Of Past & Future
September 18, 2003
I don’t know how many times I’ve started a Dhamma talk by saying, “Don’t listen to the Dhamma talk. Focus your attention on the breath. The talk is here to be a fence to direct you back to the present moment, direct you back to the breath in case you wander off.” The reason I say that is because that’s how the Dhamma functions as a whole. It’s meant to point you back to your mind in the present moment, to what you’re doing in the present moment, where you can relate things to the present moment — that’s when you’re using the Dhamma the correct way. When you find that the talk carries you off into speculation, you’re using it in the wrong way. The Dhamma is meant to function as a set of tools to apply to the present moment. You’re not here simply to be here. You want to understand why you’re here, what you’re doing here, what’s the best thing to be doing here. When the Dhamma talks about the past or the future, it’s meant to catch you if you’ve wandered off into the past or the future, and to bring you back — not only to bring you back to the present, but also to give you a perspective on what you’re doing here.