Workbook Lesson 13, A meaningless world engenders fear

Today’s lesson shares an idea that is really important for anyone who wants to awaken beyond the ego point-of-view.

“The ego rushes in frantically to establish its own ideas … fearful that the void may otherwise be used to demonstrate its own impotence and unreality. And on this alone it is correct. It is essential, therefore, that you learn to recognize the meaningless, and accept it without fear.”

This also tells us how we “unweave” our way out of fantasy. (Reference NTI Romans, Chapter 3.)

Politics, relationships, spiritual discussions and more present us with wonderful opportunities to see the opinions and beliefs we want to cling to and defend. If we pay close attention we can feel the energy arise within that “I must make this point,” “prove that I am right” or get the other one to “see it my way.” This energy is the ego rushing in frantically to establish its own ideas so that it remains potent, seeming real and ‘me.’

If we want to unweave our way out of fantasy, it is “essential, therefore, that you learn to recognize the meaningless, and accept it without fear.” In other words, feel that energy rushing forth inside of us and do nothing to satisfy it. Hold back on our opinion. Do not try to prove we are right. Let the other have their point of view. Etc.

Feel the ego squirm. Rest, accept and trust. Let it squirm. Do nothing. The threads are pulled out of the ego tapestry as we become comfortable with not placing meaning on everything we perceive.

Note: One fun exercise today might be to write down the things that seem important to you, the things you’ve noticed yourself feeling fired up about recently, and then look at the list you have written and say to yourself, “I am looking at a meaningless world. A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God.” This may help you to rest, accept and trust instead of rushing forth with opinions and defense in those same or similar circumstances in the future.

Lesson 12, I am upset because I see a meaningless world

We think that what upsets us are the “horrible” things that we know about the world, but Jesus says right in this lesson, “What you see does not matter.” He  says, “You teach yourself this as you give whatever your glance rests on equal attention and equal time. This is a beginning step in learning to give them all equal value.” Giving them all equal value means giving them all no value at all. This is what this lesson is reinforcing for us.

NTI Luke told us that everything is given meaning by the thinker.  We make an unevaluated judgment about something and then that is the meaning it has for us.  We then experience the effects of the unevaluated judgment we have made.  This is a very simple summary of how we go about creating our experience, through one unevaluated judgment after another. We then take an unevaluated judgment and reapply it when a similar set of circumstances arise. Thus, our experience comes from our own decisions based on the meaning we have given to the meaningless.

We make decisions by casting attention. Thoughts come into the mind. We do not actually “think” them.  They appear.  Some of them seem to capture our interest, and we cast attention on them.  Typically, casting attention is followed by a value judgment or decision.  The first value judgment or decision is simply, “This idea is meaningful.”  From there attention goes more deeply into ideas and makes additional judgments.  Thus, NTI Romans says “Judgment is a web of meaningless thoughts.”

Be aware that healing occurs through recognition (seeing) and resting. That is your job in healing. Clear awareness does the rest. (Clear awareness can be equated to the Holy Spirit.)

Rest, Accept and Trust (RAT) is a simple reminder of your job in the healing process.

1. 1. Rest the mind by withdrawing your attention/belief from obsessive thinking. If that is challenging, try positive healing-focused self-talk such as, “Ok, just breathe now. Take a deep breath. Now another. This is okay. This is coming up now because I have decided to heal. I want to heal. And in order to heal, things must come up. I am happy this is here, but I do not want to give it my attention. I want to rest attention away from this so it can be healed. I will focus attention on my breath. I trust healing is happening. I am happy for this opportunity.” Etcetera, or something similar.
   2. Accept the feeling. Allow it to be. Realize that as this feeling comes into awareness and is seen, it is healing. Stay out of the way. Do not try to change anything. It is just a feeling, an emotional energy and nothing more. Let it be as it is. Be grateful that healing is mysteriously occurring.
   3. Trust that healing is occurring. You have done your part by resting and accepting. Clear awareness (God, Holy Spirit) is taking care of everything else. You have gotten out of the way so healing can happen. That is all you were asked to do.

In summary, I’m upset because I have made judgments. These judgments have arisen because I have allowed my attention to become focused on thoughts that seem to pop into the mind and that I give credence to.  Jesus says that they are meaningless and I wouldn’t be upset if I let the truth be written upon the world for me—if I quit deciding what things, situations and people mean and casting my attention upon those decisions. So, all the meaningless thoughts being equally of no value means they aren’t horrible; they just are not true.  Therefore, the horror (or sorrow, or hatred, etc.) is removed because I know my thoughts aren’t real and I don’t have to play the game by casting my attention on thoughts that participate in the fantasy. Instead, I can rest, accept/allow and trust. Jesus promises learning to do so, will make me indescribably happy.

LESSON 11. My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.

This lesson begins with these weighty words: “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.”  The decision to believe without basis was the first error and remains the fundamental error. Judgment is defined as the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. (Wikipedia). NTI Romans explains that we had the wish to experience the answer to the question “What if nothing was as it is?” Though we had the option to laugh at this absurd thought, we looked upon experience and decided to see it as evidence that we had actually changed something.

Deciding to believe the false “evidence” presented to us by what we created made and maintains the world we now seem to see. To continue to look there for evidence as to what we are and how we are to be is to continue to build on the layers of fantasy created by our first decision to see something that was not. As NTI Romans, Chapter 3 explains,

Within your mind reason is confused, because you believe all that isn’t true. You cannot truly judge at all, because you know nothing on which to decide. Your world is a fantasy of beliefs based on experience created through judgment without basis.

NTI Romans Chapter 4 tells us that existence is Love. What we see does not seem to support that immutable fact. But, we must remember that we look upon that which was created to show us something different than the truth; that which was made to seem real, but has no truth in it.

The lesson continues, “It seems as if the world determines what you perceive. Today’s idea introduces the concept that your thoughts determine the world you see.” It is important to understand that this truth is not limited in its application. This is why the sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the atonement (or correction) for himself. The one mind awakens to its truth as we each awaken to the meaninglessness of our thoughts about the world.

NTI Romans 7 states:

With Jesus, you have been released, because with Jesus, a belief has been loosened in the mind. With Jesus, the thought that you are forever separate from God, forever within a spatial compartment of time, forever a slave to your own invention…with Jesus, this was all undone. In Jesus you see the limitlessness that is your truth. In Jesus you see your innocence and love. In Jesus, your perfection remains unmarred. My dear child, through the symbol of Jesus, you glimpse your own truth!

Jesus was able to see past the appearances of the world to the truth. This is why he was said to be “in the world but not of it.” Jesus did not rely upon the “evidence” he saw in the world that would tell him what we all assume is true without question: that we are beings separate from each other, that we must give credence to the ideas of fear, competition, struggle, etc. Jesus’ life was a perfect reflection of what he came to see was the truth of his being – changeless, invulnerable, eternal.

This is what we are asked to do. Rather than digging deeper into the fantasy we created, we are to look squarely upon what appears to be evidence that the world is a place of lack, limitation, hate, and sorrow, and make another decision; to see fantasy for what it is and give up the game of giving it our believing attention. In this way, we undo the layered judgment we have laid upon ourselves and the world and allow it to unwind.

We do this by practicing forgiveness—by allowing the world to be — by not making judgments based on what appears – but by understanding our thoughts are judgments without basis and the world we see is based upon this meaningless web of judgments and nothing more. As NTI Romans Chapter 2 says,

Judgment is a web of meaningless thoughts given only the power of fantasy and absolutely nothing more. The game you have made to test your curiosity is a game with rules and options. This gives you the ability to continue to make judgments and to continue to play the game.

We also have the ability to quit making baseless judgments. We must each unwind our own belief in the world. We do this by building on a solid foundation of truth. We do this by trusting the words and the example of the masters, whose truth resonates in our own hearts, where our own remembrance of the truth resides. We begin this process by applying it to each of the thoughts we think carry so much importance; to each thought that seems so “true”, so justified. This reversal of our own judgments about the world begins with this tiny step toward Truth.