Why Can the Laws Be Known Only in the Present?
In the present, we experience reality, in which all the laws of Heaven are manifested. The past and the future appear according to our imagination, in which only the laws that we already know are present.
All our experiences up to this moment determine what we have come to know of the laws of Heaven. They also determine what we are currently capable of perceiving, and therefore what we are capable of coming to know.
Learning is continuous. Our knowledge continually grows through our experiences, and so does our perception.
We always imagine the past and the future according to what we have already learned about the laws that determine the world—the laws of Heaven. Therefore, we continually see the past differently, and we continually imagine the future differently as our knowledge changes.
The present, however, does not appear according to our knowledge. In the present, reality appears, and reality always appears according to all the laws of Heaven. We can interpret and comprehend the present only according to our current knowledge, yet in the reality that appears, every law of Heaven is present. This is why the same experience can be equally instructive for people who possess different levels of knowledge.
We learn from every experience. Within the same experience, we may be teachers or learners, yet both learn something according to their own level of understanding. There is always more information present in the present than we are able to see or perceive.
The past and the future exist within our imagination. We also learn from imagined situations, but not because the laws of God appear there as well. Rather, it is because our own knowledge appears in our imagination in countless variations. The laws we have already come to know appear in our imagination in every form that we consider possible or imaginable.
What appears in our imagination is not necessarily capable of existing in reality. In fact, we often know that what our imagination produces could never become reality. Even so, it is part of the learning process that we continually bring forth and express our current knowledge within the space of imagination under every conceivable circumstance.
The laws of God, however, appear only in reality, because reality is always the material manifestation of the laws of Heaven.
The laws of God exist in complete harmony, yet they become perceptible only through the appearance of opposites. Opposites can become perceptible only if we reject one side of the appearing opposites and exclude it from our perception, so that we become capable of perceiving the other side.
In the present, according to our evaluations and our perception, that which we are capable of interpreting appears. In the present, the laws of Heaven appear in a form that is truly possible. Evaluations are necessary for perception, but the absence of evaluation is equally necessary for understanding — for understanding what it is that appears through opposites. This is not possible within imagination. Through our experiences, it becomes recognizable that in reality our evaluations do not exist, whereas that which we became capable of perceiving through our evaluations does exist — according to the laws of God, according to the laws of Heaven.