Lesson 7 ~ I see only the past.

Old ideas about "time" are very difficult to change because everything I believe is rooted in "time."  In fact, everything I now believe depends on my not learning new ideas about "time."  Everything I seem to see is in the "past."  This idea is difficult to believe at first.

Look at a cup, for example.  Do I see a cup, or am I merely reviewing past experiences of seeing and using a cup?  I have in my memory all my experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim against my lips, setting a cup down....maybe even breaking a few.  Even my aesthetic reactions to the cup ~ the weight, the texture, the shape, the amount of space it occupies, its coolness or warmth ~ is based on my past experiences.  How else would I know whether or not my cup will break if I drop it?  How else would I know not to spill its contents all over my shirt?  What do I know about this cup except what I learned in the past? I would have no idea what this cup is, except for my past learning.  Do I, then, really "see" it?

I see only the past, this is why nothing I see means anything. I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me.  I do not understand anything I see.  My thoughts do not mean anything.  I am never upset for the reason I think.  The reason for any and all upset is this:  I see something that is not there.....I see the past.  

This is equally true of whatever I look at.  Look around and apply this idea today, indiscriminately, to whatever catches my 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."  Omit nothing, but do not linger over anything in particular.  Do this three or four times today, a minute or so is enough.  Perhaps I have never seen a certain body or face before and come across someone I have never met....yet I have seen "eyes," "noses," "mouths," "cheekbones," "eyebrows," "hair," etc.   I know what a normal human face should look like.

Do these exercises using minimal effort.  Do not obsess about details.  I am beginning to question the reality of what I see "outside" myself.  I am beginning to comprehend the illusory experience of a world "apart from" God....a world "outside" myself.