Entering the Present

by Robert Perry

Chapter 15 says, “Begin to practice the Holy Spirit’s use of time as a teaching aid to happiness and peace.” It then gives instructions for fully entering the present moment and so entering the holy instant. The following Course passages have been collected together as an aid in doing this practice.

Take this very instant, now,
and think of it as all there is of time.
Nothing can reach you here out of the past,
and it is here that you are completely absolved,
completely free and wholly without condemnation.
From this holy instant wherein holiness was born again
you will go forth in time without fear, and with no sense of change with time. (T-15.I.9:4-7)

There is no fear in the present when each instant stands clear and separated from the past,
without its shadow reaching out into the future.
Each instant is a clean, untarnished birth,
in which the Son of God emerges from the past into the present.
And the present extends forever.
It is so beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing but happiness is there.
No darkness is remembered, and immortality and joy are now. (T-15.I.8:1-7)

The only aspect of time that is eternal is now.(T-5.III.6:5)

Look lovingly upon the present, for it holds the only things that are forever true.
All healing lies within it because its continuity is real.
It extends to all aspects of the Sonship at the same time,
and thus enables them to reach each other.
The present is before time was,
and will be when time is no more.
In it are all things that are eternal, and they are one.
Their continuity is timeless and their communication is unbroken,
for they are not separated by the past.
Only the past can separate, and it is nowhere. (T-13.VI.6:2-8)

To learn to separate out this single second,
and to experience it as timeless,
is to begin to experience yourself as not separate. (T-15.II.6:3)

…look straight into the present. (W-pI.18.9:5)

The peace of God passeth your understanding only in the past.
Yet here it is, and you can understand it now. (T-13.VII.8:1-2)

All that [time] ever held or will ever hold is here right now.
The past takes nothing from it, and the future will add no more.
Here, then, is everything. (T-20.V.6:3-5)

It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation unless,
just for an instant, you are willing to see no past or future. (T-18.VII.4:1)

The present now remains the only time.
Here in the present is the world set free. (W-pI.132.3:1-2)

For a miracle is now.
It stands already here, in present grace,
within the only interval of time that sin and fear have overlooked,
but which is all there is to time. (T-26.VIII.5:8-9)

My present happiness is all I see. (W-pII.290)

Unless I look upon what is not there, my present happiness is all I see….
This the day I seek my present happiness,
and look on nothing else except the thing I seek. (W-pII.290.1:1,6)

All fear is past and only love is here. (W-pII.293)

Love remains the only present state,
whose Source is here forever and forever.
…in the present love is obvious, and its effects apparent.
All the world shines in reflection of its holy light,
and I perceive a world forgiven at last. (W-pII.293.1:1-5)

For the present is forgiveness. (T-17.III.8:2)

What time but now can truth be recognized?
The present is the only time there is. (W-pI.164.1:1-2)

The only interval in which I can be saved from time is now.
For in this instant has forgiveness come to set me free.
The birth of Christ is now, without a past or future.
He has come to give His present blessing to the world,
restoring it to timelessness and love.
And love is ever‑present, here and now. (W-pII.308.1:4-8)

This instant is the only time there is. (W-pII.308)

Heaven is here. There is nowhere else.
Heaven is now. There is no other time. (M-24.6:4-7)

You could live forever in the holy instant,
beginning now and reaching to eternity…. (T-15.IV.6:3)

The birth into the holy present is salvation from change. (T-15.I.10:4)

Now you need but to remember you need do nothing. (T-18.VII.5:5)

For you have cause for freedom now. (T-26.VIII.9:3)

What [God] wills is now, without a past and wholly futureless….
He is here because He wills to be,
and what He wills is present now, beyond the reach of time. (W-pI.131.6:6, 8:6)

Thus it must be that time is not involved
and every problem can be answered now. (T-27.IV.2:1-1)

Now we walk directly into light,
and we receive the gifts that have been held in store for us since time began,
kept waiting for today. (W-pI.122.12:2)

Now do we live, for now we cannot die. (W-pI.166.11:1-1)

Now is the time of prophecy fulfilled.
Now are all ancient promises upheld and fully kept. (W-pII.In.5:1-2)

Now is the time of salvation, for now is the release from time. (T-13.VI.8:1)

 

[Please note: ACIM passages quoted in this article reference the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) Edition.]