Lesson 7
I see only the past.
Today is our first official lesson about time and calls upon us to notice how we perceive each item that catches our eye and how we label each object based on past experiences.
I see only the past in this blanket.
I see only the past in this chair.
I see only the past in this bag.
I see only the past in this window.
Our eyes are the projector of our thoughts and we recognize that the lens from which we view this world is one this is rooted in the past. Take for example, a blanket. When I see a blanket, how do I know it is one? Because when I was younger that is what someone told me. When I see a blanket, how do I feel? This is usually based on my past experiences with a blanket: Did it keep me warm at night? Did I not have one thus it brings back feelings of lack? Did I have a specific one when I was younger and it was taken away from me thus creating a sense of fear that someone will always take my blanket?
As we complete the three or four practice periods today, we recognize that whatever we look, even the label we give it, is based on a past association and begin to let it go. This link to the past is also why the previous lessons were so:
“It is the reason why nothing 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 upset because you see something that is not there (ACIM Lesson 7 1:3-8).”
If we let go of time, in this instance the past, what do we really see? It would always be like seeing something for the first time and each glance at an object would be filled with complete wonder. The moment not to be filled in with new definitions or labels is but the gift of letting something be just as it is without the need to be anything particular. This is truly a gift to the seer and the seen.
Imagine if you were always seen anew because that is what you are; anew in each moment. Each moment you are giving birth to something new. Your molecules are rising and passing away, you have new thoughts, your skin is regenerating, your hair is growing, etc. There is something new about you each moment. What a gift it would be to met exactly as you are in each moment.
Welcome today’s lesson with a glad heart. Begin to open your experience to something that is no longer bound by time. See the Real You. I do.