Our valuable history
Many well-meaning people can often be heard telling others who have been hurt or have suffered in the past to forget the past, the past is something they can’t change so they should move on and focus on the future. If this is something you have been told and believed, then you’ll know how uncomfortable it feels.
The past is history and history is something that has always been valued in many parts of all societies and cultures throughout the world. The history of anything can’t be changed but it’s from history that we gain new insights and knowledge that affects the future, which is why it’s so valuable. We value the history of cultures, plants, animals, art, literature, language and practically every other subject there is; and history is not something we move forward from but something we always move forward with, so the knowledge and understanding it gives us, needs to be in order.
Surprisingly, a profound lesson about the value of the past is found in the original film ‘The Lion King’. When Rafiki who is wise, finds Simba the Lion King and hits him on the head with his stick. Simba reacts in pain and asks, “What was that for?” Rafiki’s reply was it doesn’t matter, it’s in the past. Simba said, “yes, but it still hurts.” “Yes,” Rafiki said, “the past can hurt but you can either run from it or learn from it.”
Our past is our history. It’s the foundation of our growth and it needs to be valued, understood and resolved before we can move on. If the foundation of our growth has flaws, through any misconceptions or false beliefs, then anything we build on it will be unstable. Trying to move forward with false perceptions and beliefs is like trying to move forward with chains around our feet. When we know and understand the truth about our past, we can repair the foundations of our beliefs and move on to a healthy, happy, more prosperous life.
Some of us will have spent a lifetime living with false beliefs and changing that may mean searching back through our childhood for the truth. An unhappy childhood does not limit us or cause us to have problems as adults. It’s not knowing or understanding the truth about our childhood that brings us continued difficulties and unhappiness.
An example of this is being rejected as a child by a parent. A long-held false belief a child may take from this is that there is something wrong with them, or they may believe it’s something they imagined and then learned not to trust their own perceptions. The reality is, there is never anything wrong with a rejected child. The problem and responsibility is with the parent alone, due to their own false beliefs and perceptions, and only they can change it. While we are children, we may need to have the same false beliefs as our parents to survive but we no longer need them as adults.
Searching for the truth can sometimes be a painful process. We may need to relive a painful or traumatic experience to discover the false belief attached to it but when we find the truth and change our perception, the pain attached to the experience will be out of our life for good.
There will be times throughout the process when we will feel subconsciously interrupted before becoming completely enlightened. This is nature’s way of ensuring we have intervals of rest, so we never have more than we can consciously manage.
Facing our fears, embracing the pain of our growth and pushing through the barriers of false beliefs always brings us to a place of peace and true happiness.