Daily Miracles: Lesson 8

Yeah, so?

Welcome to Daily Miracles, a running commentary on the 365 lessons of A Course in Miracles, an influential spiritual text from the 1970s. I am James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as I go through this material for the first time.

My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts. (ACIM, W-8)

As the Course elaborates:

1. 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. (ACIM, W-8.1:1–6)

My reaction to this day’s lesson is, “Yeah. So?”

What is the present but the sum total of previous experience? That past — our memories — frame our desires. A desire, and taking a step toward its fulfillment in the “future,” might be all that the present moment contains.

Maybe we’re preoccupied with “past thoughts” because they’re the only thoughts we can have. After all, it is from our past that we recognize the meanings of the words, which enables us to actually read A Course in Miracles.