Before getting started with today’s post, oh well, I just got started, didn’t I?
Well, before going any further….oh shit! I just went further.
Ok, check out this short video, and I will continue after you have finished.
Ok, Tag, You’re It!
Do you feel better now? Come back down to this reality again and finish reading this delightful post.
Today, I sat out on my front steps to read a little more of:
Castaneda tells a story of how don Juan told him to erase his own personal history. She and I refer to personal history as epitaphs. Your epitaphs are all the things that everyone you know thinks about you. Your epitaphs in thier minds are what determine how they will interact with you, how they will talk to you, and the expectations they have for you. Some people spend their whole lives trying to live up to the epitaphs their parents had for them, long after the parents have died. People also spend a lot of time and energy attempting to change parts of their epitaphs that other people hold.
The problem here is that the epitaph has absolutely nothing to do with the Energized Self. Yes, the energized self was there in each of the situations that helped to write the epitaphs, but it has never been described in any of them. The epitaphs consist of observations, judgments, and reactions to all the events that take place in relation to you.
Don Juan suggests getting rid of the epitaphs entirely.
Here is a short passage that inspired this post. After arguing with don Juan about the validity and desirability of erasing his own personal history, Castaneda asks him where and how he learned to do it. Don Juan responds,
“I learned it during the course of my life,” don Juan says.
“Did your father teach you that?”
“No. Let’s say that I learned it by myself and now I am going to give you its secret, so you won’t go away empty handed today.
“It is best to erase all personal history, because that would make us free from the encumbering thoughts of other people.
“Take yourself, for instance. Right now you don’t know whether you are coming or going. And that is so because I have erased my personal history. I have, little by little, created a fog around me and my life. And now nobody knows for sure who I am or what I do.”
“But you yourself know who you are, don’t you?”
“You bet I … don’t. That is the little secret I am going to give you today. Nobody knows my personal history. Nobody knows who I am or what I do. Not even I…
“How can I know who I am, when I am all this?” he said, sweeping the surroundings with a gesture of his head.
Now, I ask you,
How can you know who you are, when you are all of this?
Earth
Milky Way Galaxy
Enjoy,
-GTD
