intelligence? Are they perpetually at odds with each other?
Must we choose to embrace either spirituality or rationality
but never both at the same time?
Several years ago I would have said yes to these questions. But today, I see that this conflict is nothing but an illusion. In
fact, I think intelligence and spirituality ultimately follow the
same path, and I don't mean this in the sense of trying to
program your head with religious doctrine and then trying to
convince you of it by manipulating the facts. I mean that by
embracing your intellect to its fullest extent, you will
eventually arrive at a sense of spirituality. You may not
label it as such, but you will find yourself generating similar
results to some of the most enlightened people around.
In terms of the question of intelligence vs. spirituality, the
problem arises from the perceived sense of conflict between
these two supposed opposites. This perception prevents us
from trusting and following either side far enough. We'll only
go so far down one side or the other before flipping back to
the other side. We have our intellectual pursuits and our
spiritual pursuits, and never the twain shall meet. They are
both kept separate and compartmentalized. In the business
world, our actions are governed by intelligence; we achieve
the best results when we make the most intelligent
decisions. But if we go home, meditate, and begin asking
questions like, "What is the purpose of my life?" we have to
load up a different set of rules. Now we've supposedly left
the territory of the intellect and entered the spiritual realm.
We try to interact intelligently with our outer world and
spiritually with our inner world.
However, this perceived conflict is a fabricated one. If you
were only to follow your intelligence or your spiritual beliefs
far enough — really push them to the limits — you'd see
they end up at the same place. The conflict is purely
imaginary. It exists only in our thoughts.
Let me explain how this is possible and how this realization
played out in my own life.
My upbringing fell squarely on the intellectual side. My
mother was a college math professor, and my father an
aerospace engineer. My family was fairly religious, but I
never considered us to be spiritual. I was raised with a
strong sense of religion – attending church every Sunday
and going through 12 years of Catholic schooling made it
hard to ignore – but for me there was no deeper spirituality
behind these installed beliefs. Religion was just another
school subject like mathematics or history. It was mostly
about memorizing things, following complicated rules, and
enduring sacraments like confession where I had to tell a
stranger all of my sins and then do penance. By the time I
was 17, this disconnect caused me to shed what little
religion I had, so I became an atheist, much to the chagrin
of my family. I think this decision made perfect sense. I was
taught to be intelligent and to make rational choices, and I
found my religious upbringing to be highly irrational. In my
own way I probably thought I was correcting a logical error
made by my parents, an impression which only grew
stronger after experiencing their reaction to my decision,
which as you can probably imagine left the realm of
rationality far behind. I was happy to move out after
graduating from high school. And aside from weddings and
funerals (not my own in either case), I never set foot in a
church again.
In college I double-majored in computer science and
mathematics, two subjects where rationality reigned
supreme. I tended to regard spiritual people as a bit wacko
— to me they were wasting their time and not making
worthwhile contributions to the world, aside from a few
notable exceptions (but I had my doubts about those too). In
my mind spiritual people were of a lower order of
intelligence, ruled more by fleeting emotions than by
intelligence and common sense. I generally regarded such
people as dumb and inept; at best they were simply
misguided. I devoted myself to a purely rational existence,
shunning all things spiritual or religious.
Years later I began considering how my beliefs might be
creating (rather than merely observing) my experience of
reality. I learned the difference between empowering and
disempowering beliefs. This came from being exposed to a
wide range of personal development material in my early
20s. Thinkers such as Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill,
Norman Vincent Peale, Brian Tracy, and Tony Robbins
taught me that my own thoughts and attitudes would play a
critical role in my results. If I believed I could achieve
something, I was far more likely to be able to do it. If I
defeated myself in my own thoughts, I would only hinder my
own progress.
This concept resonated with my intellect. It wasn't hard for
me to see the role that my own thoughts played in my
results. I had already seen evidence of this, both in my life
and in the lives of other people. I could see that by keeping
a positive attitude and staying focused on what I wanted, I
achieved better results than I did when I was pessimistic
and worried. To me this was a common sense realization,
but it was still a powerful breakthrough for me because I
had not previously considered that my own attitude could
play such a crucial role in my life. I also did not previously
realize that I could change my attitude and thereby change
my results. Around the age of 21, I thought to myself,
"Wow... I'd better make sure I keep my attitude positive
then. I'd better stay focused on what I want. Otherwise I'm
just going to sabotage myself. And self-sabotage would not
be very intelligent."
This concept gradually expanded beyond keeping a positive
attitude as I continued to read more books on personal
development. Tony Robbins' books (among many others)
introduced me to the concept of empowering vs.
disempowering beliefs. For example, if I believe that
computers are too complicated and confusing, I'll avoid
using one. If I hold the opposite belief, I'll embrace
technology. The latter belief is more empowering because it
gives me the option of using technology when it's effective
to do so, but with the former belief I am left with fewer
options. Being capable is a more intelligent choice than
being incapable.
As I went through college I became increasingly curious
about this notion of empowering vs. disempowering beliefs
and especially how my own beliefs might be affecting my
results, perhaps in ways I didn't even realize. There was no
spirituality here. I was still an atheist at this point, and this
was purely an intellectual matter. I was deeply interested in
time management and productivity, and I began asking
myself, "What if my current beliefs are not the most optimal
ones I can have right now?"
As a computer programmer who saw rapid improvements in
technology from age 10 when I learned to program in BASIC
on an Apple II to age 21 when I programmed in C++ on a
486DX-50mhz PC, I thought of these concepts in terms of
computer analogies. My physical brain was the computer
hardware. My beliefs and attitude were the operating
system (OS). And my thoughts (including those which
directed my actions) were software programs. The software
runs on top of the OS which runs on top of the hardware.
How do you make a better computer? You can upgrade the
hardware. While it would be great to upgrade my own brain,
I didn't see too many viable options there other than diet
and exercise. But what about upgrading the OS? I remember
upgrading from MS-DOS 6 to Windows 3.1 at some point
and noticing what a big difference it made. The computer
hardware was still the same, but by upgrading the operating
system, everything changed. I ran different software
programs. I achieved different (arguably much better)
results.
I thought to myself, "What if I could do an OS upgrade on
my own brain? What would that look like?" This would
require "upgrading" my personal beliefs and attitudes. It
would mean reprogramming my most fundamental beliefs
about reality. That would cause me to think different
thoughts (i.e. run different programs), which would
guarantee different results. The problem though was that it
wasn't quite clear which changes would be upgrades and
which would be downgrades or if this whole thing was even
worthy of my attention. Would changing my beliefs even
make a noticeable difference in my results? However, by
following the computer analogy a bit further, I developed a
suspicion that I might be sitting on top of a hidden
intellectual goldmine.
What is the nature of a good OS upgrade? You gain new
features. Your software runs faster. You're more productive.
You can do more and better things in less time. So if I
wanted to upgrade my brain's OS, these were the types of
results to look for. Otherwise, I might be just wasting my
time. I might even be risking a downgrade and get worse
results (Windows Millennium Edition, cough cough).
Despite the risks, this realization sparked me to undertake a
quest to explore other belief systems — a quest that
continues to this day. I decided to consciously and
deliberately recondition my own beliefs to see what effect
different belief systems would have on my results. I began
messing around with my own operating system. Externally
this looked like a spiritual pursuit, and I've often referred to
it as such, but really it was an intellectual pursuit. My goal
was to optimize my own belief about reality – my personal
operating system – such that I would be able to do more
and better things in less time.
This was not a simple process. I've been at it since the
early ‘90s and am still experimenting. The tricky part is that
I can't really know what effect certain beliefs will have on
my results until I try them. There is too much underlying
complexity to be able to accurately predict everything in
advance. I have to dive in and test it. For example, is a
belief in God empowering or disempowering? If I believe in
God, will it allow me to achieve more and better results in
less time than if I'm an atheist? And if so, what kind of belief
in God is the best?
As you might imagine, a deeper problem is that certain
beliefs also redefine what I mean by "results." But because I
was looking to "upgrade" myself, at least I wasn't starting
from scratch. I already had an OS running. So I could
always compare my current results with my past results
and then decide which was "better" for me. Since the
difference in results was often pronounced and obvious, it
wasn't hard for me to select which one I considered better,
even given the ambiguities in such pursuits. For example, if
I become a millionaire, I would say that's a better result than
being broke, all else being equal. Few people would argue
with that. Being healthy is better than being sick. Being
happy is better than being depressed. Being in love is better
than being lonely. Being organized is better than being
disorganized. Being productive is better than being
unproductive. Being smart is better than being dumb.
Success is better than failure. If it wasn't clear whether or
not something was an upgrade or downgrade, I simply
considered it neutral. When in doubt I simply fell back on my
own common sense.
I've already documented my path through this process of
trying different belief systems in The Meaning of Life series,
so I'm not going to repeat that whole journey here. What I
found was that by pursuing my intelligence far enough, it led
me to experiment with different spiritual beliefs, since those
beliefs were fundamental to my experience of reality. To my
surprise I found that atheism was not the optimal belief
system for me in the sense that it did not produce the best
results, but nor was Catholicism. I found both of those to be
suboptimal operating systems for me. The belief system
that I hold today and which has produced the best results for
me so far has been a set of beliefs which are pretty close to
Buddhism. Many have argued that Buddhism is not really a
religion though, and I'd say that's accurate. I explained
some of the details of this belief system and how it allowed
me to let go of fear in Podcast #8 – Overcoming Fear.
The main reason I experiment with different belief systems
is to discover which one appears to be the most intelligent.
It's all about effectiveness. 2005 has been my best year
ever — absolutely no contest – and I expect 2006 to top it
by a landslide. I credit 99% of my results to my beliefs about
reality — my personal operating system. My current OS
(Pavlina 2005) dictates my thoughts and actions and
therefore my results. By my standards this has been an
outstanding year of achieving more and better results in less
time. Your beliefs will probably be different, so you may not
value my results in the same way I do. And that's perfectly
fine. I'm not suggesting you would care to have my results.
What I'm suggesting is that you can tweak and refine your
own operating system to achieve the best results for you.
You're the one who must run a self-diagnostic to decide
whether you're functioning optimally or whether you could
use an upgrade. No one else can do it for you. Does your
software (your thoughts and behavior) run smoothly and
efficiently, or do you have problems with bugs like fear of
failure, procrastination, or depression?
Run a self-diagnostic by making three lists: 1) new features
to add, 2) opportunities for upgrading and optimizing
existing features, 3) bugs or defects you'd like to fix. This
will give you ideas for where you need to make changes in
your beliefs systems. For example, if you'd like to learn to
play a musical instrument (a new software program that
runs in your brain), you may notice your OS has a bug that
says, "I'm not a musical person." So you have to fix the OS
and reprogram that limiting belief before you can install the
new software that allows you to learn and play a new
instrument. Such beliefs may include, "I am a musical
person," "I love music," and "I can and will learn any musical
instrument I set my mind to."
One of the core tenets of my current belief system is how I
identify myself. I don't identify myself as a physical body
walking around in a physical world. Rather, I see all of
reality as existing within pure consciousness, and I identify
myself (what I think of as "me") as that consciousness, not
as my physical body. I have a physical body, just like I have
fingers and toes, but it is only one part of me. I perceive
reality the way most people would view their dreams from
the perspective of being awake. If you recall one of your
dreams, you see it as a mental experience taking place
within your consciousness. The "you" isn't really your dream
body – it's the person lying on the bed having the dream.
Everything in the dream takes place within your own
consciousness, and the real you is what's having the dream,
not anything in the dream itself. As strange as it may sound,
this is how I perceive my waking reality.
My current belief system might seem unusual, but it's also
the one that produces the best results for me of all the ones
I've tried. I'm able to function perfectly well, I can set and
achieve big, ambitious goals, I'm not afraid to fail or to be
rejected, I generate a nice income, I'm taking care of all my
needs, I'm helping people every day, I strive to do no harm,
and I'm gushingly happy and optimistic. To me this is an
intelligent choice compared to how most people live their
lives. I direct my intelligence towards achieving the greatest
possible effectiveness, for the highest good of all. But these
results didn't merely come from taking different actions. If
only it could have been that simple. I had to dig much
deeper and fix the OS before I could install and programs
like, Peace 5.0, Joy 7.1, Abundance 3.2, and Contribution
4.0. When I tried to install such programs before upgrading
my OS, they invariably crashed due to compatibility issues.
Damn drivers!
If reality is taking place within consciousness, then all of life
is an expression of consciousness itself. This realization
doesn't make me passive as many people would assume –
quite the opposite. It removes fear so that I can take action
more easily and achieve results with less effort. Instead of
seeing conflicts as me vs. them, I view conflict as occurring
between different aspects of my own consciousness. It is
then up to me to decide how I wish to resolve these
conflicts by making changes within myself.
Whatever change I wish to create in the world, I work to
manifest that change in myself first. These changes in me
then ripple outward from me into the world... through all of
conscious creation. That is how I can change the world in a
positive way. Like a virus, any upgrades I make to my own
OS eventually infect others too. Of course, downgrades can
have the same effect, which is why it's important to
carefully consider the long-term consequences of any
changes.
My body is the primary vehicle through which I interact with
all of conscious creation. I influence the whole
consciousness through my thoughts and actions. I decide
how I would like consciousness itself to be, for the greatest
good of all, and then I aim to embody those qualities. For
example, I want the world to be at peace, so I work on being
at peace myself. I want the world to exist for a reason, so I
center my own life around a purpose. I want the world to be
compassionate, so I refuse to harm animals or people. I
want the world to be courageous, so I face my own fears
willingly.
Whenever I see conflict in the world, I interpret it as a
conflict within myself. Once I resolve the conflict within
myself, I have done the best I can hope to do. I cannot
eliminate conflict by creating more conflict. I can only
eliminate conflict by first eliminating it within myself,
achieving a state of peace, and then resonating that peace
out into the world. Trying to force people to change is futile.
I cannot teach anyone how to run the program called Peace
until they first upgrade their OS to allow such software to
run, and such upgrades can only be achieved by conscious
choice, never by force. I can force people to run programs
like Fear, Greed, and Cowardice if I wanted to, but that's
only because such programs have much lower system
requirements than Peace, Courage, and other more
demanding programs. Even animals can run them.
Whenever I become aware of a conflict that causes a surge
of emotion within me, then I know this is a conflict I must
resolve within myself. I cannot in good conscience choose
to ignore it. Many people will become aware of something
that tears at them and then turn their backs on it out of fear.
I do my best not to allow myself to do this because it lowers
my consciousness to do so. It makes me less human.
For example, if you watch a video of factory farming and
see how the animals are tortured, do you feel any sympathy
for the animals' suffering? Do you feel at all conflicted when
you become aware of such things? Do you connect that
suffering with your own food choices... with your own
lunch? Do you embrace this information consciously and
integrate it into your model of the world such that you can
make more intelligent choices, or do you attempt to ignore it
and thereby lower your intelligence?
I resolved such a conflict within myself by consciously
choosing to be vegan. Once I became aware of how my
actions were contributing to such brutality and suffering, I
could not continue. It would lower my consciousness to do
something I considered harmful. I did not allow myself to
ignore this data and try to persuade myself it was OK to do
so, regardless of what other people did. There are many
conflicts I am still working on resolving within myself. In
those situations I choose to acknowledge the conflict
instead of shrinking from it. I simply say to myself, "Yes,
there is a conflict here that awaits resolution. But I am not
yet strong enough to resolve it in this moment." Then I
focus on the intention of attracting the strength I need to
change, and eventually it does come. And every time I'm
able to resolve such conflicts within myself and stop
contributing to suffering "out there," I experience greater
peace and happiness, and I feel myself becoming ever more
conscious and aware. I actually feel as if I've experienced a
mental upgrade.
This is not an easy way to live, but it is the one that seems
most intelligent to me. One of my requirements for living
intelligently is that I cannot ignore data. I must account for
every piece of information I'm aware of. If I know that
people are suffering somewhere in the world, I have to take
that into consideration when deciding how to live,
particularly if I become aware that I'm contributing to it. If I
prepare a meal for myself, I must consider the
consequences of my choices. For example, I do not
patronize certain businesses such as McDonald's or Burger
King because I am unwilling to contribute to the
consequences such businesses create. I am far from
perfect in my application of this principle, but every year I
am growing stronger and more congruent. It is an ongoing,
unfolding process.
Once I resolve these conflicts within myself, I not only cease
to create them for myself, but the change that occurs within
me ripples outward into the world through my actions. My
choice to be vegan induces others to consider it, to try it,
even to adopt it. But this occurs mostly as a result of my
internal shift in identity, a natural consequence of who I've
become, not because I'm spending my days actively trying
to convert people to veganism. In fact, I think it's largely a
waste of time to try to convince people to change their
beliefs. This usually just results in frustration; it perpetuates
conflict. It's more effective to help people raise their
awareness and then let them decide for themselves. At my
current level of awareness, veganism is simply the
intelligent choice. To do otherwise would require me to
consciously choose to harm myself, to support the torture
and slaughtering of animals, to perpetuate harm to people
who are trapped in the current system, to shamelessly
waste resources, and to do serious damage to the
environment. If I participate in this pain and suffering, I
invite it into myself. I become a more numb, less
compassionate, more savage person. A piece of my own
divinity gets buried beneath a layer of fear. The only way I
could do such a thing today would be to lower my
consciousness... to forget what I've become aware of... to
ignore data. If I refuse to accept the consequences of my
actions (out of fear), then it means that suffering and cruelty
will occur because of me. I can run from the knowledge of
that, but I can never escape the responsibility for it. To me
this isn't so much a spiritual choice. It's an intellectual one.
It is not intelligent for me to cause unnecessary suffering. I
do not walk around my neighborhood torturing people's pets
and then bashing them to death, so why on earth would I
pay someone to do it for me? Would you buy the excuse
that it was perfectly OK for me to do so because your kitty
cat just happened to be delicious?
Many people would consider these to be spiritual beliefs.
And they would be right. But they are primarily intellectual
beliefs. At this place there is no conflict between intelligence
and spirituality. They both point in the same direction. As I
see it, if I want to intelligently help cure some of the
problems of the world, these set of spiritual beliefs empower
me to go about doing it. My whole life is centered around
improving conscious creation – not merely myself but
everything that falls within my field of perception. This
purpose is more important to me than money, than career
advancement, than my own safety and security. I am able
to pour my energy and resources into this pursuit without
fear of failure or rejection. If I fail then it will be because the
universe stopped me cold, not because I was afraid to try. I
can do no better than my best, and if that ultimately results
in a failure verdict from the universe, then I will accept its
judgement.
If this planet is to be transformed for the better, then we as
individuals must first transform ourselves. Whenever you
become aware of a conflict in the world, realize that you
only perceive it as a conflict because it resonates with
something that's already inside of you. It is a signal to
resolve a conflict within yourself. You cannot fix a problem
in the world unless you've already resolved the underlying
conflict within yourself. It is pointless to complain about the
problems of the world as long as we continue contributing to
them. We must begin by reversing our own contribution to
conflict and suffering. We must first achieve peace within
ourselves. Only then can we take that peace out into the
world and invite others to make similar changes.
In my belief system there is no separation between others
and myself. We are all parts of the same unfolding
consciousness. When one being harms another, that conflict
is the projection of two opposing thoughts within
consciousness itself. We resolve these conflicts by
becoming more aware — we investigate the conflict and
make the most intelligent choice we can. This has the effect
of elevating our own consciousness. We experience
personal growth, thereby becoming capable of resolving
even bigger conflicts and creating even deeper peace. As
Kahlil Gibran wrote in The Prophet, "The deeper that sorrow
carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."
One of the key conflicts for us to resolve within ourselves is
that of intelligence vs. spirituality. I perceive that this is
becoming a big global issue for the world, and I suspect it
will only increase in the years ahead. On earth it takes the
classic forms of West vs. East, conservative vs. liberal,
male vs. female, matter vs. energy. We perceive the
physical and the spiritual as separate and distinct, but many
of us are beginning to release that veil of separation and
create lives that embody the union of these seeming
opposites.
Perhaps you are a person who considers him/herself far
more intellectual than spiritual. I think that's a good thing.
Too often so-called spirituality is used as a tool of
manipulation and control, or it's so far gone as to leave any
connection to rationality far behind. By pursuing your
intellect deeply enough, you'll eventually begin to confront
the limitations of your own mental operating system. A good
way to look for bugs is to ask yourself, "What am I afraid
of? Are these fears logical and rational, or are they
unnecessarily holding me back?" These are very practical,
down-to-earth questions. If you're afraid of failure or
rejection, your prospects in life will be seriously limited. Your
results will certainly suffer for it. But if you can debug your
own mental OS and eliminate fear altogether, your life will
run far more smoothly. You'll be able to do more and better
things in less time.
Ultimately this debugging and upgrading process will lead
you to question your most deeply held beliefs about reality,
the ones most people would consider spiritual in nature.
There is no need to fear this experience. Your religious and
spiritual beliefs are part of your operating system. They are
in fact the kernel upon which all your other code runs. If
your kernel contain bugs or runs suboptimally, your results
in life will be permanently suboptimal. None of your
software will run correctly. Your thoughts and actions will be
a jumble of incongruencies. You will often feel like you're
fighting yourself in your own mind. It's like trying to make
sense of the IRS tax code, which is now the length of 12
Bibles.
However, if you can fix even one small bug or make one
minor upgrade to your kernel of spiritual beliefs, it can make
a huge difference in your results. All the software you run on
top of it will be affected. All of your thoughts and actions
will be different. Few things will change your results in life
so dramatically as a shift in your spiritual beliefs. Yet this
type of optimization requires the utmost intelligence. It is
not a fanciful spree through the grassy hills of Woo Woo
Land.
Get curious about your most sacred beliefs. Ask questions.
Is there a God? If there is then what is its nature? Is there
an afterlife, and if so, what might it be like? Are psychic
experiences possible, and if so, how do they occur?
When selecting beliefs, aim for accuracy first, then
empowerment. First, you want your beliefs to be consistent
with your existing understanding of reality. Inaccuracy is
disempowering. It won't help you to believe the earth is flat.
But because there are a lot of gaps in our knowledge of the
world, you'll still have plenty of "I don't knows" left over
where you can't be certain one way or the other. The known
facts don't provide enough information. Fill in those gaps by
choosing the beliefs that empower you to get the best
results. This part requires a great deal of experimentation
and patience. Above all, remain open to the possibility of
changing your beliefs, even those you hold most sacred, as
you pursue greater accuracy and empowerment. Never
assume that your operating system is finally bug-free and
optimal. Upgrading is a lifelong process, and sometimes in
order to achieve performance gains, you have to go back
and refactor old code that you once considered beyond
reproach.
Beliefs occur along a spectrum from uncertainty to
certainty. If a "1" means that you are totally in doubt and a
"10" means that you are completely certain, you will find
many of your beliefs falling in the 4–7 range. Unlike a
computer's hardware, your hardware isn't binary. You're
capable of dealing with shades of gray. You have the ability
to make very fine adjustments. Whereas a typical digital
computer must handle fuzzy data via software, such
capabilities are built right into your hardware. You can
adjust a certainty slider for every belief you hold. Even if you
maintain the same beliefs you did yesterday, you can
achieve different results by raising suspicions to convictions
or by dropping convictions to mere suspicions. You can
choose to become certain about what you once doubted, or
you can begin to question and doubt what you once held as
fact. You do not have to turn every belief into a 1 or a 10
though. In fact, one of the key strengths of our squishy
neural networks is their ability to handle ambiguity and
change. We can recognize people even after they've gotten
a new haircut. We can successfully perform old tasks under
new conditions. We can function well with fuzzy beliefs.
What you believe is up to you. But let it be up to you
intentionally. Choose your beliefs consciously.
If you don't choose your beliefs consciously, then someone
else will do it for you. Someone will come along and
program you to optimize their results, which may not be the
results you'd choose for yourself. Be aware that you are
already being programmed. Mass media has probably had a
huge impact on your core beliefs. If you work for a large
corporation, it is a virtual certainty they are going to work
on your beliefs, conditioning you to serve the corporate
interests but not necessarily your own. Is your operating
system infected by the consumerism virus by any chance?
What about the fear of failure firewall? Will I find
OBEY_MY_BOSS.EXE on your active process list?
You have the option of upgrading your own operating
system. Even if you've been seriously neglecting its
maintenance, it's never too late to upgrade. If you don't like
what the world has installed, you can uninstall it. If you
come across a set of beliefs you think would be more
empowering, you can install them. You probably don't want
to jump in with a "del *.*" command and revert to being a
baby again, but you can still debug and optimize the code
even as it's running. That's one of the great things about
living as a human. We can upgrade our software in place
without requiring a complete reboot.
Every belief is a choice. Very few people realize this
because they've never made such choices consciously. But
when you realize that your beliefs are choices and that you
can change them through intelligent decision-making, you
will have much more control over your own hardware and
the results that it produces. If you don't like the results
you're getting, you have the option of fixing your own code.
You may fool all your peers into thinking that you are a
victim of the world, but you will not fool me. You and I are
fully responsible for what we contribute to the world, either
directly or indirectly. You can give up control, but you can
never give up responsibility. At any time you are faced with
the choice between living in denial and ignoring information,
or living consciously and summoning the courage to act for
the highest good of all. If you have not yet deliberately
chosen the latter, then you have chosen the former. But it's
never too late to change your mind.
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