A Course In Miracles Lesson 16

A Course In Miracles Lesson 16 states:

I have no neutral thoughts

Many believe that their thoughts have no effect in this world.  This is not true.  How you think affects you and the whole world.  Today’s lesson begins to undo the belief that it does not matter what you think.  The contents of your mind is important.  The content of your mind is also in your power to direct.

Everything you see is a result of your thought process.  There is no exception to this fact.  Thoughts are not big or little, powerful or weak.  Thoughts are simply either true or false.

You have beliefs.  It can not be otherwise.  Even if you believe you do not have any beliefs, that too is a belief.  Beliefs are to the mind as blood is to the heart.  You can not escape having beliefs.  Some of your beliefs are true and accurate.  Some of your beliefs are incorrect and misguided.  But you still believe them while they are incorrect.  This happens all the time.

Beliefs that are true create their own likeness and bring forth even more true and accurate beliefs.  Beliefs that are in error, misguided, and untrue do make more of their own likeness, though they are not creative in nature.  Misguided beliefs can populate the mind with all manner of variations of misinformation, but no amount of volume in variations will ever make such errors true.  Can you sense the nature of creation vs the nature of “making?”

There is no such thing as an “idle” thought.  Your thoughts give rise to your entire perception of the entire world.  Such an event can hardly be called “idle.”

Every thought you have contributes to either the truth or to illusion.  Every thought you have either extends the truth or multiplies illusion.  You can multiply “nothing” forever but the act of making more illusion will never result in imbibing it with any meaning.  That which is meaningless simply is always meaningless.  That which is crazy and inaccurate will never be made sane or meaningful, no matter how it may try to assert itself against reality.

We know what is sane and what is not sane.  And we are free to know we know this or pretend we do not know it.  That is our freedom, to choose between truth or lies.

Along with recognizing that your thoughts are never neutral or idle, your ability to end the illusions that cause suffering requires that you recognize how every thought you have brings either peace or war, love or fear.  Every thought you have is either true or a deception.  Make no mistake, you have vast powers of self-deception.

It is impossible to ever obtain a “neutral” result because it is impossible to ever have a neutral thought.  Your thoughts are leading you to either love or hate, peace or conflict.  It is very easy to dismiss negative thinking as unimportant or as having no effect.  And in this lack of recognition, the nature of those illusions is perpetuated.  Recognizing when a thought is of a destructive quality is the goal of the next few lessons.  We begin by recognizing first that our thoughts must always have a charge, positive or negative.  We can not have a neutral thought.