Today we review the following ideas: W-16 to W-20
1. W-16 “I have no neutral thoughts.”
²It is impossible to have neutral thoughts because every thought has power.
³My thoughts either build a false world or lead me to the real one.
⁴But thoughts cannot be without effect.I
⁵Just as the world I see arises from the errors in my thinking, so will the real world rise before my eyes when I allow my errors to be corrected.
⁶My thoughts cannot be both true and false.
⁷They must be one or the other.
⁸What I see shows me what they are.
2. W-17 “I see no neutral things.”II
²What I see is a witness to what I think.
³If I did not think, I would not exist, for life is thought.III
⁴Let me look upon the world I see as the reflection of my own state of mind.IV
⁵I know that my state of mind can change.
⁶And so I know that the world I see can change as well.V
3. W-18 “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.”VI
²If I have no private thoughts, I cannot see a private world.
³Even the wild idea of separation had to be shared before it could form the basis of the world I see.
⁴But that was a sharing of nothing.VII
⁵I can also call upon my real Thoughts, which share everything with everyone.VIII
⁶Just as my thoughts of separation call to the separation thoughts in others, so too do my real Thoughts awaken real Thoughts in them.
⁷And the world my real Thoughts show me will dawn upon their sight as well as mine.
4. W-19 “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.”
²I am not alone in anything.
³Everything I think, say, or do touches the whole universe.IX
⁴A Son of God cannot think, speak, or act in vain.
⁵He cannot be alone in anything.
⁶Therefore, I have the power to change every mind along with mine, for mine is the Power of God.
5. W-20 “I am determined to see.”
²Recognizing the shared nature of my thoughts, I am determined to see.X
³I want to behold the witnesses that show me the world’s way of thinking has been changed.
⁴I want to see the proof that what has happened through me has enabled Love to replace fear, laughter to replace tears, and abundance to replace loss.
⁵I want to look upon the real world, and let it teach me that my Will and the Will of God are One.XI
I The effect of a thought is the content of that thought—the idea it expresses.
Content, cause, and effect are simultaneous and the same.
Thoughts cannot fail to have effects because they are the expression of the will that sustains them. You have the thoughts you want to have because your will is the cause of everything you perceive.
The question here is: what is your will, Son of God? Remember, even more than a Course about forgiveness, this is a Course about will.
II I do not see neutral things because will is never neutral; it is always positive and assertive.
It manifests what it wants to manifest.
III This is a reference to Descartes’ famous principle: “I think, therefore I am,” only here it is stated in the negative: “If I did not think, I would not exist.”
Jesus comments that this had a positive effect on Descartes: “He no longer really questioned the reality of what he perceived, because he KNEW that he was there” (T-3.XI.11:6).
“Life is thought.” This idea is very difficult to grasp because it is very simple. It cannot be understood, but it can be known and experienced.
To live is to think; to think is to live. There is no life without thought, for without thought there is no reality; there is nothing.
And this is not understood by the mind that believes in the physical, though by now you have already learned that all you call “physical” is nothing but having conferred “non-ideal” attributes onto an idea within the mind itself.
The “physical,” the “material,” does not exist apart from the mind that conceives it, and the individual mind could not have conceived it, for it too remains an idea in the confused mind of the Son of God.
Being, Existence, God, Life… it is all the same: one idea. This idea can be considered from different perspectives and interpreted as different aspects, but from a strictly ontological point of view, all of It is the same, and the denial of that idea is nonexistence—what does not exist.
IV This other idea, however, is fully functional.
The world is in my mind and is of my own making, but the ego always avoids assuming that responsibility.
Yet to assume it bestows upon the mind the natural power of the miracle: the power to transform illusion so that it reflects the Love of God underlying all that exists.
The mind can do all things because the mind is all there is, the only thing that exists.
V Remember: to perceive is to project, so you will see what you want to see.
To understand and exercise this principle requires radical honesty.
VI I am not the only one who experiences the effects of my way of seeing because those “others” I think I see are also the expression of my will, and I see them as I do because I want to see them that way.
VII To share an idea that has no real content is not true sharing, and this gives rise to the notion that thoughts are private and minds are separate.
This is not true, but it can be believed by that part of the mind that considers it true.
You cannot share an idea that has no content and, consequently, no cause and no real effects.
That kind of idea can only operate within the realm of illusion.
VIII My real Thoughts, or true ones, are those I share with God and with all the Souls that make up the Christ Body. Those Thoughts are the Creations of the Son of God and are like the Son and the Father.
However, understood within the realm of the illusory world, this means that only loving thoughts can be effectively shared, because only love is real.
On the other hand, my illusory thoughts, devoid of love, cannot be shared, but they can be “spread.” In that case, nothing is shared, though one may harbor the illusion that it has been.
Particular minds can harbor similar private illusions, but they will always be their own interpretations, distinct and exclusive. It will seem that I am communicating something when I do so, but in truth I am only stirring in that apparent other the same absences I experience, though in this case they are his own.
That is why in the following line the word “appeal” is used.
IX It not only “affects” but actually “shapes” the universe I believe I live in.
That was already seen in the fourth line of the second paragraph.X That is to say, I want to see the Reality before me—the expression of God’s Love underlying this dream of fear I now believe I behold. I do not want to imagine the absences of love that the ego’s voice stirs in me. To see is to Know, and to Be and to Love. The fact that we share one mind is what makes true vision possible, the knowledge of what is real, the love we share.
XI These five Lessons of today are an invitation to watch our mind and be attentive to what we think, since it is our thoughts that shape the reality we perceive and the image we have of ourselves. Yet this task is not exhausting; on the contrary, it is an energizing practice, for it frees you from clinging to a limited and depressing view of reality. What truly exhausts is paying attention to the weary and repetitive thoughts of the ego.