Are you transcending the Human Condition?
If not, join me!
“On our planet the human ego represents the final stages of Universal Sleep, the identification of consciousness with form. It was a necessary stage in the evolution of consciousness.” Eckhart Tolle “A New Earth”
We humans are in the midst of a radical evolution of our species, yet most of us are completely unaware of what is going on. In simple terms, we are all raising our level of consciousness. We are finally waking up to the psychological barriers – or Human Condition - that has kept us imprisoned for centuries.
In this article I describe what the Human Condition is and why it is critical to transcend.
Although we have known about this evolution in consciousness for thousands of years, it has largely been ignored or hidden. As a result, most of us are still fast asleep and living our lives as if on auto-pilot. We go about our daily activities, completely unaware of what happening in our minds.
What is the Human Condition?
The most important thing that you can probably learn in this lifetime is this: We humans all suffer from a thing called the Human Condition. Although it’s been the topic of great study by mystics over centuries, most of us in Western society have no idea what it is.
Simply stated, it is a mental state that prevents human beings from seeing the full extent of reality. In this state we are blind to who we are and what is actually going on. Albert Einstein described it at as follows:
“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”
This mental state has been described in thousands of different ways, but primarily, “The Veil of Illusion;” “Maya” or “The Conditioned-Mind.” It is a type of delusion or distortion of the mind that convinces humans that they are separate from God-Source (or the infinite creator of all life).
This condition is most famously known as the “Illusion of Separation.” As Steve Taylor (“The Leap”) says: “We are alienated from the divinity inside us and live in a state of forgetfulness and separation.”
The secret to happiness
For thousands of years mystics have repeatedly said that the only way to gain happiness and end sufferings is to “pierce the veil” or wake up from the illusion or dream state. Indeed, most sages and mystics suggest that this human condition is the cause of ALL suffering on the earth. As stated by Eckhart Tolle (“A New Earth”):
“…when we are in this distorted state of mind, we live in a, “deep-seated state of fear, need, lack and incompleteness that is part of the human condition in its unredeemed and unenlightened state.”
As Byron Katie (“The Work”) says, all our thoughts, beliefs and judgments are distortions of things as they really are. When we believe our thoughts instead of what’s really true, we experience a whole range of emotional distress that we call suffering.
Given that it is preventing us all from being happy, it’s surprising that it is not in common conversation or in our children’s school books.
So, as you can imagine, breaking free of this illusion, has been the goal of countless saints, sages and mystics. Indeed, the ultimate transcended state has been described in countless ways, such as samadhi, nirvana, bliss-state, euphoria, and heaven on earth.
“It’s a place of no thought, in which we transcend our normal sense of ego and become aware of the harmony and unity of the cosmos and also our own unity with it.” Steve Taylor
It has been said that in this pure state of awareness, we can see that humans are all interconnected with each other and the planet. We can see that we are all One. In this “unconditioned” state of mind, we remember that we are not just physical bodies but are infinite energy connected to everything in the universe.
Although most mystics see waking up as the ultimate goal of spirituality and also part of the journey of all human beings, not all religions have “raising consciousness” as their aim. As Steve Taylor (“The Leap’) suggests, formal religions instead help members cope with the pain that the Human Condition causes:
“Mystics from all traditions have the common aim of cultivating wakefulness, while the common aim of all mainstream religions is to offer consolation and psychological support. To use the medical analogy, while mystics try to heal themselves (that is to transcend sleep), conventionally religious people simply try to manage the symptoms.“
The good news is that, regardless of what we believe, we humans are designed to wake up. Indeed, we have been given a gift that no other species on earth has been given and that is to be aware of who we are; to be conscious.
And as you will see in future articles, life provides us with exactly what we need to both see the Human Condition and pull back the veil of illusion, day-in and day-out. We are all together moving slowly from a state of conditioned-mind to a state of clear-minds. Very slowly.
Stay tuned
In my next entries I talk about:
How does the Human Condition distort perception?
Where did the Human Condition come from?
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