I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.
(1) The idea for today is obviously the reason why your seeing does not affect you alone. You will notice that at times the ideas related to thinking precede those related to perceiving, while at other times the order is reversed. The reason is that the order does not matter. Thinking and its results are really simultaneous, for cause and effect are never separate.
Jesus extends the idea of one split mind, saying that not only are our minds joined, but our minds and the world are joined as well; the world being nothing but the projection of the mind’s thought of separation. This is another way of saying ideas leave not their source, a principle that is central to the teaching of A Course in Miracles. It is emphasized in the text (e.g., T-26.VII.4), and Jesus brings it up later in the workbook (e.g., W-pI.132.5; W-pI.156.1) — ideas do not leave their source; effects do not leave their cause; the world does not remain separated from the mind.
We are so sure, however, that we are right — the world exists outside us — because we actually see ourselves here as well as see a separated world outside. Even further, by minimizing, if not negating the power of our thoughts, we are proven right by our perceptions of ourselves as victims of what the world does to us. We think our thoughts have no effect, and therefore we split them off and hide them behind a physical shield, so that we are aware only of our bodies; how they and other bodies react. This has come about because we think the world is separate from our minds; that the effect, which is the world, is separate from the cause, which is the mind. But remember, again — ideas leave not their source.
As an analogy, whatever you see on a movie screen is nothing but a film in the projector that is projected out. Yet what is on the screen never left its source, the film running through the projector. To expand on that analogy, what is on the film is what the script writer, director, producer, actors, and actresses wanted to be on the film. Therefore, once it is there it will be projected and seen on the screen as if it were on the screen.
Shifting to our lives, we, as the decision maker, are the writer, director, producer, not to mention the people starring in it. The film is exactly what we have chosen, precisely so we could and would see it on the screen. People would not go through the trouble of making a movie if they did not want others to see it. And if we did not react to movies as though they were real we would not go to see them. Thus, we attend movies for excitement, enlightenment, and distraction because we like to believe there is something out there that can affect us, positively or negatively. That is the goal, and everything leading up to it is purposive.
This is exactly what we do with the world. There is a very specific purpose in making up our dream. We want people to react to it, including ourselves, as if it were real. Thus I see everything out there in the world, totally forgetting it is my movie. Not only did I make it up, but I made it up to see sin all around me; to see victimizers in everyone except in me.
Once we see that cause and effect are never separated, we understand what we are seeing outside, to repeat, is simply an image that came from a thought. The key point to keep in mind is that there is a specific motivation — which we will get to in the next lesson — to learn that the ego’s lessons are true but we are not responsible for them. The ego teaches that we have separated from God, victimized and murdered Him, and thus acquired our individual existence. We believe this to be true, except we are not responsible for it; someone else is.
Thus we have all gone to great trouble, with a very high budget indeed — it has cost us Everything — to make this grandiose movie of our lives. We invest tremendous energy in this movie in order to fulfill the ego’s ultimate purpose: proving the separation is real, but we are not responsible for it. We forget we are actors with specific names and roles in the movie, as well as being script writers, directors, and producers.
If we were to realize we made the whole thing up, that we, as directors, are in control of our movie by virtue of excluding another Director, we would suddenly recognize that our greatest efforts were nothing because everything we had done was a defense against the truth. In a passage with which we will become increasingly familiar, we read:
“What if you recognized this world is an hallucination? What if you really understood you made it up? What if you realized that those who seem to walk about in it, to sin and die, attack and murder and destroy themselves, are wholly unreal? Could you have faith in what you see, if you accepted this? And would you see it? (T-20.VIIL7:3-7)”
In other words, the defensive purpose of the world is sustained by keeping cause and effect separate, not remembering that our minds are the cause of the world.
One other point about this lesson: the way I see does not affect me alone. The great illusion of the world is that I can have my private, hateful thoughts without affecting anyone. Yet if the Sonship is one, there must be an effect, because thoughts are unified and minds are joined. These effects are not usually observable, which is part of the reason for making the movie, yet they are there. That is why our guilt is so great — deep down we know the effect of our anger, for example. Whether or not we express it — whether it be physical, verbal, or in our conscious thoughts — anger’s effect is continually telling God and Jesus They are wrong and we are right: the separation is alive and well, and we have the power to destroy Heaven. Again, this is the source of our guilt, and why Jesus is telling us to look at our expressions of anger, and even more importantly, at their underlying thoughts. If they do not change, nothing will change.
We return to the idea of oneness:
(2:1-3) 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.
Within the dream there certainly are private thoughts. We all have the illusion we have them. We think, for example: “Thank God I didn’t say that, so my friend doesn’t know what I really think.” On a conscious level that person may not know, but remember, we are all part of the one mind, and on that level another’s fear and guilt are reinforced by our thoughts, just as we are. Therefore, the effects of our thoughts may not show up right away on an individual level within the dream, but in the larger mind, of which all of us are an effect, thoughts have tremendous power as they reinforce the ego’s thought system. They are reminders to everyone that the ego is alive and well, and Jesus does not know what he is talking about.
(2:4-5) 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.
What is important here is that salvation is possible only if there is one problem. The key to salvation within A Course in Miracles is its first principle: there is no order of difficulty among miracles. This tells us that each problem is like every other problem, and so the solution — the miracle — is the same for all. The problem is unreal; but we will not know its unreality until we realize that every problem is the same. The seemingly external form of each problem is but a shadow of the inner problem: the single thought that says: “I am separated and am on my own.” If we could be separate and have private thoughts, that would mean the separation is real. Salvation can occur only when we realize the separation is illusory, which means we can have no private thoughts.
The concluding three paragraphs present the daily exercise to be performed:
(3) The minute or so of mind searching which today’s exercises require is to be undertaken with eyes closed. The idea for today is to be repeated first, and then the mind should be carefully searched for the thoughts it contains at that time. As you consider each one, name it in terms of the central person or theme it contains, and holding it in your mind as you do so, say:
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of this thought about __________.
Here Jesus is having us focus solely on our thoughts, as reflecting their unity with the Sonship.
(4-5) The requirement of as much indiscriminateness as possible in selecting subjects for the practice periods should be quite familiar to you by now, and will no longer be repeated each day, although it will occasionally be included as a reminder. Do not forget, however, that random selection of subjects for all practice periods remains essential throughout. Lack of order in this connection will ultimately make the recognition of lack of order in miracles meaningful to you.
Apart from the “as needed” application of today’s idea, at least three practice periods are required, shortening the length of time involved, if necessary. Do not attempt more than four.
In a sense, Jesus is revealing his process with us, explaining the purpose of the first nineteen lessons. Over and over, he insists that we not discriminate in the choice of objects we perceive outside, or in our choice of thoughts as we search our minds. Jesus wants us to realize that everything we perceive and think is the same. By learning to practice this idea with specific objects in the room and specific thoughts within our minds, we will come to realize that everything is the same, and therefore our problems have one solution — the miracle.
Thus we find a clear statement of Jesus’ underlying method, and why the workbook lessons appear to be as simple as they are. He wants us to practice on a level that is comfortable — coat hanger, waste basket, lamp, telephone, cup, etc. — until we get the idea they are all the same, serving the purpose of proving the reality of the separation and the absence of our responsibility for it. This helps us ultimately to realize there is no hierarchy of illusions; the correction for the first law of chaos, which seeks to establish this hierarchy.
