May 4th 2014 Lesson 7
I see only the past.
Today's idea, is particularly difficult to believe at first. Yet it is the rationale for all of the preceding ones:
It is the reason why nothing that you see means anything.
It is the reason why you have given everything you see all the meaning it has for you.
It is the reason why you don not understand anything you see.
It is the reason why your thoughts do not mean anything, and why they are like the things you see.
It is the reason why you are never upset for the reason you think.
It is the reason why you are upset because you see something that is not there.
Old ideas about time are very difficult to change, because everything we believe is rooted in time, and depends on our not learning these new ideas about it. Yet that is precisely why we need new ideas about time. We typically think about time in terms of past, present or future, but nothing happens except in the present. Past occurrences happened at a present moment in the past, and future occurrences will happen only at a present moment in the future. Therefore all occurrences and power exist only in the present.
- Intention:
To realize that when we look at something familiar, we are not seeing it for what it is right now, but only for what we know about it from our past experience. Seeing a cup for example reminds us of our past experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of a cup against our lips, having breakfast and so on. And our aesthetic reactions to the cup, too, are based on past experiences, for this is how we know how to hold it and whether or not this kind of cup will break if we drop it, etc. Do we really know anything about this cup except what we learned in the past? We would have no idea what this cup is, except for our past learning. Do we, then, really see it? Look about you. This is equally true of whatever you look at. Acknowledge this by applying today's idea indiscriminately to whatever catches your eye.
- Practice: Look about you and apply today's idea indiscriminately to whatever catches your eye. For example:I see only the past in this pencil.I see only the past in this shoe.
I see only the past in this hand
I see only the past in that body.
I see only the past in that face. ... etc. - Application: Three or four practice periods during the day, each to last a minute or so, will be enough. Do not linger over any one thing in particular, but remember to omit nothing specifically. Glance briefly at each subject, then move on to the next.
Insights/comments:
- What we believe often completely dictates, or at the minimum influences what we see, how we interact with what we see, and therefore our experience of it. When we look only through the eyes of our past experience, it colors our present perception and prevents us from seeing what is actually there. Furthermore,
when we look at something that is unfamiliar, we immediately search our
minds for a close facsimile, then interact with the new object based
on what we know about its facsimile. This is all illusion and fantasy, for we are not seeing or interacting with what is really there.
- Today's practice will help us consciously begin to put aside our preconceived notions and see things more as they are right now, in addition to what we already know from past experiences.
I and my Creator are One. 
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