Getting Past the Past

Many people in this world believe in multiple 'lives'. Recently, I have been thinking about this most interesting viewpoint and some of its implications. I have come, at least for now, to the conclusion that we do indeed live more than one life. Not, perhaps, in the strict sense of reincarnation, but in the sense that each day that we go to sleep and re-awaken it is like a mini death with a mini resurrection behind it. Honestly, some mornings I feel like I'm coming 'back from the dead'. However, aside from being a necessary part of life, sleeping and waking can, I believe, be very instructive, to the end that we might live better lives if we see them as multiple chances instead of only one.

Each time we go to sleep, our consciousness becomes dormant and our sub-conscious mind takes over completely. We breathe, pump blood, regenerate, rebuild, dream, solve and regroup for the next day. Our bodies and minds do this automatically and we take for granted the fresh energy and outlook that become ours every morning. I have heard it said that if you have a perplexing problem, you should sleep on it. Perhaps this is because our sub-conscious mind has capabilities for problem-solving that we aren't aware of. But, regardless of how it is done, we each benefit from this wonderful phenomenon. 

I like to think of this awakening as a sort of birth. We are born to another day, even another life. It's true that we carry with us the trappings of yesterday: our families, friends, clothing, shelter, food, furniture, circumstances etc. But even with all of yesterday around us, we can still start each day taking a fresh look at who we are and what we would like to be. Consider a man with amnesia. He wakes up from a bump on the head and has no recollection of yesterday. He doesn't know who he is, or what he has done in his life. Perhaps he was a thief. He may get calls from his friends, wanting him to do a job for them. Someone may inform him of his chosen profession, the absence of his family, the loss of his freedom, etc. He might then find himself wishing that he were not a thief. At this point, he might say to himself: I don't really want to be a thief, I want to be a dentist. So, he picks up the phone and starts making arrangements to attend dental school. 

The wise man, I believe, takes yesterday with a grain of salt and charts a course for a tomorrow that is strictly in keeping with his inmost desires, hopes and dreams. If we do not do this, then we are like the thief who, after awakening from a bout of amnesia, decides it's too hard to change what everyone tells him is his past and he ultimately allows his friends, circumstances and accoutrements to tell him what he is, so he can continue to be what they expect him to be. 

Each day gives us the amazing opportunity to awake from the amnesia of sleep, a gift really, and decide what we want our lives to be. Whatever the past has been needn't determine anything. Certainly, we ought to learn from the past, make needed course corrections and move on, but enslavement to one's past is today's most common slavery. It is the direction of a ship that determines its destination, not where it has been. 

Now is the only time we really have. Yesterday does not exist. Every day that we wake up, we have infinite possibilities at our disposal. So, looking forward and not back, we can behave as though each day were another lifetime and set a course we can live with, instead of merely repeating the past out of habit.