The Reality of Evolution
“The one that is running becomes more tired than the one that is walking. The one that is walking gets more tired than the one that is just standing.”
“The human mind, for some reason, is prone to looking for positions of comfort. What we mean really, - is a position that we can adopt so that we can give less effort when we are doing things. For example, if you walk from your house to the store, the next time you walk to the store you will try to see how you can ensure that it will be easier. We feel like this is how we progress; by making things easier and easier. That is very ironic because the truth is... it is the path of destruction. It might look shocking, but in nature it is purely natural… and we are not doing it willingly. At every step, we are trying to achieve the same thing with less mental effort. Literally, everything we deal with is the same way.
What we call a ‘professional musician’ is one who can play without having to look at their instruments. But the truth is, what we are introducing is the notion of automatic behavior, and we are preparing ourselves for action-reaction situations. How many times did you put your foot on the brake when you were driving to work? Nobody will be able to give a correct answer because it becomes so automatic that it doesn't require any mental processing, -it becomes a reaction. That reaction is no different from a snake that turns and bites when something touches its tail, -it doesn't have to think, it just reacts. Or a dog that just goes on barking sometimes without knowing what is going on. Or a crocodile that will eat without really wondering what he is eating (this is what we call the crocodile reaction). A crocodile sees something that looks like an animal, and before finding out which kind of animal it is, it is already in his stomach. When we do things without using very much of the brain, we feel that we are advanced, but when we see the same thing in other species, we are honest about it and call it instincts.
Life is really posing us a challenge. What does it then mean to be an intelligent being? Some people can easily reason about ‘something’ to find what the best solution may be, - some people have to experience the frustration of making the wrong decision, try again, get the same results, - and even try again until finally they get it. We learn to think of those who have to do it again-and-again as not very smart. But those who don't need to go through that are actually looking for a way to use less of their brain. In that case, who is really using their brain? Who is really resisting the drag of the brain's degeneration? The system that we live in has taught us to reject natural realities. It looks like the evolution of a human being (or the evolution of anything that exists) goes the other way; from being the smartest to being the dumbest! Or let's say, from being the one that needs to use their brain to the one that doesn't need to use it. When you are growing as a kid, you have to figure out even how to walk. After we register it, for us, it doesn't take very much thinking to walk! We interiorize it and put it in the way that we don't have to spend as much energy from the brain. This is part of the way nature advances, because there is this tendency to look for the position of less effort. That is how we say that the destruction goes on. You go from being young, fresh, smart and energetic and gradually become dumber, you stop having to think before you do some things, and when you realize you made a mistake, then you say, “I should have known!” All what it takes is to think, and you would have solved that problem. As part of the education in KA’AT IBI, it is very important to understand this notion, because that is why the KA’AT IBI goes towards increasing the capabilities of the brain. That comes with understanding this reality of the normal course of the brain.
“The human mind, for some reason, is prone to looking for positions of comfort. What we mean really, - is a position that we can adopt so that we can give less effort when we are doing things.”
The one that is running becomes more tired than the one that is walking. The one that is walking gets more tired than the one that is just standing. The one that is standing becomes more tired than the one that is sitting, and the one that is sitting is more tired than the one that is lying. The one that is lying gets more tired than the one that is dead! At every level, really, whenever energy is used it must also be generated, but every being looks for a way so they do not have to furnish or generate very much energy. Keeping that in mind, these are things that you need to add into your paradigm and reasoning process as part of the reality. We stay in my place; ‘if the four-legged animal can fall, then what about the two-legged one?’ What it means is that; maybe the direction of evolution is the opposite of how we think it is. We didn't start with four legs and end up with two legs. If anything, we start with two legs and then end up with four legs, because four legs are more comfortable. When you are on four legs you can even stand and sleep, you fall less, you don't get backaches... I'm saying this so you understand the direction of evolution. It is going from the position that is the most complicated to the position that is most simple. Every animal and living being tries to program himself or herself into what we call ‘reactive behavior’.
The system understood this concept; maybe it is the individual that is the problem on this level. When you are walking in the street and see the traffic lights, a hand that says stop and a foot that says go, you will see how that is really animalistic and automatic. It doesn't look very smart. A human being that is proud of their intelligence will say that all one has to do is look to the left and to the right, and if someone is coming, you slow down, they pass, and you go. But with these lights, you don't have to think. Period. You don't even have to turn and see who is coming. All you have to do is just look. If it is red, you wait. If it is green, you go. You don't have to think about it. We use our intelligence to set up a system so that we don't have to think… a process of simplification.
“A hand that says stop and a foot that says go, you will see how that is really animalistic and automatic. It doesn't look very smart”
We do this and we chant that we are more intelligent than other species. But we are trying to see how we can use as little of our brain as possible! A brain is like any organ of the body, and all organs obey one principle: use it or lose it. Either you use it, and it is functional and working, or you don't use it and it will go through the process of shrinking. You will notice that, as we are evolving, the number of people with memory problems is increasing, - even though we think we eat better, etc. Nowadays you make fire by pressing a button. If you compare this to my village, it will take me 10 minutes to make fire; 10 minutes of assessing if the wood is dry enough, which neighbor has fire to borrow, and how can I carry it… which direction the wind is blowing, etc. What's here will take just one finger - takes 10 minutes for me when I go home. Period. To me, it takes brain processing to light a fire, but for you it is automatic - you don't have to think.
Another example: how do you know that your food is cooked? Here, you use thermometers. You don't have to think. In my village, I have to assess how long the pot was on the fire. I have to check if it looks cooked. If yes, I will have to taste a small bite to see how it feels. Based on experience, you build personal wisdom, so you know that when you bite it and it feels a certain way, you know that it is cooked, or it is not done yet. If you check, what is left is for people to go behaving through their emotions - all the while thinking that they are thinking! Nowadays if I like you, you are a good person - until when I don't like you anymore, and then you are a bad person. In my place, whether I like somebody or not, that doesn't make them good or bad. Period. So here, you have replaced thinking with emotion just to keep the illusion of thinking. All this is what we are going to work on. In the same kind of aspect, the KA’AT IBI meditation class is a spiritual class. People nowadays, think to meditate is to go and pay 5 to $10, have a mat, and sit - close your eyes and tried to block thoughts. But it goes in the same process where we end up like make believe people in a make-believe world. When you come to KA’AT IBI you are coming to help yourself. If you keep holding on to your old monuments and lighthouses, forgetting that these monuments and light houses lead to nowhere but this illusion that you are achieving something (while both you and I know that it won't take you anywhere) you will not progress. One must get a hold of one's ego, emotions, and fake pride that one has built around oneself. The KA’AT IBI education will make you a survivor. It will allow you to survive with your spirit, survive with your body, and survive as a being!