Past, present, and future
“This is how he attends unwisely: ‘Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what did I become in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I become in the future?’ Or else he is inwardly perplexed about the present thus: ‘Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where will it go?’
“Bhikkhus, knowing and seeing in this way, [265] would you run back to the past thus: ‘Were we in the past? Were we not in the past? What were we in the past? How were we in the past? Having been what, what did we become in the past?’?” — “No, venerable sir.” — “Knowing and seeing in this way, would you run forward to the future thus: ‘Shall we be in the future? Shall we not be in the future? What shall we be in the future? How shall we be in the future? Having been what, what shall we become in the future?’?” — “No, venerable sir.” — “Knowing and seeing in this way, would you now be inwardly perplexed about the present thus: ‘Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where will it go?’?” — “No, venerable sir.”
But let be the past, Udāyin, let be the future. I shall teach you the Dhamma: When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases.”782
“Let not a person revive the past Or on the future build his hopes;1211 For the past has been left behind And the future has not been reached. Instead with insight let him see Each presently arisen state;1212
...“How, bhikkhus, does one revive the past? One nurtures delight there thinking, ‘I had such material form in the past.’1215 One nurtures delight there thinking, ‘I had such feeling in the past,’… ‘I had such perception in the past,’… ‘I had such formations in the past,’… ‘I had such consciousness in the past.’ That is how one revives the past...
“And how, bhikkhus, does one build up hope upon the future? One nurtures delight there thinking, ‘May I have such material form in the future!’1217 One nurtures delight there thinking, ‘May I have such feeling in the future!’… ‘May I have such perception in the future!’… ‘May I have such formations in the future!’… ‘May I have such consciousness in the future!’ That is how one builds up hope upon the future.