Infinite Peace!
Despite the stormy weather, an intimate group of striving peacemakers braved the rains last Tuesday (Aug.7) at the Inner Work Circle to continue with their practice of self-awareness and transformation by reflecting and sharing insights on guide questions such as this one:
“What do I like about being uniquely human?”
The participants pondered on this and shared their insights from the perspective of their own faith traditions and personal experiences. We pondered on what sets us apart from other creatures and our unique nature as human beings.
Some pointed out our capability for compassion and love, while others emphasized the exceptional human intellect.
Indeed, if we are to trace the steps up the evolutionary ladder we will find us Homo Sapiens on top. We may see animals, especially fellow mammals exhibiting love and compassion, and even intelligence (remember the chimpanzees communicating with sign language?)—and yet we humans are seemingly above them all because of the degree of complexity and advancement we have evolved into.
Chimpanzees not only can communicate with sign language nowadays. I’ve heard they’re being trained to fly rocket ships into outer space! But, will you ever hear about them even dreaming about flying to the moon, let alone inventing space ships to take them there? No. Only we humans have the well-evolved cerebral cortex to do that (on Earth, that is).
Only us humans have that degree of capability and power to go beyond – to conceive of such a “beyond”, and to carve paths towards it. In fact, we humans are so intelligent we even have the ability to create inventions that can even wipe out our own species, as well as the rest of the planet! (Remember Hiroshima where 63 years ago the other day—August 6—the first atom bomb was dropped?). We have already invented a lot of things that now seem to be running beyond our control.
Good thing we have the other human faculty that help us balance our decisions—the human heart. As far as how the degree of human compassion can be best illustrated, we can cite the example of how one man sacrificed himself to be hanged in the cross—not only for the sake of one other person—but for the whole world. And there are many other human beings like him who are called saints, masters, and heroes who willfully sacrifice their lives for the larger whole.
Speaking of willful decisions, another special human attribute given emphasis during the sharing is free will (some faith traditions believe that angels and other spiritual beings don’t even have free will, unlike humans). We are given the freedom to choose whether to use our human powers to create or destroy, choose to do good or evil, to open up to knowledge or to stay ignorant.
We humans are given free will by God, the Supreme Being, the Almighty Creator, the Great Spirit—another “beyond” that only humans can conceive/ be aware of. We humans possess the consciousness not only of ourselves (self-consciousness) and others (social consciousness) but also of the higher consciousness beyond ourselves. Indeed, the ultimate edge of being human is the Spirit, and our ability to become aware or to remember that we originally are spiritual beings. We are divine sparks of light and spirit that come from the Ultimate Divine Source.
“We are spiritual beings having human experiences—not merely human beings having spiritual experiences,” they say. It is, therefore, to be fully conscious of this gift of divinity that may be our purpose as humans.
Isn’t this an exciting earthly journey we are in? This being human—a unique combination of mind, heart & light, free-willingly maneuvering a body towards growth and full awareness of the Spirit!
Next Tuesday (Aug. 14) our discussions will be based on the following reflection questions: “How do my beliefs about where I come from affect my attitude towards my self? What are these beliefs telling me about my self, and who I am?"
Shanti!
O.
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