Lesson # 9 is: I see nothing as it is now.

Lesson # 10 is: My thoughts do not mean anything.

Lesson # 11 is: My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.

The lessons are somewhat ambiguous and vague when taken on their own, however the collective message of the whole is a very powerful curriculum.

Thoughts are meaningless only when our minds are occupied with past thoughts, because we don't see anything as it is NOW. With past thoughts we see a world in the past and not as it is now; therefore it is meaningless.

Here's how I've integrated these lessons.

When I get in an argument with someone and afterwards dwell on it in my mind over and over, I am essentially living in the past by allowing my mind to replay the argument many times over. The next time I see the person, I am very likely to still be thinking about that past argument, therefore not seeing the person as they are now. Every encounter with another person is a chance for salvation by seeing the Power, Beauty and Perfection Present in them if only I can look beyond the meaningless past that I project onto them.

I have reached lesson 88. Even though it has been hard work, my motivation is still very high because I feel I'm so close to a profound breakthrough.

Past thoughts and holding onto grievances hide the light of the world from us. We must be determined to see things differently.

Peace

Well, emotions are generated depending upon what your thought is about something. If you think something is scary, then the emotion of fear will follow, if you think something is fun, then the emotion of happiness will follow.

When I say that the thoughts are meaningless, all I'm saying is to maintain the recognition that we are in control of our thoughts and they are totally changeable. Don't take them seriously. You can sit in a scary movie, have a thought of fear as you are immersed in the illusion of the film, but then you walk out and it's over because you recognize that it's just a movie. Same thing with life. It's just a movie. What you think about it is what will create your reality.

I read an interesting book recently called Collision with the Infinite about a woman who experienced a spontaneous "awakening" and for the next ten years thought she was having a psychotic episode. She couldn't process her experience through the mind, and having no one to relate to didn't understand her sudden falling away of personality, and attatchment, but she wrote about all the human emotions and thoughts still existing, still arising, but no longer recognizing them as the Source of her being.

I don't think anyone here is saying emotion is worthless, and the past has no meaning. I for one want to experience being human, but under that is something deeper, more beautiful, and far sweeter.

The main thing is to drop our attatchments to those emotions, to honor them but not to see them as who we are. There's nothing wrong with healing the past, and respecting the layers of illusion it stripped away from us; the idea is not to live there, to realize we can choose again in every moment. Imagination, intent, thought is a vehicle to manifestation. No one can deny the worth in that. The mind *is* where the Ego lives though. It's about using the mind, in place of it using you.

This thread seems to have brought up resistance for people.... I agree it's important to take in what feels right to you in all spiritual teachings, to use what registers on a deeper level, and to pass on the rest.