I see only the past.I
1. This idea is particularly difficult to believe at first.
²But it is the fundamental reason behind all the previous ones.
³It is the reason why nothing you see means anything.
⁴It is the reason why you have given everything you see all the meaning that it has for you.
⁵It is the reason why you do not understand anything you see.
⁶It is the reason why your thoughts do not mean anything, and why they are like the things you see.
⁷It is the reason why you are never upset for the reason you think.
⁸And it is the reason why you are upset because you see something that is not there.
2. Changing your old notion of time is very difficult for you, because everything you believe is rooted in time, and your continued belief in it depends on not learning these new ideas.
²But that is exactly why you need new ideas about time.
³This new idea is not really as strange as it may seem at first.
3. Look, for example, at a cup.
²Are you really seeing that cup, or are you simply reviewing your past experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from it, feeling the rim against your lips, having breakfast, and so on?
³And are your aesthetic responses to that cup also based on past experiences?
⁴How else would you know whether this kind of cup would break if you dropped it?
⁵What do you know about that cup except what you learned about it in the past?
⁶If it were not for the past, you would have no idea what this cup is. ⁷So, are you really seeing it? II
4. Look around you.
²This is equally true of anything you look at.
³Acknowledge this by applying today’s idea indiscriminately to whatever catches your eye.
⁴For example:
⁵I only see the past in this pencil.
⁶I only see the past in this shoe.
⁷I only see the past in this hand.
⁸I only see the past in that body.
⁹I only see the past in that face.
¹⁰Do not linger on any one thing in particular, but be sure not to leave anything out deliberately.
¹¹Glance briefly at each object, and then move on to the next.
¹²Three or four practice periods, each lasting about one minute, will be sufficient.III
I You see only the past because the meaning of everything you perceive was assigned by you in the past, and because, in truth, you do not relate to things themselves but to what they mean to you. The meanings of things are like labels you yourself attached to them in the past. Written on that label is what that thing represents for you, and this applies not only to objects but also—and even more clearly—to the people with whom you relate.
When you say you know something or someone, what you really mean is that you have already judged it in the past, and to issue that judgment you once relied on what you had learned in an even earlier past.
This Course gives enormous importance to this idea, not only here but also in the Text. For example, three sections of Chapter 13, from “The Function of Time” (T-13.IV) through “The Eternal Present” (T-13.VI), address the notion of time and the fact that “…for the ego, the past is important, for in fact it believes it is the ONLY aspect that has any meaning at all” (T-13.IV.4:2).
It speaks of the shadowy figures of the past, based on illusions, which obstruct the vision of present reality. It says: “To be born again is to let the past go, and look without condemnation upon the present” (T-13.VI.3:5).
“…everything you believe is rooted in the past, and maintaining it depends on not learning these new ideas” (T-13.IV.2:1). Everything we have learned we learned from the past—this cannot be disputed. Therefore, everything we think we know is based on the past. We look at the present through the filter of our prior learning.
To train the mind in a new way of beholding reality, it is essential first to undo what has been learned and accepted as true in the past. This is why the Course insists so strongly that what you learned in the past must not be the light that guides you now. Instead, it urges you to turn to the Holy Spirit at every moment, asking Him to teach you His vision of the present, because the present is the opportunity to assign new meanings to what you perceive. And that is precisely what it means to be “born again” or “reborn.”
II This paragraph is an epistemological argument that questions the very nature of the act of knowing. Here “seeing” is equated with “assigning memories,” and the question arises: is that truly valid? Do you believe that is really knowing?
III This line appears in the FIP version, but it is not found in the Urtext nor in Helen’s Notes.