James C. Wilhelm,
Contributor
Waking Times
Simple life forms first appeared on earth about three and a half
billion years ago. These little entities, a form of bacteria known to
biologists as prokaryotes, are still with us today. They are made of
DNA, proteins and other identifiable structures. As with everything that
exists, however, prokaryotes are essentially billions of bits of
information.
They came into existence and have persisted for billions of years
because they are able to exchange information with their environment.
Their data exchange capacity limits them, however, to survival and
multiplication, both of which they do very well. We can consider it a
good thing that the prokaryote’s ability to survive is so powerful. Had
this early form of life failed, our planet would likely look a lot
different today and we may not be here to think about it.
Our
earliest known direct ancestors,
Homo habilis or Homo gautengensis, appeared more than two million years
ago in what is now known as Tanzania. Similar to the prokaryotes, these
primordial relatives possessed the necessary information in their DNA
to keep them around long enough to move life to the next stage.
The species Homo transformed into Homo sapiens about 200,000 years
ago. As Homo sapiens developed larger, more powerful brains they were
called Homo sapiens sapiens and that is what we call ourselves today.
Each of the species along the way has inherited the DNA code for
survival. The downside of inheriting the survival code is the limit it
places on life to maintain only the level of
survival.
Relatively recently, humans developed the brain size and functional
capacity to go beyond survival. This means that modern humans can
transcend the fear-based survival paradigm and many have done so
already. We see this in our scientific and artistic accomplishments, in
our
spiritual and religious awareness,
and other cultural advancements that would not be possible if all of us
were all the time engaged solely in the process of survival.
When we focus primarily on survival we are operating from lack and
fear. Operating from and making decisions based on fear keeps us
enslaved to ancient behavioral programs that drive us to avaricious and
combative behaviors which are intrinsically self-destructive.
Thus, the biological and psychological tools that help ensure our
continuation through time actually contribute to our individual and
collective destruction.
We have been indoctrinated from before birth to believe what has
always been believed and what has always been believed has not worked
for us since we first starting believing it. While
caught up in our fear-based survival strategies,
humans have caused the needless pain, suffering, starvation, torture
and death of hundreds of millions of other human beings just like
ourselves.
In spite of profoundly convincing evidence that all of the solutions
we have thrown at these problems have failed miserably, we continue
employing these same solutions to this day while expecting different
results. This is how
Albert Einstein defined insanity.
In
the face of all we have learned about our planet, our solar system, our
universe and our physical bodies we have yet to learn that we cannot
transform our way of life by way of the same old solutions. The cause of
all this lies not in our laws, our economic situation or our
politicians and the solution will not be found in new legislation or
changes of leadership. All of these seemingly intractable issues share
the same ultimate cause and this cause is not found in worldly
circumstances but only within ourselves.
Yet all is not lost. We stand today on the threshold of unprecedented
opportunity. All that is required of us to realize this opportunity is
to wake up to its possibility.
We are eternal, transcendent beings trapped by our own limited,
pre-conditioned thinking. We look at humanity’s history and think this
is our future. We can allow our past to be our future or we can
transcend fear and create new possibilities. With the power of our
brilliant minds we have deciphered and changed much about the world, yet
we have transformed very little about ourselves.
Transformation itself can be frightening
because we think we must give something up of real value, or we may
lose some vital part of ourselves or maybe even physically die. The
caterpillar thought it was dying also until it emerged from its
chrysalis as a beautiful butterfly with the power of flight.
Fear is like darkness: it has no reality of its own but is, rather,
the absence of something that is real. Light is real; it is composed of
photons, and in its presence there is no darkness. Love is real; it is
who and what we are, and in the presence of love, there can be no fear.
All of us have within us both the darkness and the light. The
darkness is ruled by fear and thus also rules by fear. Look around you –
people are afraid. We fear economic collapse, terrorist bombers, crazed
gunmen hiding in the shadows of night awaiting their moment to gun us
down. We fear loss: of jobs, of freedom, of meaning, of love and of life
itself.
The light within us knows
fear is an illusion.
We inherently and intuitively know that love and peace are more than
possible, they are necessary and are within us right now waiting to be
recognized and expressed. When we see the light within us we understand
who we truly and originally are; we see the unity that binds us together
as one, like the separate threads of a beautiful tapestry, each thread a
necessary part of the whole.
Only
mankind’s transcendence of fear and the survival mindset that fear
engenders will ever make a difference for the starving people of the
world, or for the planet’s deadliest, most persistent, diseases or the
world’s environmental, political and financial issues. No elections, no
changes of government, no new laws, no amount of well-meaning
organizations filled will dedicated, committed people will ever result
in the changes we agree we would like to see. Only the transformation of
individual humans,
the inner transformation of the people of the world, will ever make a difference.
There is a way for each of us to awaken to the transformation of
lasting peace and love. I call this way Self-Understanding. It consists
of five straightforward steps:
- Accept your life exactly as it is right now; appreciate all that you have in your life.
- Choose your preferred way of being, whatever it is. I choose abundant peace, wealth and health.
- Focus your thoughts on your choice.
- Surrender control of creating and delivering your choice to your higher power.
- Persevere by repeating the first four steps and you will realize
abundant and lasting peace, or whatever you choose for yourself.
Touched by peace we will recognize that we all are one, making it
obvious that what we do to ourselves we do to everyone. The paradigm of
fear will be replaced by the light of love just like the darkness under
the bed is replaced by light when the beam of the flashlight shines upon
it.
About the Author
Jim Wilhelm is an international spiritual teacher,
self-development mentor, author, lecturer, philosopher, Emmy
award-winning television producer, and successful entrepreneur. He has
shared his experiences of practical mysticism around the world for more
than 40 years.
After many years of practice and research Jim discovered a practical
aspect of mystical consciousness. When he applied this revelation to his
life Jim realized that he could alter his experience of what we call
physical reality.
Jim has translated his spiritual understanding into practical
knowledge that you can apply in your life. He has recently published his
second book:
I Am God and So Are You – Discovering the Power of Your True Self.
Knowing our true and original nature connects us with the inner peace
and love that we all are. Our connection with this peace opens the door
to the possibility of unlimited manifestation.
Jim works with individuals and organizations and facilitates
workshops and seminars to help people discover the peace that lives
within us all and to apply their innate power to manifest what they
previously considered impossible.
First Posted: 04/19/11 08:06 PM ET Updated: 06/19/11 06:12 AM ET