THE ASCENDED MASTERS’PERSPECTIVE on:
THE BASIC LESSONS
OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES
BY DR JOSHUA DAVID STONE
Copyright © 2000 Dr Joshua David Stone All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Introduction
Lessons
1 “Nothing I See In This Room
(On This Street, From This Window, In This Place) Means Anything”
2 “I Have Given Everything I See In this Room
(On This Street, From This Window, In This Place)
All The Meaning It Has For Me”
3 “I Do Not Understand Anything I See In This Room
(On This Street, From This Window, In This Place)”
4 “These Thoughts Do Not Mean Anything.
They Are Like The Things I See In This Room
(On This Street, From this Window, In this Place)”
5 “I Am Never Upset For The Reason I Think”
6 “I Am Upset Because I See Something That Is Not There
7 “I See only the Past.”
8 “My Mind Is Preoccupied With Past Thoughts”
9 “I See Nothing As It Is Now”
10 “My Thoughts Do Not Mean Anything”
11 “My Meaningless Thoughts Are Showing Me
A Meaningless World”
12 “I Am Upset Because I See A Meaningless World”
13 “A Meaningless World Engenders Fear”
14 “GOD Did Not Create A Meaningless World”
15 “My Thoughts Are Images That I Have Made”
16 “I Have No Neutral Thoughts”
17 “I See No Neutral Thoughts”
18 “I Am Not Alone In Experiencing The Effects of My Seeing”
19 “I Am Not Alone In Experiencing The Effects of My Thoughts”
20 “I Am Determined to See”
21 “I Am Determined To See Things Differently”
22 “What I See Is A Form of Vengeance”
23 “I Can Escape From The World I See By Giving Up My Attack Thoughts”
24 “I Do Not Perceive My Own Best Interest”
25 “I Do Not Know What Anything Is For”
26 “My Attack Thoughts Are Attacking My Invulnerability”
27 “Above All Else I Want To See”
28 “Above All Else I Want To See Things Differently”
29 “GOD Is In Everything I See”
30 “GOD Is In Everything I See Because GOD Is In My Mind”
31 “I Am Not The Victim of the World I See”
32 “I Have Invented The World I See”
33 “There Is Another Way of Looking At The World”
34 “I Could See Peace Instead Of This”
35 “My Mind Is a Part of GOD’s. I Am Very Holy.”
36 “My Holiness Envelops Everything I See”
37 “My Holiness Blesses The World”
38 “There Is Nothing My Holiness Cannot Do”
39 “My Holiness Is My Salvation”
40 “I Am Blessed As A Son of GOD”
41 “GOD Goes With Me Wherever I Go”
Introduction
One of the most profound books I have ever written or studied has been the series of books called A Course in Miracles. They are a channeled series of books from the Master Jesus on the difference between Christ Consciousness and negative ego consciousness. There is a “Lesson Book”, a “Teacher’s Manual”, and a “Text Book”. These books are some of my favorite books that have ever been written. I could not recommend buying them more highly. I think they rank as one of the top three books I have ever read and they have had an unbelievably profound affect on my life.
In my personal experience and in the personal experience of most of my students and people I talk to, people seem to get stuck reading them and have the tendency to put them back on their shelf for long periods of time, but always came back to them. In my humble opinion, this occurs because they are a little difficult to read. This, of course, is not a judgement, for as I have already stated they are in the top three sets of books I have ever read. They are a little difficult to read and can be confusing to the reader for they are written as the Heavenly Ideal, and if people are not careful, can get a little ungrounded if the teachings are not integrated properly.
I have been guided by the Holy Sprit, and my own Mighty I Am Presence from my unique psychological background, to lend my expertise as a Spiritual Psychologist, Spiritual Teacher, and Spiritual Channel, and offer a little bit of insight, guidance, direction and some pointers so people can work with A Course in Miracles more easily. So this manual is not meant to replace A Course in Miracles but to be an adjunct to A Course in Miracles so you do not get bogged down, and so you can integrate these most profound teachings more easily. I want to say in the beginning of these lessons that I give all credit to A Course in Miracles books themselves for my humble thoughts and insights, for they are the source of my inspiration. A Course in Miracles can be obtained from any metaphysical bookstore. It is copyrighted and published by The Foundation For Inner Peace. I recommend using my humble thoughts and insights as an adjunct to these most amazing books.
I recommend most highly that while working with this manual that you actually begin doing A Course in Miracles lessons in the way these books ask you to do them, which is one lesson a day every day for an entire year. If you skip a day and it takes a little longer that is fine. It is okay to read this book in advance of completing all the lessons. As a matter of fact, I think doing this will help you appreciate actually working with the lessons even more. I have spent many years studying and teaching this material, and the following manual of lessons is my humble gift to you my Beloved Brothers and Sisters and fellow Sons and Daughters of GOD.
Lesson 1
“Nothing I See In This Room [On This Street, From This Window, In This Place] Means Anything.”
This is the first lesson of A Course in Miracles lessons. At first glance this lesson seems very strange and completely inaccurate. It must be understood that A Course in Miracles lessons are set up as a year long course to be done one lesson a day for an entire year. The first lessons are meant to break down the old negative ego thought system. The later lessons are meant to build up the new Christ Consciousness thought system. I will say here that no lesson in your entire Spiritual life is more important than learning to undo the negative ego thought system and to replace it with the Christ Consciousness thought system. This is because our thoughts create our reality and our thoughts create our feelings, emotions and behavior.
If we do not learn to become right with self, every relationship in our life including our relationship to GOD, and the Masters, will become tainted and contaminated by negative ego thinking. I want to say here in the beginning so there is no confusion in regards to semantics, that I am calling that which A Course in Miracles calls the ego, the negative ego. This is because there are many ways the word ego is used in our society and in different Spiritual groups. To avoid confusion and so more readers can relate to what I am saying and not be bogged down by semantics, I have been guided by Spirit to use this slightly more defined term for the reasons I mentioned. A Course in Miracles books just calls the negative ego the ego. Both terms mean exactly the same thing, and neither term is better than another, but because of my training as a Psychologist, and running into people’s confusion on this point, I have been guided to clarify this term.
So this initial lesson is teaching a most profound teaching. The teaching is that nothing anyone sees means anything. By this course is teaching us the world is neutral and the meaning it has for us is the thoughts we extend or project onto it. For example, “is the glass of water half empty or half full?” It is not in the glass of water, it is in our minds. We do not just see with our physical eyes, in truth we see with our minds. Most people think that outside things, people, or events cause them to think or feel what they do. This is illusion the Course teaches us. This initial lesson is to begin to help us break down the old “victim consciousness” thought system of the negative ego and to show us that life is nothing more than our extending and projecting our thoughts onto the world and that we are seeing our own movie.
Lesson 2
“I Have Given Everything I See In This Room [On This Street, From This Window, In This Place] All The Meaning It Has For Me.”
In this second lesson we see the statement of taking responsibility that it is our interpretations, perception, and belief systems that gives meaning to everything we see. For example, do we look at things as teachings, lessons, challenges, opportunities to grow and Spiritual tests, or do we look at what happens in life as just bummers and problems? It is not in the situation, it is how we interpret every situation that will determine whether we will have love or fear in our lives. It is in our choice and interpretation whether we experience peace or conflict. It is in our interpretation of life whether we will have separation consciousness or oneness consciousness.
The profound lesson A Course in Miracles teaches us is that in every moment of our lives and in every situation of life we can interpret ourselves and our world from the negative ego’s interpretation or the Christ Consciousness and mind’s interpretation. Does not the Bible say, “Let this Mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” This beginning lesson is teaching us that we cause our reality by how we think. The outer world is a projection screen for our interpretations. To learn to think properly is probably the single most important lesson of life. Yet very few people in life have been trained how to think properly and how these two opposing thought systems work.
This is the profound Revelation of “A Course in Miracles” books. My job here, with my background as a Psychologist, Spiritual Teacher and Channel, is to help make these lessons just a little easier to understand and to show you that they are not just for Christians, but for people of all religions and all Spiritual paths, for the Christ Consciousness could also be called the Buddha Consciousness, Atma Consciousness, Krishna Consciousness, Moses Consciousness, I Am Consciousness, Spiritual Consciousness, or Mohammed Consciousness. The books have been written in a Christian understanding because the Master Jesus was the founder of the Christian religion. These most profound teachings apply equally to all religions and all Spiritual paths, so do not let the Christian language be a stumbling stone if that is not your background.
Lesson 3
“I Do Not Understand Anything I See In This Room [On This Street, From This Window, In This Place].”
This lesson is now reverting back to a similar lesson, that of lesson number one. Not only does everything you see have no meaning, in truth people do not understand anything they see. The reason for the importance of this lesson is that most people in this world have not been trained in this Spiritual science of the difference between negative ego thinking and Christ Conscious-ness thinking. Because of this, the negative ego interpretation runs most people and is ingrained in the mass consciousness of this planet now and for over ten million years of people’s history on this Earth.
The problem with beginning lessons like this is that the negative ego is hence reading this book through most people’s eyes. It is saying, “this is ridiculous, I know the meaning of things, I understand what is going on.” Do you see the reason for this lesson my friends? We must first breakdown the negative ego’s stranglehold over our conscious-ness on the subtlest level. To do this we must start from the beginning, other-wise the negative ego will be reading this book through your eyes and canceling out the positive effects it can have.
A Course of Miracles lessons are a course in attitudinal healing. The first step is to break down your entire philosophy and belief system to be sure it has not been built with negative ego “stones” in its foundation. Since the negative ego is in control of most people, which I say with no judgement, just as a loving statement of fact, in the beginning to break down its’ grip we must say, “I do not understand anything I see.”
By doing this we can let A Course in Miracles, The Holy Spirit, the Master Jesus, and hopefully my humble manual of adjunct support to these lessons, help you rebuild your psychospiritual house with “stones” (thoughts, attitudes and interpretations) made only of the Christ Consciousness. I have to say here I am an expert in the laying down of “stones” (a slight pun here given my last name). Humorous, but a true statement in fact. Your Spiritual support team here is now putting you through a master training to tear down your old house that held too many negative ego “stones”, and to rebuild a new one using only Christed “stones.” So I humbly suggest that you completely surrender to the profundity of this teaching in lesson three.
Lesson 4
“These Thoughts Do Not Mean Anything. They Are Like The Things I See In This Room [On This Street, From This Window, In This Place]”
This next lesson is equally profound. We have learned that the outside world means nothing and we do not understand it. Now we must also let go of our attachments to our thoughts in our mind. The negative ego likes to think it is right, and likes to think it knows best. To break down the negative ego’s grip on us we must let go of all our thoughts, for if we leave it to ourselves at this beginning point the negative ego will be the one doing the choosing as to what is real and what is not.
What is going to happen to someone who is run by the negative ego if you hand them a book on how to clear the negative ego? Every person will read the book from either the negative ego’s eyes, the Christ Con-sciousness eyes or a combination of both. I mean this not as judgement, but most lightworkers have an enormous amount of negative ego running them, which they are not aware of. The negative ego immediately tells them they have mastered all these lessons, I do not need this book, I learned these lessons, in the spring of 72! Some of these thoughts may be going through your mind as you read this manual and as you read A Course in Miracles. I humbly suggest you do not listen to this voice and that you surrender to this teaching in the hopes that you actually might learn something and might be able to undo a little more negative ego that you may not have been aware of.
The key teaching in this lesson is that we must have an open mind. We must let go of the “know it all belief of the negative ego”, otherwise we will learn nothing. Let us now completely detach from the negative ego and our attachment to knowing and understanding everything, and surrender to this training. The key lesson here is that A Course in Miracles lessons cannot be understood in one day. It is a process of breaking down the old negative ego thought system and building up the new Christed thought system.
To do this it is absolutely essential that you in this moment give up your attachment not only to meaning and understanding of the world, but also giving up your attachment to your own thoughts. Let us let go of them just for a moment so we can be 100% sure that the negative ego has not been programming some of your thinking in place of the Christ Conscious-ness. So lesson four is “These thoughts do not mean anything, you are projecting or extending onto the world that you see.”
Lesson 5
“I Am Never Upset For The Reason I Think.”
My Beloved Readers, this is one of my favorite lessons. The reason for this is that this lesson has a double meaning. The first meaning is that you are never upset for the reason that you think your are upset. The second meaning of this lesson is that you are never upset because you have a mind that is under your control, and your thoughts create your feelings and emotions. In the first meaning, most people do not realize that it is their thinking that causes them to be upset, worried, angry or depressed. They think it is outside situations, other people, their physical body or the stars. This is illusion in truth.
It is your thinking that is causing this. More specifically when you think with your negative ego mind you create negative ego feelings and emotions. When you think with your Christ mind you will create positive and Spiritualized feelings and emotions. So in truth you are never upset because you have a mind that GOD has given you to create whatever kind of reality you want. The key is understanding these two diverse thought systems and learning to master your mind, which will allow you to master your feelings, emotions, behavior, and to a great extent what you attract and magnetize into your life.
Lesson 6
“I Am Upset Because I See Something That Is Not There”
This lesson establishes the truth of the previous lesson even deeper. When you allow your self to create negative emotions you are actually seeing something that does not exist. My Beloved Readers, it is essential to understand that the negative ego and its thought system does not really exist in truth, from GOD’s perspective. If you allow yourself to see through the negative ego’s thought system it is like being under a negative hypnosis. It seems real, but it really isn’t. When a hypnotist tells a client on stage that the glass of water they are drinking is a vodka tonic, the client actually fully believes with all his senses that that glass of water is a vodka tonic. The truth is it is not, however the mind can make you think all kinds of things that are not true.
This lesson is drilling home the point that when you have negative emotions you are creating negativity that does not exist in the situation it exists because you have interpreted yourself and the outer situation from the negative ego’s perspective rather than from the perspective of the Holy Spirit and the Christ Mind. If you would interpret the same situation with your Christ Mind you would experience only unconditional love, forgiveness, Spiritual lessons, nonjudgmentalness, harmony, and inner peace. This reminds one of the biblical sayings of the Master Jesus when he said, “Don’t try and take the speck out of the eye of your brother when you have a beam in your own eye.” The beam in your own eye is the “negative ego thought system”. When you see through the negative ego thought system you are literally seeing something that is not there.
Most people of the Earth are living under the Hallucinations of the negative ego and think they are real, and have no idea that they are seeing their own movie of their own programming from past lives and this life. All of this can be easily changed in this “holy instant” by a process known as attitudinal healing. It is the process of changing your thoughts from the negative ego interpretation to the Christed interpretation. The second you do this your feelings and emotions will instantly change and you will have awakened from a dream. The power of the mind to delude is amazing. This is because whatever we think seems so real. Most people on the Earth have no idea that they have so much control potentially over how they think and feel. This is because no one has ever trained them in Spiritual psychology. This is the purpose of A Course in Miracles and this manual.
Lesson 7
“I See only The Past”
This is a most fascinating lesson. We have established that our thoughts create our reality. This is our thoughts on a conscious level but also our thoughts on a subconscious level. Most people have not done a complete inventory of all the thoughts and beliefs that they are holding consciously let alone subconsciously. Where do all our thoughts, attitudes, belief systems, interpretations and perceptions come from? They come from the past. They come from early childhood programming by parents, grandparents, family, teachers, friends, counselors, ministers, rabbis, television, radio, newspaper, magazines, the country you grew up in, the neighborhood you grew up in, your race, socioeconomic status, and religion. These have all affected your belief systems that you hold on a conscious and subconscious level. You have been programmed by all your past lives which you bring into this life within the storage banks of your subconscious mind.
What this lesson is profoundly showing us is that again we just don’t see with our physical eyes, we see with our minds and belief systems. When we look at our world we are seeing only past programming. What A Course in Miracles is teaching us is to see all our thoughts only as the past programming that may or may not be true from the eyes of the Holy Spirit and the Christ Consciousness. The Holy Spirit would ask that you see yourself and life through the “Holy Instant”. For in truth, time and space does not really exist in the higher dimensions of reality. This does not mean that all our past thoughts are of no value. They just all must be examined to make sure that every thought you have allowed into your consciousness from the beginning of time has been of GOD and not the negative ego. This is why it is so necessary to be so vigilant over every thought that comes up from your subconscious mind and from other people. The key to proper living is to deny every thought not of GOD from entering your mind. Make sure every thought, belief, perception and interpretation is that of the Holy Spirit and Christ Consciousness, and not of the negative ego.
Lesson 8
“My Mind is Preoccupied With Past Thoughts”
This lesson is reemphasizing the previous lesson and making the point that our subconscious minds are like tape recorders that keep running the same faulty beliefs over and over again. There should be classes in every grade of school on how to think properly. Instead we spend all this time on subjects focused outside of self and nothing having to do with subjects within oneself. The key question is how do we get rid of all these past thoughts that have no value.
Every time they come up ignore them and give them no energy. Deny them entrance to your consciousness. By doing so they will wither and die like a plant that gets no water or attention. Instead replace those thoughts with their opposite which is the Christ interpretations and beliefs. By continually thinking and affirming these thoughts and attitudes they will grow because they are being given water and attention. It is a psychological law that it takes 21 days to cement any new habit into the subconscious mind. The main thing is to do a massive inventory of all your thoughts and to practice self-inquiry at all times.
Sai Baba says that the process of self-inquiry is 75% of the Spiritual Path. Self-inquiry is the process of examining your thoughts, feelings, and emotions on a moment to moment basis from within and without and getting rid of the negative ones and replacing them with the Spiritual ones. This is a life long process, however over time if you are diligently focused and studying spiritual books such as these, your subconscious mind will start becoming cleared out and your conscious mind as well, and it will begin to reflect the true thinking of the Holy Spirit, your Higher Self and your Mighty I Am Presence. By doing this your superconscious, conscious and subconscious mind become consistent in their belief systems and interpretation and they begin to link and merge and function as one integrated mind in service of GOD. There is never a time where vigilance will not be required.
The subconscious mind will become reprogrammed over time, however one must always be vigilant for the negative ego is very tricky, deceitful, slippery and manipulative, and it will keep changing forms and trying every method to get back in without you being aware. It may be an insane thought system but never underestimate the powers of delusion, illusion, glamour, and Maya, it holds. All it takes is one moment of automatic pilot and it can slip back in no matter what level of Spiritual Initiation or Spiritual Mastery you hold. So be aware that your mind will continue to run the same past programming for eternity until you stop it and completely reprogram your conscious and subconscious thinking.
Lesson 9
“I See Nothing As It Is Now”
This lesson is again emphasizing that all that really exists is the “Eternal Now”. This is the place the Holy Spirit sees from. It is the “Holy Instant”. Let the Holy Spirit and the Master Jesus teach you to perceive reality from this Holy Instant and to undo all past thinking that is not in harmony with GOD and Christ Consciousness.
Lesson 10
“My Thoughts Do Not Mean Anything”
This lesson is trying to teach us to let go of our attachment to all our thoughts. Most people do not realize the enormous extent to which our con-scious and subconscious thinking is creating our reality. Part of true Spiritual Mastery is to not only learn to think with one’s Christ Mind instead of one’s negative ego mind, but to learn to quiet one’s mind all together. If the mind is always thinking you cannot hear the “still small voice within” of the Holy Spirit and your own Mighty I Am Presence. Most people are completely run by the mind, driven by the mind, and do not know how to quiet the mind. True medita-tion is using the mind to get to a state of consciousness of no thinking at all. This is a lesson that is moving us towards lessening the influence of the mind over our reality.
Lesson 11
“My Meaningless Thoughts Are Showing Me A Meaningless World”
This lesson shows us the relationship between our thoughts and the world we see and experience. Most people have no idea that it is their thinking that is creating their world. They think it is the world they are seeing. They are not seeing the world; they are seeing negative ego thinking and past programming. They are not happy, bitter, judgmental, angry, sad, overwhelmed and impatient because of anything in the world or what is happening in their lives or on the news. It is because of how they are interpreting and perceiving these things. There is another way of interpreting and perceiving the world that will bring you love, joy, happiness, inner peace, harmony, balance, self-love, self-worth and evenmindedness at all times. To see this, however, one has to get rid of their meaninglessness, faulty thoughts which are creating the meaningless world they are living in.
Lesson 12
“I Am Upset Because I See A Meaningless World”
This lesson I feel is pointing out the victim consciousness that takes place in one’s consciousness when one sees life from the negative ego’s thought system. We see a meaningless world, which is really caused by our thinking, and this upsets us and causes negative emotions which is also caused by our thinking. When we live in the victim consciousness of the negative ego thought system as opposed to the Master Consciousness of the Christ thought system, we think the cause of our upset is coming from the outside in. We think outside situations or people cause us to feel as we do. This lesson is also showing that thinking with a negative ego consciousness which will show us a meaningless world will bring nothing but upset. It is showing us there is no gain in truth what so ever in thinking with the negative ego mind. It will just lead to upset and negative emotions. We have met people who are atheists, for example, who do not believe in GOD and think life is a big Cosmic joke and there is no real purpose for being here except to enjoy oneself.
This is an example of the meaningless world the negative ego thought system does create in many people. It will also create other motivations such as power, fame, greed and sex as the purpose for living. This is a meaningless existence and will lead to anger and upset because such a meaningless existence is governed and caused by a meaningless negative ego thought system that has no true existence in GOD’s Consciousness. The negative ego thought system is a fabrication and hallucination of people’s minds based on becoming over identified with matter and thinking they are a physical body and not a Son and/or Daughter of GOD incarnating in a body to realize and demonstrate GOD. Earth in truth is a Spiritual Mystery School to practice demonstrating GOD. one of the main ways we do this is to respond every moment from our Christ mind and not our negative ego mind. This is why his Holiness the Lord Sai Baba in India has said the true definition of GOD is, “GOD equals man minus ego.”
Lesson 13
“A Meaningless World Engenders Fear”
When we see life from the negative ego’s thought system this creates a meaningless, empty and negative world. We end up seeing a world that is based on attacking others and hence fear. The Christ Consciousness believes in giving up all attack thoughts to self and others. If we believe in attack we will end up living in fear, for we are caught in the two sides of the negative ego. The only way out is to transcend the entire thought system of attack and fear and to think only with Unconditional Love. Fear comes from projected attack. If we attack ourselves and/or others then the law of the mind states we will end up projecting our attack thoughts onto others because that is what we do. We will hence live in fear because we think others are always going to attack us. We see in the world what we see in our selves. The world we see is really a mirror of our own thinking.
In truth there are only two emotions in life. There is love and fear. Fear is the essence of the negative ego thought system and love is the essence of the Christ thought system. When we choose consciously or unconsciously to see life through the negative ego thought system we are in truth choosing to see life through the lens of fear. When you attack others or get angry with others it stems from fear. When others attack you it stems from fear. In truth when seen from the eyes of the Holy Spirit an attack is a call for Love.
Hence when we see a meaningless world that is created by the illusionary negative ego thought system the only place it will lead us ultimately is back to fear. The key words that describe what the core of the negative ego thought system are fear, separation, lower self, self-centered. All negative feelings and emotions come from fear. All positive feelings and emotions come from Love. This lesson is trying to let go of our attachment to the negative ego thought system, which in essence is a reality based on fear and attack, instead of a reality based on giving and receiving Love.
Lesson 14
“GOD Did Not Create A Meaningless World”
Here my Beloved Readers, Salvation comes. This lesson is now showing us that there is a way out of this negative ego reality of seeing a meaningless and negative world, which is to realize that GOD did not create this meaning-less world or the negative ego thought system that created it. People did. God gave us free choice, and with our free choice we created a thought system the exact opposite of how GOD creates and would have us think. Hope now springs eternal!
Lesson 15
“My Thoughts Are Images That I Have Made”
This lesson teaches us another very important lesson. It is that our thoughts are also not only thoughtforms in our conscious and subconscious mind, they are also images in our conscious and subconscious mind. We not only must clean out and get rid of all our negative ego thoughts, we also must get rid of all the negative ego images that stem from the negative ego thought system and replace them with Christ Consciousness images. This is why, for example, it is not a good idea to go see violent movies or horror movies, for they just fill our minds with negative ego images that can keep playing back like a tape recorder. This lesson teaches us that we must be as vigilant over the images we allow into our consciousness as we are of our thoughts.
Lesson 16
“I Have No Neutral Thoughts”
This is another one of my favorite lessons. This lesson reminds us that there are no neutral thoughts. In other words, every thought that comes up from your subconscious mind or from the outside world that tries to enter your consciousness is either of GOD or not of GOD. Every thought that tries to enter your mind from within or without is a Christ Consciousness thought or a negative ego thought. There are no neutral thoughts. Every thought that comes from within or without is balanced or imbalanced. Is appropriate or inappropriate in that moment. This is an absolutely essential lesson to under-stand, otherwise we will fall into the false belief that we can live our lives on automatic pilot and we do not have to monitor our thoughts and we do not have to be vigilant over our thinking.
Lesson 17
“I See No Neutral Thoughts”
This lesson is a practice lesson to remind us that no matter how inconsequential we may think any given thought is, it is not a neutral thought. Most people do not realize the incredible power of our minds. Each person’s mind is in truth a part of GOD’s Infinite Mind or Universal Mind. We are made in GOD’s Image and Likeness. As Edgar Cayce said, “Thoughts are things.” This lesson is trying to remind us of the incredible importance and power of each and every thought we think. Most people in this world live on what I like to call “automatic pilot”. This is a state of consciousness of just flowing with life and following the line of least resistance, or just letting the subconscious mind and its existing programming lead them.
This is the pattern that leads to a meaningless world and a reality of upset and anger. The Course teaches us that we must choose every thought we think every moment of our life to make sure that every thought comes from GOD and not the illusionary, separative, imbal-anced, fearful, selfish, lower self, carnal self, negative ego. To do this we must remain conscious and aware at all times and constantly practice denial and affirmation. This is the healthy use of the term denial. We must deny any thought not of GOD to enter our mind. The unhealthy form of denial that we are most familiar with is when the negative ego denies the truth of the Christ Conscious-ness. This form of denial should be denied by a centered consciousness that has dedicated oneself to becoming God Realized every moment of one’s life. This most important lesson is showing us the incredible importance of each and every thought we think, and the need to live in the “Holy Instant” every moment, and to monitor our thoughts and “be vigilant for GOD and His Kingdom.”
Lesson 18
“I Am Not Alone In Experiencing The Effects Of My Seeing”
This is another very profound lesson from the Course. The negative ego thought system teaches us that we are not only separate from GOD, but also that we are separate from our Brothers and Sisters on Earth. This of course is all more illusionary thinking of the negative ego thought system. The truth is we have always been one with GOD, and will always be one with GOD. This is why the introduction to A Course in Miracles says, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of GOD.”
In truth we have always been one with GOD, are now, and always will be. The Course teaches that the Fall never really happened we just think it did. Our true identity is the Christ. It always has been and always will be. The unique thing about this is that we share this same identity with all our fellow Brothers and Sisters. Another way of saying this is that we each are the “Eternal Self”. In truth each of us is an incarnation of GOD. In truth there is only one being in the Infinite Universe and that is GOD. This one infinite Being incarnates into an infinite number of forms thoughtout His infinite Omniverse. GOD incarnates into people, animals, plants and miner-als. The entire infinite Universe is GOD’s physical body, which He incar-nates into in order to extend his creativity and joy. God also does this to teach these Individualized Units of Himself to create like him.
The unique thing that GOD gave us is free choice. Even though we are minature Gods in truth, GOD gave us the free choice to choose to think anyway we want. With our own minds we created a thought system based on overidentification with matter to the exclusion of Spirit. This was the Fall the Bible refers to. It never really happened except in our own thinking. The Course teaches us to wake up from this dream and hallucination of separation that never really happened but most people on Earth keep living in. It is as easy as waking up from a dream at night while you sleep and realizing it is not real. Even if one has been caught in this dream for two hundred lifetimes, the moment one realizes that it all has been an illusion of the mind, it is gone.
The Course teaches us that in this “Holy Instant”, we can wake up from this dream and realize our eternal oneness with GOD, and our eternal oneness with our Brothers and Sisters who share the same identity as the Christ with us. So in truth GOD has one Son or Daughter, and we are all made up of this Sonship and Daughtership. We are all one with GOD, and one with our Brothers and Sisters in Truth. All the time in past lives or this lifetime that you did not believe this did not change the truth of its Eternal Reality. Whether you believe it or not, we each are the Christ and one with GOD and one with each other.
All minds are one! For they are all GOD’s mind, for there is only one Being in the Infinite Universe and that is GOD. GOD is just incarnating in many different forms. The negative ego thought system has gotten caught up in the forms, rather than recognizing the essence behind all the forms. If we only look at the forms or physical bodies they appear separate from using just physical vision.
The Course teaches us to not just see with our physical eyes, and the eyes of the negative ego thought system, but to see life from the “Eyes of Christ” and with “ Christ Vision”. In doing so we not only see a physical body but we also recognize and see others and ourselves as the Christ. This is called the “Holy Encounter”, Christ meeting Christ. Every encounter with a Brother and Sister is, in truth, a “Holy Encounter”. I think you will see that this lesson has laid the groundwork for releasing enormous amounts of negative ego illusionary seeing.
This lesson teaches us hence that every thought we think does not just affect ourselves it also affects GOD and our Brothers and Sisters, for we are all one vast being called GOD. Now we must say here however, that there is one difference between GOD and ourselves which is not a separation but is a reality. This is what is called the “authority prob-lem”. What this means is that the truth is GOD created us, we did not create GOD. So, in truth, we are not GOD with all capital letters, we are God with a Capital “G” and a small “god”. Another way of saying this is that we are the Christ.
The appropriate response to GOD is “Awe”. The appropriate response to a fellow Brother and Sister no matter how evolved is “respect”, not “Awe”. Awe is only for GOD, because GOD created us. This under-standing we are still one with GOD, but GOD in truth is our FATHER/-MOTHER and we are Sons and Daughters of GOD. The authority problems are the illusion that sometimes the negative ego acts like GOD. I am remind-ed of the common ｅxpression that people make to some people some time, “Who made you GOD?” This of course is an example of this authority prob-lem that the negative ego’s delusionary thought system sometimes falls into. A Course in Miracles most definitely clears up this point with that elucida-tion.
So my Beloved Readers, you are not alone in experiencing the effects of your seeing for you affect GOD and your fellow Brothers and Sisters in GOD by how you think, and their thinking affects you. How could this not be for we are all “One Being” in Truth. This does not mean that you are a victim of other people’s thoughts but they do and can affect us. When you are helping yourself hence by cleaning up your thinking you are automatical-ly helping GOD, and helping your fellow Sons and Daughters of GOD as they are healing you.
This is why the hundredth monkey effects works and is a reality. This is the basis of Carl Jung, the famous Swiss Psychologist, who postulated the theory of the collective unconscious. Our individual subcon-scious mind is part of one vast Infinite Subconscious Mind of GOD. So my Beloved Readers, you are not alone in experiencing the effects of your see-ing. I humbly suggest that you are now beginning to experience the profound transformation of learning to see life through the Christ Consciousness rather than the negative ego consciousness, and the meaningful world it allows us to see. It has been a world that has always been there.
As long as we thought with our negative ego thoughts it was like wearing a set of dark tinted glasses. When we see with the negative ego’s eyes it immediately blinds us to seeing what the Holy Spirit and the Christ Consciousness would have us see. You cannot have both. one blinds the other. When you see with the Christ Consciousness it is like turning on a light and the negative ego thought system disappears. If you allow yourself to think with the negative ego mind, however it will create blindspots, meaninglessness and negativity in whatever area you allow it in and it will prevent you from seeing through the “Vision of your Christ Consciousness”.
Your Salvation is not up to GOD, it is up to you by choosing to always think with your Christ Mind and not your negative ego mind. Earth is a Spiritual School to practice realizing GOD. Your already are God, however each time you choose Christ Con-sciousness instead of negative ego consciousness you realize this fact in that moment. one of the main purposes of life is to try and do this every moment of your life. To choose GOD instead of negative ego in every Spiritual test, challenge, lesson and moment of your life. Then you will fulfill the Master Jesus’ words as stated in the Bible, “Be ye Faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life.”
The Earth is a School for not only realizing that you are God and Christ and seeing this in your Brother and Sister, but also for demonstrating this. Just realizing it in the “Holy Instant” is not enough, one must also demonstrate this every moment of one’s life. It is also essen-tial to understand that it is also not enough to just see this in yourself. To fully realize God you must also see this in your Brother and Sister. A lot of people see it in themselves but do not see it outside of themselves. If you do not see your Brother and Sister as the Christ regardless of how they are behaving or what kind of physical body they have you will not realize God in yourself.
Remember the world and other people are a projection screen for your own thinking. What you are seeing outside of self is a mirror of what you are thinking. Are you a love finder or a fault finder? Is the glass of water half empty or half full? Are you optimistic or pessimistic? Do you see Christ or just a physical body? Do you see just a stranger or a Brother and Sister in Christ? Do you forgive or do you hold grudges? Do you judge or have lov-ing Spiritual observations? Do you look at life as teachings, lessons, chal-lenges and opportunities to grow, or do you see bummers, problems and up-sets? Do you see the diamond or the mud? Do you see the light or the lamp-shade? Do you fight Life or do you work with Life and learn from Life? Are you interested in being right or having love? Do you have a win/win philo-sophy or a win /lose philosophy? Do you see everything in life as an incar-nation of GOD or do you see separate physical forms that have no relation-ship or connection to each other?
My Beloved Readers, make sure what you see in the world and in other people is not the dark shades of your own negative ego thinking. Take off these glasses and put on the “glasses of GOD and Christ”, you will see the most profound and beautiful world you can possibly imagine that has always been there, but your own negative ego thinking has blinded you from seeing it and you did not realize it. You thought it was the world you were seeing however this was illusion. You were seeing the illusion of your own negative ego thinking.
There is no judgement for this for God of course forgives everything, and what you miscreated immediately is undone and disappears the second you turn on the light of your Christ Consciousness. It does not take years of therapy you can do it instantly as you read this book. You not only can, it is happening already and has already happened in read-ing these lessons. You are the prodigal Son and Daughter that is always welcomed home. GOD has always welcomed you home and always given you Salvation, what you are learning now is to give Salvation to yourself. It is not GOD that has kept you from GOD, it is your own negative ego think-ing that has blocked you.
GOD and the Holy Spirit have now guided you to this teaching to now give you the Salvation you seek. All the insights and tools to do this are now being given to you on a “Silver Platter”. The only key lesson to understand is that GOD, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and the inner plane Ascended Masters and Angels cannot do this for you because they cannot control your thinking. This is something you must do for yourself. It is not hard to do. In truth it is very easy once you have been guided how to do it. The amazing thing is that you will have instantaneous results. So be of good cheer for the peace you have sought for so long has now 100% come at last.
The complete transformation of your consciousness is now 100% occurring. You are now beginning to achieve the full profundity of creating an axis shift in your mind from negative ego thinking to Christ thinking. The amazing thing is that this new world has always been there but we did not see it because of our consciousness and thinking. once we learn these lessons it seems so easy, and we say to ourselves how come I didn’t see this before, it is so obvious. Sometimes it takes a little help from the Holy Spirit, and a Brother and Sister. You are to be honored in this moment for trans-cending the negative ego thinking and allowing the Mighty I Am Presence and the Holy Spirit to guide you to this help. one of the traits of the negative ego is to be a know it all and say “I don’t need help” or it will say “I already know all this.”
Your are to be honored for not listening to the negative ego and allowing yourself to learn, grow and refine your consciousness. A great many of these lessons of course you already knew. Some however are deep-ening and there is also a polishing and refining of your Diamond that is now taking place. Retain your open mind and willingess to learn and we will con-tinue this process for we are only at Lesson 18. Feel the profound transfor-mation in your consciousness that is now taking place and the profound excitement you feel at now beginning to actualize these most profound teachings of GOD, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Master Jesus and the clarifica-tions and explanations in this Manual. I leave you again with the quote from A Course in Miracles in the Introduction.
“Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of GOD!”