From Zen Marrow: Talk One.
One’s options and judgments are not formed out of the clear blue. Many times the values and beliefs one espouses are ideas that have been learned from others or read and absorbed from books. Parents pass on values and ideas to their children and children learn from teachers and others children.
Ethics, ideas, standards, values, and become part of oneself by entering our bodies and brains through the heart/mind. Not only does one learn from others but many of one’s behaviors and reactions are programmed into who we are genetically. Human responses can be said to be “hardwired.” Behaviors are often reactions that are a part of us – a product of being human.