Together, We Light the Way

Lesson 3 2026

I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].
1. Apply this idea in the same way as the previous ones, without making distinctions of any kind. ²Whatever you see becomes a proper subject for applying the idea. ³Be sure that you do not question the suitability of anything for application of the idea. ⁴These are not exercises in judgment. ⁵Anything is suitable if you see it. ⁶Some of the things you see may have emotionally charged meaning for you. ⁷Try to lay such feelings aside, and merely use these things exactly as you would anything else.
2. The point of the exercises is to help you clear your mind of all past associations, to see things exactly as they appear to you now, and to realize how little you really understand about them. ²It is therefore essential that you keep a perfectly open mind, unhampered by judgment, in selecting the things to which the idea for the day is to be applied. ³For this purpose one thing is like another; equally suitable and therefore equally useful.

Contemplation
The point of the exercises is to help you clear your mind of all past associations, to see things exactly as they appear to you now, and to realize how little you really understand about them.
I do not understand this cup of coffee. I find it remarkably difficult to suspend my judgment and to do this simple exercise without thinking about what I understand about the objects around me. The mind really wants to argue the point. And, of course, that is the point. How can I discover the truth when I think I already know it. Dear God, I pray for the humility of an open mind.
That is what I wrote last year, and it seems my prayer has been answered. As I looked at each object, I fully accepted that I didn’t know what it meant. Even the simplest of things, like a paper towel. Ideas came into my mind about the paper towel, but I was willing to suspend them.
What did happen was a vague sense of uneasiness. Perhaps this is what it feels like when the mind loosens its grip on what it thinks it knows. That was a surprise. I am not trying to interpret it. The feeling is simply there, and I let it be.
It feels like I am emptying the cup, so to speak, and making room for what is new. At this point, I am trusting the process and going with the flow, accepting that Jesus knows more than I do.

Video: https://youtu.be/T8ghPr7kosY

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