LESSON TWENTY FIVE

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.

Workbook PART I

L e s s o n 25

I do not know what anything is for.

There seems to be this world and universe ‘out there’, outside of me, that is quite overwhelming.  Yet You do tell Me, Brother, that everything is right within My mind; My mis-creation.

Please give Me a clear explanation, or at least some clues!

¹ Purpose is meaning.  God expresses each One of His Infinite Ideas with a definite purpose, which means that every One and every Thing is absolutely essential. You are quite priceless to God and the entire Universe. Today’s idea explains why nothing you see – including Yourself – means anything. You do not know what it is for. Therefore it is meaningless to you.  You know not yet Your meaning, nor how it fits in with the stupendous Whole of God. Everything is for your own best interests. Each Idea of God exists to Love all Others and be Loved by Them in return. That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means. It is in recognizing this that your goals become unified. Each Idea fitting perfectly with every Other. It is in recognizing this that what you see is given meaning.  And everything is meaning-full for You.

² You perceive the world and everything in it as meaningful in terms of ego goals. Showing who’s in charge.  Shift Your ‘boss’ to God, instead of ego. See Your life transform! For ego goals but keep You in the dream. These goals have nothing to do with your own best interests because the ego is not you. “The ego is not You!” This is important! You’ve thought so for a thousand years and more; oh so very many eons more! This false identification makes you incapable of understanding what anything is for. All purpose supports God’s Reality; not the ego dream. As a result, you are bound to misuse it. Hand a baby a diamond ring, and it will try to eat it, not understanding value and beauty. When you believe this, you will try to withdraw the goals you have assigned to the world instead of attempting to reinforce them.  Then be curious!  For curiosity does show that You don’t think that You already know it all!

³ Another way of describing the goals you now perceive as valuable is to say that they are all concerned with “personal” interests. Goals which are to keep You ‘safe’; protecting the aims and persona of the ego. Since you have no personal interests, – unless You forget All of Us are One – your goals are really concerned with nothing. In cherishing them, therefore, you have no goals at all.  They are pointless, since all real blessings must honor every One. And thus you do not know what anything is for.  And You are learning.

⁴ Before you can make any sense out of the exercises for today, one more thought is necessary. At the most superficial levels, you do recognize purpose. Yet purpose cannot be understood at these levels. For example, you do understand that a telephone is for the purpose of talking to someone who is not physically in your immediate vicinity. What you do not understand is what you want to reach him for. And it is this that makes your contact with him meaningful or not.  Your reaching out springs from an ancient memory of Oneness, which Your inventions attempt to provide. Memories that bring longing for Reality forgotten.

⁵ It is crucial to your learning to be willing to give up the goals you have established for everything. Do I ask too much? Just that You give up sourcing misery. Goals are another way of saying: desire for control. The recognition that they are meaningless, rather than “good” or “bad,” is the only way to accomplish this. The idea for today is a step in this direction.

⁶ Six practice periods, each of two minutes duration, are required. Each practice period should begin with a slow repetition of the idea for today followed by looking about you and letting your glance rest on whatever happens to catch your eye, near or far, “important” or “unimportant,” “human” or “unhuman.” With your eyes resting on each subject you so select, say, for example:

⁷ I do not know what this chair is for.
I do not know what this pencil is for.
I do not know what this hand is for.

Just simple statements; large acknowledgement.

⁸ Say this quite slowly, without shifting your eyes until you have completed the statement. Then move on to the next subject, and apply today’s idea as before.

“I do not know.” is a wonderful admission, for it does open up the door to Reality.  Minds closed can open.