Lesson 8

"My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts."

This idea is the reason why you see only the past. No one really sees anything. One only sees their own thoughts projected outward. The minds' preoccupation with the past is the cause of the misconception about time from which you're seeing suffers. Your mind cannot grasp the present, which is the only time there is.

The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here. To think about it at all is therefore to think about illusions. The purpose of this exercise is to begin to train your mind to recognize when it is not really thinking at all. While thoughtless ideas preoccupy your mind, the truth is blocked. The first steps to opening the way to vision is to recognize when your mind has been merely blank, rather than believing it is filled with real ideas.

This exercise should be done with eyes closed because you actually cannot see anything. It is easier to recognize that no matter how vividly you may picture a thought, you are not seeing anything. With as little investment is possible, search your mind merely noting the thoughts you find there.

"I seem to be thinking about                                                 ."

Then name each of your thoughts specifically:

"I seem to be thinking about [name of a person], about [name of an object], about [name of an emotion]"

Include any emotion that the idea for today may induce, in this mind searching itself.

Lesson 9

"I see nothing as it is now."

This idea follows from the preceding ones. While you may be able to accept it intellectually, it is unlikely that it will mean anything to you as yet. However the recognition that you do not understand is a prerequisite for undoing your false ideas.

These exercises are concerned with practice, not with understanding. It would indeed be circular to assume that you have it already.

It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what it seems to picture is not thereThis idea can be disturbing, and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms. Yet that does not preclude applying at. No more than that is required for these or any other exercises.

Look about you and apply this idea to whatever you see and exclude nothing:

"I do not see this telephone as it is now."

"I do not see this arm as it is now."

You should be honest with yourself in the inclusion. Specific exclusion must be avoided.

Lesson 10

"My thoughts do not mean anything."

This idea applies to all the thoughts of which you are aware in the practice periods. The reason the idea is applicable to all of them is that they are not your real thoughts. You have no basis for comparison yet. When you do, you will have no doubt that what you once believed were your thoughts did not mean anything.

This idea is now introduced with "My thoughts" instead of "These thoughts" and no link is made overtly with the things around you. The emphasis is now on the lack of reality of what you think you think.

This aspect of the correction process began with the idea that the thoughts of which you are aware are meaningless, outside rather than within; and then stress to their past rather than their present status. Now we are emphasizing that the presence of these "thoughts" means that you are not thinking.

This is merely another way of repeating that your mind is really blank. To recognize this is to recognize nothingness when you think you see it. As such, it is a prerequisite for vision.

"This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe."

As before, search your mind for all of thoughts that are available to you, without selection or judgment. You might imagine that you are watching an oddly assorted procession going by, which has little if any personal meaning to you.

"My thought about                                                  does not mean anything."

"My thought about                                                  does not mean anything."

"This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe."

Lesson 11

"My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world."

This idea relates to a major phase of the correction process, the reversal of the thinking of the world. It seems as if the world determines what you perceive. Today's idea introduces the concept that your thoughts determine the world you see. Be glad to practice this idea in its initial form, for in this idea is your release made sure. The key to forgiveness lies in it.

Begin with your eyes closed, and repeat the idea slowly to yourself. Then open your eyes and look about, near and far, up and down, anywhere. Repeat to yourself, with no sense of urgency or effort. For maximum benefit the eyes should move from one thing to another fairly rapidly, since they should not linger on anything in particular. The words should be unhurried, even leisurely. The introduction to this idea should be practiced as casually as possible. It contains the foundation for the peace, relaxation and freedom from worry we are trying to achieve. On concluding the exercises, close your eyes and repeat the idea once more slowly to yourself.

Lesson 12

"I am upset because I see a meaningless world."

The importance of this idea lies in the fact that it contains a correction for a major perceptual distortion. You think that what upsets you is a frightening world, or a sad world, or a violent world, or an insane world. All these attributes are given it by you. The world is meaningless in itself.

These exercises are done with eyes open. Look around you slowly. The slow shifting of your glance from one thing to another involves a fairly constant time interval. Try a measured, even tempo throughout. What you see does not matter. Teachers solve 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.

"I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world, a hostile world, a sad world, a wicked world, a crazy world."

Using whatever descriptive term happens to occur to you. If terms that include positive rather than negative occur to you, include them. You may not yet understand why these "nice" adjectives belong in these exercises but remember that a "good world" implies an "unsatisfying" one. All terms which cross your mind are suitable subjects for today's exercises. Their seeming quality does not matter.

Do not alter the time intervals between applying today's idea to what you think is pleasant and what you think is unpleasant. For the purposes of these exercises there is no difference between them.

"But I am upset because I see a meaningless world."

Lesson 13

"A meaningless world engenders fear."

This idea is more specific as to the emotion aroused. Actually a meaningless world is impossible. Nothing without meaning exists. However, you may think you perceive something that has no meaning. You will be particularly likely to think you do perceive something that has no meaning.

Recognition of meaninglessness arouses intense anxiety in all the separated ones. It represents a situation in which God and the ego "challenge" each other as to whose meaning is to be written in the empty space that meaninglessness provides. The ego rushes in frantically to establish its own ideas there, fearful that the void may otherwise be used to demonstrate its own importance and untreated unreality. And on this alone it is correct.

It is essential that you learn to recognize the meaninglessness, and accept it without fear. If you are fearful, it is certain that you will endow the world with attributes that it does not possess, and crowd it with images that do not exist. To the ego illusions are safety devices, as they must also be to you who equate yourself with the ego.

"I am looking at a meaningless world."

Repeat the statement to yourself as you look about. Then close your eyes, and conclude with:

"A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God."

You may find it difficult to avoid resistance, in one form or another, to this concluding statement. And you may remind yourself that you are really afraid of such a thought because of the "vengeance" of the "enemy." You are not expected to believe the statement at this point, and will probably dismiss it as preposterous. Note carefully, however, any signs of overt or covert fear which it may arouse.

This is our first attempt at stating an explicit positive effect relationship of the kind that you are very inexperienced in recognizing. Do not dwell on the concluding statement, and try not to even think of it except during the practice periods. That will suffice at present.

Lesson 14

"God did not create a meaningless world."

This idea is the reason why a meaningless world is impossible. What God did not create does not exist. And everything that does exist exists as He created it. The world you see has nothing to do with reality. It is your own making and it does not exist.

The idea for today is another step in learning to let go of thoughts that you have written on the world, and see the Word of God in their place. The early steps in this exchange, which can truly be called salvation, can be quite difficult and even painful. Some of them will lead you directly into fear. You will not be left there. You'll go far beyond it. Our direction is toward perfect safety and perfect peace.

With eyes closed, think of all the horrors of the world across your mind. Name each one as it occurs to you, and then deny its reality. God did not create it, so it is not real. Say, for example:

"God did not create that war, and so it is not real."

"God did not create that disaster [specify], and so it is not real."

Suitable subjects also include anything you are afraid might happen to you, or to anyone about whom you are concerned. In each case, name the "disaster" quite specifically. Do not use general terms. For example, say what ever may arouse fear in you.

This is your personal repertory of horrors at which you are looking. These themes are part of the world you see. Some of them are shared illusions, and others are part of your personal hell. It does not matter. What God did not create can only be in your own mind apart from His. Therefore, it has no meaning.

In recognition of this fact, conclude the practice periods by repeating of today's idea:

"God did not create a meaningless world."

"God did not create a meaningless world. He did not create [specify the situation which is disturbing you], and so it is not real."