Welcome to active meditation.
A course in miracles.
Lesson 4.
These thoughts do not mean anything.
We prepare for this exercise by placing our body in a comfortable position so that we won't have to move it for several minutes.
We close our eyes.
We take three deep breaths to relax our mind and body.
The out-breath longer than the in-breath.
And to help relax,
We remove all expression from our face.
Do this now.
Place your body in a comfortable position.
Take three deep breaths and remove all expression from your face.
And to help relax,
We remove all expression from our face.
Take three deep breaths and remove all expression from your face.
This is a course in miracles.
It is a required course.
Only the time you take it is voluntary.
Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum.
It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time.
The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love,
For that is beyond what can be taught.
It does aim,
However,
At removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence,
Which is your natural inheritance.
The opposite of love is fear.
But what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
These thoughts do not mean anything.
They are like the things I see in this room,
On this street,
From this window.
In this place.
Unlike the preceding ones,
These exercises do not begin with the idea for the day.
In these practice periods,
Begin with noting the thoughts that are crossing your mind for about a minute.
Then,
Apply the idea to them.
If you are already aware of unhappy thoughts,
Use them as the subjects for the idea.
Do not,
However,
Select only the thoughts you think are bad.
You will find,
If you train yourself to look at your thoughts,
That they represent such a mixture that in a sense,
None of them can be called good or bad.
This is why they do not mean anything.
Observe your thoughts.
Say to yourself,
Recite to your mind,
This thought about,
And then name your thought,
Does not mean anything.
It is like the things I see in this room,
On this street,
And so on.
Do this now.
In selecting the subjects for the application of today's idea,
The usual specificity is required.
Do not be afraid to use good thoughts as well as bad.
None of them represent your real thoughts,
Which are being covered up by them.
The good ones are but shadows of what lies beyond,
And shadows make sight difficult.
The bad ones are blocks to sight,
And make seeing impossible.
You do not want either.
Watch more thoughts.
As thoughts arise,
Say to yourself,
Say to your mind,
This thought about,
And then name your thought,
Does not mean anything.
This is a major exercise,
And will be repeated from time to time in somewhat different form.
The aim here is to train you in the first steps towards the goal of separating the meaningless from the meaningful.
It is a first attempt in the long range purpose of learning to see the meaningless as outside you,
And the meaningful within.
It is also the beginning of training your mind to recognize what is the same and what is different.
In using your thoughts for application of the idea for today,
Identify each thought by the central figure or event it contains.
You can also use the idea for a particular thought that you recognize as harmful.
This practice is useful,
But it is not a substitute for the more random procedures to be followed for the exercises.
Do not,
However,
Examine your mind for more than a minute or so.
You are too inexperienced as yet to avoid a tendency to become pointlessly preoccupied.
Further,
Since these exercises are the first of their kind,
You may find the suspension of judgment in connection with thoughts particularly difficult.
Do not repeat these exercises more than three or four times during the day.
We will return to them later.
Now,
Witness more thoughts.
Tell yourself,
Say in your mind,
These thoughts do not mean anything.
They are like the things I see in this room,
On this street,
From this window,
In this place.
These thoughts do not mean anything.
Let's return to our regular waking state of thoughts,
Feelings,
And actions,
To time and space.
And as we do this,
We know that our personality has made progress in developing a working relationship with our higher self,
The conscious presence.
Take a few deep breaths to help establish the waking state.
And return fully alert,
Comfortable in all instruments of awareness,
With a heightened awareness of our environment and the knowledge,
I am aware.
Who are you?
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
