The unconscious human being can be compared to a machine, more precisely a machine like a computer that is programmed to react according to the program it is running.
If we take a look at the way we function, we will see that inside our heads there is a whole program, a set of beliefs, demands, and viewpoints about how we should be, how the world should be, and what we should want.
What is this programming? Who is responsible for it?
It is not us. It is not really us who decided even such basics as our wants, needs, and desires; our values, tastes, and attitudes. It was our parents, our schools, our society, our culture, our religion, and our experiences that fed the operating instructions into our “computers”. Now, wherever we go our computers go with us, insisting that our needs, demands, and beliefs be met by life, by people, and by ourselves. If the demands are met then the computers allow us to be “normal”, if they are not met the computers generate negative emotions that cause us to suffer.
When people don’t live up to our computer expectations, it torments us causing frustration, anger, and bitterness. When things are not under our control the computer insists that we experience anxiety, tension, stress, and worry. We lose a lot of energy dealing with these negative emotions and trying to fulfill the needs and demands of the computer. When our needs are met – we will experience a fleeting moment of reprieve. This is not peace because it is very precarious, as at any moment the slightest thing could disturb our equilibrium and trigger our upset again.
Hence we live this wretched existence, always at the mercy of situations, circumstances, and people. We try desperately to have the world conform to our programming so that we can experience the only reprieve we know – a fleeting moment of respite from negative emotions.
What is the way out?
The way out is to wake up, start noticing ourselves and deprogram our computers. When we do that we will notice something very interesting. We will gain a whole new world, an authentic point of view.
Think of something or someone you find unpleasant that you would normally try to avoid. Now notice how your computer instinctively becomes active, insisting that you avoid or try to change the person or situation. If you don’t obey the computer, notice how the computer insists that you experience anxiety, irritation, guilt, and other negative emotions.
The important thing is to keep noticing the unpleasant person or situation until you notice or realize that it isn’t them that are causing the negative emotions at all. They are just being themselves, going their way, doing their thing, whether “right” or “wrong”, “good” or “bad”. It is YOUR computer and programming that insist on negative emotions.
If you can’t see this, just try to see that someone else with different programming, when faced with this same person or situation would react quite differently – even calmly and happily. The only reason you are having a problem with it is because of your own computer and programming.
Once we understand this truth and learn to deprogram our computers, we may choose to take any actions we deem fit. Only after we have gotten rid of our emotional upsets, will our choices spring from peace, love, and trust, rather than from neurotic desires to appease our computers and conform to their programming.
People have been known to experience freedom and happiness even in the oppressive atmosphere of prison, concentration camps, and slavery because they were able to deconstruct their programming. Their freedom and happiness were not dependent on external situations or people, and so regardless of where they were – they were free.
Real oppression comes not from people who fight us and subject us to slavery, but from our computers, whose programming destroys our peace of mind the moment outside circumstances fail to conform to its demands.
It is from the oppression of our programming that we need to be liberated. As Bob Marley said, “emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.” Only then can we experience inner freedom, peace, love, and enlightenment.
Love and Light,
Courtney.
