Just A Thought ~ FROM THE PAST

It is easy to see that we have benefited immensely from the past, for this is where almost all we have and are came from. We should understand and appreciate this, to counteract the tendency to become proud and think we have achieved things by our own efforts; in reality, we do nothing by ourselves; whatever we achieve and accomplish we do only because of the help and support of countless other people and things. Contemplating this brings us down to earth and permits us to go forward with humility.

Good things in abundance, however, are not all we get from the past; it is from the past, too, that our ignorance, prejudice, conditioning, beliefs, misunderstanding and superstition come. Most of us are unaware of this, just as the fish is unaware of the water it swims in.

These are things we have not chosen or want, but have become ours by default. We are not responsible, to praise or blame for the situation we find ourselves in; no-one is; it is just the outcome of countless causes conspiring to produce whatever comes, and only when and if we can understand this shall we be able to bring any sense of direction into our lives. The present is ours, to make of what we will; the future is not fixed.