Workbook Part I Introduction

Workbook Part I

INTRODUCTION

¹ A theoretical foundation such as the text provides is necessary as a framework to make the exercises in this workbook meaningful. Yet it is doing the exercises that will make the goal of the course possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is the purpose of this workbook to train your mind to think along the lines the text sets forth.

² The exercises are very simple. They do not require a great deal of time, and it does not matter where you do them. They need no preparation. The training period is one year. The exercises are numbered from 1 to 365. Do not undertake to do more than one set of exercises a day.

³ The workbook is divided into two main sections, the first dealing with the undoing of the way you see now, and the second with the acquisition of true perception. With the exception of the review periods, each day’s exercises are planned around one central idea, which is stated first. This is followed by a description of the specific procedures by which the idea for the day is to be applied.

⁴ The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world. The exercises are planned to help you generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is equally applicable to everyone and everything you see.

⁵ Transfer of training in true perception does not proceed as does transfer of the training of the world. If true perception has been achieved in connection with any person, situation or event, total transfer to everyone and everything is certain. On the other hand, one exception held apart from true perception makes its accomplishments anywhere impossible.

⁶ The only general rules to be observed throughout, then, are: First, that the exercises be practiced with great specificity, as will be indicated. This will help you to generalize the ideas involved to every situation in which you find yourself, and to everyone and everything in it. Second, be sure that you do not decide for yourself that there are some people, situations or things to which the ideas are inapplicable. This will interfere with transfer of training. The very nature of true perception is that it has no limits. It is the opposite of the way you see now.

⁷ The overall aim of the exercises is to increase your ability to extend the ideas you will be practicing to include everything. This will require no effort on your part. The exercises themselves meet the conditions necessary for this kind of transfer.

⁸ Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.

⁹ Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required.

Journal

“It is the purpose of this workbook to train your mind to think along the lines the text sets forth.”

A lot of students wonder where to start with this book. Do you read the Text first? Or do the Lessons first? My friend, Regina, said she started with the Manual for Teachers because it was the smallest book. ~smile~ It all works together and so I don’t think it matters where we start.

Here, Jesus says that we will understand the lessons better with some background information that we get from reading the Text, but I know people who did the lessons first and still, their lives were changed from doing so even without the full understanding. So even if you have not delved into the Text yet, if you feel guided to the Lessons then dive right in. You can always start reading the Text as you go if you feel to do so.

“Do not undertake to do more than one set of exercises a day.”

You may feel like you can just do these first ones quickly and get them out of the way but don’t. There is a great deal of rewiring going on in your mind as you do the lessons. This happens on a level that is not conscious to you but is important to your growth. Be patient and give it time to occur.

The workbook is divided into two sections. In the first part, we undo the way we see now. In the second part we acquire true perception, that is, we learn to see differently. In the first part, you may be tempted to stop. I stopped at about lesson 50 so many times that I lost count. Don’t stop. That temptation is just your ego wanting to avoid the inevitable. You are not your ego and you want this mind training very much.

The temptation to stop later may be stronger, and many people fail to finish the lessons the first time around. But this is a carefully constructed course that will change the way you think and lead you into the happy dream of knowing your true Self and living in the world but not of it. If, like me, you have been through the lessons before, this time you will be taken much more deeply into the beautiful truth.

“The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world. The exercises are planned to help you generalize the lessons so that you will understand that each of them is equally applicable to everyone and everything you see.”

This is hard to understand for the those who are beginning for the first time, but as one who has been studying and practicing the Course for many years, I can attest to what is being said. I have learned to trust that if I am not supremely happy, there is another way to see and my desire for that truer vision will bring it to me. And, this is equally true for everyone and everything I see.

“… one exception held apart from true perception makes its accomplishments anywhere impossible.”

I don’t get to pick and choose what I want to be true. Truth is whole. It cannot be broken into pieces. So, when I do the lessons, I don’t make exceptions according to past beliefs or what I want to be true. I just do them as asked and I trust that Jesus knows what he is talking about even if I can’t understand it, even if I don’t want him to be right.

“The only general rules to be observed throughout, then, are: First, that the exercises be practiced with great specificity, as will be indicated. This will help you to generalize the ideas involved to every situation in which you find yourself, and to everyone and everything in it. Second, be sure that you do not decide for yourself that there are some people, situations or things to which the ideas are inapplicable. This will interfere with transfer of training. The very nature of true perception is that it has no limits. It is the opposite of the way you see now.”

You are very likely to be resistant to some lessons and to be resistant to applying them without judgment and without exception. Sometimes that resistance will be obvious. Sometimes it will show up as confusion or distraction. Don’t let that upset you or slow you down. You came to this plane of existence for this one purpose. Live your purpose: do the lessons, trust the lessons, let your mind be healed.