Is there ever a time when it is appropriate or useful to focus on or revisit the events in my past that were traumatizing?
Or is freedom from the past attachments completely realized by exclusively focusing on the present moment?
They both help.
But if you still have emotional reactions when you revisit the past,
Then that would only amplify your trauma.
However,
If you can look back on your past,
Examine those events that left you trauma without a sense of hatred or anger or sadness,
Then it will help you heal from that.
However,
Realistically,
It's very difficult to go back and revisit those events of the past that caused you trauma in such a non-emotional detached way.
Because thinking about the past events actually leads naturally without your intent to emotions,
So it does amplify the hurt.
So what's needed is not just a recollection of the past events that gave you trauma,
It's more of a deep understanding of the person and his or her motivation and how he or she approached the events that gave you trauma.
A deep understanding of the other.
So what really helps in healing from trauma is to gain a deep understanding of the other,
Of the person who actually gave you that hurt and tell yourself and realize that he or she acted in that way and could have acted in that way coming from their perspective that you just didn't know at that time,
That you just were not cognizant.
And so that deep understanding can lead to a sense of repentance on your part,
Not blaming yourself for the hurt you receive,
But repenting the fact that you were not fully aware of the situation that the other was in,
And that can lead to some kind of healing.
And the second thing that will help,
As you mentioned,
Was the focusing on the present.
No matter what past memories come up into you,
You're not trying to suppress or repress them.
You're just letting them be,
But instead focused on the present.
However,
A memory that's strong enough to be a trauma,
That traumatic memory will constantly come to you during meditation.
But in those cases,
Although they come to you,
Do not imbue them with an additional meaning and just let them be a noise in the background of your meditation.
However,
Normally we don't allow them to be meaningless noise behind our meditation in the background,
But we chase after them when we think about them,
We grab at them.
Also,
It's important to understand that meditation is not designed to treat trauma.
Meditation,
If done correctly and sustained,
Can have the impact of treating your trauma.
And during your meditation practice,
Even if these traumatic memories come to you,
If you allow them to be kind of regular,
Meaningless noise,
Memory noise behind your meditation,
As if waves crashing and disappearing,
Eventually you'll get to a stage in which those memories,
You can recall them,
Yet holds no emotional meaning to you.
At that point,
You can call yourself healed.
