The Biological Contract

The following perspective comes to you as a small part of a much larger body of spiritual work that has been channeled to us by Spotted Eagle, through Jennie Marlow. It is offered for your consideration and should your couriosity be challenged much more is available from her website, www.jenniemarlow.com.

Some scientists believe that the evolution of man occurred some 200,000 years ago in what was most likely an environmental crisis. On a basic level it was our struggle to survive that established, supported, and grew our fears. When we surprised that saber tooth tiger while we were out digging roots, gathering nuts, and picking berries for lunch we either responded to our fear, turned and ran for our lives or we BECAME lunch. In which case, the less fearful found themselves removed from the gene pool, leaving only those who were fearful.
Our survival as a species shows that we at least have moved past the tiger in the underbrush scenario of the early times but we did so by coming together in groups or tribes, bringing the resources of the tribe to bear on the survival of its members. Shared kills from hunting, shared strength to protect and defend the tribe support when tribe members became ill or they aged. Many scientists believe that this is what makes homo-sapiens different from our close relatives; not our brain size, or what was thought to be our singular ability to use tools. Nor is it the ability to walk upright thus freeing our hands for creative endeavors but instead it is this capacity for long term sharing that defines us as homo-sapiens. Anthropologists refer to this as “reciprocal altruism”. Now, in order to make sharing work, as we banded together as tribes, we had to create a system whereby all tribe members would contribute their efforts in a combined effort to insure the tribe’s survival. What evolved was basically a contract, a “biological contract” which stated that in order to share in the food, protection, and support which was available to you as a member of the tribe you did what the tribe expected of you. Failure to do so would find you once again facing the saber toothed tiger in the bush, alone. So how does that relate to our thinking today?
When you view the mind of man as structured to hunt and gather you begin to see that the mind knows only to gather or hoard as much as it can to insure the individual’s survival within the tribe or to become as competitive as possible when it perceives itself in an atmosphere of fear that the tribe will not share its resources, its protection or its support and acceptance. Our deepest fears of the future and our regrets about the past can all be reduced, at some level, to the echo of that fear generated by our biological contract. As such the biological contract, as in all contracts, needed to be enforced and was done so through the following methods:
 Shame
 Blame
 Guilt
 Moral outrage
 Pity (including self pity)
Those members of the tribe who threatened the tribal social structure and tried to circumvent the contract were brought back in line through the use of one of the above methods. It takes little effort at observation to see that these enforcement methods are still in use today.
I know I concern myself daily with my access to resources, protection, and to support or acceptance. My most basic fears tell me that my survival depends upon it. Deep in my biology I still feel a need to adhere to the contract or I will be “abandoned by the tribe and die”. The tribe is long dead! Why then do I continue to live under its contractual obligations and respond to its methods of enforcement? Good question! If I am to free myself from this contract I must first acknowledge it and the basic fears associated with it. The fear of rejection, the fear of not being able to compete and the fear that the world is just not safe at any level, need to be dealt with and I must realize that these basic fears will not ever go away. Individually I “own” one of these fears to a much higher level than the others. It seasons the decisions I make and I accept that the best I can hope for is that one day it will be like the “monster in the closet” and I will smile at the silly thing I once was afraid of. To live without the influence of the biological contract and its associated fears is to live a life free to make authentic choices based on what I desire most in life… freedom, fun, joy, beauty, creativity, and ease to name but a few.
The first step in voiding the biological contract is giving up the enforcement methods listed above as I employ them in my daily life. Careful heartfelt examination of my daily interactions will reveal that I do indeed use shame, blame, guilt, moral outrage and pity in many ways to influence others to get what I want, to fuel my actions or feel I must have to fulfill my survival needs. When I catch myself employing these methods of enforcement, I make an effort to stop and take another snapshot of what really is true in that moment! For myself and perhaps for many of us there is no saber tooth still lurking there in the bushes. He is after all extinct.

WiiTech

The past few days have been spent removing and then replacing a patio cover for a customer and now friend. A simple task of a 8'x20' roof structure supported by a wall of framed material. I had with me my most trusted friends in the trade. By that I mean a air compressor of Italian manufacture that has been my friend and working companion for over 20 years. At this point it may behoove me to explain that in construction many hand tasks have been replaced with air powered tools. Air powered nailers, staplers, screw drivers etc. They are great time savers and require less effort. Having just purchased for this job, a new air powered palm nailer I was at a certain level of anticipatory excitement around it's inaugural use. Also with me was a new compound miter saw. Now this I know will require a description but from the name you can induce that it allows you to make a cut of compound configuration on a piece of wood. In other words two angles, other than ninety degrees, at the same time. A newer technology that I had been envying for some time. This job was only the second time that I had used it and it had proven it's worth. But now the tale begins.
Shortly after my need of it the compressor died. No air powered palm nailer, no finish nailer, no air driver. Well so now what? Instead of nailing I used screws where I could. Not really a problem. However it is not good to use screws through the finish side of redwood siding. That was where the nailer was to be used. Time to bring out the old reliable hammer. After completing roughly a third of the siding operation I began to realize a certain pleasure in the swing of the hammer and the joy of completing the job despite the lack of time saving, effort saving technology. It was also about that time I realized it was easier and quicker to use a simple straightedge and my trusted skilsaw to cut the 20' long boards to their required lengths where they lay on the ground instead of trying to muscle them onto a support structure, then maneuver them into position to be cut precisely on my new compound miter saw. What was I thinking!
I was so wrapped up in showing up with the latest and greatest tools to help me be more efficient, faster, and yes a little towards supporting my image as a competent contractor, that I forgot the simple pleasures that I enjoy about what I do. I actually enjoyed the rhythmic swinging and solid staccato sound of the hammer as it drove the nail into the wood! It was such a fulfilling experience, so essence rich to stand back and see the completion of a task that was done, as closely as today's standards allow, by hand. Was this thinking at work for me in other aspects of my life? Was there food for thought here?... as my cell phone began loudly ringing from the dash of my truck, taking me away from a peaceful reverie.