Again, simple on the surface but it has profound implications the more clearly it is seen – and lived.
We are all living our past.
This personality, with all its likes and dislikes, is a product of its history. It is a product of my personal history, that which is more or less unique to this individual. And it is a product of culture, evolution, and how this universe happens to be put together. There is really nothing personal about it. It all comes from somewhere. Anything this human self does has infinite causes, stretching back to the beginning of the universe and out to its widest reaches.
Also, all my stories are based on my past, and these guide how I orient and act in the world now. They are about the past, whether they appear to be about the future, past or present, and I live from them – whether I believe in them or take them as guides only.
There is a great liberation in seeing this, to the extent it is investigated in daily life and in more and more areas of my life.
I happen to live in a country that do not have universal health care, and where many see “big government” as universally undesirable. But I grew up in a country that does have universal health care, and “big government”, and where that works (overall) beautifully – to the benefit of all. So when I talk with someone here who disagree, it is easy to see that the other person is a product of his or her history (having grown up in the US) and my views are similarly a product of my background (having grown up in a Scandinavian country). We disagree, and that is how it should be. (As long as it is.) There is nothing personal about it.
Of course, since this personality strongly prefer universal health care and a system of government that takes care of the weakest in society, I will share those views, and give examples of how it works very well in my own country. I can help dispel the myths many here hold onto as true.
I may even tell myself that the more compassionate and wise approach is the system we find in northern Europe, but I also see that as coming from this particular personality. And the truth is, I don’t know. I especially don’t know what is the best in any one situation.
And as before, here is nothing personal here. Just different views, each one a product of the history of that person.
In recognizing this, there is a freedom from taking it all as personal. And a freedom to still act in the world in ways that seem the most kind and clear to me, holding whatever stories I use as guides lightly, knowing they are not true – whether in a conventional sense or in the context of what I am and everything is.
………………….
Initial outline…
- living our past
- all living our past
- our stories, all from the past (our stories about future, present, past)
- see this personality living out its past, and other personalities doing the same
- not personal