How We Distort Reality With the Past

Everything we experience is arising and falling within our field of awareness. A thought appears and disappears. A sound comes and goes. A tree sways, a feeling moves through the body, a memory flashes for a moment. All of it is just experience passing through. Coming and going.

The past is already gone, it doesn’t exist anymore except as a memory. It’s already come and gone. The future hasn’t arrived yet, so it doesn’t exist either. It’s just imagination. What’s real is only this moment. The endless arising and falling of experiences, what’s here right now.

What creates suffering is when we take an experience from the past and bring it into the present by adding stories and meanings to it. If the moment has a strong emotional charge, that memory can feel louder than what’s actually happening now. It can even feel more real than the present moment. It overshadows all of the other experiences currently happening within the field. We’re essentially experiencing a thought in the current field of awareness, with a strong emotional charge. A loud experience within the field that overshadows everything else.

The memory is just another experience, arising and falling in awareness, not something solid or true. It only feels real because we’re so invested in the stories and meanings we’ve given it. It’s just thoughts and emotions entering the field, disguised as something personal and true.

The more we question the stories and process the emotions we’ve tied to old experiences, the less power they have. The quieter they become. The easier it is to rest in the present moment, experiencing life as it actually is, fresh, immediate, and always changing. This is the space where a true sense of peace becomes the baseline.