Lesson 28
Above all else I want to see things differently.
W-pI.28.1. Today we are really giving specific application to the idea for yesterday. 2 In these practice periods, you will be making a series of definite commitments. 3 The question of whether you will keep them in the future is not our concern here. 4 If you are willing at least to make them now, you have started on the way to keeping them. 5 And we are still at the beginning.
W-pI.28.2. You may wonder why it is important to say, for example, “Above all else I want to see this table differently.” 2 In itself it is not important at all. 3 Yet what is by itself? 4 And what does “in itself” mean? 5 You see a lot of separate things about you, which really means you are not seeing at all. 6 You either see or not. 7 When you have seen one thing differently, you will see all things differently. 8 The light you will see in any one of them is the same light you will see in them all.
W-pI.28.3. 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 mind to what it is, and what it is for. 2 You are not defining it in past terms. 3 You are asking what it is, rather than telling it what it is. 4 You are not binding its meaning to your tiny experience of tables, nor are you limiting its purpose to your little personal thoughts.
W-pI.28.4. You will not question what you have already defined. 2 And the purpose of these exercises is to ask questions and receive the answers. 3 In saying, “Above all else I want to see this table differently,” you are committing yourself to seeing. 4 It is not an exclusive commitment. 5 It is a commitment that applies to the table just as much as to anything else, neither more nor less.
W-pI.28.5. You could, in fact, gain vision from just that table, if you would withdraw all your own ideas from it, and look upon it with a completely open mind. 2 It has something to show you; something beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope. 3 Hidden under all your ideas about it is its real purpose, the purpose it shares with all the universe.
W-pI.28.6. 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. 2 You will be making this same request of each subject that you use in the practice periods. 3 And you are making a commitment to each of them to let its purpose be revealed to you, instead of placing your own judgment upon it.
W-pI.28.7. 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 about you. 2 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.
W-pI.28.8. As usual, the applications should include the name of the subject your eyes happen to light on, and you should rest your eyes on it while saying:
2 Above all else I want to see this _____ differently.
3 Each application should be made quite slowly, and as thoughtfully as possible. 4 There is no hurry.
Journal
This is a fascinating lesson. When we look at all the things around us, we think what we see is what is there, but that is not so. We are just seeing images that represent our thoughts, illusions of things. What is there is the same thing no matter what image our eyes show us. It will show us the meaning of the universe if we are open to that because the table or whatever we are looking at has the same meaning as the universe.
How do we do this? How do we discover the something beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope? First, we must be willing to accept that we don’t know anything about the object; we must let all our preconceived ideas about it go. And we commit to being willing to see what is really there. We don’t have to make anything happen, thank goodness. We only need to be ready to see, probably for the first time.
Shall we do this? It will change everything we think we know. But something beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope, wouldn’t it be amazing to have that experience? I want true vision. Jesus is saying here that I can have it if I am willing for it. I want to see what my desk is and what it is for. I will open my mind to this let its purpose be revealed to me, instead of placing my own judgment upon it. I wonder how it will show itself to me.
Above all else, Jesus, above all else, this is what I want.