When I first encountered this lesson, it created a HUGE shift in my understanding. When it said, “look at a cup”, I picked up my coffee cup and literally looked at it.
Do you see a cup, or are you merely reviewing your past experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of a cup against your lips, having breakfast, falling to the floor and breaking, and so on?
If you had never seen a cup before, would you know what it is for? If so, how? Based on past experiences of similar items, right? You don’t see the cup as it is, you see it according to your experiences of it, which are always in the past. If you only know what the cup “is” based on your past experiences, do you actually see it?
No. We see only the past because we project our past experiences onto the present. ACIM says that this idea is particularly difficult to believe at first. Yet it is the rationale for all of the preceding ones.
It is the reason why nothing that 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 never upset for the reason you think.
It is the reason why you are upset because you see something that is not there.
Everything we believe is rooted in time. We believe we see a cup because our belief is rooted in time.
- I see only the past in this plant.
- I see only the past in this cat.
- I see only the past in this pillow.
- I see only the past in that television set.
- I see only the past in that rocking chair.
- I see only the past in that chest.
- I see only the past in that fireplace.
- I see only the past in that bathroom.
- I see only the past in that bottle.