[acimlessons_list] Lesson 3 - January 3

[Susan Carrier]

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+ COMMENTARIES ON LESSONS FROM THE WORKBOOK OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES
+ by Allen Watson, with Practice Summaries by Robert Perry, 
+ of The Circle of Atonement
+ Visit our website at <http://www.circleofa.com <http://www.circleofa.com/>
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Lesson 3 - January 3

"I do not understand anything I see..."

Practice  Summary:

Purpose: to clear away the thick film of past associations which you project
onto everything, so that you see things afresh and realize that you do not
really understand them at all.

Exercise: 2 times-ideally, morning and evening, for 1 minute
Same basic instructions as the previous two days, only with a new idea.

Remarks: Being indiscriminate in selecting subjects is a direct reflection
of the lesson's purpose, which is to clear your mind of the interpretive
film which you lay over things and which claims to tell you what those
things really are. It is that same film which would also tell you there are
some things to which the lesson does not apply. The very act, therefore, of
applying the lesson to absolutely anything is also an act of setting aside
that interpretive film.

COMMENTARY:

If nothing I see means anything, and I have given everything I see all the
meaning that it has for me, then obviously I do not understand anything I
see. The Workbook is laying the groundwork for our learning. To learn a new
understanding of anything we must let go our belief that we already
understand it.

I find this lesson useful in many situations. When something happens that I
interpret as unpleasant or upsetting, I can realize that my judgment of
"unpleasant" or my upset comes, not from the thing or person or situation,
but from my imagined understanding of it. By repeating, "I do not understand
anything I see," I open my mind to a new understanding from the Holy Spirit.
I use variants of the idea at times, such as, "I don't know what this means"
or "I have no idea what this is all about."

In the Course, the beginning of understanding is understanding that I don't
understand anything.

Remember this is an exercise. Don't expect to perform it perfectly! You are
<practicing> the realization that you don't understand, which means you are
coming from a state of mind that believes it <does> understand. That's OK. 
 
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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
+ Available in book format from The Circle
+ of Atonement (Vol. 1 reprint due by end of 2004, write us for info)
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