A Course In Miracles Lesson 7

A Course In Miracles Lesson 7 states: 

I see only the past.

In the same way the stars we see in the sky are all gone, what we see around us is actually a remnant of the past. This idea is difficult to believe at first.  But it is the reason for all the previous lessons we have encountered thus far.  

We have very set and certain ideas about how time works which are very difficult to change because our sensory perceptions are designed for the purpose of validating those misguided beliefs.  Our eyes, ears, and bodies confirm the misbeliefs we have about time because that is why they are there.  This is why our beliefs seem real.  

Everything we believe in this world is founded on the concept of time.  We are not easily willing to accept new ideas about time because of the complex physical construct (our body) that is in place to validate time as real.  

The reason nothing I see in this room means anything is because I see only the past.  

The reason I have given everything in this room all the meaning it has for me is because I see only the past. 

The reason I do not understand anything that I see is because I see only the past.  

And the reason my thoughts do not mean anything (just like the things I see) is because I see only the past.

Today’s lesson is the beginning of opening up to new ideas about time.  It is pointing out the conditions of our mind.  It is suggesting to us that when you see an object like a computer, you do not see a computer.  You are experiencing a network of past experiences of having interacted with a computer, where you got it, what you use it for, and many other memories connected like a web across your mind.  

Our past experiences determined our responses to current events.  All we know about the computer or any of the objects around us is based on what we learned about them in the past.  Is it possible to not call all that memory data to mind and still see the computer?  If we did not access memory experiences with computers, what would we see on the table?  How would we see the table, the computer, or everything if not contextualized in the past?  What would we see if we removed all associative referencing?  What would be there inherently regardless of our opinions or memories?

We have surrounded ourselves with mental formations that take on the appearance of being real but are actually based on a fixation with the past.  

The true natural state of our mind is a creative force.  Our mind makes.  What we think shapes the world.

A Course In Miracles Lesson 7 asks us to open our minds to new ideas about time and how we think about time.    It asks us to make note of how quickly our thought processes accept the conditions of the past as the foundation for forming conclusions and reactions.  The past is thought to be real, but it is not real.  The past does not exist.  Memories are thought constructs that have no actual existence.  Realizing that the content of our thoughts is of an insubstantial nature is the beginning of moving towards locating different thoughts of a substantial nature.