Discourse on Living the Present Moment

“If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost

the future.” - Winston Churchill

Seeker: How can one pick up a quarrel with the past because the present is nothing but a modified past and the future is nothing but how we live the present ?

Maladkar: Brilliant. Well said and true that. Now let’s see what Winston Churchill meant by a quarrel between the past and the present. As I understand and interpret, quarrel here refers to not living in the present (born out of the past no doubt) but living in the past in the present moment. Living a moment of regret. Living a moment of past memory. Living a moment which no longer exist. Thinking that the past would have been better. Thinking about the actions that could have been initiated. Wishing, regretting, wanting something that was in the past to be changed desperately. This is nothing but a quarrel, a non-acceptance of the circumstance. With acceptance there is sweetness and understanding. Without acceptance there is bitterness and non-understanding. A struggle. This struggle is again of what could have been in the past and what is now in the present. So what is the solution to the quarrel. Marcus Aurelius so rightly said, “Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.” One good option would be to look at the past with compassion. To look at the past with compassionate confidence. To see, understand and accept that what could have been done in that moment was the right thing to be done. Do not regret the past. Retrospectively you will always think that the past could have been better. But when you go back to the past and relive the moment, maybe that was the best that could be done by you. In that circumstance, the best done by you could be based on your own experiences. Have trust in yourself. You are God’s creation and living to fulfill your destiny. Maybe someone else would have handled it differently and may be in a better fashion. But then that would have been his destiny. Not yours ! You have to live yours. So regret not, worry not, quarrel not with the past. For as you rightly said, the beautiful future will be born out of a beautiful present!