Does the past exist at all?

So there is only the reservoir. Right? That’s the very first thing to see. This perception that there is only the reservoir is either an idea or a fact. Any idea remains part of the reservoir. A fact does not.

The fact is about me. Therefore any feeling will distort the fact; so too will any thought.

Are you saying that the very feeling that every thought and feeling comes from reservoir is itself influenced by the reservoir and therefore cannot be assumed to be factual? That the reservoir occupies every corner of our minds? That makes sense. We are mostly unaware of underlying self-interest.

Response to Paul…
No… but we may see the moment we have the desire to repeat… or reach for the indigestion medicine for escape and if we fail to see then, we may have the potential to see when we start trying to copy the good , or rely on knowledge alone to remind us to not repeat… not by plain practical knowledge, but some psychological justification. I’m sure you see what I’m saying… there is always a ‘now’ to see things as they are.

Why divide into new and old? Let us meet with knowledge of our past history and understanding that what happens now enjoys a special primacy in our relationship. It would be unintelligent to deny the memory of our previous encounters … and unintelligent to base our current interaction on our past ones. Our shared past nurtures the soil in which our shared present occurs.

jh2

That’s a problem you have raised. I am asking why start with a problem?

Yes, we are unaware because we have an opinion about it or because there is another form of reaction to it. Actually, our self-interest is apparent from even a casual glance at ourselves and at our own behaviours, but we have pushed it under and made it into a problem. Seeing all this, is there a response which is not just another reaction?

1 Like

Psychologically, is there ever a now? There can’t be, can there?

2 Likes

Then the new is just another modification of the old. We may have shared experiences from the past, both pleasant and unpleasant. But what happens to the present when there is no past?

How can it be a problem? I don’t know what it is. It is only a problem when I say, ‘I know.’ I still think we are talking at cross purposes; that may be the real problem here.

No, the movement of ‘me’, is always of time. Knowledge is too, so is of little or no help in ending that movement .
Habits…

Knowledge can only move in a linear direction, adding to or subtracting from what has been accumulated. Can the mind free itself from this limited movement?

Trying to deal with something I say I don’t know? What do I do? I don’t know, so it is a problem what to do, what to think. You can discover something, but this is something found, nothing to do with knowing or not knowing. Really, there is knowledge, and I do know. I can say I don’t know, when there is completely no knowing, no using knowledge. This not-knowing is different to a lack of knowledge and when I am investigating knowledge to find an answer.

As said elsewhere:-
Habits. Habits. Habits… …
Reactions, resistance, knowledge, explanations, The forms may vary a little.
First see the habit, understand the cause…which also will be of all habits .
Then we may discover the habits never previously seen…not consists at all as habits. Reactions so commonplace the habit is to accept them as normal, They are, in the senses of everyone doing it day after day for millennia.
What is the most commonplace , everyday habit that is common to all… the addiction sustaining and nourishing the illusion of self…
I’m absolutely sure we/you/me know, know, know ?

Seeing the static nature of memory for what it is. If one does, then who is discussing?

Its hard to communicate without drawing conclusions, or mutual conclusions.

Don’t know if I am off topic here, but can there be a kind of communication that doesn’t produce more content. A communication that is, itself, understanding.

What happens to my present experience when the past (memory/conditioning) is absent?

Consciously my mind calms down and simplifies.

Unconsciously … well of course I can’t say for sure, but from what bubbles up to the surface of conscious mind, the mess continues.

If the past were fully absent, conscious and unconscious, there would probably be a profound stillness. Or energy. Or both, or something else entirely. All I can do is speculate.

There is no answer in knowledge. That’s all. That’s why I said at the start that any recourse to knowledge means that the brain is operating illogically. I think you may have interpreted what I was saying slightly differently, but hopefully now we are back together.

Yes, but it is all the same limited movement. What is the factor that frees the mind from this movement?

I’m not sure there is a ‘factor’… it seems to imply time and a ‘result’. Perhaps too close to ‘formula’… science/ mathematics, mechanical …our reactions are similar.