Letting Go of the Past

A hard, but necessary, thing to do for awakening to occur. A story:

     Two Zen monks, Tanzan Ekido, who were walking along a country road that had become extremely muddy after heavy rains. Near a village, they came upon a young woman who was trying to cross the road, but the mud was so deep it would have ruined the silk kimono she was wearing. Tanzan at once picked her up and carried her to the other side.
     The monks walked on in silence. Five hours later, as they were approaching the lodging temple, Ekido couldn't restrain himself any longer. "Why did you carry that girl across the road?" he asked. "We monks are not supposed to do things like that."
     "I put the girl down hours ago," Tanzan replied." Are you still carrying her?"

This is akin to Buddha's comment, "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." Why carry the burden of anger, judgement, resentment, fear, etc. around like the woman Ekido carried around in his mind long after Tanzan had put her down? I resolve to ferret out these burdens, these hot coals, and let them drop.