I have no neutral thoughts.
1. Today’s idea is an initial step in dispelling the belief that your thoughts have no effect.
²Everything you see is the result of your thoughts.I
³There are no exceptions to this.
⁴Thoughts are not big or small; powerful or weak.
⁵They are simply true or false.II
⁶Those that are true create in their own likeness.III
⁷Those that are false do so as well.IV
2. There is no concept more inherently self-contradictory than that of “idle thoughts.”
²What gives rise to an entire world can hardly be called idle.
³Every thought you have contributes either to truth or to illusion; it either extends the truth or multiplies illusions. ⁴You can indeed multiply what is nothing, but you will not extend it by doing so.V
3. In addition to recognizing that thoughts are never idle, salvation also requires that you acknowledge that every thought you have will bring either peace or conflict, either love or fear.
²A neutral result is impossible, because a neutral thought is impossible.
³The temptation to dismiss fearful thoughts as unimportant, trivial, or unworthy of attention is so great that it is essential to recognize them all as equally destructive, and equally unreal.VI
⁴We will practice this idea in many forms before you come to truly understand it.
4. In applying today’s idea, search your mind for about a minute with eyes closed, and try sincerely not to overlook any “insignificant” thought that tends to elude your search.
²This will be quite difficult for you until you learn to do it.VII
³You will find that it is still very hard for you not to make artificial distinctions.VIII
5. Every thought that occurs to you, regardless of how you may classify it, is suitable for applying today’s idea.
²During the practice periods, repeat the idea first, and then, as each thought crosses your mind, hold it in awareness as you say to yourself:
³This thought about ____ is not a neutral thought.
⁴That thought about ____ is not a neutral thought.
6. As usual, use today’s idea whenever you become aware of a specific thought that causes you discomfort.
²The following form is suggested for this purpose:
³This thought about ____ is not a neutral thought, because I do not have neutral thoughts.
7. Four or five practice periods are recommended, if you find them relatively easy.
²If you experience strain, three will be enough.
³The length of the exercise period should also be reduced if it becomes uncomfortable.ucirse si se vuelve incómodo.
I You are Spirit (W-97),and the mind is the activating agent of the Spirit (G-1.1). You experience yourself in the mind and as mind. You know nothing but mind and you relate to nothing but your own thoughts, for there is nothing else. Some of the thoughts you conceive you call “opinions” and consider very “private.” Others you call “things” or “circumstances,” and you think they are external to you, but that belief is false, for nothing is outside you; if something were, you could neither relate to it nor know it at all. Your own body—or the idea you have of yourself—are your thoughts. The other people you think you relate to, and the world where you think that occurs, are also in your mind—where else would they be? This is why you always relate only to yourself, and the way you treat your thoughts is the way you treat yourself.
There are no neutral thoughts because every one of your thoughts has appeared in your mind for a reason—something has caused it—and that “something” is your will; you have the thoughts you invoke because you want to experience them. Both the world you see (thoughts you call “things”) and the stories you fantasize about (thoughts you recognize as ideas) have arisen in your imagination for some motive that brought them to your awareness. They did not appear out of nothing or at random; rather, they are the symbolic expression of your deepest fears and desires, and all of them serve a function.
The purpose of this Course in mind training is precisely to learn how to manage these thoughts by choosing the ones you do want—loving ones—and by reinterpreting the others according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit so as to remove from them their component of anger and fear, which are the same. Thus you forgive the world by ceasing to fear and attack it, and that is the beginning of living lucidly.
II All the thoughts you are relating to now are false, for you relate to them in terms of “belief,” which is the spurious way of using the mind that was created to “create” in the same way it was created. To believe is merely to assign false attributes to your thoughts and to think that what you think is true and that your thoughts are something they are not.
III Genesis 1:26: “And God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image and likeness.’”
IV Just as true or real thoughts create reality by extending one’s very Being, false thoughts forge illusions. The former extend reality, and the latter shape the world in the ego mind. In every case, thoughts are never powerless, for they are causal and must necessarily have “effects.” Some are conceived within the realm of the real—what the Course calls “the Creations of God’s Son”—and others within the realm of illusion—illusions.
V This, obviously, is a parody of the mathematical principle of nullity resulting from multiplying any number by zero. The Course’s use of the verb “to extend” is very difficult to interpret ontologically, for it is always used to refer to the creation of what is real. Thus, the Course states: “The Son of God is an extension of God.” The human mind—the self-limited mind of God’s Son—is configured to conceive forms, illusions, not real concepts, which are perfectly abstract.
For this reason, reality’s relationship with itself gives rise to the incomprehensible verb “to extend” which, while pointing to the idea of “increase,” cannot literally be taken that way either, since increase implies change and reality is immutable. These are the limitations inherent in language, which, in the end, is an instrument for communicating concepts within the realm of duality, yet proves ineffective for describing reality, which is non-dual.
VI Salvation—the good news, the Gospel—lies precisely in the fact that fear-thoughts, lacking love, are unreal. This is why fear is unfounded. It is comparable to when we have a nightmare and find ourselves threatened in our sleep by a horrifying figure, which will always symbolize some lack of forgiveness. Upon awakening, we understand the fear was unfounded; what frightened us was an illusion.
However, one does not awaken from the dream of the world in the world. If you believe you are in the world, you cannot afford the luxury of blithely dismissing loveless false thoughts, for you will undoubtedly experience their effects in it. It is necessary to recognize the destructive nature of these thoughts and the power they have to embitter “life.”
Although the definitive solution is to awaken from the dream of the world, the strategy is to heal the mind. First, by becoming aware of the power of your “bad” thoughts in the world; then, by asking to “see this differently” in order to remove them. This is precisely the Atonement.
VII This is an important sentence because it points to the Course’s sacrosanct principle of mental vigilance—the fundamental, ongoing task of the student of A Course in Miracles: to watch their mind at all times, to be alert, and to be aware of every thought that arises. As a rule, any thought that pops up unexpectedly is a manifestation of the ego—its grandiose aspirations or its deepest fears. It is essential to become aware of this, and this need can never be overemphasized.
Once you have become aware of such a thought, it is imperative to understand with absolute clarity that it is false and destructive and that, at best, it will only serve to waste time on idle fantasies. The compulsive flow of ego thoughts is always a sign that we find the present reality unsatisfactory and unworthy of our attention or appreciation, so we replace it with fantasies.
The sound mind, lit by the pure awareness of Being, is blissful; and what it beholds—the real world—is always wholly satisfying and evokes joy.
VIII This too is fundamental. It is essential that you become aware that you now relate to your own thoughts according to an artificial scale or yardstick you yourself have established, which classifies them by arbitrarily assigning them a value or relevance. Thus you believe there are thoughts related to certain concepts that are more “valuable” or important than others. In reality, what you are doing is ranking illusions without noticing that all of them are the same: all are false.
One idea that is especially hard for you to accept is that the Holy Spirit does not share your scale of illusory values. You believe that He will surely give you more attention and care if, through tears, you ask Him to heal a malignant, lethal cancerous tumor than if you ask Him which would be better for you, a strawberry ice cream or a lemon one. But He does not see it that way. He sees only that God’s Son is dreaming and needs to awaken. The content of the dream is irrelevant to Him. It is not irrelevant to you, however, and therein lies the problem, because that imaginary contrast among illusions is precisely what sustains your dream.
This is a radical Course. Its goal is not to “improve” your life in this world, but to lead you to awaken from the illusion that you are in it.