— Modern paraphrase of the Bhaddekaratta Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya 131
About this quote
हिन्दी में
बीते हुए में मत अटको, आने वाले के सपने मत बुनो, मन को इसी क्षण पर टिकाओ।
What it means
Three instructions, and the verbs matter more than the nouns. The targets are dwelling and dreaming — taking up residence in a time you are not in — not memory and not planning. Recalling what happened last year in order to decide something today is not what this line prohibits.
It is worth keeping for the third clause, which most people drop when they quote it. The first two are negative and could be satisfied by going blank; the line instead asks for the mind to be gathered and pointed at one thing, the moment actually occurring. Popularly it is read as permission to stop worrying about consequences. As stated, it is a demand for sustained attention, which is considerably harder than worry.
What it teaches you
Notice the difference between using the past and living in it: a memory consulted for thirty seconds to settle a decision, versus the same scene replayed for an hour with no decision attached to it. The second is what this line names. The same test runs forward — a plan written down and closed is future-directed thinking; the tenth rehearsal of a conversation that has not happened is dreaming.
अर्थ और सीख
यह पंक्ति याद रखने या योजना बनाने से मना नहीं करती — मना उस आदत से करती है जिसमें मन बीते हुए में बस जाता है या आने वाले के सपनों में रहने लगता है। असली माँग तीसरे हिस्से में है: मन को इसी क्षण पर एकाग्र करना, जो चिंता छोड़ देने से कहीं कठिन काम है। सीख यह कि तीस सेकंड में निर्णय के लिए याद किया गया दृश्य और घंटे भर बिना किसी निर्णय के दोहराया गया वही दृश्य — दोनों का फ़र्क़ पहचानिए।
Where it comes from
A popular paraphrase rather than a canonical sentence. Its ancestor is the Bhaddekaratta Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 131): ‘Let not a person revive the past or on the future build his hopes… let him with insight see each presently arisen state.’ The paraphrase keeps the sense while modernising the words.
