LESSON TWENTY-EIGHT

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: The Course text is in bold face. The Guidance is in normal type In His Guidance, He has asked Me to capitalize the pronouns You and We as an acknowledgement of the Divinity of All of Us, an acknowledgement of Equality, an expression of His Love and respect for You. When You see the word ‘YOU’ capitalized in the Guidance, know that He is not just speaking to YOU, He is honoring YOU.

Above all else I want to see things differently.

Not just from a different point of view within the ego dream.  That would but be akin to divorcing and then getting once again remarried.  For this is still a partial sense of Love. We All are wedded to the Universe.

To see things differently is to see as do the ‘eyes’ of God, Vision Divine, for the eyes of God is but the Vision that sees all things with and as Love.

¹ Today we are really giving specific application to the idea for yesterday. In these practice periods, you will be making a series of definite commitments.

In Lesson 25 I mentioned that You know You want to call Another, yet You do not know really why.  You have a ‘reason’ for the contact to suit Your own purposes, yet it is quite limited, and furthers only ego goals.

Everything the ego mindset thinks it needs, does but have an underlying goal of great importance.  The ego goal is to make the dream be satisfying by an accumulation of ever more ‘people’ and ‘things’.  This fails abysmally, sooner or later.

For what the ego conveniently ignores is that it chose the separation, continuing the choice each and every moment of its endless, repetitions of what it calls ‘life’.

And so You’re always looking for some thing to fill the emptiness of rejection of Your Be-ing, be it more relationships, more food, new clothes, another tv show, opera or play, a trip to brand new shores, something to fill the emptiness that haunts the dream.  And dream ‘creations’ cannot do it, for it is All the Rest of You that You are really missing.  Known as the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit is calling to You in those same moments, for It would have You whole; both unified and satisfied and oh so happy!  You may know Its Voice by Its choice, which is not for getting, but it is for giving.

These commitments are such a glad step toward Your True Happiness.

The question of whether you will keep them in the future is not our concern here. If you are willing at least to make them now, you have started on the way to keeping them. And we are still at the beginning.

They are simply that “little willingness” for which I’ve asked You.  Very glad am I to have received it.  And I do thank You.

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

And You are that Light as well.  And Light and Love and Life are what make up All Creation.

³ When 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. You are not defining it in past terms. You are asking what it is, rather than telling it what it is. You are not binding its meaning to your tiny experience of tables, nor are you limiting its purpose to your little personal thoughts.

Yes!  That is excellent.  You are remembering how in Your childhood the patterns on the oriental rug became oceans and continents that You traversed to reach the cave underneath the piano.  No other trip has ever equaled those brave voyages You daily made.

Who took that wondrous Universe and turned it into just a mundane living room?  Who made the decision that the living room was real, and the Universe was not?

When You are dreaming, is one thing more real than another one?  And just who makes the determination?  You have abdicated to the ego.  And yet, it still remains a dream, and who controls the dream but the Dreamer.

All of You, step back into childhood for a moment where everything was possible.  And if You feel comfortable with it, take that possibility into here and now and have some fun with it as this Lesson helps You regain Your curiosity and freedom.

I do not mean to glorify any of the dream, just help to free You from it.

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

We are asking for a Vision both impartial and Universal, Loving All.

⁵ You could, in fact, gain vision from just that table if you could withdraw all your own ideas from it and look upon it with a completely open mind. It has something to show you-something beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope. Hidden under all your ideas about it is its real purpose, the purpose it shares with all the universe.

Radiating All the Good that God is.

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. You will be making this same request of each subject which you use in the practice periods. And you are making a commitment to each of them to let their purpose be revealed to you instead of placing your own judgment upon them.

All Reality but exists for Good.

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 in looking about you. Not 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.

Let Your Love just bless everything You see.

⁸ As usual, the applications should include the name of the subject which your eyes happen to light on, and you should rest your eyes on it while saying:

⁹ Above all else, I want to see this ______ differently.

¹⁰ Each application should be made quite slowly and as thoughtfully as possible. There is no hurry.

There is no hurry for there is no time, just Eternity.