LESSON 24 I do not perceive my own best interests.

1. 1In no situation that arises do you realize the outcome that would make you happy. 2Therefore, you have no guide to appropriate action, and no way of judging the result. 3What you do is determined by your perception of the situation, and that perception is wrong. 4It is inevitable, then, that you will not serve your own best interests. 5Yet they are your only goal in any situation which is correctly perceived. 6Otherwise, you will not recognize what they are.

2. 1If you realized that you do not perceive your own best interests, you could be taught what they are. 2But in the presence of your conviction that you do know what they are, you cannot learn. 3The idea for today is a step toward opening your mind so that learning can begin.

3. 1The exercises for today require much more honesty than you are accustomed to using. 2A few subjects, honestly and carefully considered in each of the five practice periods which should be undertaken today, will be more helpful than a more cursory ex­amination of a large number. 3Two minutes are suggested for each of the mind-searching periods which the exercises involve.

4. 1The practice periods should begin with repeating today’s idea, followed by searching the mind, with closed eyes, for unresolved situations about which you are currently concerned. 2The emphasis should be on uncovering the outcome you want. 3You will quickly realize that you have a number of goals in mind as part of the desired outcome, and also that these goals are on different levels and often conflict.

5. 1In applying the idea for today, name each situation that occurs to you, and then enumerate carefully as many goals as possible that you would like to be met in its resolution. 2The form of each application should be roughly as follows:

3In the situation involving _________, I would like _________ to happen, and _________ to happen,

and so on. 4Try to cover as many different kinds of outcomes as may honestly occur to you, even if some of them do not appear to be directly related to the situation, or even to be inherent in it at all.

6. 1If these exercises are done properly, you will quickly recognize that you are making a large number of demands of the situation which have nothing to do with it. 2You will also recognize that many of your goals are contradictory, that you have no unified outcome in mind, and that you must experience disappointment in connection with some of your goals, however the situation turns out.

7. 1After covering the list of as many hoped-for goals as possible, for each unresolved situation that crosses your mind say to yourself:

2I do not perceive my own best interests in this situation,

and go on to the next one.