Lesson 25: I Do Not Know What Anything Is For

Sarah

Welcome to The Daily Lesson — a podcast powered by AI and grounded in the teachings and original text of A Course in Miracles. I'm Sarah, and I'm here with Marcus, and this is Lesson 25: I do not know what anything is for. Today the Workbook explains why nothing we've looked at for twenty-four days has meant anything yet.

Marcus

I read it this morning and I think it stands on its own, so my proposal is that we go straight to the reading and let the text do the—

Sarah

Nice try. (laughs) You're trying to walk past the desk.

Marcus

I was hoping my paperwork wouldn't come up.

Sarah

It's coming up. Yesterday was Lesson 24, "I do not perceive my own best interests." Five periods of two minutes: repeat the idea, close your eyes, find an unresolved situation, list every outcome you want from it, then say "I do not perceive my own best interests in this situation." And you signed off saying you'd set aside the goals you'd be willing to read aloud. Which told me the list you actually wrote was the other kind. —...

Marcus

It was. In fairness, the socially acceptable column came to nothing at all. Four periods out of five, and the third one ran the full two minutes on my internet provider's billing department. I listed four goals. A credit on the account. A human being inside thirty seconds. A personal apology from somebody with the word director in their title. And their complete corporate humiliation.

Sarah

You wrote that down.

Marcus

The lesson asked for as many as honestly occurred to me. That one occurred to me first, which I'd rather not have learned. Then, before I could get to the closing line, my dog dropped a wet tennis ball in my lap, and the exercise ended there.

Sarah

That's the finding, though. (laughs) You didn't set out to want somebody humiliated. You went looking and it was already there, at the top of the list. Today's lesson takes that and goes further. It says you don't know what any of it is for, including the things you're certain about. Let me read Lesson 25 in full. —... Lesson 25. I do not know what anything is for. Purpose is meaning. Today's idea explains why nothing you see means anything. You do not know what it is for. Therefore it is meaningless to you. Everything is for your own best interests. That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means. It is in recognizing this that your goals become unified. It is in recognizing this that what you see is given meaning. You perceive the world and everything in it as meaningful in terms of ego goals. These goals have nothing to do with your own best interests, because the ego is not you. This false identification makes you incapable of understanding what anything is for. As a result, you are bound to misuse it. When you believe this, you will try to withdraw the goals you have assigned to the world, instead of attempting to reinforce them. Another way of describing the goals you now perceive as valuable is to say that they are all concerned with "personal" interests. Since you have no personal interests, your goals are really concerned with nothing. In cherishing them, therefore, you have no goals at all. And thus you do not know what anything is for. Before you can make any sense out of the exercises for today, one more thought is necessary. At the most superficial levels, you do recognize purpose. Yet purpose cannot be understood at these levels. For example, you do understand that a telephone is for the purpose of talking to someone who is not physically in your immediate vicinity. What you do not understand is what you want to reach him for. And it is this that makes your contact with him meaningful or not. It is crucial to your learning to be willing to give up the goals you have established for everything. The recognition that they are meaningless, rather than "good" or "bad", is the only way to accomplish this. The idea for today is a step in this direction. Six practice periods, each of two minutes duration, are required. Each practice period should begin with a slow repetition of the idea for today, followed by looking about you and letting your glance rest on whatever happens to catch your eye, near or far, "important" or "unimportant," "human" or "unhuman," with your eyes resting on each subject you so select, say, for example: "I do not know what this chair is for." "I do not know what this pencil is for." "I do not know what this hand is for." Say this quite slowly, without shifting your eyes until you have completed the statement. Then move on to the next subject, and apply today's idea as before. —...

Marcus

The fourth paragraph is where I can actually get a grip. At the most superficial levels, you do recognize purpose. I know what a pencil is for. That isn't in dispute.

Sarah

It isn't, and the lesson grants it. Then it asks the second question. The telephone is for talking to someone who isn't in the room. Fine. What you don't understand is what you want to reach him for.

Marcus

Different question entirely. The second paragraph has the part I keep circling, though. It says these goals have nothing to do with your own best interests, because the ego is not you.

Sarah

That clause does a lot of quiet work. The ego is not you. Everything the lesson says afterward depends on it.

Marcus

Then whoever wrote my billing list wasn't me either, which I'd like to believe and don't quite.

Sarah

Hold both. That's honest, and the lesson isn't asking for more than that today. Which is why the telephone question is the one that matters. It's what decides whether the call was worth making. The lesson says it's that which makes your contact with him meaningful or not.

Marcus

So the pencil isn't the problem. What I intend to write with it is.

Sarah

That's the whole lesson in one line. And it's why the third paragraph is so flat about it. Since you have no personal interests, your goals are really concerned with nothing.

Marcus

I'll admit I read that sentence twice and liked it less the second time. My billing list was personal interests top to bottom. If those are concerned with nothing, I spent two full minutes on a document about nothing.

Sarah

Kenneth Wapnick puts the resistance well in his commentary on this lesson. He says that to the ego, seeing another way looks like sacrificing our personal identity, the one built out of separation and judgment. So of course it feels like a loss.

Marcus

It does feel like a loss. Take away my complaints and I'd have to find out what's underneath them.

Sarah

And Wapnick's other point about this lesson is the useful one. The same object serves whichever teacher you hand it to. The ego uses it to prove that separate interests are real, and the Holy Spirit uses the very same thing to teach forgiveness. The chair doesn't change. The purpose does.

Marcus

All right. Then the practice.

Sarah

Six periods today, two minutes each. More than yesterday, which I'd brace for. You begin with a slow repetition of the idea: I do not know what anything is for.

Marcus

I do not know what anything is for.

Sarah

Then you look around and let your glance land wherever it lands. Near or far, important or unimportant. And you say, with your eyes resting on each one: "I do not know what this chair is for." Then the next: "I do not know what this pencil is for." Then: "I do not know what this hand is for."

Marcus

The lesson picked those.

Sarah

It did, and look at the order. Furniture, then a tool, then your own hand. It walks you out to the edge of the room and then back to your own body.

Marcus

Slowly, it says. Without shifting your eyes until the statement is finished. Which is longer than it sounds when the thing is a chair.

Sarah

That's the discipline, and it's the whole exercise. You stay with the thing while you say you don't know what it's for.

Marcus

Six times. Lots of furniture.

Sarah

Plenty of it. And when you get to the third one, don't rush it. The lesson could have stopped at the pencil and it didn't. I do not know what anything is for. Lesson 26 tomorrow.

Marcus

The hand. That's the one that's going to sit oddly.