A meaningless world engenders fear.
1. Today’s idea is a variation of the previous one, except that it is more specific about the emotion it arouses.
²In truth, a meaningless world is impossible.
³There is nothing that lacks meaning.
⁴However, this does not mean that you do not believe you perceive something that has no meaning.
⁵On the contrary, you are very inclined to think that you do.
2. The recognition of meaninglessness arouses intense anxiety in all who perceive themselves as separate.I
²It represents a situation in which God and the ego appear to “challenge” each other as to the meaning that should be assigned to the empty space that meaninglessness presents.II
³The ego hastens frantically to fill it with its own “ideas,” fearing that the void could be used to demonstrate its own unreality.III
⁴And in this alone is it correct.
3. It is essential, therefore, that you learn to recognize what is meaningless as meaningless, and to accept it without fear.
²If you are afraid, you will certainly endow the world with attributes it does not possess, and fill it with images that do not exist.
³To the ego, illusions are devices of safety, just as they must be to you, who identify with it.IV
4. Today’s exercises, to be done three or four times for no more than a minute at most each time, should be practiced in a slightly different manner than previous ones.
²With eyes closed, state today’s idea.
³Then open your eyes and look around you slowly, saying:
⁴I am looking at a world that means nothing.
⁵Repeat this statement silently as you continue to look around.
⁶Then close your eyes and conclude with:
⁷A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God.
5. You may find it difficult not to resist this final statement in some way.
²Whatever form the resistance may take, remind yourself that the real reason you are afraid of this idea is because of the “vengeance” of the “enemy.”
³You are not expected to believe this statement at this point, and you will probably dismiss it as preposterous. ⁴Nevertheless, take careful note of any signs of fear, whether obvious or subtle, that the idea may evoke.V
6. This is our first attempt at stating an explicit cause-and-effect relationship of a kind you are still very inexperienced in recognizing.VI
²Do not dwell on the final statement, and do not try to think about it except during the practice periods.
³That will suffice for now.
I If what I perceive in the world is devoid of meaning, then the thought within me that gave rise to it is also meaningless. And since I identify with my thoughts, this implies that I myself lack meaning—that is, that I do not exist.
Anxiety arises because, at some level, I recognize that this lack of meaning extends to my own individual, separate, egoic existence.
II This is one way of explaining what is happening in your mind, although, of course, it is not how you perceive it. Having identified with the ego, you interpret the events in your mind from its perspective.
III This somewhat grotesque figure of the ego, lunging to assign meanings, should not surprise you, for that is precisely what is happening in your mind constantly. That is what you call “thinking,” “my thoughts,” or your “inner dialogue.” It is nothing but the ego’s frenzy to confer meaning on illusions.
It is not that your mind has been possessed by the ego; that is not so. The ego is nothing, and you hold all the power. What has happened is that you have chosen to listen to that voice, which is nothing more than the effect, in your holy mind, of having accepted the idea of separation—what we might call “the ego as effect.” You are free; you always have been and always will be. Yet in your present situation, that freedom lies solely in deciding which voice you choose to listen to.
You do not generate or produce the thoughts you believe you have; you merely subscribe to them. That “thinking,” so to speak, is an automatic figuration of your mind that turns your fears and desires into “forms.” It is akin to what happens in your nightly dreams: a figurative language by which your subconscious communicates with your conscious mind—a fantasy, an illusion that you may choose to regard as real, or not.
The idea of being separate—the ego as cause—has no substance because it is not real. You, who are real, are not separate. Yet sustaining that idea generates in your mind a bubble of illusion that you call a personal world or personal identity—the ego as effect. You will not escape it so long as you attribute reality and meaning to it. That illusory bubble, as fragile as a soap bubble, is sustained by your credulity, and that is why you need forgiveness to dissolve it.
IV As we noted earlier in the first note to W-11, illusions are compensatory mechanisms that attempt to mitigate the horror vacui of a supposed existence separate from God. To acknowledge that what you behold means nothing demands impeccable honesty, yet it is within your reach and you can allow it. Do not be afraid. You will lose nothing real by accepting this truth; you will merely leave behind the imaginary limitations with which you have constructed your insignificant identity. Do not fear the expansion of awareness that truth will bring. You were not created to be a slave to an absurd, suffering idea. Try to remember what your heart is calling you to. Lay down your fear and walk with confidence toward God, toward your true Self.
V That atavistic, deep-seated fear that disturbs your mind is, in fact, nothing more than a childish and irrelevant gesture that in no way offends your Father. From that supposed “original sin,” you have fashioned an imaginary enemy that has filled you with fear and that you have hidden in the deepest recesses of your awareness. Though it is not really there, your belief in its existence is enough for you to perceive it as real.
Now the descendants of that ancestral fear present themselves before you—the “children of the children of the children” of that fantasy you invented when you imagined you had left your home taking a few “treasures” with you. You are the prodigal son, and you surely remember how that story ends.
VI What is set before you here is nothing less than the fear of God, the last obstacle to peace. These are weighty words, and that is why Jesus counsels you not to dwell on the idea longer than necessary to do the exercise; merely keep it in mind, for it is the truth.
It is in the Second Part of this Workbook that you will begin to redeem this deep confusion that is, quite literally, embittering your life.