Some people misinterpret the Buddha’s teachings and think that all goals and plans are bad because we’re supposed to remain in the present moment without thinking about the future. Wanting to “go with the flow,” they don’t initiate anything and wait for things to happen. This is not the meaning of “being in the present moment,” an expression meant to steer us away from getting lost in fantasies of attachment or anger about the past and future. However, this doesn’t mean we should never think about the past or the future. We have to look at our past and see how it has conditioned us, so we can change the conditioning and purify past mistakes. We can think of the future and direct our energies and aspirations in a positive direction.
Thubten Chodron
from the book Good Karma: How to Create the Causes of Happiness and Avoid the Causes of Suffering
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