I see only the past.
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.
Old ideas about time are very difficult to change, because everything you believe is rooted in time, and depends on your not learning these new ideas about it. Yet that is precisely why you need new ideas about time. This first time idea is not really so strange as it may sound at first.
Look at a cup, for example. 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 and so on? Are not your aesthetic reactions to the cup, too, based on past experiences? How else would you know whether or not this kind of cup will break if you drop it? What do you know about this cup except what you learned in the past? You would have no idea what this cup is, except for your past learning. Do you, then, really see it?
Look about you. This is equally true of whatever you look at. Acknowledge this by applying the idea for today indiscriminately to whatever catches your eye. For example:
I see only the past in this pencil.I see only the past in this shoe.
I see only the past in this hand.
I see only the past in that body.
I see only the past in that face.
Do not linger over any one thing in particular, but remember to omit nothing specifically. Glance briefly at each subject, and then move on to the next. Three or four practice periods, each to last a minute or so, will be enough.
Feel free to post a comment of any length and detail here or in any place you see this shared AFTER you do the exercise at least once.
2 comments:
It is very hard for me to really, really dissociate myself from the material, which is concrete, and try to get my 3D brain to buy into the concept of illusion. I have a 3D brain with 3D hardware and it seems limited specifically to 3D perception. I can get the idea of the illusion, but literally ALL of the information I get tells me that the 3D is what I'm experiencing and that the idea of this representing an illusion is actually just a thought experiment. The only things I have that is "pro-illusion" is this persistent, irrational yearning for what I can't perceive. It's all backwards.
I see. And I hear you loud and clear.
But let me ask you: how do you feel when you believe that what you are perceiving right now and how you (based on acquired concepts) are interpreting it is the reality? Feelings and sensations in the body are a very important part of the information that, more often than not, we are not paying enough attention to. Because, at an early age, we are conditioned not to trust it and to discard it as a mere nuisance and obstacle to a successful life. What if feelings are the key to discovering the TRUTH?
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