Lesson 16: I Have No Neutral Thoughts
Lesson 16: I Have No Neutral Thoughts
Today’s lesson is about waking up to the fact that our thoughts have real power. Jesus is making it clear that everything we see, everything we experience, is directly tied to what we think. It's a bit of a wake-up call because we often like to believe that some thoughts don’t really matter—but they do. Every thought either reflects the truth or feeds into illusions. There’s no middle ground.
Key Point: Thoughts Aren’t Just “Idle”
The idea of “idle thoughts” is actually a contradiction. If our thoughts are powerful enough to create our entire perception of the world, they can’t be dismissed as unimportant. Every single thought we have is doing one of two things: it’s either reflecting love, peace, and unity, or it’s adding to the chaos, fear, and separation we see. It’s important to get that even the tiniest, fleeting thoughts can shape how we feel and what we experience.
Seeing the Power Behind Every Thought
The temptation here is to brush off or ignor fearful or annoying thoughts as “no big deal.” We tell ourselves, "It’s just a little thing,” but that’s a mistake. Even those small, fear-based thoughts are still contributing to the messiness of our experience. But, and here’s the good part, those thoughts aren’t real. They might feel intense at the moment, but they’re just illusions. When we start to realise this, we can let them go and stop giving them so much weight.
How to Practise This
The practice today is simple but important: take a minute or so to notice whatever thoughts come up, big or small. It’s not about picking out the “major” thoughts from the “minor” ones—every thought counts. The idea is to recognise that none of them are neutral.
As you catch each thought, hold it in your awareness for a moment and remind yourself:
“This thought about _______ is not a neutral thought because I have no neutral thoughts.”
It’s all about training your mind to notice that every thought matters. At first, it might feel strange or tricky to not categorise your thoughts, but with practice, it starts to click: whether it's a little frustration or a bigger worry, every thought is shaping how we see things.
The Power’s in Our Choice
This lesson is really about taking back control. We like to think some thoughts don’t count, but they all do. The takeaway is that every thought you have either feeds into the truth or supports an illusion. By paying attention and doing this practice, we start to get a handle on those fear-based thoughts and loosen their grip on us. It takes time, but slowly, we start choosing peace over fear.
Just keep practising. The more consistent we are, the more we’ll start to see how our thoughts create our reality—and that’s when we can really start shifting things.
Bibliography:
A Course in Miracles. Foundation for Inner Peace. A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume, 3rd Edition. Foundation for Inner Peace, 2007. URL: https://acim.org.
