Burdens of the past

A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At
one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the
monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young
and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young
woman asked if they could help her. The senior monk carried
this woman on his shoulder, forded the river and let her down
on the other bank. The junior monk was very upset, but said
nothing.

As they both were walking, the senior monk noticed that
his junior was suddenly silent and enquired, “Is something the
matter, you seem very upset?” The junior monk replied, “As
monks, we are not permitted to touch a woman, how could
you then carry that woman on your shoulders? The senior
monk replied, “I left the woman a long time ago at the bank,
however, you seem to be carrying her still.”
Children live with a similar state of mind as that of the
senior monk. Psychologically, past is always a burden. In the
present, all of us or most of us are conditioned by our past.
We all want to live with a fresh mind, without any burdens
of the past. Rarely do we find the traits of the senior monk
in us. To be in a calm, balanced and peaceful state of mind,
depth of knowledge about our psyche is mandatory. We have a
superficial knowledge about our psyche, and this is the reason
why there is no balance in our mind. Only silence can penetrate
into the nature and structure of the psyche, a chattering mind
cannot dwell deep. We all want to live in the present attentively,
but we fail to do so. Through this book, I want to explore the
same. So, let us examine together, the different aspects of our
psyche in the coming chapters.

Note: Feel deeply the state of mind of that senior monk.