Others Were Here Before You

The philosopher John Locke defended the right to private property by arguing that, if a man puts his labor into an empty piece of land, he naturally owns that land. Unfortunately, the main example Locke used was the European “discovery” of the New World, which he knew very well was already settled by indigenous people.

It’s a good reminder that when folks start throwing around words like “mine” or “property,” they’re usually rewriting history to make it seem as though others weren’t there before them. But someone else was always there before you.

Modern psychology teaches us that we each possess one mind to do with what we choose. So we say things like, “Just make up your mind!” But if you really look at your mind, you’ll see it’s neither one nor completely yours. Most thoughts and feelings arise outside your control.

As Ajaan Lee said, the mind is more like a digestive tract, in which many different organisms co-exist. The best that can be hoped for is that they co-exist in harmony.

What this means, then, is that happiness is not about ownership, but about relationship. Your happiness depends, first, on the people you associate with, but also with the relationships you have with the parts of your mind you might not like.

You might not like the angry or insecure parts of you, but you can’t simply evict these tenants. They were there before you, and they’ll fight to keep their place. But you can understand and learn to live in peace with them.

So make it a practice, when you enter a room or place or moment, to remind yourself, “Others were here before me.” Try to leave each time and space better than it was given to you. This is how we learn that we’re not alive simply to gobble up our individual pieces of the planet. We’re here to live in tune with what started long before we came around.



As always, if you’d like to be held through your process, reach out and we’ll set up a free coaching call.