Are You Communicating or Projecting the Past?
"When you stop projecting the past…
You start creating a future rooted in freedom."
There’s a powerful teaching from both Buddhist psychology and yogic philosophy: “You are not your thoughts, your memories, or your emotions.”
But what happens when we forget?
Our mind, left untrained, becomes a projection machine. Instead of seeing reality clearly, we see through the lens of unresolved memory—old pain, fear, rejection, or moments we never fully digested.
This is the root of dukkha, or suffering—not the pain itself, but our identification with the stories we carry.
Yoga calls it avidyā—a spiritual blindness, a forgetting of our true nature.
Buddhism describes it as clinging to illusion. The lens of memory distorts the present. We’re not responding to what’s happening—we’re reacting to what happened.
Think of it like this: you’re wearing glasses smudged with grief, anxiety, or betrayal. You start believing what you see is “truth,” but it’s just a reflection of the past.
The teachings ask:
What would it be like to take the glasses off?
In Yogic language, we practice viveka—discernment. In Buddhist terms, we cultivate sati—mindfulness.
We learn to recognize when the inner child, the protector, the pleaser, or the abandoned one is driving the car.
From this recognition comes liberation.
Takeaway:
Start noticing:
When am I reacting from memory, not presence?
What emotion is asking to be felt—not fixed?
Can I meet this moment with breath instead of blame?
Because when you stop projecting the past…
You start creating a future rooted in freedom.
