Lesson 7

W-pI.7.1. This idea is particularly difficult to believe at first. ² Yet it is the rationale for all of the preceding ones. ³ It is the reason why nothing that you see means anything. ⁴ It is the reason why you have given everything you see all the meaning that it has for you. ⁵ It is the reason why you do not understand anything you see. ⁶ It is the reason why your thoughts do not mean anything, and why they are like the things you see. ⁷ It is the reason why you are never upset for the reason you think. ⁸ It is the reason why you are upset because you see something that is not there.

W-pI.7.2. Old ideas about time are very difficult to change, because everything you believe is rooted in time, and depends on your not learning these new ideas about it. ² Yet that is precisely why you need new ideas about time. ³ This first time idea is not really so strange as it may sound at first.

W-pI.7.3. Look at a cup, for example. ² Do you see a cup, or are you merely reviewing your past experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of a cup against your lips, having breakfast and so on? ³ Are not your aesthetic reactions to the cup, too, based on past experiences? ⁴ How else would you know whether or not this kind of cup will break if you drop it? ⁵ What do you know about this cup except what you learned in the past? ⁶ You would have no idea what this cup is, except for your past learning. ⁷ Do you, then, really see it?

W-pI.7.4. Look about you. ² This is equally true of whatever you look at. ³ Acknowledge this by applying the idea for today indiscriminately to whatever catches your eye. ⁴ For example:

W-pI.7.5. Do not linger over any one thing in particular, but remember to omit nothing specifically. ² Glance briefly at each subject, and then move on to the next. ³ Three or four practice periods, each to last a minute or so, will be enough.