Daily Lesson

  

L e s s o n  3   

I do not understand anything I see
in this room [on this street,
from this window, in this place.   

<AUDIO> <VIDEO>   

Hear Today's Lesson~Voice & Music by
Martin Weber-Caspers [maz]  

¹ Apply this idea in the same way as the previous ones, without making distinctions of any kind. Whatever you see becomes a proper subject for applying the idea. Be sure that you do not question the suitability of anything for the application of the idea. These are not exercises in judgment. Anything is suitable if you see it. Some of the things you see may have emotionally-charged meaning for you. Try to lay such feelings aside, and merely use these things exactly as you would anything else.

² The point of the exercises is to help you clear your mind of all past associations, to see things exactly as they appear to you now, and to realize how little you really understand about them. It is therefore essential that you keep a perfectly open mind, unhampered by judgment, in selecting the things to which the idea for the day is to be applied. For this purpose one thing is like another-equally suitable and therefore equally useful.

Workbook - Part 1
 Introduction 

 <AUDIO> <VIDEO>      

Voice & Music by Martin Weber-Caspers [maz] 

¹ A theoretical foundation such as the text is necessary as a background to make these exercises meaningful. Yet it is the exercises which will make the goal possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is the purpose of these exercises to train the mind to think along the lines which the course sets forth.

² The exercises are very simple. They do not require more than a few minutes, and it does not matter where or when you do them. They need no preparation. They are numbered, running from 1 to 365. The training period is one year. Do not undertake more than one exercise a day.

³ The purpose of these exercises is to train the mind to a different perception of everything in the world. The workbook is divided into two sections, the first dealing with the undoing of what you see now and the second with the restoration of sight. It is recommended that each exercise be repeated several times a day, preferably in a different place each time and, if possible, in every situation in which you spend any long period of time. The purpose is to train the mind to generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is as applicable to one situation as it is to another.

⁴ Unless specified to the contrary, the exercise should be practiced with the eyes open, since the aim is to learn how to see. The only rule that should be followed throughout is to practice the exercises with great specificity. Each one applies to every situation in which you find yourself and to everything you see in it. Each day's exercises are planned around one central idea, the exercises themselves consisting of applying that idea to as many specifics as possible. Be sure that you do not decide that there are some things you see to which the idea for the day is inapplicable. The aim of the exercises will always be to increase the application of the idea to everything. This will not require effort. Only be sure that you make no exceptions in applying the idea.

⁵ Some of the ideas you will find hard to believe, and others will seem quite startling. It does not matter. You are merely asked to apply them to what you see. You are not asked to judge them, nor even to believe them. You are asked only to use them. It is their use which will give them meaning to you, and show you they are true. Remember only this-you need not believe them, you need not accept them, and you need not welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter nor decrease their efficacy. But allow yourself to make no exceptions in applying the ideas the exercises contain. Whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than this is required.

ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 

Lesson  3   
 I do not understand anything I see in this room
[on this street, from this window, in this place].   

Sarah's Commentary:         

Here we are on lesson 3 and I have yet to comment on the Introduction to the Workbook. It is important that we look carefully at what is being said in the Introduction as we need to understand some of the key elements here in order to make the lessons more meaningful to us. To start, Jesus is saying that we need the theoretical understanding that the text offers if we are to get meaning from the lessons. When I started with the lessons, I really did not have the theoretical framework as I had not read the Text. I still found the workbook ideas valuable and in applying them found that my life was changing. But we really do need the framework that the text provides in order to get full benefit and understanding of these lessons. So now, when I write about the lessons I do refer back to passages from the text in order to amplify the meaning.

While the lessons are based on one year of mind training, clearly this is not a one year course. The workbook is simply a starting point in disciplining and training the mind. "An untrained mind can accomplish nothing." (Intro. 1.3) But notice that when we come to the end of the workbook, Jesus says in the Epilogue "this course is a beginning not an end." (1.1) So the purpose of this workbook is "to train your mind to think along the lines the text sets forth". (Intro. 1.4) The mind training thus goes on for years, whether you are actively doing the workbook or not. It is not done until the mind is healed through complete forgiveness.  

Complete forgiveness means that no one is exempt from our forgiveness. That is the other point that is being made in the introduction to the workbook. "One exception held apart from true perception makes its accomplishments anywhere impossible" (Intro. 5.3)  That is what makes this course so very challenging. It means that if we see some more deserving of our love and some less, or some more deserving of attack then we are making exceptions.  Everything in the illusion is the same in that it is all illusion. There are no differences. That is why he says that our mind is being trained in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world. "The exercises are planned to help you generalize the lessons so that you will understand that each of them is equally applicable to everyone and everything you see." (4.2)  

So while we practice with specificity in each lesson, the idea is that the lesson must be generalized to everything and everyone. What we are learning is that every problem is the same, every difficult is the same. There is no order of difficulty in the illusion. But having said that we have to see that we don't believe it. We don't, for example, believe that the pen we are holding is no more important than our arm. And we don't believe that one situation is no more difficult than another or that some are deserving of our love and others are not. We still believe that some are more guilty than others. So we have a lot to overcome in seeing that there is no order of difficulty in miracles and no differentiation in the illusion. As long as we see these differences we have work to do. But the work is with specifics until they can be generalized. Nothing I see in this room means anything, as lesson 1 says, but nothing in this world means anything which is the generalization that must be made eventually. Oneness has been fragmented into all of the forms of this world but they all stem from the choice for the ego which came at the time of separation.  So the lessons are about undoing what we now believe.  

Finally it is important that we recognize that that it does not matter if we find some of these thoughts and ideas hard to believe, or even startling, only that we apply them and use them rather than judge them. "It is their use that will give them meaning to you and will show you that they are true." (Intro. 8-6) We are simply asked to apply these lessons and watch where our minds are struggling with them in trying to understand them. We don't need to understand or engage in a struggle to understand, but simply do the lessons as instructed and not worry about our reactions to them.  

We don't need to believe the ideas, we don't need to accept them or even welcome them, Jesus tells us. Some of them we will actively resist. For example we don't believe that our bodies have no meaning. We may want to exempt this practice to only those things that we believe have no meaning. All we are asked to do is notice what is going on as we do the lessons, not struggle with them, and to be gentle and patient with ourselves. The process of undoing the way we think now is considerable. Fortunately we have a lot of help and the healing is not done by us but by the Holy Spirit. We just need to do our part which takes a willingness to do what we are asked.  

So today we apply the lesson that asks us to see that "I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place]."   What is it like to be in a world where we don't understand anything we see? It seems like we understand. But it is this very understanding that we place on everything that keeps us from opening our minds to another way of seeing. So just consider the possibility that you don't understand anything. That everything you have learned so far just upholds the illusion of what is real. Remember how the course is summarized which is "nothing real can be threatened and nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God". So what we have made real in the world and given meaning to, is just illusion. It is, in fact, not real at all.  

If I think I know and understand everything I see, then there is no room in my mind for new learning, new understandings, new perspectives.  I have always taken pride in my ability to figure things out in the world and become very "worldly" in my understanding of how things work, what they are for, how people tick, how to manage my life. Fortunately for me, the course helped me in slowly undoing these mindsets as strategies that I seemingly used well in surviving in the world . But our survival strategies have actually kept us from trusting in the guidance of the Holy Spirit because we always know better!!

So in this first step in our mind reversal we are giving the Holy Spirit a little bit of room by acknowledging that we may just not be as smart and capable as we have come to believe we are.

We bring all of our past associations and our judgments to what we are seeing. As we are told in the introduction to the workbook, we don't have to believe the ideas given us here, only use them. Just because we resist these ideas should not interfere with our practice of them. The ideas given us here are true, and somewhere in us, we already know that. Thus they will resonate with the part of the mind that knows that they are true even if we consciously have resistance to them. Our practice of the ideas eventually leads to acceptance of what we already know. In other words the truth is already in our minds and being brought to the forefront of our awareness through this practice. So try to not judge the ideas or get into some kind of debate around them as that won't be helpful to your learning. Just do the practice.  

Some people need to hit some kind of "emotional bottom" before they come to the realization that their way of managing in the world no longer works. For me, it has just been a general sense of dissatisfaction with my life. There was nothing seriously wrong only a feeling of "what is the point?"  This showed itself as an underlying restlessness and a vague sense that life could be happier, easier and more peaceful. For me the Course has been the answer to that. And each step helps in this undoing process.

So moving to a place of more trust, freedom, joy and peace has come with this step of increasingly acknowledging that I don't know anything, I don't understand anything, I  continually need to ask for help so that I do not assign my own meaning and thus be more willing to open my mind to new learning. It is a radical, life changing process. It is one of being willing to be wrong about everything I think I know.

Having said that, I am aware of how I hold onto the "I know" mind. It can seem a little disorienting and even frightening to let go. And we don't have to. We can simply start by doing the exercise as described. And when a difficult or unsettling situation comes up, it can be helpful to remember that our upset does not come from the situation but from the way we are interpreting it. Our interpretations all come from our belief that the way we see things is the way they are. But now we remind ourselves that "I do not understand anything I see".  And if we really get this, then we open our minds to receive a new understanding. This is a prerequisite to opening up to new learning. And, as I said previously, it is not really new because there is 'Something' in us that already understands. That 'Something' is what has brought us to this Course. It is that which recognizes the truth of this teaching.

In your practice today, apply the idea without making distinctions of any kind. Whatever you see becomes a proper subject for applying the idea. Be sure that you do not question the suitability of anything for application of the idea. He is asking us 1) not to make exceptions 2) not to judge what is suitable and what is not 3) lay our emotions aside regarding anything we look upon clearing our mind of all past associations 4) see things exactly as they appear as color, shape, size, nothing more. Basically we need to realize how we really don't understand what we are looking at because we have given our meaning to everything. If that is the case then we can't understand it because true understanding means that we would know its purpose. I think I understand what the telephone is for but what I don't understand is the purpose given every form I see in this world by the ego mind. This purpose of this ego mind is to keep us focused on the world of form and thus forget who we really are. This focus has kept our attention on the world outside of us.  

Love and blessings, Sarah

Sarah's Home Page

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A Course in Miracles   
TEXT 

Introduction

^I:1 This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you may elect what you want to take at a given time.

² The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.

³ This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:

⁴ Nothing real can be threatened. 

⁵ Herein lies the peace of God.

Chapter One 

Introduction to Miracles

I. Principles of Miracles

1.^1:1 There is no order of difficulty among miracles. One is not "harder" or "bigger" than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal.

2. ² Miracles as such do not matter. The only thing that matters is their Source, Which is far beyond human evaluation.

3. ³ Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense, everything that comes from love is a miracle.

4 ⁴ All miracles mean life, and God is the Giver of life. His Voice will direct you very specifically. You will be told all you need to know.

5. ⁵ Miracles are habits and should be involuntary. They should not be under conscious control. Consciously selected miracles can be misguided.

6. ⁶ Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong.

7. ⁷ Miracles are everyone's right, but purification is necessary first.

8. ⁸ Miracles are healing because they supply a lack in that they are performed by those who temporarily have more for those who temporarily have less.

9. ⁹ Miracles are a kind of exchange. Like all expressions of love, which are always miraculous in the true sense, the exchange reverses the physical laws. They bring more love both to the giver and the receiver.

10. ¹⁰ The use of miracles as spectacles to induce belief is wrong, or better, is a misunderstanding of their purpose. They are really used for and by believers.

11. ¹¹ Prayer is the medium of miracles. Prayer is the natural communication of the created with the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.

12. ¹² Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent lower-order or higher-order reality. This is the basic distinction between intellectualizing and thinking. One makes the physical and the other creates the spiritual, and we believe in what we make or create.

13. ¹³ Miracles are both beginnings and endings. They thus alter the temporal order. They are always affirmations of rebirth which seem to go back but really go forward. They undo the past in the present and thus release the future.

14. ¹⁴ Miracles bear witness to truth. They are convincing because they arise from conviction. Without conviction they deteriorate into magic, which is mindless and therefore destructive, or rather the uncreative use of mind.