Visions of the past and future exist only to enhance the present moment.
Their only reasonable purpose is to enhance the gift of life, now, in this moment. There can be no other reason for them since they do not exist anywhere but the imagination, now.
Past and future seem to be things that “have happened” or “will happen,” but they are not: they are things that are happening. What’s more: they are things I am making happen - right now.
I think “remembering” a bad thing helps me steer clear of future bad things. I think that by keeping a bad thing in my memory I’ll quickly recognize “bad” when it crops up down the line and I’ll be able to avoid it. This is mental illness. It’s saying “I must keep myself sick so I can avoid getting sick.” Keeping myself sick to avoid getting sick is a sickness.
The clever line, “Those who forget history are doomed to relive it” is backwards. Those who remember history are, quite literally, living it - right now.
What history could possibly prepare me to be fully present and available to you just as you ARE? What truly IS has no history.
If I insist on remembering and keeping alive a history of me, the good person, having been abused by you, the evil person, I imprison myself in the role of “victim” and you (and every innocent person who reminds me of this fictional you) in the role of “enemy.” And I find that I resist letting you escape it with any new words or actions.
But who you ARE is something that only exists in the PRESENT. Who you ARE is NOT who you WERE. When I hold stubbornly to who you WERE I am literally not accepting you as you ARE. This is the root of all war.
This is what Byron Katie means when she says “Defense is the first act of war.” Something happens to me involving you. I construct a mental story - which is to say remember it - in a way that defines you as “enemy.” I bring that “past” (meaning “imaginary”) enemy with me into the present (this can all happen in nanoseconds) and I mistake this “memory” of you for who you are now and oppose the beautiful and innocent real person in front of me as though you are my enemy. I oppose you, thinking you’re someone who is not you (and honestly never has been). I’m at war with my imagination.
That’s what all war is.
The question is: what history do I want to “relive?” That’s free will.
What happens if I allow history to begin now? And now? And now?
What if my own wife and children are entirely new people to me every time I see them?
With nothing bad to remember about you, who would I be in your presence? I would be someone who is completely ready to receive you as you are now. Connected to what is.
With no past, no one could ever “continue” to be evil in my mind. When no one could ever continue to be evil in my mind, who would I be able to hate? What would ever move me to cruelty? What could scare me into hurting anyone? Fear would make no sense.
To continually “recall” history is to live in it.
That is why I forgive.
Forgiveness is the recognition of innocence. Forgiveness forgets a (false) history of, say, “victimization at the hands of evil” and transforms it into a (truer) history like “experiencing a love-worthy person doing the best they can with what they’re thinking and believing.” Or something as simple as “I was hurt by you” to “I am hurting myself right now with what I’m thinking and believing about you.”
All memories are constructed in the present.
Whichever “history” I “remember” defines the world I live in now. By continuing to “remember” it, I create it in the present again and again and again and I wonder why nothing changes.
When I continually create the misery of “the past” in the present, I create the very world I want to be rid of.
But I have a choice.
What world do I want? Whatever it is I want, that’s the world to “remember.” Who am I in that world? How do I serve the world when I am that person in that world? Whatever history I remember, I am not just doomed to relive it, I AM actually living it.
If I insist on living something, will I choose to live in division and suffering or peace and love?