The Unique Potential of Man
Is the Progress of self-Understanding and self-Transcendence
An Essay by
Avatar Adi Da Samraj
Among the beings On Earth, human beings Are Unique but Only In The Sense That they Are (As a species) Significantly More Advanced In The Development Of psycho-physical functions that Are, Otherwise, Only Latent or Less Developed In the case of the non-human world (of Natural energies and elements, material shapes and cycles, simpler organisms, plants, trees, insects, fishes, birds, mammals, and the rest). The non-human world Is The Immediate Progenitor Of the Natural functions and the functional form Of Man. The world of non-human beings (of which the great trees Are The Epitome and The Senior Of all) Is A Great Process, From Which and Relative To Which and In Which human beings Are Developed and Developing (By Virtue Of A Complex and Ever-Continuing Event That Functions At All Levels, and Not Merely At The gross material Level, Of The psycho-physical Cosmos).
Among The Apparent Differences Between Man and all the non-human beings Is The Greatly Developed Capability For mentally Reflective and conceptually Abstracted knowledge (and Consequent inventiveness) That Is Evident In the human case. Nevertheless, It Is Not conceptual or Abstract thinking that Is The Unique Characteristic or Capability Of Man. Neither Is toolmaking (or inventiveness and technology), which is a secondary product of conceptual or Abstract thinking, The Unique Characteristic or Capability Of Man. Abstract thought and technology are themselves only servants Of The Unique Capability Of Man. They are Signs, or Secondary Evidence, Of The Unique Characteristic Of Man.
The Unique Characteristic Of Man Is The Capability For self-Understanding. The Unique Capability Of Man Is The Characteristic Process Of psycho-physical self-Transcendence ( or The Whole bodily demonstration Of ego-Transcendence). Therefore, The Unique Potential Of Man Is The Progress Of psycho-physical Of self-Understanding and self-Transcendence. And self-Understanding and self-Transcendence, Truly Progressing (As A Demonstration In The Context Of the Total body-mind), Lead Toward The (Potential, and Only-By-My-Avataric-Divine-Grace-Given ) Most Perfect Realization Of The Self-Evidently Divine Source Of the conditional self, and Of the body-mind itself, and Of The Totality Of conditional Existence.
Abstract (and right conceptual) “thinking”, (In The Context Of Profound (and, More and More, thought-Transcending) “Consideration”) and “technology” (Displayed As The Total Form Of Right and Effective Practice) Are (As Such) Useful Means For Directing The Progressively ego-Transcending Process That Is The Unique Potential Of Man. However, When egoity (or self-Fulfillment) Rather Than self-Transcendence, Becomes The Motivator Of Man, conceptual thinking and technological inventiveness Tend To Become Exalted (or Valued) As Ends In themselves. Such That they Become The Chronic, Compulsive, and Obsessive Preoccupations Of Man.
The non-human beings function Largely From The Base Of What Is Commonly Called “The Unconscious”. That Is To Say, Compared To Man, they Apparently Operate With Much Less Of (or, At Least In some cases, Even Without Much Of) What Are Commonly Called The “Conscious” and “Subconscious” Structures Of mind. Human beings Are Actively Bringing The Unconscious (In Its Totality, Including, Potentially, Its Superconscious Heights and, Most Ultimately, In The Only-By-Me Revealed and Given Seventh Stage Of Life, Its Inherent, and Inherently Perfect, Deep) Into a More and More Clearly Conscious state of mind (and Of Conscious Realization, Even Prior To mind).
The Unconscious (As mind) Is the Fundamental functional mind, or the functional Source-mind. It Is Constantly Active and Effective, but (Perhaps Because its contents are Not objectified in a conventionally Familiar and conventionally Usable mental form) it Is Not (In The General Case) Immediately or Directly known or Acknowledged By the Conscious mind. Therefore, Between the Unconscious mind and the Conscious mind Is a Transitional mind, the Subconscious (or dreaming and dreamlike) mind. The Subconscious mind Is Immediately Below, or Behind, or (In Superconscious states, Developed or Revealed Via The Subconscious mind, or Process) Even (Spatially) Above the Conscious mind, and it Is (or May Be), To A Degree, Directly (or Consciously) known, Acknowledged, and Used (or Expressed) By the Conscious mind. Therefore, the Subconscious mind Is A Communications Bridge Between the Unconscious mind and the Conscious mind (and Between the Conscious mind and the Unconscious mind).
Human beings Are Bringing The Unconscious To Consciousness Through Developmental Stages That Make Transitional Use Of The Subconscious Mechanisms. The By Me Revealed and Given Complete Spiritual, Transcendental, and Divine Process May Be Understood As A Sequence Of (Possible) Stages Of Growth Culminating In (Inherent, Inherently Most Perfect, and, Necessarily, Divine) Consciousness Of (and Inherently Most Perfect, or Inherently Free, Responsibility For) All Of Reality (So That The Hidden Secrets Of mind Are Conscious, Even In mind, and The Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual, and Divine Source, or Inherently Perfect Subject, or Perfectly Subjective Self, or Limitless Prior Condition, Of mind, Even Of the Unconscious conditional Source-mind, Is Realized To Be Consciousness Itself).
In General, humanity At Large Is Struggling In The Earlier Stages Of This Process (In The Context Of The First Three Stages Of Life). Even So, much (conditional) knowledge Has Been Brought To Consciousness, but that (conditional) knowledge Is Only Partial and, As A Result, what human beings now Regard As common or reliable (conditional) knowledge Is Only The Beginning Of (conditional) knowledge, and what is conditionally known Has The Force (or Significance) Of A Problem (or A Yet Unresolved Urge To know).
Among the Most Significant forms of such human knowledge Is the knowledge of death. The non-human beings experience fear, self-protectiveness, survival instincts, adaptation urges, sickness, and death, but their Involvement With all of that Is At The Level Of Urges Coming From The Unconscious. The non-human beings Are Not (At The Level Of the Conscious mind) Very self-Aware Of death, its Structure or Purpose, or Even its Inevitability. Human beings, However, Are, Even Characteristically, Acutely Aware Of death As An Inevitable and Apparently Terminal personal Event. This Awareness Is Unique (conditional) knowledge, but It Is Also Only Partial (conditional) knowledge. It Is A Sign That human beings (Not Otherwise More Fully Awake) Are Yet functioning On The Base Of The Unconscious Relative To The Larger Context, Real Process, and Ultimate Purpose Of death, and Of life itself. Thus, For human beings At The Lesser (or Commonly Characteristic) Level Of human Development, death Is A Problem, A Threat, A Dilemma, or A Question In the mind.
Since human beings function Rather Uniquely At The Level Of Subconscious and Conscious mind (and Since human Developmental Progress Is, Primarily, A Process In mind, Moving, Ultimately, Toward The Revelation Of Self-Existing and Self-Radiant Consciousness Itself, and Only Preliminarily, and, Otherwise, Secondarily, A Process Of gross form and gross adaptation), human beings Naturally Feel Threatened By death As An Always Present or Abstract Possibility and Concern Of mind.
Likewise, In General, human beings Characteristically experience sex As An Always Present or Abstract Possibility and Concern Of mind, Whereas non-human beings Are Generally Associated With sex Via instinctive and Unconsciously Generated cyclic patterns. Therefore, human beings Are (In General) Constantly Moved To Achieve sexual pleasure (With or Without An Intention To reproduce), and they Are, Otherwise (In General), Constantly Moved To Confront and Answer or Solve (Through psycho-physical Efforts) The Abstract and Really Threatening Problem Of death.
In Contrast To the human species, the non-human species Are Generally Moved Only instinctively. Thus, non-human beings Are instinctively Moved To reproduce themselves Excessively (That Is To Say, Frequently and/or in Superfluous numbers, So That a Sufficient number Will Survive all Natural threats and reproduce the species again), and they Are Also instinctively Moved To Aggressively Compete For food, territory, or breeding mates (who, Like food and territory, Basically Represent The instinctive Right To reproduce), and they Are, Otherwise, instinctively Moved To Defend (or Even Simply To Agitate) themselves Only In The Instants Of Direct Confrontation With a Really (and bodily) Threatening physical opponent (Whereas human beings, In their more mentalized, and, Therefore, Comparatively More Developed, personal and social state, Are Because Of mental Anxiety, Sometimes Moved To kill Even their own kind in Invented, or mentally Contrived, wars, and, Otherwise, To Be Aggressive and Defensive and Agitated Even In circumstances that Are Not Directly, or Really and bodily, Threatening). Therefore, human beings (and Mankind As A Whole) Must Develop Further Than all non-human beings, So That they May Transcend All The mental, emotional, and physical Exaggerations Of their non-human Inheritance Of instinct (Particularly As Those Exaggerations Are Demonstrated Via egoic and Loveless and Destructive Motives Associated With sex, and food, and territory, and Aggression).
It Is Also Notable That, As Mankind Develops Its Abstracted Involvement With (Especially) sex and death To The Degree That most human individuals Tend To live to and beyond the Natural reproductive age, human populations Tend To Become Overlarge, So That The Quality Of ordinary human experience and The Possibility Of Growth Into and Through The Advanced and The Ultimate Stages Of Life Become Either Threatened Or Really Diminished. This Indicates That, As human populations Acquire The Capability For longevity, they Must Control human reproduction, and they Must Also Become Informed and Guided By The Wisdom-Culture Of Superior (or, Really, Divine) Understanding and Purpose, or Else human beings Will Tend, In The Likeness Of non-human beings, To Continue To reproduce Excessively and To Remain Devoted, In The instinctive or Unconscious Manner, To self-Survival (Rather Than To self-Transcendence) and To Effort and Seeking Merely For The Sake Of The Survival Of the organism itself (Rather Than To Submission Of the body-mind To The Great Reality, and To The Purpose Of self-Transcendence).
When human populations Achieve The Capability For individual longevity, they Must Control or Transcend The instinctual reproductive Strategies Of Excess, For Those Strategies Work (or Produce An Ecologically Balanced Result) Only If The Rate Of early-life deaths Is Relatively Large. Likewise, As human beings Acquire longer life spans, they Must Realize The Superior (or self-Transcending) Purpose Of conditional Existence, and they Must (By My Grace) Be Moved and Grown To Demonstrate That Purpose In The Context Of The Advanced and The Ultimate Stages Of Life, or Else conditional Existence Will Be Devoted To subhuman and egoic Survival games and The petty territorial (or political and social) Conquests That Come From The Increase Of experience and knowledge and power In The lower human Context Of The First Three Stages Of Life (Untouched By The Great Purpose, and Untouched By The Culture, The Balancing Effect, and The Great Process Of Awakening Associated With self-Transcendence In The Context Of The Advanced and The Ultimate Stages Of Life). Therefore, As human groups increase in size because of the longevity of individuals, death itself Must Be Really Understood and Transcended, In Consciousness, and (Progressively) In The Context Of The Advanced and The Ultimate Stages Of Life. Likewise, merely reproductive sexuality Must Be Controlled (or Economized), In both its performance and its effects, By various Intelligent (and Heart-Sensitive, and Compassionate) techniques, and sexuality itself Must Be (Progressively) Converted (and Positively Changed) By Heart-Sensitive, and Love-Based, and energy-Conserving, and Rejuvenative, and (Eventually) Spiritually Active and Spiritually Effective emotional-sexual Practice.
For human beings, death Is A Proposition and A Puzzle That Must Be Understood and Transcended (By Correct and Revealing Information, or Fullest Education, and By The Real Process Of self-Transcendence). There Is No Peace For human beings Until This Matter Is Resolved.
Of Course, This Matter Of death Is A Perennial Subject Of Conjecture and Research, but The Resolution Of The Question Requires Even More Than Information. As Is The Case With All Truly Developmental Matters, This Question Can Be Resolved Only By Tapping What Is Always Presently In The Unconscious and Bringing It Into Consciousness. That Is To Say, The Overcoming Of The Apparent Problem and Motivating Stress Associated With death Requires The Truly Developmental (and, Thus, Truly human, and Spiritual, and Transcendental, and, Most Ultimately, Divine) Process Of Positively Changing and Directly Transcending the limitations of mind (or The egoic Burden Of limited knowledge and limited experience).
The Unconscious Is Simply The Totality Of What Is Real but Not Yet Fully Conscious (or Brought To Fully Conscious Acknowledgement and Realization). Since Mankind Has Gone So Far As To Become self-Conscious (or mentally and egoically self-Aware) About death, Mankind Must Be Submitted To A Process Of Becoming Really (and Not egoically) Conscious Of What Is Yet Hidden. And This Requires Truly human Growth, and Growth In The Context Of The Advanced and The Ultimate Stages Of Life, Via The human, and Spiritual, and Transcendental, and, Most Ultimately, Divine Process Of Participatory self-Transcendence. Through Such self-Transcendence (Which Becomes self-Submission To The Divine Person, or Reality), the (Presumed) knowledge Of The psycho-physical Potential Of death Progressively Becomes Heart-Realization Of The self-Sacrificial Wound Of Divine Love-Bliss.
Deeper Than the Conscious mind Of Man In The Third Stage Of Life Is The Inherent Realization Of Eternal Love Immortal Love-Bliss, Unqualified Being, Infinite Spirit-Power, and Inherent Wisdom. Therefore, As The Process Of human Growth Develops Beyond The Third Stage Of Life, There Is Developmental Progress, Stage By Stage, Toward Most Ultimate Realization Of The Divine (or Perfectly Subjective, and Inherently Perfectly Conscious, and Self-Existing, and Self-Radiant) Self-Condition (and Source-Condition) Of conditional Existence. And, More and More In That Progress (and, Finally, In The Most Ultimate, or Final, Complete, and Inherently Most Perfect, or Seventh Stage, Fulfillment Of That Progress, Which Most Ultimate Fulfillment Can Be Realized Only In The Total, or Full and Complete, Practice Of The Only-By-Me Revealed and Given Way Of The Heart, or The Way Of Adidam), The Problem Of death (or The Wondering About The Purpose, Process, and Effect Of life and death) Is Overcome By Real Conscious Realization Of What Is Hidden From the lesser mechanical and Unconscious point of view. And That Real Conscious Realization Is Final, or Complete, Only In The Most Ultimate, and Inherently Most Perfect, or Seventh Stage, Fulfillment Of That Progress, Which Most Ultimate Fulfillment Can Be Realized Only In The Total, or Full and Complete, Practice Of The Way Of Adidam (The Only-By-Me Revealed and Given Way Of The Heart).