You will find no answers to your ailment in the past.

Only in the now can you see what ails you. It almost always has to do with experiences in the past. But only by looking at the now, at the result can you understand or find peace or compassion.
The suffering has often permuted many times, so if you look from the past you will never see the relation. Only looking from the now can you see the resulting form. Only seeing the form clearly do you know what must be done.

You are walking down the street and you see a man under a street lamp looking for something. So you offer to help him look. After a while still not having found the item you ask him where exactly he lost it. And he says that he lost it in the street one block over. You are flabbergasted at this, and ask why you are look here when he has lost the item in another street. He answers; “well this was the only place that had a street lamp so you could see anything”.

It is like that looking into the past. You got it the wrong way round. You must look deeply into the heart instead.