
Yes, of course our minds love to dwell on our expectations and ideas, but have you ever stopped for a minute and wondered where your expectations and ideas originated from? I have. And while I was pondering that, I also realized that a lot of what I thought was my mind was not my really my mind at all. It was the minds of my parents, my teachers, my friends, media writers, church leaders, and on and on.
It's kind of amusing now, in hindsight, how ridiculously unrealistic it was for me to hold on so tightly to expectations and ideas that I had never thought through for myself. Not to say I would have been able to think them through as one without the experience or the insight it requires to think those things through. However, what I am saying is that I now have the understanding that there have been thoughts, ideas, and beliefs installed or uploaded (for the techie generation) into my mind that I need to take time to think through for myself.
John Locke, a famous Enlightment thinker, said we are born into this world with a "blank slate" for a mind. Meaning that our minds need to be programmed or written (like a book) by parents, caregivers, teachers, and society. They are the ones responsible for laying and shaping the foundations of our minds. Our perception of the world is not really ours until we take back control and find out for ourselves what this world is really all about.
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