Are you sure it's human nature?

The nature of humans
Whenever I am discussing a topic with a friend or client and it comes time to accept a change, I often get the reply of, “that’s human nature, and change is difficult”, implying there is nothing they can do about it. Sounds more like an excuse to avoid what is to me. So today, together with you, why don’t we question what is human nature?

Is it human nature, to accept the mediocre world we live in? Some might argue that the world is not mediocre, or that yes there is only so much humans can do. But I want to question the word, “nature” here which is related to something natural. In fact, I’m going to refer to them as one and the same. That is, nature is something that thought has not created. Thought being the limitation of knowledge for which humans have accumulated, whether through books, or so-called education, or experience. It is something natural. To associate the words “human nature”, to the writer seem to imply that natural being of the human.

So, now with this understanding, and without the interruption of my own education, my own beliefs, my own conditioning, for which is not involved in this inquiry and cannot be if we want to understand truth, I can now question what is “human nature”.

Is it human nature to kill another human being? Something we have done for thousands of years.

Is it human nature to destroy the rainforests?

Is it human nature to create a structure for which we place authority in charge of how we all conform to that structure?

Is it human nature to be competitive, plotted against each other, divided, and then celebrate the victor?

Is it human nature for any person to strike another person?

Is it human nature to verbally abuse someone you love (or think you love)?

Is it human nature to scream at a crying baby?

Is it human nature to post nasty comments to people on social media?

Is it human nature to discriminate against another person for the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, their life preferences?

Is it human nature to follow another person, absorb their knowledge and let that knowledge navigate that life?

Is it human nature to ignore another human being crying for help?

You see in my opening, I mentioned that in my conversations with clients, or in interviews, I often come to a point where I hear the sentence, “it’s human nature”. For example, one client told me that it’s human nature to be competitive. “We set goals and go after them at all costs”. At the same time, that competition may be hurting other people. But to accept such a way of being is to run away from questioning truth. It may be a fact that humans are competitive but haven’t they learned to be that way? Is anyone ready to fight a battle the moment they are born? Then it cannot be human nature. As long as nature is untouched by human thought, then perhaps the answer is to inquire if it is possible to go beyond thought in order to know nature.

If you read the list of examples above, can you actually see how divided the world is, not with your intellectual mind, but how these differences are actually keeping us apart? Is love and compassion a part-time activity - is that human nature? Is human nature a behavior? Aren’t behaviors a learned phenomena? Aren’t all these ways of dividing humanity, starting with countries, belief systems, philosophies, leaders, etc, all keeping us apart? What if I put aside, that is reject everything I know about all these divisions. The writer rejects they he belongs to any country, religion, philosophy, community, etc. If the reader does the same, do we meet? Then we have established the grounds for a real conversation; a real relationship.

Much in the same way that if you now have a silent mind, a mind that is not chatting with all the biases and prejudices, all the knowledge, the automatic operation of thought, you will see things in a different way. What is nature to you now? Are you separate from the bird that sings? Are you separate from the beauty of the mountain? Are you able to appreciate the air that hugs the inside of your body? You see, from silence, comes the understanding that these things are not the words themselves and are not separate from you. So it is impossible for you to act on any other energy than the energy of oneness, which is the sacredness of life.

Love and Light,

GC