Past and Future

Once there lived  two Zen monks Tanzan and Ekido, who were walking along a country road that had become extremely muddy after heavy rains. Near a village, they came up on a young woman who was trying to cross the road, but the mud was so deep ,it would have ruined the silk kimono she was wearing. Tanzan at once picked her up and carried her to the other side.The monks walked on in silence. Five hours later, as they were approaching the lodging temple, Ekiso couldn’t restrain himself any longer. “Why did you carry that girl across the road? He asked.” We monks are not supposed to do things like that”. “I put the girl down hours ago” said Tanzan.” Are you still carrying her? “

The past lives in us as memories. But memories themselves are not a problem. It is from memories that we learn from the past and from past mistakes. It is only when memories, thoughts of the past, take us over completely that they turn in to a burden. Our personality which is conditioned by the past then becomes our prison. We often say’ this too will pass’.  Everything will pass, whether they are good or bad. Like the bad times, the good times will pass too. “Nothing ever happened in the past can prevent us from being present now. And if the past cannot prevent us from being present now, what power does it have?”.