Welcome to Active Meditation.
A Course in Miracles,
Lesson 24 I do not perceive my own best interests.
As we prepare for this exercise,
We place our body in a comfortable position and close our eyes.
We relax by noting where the tension is in our body.
And to increase the relaxation,
We remove all expression from our face.
Do all this now.
This is a Course in Miracles.
It is a required course.
Only the time you take it is voluntary.
Some of the ideas the exercises present,
You will find hard to believe.
And others may seem to be quite startling.
This does not matter.
You are merely asked to apply the exercises as you are directed to do.
You are not asked to judge them at all.
You are asked only to use them.
It is their use that will give them meaning to you and will show you that they are true.
The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world.
This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
I do not perceive my own best interests.
In no situation that arises do you realize the outcome that would make you happy.
Therefore you have no guide to appropriate action and no way of judging the result.
What you do is determined by your perception of the situation.
And that perception is wrong.
It is inevitable then that you will not serve your own best interests.
Yet they are your only goal in any situation which is correctly perceived.
Otherwise you will not recognize what they are.
If you realize that you do not perceive your own best interests,
You could be taught what they are.
But in the presence of your conviction that you do know what they are,
You cannot learn.
The idea for today is a step toward opening your mind so that learning can begin.
The exercises for today require much more honesty than you are accustomed to using.
A 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 larger number.
Two minutes are suggested for each of the mind searching periods which the exercises involve.
The practice period should begin with repeating today's idea followed by searching the mind with closed eyes for unresolved situations about which you are currently concerned.
The emphasis should be on uncovering the outcome you want.
You 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.
When 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.
The form of each application should be roughly as follows.
Name the situation involving,
Name the situation,
I would like X to happen and Y to happen.
Then name everything you would like to happen and so on.
Try 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 be inherent in it at all.
After covering the list of as many hoped for goals as possible for each unresolved situation that crosses your mind,
Say to yourself,
I do not perceive my own best interests in this situation and go on to the next one.
Let us practice.
Identify a current situation in your life.
Ask as many goals as possible that you would like to be met to resolve the circumstances.
Say in the situation involving,
Name the situation,
I would like X to happen and Y to happen.
Name everything you would like to happen and so on.
I will be silent while you do this.
Now say to yourself,
Say to your mind,
I do not perceive my own best interests in this situation.
If 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.
You 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.
So let us practice again.
Identify several current situations in your life where each one lists as many goals as possible that you would like to be met to resolve the circumstances.
Say in the situation involving,
Then name the situation,
I would like X to happen and Y to happen.
Then name everything you would like to happen and so on.
Do this now.
I will be silent.
Now after covering the list of as many hope for goals as possible for each unresolved situation that crosses your mind,
Say to yourself,
Say to your mind,
I do not perceive my own best interests in this situation.
Five practice periods should be undertaken today.
A few subjects honestly and carefully considered in each of the five practice periods will be more helpful than a more cursory examination of a large number.
Two minutes are suggested.
I do not perceive my own best interests.
Remember only this,
You need not believe the ideas,
You need not accept them and you need not even welcome them.
Some of them you may actively resist.
None of this will matter or decrease their efficacy.
But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains.
And whatever your reactions to the ideas may be,
Use them.
Nothing more than that is required.
The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world.
I do not perceive my own best interests.
Let's return to our regular levels of thought and feeling.
Take a few deep breaths.
Return to the waking state,
To time and space.
I now know.
I am aware.
I am.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
