Putting the Future in Perspective

What is the future?

The future is what we don’t remember. You can’t remember the future because it hasn’t happened yet. So it has to happen in the present before it becomes the past – a memory to remember. We don’t know the future, but it implies infinite possibility, doesn’t it? We can ignore the present by worrying about the future: ‘What will I do when my loved ones leave me? What will I do if I get cancer? What will I do if I lose all my money? What if I don’t get enlightened before I die?’

Actually, we only die in the present; we can’t die in the future because it isn’t happening yet. But the future holds the possibility of loss or disease, and we know that we are getting old. These are not pleasant perceptions to most people, are they?

In the future, there is always the prospect of death, sickness and old age. There is the hope that everything will be all right – that we won’t have pain, that we’ll have good health till we die, that our loved ones will be with us and that everything will be nice. However, as long as we hang onto that expectation and make demands, we’re also going to be pursued by the opposite.

I’ve noticed this from experience: as soon as I say, ‘I hope everything is going to be all right’, immediately the opposite worry comes into my mind. If I say, ‘I hope we have some sunny days’, immediately there is a reaction to that. I think, ‘Maybe it’ll be one of these terrible summers where there are no warm days and no sunshine.’ When we attach to a hope for the future, we invite its opposite along with it.

The future is anticipation. We can be pessimistic or optimistic, but each supports the other. No matter how optimistic you are, you’re still going to have to fight off the tendency towards the opposite. This is our experience of the future until we really understand how things are, until we awaken with wisdom, clarity and intelligence.

With this new understanding, there is nothing to worry about.

This reflection by Luang Por Sumedho is from the book, Ajahn Sumedho Anthology, Volume 2—Seeds of Understanding, (pdf) pp. 241-242.