Unless you make peace with the past, you won’t have a future.

Does the past dominate your thoughts?

The past, for some it briefly occupies their thoughts, for others it dominates their thinking. With enough emotional entanglements, it will dominate our present, and consume our future if we fail to let it go.

With the New Year fast approaching many people are contemplating their new year’s resolution in preparation for the year ahead. In most cases these resolutions of ours are either to stop doing things that have no positive effect on our lives, or to start doing things that we believe will empower us or enlighten us.

Most people spend all day everyday with the voice inside of their head determining their emotions at any given moment.

Unless there is a future event on the horizon that will have an adverse effect on our destiny, our thoughts are often spent dwelling in the past. The past cannot be changed no matter how much sorrow or anger we feel about it.

People today who are not awakened, or enlightened are seldom mindful of the present moment. Their Monkey Minds are jumping around from thought to thought often focused on… would have, could have, should have, but never focused on what is.

“Ardently do today what must be done. Who knows? Tomorrow, death comes.” ~The Buddha
(This is a Buddha Quote from the Bhaddekaratta Sutta.)

We only have the present. We only have right now. Look around you. What is going on around you right now? There is nothing going on you say?

Take a walk outside, and look at the world of nature that is all around you.

Look up at the blue sky, and at the puffy white clouds floating helplessly in the sky at the mercy of the wind. Listen to the birds chirping, and maybe you will even hear insects sending out their mating calls. Look down at the ground and surely you will see ants doing their duty as well.

Foliage is growing, some mature, and some just now sprouting from the ground. Some of nature’s creatures will breathe their last breath at this very moment, while others will open their eyes for the first time. Nature does everything in perfect balance.

There is never nothing going on. You just have to open your eyes, and be in the present moment.

What happened to you in the past? The death of a loved one? Did somebody push your buttons, and cause you to react with anger? Do you wish you reacted more calmly, or with more rage to assert your self-proclaimed dominance?

Whatever it is that happened to you in your past is over now. It can harm you no more.

We must make peace with our past, and leave it where it belongs. Do not waste your time looking back with discontentedness on what you have lost. Move on, your life is not meant to be traveled backwards.

Living our life focused on the past will only cause us to be enveloped in depression, or fueled by an even more powerful negative emotion, anger. Our emotions will be shown prominently on our faces even if we try to put on a happy face, we won’t fool anybody.

The negative emotions of grief and anger, like the chains of the The Ten Fetters, will bind us to suffering. To let go of the past, we must be mindful of the present moment.

If we practice meditation daily we will become aware of the Jhanas through Right Concentration. (Eightfold Path)

Seeking enlightenment must be done with a mind that is aware of Buddha’s teachings, free from self-illusion and on the path to becoming a Sotapanna. Don’t let past burdens, and past mistakes ruin the present, or they will continue to bind you to suffering in the future.

“You cannot suffer the past, nor the future because they do not exist. What you are suffering is your memory, and your imagination.” ~Sadhguru

Make peace with your past, and Embrace Nirvana.

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Unless you make peace with the past, you won’t have a future.

Does the past dominate your thoughts?

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