The Past is a Lie

I’ve used this phrase before. I thought it was important to explain: we treat the past as if it is a perfect record of what has happened to us. We treat our memories as truth and our thoughts as if they are a reliable guide.

The problem with that is obvious, if you’ve ever talked to people about an event you also saw. Every single person has a completely different understanding of what happened than you. None of you is carrying around the same ideas, and none of you have an accurate perception.

It’s just your perception. It’s just their perception.

No one likes to hear that. We think our minds and our perceptions are us, so when people hear that their past is a lie, they believe you to be saying that they are less than. It offends them.

You might act on your perceptions and use your memory as a guide, but you are not your perceptions and memory. In a very real way, the fact that you think of them as you means that your memories and perceptions are something being done to you—not by the actors in your head, but by the mind itself. The shadows of joy and the very real misery you experience is being inflicted on the spirit that you are.

The past is a lie. It did not happen the way you remember it, and once whatever happens to you has happened, it is gone. The beliefs and patterns you are using to guide yourselves are not the truth. They’re just poisonous projections of the mind.

They do not have to be the guide for your future.