June 26th 2015 Review I
Lesson 51
Review of Lessons 1 - 5
- Intention: Begin the day by reading the five ideas, with the comments included. Thereafter, it is not necessary to follow any particular order in considering them, though each one should be practiced at least once. Devote two minutes or more to each practice period, thinking about the idea and the related comments after reading them over. Do this as often as possible during the day. If any one of the five ideas appeals to you more than the other, concentrate on that one. At the end of the day, however, be sure to review all of them once more.
- Practice: It is not necessary to cover the comments that follow each idea either literally or thoroughly in the practice periods. Try, rather, to emphasize the central point of each comment and how it relates to its associated idea. After reading each idea and its related comments, the exercise should be done with your eyes closed and if possible, when you are alone in a quiet place.
- Two practice periods (morning and evening) for ten minutes, in which we spend two minutes reading and thinking about each of the five ideas and their associated comments given. In addition, during the day from time to time, spend at least two minutes thinking about the five ideas in any order, giving emphasis to any that appeal to you.
- Application: The
purpose of your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet with you,
and to heal distress and turmoil. This is not done by avoiding them and
seeking a haven of isolation for yourself. You will yet learn that
peace is part of you, and requires only that you be there to embrace any
situation in which you are. And finally you will learn that there is
no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are.
.You will note that, for review purposes, some of the ideas are not given in quite their original form. Use them as they are given here. It is not necessary to return to the original statements, nor to apply the ideas as was suggested then. We are now emphasizing the relationships among the first fifty of the ideas we have covered, and the cohesiveness of the thought system to which they are leading you.
(1) Nothing I see means anything.
The reason this is so is that I see nothing, and nothing has no meaning. It is necessary that I recognize this, that I may learn to see. What I think I see now is taking the place of vision. I must let it go by realizing it has no meaning, so that vision may take its place.
(2) I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me.
I have judged everything I look upon, and it is this and only this I see. This is not vision. It is merely an illusion of reality, because my judgments have been made quite apart from reality. I am willing to recognize the lack of validity in my judgments, because I wan to see. My judgments have hurt me, and I do not want to see according to them.
(3) I do not understand anything I see.
I have judged everything I look upon, and it is this and only this I see. This is not vision. It is merely an illusion of reality, because my judgments have been made quite apart from reality. I am willing to recognize the lack of validity in my judgments, because I wan to see. My judgments have hurt me, and I do not want to see according to them.
How could I understand what I see when I have judged it amiss? What I see is the projection of my own errors of thought. I do not understand what I see because it is not understandable. There is no sense in trying to understand it. But there is every reason to let it go, and make room for what can be seen and understood and loved. I can exchange what I see now for this merely by being willing to do so. Is not this a better choice than the one I made before?
(4) These thoughts do not mean anything.
The thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything because I am trying to think without God. What I call "my" thoughts are not my real thoughts. My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God. I am not aware of them because I have made my (ego) thoughts to take their place. I am willing to recognize that my ego thoughts do not mean anything, and to let them go. I choose to have them be replaced by what they were intended to replace. My thoughts are meaningless, but all creation lies in the thoughts I think with God.
(5) I am never upset for the reason I think.
I am never upset for the reason I think because I am constantly trying to justify my thoughts. I am constantly trying to make them true. I make all things my enemies, so that my anger is justified and my attacks are warranted. I have not realized how much I have misused everything I see by assigning this role to it. I have done this to defend a thought system that has hurt me, and that I no longer want. I am willing to let it go.
Insights/comments:
- What is it that ties these five ideas together for us? They represent a total renunciation of the world as we currently experience it, externally as well as internally. Because we normally believe the world outside to be separate from us, our first step of renunciation is to realize that the world outside has no intrinsic meaning of its own; we have given everything in our outer world all the meaning and value that it has; this is “make believe”; we made it up then agreed to believe that its real, so the outer world is really only a projection of our inner world, our likes, dislikes, laws and judgments, which have no basis in God’s reality, which is the only true reality! Realizing this, the second step of renunciation is to withdraw all the meaning we gave to our make-believe world through our inner thoughts by letting go of our judgments about everything, letting the world be as it is. In this way, we begin to break free of our self-made illusions and begin to see the real world that God created perfect. This little willingness to let go of our judgments is the thread that ties these five ideas together; without our judgments there can be no condemnation of anything, and without condemnation there is no need for punishment, and without punishment of any kind, we finally have the basis for peace..
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