Reset

Many of the devices we purchase these days have an option to “Return to Factory Settings.” This reset option returns the software to the state in which it was originally shipped. Using this as an analogy, what would it be like if we were able to do this to ourselves?
We might start by looking at what we were originally “programmed” to do or be.  In what ways were  we “programmed” to function?  What does our code have us believe about the world and others?  How does it enforce our emotional responses, our life choices in our daily experience of work and relationships?  How does this programming influence us in relation to larger issues like philosophy, politics, religion.
Our  “factory settings” are created by the beliefs of our culture, parents and education, to name the most obvious.  These settings often create moral imperatives, protective psychological devices and a host of illusions that we might be far better off without.
What if we could “reset” so that we were in line with provable realities like:

• We are a small speck in a vast unknowable universe.
• For each of us we appear to be the center of and include all of reality.
• We are passing through this universe for only a very short time.
• Most of our behaviors are “mechanical”. They are “settings” we simply repeat without the aid of conscious observation.
• Everything changes.
• Most of our negative emotions are programmed and may have no practical reality or value.

These are just a few examples of observations that are verifiable and might form the basis for a real practice and science of human existence.
Being in line with verifiable reality could lead us to the truth and freedom.  The price of entry is the systematic discarding of everything that we cannot witness or prove.
It will take time, learning and practice to erase our existent code: to reset.
Are we now far enough from medieval values, fear and inertia to do that?
Wouldn’t it be an amazing exploration?
photo credit: tillwe