This is the “normal” state of human beings. As stated in our
“levels of the human heart" taken from Swami Sri Yukteswar: “Most humans are
in the Dark State of the Human Heart; thinking and feeling are scattered and
diffused outwardly in desires for material things; there is no inner unity, and
one's consciousness is directed solely to the outer world of perceptions, in
complete obliviousness of one’s true or inner self, of the universe, of any
unchanging or eternal truth, of any Creator; therefore there is little respect
for either man or nature or the world. This is egoistic man.”
We can classify these “normal” humans into certain groups:
1) Group 1. The Instinctive Animal. This is infantile,
child-like man, lacking any awareness of responsibility to the world, a blind
human animal that simply “gets hungry, eats, rests, shits and sleeps, and expresses itself in intelligible mono-syllables or sometimes even in high-sounding
words and ideas.” The human animal has that advantage. It can talk, and likes
to. It seems intelligent enough in that it learns how to assuage hunger and
thirst, avoid pain, pursue pleasure, find a partner, reproduce and continue the
species. It may be successful in life, in love, politics, TV, anything.
2) Group 2. The Feeling Machine. Governed by a sensitivity
towards life, the Feeling Machine may be a sensitive nutcase or a dedicated
father, mother or provider, caring for others, abstaining from overriding self,
but infusing that very self with all its cares and concerns, its unbridled
sentimentality. If it’s too given over to “feelings” it often criticises others
for not caring, and even gets mean to others on their behalf. It also gets overly
anxious and exceptionally emotional about things that run off the backs of both
Instinctives and Thinkers. Feelers get upset about what they see on TV.
3) Group 3. The Thinking Biped. If drawn on canvas, this
would be a top-heavy headbrained human with a huge head and tiny legs, full of
fantasies and ideas, dreams and words, sentences and phrases, thoughts and more
thoughts; analysing, conjecturing, speculating, building premises and beating those of
others down to the ground. They are great worshippers of Ego, as it seems man
was made to think and Thinkers pride themselves on this ability, prancing and
dancing about it, and trying to give the impression that they are Gods on the
face of the Earth compared to those poor stupid creatures who just act or feel.
The intellectuals, the intelligentsia, the writers, philosophers, thinkers and critics
– all cream of the crop. And yet the world seems no better for all that thought
– just think about it! 7.4 billion creatures fighting for survival – all supposedly
human, all thinking, but all making a general mess of the world, with its
violence, killing, wars, hatred, lack of generosity, lack of caring, and man’s
awful unconcern for nature and the environment. Thinkers assiduously watch the
news on TV and like to talk about it.
4) Group 4. The Beginnings of Self-Awareness. Any one of
the above may suddenly get a sensation of being lost in their self-made worlds
and start trying to find a solution. If they’re lucky, they may hit on the fact
that they were MADE that way – by childhood experiences, parents, siblings, the
educational system, by society, upbringing, creed, religion, nationality or
race, even by TV. Their personalities, what they thought they were – their egos – may only be ingrained, conditioned reactions to the environment. Then, with a little influx
of grace, perfume, spirit or a taste for the beyond, they may start
experiencing perplexity. Why am I this way? Who made me this way? Who, in fact,
am I, really? Am I this, that or the other? Why do I have the sensation that
things are not quite right? How should they really be? Is it my fault? Is it
the stars? My destiny? Or was it that joint I smoked once that has screwed me
up? What is going on? Why is the world as it is? Isn’t it a little crazy? Do I
really belong here? Wouldn’t it be nice to imagine a lovely fantasy world where
everything is beautiful and I can write a song about it? Maybe paint a picture?
Maybe philosophise a little about it? – Lots of choices. But something’s wrong
somewhere. What is it?
When that comes, things start happening… Then we can actually start
talking about “control of the senses.” Or “control of the passions”. Until
then, there’s nothing to control, it’s all out of control. It’s all just very
basic, all-too-human instinctiveness, feelingness and thought-life. And there’s
no control on that level. It’s chaos. Anything can happen in this crazy world, just
like we know if we used to watch the Evening News and hear its anchorman say, “And
that’s the way it is, Wednesday, May 18th, 2016.”
Well, with all due respects – he was a lovely man, Walter Cronkite – that’s NOT the way it is. The world is bigger than a TV screen or a journalist’s pen – however great the team may be. When we self-classify ourselves in GROUP 4, first we protest about the whole world, then we settle down and see that there is more to it than that. Then we see that seeing itself may be the problem, and perceiving, and depending on sense perceptions. Then the instinctive helps, the feeling of something greater helps, and the thinker helps to get things into a clearer picture. And that’s what we do. Using our primitive environment-given human attributes and the basic raw material of personality, we try to make more sense of the universe than our society really does, and by relentlessly pursuing this, we start to understand what Self-Control, Mastery of the Senses, and Subduing the Passions really means. We become the journalists and reporters of our own lives. And the world, suddenly or slowly, is no longer the way the newscasters portray it to us. We have to find out for ourselves what it is REALLY LIKE...
Happy hunting, all you wonderful Self-Aware people!
Well, with all due respects – he was a lovely man, Walter Cronkite – that’s NOT the way it is. The world is bigger than a TV screen or a journalist’s pen – however great the team may be. When we self-classify ourselves in GROUP 4, first we protest about the whole world, then we settle down and see that there is more to it than that. Then we see that seeing itself may be the problem, and perceiving, and depending on sense perceptions. Then the instinctive helps, the feeling of something greater helps, and the thinker helps to get things into a clearer picture. And that’s what we do. Using our primitive environment-given human attributes and the basic raw material of personality, we try to make more sense of the universe than our society really does, and by relentlessly pursuing this, we start to understand what Self-Control, Mastery of the Senses, and Subduing the Passions really means. We become the journalists and reporters of our own lives. And the world, suddenly or slowly, is no longer the way the newscasters portray it to us. We have to find out for ourselves what it is REALLY LIKE...
Happy hunting, all you wonderful Self-Aware people!
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