The past -- whatever its pain -- only exists in the present moment as a place of suffering due to an unconscious level of self that -- on its own -- first recalls that time and place of sorrow, and then resists the torment of its own conditioned memory.
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How to Leave the Pain of the Past Behind You
- Posted: Friday, February 25, 2022
- Meeting: Wednesday, February 23, 2022
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Duration: 1hr 10sec
Key Lesson
Exercise
See and stay with the contradiction. The more we don't want any past painful experience, the more we experience it. To demonstrate this principle in the physical, when we put the palms of our hands together and use the right hand to try to push the left hand away, we find it can't be done because the left hand pushes back with an equal amount of force. Similarly, whatever it is that is suffering can't push away its pain. In those unwanted moments, where suddenly a thought about the past comes along to entice you into it, telling you how to be or what to do, inwardly become aware of that same pressure of resistance. Try to catch even a glimpse of the fact that, in that moment, what you're resisting and suffering over isn't the moment itself; notice that your mind can't stop looking at and reliving the painful event that it says it doesn't want. All you need to see is that contradiction in that consciousness. Don't answer or talk to yourself about what you see, simply stay with awareness of the contradiction. When you clearly see the contradiction, then you will understand who you are not, and you'll also know what not to give your life to.
Supplemental Materials
Talk Takeaways
A healthy doubt is the seed of spiritual deliverance. The genuine spiritual path has nothing to do with certainty.
We strengthen the grip of fear every time we look outside of ourselves to find a sense of security.
Certainty of the pressurized kind is the past trying to insert itself into the present moment.
If we are in fear and conflict without knowing it, then we are spending energy trying to find resolution.
We live in a society that is fueled by pain, because it is a sleeping society.
Something in us believes that if we were to stop protecting the image we have of ourselves, then we would cease to exist.
In believing that we are the image we have of ourselves, when that image is threatened, then we feel threatened.
The consciousness that cannot stop thinking about the very thing that disturbs it believes that the outside condition is the cause of its pain.
The past cannot be changed by thinking about it. Our hope is to change the consciousness that resists what it says it cannot stand.
Resistance is unconscious negative identification. We keep what we don't want in place by thinking about how much we don't want it.
The past that we don't want to relive comes to life only when a sudden thought about it is resisted.
The fear that the painful past might happen again causes what happened in the past to happen again.
Psychological pain happens when a lower level of consciousness resists its own content.
It is useless to struggle against conditions, but it is useful to struggle to use the condition in order to see more about yourself.
The only thing that troubles you about other people is what you want from them.
- Topics:
- Guilt / Regret
- Past
- Painful Memories
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How to Leave the Pain of the Past Behind You
Posted by Guy Finley in 459 Galice Road, Merlin, OR 97532 on , and updated on .
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