Jan 4, 2010 ACIM Commentary on Lesson 4

"These thoughts do not mean anything."  

I am reminded by this lesson of several tangential teaching....  Prasad, saying simply "Just don't believe your mind", and the 3rd Zen Patriarch writing that "to seek Mind with the discriminating mind is the greatest of all mistakes."  It further declares the conundrum of duality: "To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind."  Also, as those in this group that have experienced Landmark are experientially aware, the mind is fundamentally a meaning making machine, and full of superstitions, the greatest of which is the superstition named "I".   The separated-from-God/all-of-life "I" that is.  All this underlines the comment the course makes that 'this is a major exercise and will be repeated', as the path of extrication from our personal body/mind/desire identifications.  An ancient wisdom teaching from somewhere eastwardly reveals the benefit of such repetition:  "Sow a thought, reap and action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny."  If you are reviewing the Course with me this year (this is not your first time though it), you may chose to exceed the recommended number of practice periods, if you are comfortable with that, and drawn to do so.  


Namaste,

David