Welcome to active meditation.
A Course in Miracles Review,
Lessons 16 through 20.
As we prepare for this exercise,
We place our body in a comfortable position and close our eyes.
We relax by noting where the tension is in our body.
And to increase the relaxation,
We remove all expression from our face.
Do all this now.
This is a Course in Miracles.
It is a required course.
Only the time you take it is voluntary.
Some of the ideas the exercises present you will find hard to believe,
And others may seem to be quite startling.
This does not matter.
You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed.
You are not asked to judge them at all.
You are asked only to use them.
It is their use that will give them meaning to you,
And will show you that they are true.
The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world.
This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
I have no neutral thoughts.
Neutral thoughts are impossible because all thoughts have power.
They will either make a false world or lead me to the real one.
But thoughts cannot be without effect.
As the world I see arises from my thinking errors,
So will the real world rise before my eyes as I let my errors be corrected.
My thoughts cannot be either true or false.
They must be one or the other.
What I see shows me what they are.
I have no neutral thoughts.
I see no neutral things.
What I see witnesses to what I think.
If I did not think,
I would not exist because life is thought.
Let me look on the world I see as the representation of my own state of mind.
I know that my state of mind can change,
And I also know that the world I see can change as well.
I see no neutral things.
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.
If I have no private thoughts,
I cannot see a private world.
Even the mad idea of separation had to be shared before it could form the basis of the world I see.
Yet that sharing was a sharing of nothing.
I can also call upon my real thoughts,
Which share everything with everyone.
As my thoughts of separation call to the separation thoughts of others,
So my real thoughts awaken the real thoughts in them.
From the world,
My real thoughts show me will dawn on their sight as well as mine.
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.
I am alone in nothing.
Everything I think or say or do teaches all the universe.
The Son of God cannot think or speak or act in vain.
He cannot be alone in anything.
It is therefore in my power to change every mind along with mine,
For mine is the power of God.
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.
I am determined to see.
Recognizing the shared nature of my thoughts,
I am determined to see.
I would look upon the witnesses that show me the thinking of the world has been changed.
I would behold the proof that what has been done through me has enabled love to replace fear,
Laughter to replace tears,
And abundance to replace loss.
I would look upon the real world and let it teach me that my will and the will of God are one.
I am determined to see.
Remember only this.
You need not believe the ideas.
You need not accept them.
And you need not even welcome them.
Some of them you may actively resist.
None of this will matter or decrease their efficacy.
But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains.
And whatever your reactions to the ideas may be,
Use them.
Nothing more than that is required.
Let's return to our regular levels of thought and feeling.
Take a few deep breaths.
Return to the waking state,
To time and space.
I now know.
I am aware.
I am.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
