We are told from birth that we are separate—separate from other beings and things and separate from the Whole. Our innate intelligence has been conditioned in this way of knowing and this way of being. We live the life of this separation story with its need to protect and perpetuate our separate self. We experience thoughts and feelings that we call our own and therefore defend these knowings as we would defend ourselves.

Feeling so separate we develop personality styles, ways of thinking and feeling, and ways of relating that are all designed to protect the vulnerability of our separateness. These strategies have both served and limited our way of being in the world. What we hold as identity either fetters or liberates. We can examine patterns that structure knowing and thereby outgrow personal identity.

Sometimes yesterday’s protection becomes today’s prison.