Hi Ren,
This is number 12 in our series of healing perspectives on the lessons in the ACIM Workbook for Students. We recommend that you read Lesson 12 in the Workbook along with this message.

In this lesson I am being asked to step back and refrain from giving any meaning to the world. I am told that the world has no meaning because it is meaningless. On this blank slate the Holy Spirit can bring me real meaning. All true meaning comes from God. Thinking there is an outside world, a world outside of God, is a false idea. It is a meaningless idea. Thinking that something could be outside of everything is meaningless and could never be.

Recognizing that the world is meaningless is a very important step in my healing process. All the meanings I have given the world have been an effort to make the error real. I am now realizing that the error, or the false idea of separation, could never be real and is meaningless. God is one. God is all. There could never be anything outside of God. I want to heal my mind. I want to let go of false ideas. And part of that process is really getting it that the idea of a world outside me is meaningless.

There is no meaning to separation, no matter how hard I try to make it real by putting a meaning on it. The world is not bad or good; it is meaningless. My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world. As I give it meaning, it becomes real to me. As I remove the meaning, I can see that it is meaningless. On this blank slate, the Holy Spirit can show me all true meaning. The Holy Spirit can show me what is real.

This is a very important part of my awakening process. I want to practice throughout the day refraining from giving my meaning to the world. I want to practice stepping back and letting the Holy Spirit show me all true meaning. This is a very simple process, but requires great focus on my part to step back again and again and again. I have had such a habit of doing the opposite — giving my meaning to the world — that it now takes continued practice doing the opposite until the new habit becomes automatic. It isn’t automatic yet, so I still need continued practice. I am determined to practice stepping back today. I do not know what anything means. The Holy Spirit does. I am willing to listen.


I can only experience fear or worry because I believe harm or loss is possible. Harm or loss is possible only if separation is real. But separation cannot be real because God is one and all that is. Love is all that is. Being impossible, the idea of separation is meaningless. So I am upset because I see a meaningless world, although I do not recognize it as meaningless. I have given it a meaning that is not true, although I believe it is true.

It is my belief in the reality of illusion that makes illusion threatening. The moment I recognize it as illusion, I see its meaninglessness and it is no longer threatening. Once again it comes back to belief. Belief in false ideas makes the idea appear true because the belief in it is the wish for it to be true.
These lessons are gently, step-by-step, helping us to step back and detach from our identification with our beliefs. Gradually we will be able to recognize the false beliefs that underlie the fearful, sad, exciting, thrilling, upsetting, traumatic and dramatic world. As we withdraw our investment in those beliefs, we will withdraw the meaning we have written upon the world, making way for God’s Word of joy and peace to be written on it in its place. Unspeakable happiness will replace the roller coaster emotions that come from our belief that separation is real. It is worth the practice. It leads to what our heart seeks. It leads Home.


I've done these lessons more than once and I am clearer on what is being asked of me. I understand my part of it better. I understand that I don't have to make a new world, or even figure out what the world should look like. I just have to clear my mind of what I think it should be and let reality shine through. That is hard enough. Thank goodness it is all I have to do.

I still do not do my part with any consistency. I have moments of clarity, and then I allow the ego to creep back in and I start to see a scary, sad, chaotic world again. I am reminding myself that my success is certain however that seems contrary to my present state.


What comes to my mind when I think that I am upset because what I see is meaningless is that I have assigned labels to everything and deep within me, those labels, which were assigned by my ego, are ultimately not real or true. And they change depending on what my ego wants. This is a very profound revelation for me, because now I see how truly upsetting this meaningless world is. If I see something and my ego declares it good one day and a month later declares it bad based on perhaps other people's opinions, then I am always shifting and my perspective is always changing and I never feel firmly rooted in anything. This is ultimately the most disconcerting thing any being can experience. To not feel rooted is frightening. To not feel rooted is to feel disconnected and separate. There is the Key! Separateness.

But I am not separate from God, my Creator. I am right here inside Him. I may have hidden that from myself in this experience, this dream... but the fact that I am now searching, actively searching for God, implies that I am no longer benefiting from my belief that I am separate from God. Now it is time to let the truth shine. I have never been separate from God. I have always been with God. Separateness is the illusion, the dream. And this meaningless world supports that illusion, which is why I get upset. I therefore must see all of this as not real to return to the truth that I am still with God and never left God.

This dream is my playtime and yet I have gotten so wrapped up in it that I have forgotten it is playtime and I have taken it to be completely real. No, this is my recess. And when my recess is over I will see God. Yet just because I am at recess doesn't mean that I cannot see God. God, in fact, has always been right here ready and waiting to be seen, but in my excitement of recess I have completely forgotten about God. That is really the bigger problem. And then when recess is losing its fun, I get upset and depressed and fearful.

However, anytime I choose, all I need to do is mediate and think of God and I will realize that this is playtime and God is still here, and I am still with God, part of God, but I am in the playground right now and that is why I keep forgetting I am with God. But all is well. And when I realize that, I can return to my playtime lighter and brighter and ready to radiate love and joy.

©2003, Pathways of Light, Inc. http://pathwaysoflight.org. To subscribe, click here. You may freely share copies of this page with your friends, provided all copies include this notice.

Hi Ren,
This is number 11 in our series of healing perspectives on the lessons in the ACIM Workbook for Students. We recommend that you read Lesson 11 in the Workbook along with this message.

When I am experiencing physical discomfort, a headache, a cold or any bodily discomfort, it seems difficult to believe that my meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world. It seems easy to fall into old patterns of assigning meaning to what the pain or discomfort might mean. Sometimes I frighten myself with the meanings I make up, which seems to make it even more difficult to believe that it is my meaningless thoughts that are the cause of this story.

The same holds true if I have taken offense to what somebody says or does. The anger or resentment or grievance seems justified and certainly not meaningless, let alone the affect of my meaningless thoughts. Yet this lesson is telling me that this idea is the key to the freedom and peace that I seek.

As much as I want this peace, it is surprising how much resistance there seems to be to applying this idea in certain aspects of my life. I want to make exceptions. Yet the lessons are saying that it is the lack of exceptions that makes these ideas so powerful as a healing aid. At this point it is helpful to acknowledge the resistance and apply the idea anyway, even if I realize that part of me doesn’t want to. As it says in the introduction to the Workbook, active resistance doesn’t matter.

What is important is doing the exercises. They are designed to bring about the healing I really want. They will help me move past the resistance. Like the biblical story of the man who asked Jesus for healing, saying, “I believe. Help my unbelief,” these exercises will help me move past the unbelief.

I have been through the Workbook many times. I can see progress. I make less exceptions. For that I am grateful because with less exceptions comes greater peace. It is worth the practice.


I need to be reminded that it is my thoughts that are the cause of the meaningless world I see. Many times it seems like the opposite is true. I really want to recognize the cause of my ‘life’ experience. I do want to return to the truth and right now I see that this is very helpful. It is my meaningless thoughts that are showing me a meaningless world. If I want to change anything out there in the world, I need first to look at my thoughts, because that is the real cause of what I am seeing.

I want to practice catching or seeing my meaningless thoughts for what they are. I want to practice taking these meaningless thoughts to the Holy Spirit for a transformed perspective. I want to see what is going on in my mind. Unless I really see what is happening in my mind and recognize that this is the cause of what I see in the outside world, I will stay right where I am. I am determined to heal my mind.

Today’s lesson is a very useful tool for me to help me reverse my false ideas about what is real. Stepping back and pausing to remember that my meaningless thoughts are the cause of the meaningless world I see is very helpful to me. Because I believe the opposite so often, I need this thought reversal exercise. When I think I know what is going on, this brings a little humility to my mind. This helps me to refrain from being a know-it-all. This helps me remember to go to the One Who knows, waiting there in my mind to help refresh my memory to help me heal or let go of those false ideas which seem so real sometimes.

Right now I feel very grateful that I have the opportunity to practice these lessons day by day. I recognize that I really do need this practice. Straighten my mind, my Father. It is in need of healing. I am thankful that these lessons are here from me to practice.


"The same holds true if I have taken offense to what somebody says or does. The anger or resentment or grievance seems justified..." I was so glad to read those lines this morning. This is exactly what I am dealing with right now. Last night someone significant in my life unfairly attacked me and it came right out of the blue which seems to make it harder to deal with. I hate the way it makes me feel when I am resentful and hurt.

I wasted some time trying to forgive with my ego. I tried ego reasoning. I tried to pretend it didn't happen. I tried to decide I didn't care.

This morning I woke up thinking about it and it wasn't any better. I remembered that my thoughts do not mean anything; that they are based on beliefs. I meditated and in the meditative state, I gave all of these feelings and the thoughts behind them to Holy Spirit and asked for a new way to see it. I felt better, but every once in awhile I started thinking about talking to him about what he said. No matter how I couched the conversation in loving words, the fact is I want him to take it back. I am believing that this is his problem and that he did something to me.

So you see why I am so pleased with today's lesson. I truly want to change my mind. I thank Holy Spirit every time I become aware of a feeling of resentment, anger, or fear because He is just letting me know that I need to fully release this and haven't done so yet.


As I think of my thoughts as meaningless and as showing me a meaningless world, I realize that what I used to base every perception I have on, is an ego that wants to keep me focused in the 'physical reality' or dream state, where I am trapped into a roller coaster of emotions and events that leave me exhausted, desperate, confused, and frustrated. This is not a life. This is an absurd existence.

I have often thought that there is nothing 'real' here because the nature of this existence seems so ungodly. And deep within me, I know that this place where I have put so much energy and emphasis is not real. It means nothing. This ego has nothing to offer me. These thoughts have nothing to offer me. What I see around me has offered me nothing in my 34 years on this planet other than a roller coaster of emotions that always brings me back to very low states. There is nothing here that I want, so I turn all of this over to God and ask that he show me light and truth and cleanse me of these unreal thoughts and replace them with truth. That is the only way out.

Everything that I have ever wanted: wealth, success, freedom from the 9-5 trap, a wonderful marriage, children... I turn them over to God and put them in his hands because as I go within I find ONE TRUTH which has remained through all my searches and both, dark and bright moments... God has always helped me. God has always given me wonderful gifts. God has brought me light when I was in my darkest hours.

God has even brought me to ACIM twice now. The first time I did not heed the call. I only bought the book and read a little then felt overwhelmed and tossed it aside. The second time, this past month, I was ready, after having gone through very long and dark hours and having God answer me many times. Too many to really count.

My one truth seems to be, 'thy will not my will,' for when I turn my need to control everything over to God, and when I just let go and believe that I will be cared for and I will be cared for very well if I just let God do it for me, through me, then I am fine. Only then am I fine. That is the irony of it. Try to do it yourself and it's a tug of war where all of it gets worse, let go and say 'here you go. You handle it,' and all of it gets better almost instantly.

One would think that it would be the other way around, however, we seem to be in a land of opposites... in this dreaming state. What appears to be real is definitely not. What appears to make sense is senseless. What appears to be truth is a lie. Flip all of this around and I see that what appears to be the lie is truth. What appears to be senseless or beyond the senses is the answer. What appears to be unreal holds the key. In dreams, nothing makes sense. And the way out of a dream for me is just asking to wake up. God is the key indeed.

©2003, Pathways of Light, Inc. http://pathwaysoflight.org. To subscribe, click here. You may freely share copies of this page with your friends, provided all copies include this notice

ACIM Workbook Healing Perspectives

Hi Ren,
This is number 10 in our series of healing perspectives on the lessons in the ACIM Workbook for Students. We recommend that you read Lesson 10 in the Workbook along with this message.

It is our beliefs that imprison us. It is our beliefs that stand between us and the knowledge of our oneness and the Love of God. It is our beliefs that manifest as the images that make our world. The good news is that we can change our beliefs because we made them. The idea, “My thoughts do not mean anything” helps us to step back from our thoughts, to dis-identify from them so that we can become open to recognizing that they are simply the effects of our beliefs. Gradually we become aware that there is something behind the thoughts of which we are aware. There is a cause and the cause is our beliefs.

The thoughts will continue to occur as long as we maintain the beliefs. We may hide our beliefs from ourselves and create all kinds of smoke screens to deceive ourselves into thinking that we have no responsibility for what we are perceiving. But that does not change the fact that what we perceive is the effect of our beliefs. We see it because we believe it. As we can step back from the thoughts and observe the beliefs, we are then free to change the beliefs. As long as we hide them, we cannot change them.

Lasting healing comes with changing our belief that we could be anything but one with the Love in which we were created. The first step is to loosen our identification with our thoughts because as long as we believe that our thoughts are our identity, we will resist changing them. We interpret changing our ideas as equivalent to death, because it means the loss of what we believe to be our identity. It is not surprising that there is great resistance to change. Today’s idea offers a gentle tool to loosening this identification. We do not have to believe it, we just have to practice it. As we practice these lessons, it will do it’s healing work of its own.


It may seem personally insulting to tell ourselves all through the day, “My thoughts do not mean anything,” but in fact it is an important step in the process of freeing our minds from all false ideas. The Course tells us that truth is true and nothing else is true. The Course tells us oneness is real and separation does not exist. The Course tells us that all our experiences of conflict come from our belief in separation. The Course tells us that we must be willing to let go of these false ideas in order to know our true Identity as a thought of Love in the Mind of Love.

So this lesson is very important in the healing process of undoing all our false ideas. In truth it is not insulting. Telling myself all through the day, “My thoughts do not meaning anything,” helps me loosen my hold on false ideas of separation that never were true. It frees me from the prison house that I put myself in when I bought into these thoughts.

I am willing to practice today remembering that my thoughts do not mean anything. This is my path to freedom. This is my path to remembering that I am in Heaven and I never left. Dreams of separation really mean nothing, no matter what I think is true. Truth is true and nothing else is true. Oneness and Love are true and nothing else is true. All thoughts about a world of separation are meaningless. They are not true.


The thought for today is so valuable when we think about issues of unworthiness. All of those thoughts that we’ve collected over our lifetime mean nothing and all of those thoughts that tell us that we are unworthy -- we don’t look good enough, we didn’t say the right thing, we didn’t do the right thing, we didn’t do it good enough, we shouldn’t have behaved that way. Recognizing these thoughts mean nothing leaves us with a clean slate for Spirit to show us the truth of what we are. Recognizing that my thoughts do not mean anything and that they are not my real thoughts gives me great hope and peace as I realize this practice will release me from all that I now believe.


What wonder, joy and beauty await me on the other side of “My thoughts do not mean anything.” As I release my attachment to and identification with my thoughts and as I stop bringing the past to the present, I open a clearing for new thought. I open a clearing for Christ’s Vision to be written upon my blank mind. As I stop giving meaning to everything I see, I allow Christ’s Vision to and Spirit’s meaning to flood my life with true creation, the extension of Love. To behold the beauty of forgiveness through Christ’s Vision is what awaits me as I practice all my thoughts mean nothing. I await this freedom joyfully and I accept the new meaning Christ’s Vision will lay upon my world of forgiveness.


There is only one thought today that has any meaning for me and that is to be as God created me -- nothing more, nothing less -- just that, to realize that existence as best I can here with the help of Holy Spirit. I am willing to let all other thoughts go. I don't know what this means, but I trust I can realize my True Self, my true existence, for this is reality what I am.

But True Self has been hidden under layers of ego thought which do not mean anything. They merely disguise the Real Me that I have been afraid to see, to know. There is still a part of me uncertain and nervous about what it would really mean to be the Real Me. I realize this thought does not mean anything -- it is merely fear projecting itself. Of course, I am the Real Me, part of the Oneself, for how can I be anything else but what God created. Yet, ego mind keeps It pushed away as if It were unreal.

Today, Holy Spirit, help me see my meaningless thoughts and let them go. Cleanse my existence of all that does not serve Love. Help me see my True Self so I may begin to live more fully the happy dream of awakening now. Help me see the layers I think I have heaped over my True Self and I now believe are true. Help me see the untruth of my ego truth that I may truly serve Love as a conscious choice.

©2003, Pathways of Light, Inc. http://pathwaysoflight.org. To subscribe, click here. You may freely share copies of this page with your friends, provided all copies include this notice.