Our Mental Makeup --- Process by which it is Formed

   Our mental makeup consists of what we think and feel with 
   regard to a thousand things.  What we think or feel with regard 
   to a particular thing consists of what we were last persuaded 
   of with regard to that thing.  For example if at one time we 
   became persuaded that "all people are bad" we carry that belief 
   with us (and it is part of our mental makeup, influencing how 
   we react to life and see life) until something comes along, 
   perhaps years later, that causes us to re-examine this basic 
   tenet we are carrying and change it.  Our mind is always 
   operating under a thousand tenets and assumptions;  and these 
   tenets and assumptions are the ingredients of our mental 
   makeup. 

   What we are at any particular moment is what we were last 
   convinced of in regard to a thousand things.  What we say to 
   ourselves we become, what we tell ourselves we become.  What 
   other people convince us of (as by sermons from the pulpit) we 
   become.  What we are is the sum total of all the things we have 
   ever come to believe and feel. 

   
   "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The 
   mind is everything.  What we think, we become." 
                                                          Buddha