May 26th 2014 Lesson 25
I do not know what anything is for.
Purpose is meaning. Today's idea explains why nothing you see means anything. You do not know what it is for. Therefore it is meaningless to you. Everything is for your own best interests. That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means. It is in recognizing this that your goals become unified. It is in recognizing this that what you see is given meaning.You perceive the world and everything in it as meaningful in terms of your ego goals. These goals have nothing to do with your owns best interests, because the ego is not you. This false identification makes you incapable of understanding what anything is for. As a result, you are bound to misuse it. When you believe this, you will try to withdraw the goals you have assigned to the world, instead of attempting to reinforce them.
Before you can make any sense out of the exercises for today, one more thought is necessary. At the most superficial levels, you do recognize purpose. Yet purpose cannot be understood at these levels. Fore example, you do understand that a telephone is for the purpose of talking to someone who is not physically in your immediate vicinity. What you do not understand is what you want to reach him for. And it is this that makes your contact with him meaningful or not
It is crucial to your learning to be willing to give up the goals you have established for everything. The recognition that they are meaningless, rather than "good" or "bad," is the only way to accomplish this. The idea for today is a step in this direction.
- Intention: Six practice periods , each of two-minutes duration, are required.
- Practice: Begin each practice period what a slow repetition of the idea for today, followed by looking about you and letting your glance rest on whatever happens to catch your eye, near or far, "important" or "unimportant," "human" or "nonhuman." With your eyes resting on each subject you select, say, for example:
I do not know what this chair is for.
I do not know what this pencil is for.
I do not know what this hand is for.
- Application: Say these statements quite slowly, without shifting you eyes from the subject until you have completed the statement about it. Then move on to the next subject, and apply today's idea as before.
Insights/comments:
- Today's idea supports and reinforces the first lesson of this course. It is because we do not know what anything is for that nothing that we see means anything.
Without understanding the purpose of a thing how can it have any meaning for us? We were born into this world not knowing the meaning of what we perceived. We certainly had a strong intuitive idea that everything in this world was for our own best interests (why would it be otherwise) but we could not communicate that to those around us, not being able to speak their language, nor correctly navigate the body suit we were wearing. Besides which, they had their own meanings for things, and were intent on teaching us those meanings. This is how it began for each of us, and we all decided early on to first learn the language, and the navigation of the body suit, so that we can teach these poor lost souls the truth that we are each the center of our own universe, and the purpose of everything is to serve our own best interests.
In time, we began to forget our original intention and most of us became more and more indoctrinated into the limited way of thinking and perceiving of those around us because we were dependent on them to help us learn the language and navigation of the body suit, and to satisfy our other immediate needs in this new environment. Furthermore, they weren't too interested in what we had to teach them anyway. We did not forget our original intention completely, for this knowledge is inherent in us, but we forgot enough to allow us to adopt a false identity as a body, just so that we could function in this environment. The indoctrination process mostly succeeded and most of us adopted the ideas and beliefs of those around us and began to teach it to others.
It is only now that we are beginning to wake up, to remember our original intention and shake off this false identification with the body which blinds us to the real meaning of what everything is for. Only now we are beginning to undo the ill effects of the indoctrination by giving up the goals we have established for everything, realizing that they are meaningless, and allowing the inherent God-given meaning of everything to shine though.
I and my Creator are One. 
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