I do not perceive my own best interests.

1. You are never aware, in any situation, of what outcome would truly make you happy.^I

²Therefore, you have no guide for proper action, nor any way of judging the result correctly.

³Your behavior is determined by your perception of the situation, and that perception is wrong.

⁴That is why you will inevitably fail to do what is in your best interest.

⁵Yet that should be your only goal in any situation that is truly perceived.

⁶But if you do not perceive it correctly, you will not be able to recognize what is in your best interest.

2. If you understood that you do not perceive what is in your best interest, it would become possible to be taught.

²But as long as you are convinced that you already know, you cannot learn.

³Today’s idea is a first step in opening your mind so that learning can begin.^II

3. Today’s exercises require far more honesty than you are accustomed to using.

²In each of the five sessions you are asked to do today, it will be more helpful to examine a few situations honestly and in depth than to skim lightly over many.

³Spend about two minutes on each mind-searching session.

4. Begin each session by repeating today’s idea. Then, with eyes closed, search your mind for unresolved situations that are currently troubling you.

²Try to uncover what outcome you desire in each of them.

³You will quickly realize that you have many goals in mind related to the desired outcome, and that these goals exist on different levels and often conflict with one another.

5. Name each situation that arises in your mind, and then list as honestly as you can all the goals you would like to achieve in connection with it.

²Your phrasing might be something like:

³In regard to ___, I would like ___ to happen, and ___, and ___, and…

⁴Continue in this format, trying to include everything you honestly desire, even if some of the goals do not seem directly related to the situation or appear to be inherently part of it.

6. If you do the exercises correctly, you will recognize that you are making a large number of demands on the situation that have nothing to do with it.

²You will also see that many of your goals are contradictory, that you do not have a unified outcome in mind, and that you will surely fail to achieve some of your goals, no matter how the situation turns out.

³After reviewing the list of goals you have identified for each situation, say silently to yourself:

⁴I do not perceive what is in my best interest in this situation.^III

⁵Then move on to the next.

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^I The mind, created by the Good—God—naturally tends toward the good and constantly seeks it; in essence, the mind seeks itself. Yet the personal mind, which is the effect of the ego within the holy Mind of the Son of God, becomes caught up in arrogance and masochism. For this reason, it does not truly know what is in its best interest—though it thinks it does, which is arrogance—and furthermore, it gives itself what causes it suffering—masochism.

^II It does not take much honesty to recognize that the human being suffers from an essential cognitive bias, so widespread that it is difficult to identify. A cognitive bias is a mistaken way of using the mind, and this is perhaps the most pervasive. We might call it “the cognitive bias of double ignorance”: not knowing, and not knowing that you do not know—that is, arrogance.

Recognition of this fact is the highest level the ego can reach and marks the beginning of true learning. One who does not know that he does not know attributes to himself knowledge he does not possess, and that arrogance is the fundamental cause of human suffering.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” were Jesus’ penultimate words. Those who martyred Him believed they knew what they were doing, but they were merely victims of this devastating bias. Centuries earlier, Socrates too was condemned to death for declaring that the only thing he knew for certain was that he knew nothing, while his accusers were worse off still, for they were not even aware of their ignorance. Arrogance does not tolerate having its deficiencies exposed.

This Course will help you heal that cognitive bias which afflicts humanity. However, to achieve this, it is essential that you cultivate the discernment, honesty, and humility necessary to recognize that you do not know what is in your best interest.

This is not difficult at all; it is enough to practice today’s exercises correctly so that you become aware of this truth, and thus you will be ready for true learning to begin.

To learn is to change the mind, but true change cannot be brought about by the individual mind identified with the ego, which is precisely how the mind operates in all who refer to themselves as “I”—that is, in everyone. For this reason, the engine of true change is transpersonal, something that acts from beyond the person.

This Lesson, like none other in the first part of this Workbook, does not aim to change anything. Its purpose is to undo the old way of thinking. Today you will try to become fully aware that, in fact, you do not know what is in your best interest. That alone is enough.

^III Each time we perceive painfully, we fall into the self-deception brought about by our own arrogance. Few traits define the “human” being more clearly than the combination of arrogance and masochism. What is the human being but one who judges and condemns, believing he knows something he truly does not, and who moreover tends to harm himself, refusing to perceive what is in his best interest and rejecting what could make him happy?

Arrogance, derived from the Latin ad-rogare—to attribute to oneself qualities one does not possess—is a form of falsehood which, like all lies, arises from fear. In this case, from the fear of truth, from the fear of facing one’s own ignorance. It is overcome through honesty, humility, and rationality.

Masochism, that tendency to harm oneself, has its origin in a dark feeling of guilt, provoked by the subconscious recognition of the “sin” of having confined an infinite mind within the limits of a false individual identity. This masochism is healed through forgiveness, beginning with forgiving yourself, which naturally leads to forgiving others.

Both arrogance and masochism disappear when the sense of personal importance is abandoned, when you stop believing that the image you have of yourself is relevant. Think about this: what credibility can an idea so volatile and changeable have? Do you not realize that this need to feel important is only a reaction to the falseness of that illusory identity?

To feel important is nothing but the mind’s attempt to reinforce one lie with more lies. That illusory character you think you are is of no importance; it is nothing but a delirium fabricated by your mind.

For the Love of God, you are His Son! Do not confine your greatness within denigrating ideas.