Many of the wars and incidents we see in the news every day are rooted not only in claims of self-righteousness but also in deep-seated resentment. Living with resentment is painful and, above all, prevents us from being happy. This is why people often want to seek revenge, hoping to clear away the bitterness of the past. However, these emotions do not actually disappear just because we try to “erase” them. Even if you think the feeling is gone from within you, it hasn’t vanished—it has simply shifted to someone else. Worse yet, as it moves, it often grows even larger.
As I’ve written here before, even if something unpleasant happened in the past, you can simply leave it behind in that place. Time is a useful tool, and the past is nothing more than a memory. Therefore, there is no need to keep carrying the past with you as if it were something precious.
The Buddha expressed this in various ways:
“Hatred is never appeased by hatred; it is only appeased by letting go of hatred.”
“Among those who harbor hatred, let us live free from hatred.”
“Victory breeds hatred, and the defeated live in pain. Those who have given up both victory and defeat live in peace and happiness.”
Of course, this is an ideal. It might be possible to do this if someone just says something unkind to you, but for most people, it is not so simple. If your home or city is destroyed in a war, or if the life of someone you love is taken away, it is nearly impossible for ordinary people like us to simply “let go” of that resentment.
Even so, I believe we should try. Even if there are feelings we truly cannot let go of, let’s discard what we can. Let’s leave them behind in the world of the past. We want the present and the future to be a better world. No matter what the past was like, it cannot be changed. However, there are countless choices for what kind of world we create from here on. When you go to sleep tonight, pack only the precious fragments—like gratitude and hope—that will light up your tomorrow, and take only those with you.