A Course in Miracles Workbook Daily Lesson 289, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 289 The past is over. It can touch me not. 1. Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight.

Lesson 289

The past is over. It can touch me not.

1. Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight. ²For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there. ³How can I then perceive the world forgiveness offers? ⁴This the past was made to hide, for this the world that can be looked on only now. ⁵It has no past. ⁶For what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is forgiven it is gone.

2. Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there. ²For You have offered me Your Own replacement, in a present world the past has left untouched and free of sin. ³Here is the end of guilt. ⁴And here am I made ready for Your final step. ⁵Shall I demand that You wait longer for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his dreams and all his pain?

It seems like the past doesn’t want to let me go.

But maybe it is me that doesn’t want to let the past go. This morning while I was getting dressed, right out of the blue, I remembered something I did nearly 40 years ago that could have endangered my daughter. I followed that memory into fear and regret. I wondered why I made the choices I made. Then suddenly, I saw what I was doing, and I wondered why I was making the choice to revisit a past that is over. It can’t touch me unless I deliberately bring it to mind and think about it.

I looked at the memory with the Holy Spirit until the anxiety it had produced dissolved away. Then I waited to see what else came up. I saw the desire to dig deeper at what might have happened, and I saw the guilt. I looked at that with the Holy Spirit until my mind was healed. The ego kept trying to think about it some more. But the trance was broken. I wasn’t interested.

Where Is the past?

It is nowhere. We keep the idea of a past alive through memories. The past can seem to haunt us, but only if we fail to forgive it. Once forgiven, it vanishes along with the anxiety, regret, and guilt that is often the effect of resurrecting it in our memory. There really is just that one problem, and the solution is simple.

I look with the Holy Spirit at the upsetting memory, and it is forgiven. Just like this morning, all the distress melted away very quickly. Now the memory has no power to affect me. It is a dead story and holds no interest to me. The world is just such a memory. We keep it alive only in memory, and we let it go in the same way.

It seems, though, that the mind needs to build up to final forgiveness, and so I do as Jesus instructs. I begin with specifics, the thoughts, words, and behaviors that I imagine condemn me and others. I forgive them one at a time for a while as I instruct my mind to see differently. This different way of seeing is God’s replacement for what I have imagined. It is the present world the past has left untouched and free of sin. It is the end of guilt. Once this is done, I stand at the gates of Heaven, and God takes the final step.

As I was reading this, I was distracted by a disturbing memory from the past.

Thanks, Holy Spirit, for the guidance this morning and for healing my mind. How do I forgive the past? How about not following thoughts about the past? Not keeping it “alive” with my thoughts about it? The past does not exist, so why keep bringing it into the present? Is the belief in guilt the reason for holding onto the past, or is holding onto the past the reason guilt remains in the mind? I don’t know, but I know that if I have one, I will have the other.

What would the world seem to me without the guilty past projected onto it? What if every morning I woke up to a brand new world without anything from the past coloring my perception of it? How about if I did that in every moment? I’m not talking about forgetting how to live in the body, just looking at the world without the errors of the past darkening my vision.

What seems to be helping is my acceptance that I am not the body, I am not a human being, but I am still exactly as I was created, that nothing I do here in any way affects this Self that I am. Without believing that I am systematically destroying myself with my sins, there would be no guilt. This experience of separation from God and the illusion of finding my way home would be, perhaps, interesting.

This is from a past journal. I was just learning to let go of the past.

Holy Spirit, how do I let go of the past?

Holy Spirit: Do this by refusing to believe what you seem to see through the body’s eyes. Do not believe appearances. Know the truth as I show it to you, and let all else go. Want the truth. Want it with all your heart and mind. Do you want the truth more than you want the stories you created to take its place? Do you want it more than you want someone to point the finger at, someone to carry your guilt for you? Precious Child of God, do you want it more than your fear and righteous anger? Then trust Me, and trust yourself. Hear my words and do not question them. Do not doubt them, and do not question yourself. Hear My words and believe them, treasure them, and hold them close to your heart.

Myron, you know that the old world is fading in your mind. You doubt yet, only because you succumb to the ego’s doubts and uncertainties. You know that you still see the illusory world, and so you doubt yourself and think you cannot do this. This is why you must trust yourself as well as Me. Do not question and doubt yourself. It is your deepest desire to forgive the past and live only in the present moment. You will do so. You already do so but have forgotten this as you stare fixated at the illusion. How can you fail to accomplish what is already done, dear one?

One night I had a strange experience.

I stood in the heat the day before and became sunburned and dehydrated. I felt really bad that night, and I lay in bed following a guided meditation wanting nothing more than to go to sleep and wake up feeling better. But an interesting thing happened. As I followed the words of the CD that asked me to notice a thought, to thank it for sharing its entire life with me, and then to let it go, I noticed the thought that I ached all over and worse in some places. I looked at that thought and thanked it, and watched it float gently away.

I remembered that pain is nothing. Pain does not exist. I began to experience that thought instead of the thought of pain. And I felt better. I felt energized, and I felt happy. I was so happy. It felt too good to just lay there, so I got up and did some work. I started singing made-up songs of gratitude.

This is not typical behavior for me. I don’t usually walk around singing off key even when I am alone. I don’t usually make up songs of gratitude. Shoot, it is not common for me to feel joy that is pure and unattached to anything happening that occurs for no reason but is just a gift, or maybe it is my true Self peeking out of the illusion.

Slowly I began to lose the desire to do anymore, so I went back to bed.

I noticed it was after 2 AM, and of course, the ego story being that I need 7 or 8 hours of sleep, I started to worry about the time. But then I remembered that I am not bound by any laws but God’s laws. I don’t know what I need, so I will not decide what I need. Eventually, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I felt fine, though my ego wants to convince me I would be sorry later. I was willing to trust the Holy Spirit instead of the ego in this case, and it all worked out beautifully. I see that the illusion really is fading. It is like an old cloth that gets thin in places, so thin I can see through it. That is what my illusion is like now as I forgive more and more often. It is getting thin, and I am starting to see through it.

Contemplation 2025

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 289 click here.

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