Why are human beings behaving the way that they are? And is that behavior simply “human nature” and fundamentally unchangeable or can that behavior be modified in significant ways? A major influence on human behavior is our worldview. If a person’s worldview can be changed then that person’s behavior will change since that behavior is largely determined by what they believe the nature of reality to be. History gives us an example of how powerful the existing values, beliefs and attitudes of a worldview can be.
Columbus believed that he could discover a shorter sailing route to the Indies by going in a westerly direction rather than the already discovered eastern route. When he landed in what we now call the West Indies, he thought he had made landfall in an area of the world that was in fact very far from where he was. He was completely lost. Humanity is similarly lost today, that is to say, we are not where we think we are. And unless we can find where we are, we will continue wandering around lost in the world and bewildered by problems that often seem overwhelming.
The second part of the story that began the saga of European immigration has to do with the motivation for seeking a “new world.” Immigrants coming to America, for example, were seeking political, religious and economic freedom. This was the positive pull or desire that motivated them. There was another reality that “pushed” them out of the old world and that was religious persecution, political oppression and economic exploitation. So both motivations provided the energy and the willingness to take the risk of an uncertain future—the desire for something better in a new world—and the aversion or need to escape from the suffering of the old world.
Such is the human condition today. There is something within each human being that is seeking expression. We are naturally creative and experience no greater joy than when we are in the flow of spontaneous self-expression. We are also seeking relief from the suffering that characterizes the human condition—a suffering that is caused by a profound lack of awareness. The “new world” that we seek can be discovered only by pointing our ships in the direction of that place in the world of human experience called—the “Land of the Awakened Spirit,” the new world of Simple Reality.
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Much more can be found in the book Simple Reality: The Key to Serenity and Survival
