PAST: Letting Go of the Baggage of the Past
/Edition 2 Issue #32
My past is behind me!
Yesterday’s gone; there’s nothing you can do about yesterday! So let it go! Like the parable of the two Monks walking through the forest: As the two Monks approach a stream, they observe a woman on the far bank beautifully dresses in a lovely long gown, very colourful, ornaments and bejewelled, well made up, and obviously wealthy. As they look down to her feet to observe her wearing delicate shoes and appeared hesitant, even resistant, to put her feet in the water, lest she would damage her beautiful, delicate, shoes and her long dress. The elder of the Monks speaks out to her to wait; he crosses the stream and picks her up carries her across the stream and puts her down in proximity to the younger Monk who looks, jaw dropped, puzzled by this breach of protocol. The lady bows shallowly, as royalty would, thanks the Monk and carries on her journey. The two Monks cross the steam at their turn and continue on their journey to the neighbouring village in silence for a long moment, when suddenly the younger Monks speaks out and asks: “ How come you picked the lady up? We are bound by the oath and are not permitted to touch women. You breached this oath!” Now the elder Monk looks at the young man and replies: “I dropped her a long time ago, why are you still carrying her?”
The moral of this story is we carry so many things from the past, be it from hours, days, years, and decades… We must learn to let go of the things which are holding us back from the “Sunlight of the Spirit”. Anything we hold onto is a potential blockage, especially resentments and pain body. The things we most dearly cling to are usually wrapped in pain body and we set them into protected “closet” spots within our heart of hearts and pretend to forget about them. But in our most dire hours, these are the things the ego-mind clings to.
HAMSTER ON A TREADMILL
I hear the expression of the “gerbil (or hamster) on a treadmill” or the ancient meditation guru’s called it “monkey mind”, and this I can relate to; as I recall the Disney depiction of monkeys jumping haphazardly from tree limb to tree limb with no rhyme nor rhythm, no particular purpose… and this is my head. My mind is constantly and continually lying to me; as my good, late, friend Milton Merle used to say: “my head’s got a contract out on my ass” and he was right, left to my own devises I am a train wreck looking for destructive forces within (ego-mind?) to take control and cause havoc, not only in my life, but in the lives those all around me, affecting the lives of the people I care for the most in a negative way. The worst is I usually don’t realize the damage I cause, and create, until it’s too late.
It is a form of self-destruction, of which we don’t realize the extent of the damage until we become depressed and at the end of it, sometimes to the point of being suicidal.
SUICIDAL
When we get into the rut of past pain, and we don’t know how to get rid of bad thought patterns, of incessant chirping in the mind that we did something in our past to deserve punishment, to deserve a bad “karmic” fate. (let it be known here this is countered by the Grace of a power greater than ourselves, call it what you like, Universal Mind, GOD, Creator, (see Edgar Cayce, and A.R.E. (Association for Research and Enlightenment) “… No longer is the entity then under the law of cause and effect — or karma, but rather in grace it may go on to the …”) The religious beliefs I was brought up with that “God” is going to punish me for my sins, that I will go to hell for my thoughts and actions which weren’t aligned with someone else’s (read deity, or Religious entity) beliefs or ideals. All this “made-up” stuff the Church uses to manipulate the populace. We know this is false, in medieval times it may have worked on simple primitive minds. Now we know this is absolutely false, yet those thoughts were so well implanted into our sub-conscious, into our psyche, that we hold onto these false beliefs. For some of us these beliefs are killing us slowly, for others we are suicidal and alcoholic/addict. We “hold on for dear life to the things that are killing us” because we are conditioned to resist change. It is inherent behavior for humans to resist change, (see our post on “CHANGE” in our January 14, 2015 blog, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to get all our blog posts delivered directly to your inbox) no matter how painful the ‘default’ is, we resist the deep, fearless, searching which will identify and bring forth the thoughts and feelings which we harbor inside. These thoughts and feelings, which are FALSE, let it be known here there is no such thing as a fate that will keep me depressed, or poor, or self-conscious. God loves us, each and every one of His children; we are LOVED! Karma also is not an issue as it is completely and fully countermanded by the Grace (see next week’s issue on “GRACE” dated August 19, 2015 issue; subscribe today to have our newsletter delivered directly to your inbox.) of God, or whatever else you chose to call the Divine Creator or the Universe, the Substance which permeates throughout the whole of the Universe and beyond!.
"PAST" PIC by AUTHOR ©Copyright 2015www.beyondthe12th.com All rights reserved
FALSE BELIEFS
Why do we hang onto the false beliefs of the past? The thoughts, ideas and ideals we hold so deeply ingrained in our sub-conscious mind
We just want to end the pain, and we don’t know how. Until now: the 12 Step program will assist you in discovering; and doing a fearless searching moral inventory which will weed out these past thoughts and behaviors if we do this to the best of our ability and are thorough about the process. Check it out, you probably have nothing to lose by trying it; yet everything to gain by completing a fearless, searching moral inventory. Remember, no successful business stays successful without auditing, and inventory taking; so why would a human being be any different. To achieve success we need to take inventory, weed out the bad, and work diligently on the good, progressive traits. We all have strengths and weaknesses; once we properly identify these we can better work at eliminating the weaknesses and improving on the strengths.
Look for next week’s edition on “GRACE”. And be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive it directly you won’t miss a beat.
©Copyright 2015 www.beyondthe12th.com All rights reserved
