Working Backwards

Hi folks !


We are creatures of habit and love to live either in the past or the future.

Watch your thoughts at any given moment, even when you are walking on an uneven street.

You will be mulling over what to do about something which is to take place later, or next week or after you retire in 2040.

Or you are angry about what happened some time ago, - could be anywhere between 10 mins ago to a year to ten or an even distant past.


We hate living in the present moment because it passes us by without our knowledge and we do not realise it's importance.


That is the reason we slip on the road or take a wrong turn or overshoot - literally and figuratively.


Each moment of our life carries the burden of past baggage and dreams of a future convinient to us. We hardly seem to live purely in the moment.

This is not a happy situation to be in.

Plus, if one is going to keep the mind full to the brim all the time, with the hurts and anger and sadness or even happy memories of the past, where would be the place for new stuff ?

New memories and joys and lessons learnt - and pride at having learnt ?


I found an answer in a Vipassana course.

My mind would keep going back to past memories of anger, hurt, failure- when I had been unable to say or do anything for a variety of reasons.

It would keep rankling and the meditation would go for a toss i.e. being aware of the pure breath or the physical sensations on the body, nothing beyond.

Vipassana was also, at the same time, making me experience the fact that each and every reaction was a seed sown for the future.

A reaction of happiness would bring fruits of happiness down the line.

One of anger or based on ego would bring a harvest of the same.



Happy thoughts would create a craving for the same and bind me thoroughly to the cycle of life and death.

Aversion to negative thoughts would create equally powerful vibrations and it would be back to the cycle.


So 'Be Equanimous', The Buddha said.


Aaaaaaaah !

But I am, when everything is going my way !


Now for those times when they are not.


When negative memories came up powerfully, I managed to hang on to enough sanity to tell myself that when such a situation arises again in future, I need to be calm.

To not add more fuel to fire.


Time is a continuous flow, it does not come in compartmentalised units, so working backwards to this present moment, if I remain calm now, this seed will give fruit at the right moment in future.


It works every time and everyone can practise it.


When unwanted things happen, what you want doesn't, when the mind seems tired and depressed, take slow, conscious breaths and FEEL your breath coming in and going out.

Think positive. Let go.

Feel the tension draining out of your body and mind.


Practising this when things are fine, on a daily, regular basis helps immensely.

There is an exam or an interview or a meeting- or anything even routine.

Work backwards to this moment and make yourself calm and peaceful.

The connection will remain and you will benifit.

Try it !

Be in the present moment and be happy.

Bye for now !