NOW AND THEN
Trying to simply forget the past is self-delusionary. It’s like intending to walk on three legs. Although it is not always a very welcome message, our behavior is guided by our subconscious and that is also where our history is stored. If we want to live without our history, we’d better learn to explore that subconscious and digest it, or it will go on guiding us, in ways that may be quite different from what we want to think or do.
This contradicts the here-and-now approach that is emerging as part of the post-modern, a-historic, quick-fix, individualist happiness culture. But we can only let go of what we have acknowledged to the fullest extent. Here-and-now exercises can be of help if they guide us in bravely identifying our unwanted behaviors and either digest their subconscious origins or consciously step out of those origins. But anyway we have to learn dealing with the heat of our unwanted behaviors.
Trying to simply forget the past is self-delusionary. It’s like intending to walk on three legs. Although it is not always a very welcome message, our behavior is guided by our subconscious and that is also where our history is stored. If we want to live without our history, we’d better learn to explore that subconscious and digest it, or it will go on guiding us, in ways that may be quite different from what we want to think or do.
This contradicts the here-and-now approach that is emerging as part of the post-modern, a-historic, quick-fix, individualist happiness culture. But we can only let go of what we have acknowledged to the fullest extent. Here-and-now exercises can be of help if they guide us in bravely identifying our unwanted behaviors and either digest their subconscious origins or consciously step out of those origins. But anyway we have to learn dealing with the heat of our unwanted behaviors.
Well, it took a long while before
humanity accepted that the Sun was not circling around the Earth, and quite a
while before humanity accepted that climate change was a reality. Now we may need
time to accept that we are guided by our subconscious. Of course, to deny that is
expensive, but let’s be patient anyway.
http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2009/10/sci-brief.aspx
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