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Some 2,400 years before it occurred to a Western thinker, the Buddha proposed that there is no such thing as a fixed self or a fixed identity or fixed personality that in fact we have what he called

Chevasikas which are essentially self-states or sub-personalities and the ideas that in certain

contexts and settings we have different essentially thoughts and behaviors that rise in our behavioral vocabulary.

And then in other contexts we have other different behaviors and thoughts.

So right here, I have a certain demeanor, a certain way of holding my body, a certain way of thinking and talking and this personality essentially that I'm in is a

subset of one of many.

I have another sub-personality that would come out when I'm hanging out with friends

or when I'm working out at the gym, a much sadder personality in my case of the gym.

Most of us hopefully have a different personality when we're on some kind of a date than we are when we're with our families, I hope.

So this is an important insight if you realize that you do not have a global personality, but rather you have a set of behaviors and thoughts that are activated in certain contexts, like when you're in a situation that reminds you of your family system,

which we'll talk about a little while, you'll have a subset of behaviors and thoughts that will arise and you'll work within

that vocabulary.

So it makes it easier to be compassionate with ourselves because if we have a

setback in our career or in a relationship or in

in a friendship or in

in inter-nessing battle in our families, then if we realize the idea of sub-personnelies then we can not globally just think of ourselves as some kind of a failure or there's something

wrong with us, At best, we'd be able to appreciate that in one arena of life, one subset, one sub-personality or one Chafesika, we need to investigate and bring up to date.

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