Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Lesson 7: “I see only the past.”
We use the past as a means to inform us about the present. The present in the ego’s world is generally just a picture of the past, recreated in the moment. The Course is teaching us how to step out of the judgement of the past. We want to be present in the moment that has no reflection of the past.
While we are human we want to ideally stay as focused in the present as possible, which means being open to the possibility of what now has to offer. We simply stay out of our thinking mind as much as possible. We don’t allow our thoughts of what the past has been to create an image of what the present must be. This reality is where the past creates and perpetuates itself into the present moment.
We want to keep surrendering the moment. When we realize that we are already set up in the ego’s view to continue the past into the present, then we can be mindful of this, forgive ourselves when it happens and return our focus to God’s plan specifically. When we focus on the past, invariably we get overwhelmed with a sense of judgement about how it could have been better. We are asked to give up this judgement because this judgement is the cause of our attachment to the past.
What we want to do instead is evaluate the past. We notice what happened, we accept it, and with the help of the Holy Spirit we forgive it for whatever seemingly unwanted consequences it has on us. We evaluate by being able to acknowledge what happened in the past without getting upset about it. This may seem quite difficult to do. If we can’t figure out how to do that alone, we call on God for help. We notice without emotional charge.
We learn to experience emotions and thank them for the direction they serve about knowing how to move forward in ways we feel called. But evaluation lets us be much more gentle with the past because we are not at odds with it in some profound way. We practice the art of letting go the struggle over the past and we love it for what it has brought to us that serves us. But then we gently send it on its way. We don’t have to judge with great emotional roller coaster. We want to release the past because the lingering emotional attachment to our suffering there simply keeps us from any kind of peace in the present.
This is why we are asked to understand that the past is all we see. The Course teaches us to also use the device of denying that the past is real. This is incredibly helpful sometimes because we need a quick solution to our pain over the past. When we need quick help we can simply use the mental technique of denying the past has any impact. This will surely give us the immediate reminder that the present is the only real time. Therefore, when it serves us, we can instantly deflate the power any past seems to have through saying it has no reality in the first place. If it doesn’t exist, it is powerless.