Lesson 51 • February-20
Review of:
(1) Nothing I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] means anything.
(2) I have given everything I see [on this street, from this window, in this place] all the meaning that it has for me.
(3) I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].
(4) These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].
(5) I am never upset for the reason I think.
Practice Instructions
See Practice Instructions Review I
Commentary
Note first that we aren't simply to read this review; we are meant to spend time morning and evening reviewing all five ideas, and to spend at least one two-minute practice period during the day on each of the five. That's five practice periods between the morning and evening, minimum. It will probably take a little planning to schedule those five interim periods, and the planning time is worth the effort. Second, notice that these practice instructions apply to all ten review lessons for the next ten days.
The comments on the five lessons given in Lesson 51 link them together so clearly that little comment is really needed. As the introduction to this review says in the last sentence, the emphasis of this review is on the relationships between the ideas and the cohesiveness of the entire thought system being presented. If you look at them together, they are lessons in "letting go" (the words "let go" or some variant occur in four of the five reviews).
In these first five lessons I am being asked to let go of:
- What I see
- My judgments
- My understanding
- My thoughts
- My thought system
What we "see" in the normal sense is nothing; we need to realize it is meaningless and let it go, so that vision may take its place. We are not actually seeing things; rather, we are seeing our judgments on them. If we want vision, we have to realize our judgments are invalid, and cease letting them govern our sight. If we have misjudged, surely we have also misunderstood. Our "understanding" of things is based not on reality, but on our own projections. But we can choose to exchange our misunderstandings for real understanding, based on love rather than judgment.
Like what we see, our conscious thoughts are without any real meaning; we need to let them go, along with judgment-based perceptions. They are thoughts of anger and attack, seeing all things as our enemies. These thoughts which are apart from God require constant justification, and our upset is no more than an attempt to justify our anger with the world and our attacks upon it.
As we read over this review, which is written in the first person, we may want to try reading it aloud, and seeing how we resonate with it. Am I really willing to let go of what I see, my judgments and my understanding of everything, my thoughts, and my very thought system? Can I say, "I am willing to let it go"?
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