What is it about the past that fascinates us? Why is it so hard to just “leave it all behind?” — Abdul

All our good experiences are in the past. So also are all our bad experiences. And indifferent ones. And unsorted, unclassified experiences. We come from the past. The future is not yet, and according to some people, the present is a few milliseconds long -- too short to solve any of our problems. So, there is the past.

I happen to think that the present is longer than a few milliseconds. We can not enjoy or suffer or benefit from experience We can hardly have experiences if they disappear into the past every few milliseconds. How can we hear and experience music IF one of the brief notes in a trill is gone before it has lingered even a quarter of a second? Even if the present lasts for the whole symphony, it doesn't last forever, and then it becomes the past.

I'll grant that our memory (the past) is not as solid as bed rock, but it's reasonably stable, and we have lots of records (things, pictures, and writing) that don't change moment to moment.

Another reason for finding the past fascinating is that it is such a rich source of things to think about in the present.

Have you read science fiction stories were people time travel and get stuck in the past? It's usually not a good thing. One author's main 20th century character ended up stuck in Rome towards the end of the Roman Empire. He used some 20th century knowledge and simpler technology to open a business, did very well, and was able to launch the late empire on a technological renaissance. He didn't live any longer in Rome than he would have in 20th century Chicago, but he made good use of his time in the past. Good story.

Throw a Frisbee to someone and they will demonstrate thinking about the future.

Throw a Frisbee to someone and they will demonstrate thinking about the future — AngleWyrm

Awesome response!

You then think about the mistake: not saving your work. You ponder it. You never let it escape your mind. You feel guilt and shame (to some degree). Why? Because it interrupted the development of the identity of the hard-working student. — Abdul

This 'interruption of identity' approach sounds pretty convincing to me. If we ignore physical injuries and just look at emotional/intellectual trauma, I think threats to identity describes the field pretty well. It's as if we are pressing forward into the future with a story of ourselves. We're the good guy, the protagonist.

When something comes crashing in on this story, we are tempted to stop believing it (living-writing it) and start again. We seem to have to 'explain' the disaster to ourselves so that the story can go on --so that we don't have to start from the beginning. I think we end up enriching and complicating the story this way. I'm relatively young, and yet I'm already haunted by lots of disasters. It doesn't keep me from living, but these disasters will pop into my mind out of nowhere. I silently curse my cluelessness or lack of caution in retrospect.

Sure, regret for past mistakes bothers us. I guess it's natural to avoid future similar mistakes. To that end, it's right to analyze and evaluate our mistakes, what went wrong, how we let it happen.

But of course it's unproductive to let that be a source of unhappiness, to let regret dominate. The fact is that, at that time, when a past mistake was made, it was unavoidable (even if, in hindisight, it seems avoidable). What you did then seemed best at the time. In fact, that wasn't really you who made that mistake--That wasn't the same person that you are now.

There's an etherealness and insubstantiality about what happened in our life-experience-story, which must be why. Nisargadatta said that, from the point of view of the sage, nothing has ever happened. Your experience-story went a certain way. Ok. But nothing is lost, gone, or final. It isn't as if there's some finite supply that gets used-up.

Michael Ossipoff

What is it about the past that fascinates us? Why is it so hard to just “leave it all behind?” — Abdul

As I've gotten older, I find that I see, feel my life as all happening at the same time. My friends from 10th grade are just as real and present to me as the people I work with when I'm not actually with them. My father died in 2001, but he's with me all the time, not in a bad way. It's all just built into me, part of me. Kind of like a block universe.

Because you have not managed to forgot some of your past. If you did, you can't.

What is it about the past that fascinates us? Why is it so hard to just “leave it all behind?” — Abdul

Know the past and own the future.
Finding out the mistakes of our forebears justifies our repeating those mistakes for our own benefit.

What is it about the past that fascinates us? — Abdul

We are hardwired to do so. We have multiple memory systems, and they play a pivotal role in both behavior and cognition.

Why is it so hard to just “leave it all behind?

"Each moment is fragile and fleeting.
The moment of the past cannot be kept, however beautiful.
The moment of the present cannot be held, however enjoyable.
The moment of the future cannot be caught, however desirable.
But the mind is desperate to fix the river in place: Possessed by ideas of the past, preoccupied with images of the future, it overlooks the plain truth of the moment.
The one who can dissolve her mind will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet, and clarity at hand."
-"Hua Hu Ching", ch. 21, Walker translation.

It sounds like my argument, to be totally frank. I'm guessing you agree with it

What is it about the past that fascinates us? Why is it so hard to just “leave it all behind?” — Abdul

I carry this on my profile and explains one of the main reasons I am here and one of the reasons I cannot "leave it all behind", for I am still creating home, here, as well as in face to face life~

"We are all longing to go home, to some place we have never been, a place half-remembered and half-invisioned we can only catch glimpses of from time to time. Community. Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to recieve us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power. Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter, a circle of healing, a circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free. - StarHawk"

to be totally frank... — Abdul

You're better at being Abdul.

It sounds like my argument, to be totally frank. I'm guessing you agree with it — Abdul

I was talking about history.

Yeah I know. It sounds like it except the past experience is not only limited to yours. It's a very powerful statement, by the way.

Self reflection at it's finest.
We remember pain more than pleasure.
To grow is our instinct.