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'.  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.  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.  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'.  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.  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.  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.  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.  It presumes that there are different locations in time and space, different increments of time, some much shorter and tinier, some much, much longer.  And all of these presumptions rest on this belief that this world is somehow dynamic and unfolding.  It can seem like an adventure to not know what the future is, it can seem like a mystery.  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'.  For what is mysterious about this idea? There's nothing, nothing mysterious.  You could say to yourself, 'I am looking upon the past'.  All I'm witnessing, all throughout the day, is the past.  Ha, I'm trying to decide between what is past and what is past.  All the choices I seem to make during this day, choices seemingly by a person, are all past, too.  Hmmm, that takes the mystery away.  They used to say the human body is very mysterious and wondrous - no, not actually mysterious or wondrous if it's just the past.  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.  Hmmm, what does that mean, if it's all the past?  How can you pursue what is already past?  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.  But what is it that's going on, up out of bed and off in hot pursuit of the past?  What if all my future goals are the past?  What if my ambitions are the past?  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'.

David's commentary continued: "Now, the ego may have a reaction to this idea today, it may actually say that this is absurd, that if this idea were true, if this time idea were true, then it makes a farce of the human condition, a total farce of the human condition.  It's almost like having a million angels laughing at the same time, at all the perceived problems and difficulties and struggles because of this idea, 'I see only the past'.  And when the ego says this is absurd, then let's pause a moment and reflect how absurd it is: is this really absurd?  The ego may say, why do anything, why do anything at all?  Why go to work, why try to keep the calendar and play the game if I see only the past? --ha ha, the ego says, what's the point?  But embracing this idea, opening to this idea for today IS the point.  It's actually the only point that the day has.  And if you are succeeding in embracing this idea, then you will begin to see that you have no problems at all, that all the problems that you thought you had today are all hypotheticals: they're all based on the belief that you can somehow choose your way through time and space, when actually, you can accept this idea and enter the gateway to the Atonement, and on to the Kingdom of Heaven.  And this is also a beautiful entryway into divine providence, because think of it: if Jesus Christ wants you to fully accept this lesson today - 'I see only the past' - and will give you the means and everything you need to accept this lesson today - 'I see only the past' - then everything you need to accept this idea is already given you.  The ego may say that if you accept this idea - 'I see only the past' - that the world will come crashing down around you, that you're just through, you're just finished, you've just thrown in the towel of being a person, of being an achiever, of being an accumulator, of being a possessor.  But don't you want to throw the towel in on that?  Have those things ever brought you lasting peace and happiness?  So we are joined today in this idea - I am so very, very joined with you - in throwing the towel in on this linear progression of what I call the past-past and the future-past.  Let us stop these silly games of trying to divide time up into dualistic ideas such as past and future.  God is not a god of duality, God did not create linear time, and God did not create the past and the future, and some illusory little squeezed moment that's in between the two called the present.  No, the present is not between the past and future, that's not true either.  The present is before time was: 'Before Abraham was, I am'.  And the glory is that anything that seems to have been linear time, is not worth the power, the attention, or the investment of the mind.  We need no longer hold onto these foolish time ideas.  If you follow my voice, if you feel the presence of what is speaking to you now, you will feel a strength, a stir of excitement, of passion, of complete release from EVERYTHING that you have believed before.  So let's just go for it, and focus on that right now: 'I see only the past.'  I am grateful that I see only the past.  What I perceive is gone.  Happily, so very happily, 'I see only the past'."