The title could be said differently as well: You are a survival machine. You are put together for the survival of your genes. (Richard Dawkins: the selfish gene theory). You have hundreds, maybe thousands of genes. Each gene is a code, and the genes are strung together on your DNA. Some genes are recessive, or dormant, but can be turned on by your behavior, by your thinking, or by an energy person, like me. 1
These genes put together, each concerned only about its own survival is your DNA, and we could say that the machine is what we call the ego. Of course it is not a good way to put it, but at least you are cursorily familiar with the phenomenon of ego.
Ego wants to survive the genes.
And it deals with what it needs to deal with to be successful at it.
The mind interferes with the machine, culture interferes with the machine, religion interferes with the machine. All your misery comes from this interference and how you choose to deal with it.
The selfish gene machine is only interested in it being able to replicate itself and survive itself. All those views, and opinions and preferences and musts and shoulds are circumstances for the machine. The gene, the machines, that are most able to change are the ones that survive.
Your decisions, your interpretations of what is right and what is wrong, are pebbles in the machine, preventing it from functioning ideally. 2
The more your thoughts and beliefs are in sync with the machine, the calmer, the more collected, balanced, productive human you are.
The “soul correction” is an attempt to point out what typical ways you interfere with the machine, to your detriment. What diverse ways your thoughts, your actions, your rights and your wrongs are at odd with the machine.
In the work I do, I attempt to restore balance, harmony, so you can be an effective, happy machine.
The machine is not the enemy, your opinions, and convictions are.
Or even those may not be the enemy, but the actions that come from those opinions and convictions totally disrupt the machine, and make you unhappy. You trying to prove them to everyone… that you are right.
In this article, I’d like to deal with one move that comes from the discord between the machine and your faulty mind.
The move is: arguing, justifying, explaining, and maybe even elaborating.
The thought is: if the other person just understood, if the other person just saw things right, I would be OK.
When you need to argue, you are off. Off, in some part of your view of things, or in your worldview.
You expand energy on something that is either irrelevant for your survival, or just plain not true.
You have to… It feels like unless you argue, justify, etc… you are going to die.
The interesting thing is: exactly the opposite is true. Always.
Why is that?
When you argue you are locked into your point of view. A narrow cone of vision view.
- You cut your nose in spite of your face: your nose looks unsightly…
- You bite the hand that feeds you.
- You kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
The examples of this short sighted, narrow cone of vision behavior are plenty.
If this is one of your behaviors, you’ll have a tough time to grow, to change, to have any experience of happiness, peace, success.
So, what should you do?
First you need to get, that capacities that are not working.
- Self-trust and trust. Trusting that whatever happens, you can deal with it.
- standing in your power. Or as Tai Lopez says, the Shaolin monk principle: everything is your fault. It’s a capacity, not the truth. It is a certain way of looking at the world, at things, at results, that is powerful.And when I say results: I mean everything that resulted from your actions or non-action. Being fat, being slow, being poor, being sick, being not listened to: these are results… that, according to this powerful attitude, you produced.Also being seen and heard the way you are being seen and heard: the very thing you are arguing.
If you had the capacity, through practice, or through activation PLUS practice, you’d never have to explain, justify, argue again.
So what happens when you consider that everything is your fault? That your power lies in being able to be responsible for everything?
Obviously you let go of defending and justifying your actions.
But something more profound happens, and that’s this: you expand your cone of vision. Both in space and in time.
You can ask and answer relevant questions now. You can ask: will this matter five years from now? You can ask: what are they seeing that I am not seeing? Could I look at myself through their eyes so I can become a more effective, more productive, more agreeable person?
Or you can ask: did I just find out how come I haven’t had the results I expected to produce? Did I just see what has kept me stuck?
And maybe you can see, that when you need to explain, justify, argue, you are wasting your precious energy… and the genes, your machine, will punish you for it… with misery.And while others grow you are arguing. You are stuck in your narrow opinion about yourself, about others, about it… about reality. About right and wrong. About allowed and not allowed. About legal and not legal… all binary switches… indicating a narrow cone of vision.
As a coach and teacher, I have an admission to make: whenever a student’s main “move” is argument, I am not able to produce any growth. Even if the argument only happens in their head.
The people that are not growing, without exception, are people who argue. Argue for their view of things.
“But you don’t understand me… I am different”
Someone has said: Argue for your limitation, and you got it… or something like that.
Anything you are right about is your limitation, or indicates a limitation.
And that limitation will keep you stuck… guaranteed. Unless… of course, you learn to be responsible for all of it.
- The model of inner/outer dynamics I set up in this article is theoretical: but, to the limited extent that I have used it, it works. And… I know that my wording is sloppy…
- There are dormant genes, we call them intangibles, spiritual capacities, that make it possible for the machine to live a life that is friction free… but most of these capacities are not turned on, i.e. the genes are recessive and dormant.
I have seen examples where someone willfully turned of genes to prove that they are a victim, hapless and worthless… So your thinking, your willful thinking, your argumentative nature turns off genes of higher capacities, of capacities that you claim you want. Your behavior says otherwise.
