Who are we?

Everyone we come in contact with throughout our lives leaves something behind in us.

Essentially, we’re a little bit of everyone we spend any kind of time with. This is a very interesting thought and a very true one at that. Scary as well.

Now, I know there’s some folks we completely disagree about but nevertheless it does ring true most of the time.

If this is true, shouldn’t you be Very careful with the company you keep? Without a doubt!

Throughout our lives we’ve come to defend and stand behind ideas that were not even built by us, but rather adopted from someone who we believed; had a great reputation or simply someone who made a nice argument about it. Sometimes we just adopted it because it was the 1st argument we heard on it. Scary.

Think back. From your favorite color to the party you usually vote for and so many issues in-between.

We as animals adapt to our environment and adapting we do  unconsciously. Again…. Scary

At some point in my life I understood Plato’s words referring to Socrates teachings. Two quotes that sound true here are; the unexamined life isn’t worth living, and I know nothing except for mine own ignorance.

Once upon a time I sat down and wrote my personal beliefs and what I stood for that derived purely from myself.

Surprisingly, not much was truly mine, if any. Now I know what Mark Twain meant by no such thing as original thought existing.

So I began to look for clues. I tried to become an empty vessel coined by Shakespeare. I tried to empty my mind as Lao Tzu taught. I even quit reading like J. Krishnamurti. But it was all still derived from the thoughts of others.

So I came to the conclusion that I am and cannot stop being a conditioned being. No problem! I sat down and wrote down my own conditioning.

http://modern-evolution.com/2018/09/13/today-daily-intentions/

I wrote that many years ago and still listen to it often just to make sure it’s still good enough to keep out there.

I realized that as a child I needed to adapt to my environment in order to survive. However, as an adult we should reinvent ourselves in order to thrive.

I have so much to learn and so much growing to do. But I’m on my way.

When I was younger I thought learning lots about something made me smart. Then I realized being “smart” about something really made my ego even bigger. As I go through life I realize I should not let my ego control me or affect me. But boy do I have a long way to go in order to get here.

I’ll continue to strive to empty my vessel and try to live in the moment every day.

Funny how we sometimes think we’re such an individual and yet at some point we really realize that we are just like everyone else.