Gratitude For The Past Prepares For The Future

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen a person looks at his history, at the several decades that he has lived, he sees how the Creator has led him to his current state by gradually bringing the person closer to Him, by putting him through so many states that seemed unnecessary, ridiculous, and utterly pointless situations, periods of life that seemed absolutely unnecessary.

Actually when a person accepts everything, even if he doesn’t understand why he had to go through all that yet, the gratitude for the fact that the Creator has brought him to his current state along this path and for the fact that he is beginning to reveal the Creator now, in his gratitude by justifying the past, he comes to the right intention, to the correct state in the present.

“Article 26” in the book Shamati, “One’s Future Depends On and Is Tied to His Gratitude for the Past,” also speaks about how impossible it is to relate to the future correctly if you don’t justify your past states by totally accepting the fact that it all comes from “There is none else besides Him.” If this happens, it is a sign that everything had to happen the way it did until the present, and a person must not regret anything that happened one way or the other.

Only starting from the current state, when all the previous accounts are over, can a person be thankful in advance for the future and be in a state of free bestowal, free movement towards the Creator, when there is nothing negative in their past relations. By the correction of a person’s attitude regarding the past he prepares himself for the future.

The Creator puts us through all sorts of different twists and turns and metamorphoses intentionally, and retains a negative memory of these events in us. We actually don’t remember the positive moments; we only remember the negative ones because the ego remembers the moments when it didn’t receive, where it was cheated, where it could have won but lost, etc. If I justify the Creator’s Providence in the past, it doesn’t count as the past, but rather is transferred to the future. Thus I build a vessel, the correct attitude to the future, and so I am ready to move forward.

So it is impossible to start from the current moment simply by erasing the past. It was given to us so that now, at this moment, we will be able to look at the future correctly and to relate to the Creator correctly.

If I am totally reconciled and gratefully accept everything that I felt as negative with regard to myself, the world, my relatives, and more distant people, to the Creator and everything that He did to me, if I understand that by that I went through my path, and now thanks to rising above it, despite my ego, despite my egoistic criticism, I can transform all my previous feelings to gratitude, to adhesion to the Creator. It isn’t that I simply forgive Him, but rather understand, perceive, and feel that I am given the chance now to start a connection with Him, so I am ready to reveal Him.

Therefore, a person’s future depends and is tied to his gratitude for the past. If we correct our attitude regarding the past from criticism to gratitude, from sorrow and disappointment to joy, we create the correct vessel for the revelation of the Creator.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Workshop 7

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