[acimlessons_list] Lesson 2 - January 2

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 2 - January 2

"I have given everything I see...all the meaning that it has for me."


PRACTICE SUMMARY

Exercise: 2 times-ideally morning and evening, for 1 minute
Same basic instructions as yesterday, just using a new idea. In selecting
subjects for today, look side to side and behind you.

Remarks: Like the previous lesson, this one focuses on being totally
indiscriminate in your selection of subjects. The comments in paragraph 2
about avoiding "selection by size, brightness, color, material, or relative
importance to you" (2:1) are a brief reference to the Course's theory of
selective attention. According to the Course, we are highly selective in
what we attend to visually. We pay attention to things that visually stand
out and therefore catch our eye (see M-8.1) and we pay attention to things
we value (see M-8.3:7). Notice that both of these factors-things that
visually stand out and things we value-are included in the sentence I just
quoted. This implies that we are supposed to practice the lesson without our
usual habit of selective attention, because that habit assumes that the
different things in our visual field are truly different, and this lesson is
meant to teach us that they are not.


COMMENTARY

The meaning of yesterday's lesson is now a little clearer; "Nothing that I
see means anything" can be understood to say, "The only meaning anything has
for me is the meaning that I give to it; there is no intrinsic meaning in
anything."
When I first practiced Lesson 1, I recall that the first object my eyes lit
on was an excellent new photograph of my two children. At first, my mind
rebelled at saying, "That photograph does not mean anything," because it
sure meant something to me. But the next morning, on Lesson 2, I began to
see what the lessons were getting at. The photo, in itself, has no meaning
at all. To the vast majority of people in the world it really would mean
nothing; but to me, it meant something because I had given meaning to it.

When we begin to realize that our perception is formed by our minds, and not
vice versa, it can be a startling revelation. If this lesson seems trivial
or obvious to you, try applying it the next time "everything I see" includes
someone who, in your perception, is betraying you, lying to you, or
abandoning you: "I have given this situation all the meaning that it has for
me." Not so trivial!