Lesson 10: My thoughts do not mean anything.
My thoughts have been torturing me these past few days. They keep arising and telling me what I should have done, what I should have said, how I should have acted, and, for the most part, are berating me about how poorly I am doing at this whole spiritual growth thing.
My first year doing the workbook, this lesson in particular produced angry thoughts. “What do you mean my thoughts don’t mean anything? They mean everything! I mean thoughts become things, right? So, they must have meaning!”
Yes, indeed, thoughts do become things, which makes this lesson pretty pivotal in the whole journey through the Course. If our thoughts become things, then ought we not try to exert some control over those thoughts – or at least seek to be detached from them so we can discern between right and wrong thinking?
Of course, the Course would say there’s no distinction between “right” and “wrong” thinking because thoughts don’t mean anything, anyway. They’re just air, here one minute and gone the next, if we allow them to pass by.
The problem is we don’t allow them to pass – we entertain them, dwell on them, make them the basis for our entire identity and form them into some “belief system” that defines us for all eternity. An entire identity, built on a cloud of passing thoughts we sought to make solid.
In the Christian Scriptures, Jesus warns against building our lives on shifting sand and this lesson echoes that. If we want to build something Real, thoughts can never be our foundation. Our mind, the Course says, is literally blank. In the realm of the Real, thoughts are not even possible because thoughts have to do with perception, which doesn’t exist in the realm of the Divine.
“To recognize this,” the lesson says, “is to recognize nothingness when you think you see it. As such, it is the prerequisite for vision.”
This is what the Course is trying to prepare us for – to exchange our thoughts for vision. We rely on what we see in the world to dictate our thoughts – whether we judge things to be “good” or “bad” in our thoughts. The Course is trying to teach us to release those ego-generated thoughts in favor of “vision” – which is given to us by the Divine when we turn our thoughts and beliefs over to the Holy to be redeemed and perfected.
This lesson is a first step in realizing we are not what we think or even what we believe – we are Divine children of God who are here to be open channels of love for God to use to bring more light into the world. Whatever we think about the world doesn’t matter. What matters is if we’re willing to turn our lives over to the Holy to be used to teach others how to embody love in the world.
Thoughts have been clouding my vision recently. I am thinking and thinking and thinking about things that are greatly disturbing my peace. But, if I can remember that my past is always clouding my thoughts and that I see nothing now as it truly is, then today’s lesson can be the path back to peace.
My thought about any current situation does not mean anything. How can it? I don’t have all the data to even begin to rightly judge what’s going on in any situation. My thoughts about any of it are meaningless. By releasing my thoughts, by not clinging to my version of the story, I open myself to vision – to a miracle – a shift in perception that can bring peace to everyone involved, no matter the situation.
That – the miracle that brings peace back to my mind – is the only thing that ever means anything. All other ground is sinking sand.