Lesson 13: A Meaningless World Engenders Fear

Sarah

Welcome to The Daily Lesson, a podcast powered by AI and grounded in the teachings and original text of A Course in Miracles. I'm Sarah, and I'm here with Marcus, and this is Lesson 13: A meaningless world engenders fear. And Marcus, before we go anywhere near today, you ended yesterday saying there was one word in the exercise you weren't sure you could say honestly. I've been waiting to hear this.

Marcus

The ugly ones went fine.

Sarah

(laughs) Start further back than that. Yesterday's exercise, for anyone who wasn't with us.

Marcus

You look slowly around wherever you are, giving everything the same beat of attention, and you name what you think you're looking at. "I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world, a hostile world, a sad world, a wicked world, a crazy world." Then any other words that turn up. And the lesson is clear that the flattering ones belong in there too. "A good world." "A satisfying world."

Sarah

And the flattering ones are where it went wrong.

Marcus

The six ugly ones came out at the right speed. "A crazy world" came out with something close to enthusiasm. Then I got to "a good world," and my mouth stopped cooperating.

Sarah

Slower, or not at all?

Marcus

Slower. And it felt like lying. My eyes were on a dish rack, which is the strange part of this exercise. You stand in your kitchen looking at a dish rack and what you say is that you see a crazy world.

Sarah

The words are about the world. The dish rack is only where your eyes landed.

Marcus

Understood. And "a crazy world" went out easily. Every word you put there is one you chose, is what the lesson says. Not one of them truer than another. I could say six at full speed and not the seventh.

Sarah

(laughs) You ran the exercise correctly and caught yourself not believing a word of it...

Marcus

I've been trying to work out why, and I don't have it clean yet. Nearest I can get is that "a crazy world" is a claim I could support. I'd have evidence. "A good world" is one I can't back, so saying it felt like testifying to something I hadn't checked.

Sarah

I don't think that's it.

Marcus

No?

Sarah

You said the ugly six came out at full speed, and that one of them came out with enthusiasm. That isn't the sound of a man weighing evidence. —...

Marcus

No. It isn't. They came out fast because I meant them. That's the part I've been walking around all morning. I don't think this is a good world. I don't think it's a safe one. "A crazy world" was easy because it's what I actually believe, and "a good world" was hard because it isn't.

Sarah

How does it sit, hearing yourself say it out loud?

Marcus

Badly. I'd much rather be a man who sees a good world. A safe one. Six words came out fast this morning and that wasn't one of them...

Sarah

Nothing in today's lesson asks you to think otherwise. It asks you to notice that you put both words there yourself.

Marcus

I finished the minute, added "But I am upset because I see a meaningless world," and then stood there another four minutes turning it over, which I'm aware was not the assignment.

Sarah

(laughs) Hold onto all of it, because today is the explanation. Yesterday you took the labels off. Today the Course tells you what is sitting in the space where they used to be. Here's the complete, uninterrupted, verbatim text of Workbook Lesson 13. "Lesson 13. A meaningless world engenders fear." "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 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 which 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 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 which 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 try to 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 exercise periods. That will suffice at present." —...

Marcus

I want to go straight to the last line of the exercise. It's the strangest sentence in the curriculum so far.

Sarah

The competition line. That one needs the second paragraph first, or it makes no sense. When the meanings come off, what's left is an empty space. Two parties have a claim on what gets written there. God, and the ego. The ego doesn't wait its turn. It rushes in frantically, and the lesson tells you why. It's "fearful that the void may otherwise be used to demonstrate its own unreality."

Marcus

So the emptiness isn't neutral ground for it. The emptiness is evidence.

Sarah

Evidence against it. Jon Mundy puts it plainly in his guide to the Course. "To stop thinking would be the end of the ego. So the ego must worry to stay alive. The ego must have problems. Otherwise, there is no ego."

Marcus

Cheerful. So the worrying isn't a malfunction. It's what keeps the lights on.

Sarah

Which is why the lesson calls illusions safety devices. And it's what you were describing earlier. A frightening world is a world you've already braced for. Nothing in it can take you by surprise.

Marcus

OK, Now the last line. "A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God." Competition is an oddly specific word.

Sarah

It's a deliberate one. The claim is we wrote our own meanings over everything, some part of us knows it was a takeover, and it's braced for the response. —...

Marcus

The Course anticipated my objection before I made it. I find that irritating.

Sarah

(laughs) It does that more often than you'd like. You're not expected to believe the statement at this point, and will probably try to dismiss it as preposterous. What it asks is that you watch what happens when you say the line. Any signs of overt or covert fear. That's the whole instruction.

Marcus

Nothing to believe. Only something to notice. How has your morning been, incidentally?

Sarah

Fine. My son has decided the correct number of pancakes is nine, and argued it well.

Marcus

(laughs) Walk me through today's practice, then. It moves around this time.

Sarah

Three positions. Closed, open, closed. You start with your eyes closed and say the idea slowly to yourself: "A meaningless world engenders fear."

Marcus

Then eyes open.

Sarah

Open, and look around you slowly, saying "I am looking at a meaningless world." You keep repeating that while your eyes travel.

Marcus

Slowly again. Yesterday's tempo, not the day before's.

Sarah

Slowly, yes. Then your eyes close to finish, and you end with the long one. "A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God."

Marcus

How many times? and how long?

Sarah

About three or four times through the day, and not more than a minute or so each time.

Marcus

And then paragraph six tells me not to think about it once the minute's over.

Sarah

Entirely. Don't dwell on the concluding statement, and try not to think about it outside the practice periods.

Marcus

So the extra four minutes are off the table.

Sarah

(laughs) Today, off the table. So that's the day, for everyone with us. Three or four times, a minute at most. Eyes closed, and say: "A meaningless world engenders fear." Then open your eyes, look around you slowly, and say: "I am looking at a meaningless world." Then close your eyes and finish with: "A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God." Watch whatever comes up when you say it, and then leave it alone until the next one. Tomorrow, Lesson 14.

Marcus

One thing I'm taking with me, and it isn't a tidy one. If the emptiness is what the whole apparatus is defending against — what is it like in there when it stops defending?

Sarah

I don't have an answer for that today. —...

Marcus

Good. Neither do I.