Memory has been a highly important faculty of the human brain, so much so that it is believed to be equivalent to intelligence. It is amazing how the tiny brain encodes and retains every small bit of experience and reproduces it whenever needed. In neurological terms, it is the re-creation or reconstruction of past. Neurons are the cells crucial in memory formation and retention. The Lilienfield Study and Thinking Guide suggests that there are around 100 billion neurons in the brain. Nature has created this complex and sophisticated device because memory was a great learning tool, but now with the advent of artificial intelligence, memory has taken a backseat. The computer is doing almost all of the brain’s work and with greater efficiency. It is not a bad news though because memory is mechanical, and it is time to go beyond this level and use other dormant parts of the brain.
The new thinking is that memory hampers intelligence because memory is a storage, it cannot create anything original; intelligence, on the other hand, is a creative response to “now”. So if you want to develop creativity, spontaneity, intuitive faculty you have to go beyond the memory and awaken intelligence. You have to clean the debris of your experiences, so that you can be unburdened and be available to the future. If the consciousness has to grow vertically this burden has to be discarded. Osho had suggested a technique to unburden the mind. Start with living you lives consciously. It will never become a burden on you if you do so. Whatsoever you do consciously is lived through and is no longer a hangover. Whatever you live unconsciously becomes a hangover because you never live it totally. When something is incomplete it wants to be completed. And this becomes your memory.
Unburdening is a process that needs to be done every day. Try this Osho tactic: “Every night for one hour, before you go to sleep, close your eyes and relive your past. By and by you will unearth many memories. You will be surprised that you were unaware that these things are there and with such vitality and freshness, as if they had just happened! Watch these memories as you watch a movie, move slowly, so that everything is covered. A certain quality of freedom and freshness will come to you, and you will feel you have touched the source of life.’ The results of daily visits down your memory lane are stupendous. There will be a spring in your step and your touch will come alive again. As blocks disappear, your life will start flowing; anger will dissipate and love will flow in its purity. You will become more sensitive, alive and open.
