Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Lesson 45 God is the Mind with which I think.
- Today’s idea holds the key to what your real thoughts are. They are nothing that you think you think, just as nothing that you think you see is related to vision in anyway. There is no relationship between what is real and what you think is real. Nothing that you think are your real thoughts resemble your real thoughts in any respect. Nothing that you think you see bears any resemblance to what vision will show you.
- You think with the mind of God. Therefore you share your thoughts with Him, as He shares His with you. They are the same thoughts, because they are thought by the same mind. To share is to make alike, or to make one. Nor do the thoughts you think with the mind of God leave your mind, because thoughts do not leave their source. Therefore, your thoughts are in the mind of God, as you are. They are in your mind as well, where He is. As you are part of His mind, so are your thoughts part of His Mind.
- Where, then, are your real thoughts? Today we will attempt to reach them. We will have to look for them in your mind, because that is where they are. They must still be there, because they cannot have left their source. What is thought by the Mind of God is eternal, being part of creation.
- Our three five-minute practice periods for today will take the same general form that we used in applying yesterday’s idea. We will attempt to leave the unreal and seek for the real. We will deny the world in favor of truth. We will not let the thoughts of the world hold us back. We will not let the beliefs of the world tell us that what God would have us do is impossible. Instead, we will try to recognize that only what God would have us do is possible.
- We will also try to understand that only what God would have us do is what we want to do. And we will also try to remember that we cannot fail in doing what He would have us do. There is every reason to feel confident that we will succeed today. It is the Will of God.
- Begin the exercises today by repeating the idea to yourself, closing your eyes as you do so. Then spend a fairly short period in thinking a few relevant thoughts of your own, keeping the idea in mind. After you have added some four or five thoughts of your own to the idea, repeat it again and tell yourself gently: “My real thoughts are in my mind. I would like to find them.” Then try to go past all the unreal thoughts that cover the truth in your mind and reach to the eternal.
- Under all the senseless thoughts and mad ideas with which you have cluttered up your mind are the thoughts that you thought with God in the beginning. They are there in your mind now, completely unchanged. They will always be in your mind, exactly as they always were. Everything you have thought since then will change, but the foundation on which it rests is holy changeless.
- It is this foundation towards which the exercises for today are directed. Here is your mind joined with the mind of God. Here are your thoughts one with His. For this kind of practice only one thing is necessary; approach it as you would an altar dedicated in heaven to God the Father and to God the Son. For such is the place you are trying to reach. You will probably be unable as yet to realize how high you are trying to go. yet even with the little understanding you have already gained, you should be able to remind yourself that this is no idle game, but an exercise in holiness and an attempt to reach the Kingdom of Heaven.
- In the shorter exercise periods for today, try to remember how important it is to you to understand the holiness of the mind that thinks with God. Take a minute or two, as you repeat the idea throughout the day, to appreciate your minds holiness. Stand aside, however briefly, from all thoughts that are unworthy of Him whose host you are. and thank Him for the thoughts He is thinking with you.[1]
Notes and Personal Application (2019): God is the Mind in which I think. My real thoughts are in my mind. I would like to find them. I would really like to find my real thoughts. My real loved ones. My real family. My real eternal home. God is the Mind in which I think. My real thoughts are in my mind. I would like to find them. My real memories are in my mind. I would like to remember them. God is the Mind in which I think.
Notes and Personal Application (2020): Twenty-three years ago today, Lover proposed to me, changing my life forever. So instead of thinking about our devotions first thing this morning, we talked about that. Personally, we feel as if Valentine’s Day itself is nothing more than a social construct and we have as few expectations or obligations associated with it as possible. However, since this day does mark an anniversary, we plan to celebrate in our usual way – with T-bones and a bottle of our favorite red wine!
After reading the lesson aloud, including the notes and application from last year, we discussed the main ideas for quite some time before completing our first exercise for the day. Jesus is telling us that what we think we think, is not thinking at all. Our real thoughts and our real vision can only come from God. All else is purely the ego’s substitute for real thinking and real seeing.
Our thoughts are in the mind of God because that is their source, and Jesus reminds us that we are there in the mind of God. That being in the mind of God seems so far-fetched and having so little to do with our sense of reality in this realm, Jesus says, is because we have not learned to deny the world in favor of truth. We have accepted the thoughts of the world instead of the truth. We have thought that what God would have do is impossible, instead of recognizing that what God would have us do is the only thing that is possible!
Here in the world we think of our brain as our mind. Jesus tells us that our brains are not the mind of God! Our thoughts and vision come from God and do not depend upon our gray matter or our physical eyes, as we have been led to believe and practice our entire lives. In our exercise today, Jesus tells us to go beyond what is happening in our brain, to close our physical eyes and shut out the world and find the real thoughts in our minds. It is our minds that are created in God’s image and have remained true and eternal, while the senseless thoughts and mad ideas of the world have cluttered our minds and led us to a false identity. We are not humans seeking a spiritual experience. We are Sons of God having a human experience, placed in time until we return as one to our true identity in God.
When we get past the programming of our humanoid experience, we will find the changeless mind of God and realize that we have always been one with it. Here is where we focus our attention and our thoughts become one with God. Jesus tells us to approach the Mind of God as an altar, for this is no game, this is not a form of entertainment, or enrichment – this is an exercise in holiness. This is how we reach the Kingdom of Heaven – by going inward, by getting past all that would tempt us away.
After our first application today, James said that he had envisioned the inner altar. He did not know what to do – should he prostrate himself before it? Should he worship it? Should he make some kind of salutation? An ego god would demand all manner of ridiculous posturing and adoration. The ego’s god would force us to bow down and worship at his feet, bring sacrifices and burn blood and incense to please his nostrils and whet his appetite. All God requires of us is to recognize and respect Him even as we respect our Sonship, our holiness, our oneness with our Father.
The world is crying for hope, in a most hopeless way. The world yearns for peace, in a most violent manner. The world calls for love and tolerance in a most unloving and intolerant way. The inner altar, reminding us of who and what we really are, gives us everlasting, unchanging hope and peace, love and joy and tolerance.
This practice is holy. Let us go to that inner altar as often as we can, entering into its light where we find our true identity in the Sonship of God.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 45 God is the mind…Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). pp. 71-72.
the friar patch 