Balancing Human and Being

"You are a human being. What does that mean? Mastery of life is not a question of control, but of finding a balance between human and Being." ~ Eckhart Tolle

Does the stock market make you anxious?  Do you get angry when someone cuts you off in traffic?  Do you spend more time thinking about and planning for the future than you spend living in the present moment?  Have you put off taking steps toward the life you've imagined?   Of course you do!  You're human!  But how human are you?

If you answer 'yes' to most of these questions, you have an unhealthy balance of human and being; you are more brain than mind, more ego than authentic self, more money than meaning, more plan than purpose, more somewhere else than where you are now, more human than being.

"The ego doesn’t know that the source of all energy is within you, so it seeks it outside." ~ Eckhart Tolle

There is no denying the fact that you are human--you are flawed. So you easily forget who you are and why you live because you get caught up in the illusion of a world of forms (thoughts, words, things perceived by the senses) that your brain/ego can grasp and use as identity.  Translation:  You think you need outside things (money, material wealth, other people) to give you a sense of self; and as you continue seeking these things, you lose the life that you are.  You need to get back to Being.

"Whatever has being does not become; whatever becomes does not have being." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Conversely, the attempt at denying the human in you--to move too far from human--can create its own illusion.  Even the attempt to force away outside influences--to become an island unto yourself, if you will, is a work of ego.   You decide to create your own reality and rationalize away anything that disagrees with your thoughts and ideas. 

So what can be done?  Your human nature can be self-destructive and denying it can cause incredible tension and inner termoil. Accepting your human flaws is to flow with nature.  However, the human that exists without awareness is a child without a parent, a brain without a mind, a mindless existence.

"What this has taught me I think all of us had better learn.  There are no perfect human beings!  Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great.  There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers.  This can certainly give us hope for the future of the species even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen.  And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed.  To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it." ~ Abraham Maslow

The antidote to the disease we may call the human condition is simple awareness--a balance of Human and Being.  The mind becomes the adult and the brain is the child.  Both have their redeeming qualities; both have their destructive tendencies; but together they strike a healthy balance of responsibility and adventure, chaos and order, dreaming and consiousness, wrecklessness and control, play and work, observer and observed, lost and found, planner and wanderer, selfishness and unselfishness and so on.

Human and Being are not opposing forces but rather two parts that create a balance.  See it, enjoy it, embrace it.

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Related:

Mind vs Brain Part I: We are only Human

Comments

[Janar Eit]

Good post!

Made me wonder about my Human and Being part:)

Thanks!