This idea obviously follows from the two preceding ones. But while you may be able to accept it intellectually, it is unlikely that it will really mean anything to you as yet. However, understanding is not necessary at this point. In fact, the recognition that you do not understand is a prerequisite for undoing your false ideas. These exercises are concerned with practice, not with understanding. You do not need to practice what you really understand. It would indeed be circular to aim at developing understanding if it were assumed that you have it already.

It is difficult for the untrained mind first to believe and then to realize that what seems to be perceived is not there. This idea can be quite disturbing, and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms. Yet that does not preclude applying it. No more than that is required for this or any other of our exercises. Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it.

Today’s exercises involve looking around you and applying the idea for the day to whatever you look upon, remembering the need for the indiscriminate application of the idea, and the essential rule of avoiding specific exclusion as well as attempts at complete inclusion. Begin with things that are nearest you, for example:

“I look upon this table not as it is now.”

“I look upon this key not as it is now.”

“I look upon this shirt sleeve not as it is now.”

And then extend the range:

“I look upon that ceiling not as it is now.”

“I look upon that photo not as it is now.”

“I look upon that tree not as it is now.”

Three or four practice periods a minute or so long are sufficient for practicing today’s idea.