TOPICS
KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 20
The existence of individual human beings is known as life. Every human being has their own life and definition of life. What they see and experience about life is what they believe to be true. What is good or bad is all based on your surroundings and your memory.
Time is divided into the past, present and future. But what we think of as the past is all that our memory is telling us about. In other words, any event or thing in our memory helps us to break it into the past, present or future. But if it doesn't exist in our memory, then there is also no past. And whatever is happening in the present is already the past. Similarly, the future is what our memory suggests depending upon the present time. So, in reality, the only thing that exists is your being, who is witnessing everything as memory.
As per our own memory, we decide if something is good or bad. But we as human beings may not have complete memory to know everything since the creation of the world. However, one has to understand that the past is what the present became, and the present is what the future will become. Therefore, the memory at the beginning of creation is the same memory that exists in the present, and it would be the same memory that would exist also in the future. That is, memory exists all the time, whereas all other things keep changing.
If you look at the nature of memory then it has the same quality as that of magnets. Whatever it sees, hears, smells, tastes and feels it attracts toward it.
Now look at the natural events that happen in your life and in the life of others, such as birth, death, problems, happiness, feelings of sadness and bliss. Every human being goes through these things. The only difference is the timing of these events. The interesting part is, it is your own memory that decides how you should feel, act, react or do nothing in certain situations. How one acts – positively or negatively – depends upon what he has treasured as memory.
The ultimate satisfaction in life is to know or realise that our own memories decide everything in our lives. When one realises this truth, then one can easily decide what one wants in life.
There could be so many things in our memory, but what we usually are aware of is what keeps happening in our life. So to remain in a state of happiness or bliss, one has to be aware of happy feelings and not sad ones, in other words, positive thoughts always create positive effects. Usually what you are aware of in day-to-day life is what is creating more for you to feel it. If you want ultimate satisfaction in life then detach yourself from all kinds of negative thoughts by not being aware of them.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 21, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
