The past does not even exist. If it does, where is it?

There is no need to let the past define you.

Everyone remembers the past differently. How can it be said to exist independently?

 

 

It is said that they who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. But by remembering it, are you not repeating it? By taking out those past images and memories and holding onto them, strengthening them, polishing them like beads on a rosary, do you not also give energy to them?

 Do you want to be always digging over the past?

 

Transcend the past

 

The right way to deal with the past is to transcend it.  “Transcend” means “rise above”. That person you were, who the past happened to, does not exist anymore in the same form.  All that was unnecessary, cumbersome, awkward and slowing you down, all of that has been left at the side of the road hundreds of miles and many years ago. That person you were had things happen to her.  This person you are now, observes and chooses experiences.

 

I allow myself to be changed for the better

 

What weighed you down in the past?

All judgments, large and small. If you believe that everyone who gets a divorce is bad,  then that puts you in a dichotomy.  Either you are good and do not divorce, even though you may be perpetuating a dangerous or miserable situation, or you divorce and are bad.  All the negative feelings you had projected outwards onto the divorced ones, you must now take upon yourself.  Your judgment has come to beat you with a stick.

 

Let us eschew judgments.  If we knew the difficulties and despair that most of us live with, we would praise each other just for being here.  We judge a situation only when we cannot see all of it, anyway.  When we know the truth, we do not judge. Let us replace judgments with a desire for enlightenment.

 

 

What else ties you to the past?  All disagreements, grudges and arguments. Be free of them all at once.  Forgive the other for whatever you think she did to you. Realize that was part of who you thought she was then.  It was your need to think of her that way and use her for an agent, so you could nurse hurt and anger. You would like now to free both of you from the past.

 

Hurl the past away from you.

 

 

What else weighs you down?  All unwanted, useless possessions. All the junk that is clogging your spaces, everything that you don’t presently use but cannot let go of. Each thing you hold onto represents a fear.

We all cling to worthless possessions out of fear. “But I might need it some day.” “It has sentimental value.” “So and so gave it to me.”  

 

We are all hoarders until we decide not to be.

 

Keep life spare

 

If it is not a part of your now experience, if it does not belong to the person you wish to be, discard it.  Sell it, give it away, pass it along, become a channel, open up a flow.  Doing this, you open the way for real value to arrive.

Throw away all negative evaluations of yourself; they are worthless junk from the past.  Who cares if you’re a cheater like your father, or not? Let us transcend the past.  Choices are not dichotomies, as you like to think.  “Either I go to college and get a fulfilling job and am happy, or I will not go and be a failure forever.”  No.

The number of paths in front of you at any time is always infinite. If it even exists in your imagination, it exists somewhere and is capable of manifesting into this physical world. Why would you be linked to the binary choice of either living out the past, or not?

Forget it instead.  Let the dead bury their dead.

 

Let us rise above it

Noël Coward