Lesson 12 — I am upset because I see a meaningless world.

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1. The Lesson

The importance of this idea lies in the fact that it contains a correction for a major perceptual distortion. You think that what upsets you is a frightening world, or a sad world, or a violent world, or an insane world. All these attributes are given it by you. The world is meaningless in itself.

These exercises are done with eyes open. Look around you, this time quite slowly. Try to pace yourself so that the slow shifting of your glance from one thing to another involves a fairly constant time interval. Do not allow the time of the shift to become markedly longer or shorter. Do not make the shift abruptly, but smoothly and evenly.

What you see does not matter. You teach yourself this as you give whatever your glance rests on equal attention and equal time. This is a beginning step in learning to give them all equal value. As you look about you, say to yourself:

“I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world, a hostile world, a sad world, a wicked world, a crazy world,”and so on, using whatever descriptive terms happen to occur to you. If terms which seem positive rather than negative occur to you, include them. For example, you might think of a “good world,” or a “satisfying world.” If such terms occur to you, use them along with the rest. You may not yet understand why these “nice” adjectives belong in these exercises, but remember that a “good world” implies a “bad” one, and a “satisfying world” implies an “unsatisfying” one. All terms which cross your mind are suitable subjects for today’s exercises. Their seeming quality does not matter.

Be sure that you do not alter the time intervals between changing your thoughts about the world and changing your glance from one thing to another. The steady rhythm you establish should be maintained throughout the exercise period. It is particularly important to practice the idea for today as indiscriminately as possible. Do not categorize, classify, or select by qualities. Take the subjects simply as you see them. Try to avoid even the tendency to avoid anything in particular.

For this purpose, one thing is like another; equally suitable and therefore equally useful.

2. Explanation with Modern Teachings

The lesson’s depth is not in renouncing the world, but in disarming the hidden meanings we have unknowingly placed on it. According to the Textbook, perception is a mirror, not a fact. The world holds no objective value until the mind projects its inner state onto it.

“Projection makes perception.” (T-21.in.1:1)

“The world is false perception. It is born of error, and it has not left its source.” (T-26.VII.4:1)

When we realize the mind is upset not by the world, but by the meaning we’ve given it, we begin to reclaim the creative power of thought.

Joe Dispenza teaches that the moment we emotionally react to something, we reinforce neural pathways that give that thing meaning in our reality. We re-experience the same emotional world until we break the pattern of belief.

Matías De Stefano describes reality as a layered field of memory and projection. By seeing the world as meaningless, we interrupt the loop that keeps us trapped in outdated stories.

Lisa Miller shows that spiritual awareness rewires the brain. Fear and disconnection dissolve when we perceive through faith and connection—altering the biology of our experience.

3. Integration with Christianity

Romans 12:2 tells us to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Christianity has always pointed toward inner vision as the source of true change.

This lesson speaks to that: It’s not the world that needs to be fixed—it’s how we see it.

When Jesus healed the blind, He often said, “Your faith has made you well.” Faith is not just belief—it is the lens we choose. Seeing with spiritual vision reveals the Kingdom of God is not “out there,” but “within you.”

This is a deeper version of faith: Not faith that things will get better, but faith that you are already whole—and what you see can shift when you return to that truth.

4. Bible Verses and New Meaning

• Isaiah 55:8–9 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

  
  

  → Traditional: God is above us and unknowable.

  
  

  → Deeper: Our perception is limited by ego. Peace comes when we stop assuming our view is the truth.

• 1 Corinthians 13:12 – “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.”

  
  

  → Traditional: We will know truth in the afterlife.

  
  

  → Deeper: Right now, our sight is filtered by ego. But even here, we can begin to clear the mirror.

• Matthew 6:22–23 – “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.”

  
  

  → Traditional: Be morally upright.

  
  

  → Deeper: See with Love, and you’ll experience light, no matter the outer conditions.

5. Message to Friends

By the second exercise, something stirred in me.

I felt the quiet nudge to write—not just what I was experiencing, but what was happening within me. A voice rose, not loud, but undeniable: “Maybe this will become a book someday.” Called or not called, I knew I had to share this journey. Not to teach—just to witness. Just to say, “This is what I’m seeing.”

And what I’m seeing is not new. It’s ancient. It lives in the words of the Course, but also in the silent threads connecting mystics, scientists, rabbis, monks, and philosophers across time. Today, I want to introduce you to one of those threads—Byron Katie.

Byron wasn’t a guru. She wasn’t raised in an ashram. She was a regular woman from the Midwest who hit a wall most of us have brushed against: depression. Not sadness—darkness. After ten years in that cave, she checked herself into a halfway house. And then one morning… something cracked open.

She woke up, but not like most of us do. She woke into a different world. A world with no separation. No fear. No ego. Just presence. And it took her months to adjust—to remember how to move through time and form again. But when she did, she carried that light with her.

She began teaching a simple practice called The Work. Four questions and a turnaround. That’s it. But those four questions? They dismantled my suffering. Over and over.

The Work helped me see that pain doesn’t come from events—it comes from thoughts. Thoughts like, “She doesn’t care about me.” “This shouldn’t have happened.” “I’m not enough.”

When I questioned them—not philosophically, but viscerally—I found freedom. And just like the Kabbalah says: when you change your inner world, your outer world shifts. My wife changed. My son changed. My friends changed. But really, it was me. I had started to see with new eyes.

Katie says there are only three kinds of work: God’s work, their work, and my work. And peace only lives in one of them: mine.

Trying to fix the world? That’s God’s work.Trying to fix someone else? That’s their work.The only job I have… is to question what I believe.

And that’s the whole point of today’s lesson. I am upset because I see a meaningless world.

It’s not the world that hurts us. It’s the filter we’re using to see it. As Joe Dispenza says, “Your personal reality is created by your personality.” You cannot change the outer unless the inner shifts first.

So here’s what I’ve learned:

You can be in the same house, the same job, the same relationship—and still experience a completely different world. Not because the world changed… but because you did.

You paused.You questioned the story.You chose again.

And when you do that, the war ends. Not because the battle disappeared, but because you put down your sword. You stopped fighting the illusion and started seeing the truth.

Like Paul said: “For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror.”And the mirror is reflecting what?Our ego.

Our limiting beliefs.

Ourselves.

Our memories.

Our past…And our future fears.