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 personalinterests. 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.
✨ Summary & practice
The hidden purpose of everything.
Lesson 25 touches the heart of meaning: you do not know what anything is for. The Course explains that purpose is meaning. If you do not know what something is for, then that thing is meaningless to you. Everything exists for your own best interest, that is its purpose. But as long as you perceive the world through the ego’s purposes, you cannot understand. The ego is not you. This false identification renders you incapable of understanding what anything is for, and so you inevitably misuse everything.
The Course gives a striking example: you understand that a telephone is for speaking to someone not physically present. But what you do not understand is why you want to reach them. That is what makes your contact meaningful or not. In the same way, you believe you know the purpose of things, but you are mistaken. The exercise is to look around and acknowledge that you do not know what anything you see is for. You let each thing simply be, without imposing a purpose you have invented. This is the condition for a single, unified purpose to emerge in your perception.
This lesson deepens the previous one. Lesson 24 made you aware that you do not perceive your own best interest; Lesson 25 applies this same ignorance to the objects of the world. The ego’s purpose has been removed, but the true purpose has not yet been discovered. Lessons 26–30 will prepare for this discovery by addressing invulnerability, the desire to see, and the presence of God in all that you see. It is a path leading from ignorance to light.
Practice:
Three or four practice periods. Look around, name each thing you see, and add: “I do not know what this ___ is for.” Do not try to understand or find a purpose. Simply acknowledge that you do not know. Leave each thing in this space of not-knowing. This is how the true purpose may one day reveal itself.
Accept your ignorance. It is the most fertile ground for knowledge to grow.
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