269. Let Go the Past, Accept the Present, Embrace the Future!!!!!

http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/self-improvement/let-go-the-past-accept-the-present-embrace-the-future

There is a group of mischievous monkeys near my factory. They stay in group and fight with each other occasionally. In one such scuffle I noticed one young monkey was injured by older monkey and was bleeding profusely. There was a deep cut on its leg and I thought nature would cure the monkey and for the next one month I kept a close watch on that particular monkey every day. To my amazement the young monkey would always scratch the wound and not let it heal at all. The wound was as fresh as it was on day one. Maybe if the monkey had let the wound alone it would have healed by that time. Anything left alone will never bother. Past is also one of the time zones which when left alone will never haunt us.  

There is a past in every one of us that could either be pleasant or gloomy. All pleasant events are categorized as sweet memories and rewound every now and then. Some say those recaps give them strength and refresh their present. While some great thinkers say even that would be not right as it might spoil the present by comparing it with the past. Actually the great truth is “I can never do any corrections to my past and at the same time I cannot perfect the present as it was in the past”. So in other words past has more of negative impact on my present than positive impact.

If I waste my present, actually I am wasting my future. So if I am not ready to handle the present correctly, it will go on to be an imperfect past over which I will waste both my present and future. That is to show that I don't have any control over which is past so I need not worry about the uncontrollable things. But I do have the present which is still under my control. If I concentrate on making it better instead of brooding over the past I can have control over my future also.

An old was losing his eye sight and his memory. He consulted a doctor and after diagnosing the doctor said, “Gentleman, you have a very peculiar disease, we cannot correct both your eye sight as well as you memory you have to choose either eye sight or memory. The old man preferred the eye sight. The doctor was astonished he asked, “Why do you prefer eyesight?” The wise man replied, “Eyesight helps me to know where I am going to, while memory would help me to know where I have been. Where I am going to is more important than where I have been.”

Does that mean past has no relevance in the present or future?

No, every event that has gone past do cast two types of experience on me, one is positive and the other is negative. It is inevitable for me to face both of them even though I do my work sincerely and with awareness. The positive experiences are like success in business or my relationship with my fellow beings. Likewise my negative experiences could be failure in a business venture or a sour relationship with my fellow being.

It is wise for me to not let the negative experiences affect my present negatively. In contrast I need to make them a great positive impact in my life. How can I do? It is simple a negative experience remains a negative impact as long as I do not learn from it and make an effort to convert it to a positive impact in my life. The key here is learning. So consciously I have to treat my past as a learning opportunity. Life is just a learning process…and a place to put into practice that is learnt…..am I right????