Human Insight

An Essay on Self Awareness

 

 

 

 

 

Man learns. The scores of universities and schools around the world attests to the fact that, as mankind, our main preoccupation in our lives is to gain knowledge.  In the pursuit of language, the sciences and the arts, man comes to express himself in the context of his living experience and attains in the process, an experience of life, where this may include the joys and sorrows of living.

 

Foremost among our concerns as a community is the wish to live well, in good health and the company of others. In time, we seek to preserve our experience of life and view it in relation to the creation endeavor. We inquire as to the nature of our being, the gods and the fates that drive us forward in a perpetual continuity of our life's endeavors.

 

The historical time-line that brought us to the 21^st century has been an eventful one. It's main character is one of discovery; new lands, inventions, materials, medicine and a continuous improvement to the quality of life. In some ways, we continue to rely on the epiphany of new inventions as the light of the way forward. This assures us of our innovativeness and the part that it plays in the preservation of our physical existence.

 

Together with this, we are beginning to take cognizance of our social and individual natures and the part they play in our well-being. Characteristically, we have moved away from the reliance on the word and have taken to finding things out for oneself. The force of individualization has surprised many in our societies and is proving a strong challenge to families and social units around the world.

 

Individually, the impulse for self-independence and self-will holds great promises for many and the search for such a fulfillment has taken us to the throne of Midas, but where one fails, we find a new home in the gloom or the prison system of the community.

 

There are alternatives, but the human condition has been habituated on the idea of big, high and successful for so long that a definition of one's life's objective today, based on practical achievements, appears dull in comparison.

 

The average individual today, achieves a life of middle-class comfort, an average experience of creature comforts and the satisfaction derived from the contributions undertaken to society. In addition, he/she gains from a personal understanding of the life lived and relates to the subtle dreams contained in us of our final fulfillment.

 

In doing so, we are moving further away from the experience of blind faith, to the adoption of a greater cognition in our affairs of the purpose of our lives. Our minds are growing to accommodate the experience and the availability of information on the web is fed upon daily by the many who seek to know of themselves and then to experience it individually.

 

In a mix of the forces that engage us currently, man is coming to view the mind in a new light. He is also coming to understand the world experience, the evolution phenomenon and a curious work of nature that has allocated and parceled out our qualities as man, where we have been persuaded to serve causes for the sake of the greater good.

 

In the beginnings of our understanding of the mind, we perceive the work of nature as having served us well, as a global community. Such is the intrinsic work of nature, referred to as Dharma in the East. The scientific inquiries we have made of the phenomenon is less known. Science refers to the evolution from primates to higher beings but does nature also play a part in the identities of groups and individuals?

 

Beyond science, man comes to rely on human insight. It is founded on a premise regarding the work of nature, that resembles closely the collective will of man and refers to ' what it takes ' to put together our experience of the world community.

 

Human insight, with a combination of mind, heart and the evolving soul, is the first preference of everyone throughout the ages. It is the will of the individual. It cultivates an understanding of itself with the instruments of knowledge, including science, and it will not bow completely to any instrument of state or of technology.

 

A parent bringing up a child will attests fully to the will of the individual, even in the face of that which we have already come to know. The child would still reserve his/her right to find out for themselves.

 

What remains may well be a new emphasis on the development of the human insight, its credibility to the individual, its application in society and the cultivation of relationships that are founded on self reliant knowledge and understanding.

 

In this, man may well rise to greater heights in his understanding, including a validation of the knowledge that comes from the past and which lies dormant in our passions, waiting to unravel like a Pandora's box. We need to prepare ourselves. The instruments for our engagement are right here within our myriad notions of life. A reorganization of such information may be what we need.

 

A man who falls and rises again many years later is privy to such secrets of nature. He cannot deny his own experiences and yet finds it hard to put everything into words. In the context of such an experience we come to appreciate the importance of human insight and to find new words for its expression. It may even feel like death and resurrection, and yet, all borrowed expressions merely lead us back to the object of faith we once gave our devotion to. Where we encounter such experiences today, the mind seeks to frame them in a new experience, without denying the former beliefs. We realize that we expressed it differently before.

 

In today's climate, we are coming to say it in new ways and we are doing it as individuals. One man's experience and realization becomes a guide to others. Accordingly, it is hoped that the torch of understanding may be passed to a new generation.