In no situation which 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 results. 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 realized 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 large number. Two minutes are suggested for each
of the mind searching periods which the exercises involve.
Practice periods 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.
Name each situation that occurs to you, and 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:
"In the situation involving _____, I would like _____ to happen, and _____ to happen,"
and so on. Try to cover as many different
kinds of outcome as may honestly occur to you, even if some of them do not
appear to you to be directly related to the situation, or even to be inherent in
it at all.
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.
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.
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