There is a barrage of advice by gurus of all genre to live in the moment. But you often wonder if it is possible to erase the past. Some kind of magic pill to have “ selective amnesia” where you remember what you want and what you; and like the good old school blackboard erase the unnecessary to begin on a blank surface.
The samurai warriors were trained by
their Zen masters in the infinitesimal awareness of the present
moment. If we develop this razor sharp awareness of the mind and all it pranks;
then we can separate the useful from the not-so-useful and the good from the
bad.
This brings us to a four square quadrant.
The first quadrant would
be useless and bad like memories of a boss in your previous job or a
malicious put-down by a toxic character your will never meet again. The obvious
answer would be to banish these and relegate them to the garbage bin… easier
said then done. These are the “spam demons” which intrude in you mind and haunt
you for years. Often their recall is triggered by innocuous happening or even
prompt words which evoke the horror memories. We find ourselves in pensive
moments opening this “albums” of old memories and even relishing
in chewing the cud. Your main thrust to peace of mind is
putting thes on a tight leash
The second quadrant would be the good memories
which are useless e.g. people discussing with passion a football match the
watched a month ago; memories of a vacation which you have at a Shangri-la-like
resort and you would want to have again or a bachelors binge drinking party
which you really should not repeat unless you want to be chained to an
addiction.
The third quadrant would be the useful
and the bad memories – e.g. recollections of the past
which may spoil your mood but are important lessons to keep if you do not wish
to repeat the mistakes a second time.
And finally, the golden zone the areas of good and
profitable memories of the past which would be praise you received from a boss
which is morale booster; lessons to repeat and reinforce you success streak; or
the memory of a past project you completed and now can boost you confidence.
Freedom from the past is a myth. You can only
manage your mind . Its like taming a wave upon the sands of time. The mind is
like the river of time – as events unfold the mind has it own flow. Accept past
memories as the river of consciousness. But don’t forget the present it is very
soon going to be the past.
the quality of your life is based on the
quality of your thoughts
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