1-29. Refuse to regret. Instead, consider what role you played in what occurred and always remember what you never want to do again.
To regret is to condemn yourself in the present for the mistakes of the past. But what is a mistake? Is it at all appropriate to describe a lesson learned as a mistake made? This does not seem suitable at all for a Child of God. That you are to learn is Certain. Much there is to learn in this world, much illusion to See beyond and much confusion to cut through. But can you really feel that you are in any way justified in condemning yourself now for that which you did in the past? What benefit does this have for you? What solution do you propose to elect in the present moment to solve, change or rectify a mistake, which is in Truth but a simple error, in the past? The past is set. More solid than the largest vein of granite, more immoveable than the highest mountain, more unapproachable than the most distant star in all of the physical universe. The present moment is not the past. It is not the future either. The present moment is where you are now. To regard the past as a tableau of lessons, a canvas upon which much was painted, some of the strokes of the brush being not of the best alignments possible, is appropriate. To regard the past as something that should chain you in the present is not at all appropriate. The past does not have this power. The past is not a monster, clawing away your peace in the present moment. The past is not a location to journey to or even a thought pattern that must be returned to. So, refuse. Refuse to be enslaved to that which has come to pass. Instead, accept it. Accept that which happened. Accept the role you played, the actions you undertook and the lessons you learned, however painful, from that which transpired. To do this does require some bravery, a certain modicum of courage and absolutely a healthy dose of strength. It is easier to lay within your poisoned tomb of regret than it is to rise up, again and again, each day after the next, perhaps carrying your memories of that which occurred but not allowing them to be insurmountable burdens that prevent you from being present in the present. To regret is to degrade and demean yourself in the present for that which has already transpired and that which can never be changed. This will only serve to enchain you to memories of occurrences that you do not wish to see repeated. If you have learned, if you have grown, if you have expanded, if you have arrived at a place in your own mind where you are ready to accept that mistakes cannot be allowed to forever burden you, you have taken a massive step forwards, towards being able to be present and to be here, now, in the world as it is today. Not in the world of the past. Not in those places, not at those times, not saying those words, not taking those actions, not feeling those emotions or thinking those thoughts. Rarely is any life lived in which mistakes, errors, missteps or blunders do not occur. To be Free is not to be free of those times, situations or events. To be Free is but to accept that which has happened and to be unwilling to allow such patterns, thoughts, undertakings or ideas to again dominate your mind or to lead you to perform actions that you do not wish to occur, either for yourself or for others. Mistakes are but errors. What does an error call for? What is its solution? Condemnation, despair, derision and strife? Or acceptance, allowance, recognition and correction? All errors contain within their structure the solution to their genesis. Much is to be, and much can be, learned from error. To expect that you would, will or even can always make the very best of choices in every situation is highly arrogant. To accept that you may have errored is but to accept that you have much to learn. How else can you possibly allow such learning to occur but though a process in which errors are committed, accepted, remembered and not repeated? This acceptance can effect massive changes in your perception, both of yourself as a fallible but correctable person and of others as equally fallible but also equally correctable spirits that are engaged in their own journeys though a world that can appear, at times, to be monumentally confusing and strange. Strange this world is, for it appears to embody, in many ways, the infinitely twisted and bizarre lies of the ego. But contained within these apparently contradictory illusions of separation, isolation and pain is all that you might ever need to be free of regret. To accept that which has occurred and to learn from it is wisdom, a great and powerful wisdom that can sustain and support you in the face of every trial not yet endured, every challenge not yet met and every joy not yet known. Do not look to the darkness of error and see inevitability or unnecessary repetition. Instead see the Light. The Light that illuminates the correct Path for you, the Light that shows you what which is correct, the best actions to take, the best words to choose, the best way to express yourself and share your thoughts with others in ways that will be effective and that have the highest probability of being understood clearly and cleanly. Do not listen to the ego’s condemnations of you, its harsh judgments or its desire to constantly reduce your perception to a field of such marginality and irrelevance that you could not possibly recognize your own innate value. Instead, simply accept that error occurred. In this acceptance, embrace your errors and love them. They may or may not have been necessary. Such judgment is without value. That they occurred is certain. That they must occur again is not. To accept error is to release it, allowing it to gently float away, no longer entangling your past with your present moment, so that you might be free to choose again.