David's commentary: "So now in our workbook lessons we have reached a fundamental, basic idea, that Jesus tells us may be particularly difficult to believe at first: 'I see only the past'. Â And this idea will be very important in our awakening - because this idea must be first acknowledged before an experience can come that is beyond this idea. Â This idea is so important that the preceding six ideas - the first six lessons of this workbook - are all based on it; so you might say it is a very fundamental step on the seeming ladder of awakening. Â There will be ideas that will come along that may seem very radical, like 'the script is written': an idea that will come along that will seem very perplexing to students of this Course; but actually, that's just another form of this lesson, number seven: 'I see only the past'. Â So when we say 'I see', it means 'I perceive': I perceive a world of images, a world of sequenced images that seem to come one after another, in what seems to be called daily life, and what seems to be a linear cosmos, moving from past to future, in that direction, in one direction. Â And yet all of that, all of those perceptions, are based on the past: the meanings that are seen, experienced, are based only, solely on the past. Â And if everything I perceive is the past, it can show at once how delusional the thoughts that pass the mind are, and the images. Â I say delusional because, think of this in terms of choice: if you go through the day making a series of choices that all seem to be different, choosing this over that, choosing to stay or to go, preferring one thing over the next, watching your eyes be drawn to one thing instead of another thing, planning the day, having a schedule, following a calendar; all of these things presume that there's something going on other than the past, that there's something actively present and actively unfolding in the direction of the future. Â It presumes that there are different locations in time and space, different increments of time, some much shorter and tinier, some much, much longer. Â And all of these presumptions rest on this belief that this world is somehow dynamic and unfolding. Â It can seem like an adventure to not know what the future is, it can seem like a mystery. Â Yes, even a mystery - the world can seem mysterious, but even the belief that the world is a mystery is simply a denial of the lesson for today: 'I see only the past'. Â For what is mysterious about this idea? There's nothing, nothing mysterious. Â You could say to yourself, 'I am looking upon the past'. Â All I'm witnessing, all throughout the day, is the past. Â Ha, I'm trying to decide between what is past and what is past. Â All the choices I seem to make during this day, choices seemingly by a person, are all past, too. Â Hmmm, that takes the mystery away. Â They used to say the human body is very mysterious and wondrous - no, not actually mysterious or wondrous if it's just the past. Â Such an emphasis on different body parts, and parts of the script: the good parts, the better parts, pursuing the better parts, pursuing a better world, a better life. Â Hmmm, what does that mean, if it's all the past? Â How can you pursue what is already past? Â Like a cat chasing it's tail - it looks funny when we see a cat chasing it's tail - we laugh, we think that is so silly. Â But what is it that's going on, up out of bed and off in hot pursuit of the past? Â What if all my future goals are the past? Â What if my ambitions are the past? Â You see, it starts to get simpler - everything starts to become very, very similar - as I open my mind, open, open, only to rest and settle into a very relieving thought: 'I see only the past'.