Episode 95: The Past, Part 2: Psychology and the Past

The field of Psychology, with the intention to end suffering, has fostered suffering inadvertently by focusing on people’s past.  Because people suffering mentally in the present tend to be focused on thinking, thinking, thinking to try to find relief, they are caught in their intellect and using their memories to try to understand themselves.  When we are processing thoughts from our intellect, all we have to work with is the past because the intellect is all stored thoughts.  So without an understanding of how the mind works, how quieting circular thinking allows for insight and clarity in the present, psychology has made the assumption that relief only comes from dealing with the thoughts people are thinking.