Dear Readers,
Recently I stumbled upon a question from a reader that intrigued me : are we prisoners of the past?
Please give me your thoughts on that.
Love,
Paulo
Dear Readers,
Recently I stumbled upon a question from a reader that intrigued me : are we prisoners of the past?
Please give me your thoughts on that.
Love,
Paulo
mmm nice one - yes and no,
like yourself have written, sorry for not being able to repeat in exact words, but it was something like that we’re now the result of our whole past. All memories, experiences, encounters etc have shaped our person to the one we’re now.
But,
I guess that what she (or he) means is more a negative aspect of being inprisoned in a past that refuse to “loose” it’s grip on us. There I would like to believe it is a question of choice… that what you wrote - if you don’t like your past, invent a new one and believe in it, remember the victories and let them give you strength to move on.
By fear we cling to the past,
afraid to “loose” what can although never be kept. Time flows and so must we.
Will you have a party this spring again?
*smile*
Josephine
Our past is who we are,
our future is what we will become,
our present is trying to overcome our past.
I think it’s the other way around.
Every significant deed in the past is imprisoned by our mind and we have to let it free, because we shouldn’t fill our mind with things we can’t change.
Yes and not. It depends on point of view. If I´m thinking as ordinary person without any spiritual pressure or limits…still the answer can be as Yes and Not. Almost everyone has good and bad experiences from pastness. Sometimes we are doing things or we are acting with the best idea but this can be easily turned to negative….sometimes the acting is as well knowing aim and then it is up to us judge/understand our steps. Based opn this we have lot of options to find out…but mostly we have two alternatives to “try to” live with that, to try to forgive yoursef as is possible, to try to get this as best learning from done mistake or we can torture yourself and be respective prisoner.
This is only flash look as this topic.There are another points of view on this from catholic´s, zen´s, islam´s etc. perspective.
But firstly we have to look on ourselves as thinking human being and it is great if we have own moral priorities.
k
I think if you look expectant towards the future, you will never bee a prisoner of the past.
You should always see your life in the light of what the future brings.
If your not agitated against your past, or bitter on your pas, you will never be a prisoner.
Are prisioners of our past… well we´re prisioners of what we think is our past. for me the future is just this present moment that becomes past while you read this. We´re not stuck in our past, we´re stuck in our own past fears and thoughts.
I agree with almost all of you..
Yes, and No..
it depends on your own mentality, and how you look at things..
if you look at things as an inter-connected chain, then yes we are prisoners..
if you see each day as a new beginning, a fresh start..
then no, we are free from our past..
and for me, it also depends on the situation, or incident..
Yes and No, it depends on who we are, and how we understand it.
Everything that happens to us in the past, in the present or in the future reflects on us.
Whatever we get in touch with, changes and changes us.
Today is different than yeasterday and will be different than tomorrow.
Nothing is and stays the same.
Our past can change us, but also can dominate us, depending on our state of mind, our strength.
You can be stronger because of your past, or you can be weaker.
If it was your stimulus to move forward with your life - you’re OK,
but if not than you’re still there, trapped - in your past.
Your past can be your enemy but also your friend.
Depends on you, only you.
I know from my experience that BELIEVING is the key to overcoming the past, to becoming a better, stronger person.
Only when you believe, you are connected to this Higher Love, which can take you places, can make miracles, can bring you whatever you need in life.
Here is a part of my poem:
…..
..love will show you the way,
even if you are so lost,
will help you understand
some things that you scared of the most.
…..
love
Agnieszka
– Prisoners of the past?!!
mmm… thats a good one. I believe each and everyone of us may get locked up in the past.
But its something that we choose to do.
Regrets, memoirs, sad encounters, HUGE mistakes, they Hunt us to keep us from LIVING, and they try to conquer our thoughts, control us, and its up to us if we let them CApture us, and make us prisioners of that past we probably would have never liked to experience, nor live. And yet its a part of what we are today. And tomorrow all those fortunate/unfortunate events, will help us not fall again and if we sometime do… stand up, heads up and Keep Walking…
So we’ve got to decide whats best 4 us.
Prissoner is a big word, but sometimes we live in our past so we don´t have any evolution. Our past is important because we live something special so that give us some good or bad caracteristic or development or improved.
I think that our past give us our history of life, we need to live our present and we will live our future better than we live now.
Yes, I think we are prisoners of the past if we want to..It depends how good or bad it was the past…
I think we learned from the past experiences for a better future….
well.. we obviously cant forget memories. we cant forget our past and i dont think we should ever do it.
but then, a good prisoner is the one who can learn from his mistakes so he wont be doing the same mistake twice. dont forget your past - use it as a lesson of life.
prisoner in term of it takes much effort to runaway, or else you need outside power to leave the prison, no? otherwise, you’ll be trapped in it
Judgment keeps us in the past. It is a product of the ego.
When we are judging others, it is a reflection of our own inadequacies. It has a boomerang effect : What we give is send back to us.
A lot of wasted energy is spend on the “five minutes glory” of wanting to win at the expense of the others and this can have a devastating effect on the rest of our lives.
When we are inconvenienced by what some people are saying,
instead of learning from it, we tend to react. Every time we are reacting, we are in lack. For ex money problems, war, politics, sports, religion can bring a strong reaction according to our experiences.
To be able to navigate in life, we need a good road-map, otherwise you get lost.
Observations can point you in the right direction.
When you are observing you are detached from th e situation, for ex when you are observing a child in his developmental stages, you look at their strengths and weaknesses in certain areas(c0gnitive, eye-hand co-ordination, emotional, physical, etc) in order to implement a program to help that individual child to reach his potential.
In observation, there are no pass or fail.It keeps you in the moment.
,
We are not prisoners of our past,but,infact it is the other way around…..We are freed by our past…The past has already taken away what had to be taken away,given us what we might need for the future,and has mysteriously paved a beautiful way for the present…..
We are not prisoners of our past. We are today the product of everything we have thought and experienced in the past - including past lives. Since we are all on our proper path of growth, our past is a key ingredient to our success and failures today. Therefore, our past is our teacher and our friend.
your mind is clear and focused.
We are no more ‘prisoners of the past’ than we are ‘guardians of the future’… I have learned from the past, but did not apply it to the future. Does that make me a prisoner of my knowledge? I believe that we must unlock what we know and let our unbridled acts of love compel us to an understanding that as human beings we can only achieve commonality when we have opened our hearts to equanimity.
Your past may shape you, but I choose to believe that HOW - either positive or negative - is still your choice…
So if you are a prisoner it may be your choice?
depends !
till we r living in unawareness, we r prisoners of our past. it is a choice, an unconscious one, which can be changed by conscious efforts !!!
aditya
In my understanding, we are not prisoners of the past. We keep on looking back at bad and good things that happend to us before and keep looking over our shoulders to grow. As days are passing by, we are changing in time thanks good and bad deeds and things that happend to us. We think and rethink again and again about our childhood, days spent at school, memories from our past job, previous relationship to be able to create more integrated picture of ourselves, our changing Us. I think that this looking back we are making only with constant feeling of living in and for the present moment. In other words: Thinking about our past does not mean that we are living in it. What makes us inprisoned and limits us is not our personal, familial or national history but the thread of our potentional, opportunities and possibilities that we have.
So, I do not want to hurt anybody, but for me the statement: are we prisoners of the past is only a word and mental cliché.
and exuse for that we did not enjoy our wealth in the way we could…
No, we are not. The past makes who we are today and if the prison bars reappear once in a while, we know where the keys are kept, Just stop for a moment, think and look for the keys… It’s there somewhere…
You can be.
Some people live in a time of their life that they were happiest. Like they have been caught in a time warp and they don’t want to move on.
On the other hand some people don’t learn/grow from the bad things that have happened to them so they ponder on them and retain a resentment/fear/anger. They don’t let go so that they become true prisoners of their own feelings.
I think for the most part you can learn to let go and hopefully be fully whole again, recovered, but that is not always the case. It shows up in our reactions to certain situations.
Love Kathleen xx
yes I AM a prisoner of the past, while I am sleeping all my dreams occord in our old house i am still dreaming of my past I am locked in my past .
Yes, most of the time.
I tend to make a lot of my decisions based on my past experiences. And this is sometimes useful, but other times it stops me from going into the unexplored.
Sommes-nous prisonniers du passé?
Si nous voyons le temps comme un arbre ou une plante,
le passé étant les racines,
le présent le tronc et les branches et les feuilles,
et le futur les bourgeons, les fleurs et les fruits.
Première obsevation : où est la limite entre le passé, le present et le futur?
Considérant les choses ainsi, je pense que le passé est ce qui nous nourrit.
Sommes nous donc prisonniers de ce qui nous nourrit?
Nous sommes surtout prisonniers de nos choix de nourriture, le choix du terrain ou nous plantons notre arbre ou notre plante.
Ce qui est sûr c’est que nous avons tous besoin de fer, de terre, d’eau, d’air, et de lumière.
La délivrance :
Plus généralement, on peut tirer un trait sur le passé, tourner la page, ou l’ on peut voir la vie comme un palimpseste.
Sur la question du temps, St Augustin dans Les Confessions, dévelloppe une idée très interressante dont je ne me souvient plus bien.
Si quelqu’un peut m’éclairer, d’avance merci;)
Everlasting Now!
Love
PS : “Race de Cain, au ciel monte
Et sur la terre jette Dieu”
Baudelaire
in Les Fleurs du Mal
Diaz
May be we where prisoners yesterday ,or last year ,last lifetime ..what matters is today we have the power to cast the burden on the Christ within and go free …its 2008 not BC ..
Blessings Tania ~~~
LETS THINK IN THE POSITIVE SENSE,WE ARENT PRISONERS OF THE PAST,ITS A TORCH LIGHT THAT GUIDES US WHEN WE TAKE OUR FUTURE STEPS.THE TORCH GETS THE POWER TO GUIDE AS FROM OUR OWN STEPS ONLY. LV,Parveen
Yes and no - I wouldn’t call it prisoners in every case because if we like what we have created everything is fine. But I do believe that we have to deal with prejudices all the time because of our origin and because of what we have already done in our lives etc.
I think I am or I have been and truth is I would like to free myself from that past because is that past what has brought me here; in a present that I don’t like.
And probably, if I am in a dark situation is because I am still a prisioner of my past life (with all my fears).
It is so dark that looks like if there were no way out but, I know there is a way out (and not just out; I mean a Way toward the Light). I just need to learn how to do it; how to bring Light to my mind.
But everytime I try, so far, I have ended up crying, out of sadness. Like now you see …
Am I then still a prisioner? When is this sadness going to dissapear? What is Life and, what is going to happen with me?
I am wounded and I need to go to a Good Place to Heal myself.
I want to have a Family and be a Child again. How can I stay in the world if I am wounded?
Dear A
Believe!
That is the only way.
Believe and trust in God and He’ll bring you the answers,
He always does, for He is the Light of the World!
love
Agnieszka
YES AND NO
(below is a song that i was listening to and i thought of your question and how it related)
“Hello morning, now when does the fun begin
Goodbye morning, sorry it had to end
But see I cried just a little too long
Now it’s time for me to be strong
Hello morning, I sure missed you last night
Goodbye morning, you just won’t do me right
I stayed just a little too long
Now it’s time for me to move on
Hello yesterday, I sure need you now
Goodbye yesterday, I just can’t stay around
You see I cried just a little too long
Now it’s time for me to be strong
Hello yesterday, remember how it used to be
Goodbye yesterday, I can’t take you with me
You see I stayed just a little too long
And now it’s time for me to move on”
Bem eu vou escrever em português mesmo. Alguem escreveu em francês, acho que falar em portugues me ajuda a expor melhor o que eu penso. Eu não acho que seja apenas um estado mental e um cliché, somos sim prisioneiros do nosso passado.
Você, Paulo, sempre fala muito em seus livros de forma que de alguma forma devemos construir um futuro, achar o nosso caminho e nele construir nossa lenda pessoal. Mas como poderemos construir novas estradas, sem sabermos o que fomos outrora?
Tavez não sejamos assim tão prisioneiros, mas conhecer nosso passado é algo que nos ajuda a contruir nosso próprio futuro.
E o passado não é algo que possa ser negado, ou refeito. É com ele que aprendemos a consertar nossos erros, a lutar mais, a respeitar e tantas outras coisas que são únicas dos ser vivo : homem.
E eu tenho que se renegamos o passado renegamos o que somos em essência.
Dear A,
I don’t know if you have a faith, it sounds as though you do. Pray for help, for alms, peace of mind and also take small steps to help yourself by doing positive things for other people in need. One of the best ways to help alleviate the sadness you feel for yourself is to help others.
Once I basically begged for help from God to alleviate my hurt and I will always remember this, I felt a wave of calm wash over me.
Believe in good, keep yourself busy, whatever you can change for the better - even if small things, try to because it will help.
Kathleen xx
We are not prisoners of our past, but we are connected very deeply with it.
Anything you see, hear or smell your mind will associate it with past experiences.
The past is living in us – all is registered, but it does not imprison us. If you have seen your life roll by backwards from the last moment to almost the first (NDE), you will realize this.
On a daily basis a recollection at the end of the day is well advised and then just let go and do not dwell on anything. Tomorrow is a new day…a new inscription on the emerald tablets. Remember whoever is without “sin” can throw the first stone; we all have done, said and thought things we are not proud of. So just forgive yourself and others and move on. If something persists in your mind, just take a deep breath and blow it away – literally.
I think - that the true is in each reaction:-) I can agree with everyone partly.
The life is too short to be a prisoner, but sometimes we are. Sometimes we are fighting with. Sometime we won and we are free, sometimes not….the life is about to have open eyes and mind. This is the most difficult thing…to be honest yourself…
So we can try to be free…
Kate
we must realise that sometimes we have fears. All persons have their own fears.there are born fears, which are not dangerous and permit us to avoid risky situations for our lifes, and then there are unborn fears,which are a product of dilusions that we gained from past experiences. So our fears make all of us somehow prisoners of our past, becoming real obstacles for us to achieve what we want. We must freed from them.
I think many people are prisoners of their past, but only because they choose to be.
Throughout our life we encounter situations, those situations teach of lessons, challenge us to change and to grow. If we do not learn those lessons, if we do not grow, then we become stuck in the same place. Those same situations will continue to come back, trying harder and harder to teach us the same lesson, help us grow in the same way. Many people refuse to learn these lessons, many of the lessons are not fun to learn, or require us to grow or change in a way that at the time does not seem like something we want.
However, if we learn the lessons, if we grow as we need to, then we move on into our future and the past becomes the past forever.
Our past is part of who we are, but it is not who we are going to become.
A,
You sound a lot like a good friend I have (or used to have). He continues to hold himself back because of the mistakes he has made. He also continues to make the same mistakes again and again. Thus he is a prisoner of his past. He can not move forward because he continues to concern himself with past mistakes, and then continues to make them again.
Tomorrow is a new day. What happened to you yesterday should only serve to guide you, not determine your exact path.
Use your past as a source of strength for your future. If you have gotten through those other tough times, you can get through this as well.
Often our future is brighter than we think. It is so easy to concentrate on all the bad things in this world, and let it get us down. We focus to much on the bad things in our life, and the horrible situation we may be in. But we can solve our problems, overcome our situations and become wiser and stronger for them.
Have faith in God.
Have faith in yourself, God does.
We are prisoners of our past. Ideally, we shouldn’t be. Each and every action and thought has brought us to wherever it is we are right now. However, in order to live life freely we must let go of the past…it has served it’s purpose, we have reached the destination. The past is no longer useful and only serves as a chain, prohibiting us from fully exploring the present.
Only if you belive on that!!!!!!!!!
the past is a gate to a future and present therefore
we are concted to the past as slave prisioners,or just memories that guide aour self to become wise.
Paulo, this is a clever question and prisoners is a strong word in this case. Yes, I believe we are prisoners of the past. You know the saying that goes something like, “If we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it.” And yet, we keep repeating it, don’t we. There is still war and such, and we know that war rarely benefits both sides. I read a book once that said that we should just forget the past and that is the only way to really move on, since remembering it only brings pain and repetition. Of course, completely forgeting may not be the answer, maybe to forgive would be. Forgivness is a human quality we often overlook and are frequently incapable of doing. It is hard, but worth it in the end, i think.
Nous sommes prisonniers du passé, tant que nous refusont de livrer bataille.
Même Bouddha a travaillé sur lui toute sa vie.
I am a prisoner of a love I feel for one man. He and I are not together anymore, yet I still feel he is a part of me I can not easily discard or ignore. I am also a prisoner of the loathing I feel for certain people who betrayed my trust and, as a result of that betrayal, lost me my one true love.
Now I am a different person than I was before. I am a result of my past heartaches, and the present emotional prison I have made for myself.
I am not willing to break free because as long as I am alive, I can not forget a love so deep and true, nor can I forget a hatred so deep and unforgiving.
Am I wrong in my actions? I don’t feel I am. Am I going mad? I feel I am.
I think we are products of our past, but not prisoners. The word prisoner implies we are stuck in the past, but I do not think this is not the case. We have the power to move on from what lies behind us.
I’m stuck in 1999…
I have been a prisoner of my past up until now, and know many people who are as well. Allowed myself to be riden by guilt from the mistakes I have made. Can’t do it any more, though. After reading The Zahir, it is impossible to go on being a prisoner.
We are a result of our past experiences, yes, amongst other things, but as a lot of the bloggers have said, we always have a choice as to how we use the past in our daily lifes. I.e. do I allow my past to rule my life, or do I, as a reborn person, rule my past and consciously decide NEVER to let it take over my life, but only use what I have learned to lead an effective and fulfilling life, and not make the same mistakes that allowed my past to rule me in the first place.
I choose the latter. Just have to write down my personal history first, though. Harder said that done!
I believe that we are all relatively improsoned some way or some how depending on how much in denial we become…anything that happened in the past has an impact on the future as if the future is dependent on the past activities…are we imprisoned???well we cant leave our past if it manifests itself in our future!so maybe we are
PS. . .
Edson, very well said! Your comment deserves to be in some or other global book of true sayings / quotes! Keep them coming!
You repeat it becose you are a freid to go forvard.
i cant ride on engish,this is in slovenian language.
Ze beseda zapornik ti pove vse!Ali je beseda zapornik lepa beseda???Na kaj pomislis ko cujes besedo zapornik?????????Ali pomislis na vse lepo???????????????
Js verjamem v lepoto i ljubezen,vse kar je lepo je iz ljubezni.
Jaz osebno besedo zapornik nebi dal v moj slovar lepih besed.
Priznam sem tudi jaz pomislil da sem zapornik,in mi je bilo zal ker sem pomislil to.Zelo sem se ubadal s tem,in iskal odgovor.
Ze beseda te pritegne v to da zacnes razmisljati da si zapornik,in ti hoce povedati da si zapornik.Ali razumete???
Vsaka beseda ima svojo moc!
i feel- yes, we are.. we are prisoners of the past. Most of the time we think of what happened in the past and what it would have been, if we acted differntly at that time.. Its like we want to relive our past again and again, which sometimes depresses people and sometimes gives encouragement and learnings.
maybe prisoniers is too much said. but , definetly, past is always with us. always in our mind, even we know it or not. is just enough a sign, a feeling, to remember the past…is always in our souls, and sometimes you feel a pain, or a happiness, or just nostalgy…the past is there. deep in us
Quand notre coopérateur lecteur évoque le « passé », je pense qu’il veut en fait parler des « éléments du passé contenu dans notre mémoire ».
Dans mon ressenti, le contenu de ma mémoire est la source de mon apprentissage de la vie. En quelques sorte j’imagine ma mémoire comme un espace illimité où je conserve, consciemment ou non, les éléments marquants de ma vie. En explorant cette bibliothèque illimitée, je peux relire mes instants vécus et, du coup, faire remonter en moi les émotions et les sensations vécues ; c’est « mon passé ». Le passé est pour moi une forme de présent « suspendu » parce qu’en m’y replongeant, je revis l’intensité émotionnelle initiale (et l’émotion est une propriété du présent). Par les visites régulières à ma mémoire, je relis mon vécu et j’apprends, le plus souvent inconsciemment. Je prends acte de ces expériences passées dans notre comportement présent, je mûris en somme. Ce « cycle de l’apprentissage » à tout pour être vertueux, et l’homme est un virtuose quand, par sa prédisposition à se nourrir du passé, il devient capable de donner un sens à sa vie (présente) et qu’il s’ouvre alors au futur.…et à la réalisation de sa légende personnelle.
Cependant, par nature, l’homme est aussi amener à ressentir le présent avec inquiétude. Sans doute est-ce le propre de tous les animaux, le leg commun qui nous a appris que, pour survivre, il valait mieux toujours rester sur ses gardes, l’ennemi et la mort n’étant jamais loin Ce goût pour l’inquiétude* nous amène parfois à donner trop d’importance au passé, du moins, elle ne nous permet pas d’apprendre correctement de celui ci. L’interaction entre « passé » et « présent » peut alors devenir vicieuse, le sens de l’avenir ne nous est plus accessible, l’obsession du passé prenant confusément sa place. Par opposition au cycle vertueux, nous sommes dans ce cas enfermé dans le passé…
Evidemment, la suite idéale serait maintenant de décrire ce qui différencie la nature vertueuse ou vicieuse de notre mémoire, et pour le coup, d’expliquer comment favoriser la première et se défaire de la deuxième. Evidemment j’en suis incapable par les mots. Sans doute, la solution est contenue dans notre « capacité à percevoir le présent », car cette perception est à l’origine du contenu de notre mémoire donc à l’origine de notre capacité à comprendre la vie et à envisager l’avenir. Mais ce cycle est défini par une causalité initiale inconnue, tel l’œuf et la poule. En lisant Paulo, ce que j’aime, c’est qu’il m’aide justement à vivre le présent intensément et sereinement. Même si chaque lecteur interprète ses livres différemment, je pense que la primauté du « présent » qui transparaît dans son écriture est universellement ressentie, d’où son succès. Lire du Coelho participe à l’ouverture à sa légende personnelle !
Amicalement
Arnaud
*une inquiétude qui prend une autre dimension dans la condition humaine, car l’idée de mort y fait échos à des questions existentialistes. De plus, pour beaucoup d’occidentaux, l’omniprésence d’un ennemi mortel est une vague idée… Ces deux éléments étant propices à la transformation de l’inquiétude en angoisse).
No, not prisoners. I believe that we are reflections of the past.
What you did yesterday will decide what you are doing today and that will prepare you for tomorrow.
Who was it said;
No things are a problem in Life - it is all in our attitude toward those things…..
We can be prisoners (of many or any things)
And we can choose not to be
We can as easily be slaves, even to the possible future, even at the same time being a prisoner of the past.
Trying to be aware of each choice in the present, the Warrior can experience an attitude of freedom
no matter his past
no matter his future
when each decision is made based on the Love in his heart
he is indeed free
(and that includes being free to make mistakes also, hehe, because we know that’s how we learn and if one considers the past a prison then there is a lesson there which one has perhaps failed to learn from)
Thank you, sir
much love
A PRISON is created to put limits to a MISTAKE. A PRISONER is contained to be taught a lesson. WE ARE ONLY PRISONERS OF OUR PAST IF WE DON’T LEARN FROM IT’S MISTAKES.
Yes, I’m
Although I learn from my mistakes, the feelings still remain in me.
As the matter and energy can be transformed, but still there.
What do you feel when you find, after a long time, with your first love? … Is not the feeling reborn?
To remember is re-live that moment
Dear A,
Amongst all the comments, yours called out and touched me. You know why? I am going through exactly the same thing you are. I don’t want to assume however, but I think I am two baby-steps ahead of you. The difference between then & now with me is I have decided to get out of the darkness. I know YOU will understand this when I say (and this has worked for me)”The sadness hits you the moment you wake up in the morning. Embrace the sadness, let it come. Don’t push it away. Feel the sadness. Cry if you have to (the shower is a good place ~smiles~). And then pause. Breathe deeply and then DECIDE. Consciously decide to make TODAY happier than yesterday. Or at the very least, LESS sad. ONE DAY AT A TIME. Say it loud. “I DECIDE”. At the end of the day, you will be surprised.”
For TODAY, I made a simple promise to myself to SMILE at any chance I can,throughout the day even if I didn’t feel like it. I made two new friends. Tomorrow, I promised to call one long lost friend. And the next day….who knows?
Just try it. You’ve got nothing to lose. Just think, when you wake up tomorrow…I too,in another part of the world, will be ‘DECIDING’ just like you….
Unless one learns how to forgive the way God forgives, one is a prisoner of his/her past.
Yes, we are. And it is our self-love that gives us the strength to eliminate from our lives what we think is wrong and hold on to what we feel is right.
I remember being 8 years-old and fully realizing what I thought it was wrong doing in my parents, family members, teachers & friends and promising myself I wouldn’t do that.
At 38, I still fight the bad habits I learned as a child. I truly believe that becoming who you want to become is a daily fight.
You just don’t get there and that is the end of the road, you need daily maintenance.
It quite difficult to break free from cultural, social, family habits, even if we fully realize that they are not the best.
It takes a great deal of self-discipline to elimintate them from our lives, especially if people around you are caught in the same habits. And worst if they don’t support you and see your trying to break free as a negative thing and even scold you for that.
Most people choose their own mind-prison. Sometimes we choose our own past; sometimes someone else’s, like our parents or our country’s. There’s some comfort in being stuck. Past provides a set of rules, shake ‘n’ bake beliefs, comforting habits and graspable expectations. It doesn’t require any changes, evolving and risking.
Living in the past gives people an excuse to shape their present and future in a way that would otherwise be inexcusable and irrational. We can even claim that we have no control over these things: “Things just happen because of the previous things that also just happen. Therefore my life is out of my hands.”
So to answer your question, yes, we are stuck when we choose so. We move on when and IF we conquer our fears.
Dear Karina,
I agree with you:
.. sometimes you feel a pain, or a happiness, or just nostalgy….
The memories from the past stay with us all the time.
love
Agnieszka
Si somos prisioneros de nuestro pasado, así como la naturaleza nos enseña que en nuestra sangre ADN llevamos impresa toda la información de nuestros antepasados y en lo que respecta a la herencia tenemos ya unas carazterísticas heredadas y se van trasmitiendo de padres a hijos.
Otra cosa es pensar que por esto no somos libres, existe un tanto por cien en que forma parte de nuestro destino y existe un tanto por cien que es nuestro libre albedrío osea podemos elegir y es en esa elección que seremos mas libres o mas atados a nuestro pasado.
Ademas de la herencia existe lo aprendido a través de la imitación por eso tenemos que aprender a desaprender lo que se llama desatarse de padre y madre.
Yes, most of us are, but the secret is to let past to be just a past. To live in a present moment and not be its prisoner. Like the story of Tarot card XX, Judgement. Every card in Tarot has its story. They tells about Fool’s journey and his spiritual development. That is the story about everyone of us too. When Fool comes to Judgement, he is just one step before the end of his journey. And this is the story:
“As the Fool leaves the garden of the Sun, he feels that he is near the end of his journey, ready to take a final step. But something is keeping him from doing this, holding him back. He gazes up, hoping to find guidance from the Sun; instead he sees above him a fiery angel, beautiful and terrible.
“You are right,” the Angelic figure confirms, “you have only one last step on your journey, one final step to completion. But you cannot take that step until you lay your past to rest.” The Fool is perturbed. “Lay it to rest? I thought I’d left it behind, all of it,” he says. “There is no way to do that,” The Angel observes. “Each step wears down the shoe just a bit, and so shapes the next step you take, and the next and the next. Your past is always under your feet. You cannot hide from it, run from it, or rid yourself of it. But you can call it up, and come to terms with it. Are you willing to do that?”
The Angel hands the Fool a small trumpet. The Fool is hesitant, but he knows that this is a final decision. Either to go forward, or stay where he is. He blows, and the trumpet’s song echoes across the sky, its vibrations seeming to crack open the Earth. From under the Fool’s feet, memories rise. Images of his innocent youth, challenges, loves, failures, losses, success, disillusionment and wisdom.
For the first time, he does not try to leave them, ignore or forget them, but accepts them. They are, he sees, nothing to fear. They happened, but they are gone now. He, alone, carries them into the present. With that understanding, the memories vanish. Though they remain in his mind, they no longer have any power over him. He is free of them, reborn, and wholly in the present.”
The present moment is only moment that we have!
Love,
Ana
Yes, we are. Since we can not change it and it marks the rest of our lives. we can’t get free of it
voici la traduction de ce que j’ai ecrit en anglais.
Est-ce que nos pensees nous empechent d’avancer dans la vie?
Le jugement nous maintient dans le passe. C’est un produit de l’ego. Lorsque nous jugeons les autres, c’est une reflection de nos propres insuffisances. L’effet du “boomerang” se produit - ce qu’on envoie, nous revient -
Beaucoup d’energie est depensee dans les “5 minutes de gloire” a vouloir gagner a tout prix, au detriment de l’autre (le syndrome de “J’ai raison et il/elle a tort” et cela peut avoir des repercussions pendant une longue p eriode de notre vie.
Lorsque nous sommes deranges par ce que les autres disent, au lieu d’apprendre la lecon, nous avons tendance a reagir. CHaque fois que nous reagissons, nous sommes en manque.
Par exemple, les problemes d’argent, la guerre, la politique, le sport, la religion peuvent provoquer en nous une reaction tres forte.
Pour bien naviguer dans la vie, nous avons besoin d’une feuille de route tres detaillee, sinon nous risquons de nous perdre.
Les observations peuvent nous remettre dans la bonne direction.
Quand nous observons, nous sommes detaches de la situation.
Nous observons un enfant pour voir quelles sont ses competences au point de vue physique, cognitif, emotionnel, etc, afin de mettre en place un programme pour l’aider a atteindre son potentiel.
Notre esprit est clair et concentre.
Dans les observations. il n’y a pas d’echec ou de reussite.
Ego = passe = reaction
Coeur = present = action
Debarassons-nous du jugement, de vouloir tout controler.
Restons conscient tout simplement.
I am a prisoner of the past. Unfortunately it hurts but there are some “things” that I am not ready to let go just yet. I think that most of the time is not about trying to learn from our mistakes anymore but it is about understanding that what is keeping you from moving on is fear to those things that are forever gone or memories that will never be materialized again. To me dreams are the golden key that once in a while allow me to see that no matter how good the past was, living life as it is could be even brighter. It’s hard to let go though.
love
-Veronica-
are we prisoners of the past…
the complexity of this question is revealed once one recognises that the past is never just about the past. To comprehend the full implications of the past on us we must, then, first do away with linear conceptions of time. What counts as the past, what is considered, dwelled upon, performed and ritualised in the collective memory of a community is inextricably bound to the politics of the present and future; employed in the contruction and maintenance of our identity. One is not necessarily a prisoner of the past, but that does not mean the past can be easily forgotten. The ghosts of the past have a habit of returning when we expect them least. As the old saying goes: ‘we might like to forget about the past, but will the past forget about us.’
But that is not to say one is without agency, but that one must recognise the past’s power and that for many people its grip is such that it can not be done away with as one would with an item of clothing that no longer suits the style. Past grievances and injustices if left unresolved can easily ferment, particularly when they underpin relations of power and inequity. As we see in the violence across the (post)colonial world. the legacies of the past continue to play out with violent repercussions.
To free ourselves from the past we must, i believe, bear witness to its impact on the present. We must also remain critically reflexive toward it and avoid the bounded and linear notions of time that seem to pervade modernity.
If you feel like a prisoner of your past, you have different opportunities to break free:
a)You can dig a tunnel (the way of the average prisoner)
b)You can shoot the sheriff (the Bob Marley way)
c)You can jump over the cliff into sea (the Papillon way)
But all solutions have something in common:
You have to take a risk, eventually you hurt someone and you need a lot of courage.
People pretending that there is no way out at all are too lazy to try it or afraid of fighting.
It is a coward excuse to consider oneself as a victim of circumstances of life, willing to believe there is nothing to change.
The past is gone, but the future is yours!
This is the chance you have to take.
I do not believe that we are, but in my therapy work I estimate that as many as 90% of those I work with believe it, both indvidually and collectively. If we were truly imprisoned by the past then we would be eternal victims and we are more than that. The past is a convenient gaoler for those fear who this.
Even in the face of repeating histories we always have a choice - to rise above it, or to participate in perpetuating it. Change and evolution is a power that lies with each individual, and until we own that power society never will.
Dear je suis du sud
I agree with your last comment. I think your description of relations between past and ego is rigth, but it’s limited on judgment attitude. As you say, judgment is an attitude which reflect ou own inadequacies. In my last comment, i consider our “nature for worry and anxiety” as the responsible for bad comprehension of our past (i present it as the common state of mean of animals, a selected attitude profitable for survive in a world of competition, specialy for food and sexual partner). The mentality expressing “woory” depends on your personnality and situation, and often can appear a form of obsession, obsession for judging people for exemple. I love the idea of richard forest who compares past as a teacher. And past can become a friend if we observe an consider present with our heart.
arnaud
The past is the only certainty we have for free. For the future, we need the aid of religion. The past might not be so comfortable, but is the only thing we possess.
in my “atheistic developped” socity, death is a tabou, and our education leave us neither piece nor plan for understand death. If in your life you have one’s back to death, your eyes only look on the past and so you are prisonner of it. If you reunite birth and death in our mind, barriers of time disappear, you become clear, free…
I have read your thoughts and think about them and tried to impact it on my personal experience. I remember also as we all do many of the bad things that had happend to me when I was child or growing up, in heart matters, at school, in family… I can steel feel the bitter taste of distrust to the others, much hurt for not being appreciated in the way I wanted to be, not well understood by my parents, not enough “good” to be loved by somebody I felt much for. I was grasped by the expectations that I and my closest have about me. I lived with a constant impression that it limits me from moving ahead in many ways. That these experinces binds me. But I must admit that they also let me think and feel more for me and the others, learn me that I am the result of my past as well as todays forms my future. If I only had more trust that bad things have happen to me to show me all the coulours of life of my freedom and personality.
our past is not who we are,it’s who we were, if ppl understood this basic principle it would be life changing, of course it helps to make our choices for the future, for we are the creators of our own universe. those who choose to be prisoners will be.
People can be prisoners of their past but also of their future. We have the tendency to live both in the past, regretting what we have done or what others did to us or idealizing what we were and had or to live in the future by making plans, arrangements and organizing our lives in minute details for 30 years from now on. These are illusions and we like to oscilate between past memories and future plans because we are not ready enough to live the present moment yet. Being here and now means to accept reality, to accept yourself as you are, as you have become and just enjoy being alive, of course accepting others too as they are!
I used to go back to my past and forward to the future very often but now I got rid of this bad habit because I realized what a great relief is to be free, living the present moment and not thinking about what has been, what could have been or worry about what might be.
The present is the result of what we have thought, of our past actions and the future will be the result of our present actions, of the attitude we have today.
If now I have bitterness and stress, tomorrow I’ll harvest what I have planted today, so why not plant the seed of joy and faith?
We should let God handle our past and future and live in the present beautifully, like no beginning and no end.
Time is a dead thing anyway, it exists only in our minds. When we manage to control them, it will be automatically controlled too.
But there is a condition: to believe in all this theory, otherwise it cannot be put in practice. Those who can live in the present joyfully are really lucky and blessed! :-)
Lots of love to the whole world,
Carmen Larisa
And one more thing: when I used to pendulate between past and future so often, I remember always having the sensation that something was missing in my life, not knowing exactly what, even during the greatest moments, there was an empty space, I could felt it but not explain it, why it existed. Now I don’t have this feeling anymore, I feel secure and optimistic. I have found the empty space, I have found mySelf living in the present moment! Sometimes we lose our hearts, ourselves in the past or in the future and forget that we are only now, this is the only reality we can handle.
May God bless the whole world with love and enlightment! :-)
Many hugs and affection,
Carmen Larisa
Depende de como interpretar essa questão.
Acho que em relação aos antepassados há resquísios que caminham conosco em busa ca evolução de todo um trajeto espiritual à conquistar , limpando ou organizando a tradição que nos é incumbida. De resto aos conhecimentos e experiencia passadas e vividas-passadas, são outras tantas opções escolhidas que cabe a nós transformar para melhor ou aprimorar para o lado apropriado ao bem. N
I think that more than prisoners of the past human beings are prisoners of the emotions and feels that past experiences provoked in them. An irrelevant experience is easly forget, but those moments in life when an instant made them feel happy or sad, angry or in peace,are the ones that mark who they become and unquesionabily a part of themselve.
I think it is a matter of identification of myself
It may be a part of myself coming up now and then reminding me of the past. Anyhow I will always have my right to chose whatever I will feel being a prisoner of my past or not.Why chose being a prisoner? Why not take a step aside and look at it? and then take care of your life wisdom from your past and treat it like a goldmine for today and further on in your life..
*
“Free will..”
“It’s all about choice…”
*
Do we really have choices?
Could our choices change what we are? Who we were? The facts and things that happened?
*
Can we see the old man inside the young one walking down the street?
Can we imagine or feel the poor child inside the well-succeeded man, standing in front of us?
*
The things we remember,