INTRODUCTION
W-in.1. A theoretical foundation such as the text provides is necessary as a framework to make the exercises in this workbook meaningful. 2 Yet it is doing the exercises that will make the goal of the course possible. 3 An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. 4 It is the purpose of this workbook to train your mind to think along the lines the text sets forth.
W-in.2. The exercises are very simple. 2 They do not require a great deal of time, and it does not matter where you do them. 3 They need no preparation. 4 The training period is one year. 5 The exercises are numbered from 1 to 365. 6 Do not undertake to do more than one set of exercises a day.
W-in.3. The workbook is divided into two main sections, the first dealing with the undoing of the way you see now, and the second with the acquisition of true perception. 2 With the exception of the review periods, each day’s exercises are planned around one central idea, which is stated first. 3 This is followed by a description of the specific procedures by which the idea for the day is to be applied.
W-in.4. The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world. 2 The exercises are planned to help you generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is equally applicable to everyone and everything you see.
W-in.5. Transfer of training in true perception does not proceed as does transfer of the training of the world. 2 If true perception has been achieved in connection with any person, situation or event, total transfer to everyone and everything is certain. 3 On the other hand, one exception held apart from true perception makes its accomplishments anywhere impossible.
W-in.6. The only general rules to be observed throughout, then, are: First, that the exercises be practiced with great specificity, as will be indicated. 2 This will help you to generalize the ideas involved to every situation in which you find yourself, and to everyone and everything in it. 3 Second, be sure that you do not decide for yourself that there are some people, situations or things to which the ideas are inapplicable. 4 This will interfere with transfer of training. 5 The very nature of true perception is that it has no limits. 6 It is the opposite of the way you see now.
W-in.7. The overall aim of the exercises is to increase your ability to extend the ideas you will be practicing to include everything. 2 This will require no effort on your part. 3 The exercises themselves meet the conditions necessary for this kind of transfer.
W-in.8. Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. 2 This does not matter. 3 You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. 4 You are not asked to judge them at all. 5 You are asked only to use them. 6 It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.
W-in.9. Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. 2 Some of them you may actively resist. 3 None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. 4 But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. 5 Nothing more than that is required.
LESSON 1.
Nothing I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] means anything.
W-1.1. Now look slowly around you, and practice applying this idea very specifically to whatever you see:
2 This table does not mean anything.
3 This chair does not mean anything.
4 This hand does not mean anything.
5 This foot does not mean anything.
6 This pen does not mean anything.
W-1.2. Then look farther away from your immediate area, and apply the idea to a wider range:
2 That door does not mean anything.
3 That body does not mean anything.
4 That lamp does not mean anything.
5 That sign does not mean anything.
6 That shadow does not mean anything.
W-1.3. Notice that these statements are not arranged in any order, and make no allowance for differences in the kinds of things to which they are applied. 2 That is the purpose of the exercise. 3 The statement should merely be applied to anything you see. 4 As you practice the idea for the day, use it totally indiscriminately. 5 Do not attempt to apply it to everything you see, for these exercises should not become ritualistic. 6 Only be sure that nothing you see is specifically excluded. 7 One thing is like another as far as the application of the idea is concerned.
W-1.4. Each of the first three lessons should not be done more than twice a day each, preferably morning and evening. 2 Nor should they be attempted for more than a minute or so, unless that entails a sense of hurry. 3 A comfortable sense of leisure is essential.
LESSON 2.
I have given everything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] all the meaning that it has for me.
W-2.1. The exercises with this idea are the same as those for the first one. 2 Begin with the things that are near you, and apply the idea to whatever your glance rests on. 3 Then increase the range outward. 4 Turn your head so that you include whatever is on either side. 5 If possible, turn around and apply the idea to what was behind you. 6 Remain as indiscriminate as possible in selecting subjects for its application, do not concentrate on anything in particular, and do not attempt to include everything you see in a given area, or you will introduce strain.
W-2.2. Merely glance easily and fairly quickly around you, trying to avoid selection by size, brightness, color, material, or relative importance to you. 2 Take the subjects simply as you see them. 3 Try to apply the exercise with equal ease to a body or a button, a fly or a floor, an arm or an apple. 4 The sole criterion for applying the idea to anything is merely that your eyes have lighted on it. 5 Make no attempt to include anything particular, but be sure that nothing is specifically excluded.
LESSON 3.
I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].
W-3.1. Apply this idea in the same way as the previous ones, without making distinctions of any kind. 2 Whatever you see becomes a proper subject for applying the idea. 3 Be sure that you do not question the suitability of anything for application of the idea. 4 These are not exercises in judgment. 5 Anything is suitable if you see it. 6 Some of the things you see may have emotionally charged meaning for you. 7 Try to lay such feelings aside, and merely use these things exactly as you would anything else.
W-3.2. 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. 2 It 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. 3 For this purpose one thing is like another; equally suitable and therefore equally useful.
Workbook And Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
A Course in Miracles
A Course in Miracles
LESSON 199.
I am not a body. I am free.
W-199.1. Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself. 2 The body is a limit. 3 Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it where it can not be found. 4 The mind can be made free when it no longer sees itself as in a body, firmly tied to it and sheltered by its presence. 5 If this were the truth, the mind were vulnerable indeed!
W-199.2. The mind that serves the Holy Spirit is unlimited forever, in all ways, beyond the laws of time and space, unbound by any preconceptions, and with strength and power to do whatever it is asked. 2 Attack thoughts cannot enter such a mind, because it has been given to the Source of love, and fear can never enter in a mind that has attached itself to love. 3 It rests in God. 4 And who can be afraid who lives in Innocence, and only loves?
W-199.3. It is essential for your progress in this course that you accept today’s idea, and hold it very dear. 2 Be not concerned that to the ego it is quite insane. 3 The ego holds the body dear because it dwells in it, and lives united with the home that it has made. 4 It is a part of the illusion that has sheltered it from being found illusory itself.
W-199.4. Here does it hide, and here it can be seen as what it is. 2 Declare your innocence and you are free. 3 The body disappears, because you have no need of it except the need the Holy Spirit sees. 4 For this, the body will appear as useful form for what the mind must do. 5 It thus becomes a vehicle which helps forgiveness be extended to the all-inclusive goal that it must reach, according to God’s plan.
W-199.5. Cherish today’s idea, and practice it today and every day. 2 Make it a part of every practice period you take. 3 There is no thought that will not gain thereby in power to help the world, and none which will not gain in added gifts to you as well. 4 We sound the call of freedom round the world with this idea. 5 And would you be exempt from the acceptance of the gifts you give?
W-199.6. The Holy Spirit is the home of minds that seek for freedom. 2 In Him they have found what they have sought. 3 The body’s purpose now is unambiguous. 4 And it becomes perfect in the ability to serve an undivided goal. 5 In conflict-free and unequivocal response to mind with but the thought of freedom as its goal, the body serves, and serves its purpose well. 6 Without the power to enslave, it is a worthy servant of the freedom which the mind within the Holy Spirit seeks.
W-199.7. Be free today. 2 And carry freedom as your gift to those who still believe they are enslaved within a body. 3 Be you free, so that the Holy Spirit can make use of your escape from bondage, to set free the many who perceive themselves as bound and helpless and afraid. 4 Let love replace their fears through you. 5 Accept salvation now, and give your mind to Him Who calls to you to make this gift to Him. 6 For He would give you perfect freedom, perfect joy, and hope that finds its full accomplishment in God.
W-199.8. You are God’s Son. 2 In immortality you live forever. 3 Would you not return your mind to this? 4 Then practice well the thought the Holy Spirit gives you for today. 5 Your brothers stand released with you in it; the world is blessed along with you, God’s Son will weep no more, and Heaven offers thanks for the increase of joy your practice brings even to it. 6 And God Himself extends His Love and happiness each time you say:
7 I am not a body. 8 I am free. 9 I hear the Voice that God has given me, and it is only this my mind obeys.
A Course in Miracles
WisdomIsWealthThree co 