is the law of which we speak. The law of God is the law of mind. This can also be called the law of thought. And being the law of freedom, it is the law of Love. It is the law through which you live. …

The Christ shall be the symbol for the law, for through the Christ the ones that seemed many are one. Through this law the ones that seem many are one. And in fact, they have always been one, as they are bound as one through the law.

It is true that the Christ is the chief cornerstone on which the foundation and the building are built. This is why all is one. It is because it is through no other process that that which is built can be built. Call it an agreement, but it is not an agreement. It is the law of the nature of truth. But from your perspective, it seems like an agreement that is bound through the law of Love. This is the agreement, which is also law:

All that you are, you are through creation. All that you be, you be through creation also. In this way, thought is alive and serves as your creative force through your brothers, who serve you as you serve them.

Thus, we learn that the experience we create is shared with the entire world, which keeps passing the experience around through the process of unevaluated believing (casting attention). NTI Ephesians teaches,

You perceive yourself as a person, but you are not what you perceive yourself to be. You believe your thoughts are private and have no affect beyond the brain you see as yours. All of this is illusion and a misunderstanding of what you are.

Once you cast attention onto a thought that has been received by mind, that thought is re-activated and sent back into the one mind that we are. “What you do through your mind is made and created, not alone, but in conjunction with your brothers.” Thus, the thought, its energy and its effects are delivered as an influencing agent throughout consciousness.

We now begin to see the monumental service upon which we have embarked. Somewhere, sometime, someone needs to begin evaluating the thoughts that are received and deciding if attention should be cast there or not. And that someone is me. That time is now. It happens here.

Lesson 14, God did not create a meaningless world

When one does this workbook lesson, it is helpful to do it with the attitude of wanting to uncover false beliefs and see through them to truth/reality.

However, seeing through false beliefs is not the same as denial and repression. Denial and repression come from fear. This attitude avoids looking too hard and denies feeling/experience to the best of its ability. It is the attitude that has become cliché regarding the ACIM or non-duality student: A person’s family member dies and the ACIM/non-dual student says, “He/she was just an illusion anyway.”

That misguided form of denial is not what we are after with this workbook lesson. We seek truth by seeing through illusion.

Today’s lesson says, “The world you see has nothing to do with reality.  It is of your own making, and it does not exist.”

You aren’t denying that the ‘horrors’ are experienced, because they are.  You are simply denying that they are truth or reality.  Realize war is experienced, but experience is not reality.  In order to see what is real, first you must remove your belief that the horrors are reality.

Bryon Katie imparts a similar message in her teachings. Her message is that your suffering is not based on reality.  She doesn’t say you aren’t suffering.  She doesn’t say you didn’t have an experience, but she does say there is another way of looking at your experience.

The mind is the cause of the world and I am not the world’s victim.   I am not in the world, the world is in my mind.  The world is not external.  The lesson says “The idea for today is another step in learning to let go the thoughts that you have written on the world, and see the Word of God in their place.”

“What God did not create can only be in your own mind apart from His.  Therefore, it has no meaning.”  Something else is reality.  You can choose to give the thoughts and the world another purpose.  God’s purpose. You can choose to focus on your true desire, which is to see the truth. Have the willingness to see right through suffering to truth. Have the curiosity, “What is real?” Let that curiosity grow in you so that it becomes a motivating force within you.

In short, do not deny that experience is experienced, but be intensely curious to see and know truth.