Today's idea is really another form of the preceding one, except that it is more specific as to the emotion aroused. Actually, a meaningless world is impossible. Nothing without meaning exists. However, it does not follow that you will not perceive something that has no meaning.
On the contrary, you will be particularly likely to think you do perceive it.
Recognition of meaninglessness arouses intense anxiety in all the separated ones. It represents a situation in which God and the ego challenge each other as to whose meaning is to be written in the empty space which meaninglessness provides. The ego rushes in frantically to establish its own ideas there, fearful that the void may otherwise be used to demonstrate its own unreality. And on this alone it is correct.
It is essential, therefore, that you learn to recognize the meaningless, and accept it without fear. If you are fearful, it is certain that you will endow the world with attributes which it does not possess, and crowd it with images that do not exist. To the ego illusions are safety devices, as they must also be to you who equate yourself with the ego.
The exercises for today, which should be done about three or four times for not more than a minute or so at most each time, are to be practiced in a somewhat different way from the preceding ones.
With eyes closed, repeat today's idea to yourself.
Then open your eyes and look about you slowly:
I am looking at a meaningless world.
Repeat this statement to yourself as you look about.
Then close your eyes and conclude with:
A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God.
You may find it difficult to avoid resistance, in one form or another, to this concluding statement. Whatever form such resistance may take, remind yourself that you are really afraid of such a thought because of the vengeance of the enemy. You are not expected to believe the statement at this point, and will probably try to dismiss it as preposterous. Note carefully, however, any signs of overt or covert fear which it may arouse. This is our first attempt at stating an explicit cause and effect relationship of a kind which you are very inexperienced in recognizing. Do not dwell on the concluding statement, and try not even to think of it except during the exercise periods. That will suffice at present.
✨ Summary & practice
Fear in the face of emptiness.
Lesson 13 explores a very deep emotion: the fear that meaninglessness provokes. The Course tells you that recognizing meaninglessness brings intense anxiety to all who experience themselves as separate. Why? Because in the empty space of meaninglessness, God and the ego challenge each other to write their own meaning. The ego frantically rushes in to establish its own ideas, afraid that the void will expose its powerlessness and unreality. The fear you feel before the void is the ego’s fear of discovering it is not real.
The central idea is that it is essential to learn to recognize the meaningless and accept it without fear. If you are afraid, you will endow the world with attributes it does not possess and clutter it with images that do not exist. For the ego, illusions are safety mechanisms. The exercise is a bit different: with eyes closed, repeat today’s idea. Then open your eyes and slowly look around, saying: 'I am looking at a meaningless world.' Then close your eyes and conclude with: 'A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God.'
This lesson is the third piece of the triptych 11–13. Lesson 11 established that your thoughts create the world; lesson 12 showed you project your attributes; lesson 13 reveals why you do it: out of fear. The ego fears the void and frantically fills it. Lesson 14 will bring the solution: God did not create a meaningless world, therefore this world does not exist. Fear now has no object. And lesson 15 will show that all these images are merely constructions of your mind.
For today, three or four times, no more than a minute each time. With eyes closed, repeat the idea. Open your eyes, look slowly, say: 'I am looking at a meaningless world.' Then close your eyes and conclude. If you feel resistance, that’s normal. Be gentle with yourself, and continue.
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