My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.
This idea is, of course, the reason why you see only the past. ²No one really sees anything. ³He sees only his thoughts projected outward. ⁴The mind’s preoccupation with the past is the cause of the misconception about time from which your seeing suffers. ⁵Your mind cannot grasp the present, which is the only time there is. ⁶It therefore cannot understand time, and cannot, in fact, understand anything.
The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here. ²To think about it at all is therefore to think about illusions. ³Very few have realized what is actually entailed in picturing the past or in anticipating the future. ⁴The mind is actually blank when it does this, because it is not really thinking about anything.
The purpose of the exercises for today is to begin to train your mind to recognize when it is not really thinking at all. ²While thoughtless ideas preoccupy your mind, the truth is blocked. ³Recognizing that your mind has been merely blank, rather than believing that it is filled with real ideas, is the first step to opening the way to vision. (A Course in Miracles, W-8.1–3. See also ACIM Lesson 8 Insights.)
Hanging on to the past is an essential part of maintaining the ego. Our individual ego identity depends upon its history. Great effort is invested in hanging on to the past, including tracing family heritage, blood lines and the DNA of the body.
But the body itself is an image manifesting the belief in separation. Identifying with the body brings with it fear and guilt. The body is easily hurt and seems to be able to do things that hurt others. This further reinforces belief that separation is real and opposes the oneness of God’s Love.
The recognition that our minds are preoccupied with the past is an important step in the process of letting go of belief in separation. Forgiveness is the means to let go of our preoccupation with the past. The fact that the past is not real is the foundation of forgiveness. The ego defends against this fact with its image making. We need help from outside the thought system of separation to let go of our thoughts about the past and see beyond the images. That is the Holy Spirit’s function.
Today we practice monitoring our thoughts, remembering that the Holy Spirit is with us now. With the Holy Spirit in our mind we ask for His help to see the truth of Love’s oneness beyond our perceptions of differences. He will replace our misperceptions with true perception that reveals the Love that unites us with every brother and our Creator. We are one Self united with our Creator, at Home in peace and happiness.
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