“Above all else I want to see things differently.”
Today we are really giving specific application to the idea for
yesterday. In these practice periods, you will be making a series of
definite commitments.The question of whether you will keep them
in the future is not our concern here. If you are willing at least to
make them now, you have started on the way to keeping them. And
we are still at the beginning.
You may wonder why it is important to say, for example,“Above
all else I want to see this table differently.” In itself it is not important
at all.Yet what is by itself? And what does “in itself ” mean? You see a
lot of separate things about you, which really means you are not
seeing at all.You either see or not. When you have seen one thing
differently, you will see all things differently.The light you will see in
any one of them is the same light you will see in them all.
When you say, “Above all else I want to see this table
differently,” you are making a commitment to withdraw your
preconceived ideas about the table, and open your minds to what it
is, and what it is for.You are not defining it in past terms. You are
asking what it is, rather than telling it what it is.You are not binding
its meaning to your tiny experience of tables, nor are you limiting its
purpose to your little personal thoughts.
You will not question what we have already defined. And the
purpose of these exercises is to ask questions and receive the answers.
In saying,“Above all else I want to see this table differently,” you are
committing yourself to seeing. It is not an exclusive commitment. It
is a commitment which applies to the table just as much as to
anything else, neither more nor less.
You could, in fact, gain vision from just that table, if you could
withdraw all your own ideas from it, and look upon it with a
completely open mind. It has something to show you; something
beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope.
Hidden under all your ideas about it is its real purpose, the purpose it
shares with all the universe.
In using the table as a subject for applying the idea for today you
are therefore really asking to see the purpose of the universe.You will
be making this same request of each subject which you use in the
practice periods.And you are making a commitment to each of them
to let their purpose be revealed to you, instead of placing your own
judgement upon them.
We will have six two minute practice periods today, in which
the idea for the day is stated first, and then applied to whatever you
see in looking about you. Not only should the subjects be chosen
randomly, but each one should be accorded equal sincerity as today’s
idea is applied to it, in an attempt to acknowledge the equal value of
them all in their contribution to your seeing.
As usual, the applications should include the name of the subject
which your eyes happen to light on, and you should rest your eyes on
it while saying:
“Above all else I want to see this ______.”
Each application should be made quite slowly and as thoughtfully as
possible.There is no hurry.
BRITNEY ADDED: Beyond all else... I want to see diferently.
The way we are currently seeing ourself and this world, is NOT vision.
We are asking to see through vision so that we know ourselves to be love, know that Love heals all things and that there is only, truly, Love.
Reference the lesson today in applying this thought.
Enjoy the gifts that are received through the application of this lesson!!
love and peace to all