The Empty Vessel
Can you imagine dropping and releasing your attachment to every single solitary thing about your history starting from one minute ago going all the way back to when you were born? What would that be like?
Please note that I didn't suggest imagining dropping one's history but rather one's ATTACHMENT TO IT. Can you see the subtle difference? It is a matter of how we define ourselves. Do we define ourselves through our history or do we define ourselves by who we are in the NOW? Who we are in the NOW has knowledge garnered from the past but who we were in the past is not who we are in the NOW. To separate the knowledge garnered, from who we were, helps us to focus on who we are, with that knowledge. Yikes, I hope that made sense.
The Tao Te Ching is constantly urging us to become like an empty vessel, unencumbered by the past or the future. As an empty vessel we can be filled by the NOW. The NOW is the only thing that truly exists. The past and future are mind constructs. If we are living in the past or living in the future then we are living strictly in our minds and not in the reality of the NOW. We do not have to live in the past to access the knowledge gathered there just as we do not have to live in the future to access the information available there. All knowledge is available to us in the NOW through the divine Source energy constantly flowing through us in the NOW. That Source energy is all-knowing and as part of that Source energy we, too, have access to all knowledge. But we can access that all-knowingness only in the NOW, where that Source energy is. Sure we also have access to the knowledge we gathered in our past but by identifying with that past as the source of our knowledge keeps us out of the NOW where all knowledge is available to us. So we could say that living in the mind constructs of the past and future separates us from our Source which is infinite and omnipresent within the NOW.
Question: "Without your history, you have no knowledge of how humans behave and would be in a bewildering state for a significant time."
I would say that without our deep conditioning from the past we would be better able to see how so much of human behavior is a result from deep conditioning from the past and we would be in a very aware state in which we could see through everyone's mental games. Instead of judging people by how they behave we would be able to see their divine presence and honor that instead of falling back into the conditioning of the past. Without a history to defend, our egos would be temporarily silenced and our true divine beings would shine through. We would see each other for who we truly are rather than the egoic mind patterns that we project as a result of past conditioning.
As humans we hold on to the past for dear life. We do not lose the knowledge we gathered from the past by letting go of our death-grip attachment to the past. The knowledge we keep; the conditioning we lose. But as long as we remain attached to the conditioning of the past the less we are able to embrace the NOW. The NOW is where life is. It is where IT is. It is where our true selves are. It is where BEING is. It is where presence is. You are not your past and you are not your future. The only place you exist is in the NOW. As the Tao Te Ching says, Become like an empty vessel and be filled with the light of the NOW. That is enlightenment.
Please note that I didn't suggest imagining dropping one's history but rather one's ATTACHMENT TO IT. Can you see the subtle difference? It is a matter of how we define ourselves. Do we define ourselves through our history or do we define ourselves by who we are in the NOW? Who we are in the NOW has knowledge garnered from the past but who we were in the past is not who we are in the NOW. To separate the knowledge garnered, from who we were, helps us to focus on who we are, with that knowledge. Yikes, I hope that made sense.
The Tao Te Ching is constantly urging us to become like an empty vessel, unencumbered by the past or the future. As an empty vessel we can be filled by the NOW. The NOW is the only thing that truly exists. The past and future are mind constructs. If we are living in the past or living in the future then we are living strictly in our minds and not in the reality of the NOW. We do not have to live in the past to access the knowledge gathered there just as we do not have to live in the future to access the information available there. All knowledge is available to us in the NOW through the divine Source energy constantly flowing through us in the NOW. That Source energy is all-knowing and as part of that Source energy we, too, have access to all knowledge. But we can access that all-knowingness only in the NOW, where that Source energy is. Sure we also have access to the knowledge we gathered in our past but by identifying with that past as the source of our knowledge keeps us out of the NOW where all knowledge is available to us. So we could say that living in the mind constructs of the past and future separates us from our Source which is infinite and omnipresent within the NOW.
Question: "Without your history, you have no knowledge of how humans behave and would be in a bewildering state for a significant time."
I would say that without our deep conditioning from the past we would be better able to see how so much of human behavior is a result from deep conditioning from the past and we would be in a very aware state in which we could see through everyone's mental games. Instead of judging people by how they behave we would be able to see their divine presence and honor that instead of falling back into the conditioning of the past. Without a history to defend, our egos would be temporarily silenced and our true divine beings would shine through. We would see each other for who we truly are rather than the egoic mind patterns that we project as a result of past conditioning.
As humans we hold on to the past for dear life. We do not lose the knowledge we gathered from the past by letting go of our death-grip attachment to the past. The knowledge we keep; the conditioning we lose. But as long as we remain attached to the conditioning of the past the less we are able to embrace the NOW. The NOW is where life is. It is where IT is. It is where our true selves are. It is where BEING is. It is where presence is. You are not your past and you are not your future. The only place you exist is in the NOW. As the Tao Te Ching says, Become like an empty vessel and be filled with the light of the NOW. That is enlightenment.
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