Lesson 7 – I see only the past.
In Lesson 7, Jesus explains that everything we believe is rooted in time and that the ego depends on us not learning new ideas about time.
He clarifies that all our associations regarding objects are based on past experience. We are not having a fresh, unbiased experience right now.
This holds true for our relationships with people and creatures, as well as all our thoughts. All our thoughts are simply a review of the past. Now hold onto your hat …
The future is also the past because the entire ego thought system is based on an idea that arose, bloomed and concluded in an unholy instant. We are actually fixated on a bygone idea. So when we interact with the external or internal world, we are reviewing a story which is over. You could also say we are watching and re-watching a mental movie which we could release in any given moment.
Jesus is giving us the opportunity to become aware of our ego obsession and showing us a way out. Hence, the workbook exercises.
Today, when I practiced Lesson 7, allowing my mind to view objects without assigning meaning, there was an experience of bouncing atoms and molecules, of pixelated light being the substratum of each object upon which my eyes alit. Along with this some precious moments of no-thinking and a sense of being the breath, ebbing and flowing independently of a body.
Try it yourself. Let me know how it goes.