Lesson 3

Today's lesson says:

I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].

It's true! As I scan everything in sight before me, there is a way in which I understand none of it. For example, there is a small glass before me. An IKEA glass. I imagine it's conception, the design, the approvals, the manufacturing, the resources that went into making it, the delivery, the display, the packaging, the purchase transaction for it, all the countless times someone has poured a beverage into it and used it, then washed it and put it back in the kitchen cupboard. Can I claim to really understand this little glass? No, not really. What is it really? A glass, yes. But at the same time it is so much more, and completely insignificant all at the same time.

I can't say, either, that I fully understand my "self"! The same wonder applies to the human body. I have a basic understanding of the different parts and the different systems, but do I really understand my body? Not on some levels. It seems like you can break this down in the same way as the IKEA glass. There was procreation, division of cells, whatever food my mother ate breaking down and building "me" inside her belly. But how can anyone really understand that? What are the driving forces?

As I consider today's lesson I'm just so overwhelmed by the enormity of disparate ENERGIES that conspire to create "things". And I am surrounded by so much! Magazines, furniture, walls, doorknobs, light fixtures, windows, clothing. What does any of it actually mean? I think this is the point. In conjunction with Lesson 2, it seems quite clear that anything that exists in my field of perception, if it has meaning to me, this meaning was "perceived" by me. And anything perceived by me comes from my experience with it and my perceived associations. It is different to look at the world before you, release the mind, and realize things exist just as they are.