How Memory Distorts Reality and Makes Us Bored to Death

What is memory? — calling up of past experiences. Continuously, memory is happening. Whenever you see something, immediately memory comes in and distorts it. You have seen me before. You see me again, immediately memory comes in. If you had seen me five years before, then the picture of five years, the past picture, will come into your eyes and fill your eyes. And you will see me through that picture.

That’s why, if you have not seen your friend for many days, the moment you see you immediately say, “You are looking very thin,” or “You are looking very unhealthy,” or “You have gathered fat.” Immediately! Why? Because you are comparing; the memory has come in. The man himself is not aware that he has gathered fat or he has become thin, but you become aware because immediately you can compare. The past, the last picture comes in, and immediately you can compare.