LESSON 28 Above all else I want to see things differently.

1. 1Today we are really giving specific application to the idea for yesterday. 2In these practice periods, you will be making a series of definite commitments. 3The question of whether you will keep them in the future is not our concern here. 4If you are willing at least to make them now, you have started on the way to keeping them. 5And we are still at the beginning.

2. 1You may wonder why it is important to say, for example, “Above all else I want to see this table differently.” 2In itself it is not important at all. 3Yet what is by itself? 4And what does “in itself” mean? 5You see a lot of separate things about you, which really means you are not seeing at all. 6You either see or not. 7When you have seen one thing differently, you will see all things differently. 8The light you will see in any one of them is the same light you will see in them all.

3. 1When you say, “Above all else I want to see this table differ­ently,” 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. 2You are not defining it in past terms. 3You are asking what it is, rather than telling it what it is. 4You are not binding its meaning to your tiny experience of tables, nor are you limiting its purpose to your little personal thoughts.

4. 1You will not question what you have already defined. 2And the purpose of these exercises is to ask questions and receive the an­swers. 3In saying, “Above all else I want to see this table differ­ently,” you are committing yourself to seeing. 4It is not an exclusive commitment. 5It is a commitment that applies to the table just as much as to anything else, neither more nor less.

5. 1You 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. 2It has something to show you; something beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope. 3Hidden under all your ideas about it is its real purpose, the purpose it shares with all the universe.

6. 1In using the table as a subject for applying the idea for today, you are therefore really asking to see the purpose of the universe. 2You will be making this same request of each subject that you use in the practice periods. 3And 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.

7. 1We 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. 2Not only should the subjects be chosen randomly, but each one should be accorded equal sincerity as to­day’s idea is applied to it, in an attempt to acknowledge the equal value of them all in their contribution to your seeing.

8. 1As 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:

2Above all else I want to see this _________ differently.

3Each application should be made quite slowly, and as thoughtfully as possible. 4There is no hurry.