The Buddha taught that an enlightened person is one who is not dragged down by the past, does not cling to the present, and does not worry about the future. Of course, for most of us, it is natural to dwell on the past and feel anxious about what lies ahead.
It is difficult to stop regretting the past. However, grieving over the past is actually the result of an underlying assumption that “past conditions should have lasted forever.” Similarly, worrying about the future is an illusion based on the belief that the future is already fixed. Even the “present moment” lacks a permanent substance. The world is in a state of constant flux; nothing remains the same. For instance, even if you feel you cannot lose weight, the fat on your stomach is actually being replaced at a molecular level—a process known as metabolic flux. Even when it seems like nothing around us is changing, it is simply that we fail to perceive the constant transformation. While physics suggests there are fundamental units of time and matter, at the level of our conscious experience, a static “now” does not truly exist.
In this sense, we could say that the past, the future, and even the present are all mental constructs. We often carry painful memories from the past as if they were precious possessions. But we can simply leave them behind. Even if there are concerns about the future, there is no need to carry that weight today. Leave the past where it happened, and meet the future when it arrives. By lightening the load of the “now,” we can find the mental space and peace to embrace the flow of change.