Me (Alexandra): Universe?

Universe: Yes, dear one?

A: How can I stop myself from spending too much time in the past? It bothers me.

U: Ah, you mean that you bother yourself!

A: Uh, I guess so! I never thought about it that way before. You see? This is why I enjoy communicating with you so much!

U: Thank you, dear one. It is most gratifying to hear your appreciation. So, you bother yourself by, shall we say, living in the past.

A: Yes! I keep clinging to my old perceptions of myself, allowing things that happened in the past to shape who I am now.

U: May we say that we feel you are being a little hard on yourself?

A: What do you mean?

U: Have you not changed yourself in multiple ways since you started practising Nichiren Buddhism many years ago?

A: Oh. Yes I have. But –

U: Stop right there. That harmlesss-looking little three-letter word is in fact as powerful as a hand grenade in destroying your happiness.

A: What do you mean?

U: “But” negates everything good by implying it’s not enough and irrelevant. “But” is the opposite of appreciation. It’s actually a complaint. Then, because your focus is on what you believe to be missing, when you visit the past, your mind goes there as the impoverished, unaware and ego-vulnerable entity you used to be, The lesser self, in other words.

A: Okaay… So you’re saying that if I bring forth my greater self, my enlightened mind, I won’t want to visit the past so often? And when I do I won’t want to stay for long?

U: Just so! The greater self is far more interested in the here and now as the basis for moving forward. After all, to get somewhere, you can only start from wherever you are now. If you allow your mind to consume itself with thinking of the past, it’s like looking behind you while attempting to move forward. It is also like starting a race from far back behind the starting line.

A: Wow. When you put it like that, I can see that I’ve been handicapping myself. Good thing I know that my Buddhist practice directly activates my greater self and “breaks the hard shell of the lesser self,” as Daisaku Ikeda wrote in May 1992.

U: A very good thing, indeed.

Before we take our leave of you, dear one, we present an offering of another quote from Dr. Ikeda on the reality of an enlightened life:

The wisdom of Buddhism enables us to break the confines of the lesser self, the private and isolated self held prisoner to its own desires, passions, and hatreds. It further enables us to… expand our lives, with overflowing exuberance, toward the greater self, which is co-existent with the living essence of the universe.

A: Wow.

U: Indeed!

Photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash