| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 03/04/2013 : 06:52:04
CARRYING THE PAST
In Ekhart Tolle`s -- A New Earth
The inability or rather unwillingness of the human mind to let go of
the past is beautifully illustrated in the story of two Zen monks, Tanzan and Ekido,
who were walking along a country road that had become extremely
muddy after heavy rains. Near a village, they came upon a young woman
who was trying to cross the road, but the mud was so deep it would have
ruined the silk kimono she was wearing. Tanzan at once picked her up and
carried her to the other side.
The monks walked on in silence. Five hours later, as they were
approaching the lodging temple, Ekido couldn't restrain himself any longer.
“Why did you carry that girl across the road?” he asked. “We monks are not
supposed to do things like that.”
“I put the girl down hours ago,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying
her?”
Now imagine what life would be like for someone who lived like
Ekido all the time, unable or unwilling to let go internally of situations,
accumulating more and more “stuff' inside, and you get a sense of what life
is like for the majority of people on our planet. What a heavy burden of past
they carry around with them in their minds.
The past lives in you as memories, but memories in themselves are not
a problem. in fact, it is through memory that we learn from the past and from
past mistakes. It is only when memories, that is to say, thoughts about the
past, take you over completely that they turn into a burden, turn problematic,
and become part of your sense of self. Your personality, which is conditioned
by the past, then becomes your prison. Your memories are invested with a
sense of self, and your story becomes who you perceive yourself to be. This
“little me” is an illusion that obscures your true identity as timeless and
formless Presence.
Your story, however, consists not only of mental but also of emotional
memory – old emotion that is being revived continuously. As in the case of
the monk who carried the burden of his resentment for five hours by feeding
it with his thoughts, most people carry a large amount of unnecessary
baggage, both mental and emotional, throughout their lives. They limit
themselves through grievances, regret, hostility, guilt. Their emotional
thinking has become their self, and so they hang on to the old emotion
because it strengthens their identity.Because of the human tendency to perpetuate
old emotion, almost everyone carries in his or her energy filed an accumulation of old emotional
pain, which I call “the pain body.”
We can, however, stop adding to the pinbody that we already have.
We can learn to break the habit of accumulating and perpetuating old
emotion by flapping our wings, metaphorically speaking, and refrain from
mentally dwelling on the past, regardless of whether something happened
yesterday or thirty years ago. We can learn not to keep situations or events
alive in our minds, but to return our attention continuously to the pristine,
timeless present moment rather than be caught up in mental movie making.
Our very Presence then becomes our identity, rather than our thoughts and
emotions.
Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being
present now; and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now,
what power does it have? |
| 1 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| balto |
Posted - 03/04/2013 : 08:17:13
Thanks for the post Shawn,
this is a very popular Zen story in the east. We dwell in the past and we get sick and we blame the "inner child".
Got to let go of the past and keep out the future.
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No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
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