Evolution

Evolution is a process. It is the process of something becoming something else. Normally associated with growth and development, evolution has always been and always will be because there is nothing stationary in the universe. All beings are in a constant state of change. This process is the reason we are aware of being alive. Without motion, awareness could not exist.

This motion must follow two universal and immutable laws -- Balance and Sequence.

All beings must maintain balance to manifest their existence or they run the danger of becoming extinct. This effort creates a Comfort Zone for any being that is constantly monitored for balance. All observable phenomena are striving for a balanced State of Being.

When the comfort zone becomes uncomfortable, a process must be activated to regain balance and it must be activated in sequence to be successful. If the being executes steps in the process out of sequence, it will suffer "con-sequences". This action is normally called Adaptation and represents the Process of Becoming. The nautilus is a beautiful example of this process as it begins to build a new chamber for its next stage of growth as soon as it feels dis-comfort.

Adaptation means harmonizing and synchronizing the being with its environment. The environment is what determines what the comfort zone should be. The universe creates the being and, if the being does not follow the immutable laws, it must dis-appear.

There is only one element in the universe that resists the universal laws -- the human ego. This entity resides in the brain and body and creates scenarios that are in conflict with truth. It is a Mindset that can become very stubborn while attempting to exist. It is the cause of all human strife, misery and pain. It is an artificial (man-made) mind we call identity or personality. This illusionary and delusionary entity is the only thing in the universe that sees its existence as separate from its environment -- an impossibility. If we are to evolve into the Utopia we all seek, the ego must be understood and tamed.

Zig Ziglar is a good old boy from Texas and a motivational speaker. He was a big part of the self-help movement along with Napoleon Hill, Og Mandino, W. Clement Stone, Norman Vincent Peale and others. He has a wonderful way of blending his talks with homey anecdotes that make sense. One of these anecdotes is about a flea circus. He begins,

"In the old days, when entertainment was hard to come by, traveling circuses would wend their way from town to town across the West and set up camp just outside each burg. They would form a midway of tents for the folks to amble past. Oddities and performers would be contained in the tents and the populace would pay some charge to enter. Usually, one of these had a flea circus.

The barker outside would entice the folks to enter and, when the tent was full, he would retreat into it and close the entry. Inside were a table covered with a white tablecloth and a large jar atop it covered by another white cloth. The man would uncover the jar, say a few words, uncap the jar and dump a bunch of fleas onto the tablecloth. The fleas would begin jumping up and down, but would not leave the tabletop. Applause and egress.

Zig would continue by describing how a flea trainer would achieve this feat. The trainer would catch a bunch of fleas and place them in the jar and watch and wait. Initially, the little beasties would jump as hard as they could to get away, but they would bump against the top and sides of the jar. After a while, they realized how far they could jump, so they limited their jumps to stop just short of hitting the jar. Voila - a flea circus! Zig ends his anecdote by asking the group: "What would you rather be, a flea or a flea trainer?"

My first thought: "I want to break jars!"

This is an example of how fleas adapt to their environment. Egos create their own jars the same way by limiting their thoughts and potential because of fear of suffering or embarrassment. The only thing that causes fear is ignorance - ignorance of the truth. The difference between ignorance and stupidity is that ignorance can be removed through understanding while stupidity does not seek to understand. As long as an ego feels fine in its comfort zone, it will remain stupid. Until there is some major disaster or earth-shaking event, most egos will be content to exist, rather than develop their potential.

Our bodies are created and integrated by material from Mother Earth. Our mother follows the universal laws without ego as does our Father Sun, our solar system, our galaxy and the entire universe. Our human form, (like all forms,) gathers atoms from its environment and sheds millions of atoms back into the environment every single day. This is the cycle of life all creation shares and executes.

The beginning is near. Global understanding is the next evolutionary step for mankind and it will come through technology. Huge advances in knowledge and understanding have been made in the last few decades because the speed of information sharing has exponentially increased each and every year. The average ego has little knowledge and understanding (or even interest) in this power, but that will change. There is no question we occupy an animal body with animal instincts, but we are far more capable than other animals.

The reason egos will wake up is because truth always wins, no matter how long it takes. We are more than trained animals underneath the veneer of ego jars. Computers have the ability to mirror the functions of the human brain and they are nearing the revolution of evolution. Today, false beliefs, false values and fantasies still rule the majority of human activity, but they will evanesce in the face of truth. The battles humanity creates are not between good and evil, but truth against untruth.

When a laboratory scientist wants to examine how an organism grows, he or she places agar into a Petri dish, adds the seed of that organism into the dish, covers it and watches its development. It creates a Culture. So it is with cultures among human beings. Agar is replaced by groups of people, the seed is a thought or idea, and the result is a School of Thought, or Ism. These schools of thought create the Cultural Ego.

Traditions, religions, institutions, political blocs and the like are examples of Cultural Egos. If an individual rebels against an ism, all kinds of punishments can be meted out by the group. Laws are written and established to maintain adherence to these artificial schools of thought and appropriate punishment is defined when violated. Moses, Confucius, Mohammed and others attempted to give guidance to the members of their society. Ten Commandments, Shariah, etc. Cultural egos are very difficult to change. That is because the individuals within them have little idea of what they could do by thinking "outside the box (or jar)".

Society trains and domesticates its members. It is done by agreement. It is done by propagating belief and tradition that once served to unify groups. These beliefs and traditions impede the growth of thought in the individual. We have the unique ability to stop a thought and think about it. To behold a thought and evaluate its meaning is the most powerful capability of human beings. To pass thought through the Corpus Callosum to the emotional hemisphere and gather meaning is a virtual miracle. In this age of constant belaboring by the cacophony of meaningless input, it is difficult to focus on what is truly important. We have to use this ability to stop and think in order to change the path we have created. We have to prioritize our life by accepting what is important to each of us. We have to stop clicking on cultural icons to activate the apps that have been programmed into us.

If we are not willing to admit we all want the same goal, it is hopeless to discuss anything. If we do not take personal responsibility to change this world for the better, we may as well be dead already. It begins with changing our own attitude. "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" is the attitude we should all adopt. Take a stand. Be willing to sacrifice everything for that stand. It is not society that creates us - it is we that create society. Be responsible, seek others who have awakened, and be a driving force for change.

We are social animals. It is important for us to belong to a group. Interaction, communication, and sharing life with others are a great part of being human. There is no need for leadership in a close community. Everyone feels better after doing a good deed for someone else. There is no reason why this concept cannot go global. Society is created by all of us. What we choose to do with this creation is up to each of us. If we do not come together to further our species in a common sense manner, we cannot change the current situation.

The current situation includes the doubling of the human population in the last fifty years or so. It includes the pollution of most, if not all, fresh water. It includes the pollution of the air we breathe to the point that chronic asthma and bronchitis flourish. It includes global warming, proliferation of weapons, drugs, crime, power and greed. How long we remain spectators instead of participants is yet to be known. We must be insane. We are like Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

Physicists are working on defining the Grand Unification Theory -- acronym GUT. It is intended to formulate the connection of the physical microcosm to its macrocosm. After Einstein started the ball rolling with his Special Theory of Relativity, it continued rolling into Quantum Mechanics and the train of thought then rolled on into trying to prove that the universe was one Relativity Ball, from microcosm through macrocosm. Because the wave/particle has a dual quality that continually interacts and transforms, I have doubts about GUT proving that the universe is physical in nature. Metaphysical, I can envision.

The metaphysical universe is the software I call the Grand Operating Design. The physical world (hardware) and the spiritual world (software) must coexist for us to recognize our universe. Just like the operating system of a computer that operates its universe, the Grand Operating System (GOD) operates ours. GUT is the particle and GOD is the wave of life's universe. In language, it is the relationship of noun and verb and in computers it is 1 and 0. Regardless of what we call things, it is what they DO that matters.

Our brain's left hemisphere is digital and identifies particles as forms. The right hemisphere interprets waves as emotion and is where Agape, kinship and compassion reside. This capability is similar to radio waves. Left hemisphere is Frequency Modulation (FM) and the right is Amplitude Modulation (AM). If we do not use both sides to contemplate truth, we will fall short of total understanding. It is our ego that chooses the station we want to "tune into." The ego is good at hearing only what it wants to hear, as well as only seeing what it wants to see.

If we all recognize the Grand Operating Design in everything we behold, our mutual universe will become the heaven so many seek. We can call this omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent software "The Source" as Dr. Dyer did; we can call it "The Force" as Star Wars did. There is no point in putting a face on it because it is formless, unseen and yet unknown. If we recognize this to be true, it is the Nirvana of Buddhism, The Heaven of Christianity, the Paradise of Islam and the Peace of Mind all people want. If we want to let its power change our universe into the image of heaven we want, all we have to do is change our attitude from looking outward to looking inward.

Human beings do the exact same thing as computers. We are born with an operating system that is preprogrammed to keep our organism "alive." It monitors our State of Being. It knows how often our hearts should pulse, how to process nourishment to create energy and health, how to use each organ of our body to maintain homeostasis, etc. The computer's operating system is a reflection of our own. The same concept applies to every component of the universe. All observable manifestations are in a state of Being Eternally, Infinitely, Naturally - Evolving. We are in a state of being that is forever in the process of becoming a greater being. Only the human ego fights evolution.

We are all born with the knowledge of being what we are. At conception, the sperm and ovum unite and combine their genetic material to begin the process of creating our physical form. The knowledge necessary for our body to create its form, its internal organs, and its ability to communicate with its environment is encoded in the DNA molecule. A great book to understand this process is Michel Foucault's "Archaeology of Knowledge."

So it is with all organic life. An acorn falls to the ground and contains the knowledge for becoming an oak tree; a fertilized eagle egg "knows" how to fly before it cracks its shell, etc. All manifestations in the universe have the knowledge of what they are. It is the only way they can balance themselves. The knowledge in each being is perfect and contains the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. All babies are born this way -- all living things, actually. The DNA molecule contains all previous knowledge of the parents, and the progeny will gather more knowledge in its existing form to demonstrate evolution. Self-education is simply discovering what we truly are.

We can compare the knowledge we are born with to a computer's Operating System. Every computer has to have one to define its environment and how to communicate with it. What the operating system does is give its container the ability to learn by adding programs (apps) to its base knowledge of AWARENESS. In a computer, we must define what it will communicate with. Regardless of the complexity of any system, it all boils down to Input, Process, and Output. If there is a close definition of Evolution, these three steps would be it; whether in living beings or computers. Everything in the universe is in the process of becoming something else, including us. We absorb input, process it through our minds, and become a new output.

Computers have peripherals, like readers, keyboards, screens, printers and the like to do their communicating. We have our five physical senses and our Common Sense. What to do with input to create a desirable output is a process, program, or application - an application of knowledge.

In a computer, the Central Processing Unit (CPU) is where knowledge processing takes place. In us, it is done in the hemispheres and Corpus Callosum of our brain by passing thoughts back and forth from emotion to logic until a decision is reached. In both, it is the ability to identify, evaluate, compare and decide that produces an Action. Whereas the rest of the organic world has little time or ability to create applications other than the basic needs of survival, human beings are quite adept at creating applications to serve other purposes. Witness greed, hate, opinion, pride, debauchery of Mother Earth, and the like.

At first, a human baby needs to be nurtured and cared for. This is a happy time for parent(s) and child, usually. The baby begins to create a base of experience during this needful state. If hungry or soiled, crying normally brings attention and relief, as well as some cuddling. The Pavlov dog response, except that it is the dog that controls behavior. At that stage, everything the little creature experiences creates a "feeling" that will stay throughout its lifetime. It begins to look for things that "feel like" what made its body feel good or bad during a previous experience. At this point until it is indoctrinated into creating a "personality," it will be a happy human.

How does the baby know when hungry or soiled? Of course it is because of its Operating System. There are two aspects of reality hard-coded in it - Balance and Sequence. The operating system monitors bodily functions and needs and regulates homeostasis (State of Being) by executing a sequence to evolve into balance. Our hearts pump about 72 times per minute; our body temperature is maintained between about 97 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit; we exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen, etc. We did not have to attend school to do this. The innate memories passed down from ancestors supply the baby with all the knowledge it needs. Indeed, all life forms are given this knowledge to exist in their environment and maintain balance. If we do not address our well-being, we give our body dis-comfort, dis-ease, perhaps death. The most important thing to understand is that we create our environment based upon the knowledge we were born with and the knowledge we gather as we grow.

As human beings, we are social animals and we become aware of our environment. Mom and Dad provide love, play and guidance as we grow. We belong to a Family. We feel love. When we venture outside the family, we begin comparing the feelings we get from others with those we get when we are home. We make friends. We learn from interacting within our environment. We learn by experience. Each experience becomes a memory stored within us. The first few formative years are joyous, carefree and arguably - the best time of our lives. Every curious exploration is a new adventure. Fear is unknown. Children are normally trained to fear, rather than understand.

We develop within our environment until we hit obstacles. Whatever culture exists around us, whatever our parents, teachers and peers think they know provide those obstacles. One of the first words a child learns is "NO!" For many, this only creates curiosity as to WHY NOT? As we near the Age of Reason, sometime around the seventh year of human life, we have heard the word countless times. We have become "old enough to know better." Unfortunately, what we are told as what we are "supposed to know" has nothing to do with self-education.

Society wants us to absorb "apps" that it has deemed important. These apps execute behaviors that others expect from us. We get propagandized, indoctrinated, fooled, domesticated and downright lied to in an effort by society to have us "fit in." False beliefs and false values abound in our formative years. This can create false knowledge upon which we will base decisions in the future. Self-education must identify these elements and put them to a truth test in order for our true self to emerge.

Gender roles complicate the issue. We are all born with Yin and Yang tendencies that seek to align with incoming communication. We have both male and female capabilities in our human form, defined by the left and right hemispheres, but what do we do with that ability?

What is this "self" we have built through interaction? We call it identity, personality, or Ego. It causes all the world's ills. We have at least two minds. Personality comes from the word "persona," which means "mask." The ego protects itself with this mask. It wants to live. Unfortunately for it, it has to die for the real "us" to manifest itself. The real us is the "anima" of Carl Jung. That is the struggle going on today. "To be or not to be, whether tis nobler..." gnaws at this ego all the time. The underlying truth of what we truly are is what makes this entity suffer.

The ongoing education of Ego is called "schooling." From our birth, the truth was there. It will be overwhelmed by thoughts that are not true. Well-meaning parents, teachers, peers, and others will "teach" us how to behave. Ha!!! How can they teach what they do not know? We have mandatory "education," which is a way to install apps in our children. All this does is create wage slaves. When does the time come to seek truth?

Being conscious is quite amazing when we think about it. We are here and it is now. From this point, we create the big bang of what we call "the life of a human being". How does the realization of being able to create what we can imagine resolve itself within the average individual? It usually doesn't. Most people are automatons acting upon thoughts they were convinced to hold as true. So what?

Awareness and imagination are mandatory to transform our lives. Most, if not all of us, can agree that we can always improve. What is it that we try to improve? The answer is quite simple - we all want peace of mind. We all want to be free from worry, from regret, from fear and from judgment. We all want to experience the beauty of creation and the ability to share it with all creation. We all want to love and be loved. Other wants are usually frivolous and useless.

We have two minds - the natural mind, which is all-knowing and perfect, and the mind that is created by our human experience. Our human experiences comprise our personality, or ego. The ego mind is what causes all ills on this planet. Why do we argue with ourselves about what we truly desire? Why are we willing to blame outside influences for what we create? We must become aware that our thoughts create our view of what we call "reality." The human ego is the only entity that will lie and accept lies as truth. No other known life form does this.

The Heart Sutra has a great perspective on this. It explains five skandhas - one for form and four of mind. They manifest in us as craving and clinging to our imagined universe, thereby creating the ego self.

There is no doubt that we have different levels of understanding from one person to another. Many humans are occupied with basic needs, like survival and security. Those people usually do not have time to contemplate their navels on the side of a mountain. However, literacy has allowed thinking people to discern what is true from what is not true. Becoming aware of truth has interesting repercussions. The first challenge for the average individual has to do with dumping belief systems that are untrue. When a mindset attempts to do that, it creates cognitive dissonance, or, more simply, denial. When the ego creates value systems and belief systems to make decisions and then realizes that the values and beliefs it used to decide are faulty, it has to face its ignorance. Truth can destroy self-worth, and ego resists that loss by rejecting truth. Ego wants to stay in control and when the "real" us calls its bluff, it becomes argumentative. We must awaken to become aware of the ego's stubbornness. Utopians are wide awake.

Truth has no excuses to make. Belief is assumption or opinion and can only be partially true at best. There is no separation of any element from any other element in our universe, so it is impossible for any anthropomorphized "god" to not be part of all that is. Therefore, the human ego is the only element that creates all evil and pain. Ego places the desires of its body above the spirit that drives us all and causes imbalance. It is "out of sequence" because it assigns value to stimuli when all things have the same value. When we become aware of this fact, we can create the world we want to occupy. The ego is SELFISH and must be tamed for us to live in peace.

Descartes said "Cogito, ergo sum" or, "I think, therefore, I am." Well, there is another element that contributes to our ability to think - we actually FEEL our environment. We think about what we feel. We can generate a new thought without doubt, but most of us only do that when we get a feeling from what we experience.

Our life and awareness center is Here and Now. We call these points infinity and eternity. We use the body to project thoughts and receive their echo to define our human reality. Our ego's puny observations are not capable of defining or understanding the totality of existence, but it can imagine being more than what it can observe. That is the reason for wanting to believe in some benevolent "god" that will reward it with eternal life in some glorious "heaven." It doesn't seem to matter to most egos that we already are in heaven and already have eternal life. Some insist upon creating hell on earth. The universal operating system is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. It is the formless, unseen and unknown force that religious egos anthropomorphize in an attempt to understand. It is the "intelligent design" that many now propound. Nothing is unnatural or supernatural. Those terms can only be used by egos to excuse their ignorance or lack of understanding or simply out of the scope of animal reasoning.

How ludicrous it would be to gain awareness of life and then, lose that awareness. What purpose would consciousness serve? Logic could not be served if we "die". It must be true that we pass our human existence for the purpose of gathering more knowledge of our own divinity and then move on in some transformed and transcendent manner. We are like caterpillars waiting to become butterflies.

If we are willing to accept that we are all created perfect in a spiritual sense, we can become aware that the desires of the ego are irrelevant. Human beings are no better and no worse than any other part of creation. Greed, power, lust, competition and other ego desires pollute the heaven we inhabit.

Mother Earth provides the material to manufacture our bodies and yet we spit in her face. We must become more aware of our own actions and begin cleaning our home. We do not need oil to survive - we need water. We do not need atomic bombs to protect ourselves - we need love. We do not need possessions to make our ego boast - we actually own nothing. We need to wake up from the hypnotic state we are under and begin thinking for ourselves. It is not the human body that is eternal. It is LIVING that is eternal. If we start imagining heaven on earth, we will be there.