The most beautiful 2

The reactions that took place in the mind one second ago were unavoidable. Maybe they were nice so we wanted them. Or they were painful.
The reactions were decided by at least two groups of factors, old and new. New factors were the immediate impulses and processes going on now. We might be comparatively aware of these processes. Old factors are our knowledge and experience from before.
The combination of the new impulse and our old experiences made up the reaction we had a second ago.
This means that we are some sort of victim of our old experiences. Things that happened to us long ago still influence our outlook and our experiences.
That is the difficult aspect. We are not free now. We are followed by our history.
The positive aspect is that the past can be changed. Or rather, we can get a new past if we want to.
Nothing in mind has inherent existence, so all of it can change.
To change the past means to purify old, painful experiences and memories. It also means to fill memory with positive activities. Eventually, no old negativity can disturb our reactions in mind.
This is not a static situation. It needs constant renewal of good actions in order to remain.

All aspects considered 2

To favor freedom before oppression is not a matter of political conviction but of scope of knowledge. The more we know the more we accept freedom.
Oppression can be based on raw violence. That is a very primitive situation.
Oppression can also be based on the idea of discipline - there must be some structure to avoid anarchy.
This situation is intermediary, between the most primitive oppression and the evolved stage of full knowledge and thus full freedom.
Freedom is complicated idea as it involves all citizens in a nation. Any minority which advocates violence is a problem.
Traditionally this was a problem that could not be solved. It was impossible to reach all citizens with a serious analysis and exchange of experiences and knowledge.
But it is not impossible any more. Thanks to better education, better media and Internet knowledge increases fast.
It is very good. It means that the politicians of tomorrow will rest on knowledge and ideals among their voters, and not on bias and promises of subsidies, tax reductions and the like.

Self made

As we have no self, we can be self made...
If we had a given self we could not change. As we have no given self we can change. When we have changed we can call this new situation self made - we made it ourselves.
The argument is something like this:
The personality we have now is decided by our body and mind. Mind is most important. It contains our experiences, our knowledge and our hopes for the future.
According to Buddhism there is nothing more. This is different from our spontaneous feeling and from most religions, which claim there is a self or soul which is the supervisor of all we do.
If our personality is nothing more than the effect of our present knowledge we might as well improve our knowledge and thus get a better self.
To change personality is not easy. It is not a superficial thing. But it can be done.