Lesson 2. I have given everything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] all the meaning that it has for me.
The exercises with this idea are the same as those for the first one. Begin with the things that are near you, and apply the idea to whatever your glance rests on. Then increase the range outward. Turn your head so that you include whatever is on either side. If possible, turn around and apply the idea to what was behind you. Remain as indiscriminate as possible in selecting subjects for its application, do not concentrate on anything in particular, and do not attempt to include everything you see in a given area, or you will introduce strain.
Merely glance easily and fairly quickly around you, trying to avoid selection by size, brightness, color, material, or relative importance to you. Take the subjects simply as you see them. Try to apply the exercise with equal ease to a body or a button, a fly or a floor, an arm or an apple. The sole criterion for applying the idea to anything is merely that your eyes have lighted on it. Make no attempt to include anything particular, but be sure that nothing is specifically excluded.
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Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
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Lesson 2. "I have given everything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] all the meaning that it has for me."
*The first lesson -- that nothing means anything -- is now extended. The reason nothing means anything is that you have given meaning to everything, obscuring, as we shall see presently, its <true> meaning of forgiveness. You know you have done so because you think your hand is more important than a pen. Since this clearly cannot be the way the Holy Spirit thinks, it can only have come from the way <you> think. God has not given everything you see around you its meaning, nor has Jesus. <You> have.
People will say they value something because their parents valued it, and because they were brought up in a certain culture, religion, socio-economic stratum, etc. But that is not an honest statement. If they truly thought about it they would realize they have not adopted <all> of their parents' values, nor the values of their social system, and so on. They have adopted only those values that resonate with what they <want> their values to be.
Even though it is not mentioned here, Jesus is asking for complete honesty with him; to accept that nothing in this room or world means anything because I am the one who has given the world meaning, and I -- my ego -- could never understand <true> meaning: forgiveness.*
(1) "The exercises with this idea are the same as those for the first one. Begin with the things that are near you, and apply the idea to whatever your glance rests on. Then increase the range outward. Turn your head so that you include whatever is on either side. If possible, turn around and apply the idea to what was behind you. Remain as indiscriminate as possible in selecting subjects for its application, do not concentrate on anything in particular, and do not attempt to include everything you see in a given area, or you will introduce strain."
*Jesus is telling us not to discriminate by saying that one thing is important and another is not, or that this thing does not mean anything, but that one does. He is telling us to be indiscriminate in our practicing. Attempting to include everything will lead to strain, he tells us, and then a ritual will soon develop as well. Rituals involve strain because there is always a sense of <having> to do something. I <have> to say the prayer a certain way. I <have> to go to church or synagogue every day or every week, or whatever. If it is a ritual, then it is something that has to be done the same way all the time because that is what God wants, or the Bible says, or my religious teachers insist on.
Therefore, Jesus is saying not to do these exercises as you would a ritual, and not to do them with a sense of strain. If you begin to feel strain, he will say you should stop. This is also an indication you are doing them wrong; that you are doing them with your ego and not with him.*
(2:1) "Merely glance easily and fairly quickly around you, trying to avoid selection by size, brightness, color, material, or relative importance to you."
*The very fact that Jesus says "Try to avoid doing this" is telling you that you are going to try to do this, i.e., to select according to what is important and not important to you. Even if you do not think you are doing it consciously, unconsciously this would certainly have to be the case in light of the hierarchy of values we all share.*
(2:2-5) "Take the subjects simply as you see them. Try to apply the exercise with equal ease to a body or a button, a fly or a floor, an arm or an apple. The sole criterion for applying the idea to anything is merely that your eyes have lighted on it. Make no attempt to include anything particular, but be sure that nothing is specifically excluded."
*We need to read these lessons thoughtfully, moving beyond the <form> of the words to their underlying <content> or meaning. In other words, we need to realize that Jesus is teaching us to generalize; that all things are equally meaningless because everything serves the same ego purpose of separation. We will find later that all things then become equally meaningful, because everything in our perceptual world can also serve the purpose of the Holy Spirit. It does not matter what it is; it could be something that we believe is meaningful, like a body, or something that we believe is meaningless, like an apple or button. As long as we see, hear, taste, or feel anything, we are saying that the material world is real; duality and perception are real. This ultimately is a way of saying I am real. In back of that, of course, is the statement that because the material world is real, God cannot be. This is the metaphysics underlying these early and wonderful lessons.*
