resistance and persistance

I wonder why I hold on to the things that resist the most. Its the nature of the mind i hear, that whatever we resist, persists in it. A young man wanting to find deeper meaning in his life went in search of a master who could help him. He chanced upon a really old sage(with a flowing beard and all the works)!!! He humbly bowed down before the wise man who was in a deep state of meditation. The young man waits for quite a bit of time with what he believes is a lot of patience, before the wise old man opens his eyes and blesses him. The young man genuflets before the wise one and addresses him; " Oh wise one, I do not see the joys of living in the world. Nothing seems to be of any value there. I am tired of all the struggle for acquiring material assets and don't see the point to it all. I have decided that I am going to live the life of an ascetic and a hermit, searching for the truth and who I am". The sage looked calmly and asked him to continue. The young man replied saying there was nothing more. He was now looking for a master who could guide him and help him through this journey and was hoping that the old man would take him as his disciple. The old man after giving it a thought, agreed. He then told the young man that there was one condition to him being accepted as a disciple. The young man replied with complete vigor saying he was ready for anything. To this, the old man asked him to come closer and told him that he had to meditate for 3 hours everyday for the next six months. The young man readily agreed saying he was used to sitting still for that much time daily. The sage then said," Oh, but now comes the condition". The man looked readily at the sage. The sage looked around for a few minutes making the young man impatient. Then, with a smile, he pointed up to a tree and showed the man a tiny monkey. He said to the young man; " no matter what happens, when you sit for your meditation, do not think about this particular monkey".
The man thought it was quite simple enough, agreed and went on his way, promising to the old man that he will be back in six months, having completed the task. The sage blessed the young man and sent him on his way.
The next morning, the young man woke up early, took a bath in the river close by and sat with full austerity for the meditation. The moment he closed his eyes, he saw the monkey. He shook his head and brushed the thought away and tried to focus again. A few seconds later, he again saw the monkey, which was now playing gleefully! It was almost like the monkey was taunting him. He tried to brush the thought aside, but again and again, the monkey seemed to appear. No matter what he did, no matter what he tried, he just couldn't get rid of the monkey. By this time, an hour had gone by and he was completey flustered and irritated. He ran to the sage angrily and shouted at him with all his might, " You terrible man, what have you done? All i wanted was to meditate and find the truth and live in peace. Now you have come and fed a monkey into my head that i just can't seem to get rid off". The old man smiled and replied with utmost humour in his voice, " This is my first lesson to you. Anything that you try to resist wil persist. So do not resist the world. Do not grow tired of anything. Do not fight anything in your mind. If you sit back and just observe all the things that happen in your life, you will not only have entertainment absolutely free of cost, you will also see how things happen in your life and how you stay above them all, no matter what the situation is".
I think i started writing this to tell myself that the past has baically gone by and I cant do anything about it. If i try to resist accepting it, thoughts of the past will only persist and i will only suffer... Something on those lines..