Lesson 4: These thoughts do not mean anything

The reason our thoughts don’t mean anything is because they come from a source that doesn’t mean anything.

One of the most powerful themes in A Course in Miracles is “ideas leave not their source.” In other words, ideas never leave their source – which is the mind.

In every moment, we are either choosing the ego mind or the mind of spirit. So, whichever mind we choose, we will experience the contents of that mind. That’s what the Course means by “ideas leave not their source.”

What’s in the ego mind is the belief in separation. The belief that we are here, the belief that “this” (everything around us) is real, and the belief that we are lacking and need things to fulfill us.

But the ego lies. Its sole purpose is to keep us mindless. To keep us rooted in the world and the belief that these bodies and everything around us is reality.

And that’s why “these thoughts don’t mean anything”. Because our thoughts are sourced by the ego mind.

We’ll soon be learning that in every situation we can make a different choice. We can listen to a different voice. These lines from the Course give us a preview:

Two voices speak for different interpretations of the same thing simultaneously; or almost simultaneously, for the ego always speaks first, and it wishes no one well. The ego speaks in judgment, and the Holy Spirit reverses its decision. (T-5.VI.3)

Lesson 4 can be very, very challenging as we start on this journey of returning to our mind. But it opens to door to very rapid learning.

Coming up we’ll be learning how to make the choice for that other voice – the one that leads us out of the ego mind and into the realm of peace.