Before we are born into the world as we know it, we are formed through the fertilization of an egg. Our cells multiply and grow in the womb and our parts become specialized. We are born when our infant bodies are ready to function on their own. In the womb, we share our mother’s blood, nutrients, oxygen, etc. When we come out into the world and begin breathing on our own, we are not starting at zero. Up until the point the cord is cut and we are separated from our mothers, we are one with her. Our flesh and blood are also hers. On a cellular level we inherit an incredible combination of our mothers and fathers and we are an extension of them.
Naturally, we seem to grasp that our physical attributes are inherited from our parents. However, we seem to forget that we also inherit beliefs, attitudes, stresses, and even traumas from them. Our psyche, as Carl Jung teaches, is made up of both conscious and unconscious parts. Babies are born innocent. Of course, that’s true! But innocent does not mean starting at zero. At birth, each one of us contains the inheritance of the entire world. This is not metaphorical! Your mother passed all her joys, griefs, celebrations, and traumas to you. When she was born, she inherited everything that came before her. Your father and his father are in there too.
On Day 32, we discussed the Buddhist Heart Sutra and the idea that in every sheet of paper there is a cloud. In the same way, in every human being there is the entire universe. Without everything that came before you were conceived, you would not exist. This is the butterfly effect! However, much of this passes to you unconsciously, and somehow along the way, we develop the belief that we are individuals and separate.
In the book It Didn’t Start with You, author Mark Wolynn teaches us that the traumas experienced by our ancestors are passed from generation to generation and impact our lives whether we are conscious of them or not. It is a fascinating read and covers countless stories of individuals that uncover how things that happened to ancestors as far as three generations back are still having effects. One story recounts an individual that had horrible, traumatizing dreams about fire, only to find out later that an ancestor had been killed in a fire.
Our egos can play really disturbing games with us and cause us to experience fears, guilt and self-doubt. We often think these feelings stem from something we did or because we are somehow not worthy. But we forget that we didn’t start at zero. When we recognize that who we are is the collective manifestation of everything that came before us, we can begin to understand more clearly that we are not separate, and we are not alone. There is a thread of oneness that connects us all.
Photo by Krzysztof Niewolny on Unsplash
