WE NEED TO BEGIN TO THINK DIFFERENTLY - FINALLY

Your mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.

This idea is, of course, the reason why you see only the past. 'No one really sees anything. 'He sees only his thoughts projected outward. "The mind's preoccupation with the past is the cause of the misconception about time from which your seeing suffers. Your mind cannot grasp the present, which is the only time there is. 'It therefore cannot understand time, and cannot, in fact, understand anything.

The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here. 'To think about it at all is therefore to think about illusions. Very few have realized what is actually entailed in picturing the past or in anticipating the future. "The mind is actually blank when it does this, because it is not really thinking about anything.

You see nothing as it is now. 

This idea obviously follows from the two preceding ones. 'But while you may be able to accept it intellectually, it is unlikely that it will mean anything to you as yet. However, understanding is not necessary at this point. In fact, the recognition that you do not understand is a prerequisite for undoing your false ideas. 'These exercises are concerned with practice, not with understanding. You do not need to practice what you already understand. 'It would indeed be circular to aim at understanding, and assume that you have it already.

 It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what it seems to picture is not there. 'This idea can be quite disturbing, and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms. 'Yet that does not preclude applying it. *No more than that is required for these or any other exercises. 'Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it.

My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.

This is the first idea we have had that is related to a major phase of the correction process; the reversal of the thinking of the world. 'It seems as if the world determines what you perceive. Today's idea introduces the concept that your thoughts determine the world you see. 'Be glad indeed to practice the idea in its initial form, for in this idea is your release made sure. "The key to forgiveness lies in it."