Do we have one past?

So, what if there is a chance that our realities evolve apart from eachother, but that they change when we interact with eachother in ways that are beneficial for both of us? It may be that you have a possible future and I have a possible future in which I never see you, but you are miserable. Now that I made a decision to meet you, because it felt good, your presence in my awareness collapses some of the possible futures and they crystallize in your mind as memories of certain events. When I ask you about those events, you can share your memories of certain events in your past that are favorable for you. But if you wouldn't have met me, you would have told a completely different story to somebody else, because your past would have crystallized in a completely different way. Did I prevent a less favourable outcome of a possible future, by acting on a positive feeling and because you responded to it in an agreeable way, so that you actually remember the positive outcome of an event that in a slightly different future would have crystallized as a less favorable event in your past?

I ask if it is possible that the memories you have at any given moment are suitable to explain the reality up to now or that this only holds for the part of your past that is part of some other persons' life. Might it be that your most private memories are actually the ones that change all the time, because the events giving rise to these private memories haven't been interacting with others? When you start meeting other people, it might be that your memory starts changing and that you 'remember' certain events that in other possible futures would never have happened!

This is powerful stuff and I can't stress enough that something like this seems indeed to be happening. It means that we do not seem to be aware of our past and that it actually may change over time in that you will remember different events as if they had happened (and when you do remember, they did happen) but if you met some other people, you might remember other events or the same event with a different conclusion (and the former event never happened, because you remember it differently). How the events change, that you think make up your past, is part of the working of the Universe. I am not saying that I completely understand the ramifications of this, if it were true, but I am only trying to give you an idea of what I am thinking about in terms of how we relate to the Universe and how past and future are interwoven.

If I can find myself remembering the past differently than I know I remembered it in a less remote past, then I must not think to myself that I have remembered it wrong now or that I remembered it wrong then, but instead that my past has changed and I am aware of that change, since the memory of the event has changed. This could help us to overcome pain. Let me explain.

If you have pain over a traumatic event, and suppose that somebody asks: "Are you in pain now?" Suppose you say "yes", the next question is: "What exactly is it that hurts you now?"
And you will have to think about it. You must then admit that what hurts you is what you think about the past that happened to you (and it did). But it is still a thought about the past that hurts you, right? It is not anything in the present that hurts you, because now you are safe.

So, the next question would be: "Do you have the power to choose a thought that does not hurt you?" If the answer is yes, then it is clear that doing the exercise of finding thoughts that do not hurt you, in fact uplift you now, because you shift to thoughts that do not hurt you. Therefore, it points to a remedy to the hurt that the past may inflict on you. Eventually you will have learned that the past can not hurt you, when you presently choose to think uplifting thoughts. This means that you have the power to choose a thought that makes you feel happy at any time you deem it necessary.

At first you may use happy memories to trigger your happy feelings. If you are able to remember an event that made you happy, how does it make you feel that you remember that event? In itself it may not make you happy at once, but then I can ask if you remember how you felt in that event. If you do and you are able to feel the same feeling as the memory suggests that you had, you have successfully recreated the feeling of happiness, using a memory of a happy event. It proves that now, in this moment, you have the capacity to feel happy. Do you see what you are capable of?

Eventually you will not need a memory of a happy event, but only the capacity to generate a happy feeling. Then you are changing reality, because you have changed the way you feel! Now that you have changed that and changed the way you think about your feelings, you will experience other things that reflect to you the way of thinking and feeling that you have acquired. These events will be different and in support of your new beliefs about who you are and how you deal with happy and painful events in your past. Thanks to H.

Vanity of words, vanity of letters

When growing up, I pondered about the alphabet in a philosophical mood already. Consider that the alphabet has some 26 letters. The English words that can be formed with them are documented in the dictionary. So, looking up these words, one 'knows' every English word and is able to form any sentence according to the grammar of the English language. What, I asked myself, could be said at all that is not a mere repetition of what has already been said? After all, each word must be understood, so how could anything new be said with known words? OK, the order of words may be different. Names may change in one story compared to the next. But what - essentially - is new when you say anything? What does it mean that there is something new? The focus on this quirky realisation that nothing is new, at least not in terms of language, gave me the daunting feeling that whatever could be known, is already known. But it was a philosophical consideration.

At that young age, I did not get that it is the truth and that this truth has many consequences.

To find consequences of a certain deduction, one has to dare take the next step. If nothing new can be said, why is there room for arguments, why is there room for misunderstandings, and why does it mean that these misunderstandings dictate that we feel bad about them? Why is there room for these negative aspects, when one would expect the opposite, namely agreement.

If we are in principle capable of telling the truth, then a typical conversation would go like this:

A: [truth 1].
B: I agree, so [truth 2].
A: Ah, yes, and you can vary it like [truth 3].
B: You are so funny, this is what I remember as [truth 4].
A: Hm hm.
B: Eh eh.
[peaceful silence]

Wouldn't it be fair that we would be exchanging truths with eachother and would have to agree all the time? Now, if somebody says that reality is not like this, he is introducing a disagreement. Why? Of course, we have the choice to be true to ourselves or not. But disagreement seems to be a way of dishonesty, on one of the sides. So, I tend to resolve this by keeping in mind that what somebody tells me is the truth as he/she sees it. But some of these views are very different from my own views. It is a challenge, not to take these differences personally, nor to take them as denial of any truth.

Here's where it gets tricky. If the differences of opinion are differences of truth, what is truth? Is truth confusing? It might be, but why would it be? Why can't we agree that we disagree and that both of us hold part of the truth? Does one of the views have to prevail? It isn't possible. Every partial truth that is forced on somebody else is in denial of the truth that is suppressed. This is the nature of partiality. And as time goes by the suppressed truth will gain strength and overthrow what has been forced.

Therefore it is said that truth prevails, because truth is living; its seeds are constantly rooting in people's hearts. That's what the heart is for, as the field of truth seeds. When such a seed of truth has matured into a tree, it becomes visible. If such a tree is cut down, its roots nevertheless stay in the heart. But if a tree is uprooted completely, then there will be room for a different truth. Now, uprooting truth trees is difficult, and there is but one person that can do it. It's you. Nobody else can uproot your truth trees.

Some trees are helping you flourish, other trees are blocking your view or hinder your progress.
So, we become gardeners of our truth trees. Every tree planted in our heart is true, but not every truth is fit for every heart.

Sow courage to uproot the trees that hinder courage. Sow wisdom to uproot the trees of small mindedness. Sow love to uproot trees of hate. Sow abundance to uproot trees of poverty.

How do you want your heart's garden to look like? Start sowing and uprooting if there's something you don't like about it! Nobody can stop you, nobody can help you, nobody can force you. It's all up to you.

Will the fruit be sweet or bitter? Remember that all fruits you'll ever eat are the harvest of the trees you once planted when they were but seeds. Were you careless before? Start sowing care. Were you forgetful before? Start sowing mindfulness. Were you lazy? Start sowing enthusiasm. Were you sad? Start sowing joy.

What's the truth? Is it spelled with five letters? No, those letters are vain, the word 'truth' is vain; the letters just spell a word of five letters, and the word thus spelled is but an indication, a projection, a symbol, with nothing going for it in comparison to other words! Vain are all words, vain are all letters. The concept of truth is not in the word 'truth'. That word is but a seed and how it develops into a tree with sweet fruit depends on the other trees in your truth garden, your heart. The language of truth is a hidden language; it is not taught at home, it is not taught in schools, it is not taught in university; the language of the heart is never taught, but remembered. The fruit of remembrance of this language is faith. Faith is the knowledge of the law of growth of seeds that have been planted in your heart. And faith feeds Life.