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.
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