LESSON 2
January 2

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

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Exercise: Twice--morning and evening preferably, for 1 minute.

Glance easily and fairly quickly about you and apply the idea indiscriminately to whatever your eyes light on. Say, for example, "I have given this chair all the meaning that it has for me." Begin near to you and then expand outward, look side to side and even behind.

Remarks: Avoid selection by size, brightness or importance. Exclude nothing. Apply idea with equal ease to anything. Do not include anything in particular nor try to include everything in a given area.

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!