On the Past

Winter has arrived again. It came last year as well, and now it has returned. It has come at the same time, in the same form. Why does nature not change its ways? Why does it appear exactly as it did before? Change is said to be the law of nature—then why is there no visible change here? Why does winter return just as it was? Why does nature not forget its past, leave it behind, and bring something new each time?

A man came to me a few days ago. Some painful incidents had occurred in his life, and he seemed deeply disturbed by them. He said, “I somehow want to forget my past. I want to be free of it.”

Understand this clearly: a man does not want freedom from the past itself; he wants freedom from the painful events that happened in the past. Freedom from the past is very difficult, because what we actually seek is selective freedom—we want to keep the pleasant memories and erase the painful ones.

He told me he was ready to do anything to rise above it. I spoke to him and suggested a few things to practice. But at every step he refused, saying, “I won’t be able to do this.”

Perhaps nature has no painful past from which it wants to be free. Perhaps it does not label anything as a “bad event.” That is why there is no inner struggle in nature—only repetition. Winter comes in winter, summer in summer, rain in the rainy season. Nature does not change out of compulsion; it simply moves in rhythm.

For man, it is important not to place so much faith in change that even change becomes a burden. Instead, his attention should be on understanding himself. When understanding deepens, change happens naturally—without effort, without struggle.

There is a story. A government officer once requested his senior officer, “There are too many old files. Shall we burn them?”

The senior replied, “All right, burn them—but first make three photocopies of each file.”

This is how we live. The more we try to free ourselves from the past, the more tightly we get entangled in it. It is like someone trapped in quicksand—struggling to escape, he only sinks deeper. Effort becomes bondage.

There is no method to be free of the past. All methods only push us back into it. Therefore, instead of searching for ways to escape the past, we must find ways to remain present.

There may be no technique to free oneself from the past, but there are ways to stay rooted in the present. What is needed is to discover something in the present moment that allows us to remain there—fully, silently, and without resistance.