 So, that's an initial attempt at helping with the mind-watching. And in a sense, the text is so important because it just gives the whole theoretical basis for sorting out of these two thought systems that the mind is completely confused, the perceived mind is completely confused about these two. And there's a section in the course where it talks about like a weaving patterns of darkness and light that continuously sweep across the horizon of the mind, that this is a powerful mind that has accepted darkness or falsity or attack thoughts into it. And so we have sweeping patterns of darkness and light. This is analogous, in a sense, to the noise and chatter that one hears in the mind. There's not just the pure, still tranquility of pure light. There are these alternating patterns. So, in a sense, with a practical nature, mind-watching is something that one can certainly do when one closes one's eyes and begins to try to still the mind in more of a traditional sense, a meditation. And it's something that one can be doing and very aware of, or doing is not really quite the word. Just trying to notice the thoughts as one is seemingly going through the activities of one's day or watching a movie or in a conversation or a discussion with someone or reading a book, just noticing the thoughts. So is it noticing the thoughts and noticing whether that thought is of God or that thought is of the ego? Or is it not even that much? Is it just the noticing? I think what you've just described is in the advanced stages of mind-watching, when there starts to be some clarity, then real discernment, to determine which is which, then it becomes more and more obvious. But initially it's just simply noticing what the thoughts are, because the untrained mind has numerous thoughts that it isn't even aware of. So the whole point is to become aware of, first of all, the thoughts that are there, and then at some point discerning which thought system each of those thoughts relates to. It takes quite a lot of training just to be able to start to watch one's emotions and thoughts, because once again, that's going back into the mind. That's getting back to a metaphysical level, and in a sense the world was made as a distraction or a distractive device to keep the attention away from the mind, so that there's a strong attention to form, an emphasis on form, an emphasis on differences. It's something, for instance, entertainment and just feeling lonely or sad or depressed and wanting to just turn on the tube, so to speak, and just numb out or just focus one's mind on what's on that screen, and as if almost like a dream world or a fantasy world or a daydream, except now that there's images on the screen that one can become so distracted on that one doesn't have to think about anything, one's problems or whatever, but this is a process of looking at one's thoughts and noticing one's feelings. And not just during a quiet time of meditation every day, but continuously is really what you're suggesting, is what the Course suggests, is that it becomes an ongoing moment by moment sort of thing. It's not reserved for a certain part of the day. Yes, well you've been speaking of more of an advanced stage. At the beginning, of course if you look at the early lessons, it talks about maybe a minute here, a minute or so there. I mean, Jesus knows how untrained the mind is, the deceived mind, and therefore begins with very small incremental steps where there's no attempt at an elaborate discipline or structure at the beginning. This begins to build as the lessons go on. And the lessons are designed to be used by someone who maybe doesn't have a lot of time to be quiet or pull back in the traditional sense of meditation, but can just carry forth an idea into the day and use this idea in specific time frames at the beginning. And as one goes along with his work with the Course, it begins to transfer this and apply it more and more consistently. It becomes something that literally, once the value of the mind watching is seen, then more and more the mind voluntarily is more vigilant. So the thought of the day that the workbook lesson gives is in a sense an anchor or a thought of God that can be in the mind. And I'm sure Jesus knows, of course, that most of the time it's not the thought of God that's in the mind, of the untrained mind. And so the intent would be to, in a sense, insert that or have it available to the mind in contrast to what's usually there. And I guess it's really by contrast a lot of times that the mind realizes that most of the time that's not what's in the mind. Most of the time it's other than that. Yes. In other traditions, it can go by the name of the mantra, or in affirmations. But in a sense, at the beginning, the mind is so untrained that a central idea or a central thought to focus attention on is, in a sense, a way of keeping it on focus, of controlling extraneous thoughts. And this is not always so easy at the beginning anyway. Even with a thought for the day, one can notice the mind wanting to wander away, restlessness, wanting to end just plain old forgetting the thought. I mean, this is quite a common experience. And this is just an indicator, as you say, by the contrast of how untrained the mind is. This is nothing to feel guilty about in a sense of once one starts to judge one's work with the course, or judge how well is one doing it, or starting to compare one's mind watching exercises with one's spouse, or one's neighbor, or co-worker, or friend, whoever is maybe also working a similar kind of procedure, then once again we get into comparison and the guilt comes in. So it's something that requires willingness and it requires gentleness and it really requires persistence. Dedication. Dedication. It's the word that comes to my mind, or devotedness to really stay with it. You said that a lot of effort is required initially to do this, but after doing it again and again and again and seeing the value and benefit of it, it seems to require less effort. So talk about the benefit, talk about the value that you have found for yourself in the mind watching that actually has become an attractive force to the continuing of mind watching. Well, the stated goal of the Course in Miracles is peace of mind. And once one starts to get glimpses of this peace, it can be at the beginning fleeting glimpses and there can be lots of stuff that comes up and really needs to be looked at and it can be experienced as quite painful, but as one gets very consistent with this, as one just continues to move forward, put one foot in front of the other, so to speak, and persist in studying the Course and in generalizing its principles to wider and wider range of situations and circumstances and people and so on and so forth, that there becomes a much more of a consistency of thought. This is the advanced mind training where the peace that is experienced is wonderful. I mean, it's wonderful to be at peace and to not choose to be upset, so to speak, once the beliefs and once the thoughts have been looked at and questioned and there starts to be a discernment in the mind between the true and the false or the real and the unreal and a pulling back of investment or a watching dispassionately of those thoughts, then the peace becomes more stable. There are still points when twinges and reactions come up, but more and more it just becomes a strong sense of my emotional state is a result of my decision. It's not a result of what's happening on the screen. It's not a result of the way people seem to be treating me or acting towards me. It's not a result of conditions, economic conditions or weather conditions or financial, you know, on and on and on. These external things are recognized more and more as projections and from the mind watching, from going down and questioning beliefs in everything in this world, including my belief in myself being an individual person, a body with unique attributes and traits and likes and dislikes and all this, when that starts to be questioned and voluntarily stepped back from or disidentified from, then the peace becomes very, very stable and the joy is very intense. One wants to share this stuff. I mean, it's like finding the pearl of great value that Jesus talks about in the Bible and immediately selling everything else one has, you know, because there's just such great joy. This is the key in a sense that for centuries mankind has looked for. This is the key to peace of mind, to the kingdom of heaven. This isn't the only key if we talk about the course, per se, because it's just one tool among many. But it's certainly a very helpful tool in saving time or in helping the mind disidentify from these unreal thoughts and maintaining a consistent state of peace of mind. The peace of mind is the key, of course. The course of miracles is just a tool that is helpful in having that key and the door is always there to open as it were. In a sense, well, peace is like a goal. It's like having one goal as opposed to many, many, many goals. It's an abstract goal. It's an experiential goal as opposed to when I get this much money or when I achieve this status or I complete this project or I find that relationship that I've always been looking for, the ideal relationship or some form of external goal, those just begin to fade and fade and fall to the way side because the one goal of peace is held out in all situations and conditions. This is very seemingly unnatural for a deceived mind because a deceived mind is conditioned to the concrete and to the specifics and to specific goals, specific expectations. So this is why the mind training takes time. You have to begin to get a sense that all these other goals and aims, which we could call form goal and aims, have not brought me peace and that by holding on to this abstract goal of peace, that complete change takes place in the state of mind. To go to a boardroom, for instance, to a board meeting and have only peace as one's goal at first can seem a bit ludicrous in the sense of, well, I'm there at that board meeting for a purpose. I have to present certain things or we need to discuss certain things or we have certain objectives that the corporation is trying to meet with the business and so on and so forth. These goals literally are blocked away. As soon as any of these goals rise up as a priority over peace, then separate interests can enter in, then arguments, conflicts, disagreements enter in automatically because there's a perceived separate interest and you can't...