I do not understand anything I see.
1. I do not understand anything I see in this room, on this street, from this window, in this place.I
2. Apply this idea in the same manner as in the previous lessons, making no distinctions of any kind.
²Anything you see becomes a suitable subject for applying the idea.
³Be sure not to question whether something is appropriate or not for the exercise. ⁴These exercises are not about judging anything.II
⁵Anything is appropriate simply because you see it.
⁶Some of the objects you see may have emotional meaning for you.
⁷Try to set those feelings aside and apply the idea to them exactly as you would to anything else.
3. The aim of these exercises is to help you clear your mind of all the associations you have made in the past, to see things exactly as they appear to you now, and to realize how little you really understand them.III
²Therefore, it is essential to keep a perfectly open mind in selecting the things to which the idea of the day will be applied, unhindered by your judgments.
³To this end, everything is the same as everything else; equally suitable and, therefore, equally useful.
I Whatever you say, in truth and in the final analysis, if you are absolutely honest with yourself you must admit that you do not understand any of what you perceive, although you have persuaded yourself otherwise by telling stories you have invented or have been told about the things of the world.
Notice how greatly the idea you have of yourself conditions how you interpret what you perceive. If you are a musician, you will see your hands as instruments of your art; if you are a physician, you may attend to their state of health. A biologist might consider their functioning at the cellular level, and a physicist will likely think of them as an aggregate of atoms. You perceive the reflection of the idea you hold of your own identity projected onto an imagined external realm, which, ultimately, is nothing more than a story you tell yourself.
Acknowledge it: in truth, you do not understand what you perceive. You may find it helpful to understand that, in these early Lessons, you are learning to question the ontological and epistemological principles of your thought system — that is, what reality is to you and how you know it.
II These are not exercises for you to give your opinion about anything. This is not about what you think, but about what is occurring in your mind when you perceive something.
III It will be explained later why.