We become free by transforming ourselves from unaware victims of the past into responsible, responsive individuals in the present. People who are aware of their past have processed and accepted it for what it is, and are thus able to live with it.
The irony is that most people do exactly the opposite, even those who profess most loudly that they are on the path. Without realizing that the unprocessed past is constantly determining their present actions, most people avoid learning anything meaningful about their history. They continue to live their lives in the state of their repressed childhood roles, ignoring the fact that these situations no longer exist, except in the mind of the beholder. They continue to live with the old and repressed assumptions; they continue the posture of fearing fears and avoiding dangers that, once real, have not been real for a long, long time.
Fighting a fight I can neither win nor protect myself from. Why? Because that was then and this is now and it is not here now.
We now know that people are driven by these unconscious memories, repressed feelings, and unfulfilled needs, and this state of affairs determines nearly everything they do or are willing to attempt to do or fail to do.
I learned this as "life is what happens after you've made other plans" and yes, life at times has knocked me "out of my box".
ReplyDeleteMy experience wasn't to look at myself but to retreat or slip into the shadows or pretend to be another person. My childhood put me in a position of solitude which I desired. But because it was awesomely unstable; my youth taught me to adapt. What I learned in my childhood, to independently find my own security, followed me into adulthood.
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