1. Today we are really giving specific application to the idea for yesterday. \u00b2In these practice periods, you will be making a series of definite commitments. \u00b3The question of whether you will keep them in the future is not our concern here. \u2074If you are willing at least to make them now, you have started on the way to keeping them. \u2075And we are still at the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. You may wonder why it is important to say, for example, \u201cAbove all else I want to see this table differently.\u201d \u00b2In itself it is not important at all. \u00b3Yet what is by itself? \u2074And what does \u201cin itself\u201d mean? \u2075You see a lot of separate things about you, which really means you are not seeing at all. \u2076You either see or not. \u2077When you have seen one thing differently, you will see all things differently. \u2078The light you will see in any one of them is the same light you will see in them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. When you say, \u201cAbove all else I want to see this table differently,\u201d 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. \u00b2You are not defining it in past terms. \u00b3You are asking what it is, rather than telling it what it is. \u2074You are not binding its meaning to your tiny experience of tables, nor are you limiting its purpose to your little personal thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. You will not question what you have already defined. \u00b2And the purpose of these exercises is to ask questions and receive the answers. \u00b3In saying, \u201cAbove all else I want to see this table differently,\u201d you are committing yourself to seeing. \u2074It is not an exclusive commitment. \u2075It is a commitment that applies to the table just as much as to anything else, neither more nor less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. \u00b2It has something to show you; something beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope. \u00b3Hidden under all your ideas about it is its real purpose, the purpose it shares with all the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. \u00b2You will be making this same request of each subject that you use in the practice periods. \u00b3And 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. \u00b2Not only should the subjects be chosen randomly, but each one should be accorded equal sincerity as today\u2019s idea is applied to it, in an attempt to acknowledge the equal value of them all in their contribution to your seeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2<\/sup>Above all else I want to see this _________ differently.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Each application should be made quite slowly, and as thoughtfully as possible. \u2074There is no hurry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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