“Just delete it”

Once Dalai Lama said, “The purpose of our lives is to be happy” The statement is very strong and simple. How many of us believe in that statement? How many of us think to be in that stage of happiness? I was in the talk show “All is well” from Ajahn Brahm the author of the book “Who ordered this truckload of dung? Or Opening the door of your heart” He is a great author and a great monk. In his book, he shared simple funny stories to open our heart to see happiness in every single thing in life and see problems in positive perspective. Ajahn Brahm told one story that in life we used to show our pictures, wedding pictures, and graduation pictures. All pictures are good pictures with happy faces or happy moments in life. We wouldn’t put our bad pictures. However we all like to keep the bad memories in our mind. It might be because we want to hide those bad memories from other people or we love the bad memories and they become our attachment. If we love to show the world, we are happy by showing our best picture or our happy moments in life. We forget the rule by keeping the bad memories in our mind. Today, my husband said to me, “I still remember that time when you refused to go with me to see the mall for only an hour” It was happened seven years ago, but it sounded just happened yesterday. The reflection of his eyes showed his upset moment. Ajahn Brahm was right… we captured and kept our bad memories deeply in our mind and it hurt more when it came up. I wished I could reach a delete button to erase that moment in his mind. Unfortunately I couldn’t do it, unless he did it by himself. Today I promised to myself to delete bad memories in my mind; I want to categorize the bad memories in life as a junk mail or spam. I want to restart my brain and mind to just recall the happy memories. As the result I reach the purpose of my life to be happy in this present. Every time the reflection of the past pop up in my mind, I can always smile. If the choice is ours… why we can not choose to fill our mind with happy memories and positive spirit! Instead of keeping the bad memories in our mind, it is better to recall thousands good memories in life. I used to remember my mistake and it hunted me for many years. That bad memory became a silent killer for my happiness; it made me to label myself as a bad person. In fact I also made many good things in life and I didn’t count at all. I created peace in my mind and I learnt to forgive myself. Confucius said, “To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it” Stop keeping bad memories, just delete it. Don’t let the bad memories postpone your happiness!! **Lina Kartasasmita** Jakarta, April 7, 2012, at 7.05PM .

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