LESSON 53

Today we will review the following:

1. 1(11) My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.

2Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the world that pictures them can have no meaning. 3What is producing this world is insane, and so is what it produces. 4Reality is not insane, and I have real thoughts as well as insane ones. 5I can therefore see a real world, if I look to my real thoughts as my guide for seeing.

2. 1(12) I am upset because I see a meaningless world.

2Insane thoughts are upsetting. 3They produce a world in which there is no order anywhere. 4Only chaos rules a world that repre­sents chaotic thinking, and chaos has no laws. 5I cannot live in peace in such a world. 6I am grateful that this world is not real, and that I need not see it at all unless I choose to value it. 7And I do not choose to value what is totally insane and has no meaning.

3. 1(13) A meaningless world engenders fear.

2The totally insane engenders fear because it is completely undependable, and offers no grounds for trust. 3Nothing in madness is dependable. 4It holds out no safety and no hope. 5But such a world is not real. 6I have given it the illusion of reality, and have suffered from my belief in it. 7Now I choose to withdraw this belief, and place my trust in reality. 8In choosing this, I will es­cape all the effects of the world of fear, because I am acknowledg­ing that it does not exist.

4. 1(14) God did not create a meaningless world.

2How can a meaningless world exist if God did not create it? 3He is the Source of all meaning, and everything that is real is in His Mind. 4It is in my mind too, because He created it with me. 5Why should I continue to suffer from the effects of my own insane thoughts, when the perfection of creation is my home? 6Let me remember the power of my decision, and recognize where I really abide.

5. 1(15) My thoughts are images that I have made.

2Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. 3It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am. 4The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. 5Yet God’s way is sure. 6The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so. 7My will is His, and I will place no other gods before Him.