Lesson 7. I see only the past.
This 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 that it has for you.
It is the reason why you do 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 you believe is rooted in time, and depends on your not learning these new ideas about it. Yet that is precisely why you need new ideas about time. This first time idea is not really so strange as it may sound at first.
Look at a cup, for example. Do you see a cup, or are you merely reviewing your past experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of a cup against your lips, having breakfast and so on? Are not your aesthetic reactions to the cup, too, based on past experiences? How else would you know whether or not this kind of cup will break if you drop it? What do you know about this cup except what you learned in the past? You would have no idea what this cup is, except for your past learning. Do you, then, really see it?
Look about you. This is equally true of whatever you look at. Acknowledge this by applying the idea for today 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.
Do not linger over any one thing in particular, but remember to omit nothing specifically. Glance briefly at each subject, and then move on to the next. Three or four practice periods, each to last a minute or so, will be enough.
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Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
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Lesson 7. "I see only the past."
*Lesson 7 is essentially a summary of the previous six lessons, as we see in the first paragraph where they are repeated almost verbatim.
In the second paragraph we find Jesus returning to an idea he mentioned briefly in the second paragraph of Lesson 3 -- the importance of clearing our minds of past thoughts. Now, he elaborates: The reason that nothing means anything, that we have given everything the meaning it has, etc., is that we are seeing only the past. Keeping in mind the equation of sin, guilt and fear with the past, present, and future will help you understand the motivation for seeing only the past. Sin is equated with separation, which proves that I am an individual, autonomous from God. Once I believed this lie, it will automatically be projected out and take the form of the past. Thus, I see the past in everything, because I want to maintain my individual identity. Here is how Jesus says it:*
(2) "Old ideas about time are very difficult to change, because everything you believe is rooted in time, and depends on your not learning these new ideas about it. Yet that is precisely why you need new ideas about time. This first time idea is not really so strange as it may sound at first."
*Whenever we are upset it is because we are equating something that just happened with something from the past. I see a particular person and I know what I am supposed to do: This is an authority, and so my hate is justified; this is my rival, and so I have to hate this person; this one is a certain color, which I hate. Hate is always based on the past. Most of the time, though, it is more subtle than these examples, which is why we need practice to recognize and accept this "first time idea."
In sum, then, the purpose of seeing the past in everything is that it enables me to say that I exist. Thus, making the past real is the same as saying sin or separation is real, and therefore so am I. Incidentally, note the word play on the word "time" in 2:2-3.
We are now given a very specific, albeit a seemingly trivial example:*
(3) "Look at a cup, for example. Do you see a cup, or are you merely reviewing your past experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of a cup against your lips, having breakfast and so on? Are not your aesthetic reactions to the cup, too, based on past experiences? How else would you know whether or not this kind of cup will break if you drop it? What do you know about this cup except what you learned in the past? You would have no idea what this cup is, except for your past learning. Do you, then, really see it?"
*But this is true of <everything>. We literally see <nothing>, because we are seeing the past, which is not there.*
(4) "Look about you. This is equally true of whatever you look at. Acknowledge this by applying the idea for today 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."
*It is interesting to note Jesus' choice of objects to be perceived; they include inanimate as well as animate ones. We shall continue to return to this point, but for now let me underscore again the important teaching that since the world is "the outside picture of an inward condition" (T-21.in.1:5) and this inward condition is an illusion, too. Moreover, as there is no "hierarchy of illusions," there can be no intrinsic difference among all the objects of our perceptual world, inanimate or animate. They are <all> equally illusory, and thus they are the same. While it goes without saying that this flies in the face of our experience, we are also being taught that our experiences are false. In these lessons we are seeing Jesus' preliminary and subtle attempts at teaching us this truth as he gently leads us to their acceptance, and beyond them to God -- <the> truth.
Finally, still another caution against the temptation to exclude what we feel is not important, which very often is a veil concealing what we secretly believe to be quite important, what the text refers to as our "secret sins and hidden hates" (T-31.VIII.9:2):*
(5) "Do not linger over any one thing in particular, but remember to omit nothing specifically. Glance briefly at each subject, and then move on to the next. Three or four practice periods, each to last a minute or so, will be enough."
*Indiscriminateness in responding to the illusory world of perception remains the central focus of this early part of the workbook. It contains the means of undoing the ego's thought system of separation. The essence of miracles: there is no order of difficult among them (T1.1.1:1).*
