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53 Review Lessons 11-15
11 My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.
MT: Ouch. You really tell it like it is. No word mincing.
JC: I will not be polite when it is not in your best interests.
12. I am upset because I see a meaningless world.
MT: How often I forget, and become hopelessly wrapped up in the dramas
of this plane. You are telling me, no wonder I get upset and lose my peace
of mind!
13. A meaningless world engenders fear.
MT: That's the basis of my fear, not something real, but something imagined.
I made it up, so I can unmake it.
14. God did not create a meaningless world.
MT: I feel a wave of relief when you say that, JC. That's amazing, after
all these years of study. I knew it was coming, but I still took a long
breath. Which is to say, I was holding my breath at the thought of being
upset!
15. My thoughts are images that I have made.
MT: Oh yes. I make up all these dialogues (I process information with
words rather than images, it seems) and all they do is to preserve a world
that's engendering fear. I want to let go of the words. Actually, let
me tell you what's happening: words are becoming difficult to utter. I
forget words, and not only do I forget, but there's a curious lameness
in my speech at times. I fear I'm coming down with Alzheimers. Tell me
it ain't so!
JC: You figured it out yourself, didn't you? Words WILL become difficult
to come by (at least for a while) if you're trying to let go of them!
But the Alzheimers thought, that's a pure and simple fear thought, and
you can let go of it right now.
MT: Should I get tested? I don't quite trust what you're saying. I could
be losing my good mind.
JC: You are only losing what you don't want. The ego's purpose is to busy
you with problems that it makes up so you can walk the world like an ant
at the end of a burning log. The Holy Spirit within you will tell you
when, if ever, to seek medical help.
MT: Thanks. You are such a good friend. Absolutely peerless.
54 Review Lessons 16-20
16 I have no neutral thoughts.
OK, JC, I think I've got it. Thoughts make things. Thoughts force my brother
(if he's willing
to cooperate) into my image of him.
17 I see no neutral things.
I think I know this one. Well, I think things are more neutral than people.
But you're telling
me here, I've made up everything I see with the thoughts in my mind. So
I've made up the
people too! Yeccch! Not only Mother Teresa but also Charles Manson and
Wayne Gacy? I've
really got to see them differently! My seeing someone as evil puts a huge
burden on him, if
he should wish to change. To change, he needs to swim against a mighty
current. Our
collective thoughts of evil force those who are inclined in that direction
to stay that way.
They become our scapegoats—whew, I’m glad he’s got the
electric chair at last, now the
world is better and safer. Right.
18 I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.
Others tend to see the way I see, unless they are enlightened and have
spent a lifetime up
on the mountain, meditating. But the idea that I have no private thoughts,
that's pretty
scary. Less so than 20 years ago, but still scary. I can't hide! I can't
think one thing and say
another, so I'd better do some spring cleaning!
19 I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.
All right, all right. If I indulge in attack thoughts, they have an effect,
primarily on me, but
also on the world at large. Actually, "primarily" is the wrong
word here, because the effect
on me and on others is the same, if we're all One Son.
20 I am determined to see.
If I can see truly, I'll change the world. But it's important to know
that there are no private
thoughts, and that when I think with God, there's no need for private
thoughts anyway. The
thoughts I think with God are, by their nature, shareable.
55 Review Lessons 21-25
21 I am determined to see things differently.
So, JC, I want to see differently because the way I see things now makes
me
unhappy. Well, that's not totally true, because you've done quite a bit
of
housecleaning in my head! But, in any case, that's the lesson. I am
determined to see things differently.
22 What I see is a form of vengeance.
All these shapes around me, a form of vengeance? I've given up the innocence
of my birth, and what I learned from the humans who raised me was
perception, seeing with the body's eyes, confining the resplendence of
the
world into forms and shapes, all separate from each other, all drab and
lifeless. We gave everything names, and we called it seeing.
23 I can escape from this world by giving up attack thoughts.
I see that giving up attack thoughts is a way to peace. But to escape
from
this world? Maybe I want to stay here for a while still!
24 I do not perceive my own best interests.
Ah, my attachment to this world is not in my best interests, is that what
you're saying?
JC: Everything wants to live. The purpose of life is to live. But how
you
see the world has to go for you to be truly happy.
25 I do not know what anything is for.
So what are things for? This lesson always puzzles me. I do not know what
anything is for. What IS it for?
JC: You make up these lifeless things around you to "prove"
that you are
separate from God, a wretched sinner deserving of death. That is not so.
You
are the Holy Son of God. Wake up to this truth today.
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