Looking Back, Moving Forward—Isn’t It Delightful?

Looking back, moving forward, isn’t it a joy?

As the Buddha said: All beings suffer! Sometimes, when thinking about where suffering comes from, one important reason is likely the chaotic nature of humans and their hearts. Birth, aging, illness, and death, along with joy, sorrow, and happiness, are unlikely to spare anyone. Furthermore, an individual’s understanding or misunderstanding of their own past and that of all existence, along with their hopes or fantasies for the future, intersect without any discernible pattern. To say that every person is irrational might be an exaggeration, but it wouldn’t be too far off to say that nearly everyone is chaotic. Despite various sayings about living in the present, how do we define “the present” for different people or even the same person at different times? Is a moment the present, a day the present, a year the present, or a lifetime the present? The present is such, and what about the past and the future?

From a personal perspective, if we add in the fleeting desires, ever-changing emotions, and the deep and shallow complexities of various feelings, the chaos in nearly everyone’s heart is almost beyond saving. Fortunately, most people have some relative existence within them: life and death are relative, good and evil are relative, the meaning of one’s life, the manifestation of self-worth, and even the existence of time and space for each individual may be considered relative. Perhaps, from a chaotic perspective, the human heart and this world can be seen as materialistic; from a relative perspective, it can only be viewed as idealistic. Thus, for an individual’s heart, chaos and relativity always exist in a paradox or a harmonious relationship. This is likely the origin of the positions, rights and wrongs, and reasoning in the human heart. The fluidity of positions, the twists and turns of rights and wrongs, and even the ever-changing reasoning that people rely on can all be seen as the externalization of the human heart. If one person is like this, how can a society composed of individuals be any different?

Regarding society, if we make a longitudinal comparison, taking a century or a decade as a unit, regardless of whether we look back hundreds of years or forward decades, the range of intelligence or human instincts among people in different societies can change significantly. Even if there are some changes, how meaningful are they? The greatest change or significance likely lies in the changing human hearts of those living in different periods, which reflects the changing positions, rights and wrongs, and reasoning. If we make a horizontal comparison, taking countries as a unit, regardless of how different the political systems and economic foundations of any country are, the range of intelligence or human instincts among people living in different countries can vary greatly. Even if there are differences, how significant are they? The most fundamental differences likely lie in the varying human hearts of people living in different countries. Some advanced countries tend to reconcile positions and rights and wrongs based on reasoning, while some countries lean towards adjusting reasoning and positions based on rights and wrongs. Some less developed countries may completely gloss over rights and wrongs and reasoning based on positions. This can be seen as one of the roots of conflicts between nations, as the human heart has both active and passive components, and it’s hard to clarify how much is which.

However, whether for an individual, a country, or perhaps even extending to the entire human society, if we want to move forward, chaos, relativity, rights and wrongs, and positions must ultimately rely on reasoning. Reasoning can change; reasoning will always change, yet it must still be reasoning. In today’s era, what is reasoning? Looking back is to consider the reasoning of the past, to let go of oneself. Moving forward is to walk towards the reasoning of the future, to head towards hope. Isn’t it a joy!