Workbook · Part I
Lesson 7
I see only the past.
What this lesson is saying
“I see only the past.” You think you are seeing them. You are seeing last time — every slight, every similar face, every old ending.
Eyes report a present. The mind reports an archive. A cup has a past in your mind too: mine, cheap, grandma’s. A partner, a parent, a coworker is being used as a screen for old film. Seeing only the past is how the future stays identical.
This is not saying
This is not asking you to forget what happened or to erase a harm. Remember the event if you must. Stop using it as the law of now.
Why this can change a day
Every stuck relationship is a past being used as a fact. One uncluttered look is already a different life with the same person.
In your day
Same idea, three ordinary places — a relationship or encounter, the case against yourself, and a situation at work or at home. You do not need a special mood.
With someone
You greet someone you have known a long time, and the résumé opens — last year, last week, that look.
What to do
Say: I see only the past. Drop the résumé for one look. Then speak as you normally would. You do not have to pretend they are easy.
At home
An ordinary object you have already filed.
What to do
I see only the past in this cup, this room, this street. Same lesson. The object is not your history of it.
Toward yourself
You meet yourself as the old story — always this, never that.
What to do
That is the past too. One look without the file. Then begin the hour you are actually in.
Two voices in the same mind
Hear which one is running. Then today’s idea, on a real person — or on you.
Unloving thought
I already know who they are. Last year, last week, that look. The file is love, or it is justice. A new look would erase what they did.
Jesus’s way
I see only the past. The face in front of you is being used as a screen for old film. Notice the overlay without making them guilty for your archive.
Spalding · 2019 · episode #200
Jesus’s commentary for Lesson 7
Tina reads the official workbook lesson first. Then she channels. The video is the source. The notes below are study notes of that sitting — not a transcript, and not A Year of Forgiveness.
After the reading
In the video · Jesus speaking
This is the channeled portion — after Tina has read the lesson. Study notes of that sitting. Not a transcript.
- You see only the past.
- The face in front of you is being used as a screen for old film.
- He asks you to notice the overlay without making the person guilty for your archive.
- The person in front of you is being used as a screen for old film.
How to sit today
Part I · Undoing
The idea is above. This is the one sitting this number asks — how often, how long, and the words. Not a second lesson.
- How often
- Three or four short sittings
- How long
- About one minute
- Eyes
- Open
How
- Look about you. Apply the idea indiscriminately to whatever catches your eye: “I see only the past in this pencil.” “I see only the past in this hand.”
- The point is not history class. It is noticing that what you call seeing is recognition of the past.
Longer sitting
Three or four sittings — about one minute, eyes open
- Today’s idea is: “I see only the past.”
- Look about you. Apply the idea to whatever catches the eye, without ranking.
- Say, slowly: “I see only the past in this [name it].”
- A pencil, a hand, a face, a wall. The point is not history. What you call seeing is recognition of the past.
These scripts follow the workbook’s own method for this number — duration, frequency, and the sentences it asks you to use. They are a study paraphrase, not a replacement. Read the official lesson at acim.org and follow any wording it gives that is more specific than this card.
Words you may not know
Full glossaryCourse words do not mean what church, psychology, or ordinary English usually mean. These notes are for this lesson — tap a word.
Other voices — Tina, Ra, Carla
Short notes from the four streams. The teaching above is the lesson. These are doors if you want them.
Spalding
You see only the past. The person in front of you is being used as a screen for old film. He asks you to notice the overlay without making the person guilty for your archive.
Watch this lesson’s commentaryRa
Love/light is the stuff of the octave. Seeing with God is not metaphor — it is a shift toward that spectrum. Meditation (session 10) is the daily tool.
Open streamRueckert
Q'uo's usual counsel fits: tune, then serve the one in front of you. The Confederation does not need you to become impressive. It needs you to become kind without performance.
Open stream