"A closed mind that thinks it already understands is not open to learning."

A Course In Miracles is about love. It’s about relinquishing a thought system based on fear and accepting instead a thought system based on love. You do not need to be religious, nor even identify with the word “God.” The only prerequisite is that you seek to become more or yourself, to develop a deeper sense of peace, joy, and love in your life.

I encourage you to remain open to this change. When you are receptive, you will receive the most benefit from it.

According to the introduction for the workbook for students of A Course In Miracles:

“The exercises are very simple. They do not require a great deal of time, and it does not matter where you do them. They need no preparation. The workbook is designed for daily use for a training period of one year and it’s recommended to not undertake more than one set of exercises a day."

Here on Love & Learn, we will be taking a much slower pace and covering a daily lesson each week.”

A general rule the comes from the introduction to the workbook for students says the following:

“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, do not decide for yourself that there are some people, situations or things to which the ideas are inapplicable, whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required.”

This first lesson of the Workbook begins the process of opening our minds to the possibility that we may not know what we think we know, we may not really understand what we think we understand. A closed mind that thinks it already understands is not open to learning. Because we believe our safety is in what we believe to be true, we are not likely to welcome something that is telling us the opposite. So with today’s lesson, the Workbook gently begins the process of loosening our grip on what we have believed to be true and bringing it to question.

As we make our way to Lesson 1, I want to encourage you stay curious, keep an open mind and an open heart

LESSON #1 (From A Course in Miracles Workbook)

Nothing I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] means anything.

Now look slowly around you, and practice applying this idea very specifically to whatever you see:

• This table does not mean anything.
• This chair does not mean anything.
• This hand does not mean anything.
• This foot does not mean anything.
• This pen does not mean anything.

Then look farther away from your immediate area, and apply the idea to a wider range:

• That door does not mean anything.
• That body does not mean anything.
• That lamp does not mean anything.
• That sign does not mean anything.
• That shadow does not mean anything.

Notice that these statements are not arranged in any order, and make no allowance for differences in the kinds of things to which they are applied. That is the purpose of the exercise. The statement should merely be applied to anything you see. As you practice the idea for the day, use it totally indiscriminately, meaning without preference for one thing over another.

Do not attempt to apply it to everything you see, for these exercises should not become ritualistic. Only be sure that nothing you see is specifically excluded. One thing is like another as far as the application of the idea is concerned.

Each of the first three lessons should not be done more than twice a day, preferably morning and evening. Nor should they be attempted for more than a minute or so, unless that entails a sense of hurry. A comfortable sense of leisure is essential.

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