What you are is what you have been yesterday; what you will be is what you are being today

This phrase struck me deeply the first time I read it. Since then, I carry it as a constant reminder: within us there is an enormous margin of action to shape our future.

Paradoxically, to take a different path, we must first know the past and the road we have traveled until today. Without awareness of who we have been, it is almost impossible to understand who we are now. And without that understanding, very likely tomorrow we will be exactly the same as yesterday.

Without these realizations, change tends to be reactive: circumstances shape us instead of us shaping circumstances. And in some cases, we can easily fall into the role of victim—comfortable, moreover, because it brings attention from others—and become slaves to the external.

What is interesting is to take real dimensions of what “our past” truly means.

I will describe below layers of depth that go from the most superficial to the most profound.

First layer: habits.

Many of the ones we have today were forged by repeated behaviors (often unconscious) over years. The longer that period, the stronger the resistance to change.

Second layer: family and contextual influence.

Many behaviors were heavily shaped by parents, caregivers or environment in the early years. It seems there is much we did not choose and that simply conditioned us. But in a deeper order—according to many initiatory traditions—this was chosen by us before incarnating in this physical plane, with purposes of experience and learning.

Third layer: lineages and genetics.

Knowing the past also means looking upward in the family tree: grandparents, great-grandparents… The genetic load transmitted generation after generation is within us, as if they were the famous “default functions” of a mobile phone. Many of them activate or deactivate depending on external stimuli (this is known as epigenetics*).

We must know all this to understand that the past is a determining factor… only until we become conscious of the power that resides within us. Day by day. Tomorrow will be the same as yesterday if I do nothing different today. But if I modify my actions now, in this instant, I begin to create a new frequency that, if it gains enough strength, will become my new “default” state of being.

Once we have taken the reins of these layers of the past, we are ready to thread more finely: to reveal the hidden tasks that our ancestors left us to resolve. Perhaps that is why lineages had (and still have) so much importance. Knowing who you are, where you come from, what blood runs through your veins, gives you much more information about what you have come to manifest in this incarnation.

By the way, according to Buddhism, it is ignorance that brings us suffering and keeps us trapped in the wheel of samsara*.

So, where to begin?

I believe the most powerful question is not “Who am I?” (which can take us entire lifetimes to resolve. Note well that here I speak of lifetimes, with an s at the end). A more accessible one to start with is: Who do I want to be? Without limitations from our current state. Without filters.

This question opens the imagination, gives space to our genuine desire and provides direction.

Once we know who we want to be, it becomes much easier to align today with actions that put us in that direction. A dividing line is created that “parts the waters,” clearly showing us “good and evil” in our particular path; where good is everything that brings me closer to who I want to be, and evil everything that takes me away from it. And it is in that journey that we truly discover who we are. The final destination is only the excuse to reveal the path.

“Who I want to be” draws a clear line between what brings me closer and what takes me away.

Past and future are only references. Like climbing a mountain: sometimes we look up to see how much is left; other times down to see how much we have climbed. But the true intention must be in the present, in the steps we take now, in who we are being today.

It is in the act of reflection—of “stopping the ball”—that many times we can open the way to better decisions, as long as they are aligned with our genuine interest.

Let us not forget that there is no other human being exactly like us. Each one carries something unique. Discovering that can open the doors to a life full of purpose and meaning.

Past and future unite in the present. The past no longer is. The future is not yet. We live in the eternal now.

Clinging to the past is illusorily believing in the permanence of things. Sometimes we punish ourselves for what happened, other times we glorify ourselves, but what happened no longer exists, it no longer is.

The only thing that matters is what you are being today. And so in every instant.

It is today where every change begins. It is today that always gives us a new opportunity to be.

Our past brought us here and for that we must be grateful.

But in a higher order of reality—beyond the space-time limitations we perceive—past, present and future occur simultaneously. Everything is already contained in this eternal instant.

And beyond the character we play in this play, there is something that observes. Something that simply witnesses. Something that is not born nor dies with the body.

It is today where everything begins anew. It is today that invites us to be.

And you, dear reader, who are you? Who do you want to be?

Footnotes:

*Epigenetics: the study of how environmental factors can turn genes on or off without changing the DNA sequence. What we inherit is not a fixed destiny, but a starting point that responds to environment and our choices.

*Wheel of samsara: in Buddhism, the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth driven by ignorance, attachment and aversion.