Review I
Introduction
Beginning with today we will have a series of review periods. Each of them will cover five of the ideas already presented, starting with the first and ending with the fiftieth. There will be a few short comments after each of the ideas, which you should consider in your review. In the practice periods, the exercises should be done as follows:
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 others, concentrate on that one. At the end of the day, however, be sure to review all of them once more.
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, and think about it as part of your review of the idea to which it relates. After you have read the idea and the related comments, the exercises should be done with your eyes closed and when you are alone in a quiet place, if possible.
This is emphasized for practice periods at your stage of learning. It will be necessary, however, that you learn to require no special settings in which to apply what you have learned. You will need your learning most in situations that appear to be upsetting, rather than in those that already seem to be calm and quiet. 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.
Journal
These first foundational lessons turn our thinking upside down. Each one is so different than what we have always believed that the mind boggles. This review is intended to show the relationship between them, to show that while each one is significant of itself, they are as one leading us to a new way of seeing.
Jesus is asking us to take a new look at them, not to simply redo them as before, but to allow a fuller understanding. When I first did these lessons, I did exactly what he told me not to do. I went back to the original lesson and read it again. I found that I could not remember what I thought I had learned the first time through.
I had to refresh my memory. I had not yet learned to ask Holy Spirit to enlighten me. Later I realized that when I drew a blank, it was because the ego mind just didn’t want to go there. I learned to relax and not take that seriously. I would then ask, as I do now, what the Holy Spirit wanted me to know about this lesson.
It is so funny to me that I used to find these first lessons bewildering to the point that I wanted to get through them as fast as I could. Now I am brought to tears just reading them. I am so grateful for this new way of perceiving and this perfect beginning to my awakening. I am so grateful to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit for all the help they give me that sometimes I just sit and cry.
Thank you, God. I love you, God.