Meaningless

Lesson #13

A meaningless world engenders fear.

The following is taken from the lesson...

Today's idea is really another form of the preceding one, except that it is more specific as to the emotion aroused. Actually, a meaningless world is impossible. Nothing without meaning exists. However, it does not follow that you will not think you perceive something that has no meaning. On the contrary, you will be particularly likely to think you do perceive it.

Recognition of meaninglessness arouses intense anxiety in all the separated ones. It represents a situation in which God and the ego "challenge" each other as to whose meaning is to be written in the empty space that meaninglessness provides. The ego rushes in frantically to establish its own ideas there, fearful that the void may otherwise be used to demonstrate its own impotence and unreality. And on this alone it is correct.

It is essential, therefore, that you learn to recognize the meaningless, and accept it without fear. If you are fearful, it is certain that you will endow the world with attributes that it does not possess, and crowd it with images that do not exist. To the ego illusions are safety devices, as they must also be to you who equate yourself with the ego.

The exercises for today, which should be done about three or four times for not more than a minute or so at most each time, are to be practiced in a somewhat different way from the preceding ones. With eyes closed, repeat today's idea to yourself. Then open your eyes, and look about you slowly, saying:

I am looking at a meaningless world.

Repeat this statement to yourself as you look about. Then close your eyes, and conclude with:

A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God.

You may find it difficult to avoid resistance, in one form or another, to this concluding statement. Whatever form such resistance may take, remind yourself that you are really afraid of such a thought because of the "vengeance" of the "enemy." You are not expected to believe the statement at this point, and will probably dismiss it as preposterous. Note carefully, however, any signs of overt or covert fear which it may arouse.

This is our first attempt at stating an explicit cause and effect relationship of a kind which you are very inexperienced in recognizing. Do not dwell on the concluding statement, and try not even to think of it except during the practice periods. That will suffice at present.

My comments... How does one learn to recognize the meaningless, and accept it without fear? At the conclusion of these exercises, will I reach a place where this is so? It seems that most of the lessons are "preparing us" for something yet to be within reach or comprehension. I've said this before, but I can only proceed on faith... and hope.

Why does all this spiritual stuff have to be so mystical? Regardless of the religion or teaching, we're always instructed along a particular way or path - belief without proof. As a parent, I know the futility of saying to my kids... "because I said so" or "you'll understand some day". Are we not little children when it comes to such teachings and exercises? Yet we are supposed to believe that someday we'll understand.


How come a person like Gary Renard, author of Disappearance of the Universe, gets to meet an ascended master and receives personal coaching? The rest of us are forced to read books and practice these exercises, but Gary gets a first-class ticket? Isn't that just more of the "someday we'll understand" standard answer? I have trouble with this, but I am not surrendering or losing "faith"... just wondering out loud and trying to make sense of this. If you have anything to say that can help me with this....

Am I upset or not?

Lesson #12

I am upset because I see a meaningless world.

The following is taken from the lesson...

The importance of this idea lies in the fact that it contains a correction for a major perceptual distortion. You think that what upsets you is a frightening world, or a sad world, or a violent world, or an insane world. All these attributes are given it by you. The world is meaningless in itself.
These exercises are done with eyes open. Look around you, this time quite slowly. Try to pace yourself so that the slow shifting of your glance from one thing to another involves a fairly constant time interval. Do not allow the time of the shift to become markedly longer or shorter, but try, instead, to keep a measured, even tempo throughout. What you see does not matter. You teach yourself this as you give whatever your glance rests on equal attention and equal time. This is a beginning step in learning to give them all equal value.

As you look about you, say to yourself:

I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world,
. . . a hostile world,
. . . a sad world,
. . . a wicked world,
. . . a crazy world,

. . . and so on, using whatever descriptive terms happen to occur to you. If terms which seem positive rather than negative occur to you, include them. For example, you might think of "a good world," or "a satisfying world." If such terms occur to you, use them along with the rest. You may not yet understand why these "nice" adjectives belong in these exercises but remember that a "good world" implies a "bad" one, and a "satisfying world" implies an "unsatisfying" one. All terms which cross your mind are suitable subjects for today's exercises. Their seeming quality does not matter.

Be sure that you do not alter the time intervals between applying today's idea to what you think is pleasant and what you think is unpleasant. For the purposes of these exercises, there is no difference between them. At the end of the practice period, add:

But I am upset because I see a meaningless world.

What is meaningless is neither good nor bad. Why, then, should a meaningless world upset you? If you could accept the world as meaningless and let the truth be written upon it for you, it would make you indescribably happy. But because it is meaningless, you are impelled to write upon it what you would have it be. It is this you see in it. It is this that is meaningless in truth. Beneath your words is written the Word of God. The truth upsets you now, but when your words have been erased, you will see His. That is the ultimate purpose of these exercises.

Three or four times is enough for practicing the idea for today. Nor should the practice periods exceed a minute. You may find even this too long. Terminate the exercises whenever you experience a sense of strain.

My comments... Another challenging exercise in that (as explained by the lesson's text), it contradicts itself. In these days of the Iraq war, Israel at war with Lebanon, our U.S. political and legal system failing us... it is EASY to see a "sad, wicked, or crazy" world. However, as I stand in my yard and look at mountains and trees and blue sky, I see a beautiful world. Once again, I guess the key to all of this is having faith in the exercises, that all of this will "gel" at some point and become more clear.