Meditation: The Heart of Buddhism
~ AJAHN BRAHM
“ Some people have the view that if they take up the past for contemplation they can somehow learn from it and solve the problems of the past.
However, you should understand that when you gaze at the past, you invariably look through distorted lenses.
Whatever you think it was like, in truth it was not quite like that! This is why people have arguments about what actually happened, even a few moments ago. It is well known to police who investigate traffic accidents that even though the accident may have happened only half an hour ago, two different eyewitnesses, both completely honest, will give different accounts. Our memory is untrustworthy. If you consider just how unreliable memory is, then you do not put value on thinking about the past. Then you can let it go. You can bury it, just as you bury a person who has died. You place them in a coffin then bury it, or cremate it, and it is done with, finished. Do not linger on the past. Do not continue to carry the coffins of dead moments on your head! If you do, then you are weighing yourself down with heavy burdens which do not really belong to you. Let all of the past go and you have the ability to be free in the present moment.
As for the future, the anticipations, fears, plans, and expectations-let all of that go too. The Lord Buddha once said about the future 'whatever you think it will be, it will always be something different' ! This future is known to the wise as uncertain, unknown and so unpredictable. It is often complete stupidity to anticipate the future, and always a great waste of your time to think of the future in meditation.”
Source - Meditation: The Heart of Buddhism
AJAHN BRAHM
https://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebmed065.htm
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