The Power of Past Impressions

Many times we find ourselves faced with decisions that though difficult could be reasoned through to sensible solutions, but somehow, something inside us, compels us to make the wrong choice. Repeatedly in spite of a clear understanding of the consequences based on our personal experience, some mysterious force misguides our decisions. These miscues are the price we pay for not having a good understanding of who we are.

The real mystery here is to understand these internal forces that compel us to consistently move in the wrong direction. Some of these internal forces are coming from thoughts and feelings that we don’t even necessarily understand, perhaps do not even realize we are having. They just make us react in certain ways. These internal forces and the frequently confusing external circumstance we encounter make it critically important for us to understand who we are so that we can better deal with our lives. 

The reality is that these internal forces are largely (perhaps exclusively) driven by the impressions from past experiences. Our past experiences leave us cluttered inside with these impressions that range all the way from traumatic to comfort and peace, but by far, the most compelling are these impressions resulting from traumatic or painful past events. These trauma induced impressions are also most likely to result in decisions that lead to some sort of bondage related situation.

Substance abuse is one such example of internal bondage: Substance abuse is the result of a person’s belief that ingestion of a particular substance is necessary for their happiness. Typically, the root cause is physical or psychological pain relief. Perhaps, the origin of this addiction was real pain, but over time, it becomes a convoluted tangle of cause and effect in one’s personal truth that is not easy to understand and thus is very difficult to overcome.

Another internal bondage example is the existence of unresolved childhood traumas. Children are very impressionable, and certain issues that happen in early life can have a long lasting effect on one’s person truth creating learned responses that extend way into adult life. 

Traumatic past experience live on into our present in the form of these impressions created in the endless cycle of desire, action, and impression (illustrated in figure below). In this cycle, we desire something and act to that end. The result is an impression that takes root inside us shaping our next desire to act. 

 
There are two level of understanding the endless cycle of action. At the simplest level, it can be understood intellectually. Understanding the existence of the mechanism that drive us to action is helpful in developing strategy to remediate the possible negative impacts, but there is a deeper understanding that actually helps us rise above this cycle of action.

Coming to know this cycle from the direct experience of consciousness can actually create a situation where our in present actions are not dictated by past impressions because over time the practice of direct experience of consciousness actually minimizes the significance all these past impressions.

Overcoming without the advantage of these regular direct experiences of consciousness will inevitably take a long time with any one of these internal bondage experiences could easily span a single lifetime. With the regular direct experiences of consciousness, all past impression will be neutralized and the capacity to create new impressions will be suppressed.