| "The latter part of a wise man's life," said | | | | This program created failure and frustration in my |
| Jonathan Swift, "is taken up in curing the follies, | | | | adulthood. |
| prejudices, and false opinions he had contracted in | | | | As an adult, I noticed that this program to negate |
| the former." | | | | effort made my life very difficult. |
| The awareness to see one's own follies, | | | | But by practicing sufficient awareness to notice |
| prejudices, and false opinions is in fact essential to | | | | the pattern and choosing to learn to persist in |
| overcome one's psychocultural programming. | | | | every endeavor, I noticed a critical shift in my life |
| But before we discuss awareness, we should look | | | | experience. |
| at how we went about assimilating programs that | | | | What I noticed was that when I applied my new |
| didn't benefit our evolution. | | | | decision to persist when things were not going |
| Apart from what we have been told about the | | | | my way that even seemingly impossible things |
| nature of reality, we also actively programmed | | | | would turn in my favor. |
| ourselves on what things meant. | | | | A program, then, is a repeated pattern arising |
| Unfortunately, most of our programming was | | | | from a previous decision. It is usually one made as |
| done when we were children. At that time, we did | | | | far back as childhood. It is an early and immature |
| not have sufficient knowledge or experience to | | | | decision that creates disharmony and dysfunction |
| sift through the absurd to uncover the profound. | | | | in one's present life. |
| While many of the belief-systems we adopted as | | | | Cultivating awareness breaks the cycle of living |
| children were designed to help us survive, they | | | | out decisions made in childhood. |
| may have had a deleterious effect on us as | | | | Awareness is noticing a recurring life situation that |
| adults. Since these programs for the most part | | | | disturbs happiness and success. It is inquiring into |
| arise from the unconscious, we may often find | | | | the original decision that set the life-denying |
| ourselves responding childishly to challenging | | | | pattern into motion. Once a person sees the |
| events rather than summoning our adult power to | | | | program that has been silently and almost invisibly |
| move through the problem. | | | | running their life, they can redecide how to live |
| As a child, for example, I adopted the belief that | | | | their life and organize their experiences in a more |
| if something did not work out for me, my best | | | | meaningful way. |
| option was to move on to something else. | | | | |