Lesson 15: My Thoughts Are Images Which I Have Made

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 15: My thoughts are images which I have made.

Marcus

Before we go anywhere. You made a promise on this program yesterday.

Sarah

I did, and I kept it. Three periods, about a minute each, eyes closed, looking for what the lesson calls my personal repertory of horrors.

Marcus

And? Did the expert's list behave?

Sarah

That is the strange part. I sat down braced for the usual suspects. My schedule. The bank account. The first thing my mind handed me instead was the door handle of my childhood bedroom. A loose brass one. It rattled when the wind got into the house, and hearing it in my head I felt the same jolt in my chest I felt at seven years old.

Marcus

A door handle.

Sarah

A door handle. So that is what I named. "God did not create that rattling door handle, and so it is not real." Out loud, in my kitchen.

Marcus

(laughs) I would have paid real money to hear that.

Sarah

It surprised me how specific the mind gets when you finally ask it a direct question. I was ready for big abstract fears and it gave me hardware. I finished the minute and closed with "God did not create a meaningless world," the way the lesson asks.

Marcus

How did it feel?

Sarah

Uncomfortable. I kept the promise anyway, and I'm glad I did. And yours? You left yesterday saying you would be doing your own.

Marcus

Mine went quieter than I expected. Less poetic list. The first thing I named was the car repair estimate I have been avoiding opening. The shop, the number, all of it. My hands actually sweated. "God did not create that repair bill, and so it is not real." And this time I said the closing line. All three periods.

Sarah

You said it.

Marcus

I said it. I'm not telling you I believe the world is something we made up. Saying the sentence turned out to be easier than believing it, which I did not see coming. It was — quiet.

Sarah

Quiet is worth noticing. And it points straight at today, because today the Workbook explains the mechanism — how the pictures we are frightened of get put in front of our eyes in the first place. Let me read Lesson 15 in full. —... Lesson 15. My thoughts are images which I have made. It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. You think you think them, and so you think you see them. This is how your "seeing" was made. This is the function you have given your body's eyes. It is not seeing. It is image making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions. This introductory idea to the process of image making which you call seeing will not have much meaning for you. You will begin to understand it when you have seen little edges of light around the same familiar objects which you see now. That is the beginning of real vision. You can be certain that real vision will come quickly when this has occurred. As we go along, you may have many "light episodes". They may take many different forms, some of them quite unexpected. Do not be afraid of them. They are signs that you are opening your eyes at last. They will not persist, because they merely symbolize true perception, and they are not related to knowledge. These exercises will not reveal knowledge to you. But they will prepare the way to it. In practicing the idea for today, repeat it first to yourself, and then apply it to whatever you see around you, using its name and letting your eyes rest on it as you say: "This --blank-- is an image which I have made." "That --blank-- is an image which I have made." It is not necessary to include a large number of specific subjects for the application of today's idea. It is necessary, however, to continue to look at each subject while you repeat the idea to yourself. The idea should be repeated quite slowly each time. Although you will obviously not be able to apply the idea to very many things during the minute or so of practice that is recommended, try to make the selection as random as possible. Less than a minute will do for the practice periods, if you begin to feel uneasy. Do not have more than three application periods for today's idea unless you feel completely comfortable with it, and do not exceed four. However, the idea can be applied as needed throughout the day. —...

Marcus

It says it flat out. Not seeing. Image making. That is a complete reversal of how I assume my own eyes work.

Sarah

It's the reversal the whole Course keeps circling back to. Thought comes first. What we look at is the thought, projected outward, and we call the projection sight.

Marcus

So what I see is a picture my own thoughts made. All of it?

Sarah

Gary Renard's The Disappearance of the Universe puts it about as bluntly as it can be put: "Your head, your brain, your body, your world, all your universe, any parallel universe and anything else that can be perceived is a projection of the mind. All of them are symbols of a single thought."

Marcus

Including the instruments I would use to check.

Sarah

Including those.

Marcus

So every separate thing I look at traces back to one thought.

Sarah

That is the claim. Which is why the lesson can say the images are nothing. Not because the pain of the world is dismissed, and we were careful about that yesterday. Because the source is one, and the source is a thought, and thoughts can be changed.

Marcus

Then the lesson makes its strangest move yet. Edges of light around familiar objects. Sarah, if my coffee mug develops a glow, I'm calling an eye doctor, not a podcast.

Sarah

(laughs) And the Workbook would not argue with you. Notice what it actually promises, which is almost nothing. It says straight out that this idea will not have much meaning for you yet.

Marcus

The lesson admits that about itself?

Sarah

In those words, nearly. I find that honest, and a little rare. And on the light episodes it stays just as modest: they may come, they take many different forms, do not be afraid of them, and they are not the point. Not knowledge. Signs along a road, never the destination.

Marcus

So nobody should sit there hunting for a glow.

Sarah

Nobody should. If it happens, fine. If it never happens, nothing has gone wrong. The lights were never the assignment...

Marcus

All right. Walk me through today before I go hunting halos instead of doing the actual exercise.

Sarah

Eyes open today. You begin by repeating today's idea to yourself, quite slowly: "My thoughts are images which I have made."

Marcus

And then?

Sarah

Then look around you, let your eyes rest on something, use its name, and say: "This --blank-- is an image which I have made." The real thing goes in the blank.

Marcus

"This microphone is an image which I have made."

Sarah

And then another, near or far: "That window is an image which I have made." Slowly, each time. The lesson is firm about slowly.

Marcus

How many things am I naming?

Sarah

Fewer than you'd think. It says a large number is not necessary. What matters is keeping your eyes on each thing the whole time you repeat the idea, and keeping the selection as random as you can.

Marcus

No curating the list.

Sarah

None. A minute or so is the whole period, and less if you begin to feel uneasy. No more than three periods today unless they feel completely comfortable, and never more than four.

Marcus

And through the day?

Sarah

As needed. When something catches at you, say today's idea again: "My thoughts are images which I have made."

Marcus

Under a minute, eyes open, slowly, at random, and stopping if it gets uncomfortable.

Sarah

You have the whole of it.

Marcus

Then we will practice this today. Join us tomorrow for Lesson 16.

Sarah

See you tomorrow.