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Don't Chase the Past or Long for the Future

MN 131, the Bhaddekaratta Sutta — set 4, Not-Self and Dependent Arising

Reading time: about 6 min · 1,057 words

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Before you read

The opening verse may sound like simple advice to live in the present. The explanation makes a more exact point. Looking back and looking ahead become problems when you relish a past or future version of yourself. Paying attention to the present is not enough either if you turn what is happening now into "me" or "my self."

Watch the three paired sections: chasing and not chasing the past, longing and not longing for the future, and being pulled away and not being pulled away by the present. The same five parts of experience run through all three. The discourse is not telling you to erase memory or stop making plans. It is asking what you make into yourself across past, future, and present.

The verse appears twice. Let the repetition frame the explanation between its two appearances. When a recurring term needs explanation, its plain-English definition is available in the words-used panel below the translation.

Translation

The Setting

So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī, in Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery.

There the Buddha addressed the bhikkhus:

"Bhikkhus."

"Yes, Bhante," they replied.

The Buddha said this:

One Fine Night

"Bhikkhus, I will teach you the summary and explanation of 'One Fine Night.' Listen and pay close attention. I will speak."

"Yes, Bhante," the bhikkhus replied.

The Buddha said this:

"Don't chase after the past or long for the future. The past has been left behind, and the future hasn't arrived.

See clearly what is happening now, right where it is. Don't be pulled away or shaken. Know this, and keep developing it.

The work must be done today. Who knows if death will come tomorrow? There is no bargaining with death and its great army.

Someone who lives this way— energetic, tireless day and night— is what the peaceful sage calls someone who has lived one fine night."

Chasing After the Past

"And how do you chase after the past, bhikkhus?

You think, 'This was what my form was like in the past,' and you relish that.

You think, 'This was what my felt experience was like in the past,' and you relish that.

You think, 'This was what my recognition was like in the past,' and you relish that.

You think, 'This was how I put things together in the past,' and you relish that.

You think, 'This was what my knowing was like in the past,' and you relish that.

This is how you chase after the past.

Not Chasing After the Past

"And how do you not chase after the past, bhikkhus?

You think, 'This was what my form was like in the past,' without relishing that.

You think, 'This was what my felt experience was like in the past,' without relishing that.

You think, 'This was what my recognition was like in the past,' without relishing that.

You think, 'This was how I put things together in the past,' without relishing that.

You think, 'This was what my knowing was like in the past,' without relishing that.

This is how you do not chase after the past.

Longing for the Future

"And how do you long for the future, bhikkhus?

You think, 'My form may be like this in the future,' and you relish that.

You think, 'My felt experience may be like this in the future,' and you relish that.

You think, 'My recognition may be like this in the future,' and you relish that.

You think, 'I may put things together like this in the future,' and you relish that.

You think, 'My knowing may be like this in the future,' and you relish that.

This is how you long for the future.

Not Longing for the Future

"And how do you not long for the future, bhikkhus?

You think, 'My form may be like this in the future,' without relishing that.

You think, 'My felt experience may be like this in the future,' without relishing that.

You think, 'My recognition may be like this in the future,' without relishing that.

You think, 'I may put things together like this in the future,' without relishing that.

You think, 'My knowing may be like this in the future,' without relishing that.

This is how you do not long for the future.

Being Pulled Away by the Present

"And how are you pulled away by what is happening now, bhikkhus?

An unlearned ordinary person has not seen the noble ones and is unskilled and untrained in the noble Dhamma. They have not seen true persons and are unskilled and untrained in the true person's Dhamma.

They regard form as self, or self as having form, or form as in self, or self as in form.

They regard felt experience as self, or self as having felt experience, or felt experience as in self, or self as in felt experience.

They regard recognition as self, or self as having recognition, or recognition as in self, or self as in recognition.

They regard putting things together as self, or self as having putting things together, or putting things together as in self, or self as in putting things together.

They regard knowing as self, or self as having knowing, or knowing as in self, or self as in knowing.

This is how you are pulled away by what is happening now.

Not Being Pulled Away by the Present

"And how are you not pulled away by what is happening now, bhikkhus?

A learned noble disciple has seen the noble ones and is skilled and trained in the noble Dhamma. They have seen true persons and are skilled and trained in the true person's Dhamma.

They do not regard form as self, or self as having form, or form as in self, or self as in form.

They do not regard felt experience as self, or self as having felt experience, or felt experience as in self, or self as in felt experience.

They do not regard recognition as self, or self as having recognition, or recognition as in self, or self as in recognition.

They do not regard putting things together as self, or self as having putting things together, or putting things together as in self, or self as in putting things together.

They do not regard knowing as self, or self as having knowing, or knowing as in self, or self as in knowing.

This is how you are not pulled away by what is happening now.

The Teaching Repeated

"Don't chase after the past or long for the future. The past has been left behind, and the future hasn't arrived.

See clearly what is happening now, right where it is. Don't be pulled away or shaken. Know this, and keep developing it.

The work must be done today. Who knows if death will come tomorrow? There is no bargaining with death and its great army.

Someone who lives this way— energetic, tireless day and night— is what the peaceful sage calls someone who has lived one fine night."

"Bhikkhus, when I said, 'I will teach you the summary and explanation of One Fine Night,' this is what I was referring to."

That is what the Buddha said. The bhikkhus were glad and welcomed what the Buddha had said.

The first discourse is finished.

Words used in this translation (11)
Bhante
A respectful way of addressing a senior monastic, roughly "venerable sir." Left untranslated because English has no natural equivalent.
bhikkhus
Buddhist monks -- those who have left household life to practise full time. The Buddha's usual way of addressing the assembly, roughly "friends" in force.
Dhamma
The Buddha's teaching taken as a whole -- both what he taught and the way things actually are, which the teaching describes.
felt experience
This project's rendering of "vedanā", often translated "feeling". It is the immediate pleasant, painful, or mixed tone of an experience, before any story we build on top of it.
form
This project's rendering of "rūpa" -- the physical, material aspect of experience, one of the five heaps.
knowing
This project's rendering of "viññāṇa" (often translated "consciousness") -- bare awareness of an object through one of the senses or the mind.
noble disciple
Someone who has had the breakthrough into the path and so is no longer merely an ordinary person. It does not mean noble by birth, and does not require being a monastic.
One Fine Night
The title's image for a whole day and night lived well. You do not relish past or future versions of yourself, you do not turn present experience into a self, and you do the work now.
ordinary person
This project's rendering of "puthujjana" -- someone who has not yet had the breakthrough into the path. It is the standard term for the untrained starting point, not an insult.
putting things together
This project's rendering of "saṅkhāra": the ongoing activity of assembling experience, and also what that activity assembles. Context shows which of the two the text means. Other translations often say "formations" or "fabrications", which this project avoids as needlessly opaque.
recognition
This project's rendering of "saññā" (often translated "perception") -- the mind's act of identifying and labeling what it encounters.
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