Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Stuck

So what do you do when past stuff gets so in the way that it seems impossible to move forward? I wish there was a 'Do Over' button or a 'Wipe the Slate Clean' switch or something. You learn, you make mistakes, you change but it seems that in the process of doing so the hurts involved in growing build up and feel as though they can't be overcome.

It is heartbreakingly frustrating and I don't know how to unravel this knot.

I'd like my Easy Button now, please.

4 comments:

Bunny said...

"Nothing ever happens in the past that can prevent you from being present now; and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?"

Before you make Oprah jokes and roll your eyes, you really should read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

Ryan said...

Ah nice quote. I agree with being present and not living in the past. However, the past does color our perceptions whether we like it or not. Afterall, what are we other than just a collection of our experiences?

Bunny said...

To answer with Eckhart:

"Spiritual realization is to see clearly that what I perceive, experience, think, or feel is ultimately not who I am, that I cannot find myself in all those things that continuously pass away."

"The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it."

"You are never more essentially, more deeply, yourself than when you are still. When you are still, you are who you were before you temporarily assumed this physical and mental form called a person. You are also who you will be when the form dissolves. When you are still, you are who you are beyond your temporal existence: consciousness--unconditioned, formless, eternal."

I hope that out of context these make sense and don't just sound like some "new age ramblings." My personal take on your question: "what are we other than just a collection of our experiences?" is:
Take away all those experiences and we are who we were created to be: perfect, whole, divine. Add in those experiences and we have become conditioned, laden with unconscious behaviors taught to us by our experiences. When we can learn to see that we are so much more than those experiences, those thoughts, those conditioned responses, we can BE; perfect, whole, divine.
Not an easy task, certainly. But perhaps it is a starting point to learning how to choose how we want those experiences to affect us now.

Ryan said...

"The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it."

I totally agree with this. The other two go into a conversation that is awesome but I'd like to pick up later.

In regards to experience vs who we are, I think we ultimately have similiar views here. I agree, at the core, with what you have said. It would be nice to be able to live just as who you are.

What gets in the way I guess, and what I'm ranting about, is how reality is filtered by your experiences. You can only judge events based on your perspective which comes out of the combination of your experiences and who you are. That goes into the whole topic of moral relativism and what the nature of reality is, etc. Good dinner conversation!

In any case, I strive to be who I really am and not go against my grain. Accepting my strengths and weaknesses and instead of trying to change them, learn how to live with them as they are.