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. 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.

Self-education is simply discovering what we truly are. The DNA molecule contains all previous knowledge of the parents, and the progeny will gather more knowledge in its existing form to demonstrate evolution.

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 of our brain by passing thoughts through the Corpus Callosum 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 our ancestors supply us with all the knowledge we need. 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, and imagine death.

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. We will have to be taught to fear.

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 we will learn is "NO!" 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 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. 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 a belief system that is proven to be untrue. That creates what is called 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. This is the time for us to awaken and become aware of the ego's ignorance.

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 imagined "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. Most of the population is hypnotized into doing unnatural things, usually serving the corporate greed. The thoughts that activate them are not their own, but they are not aware of it.

Our life and awareness center is Here and Now. From this point, we imagine 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. There exists nothing that is unnatural or supernatural. Those terms can only be used by egos to excuse their ignorance or lack of understanding.

How ludicrous it would be to gain awareness of life and then, lose that awareness. What would the purpose of consciousness be? 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.