Day 287 – The Past Does Not Exist

A book written in the year I was born was “Journey to Ixtlan” by Carlos Casteneda. This book became beloved by the drug culture, and as was typical, they missed the point completely. When I was in my high school/college years, I read every book I could get my hands on, and this was one book that I remember reading vividly, and no, that was not because I was high on peyote. I have never used peyote and never planned on it. However, I have run in the desert all night long with no flashlight.

This book has a quote from the protagonist, Don Juan, who states the following regarding personal history:

“One must reduce to a minimum all that is unnecessary in one’s life. Once you erase personal history, it’s like an anchor has been dropped.”

I never understood this phrase and, for most of my life, was irritated by it. Of course, you have a personal past; of course, you cannot avoid it. Your personal past is important; it makes up who you are. I was irritated that someone would write such a piece of advice. That is until I found some regret and shame creeping into my life – then I understood.

A great leader once told me that hiking up to the top of the mountain is a lot easier when you are not carrying a bag of rocks. My advice to you is to drop the bag of rocks. This proved to be sage advice that would come to play much later in life.

When I was younger, full of ambition, hopes, and dreams and a bit too idealistic, I had no room for such notions. However, after I made a few mistakes, took some wrong turns, and experienced some failures, did I understand what this Don Juan character was talking about. I understood why all major religions have redemption built into their programs.

We can become saddled by regret and shame. We can become tethered to beliefs and ways of thinking that work well at one time but do not work anymore. We can become stuck in the way things were instead of dealing with the way things are.

As a consequence, I have added this concept as my 4th principle in my 10-day series:

Principle 4 – The Past Does Not Exist

This is true if you think about it. When you wake up this morning, all the bad things you have done and the good things you have done do not exist anymore. They are over, and there is nothing that you can do about it. The only thing you can do is deal with what is in front of you right now. There is no use worrying about what you did or what others did before. There is no use relying on how good you used to be, because all you really have is what you have brought to the table today.

Having the mindset that the past does not exist helps you focus on only helpful thoughts. That is, living in the present and not hanging out in the past all day long. The now is all that you really have any power to influence anyway.