This is the fourth part of article entitled, “The Importance of Being Nobody”.

"One day, I discovered I didn't need a personal history, so, like drinking, I dropped it." - Carlos Castaneda in Tales of Power

We gain the moment of great awareness "in the now" by dropping personal history. "If we could erase personal history," says Don Juan, "we would be free from the encumbering thoughts of others." How much time is spent worrying about what other people think? Don Juan points out to Castaneda that Castaneda doesn't know anything about him beyond what he himself had told him. He could be someone else for all Castaneda knew. Castaneda, on the other hand, had to renew his personal history daily by telling his relatives and friends everything he did.

If you have no personal history, no explanations are needed.

When people know our personal history, know exactly who we are, what we believe, and what we stand for, it's as if they have control over us. They expect us to behave in a certain way, and if we don't, they become surprised or disillusioned. To express it simply, "If you don't have a story, you don't have to fit it."

Only someone with an excessive sense of self-importance could think that his or her problems are more important or distinctive than those of others. When we lose the sense of self-importance, we realize that everyone has the same kind of problems. In describing his mystical experience, A.H. Almaas said, "I learn a great deal of what I truly am when I am not trapped in the particulars of personal life and history. I am then the unchanging background witnessing."

"I am not bound by the story of me." - Gangaji

Don Juan says he know all kinds of things because:

1. I don't have a personal history.
2. I don't feel more important than anything else.
3. My death is sitting right here beside me.

To be continued: A Rare Spontaneous Awakening