Lesson 012: ”I’m upset because I see a meaningless world.”
AI Reframe: Feeling unsettled comes from trying to make sense of things without clarity.
Suggested Exercise:
Three or four times today, slowly, and with equal time spent on each thing you see say the following to yourself…adding whatever other descriptive terms (“good” or “bad”) come to mind:
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. At the end of the minute, say to yourself:
But I’m upset because I see a meaningless world.
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on My YouTube Channel:
https://youtu.be/_cWRgrB6MgA?si=3HS2U35ipiCaEGlI.
My take on it:
Okay, so this one is a bit of a mind-boggler. Yesterday we learned that our meaningless (ego) thoughts are showing us a meaningless (ego-based) world. Today, The Course adds the next plot twist: we’re upset because we see this meaningless world.
The irony? We’re the ones perceiving it that way.
If we want to see a meaningful world, it would serve us to give up meaningless thoughts. Not because the world needs fixing—but because our upset is coming from the meaning we’re trying to force onto what is, by nature, neutral.
Simple, right?
Put another way, it’s like keeping our hand on a hot stove and being angry at the stove for burning us. The stove isn’t personal. It’s just doing what stoves do. If we want the burning to stop, the solution isn’t to argue with the stove—it’s to remove our hand.
From the lesson itself:
“What is meaningless is neither good nor bad. Why, then, should a meaningless world upset you? If you could accept the world as meaningless and let the truth be written upon it for you, it would make you indescribably happy… It is this you see in it. It is this that is meaningless in truth.” (ACIM, W-12.5:1–9)
However we describe this world—beautiful, terrifying, unjust, miraculous—we’re looking at our own thoughts reflected back to us. These descriptions aren’t truth; they’re interpretations. And interpretations, The Course reminds us, are optional.
I’m reminded of the parable from India about six blind men and an elephant. Each touches a different part and confidently declares what the elephant is. None are wrong—and none are seeing the whole. The problem isn’t perception; it’s certainty.
So for today, we’re not being asked to fix the world or reframe it positively. We’re simply being invited to notice all the ways we think we already know what we’re seeing—and to loosen our grip just enough to let meaning be given, rather than assigned.
“When I give up meaningless thoughts and ideas (and that’s any thought of fear or distress or uneasiness), I begin to notice a more pleasing reality.”
— “The Course in Miracles Experiment” by Pam Grout
Blessings & Peace,
Maureen,
The Mandala Lady
transforming soul whispers into mandalas and channeled messages for clarity, peace, and love
▶️ About the 2026 Mandalas of the Day — ▶️ A Note About A Course in Miracles
Mandala of the Day 