Only Human?

by Susan Boskey

July 2023

The notion that we human beings are ordinary is one of the biggest fallacies ever perpetuated on mankind.

The human realm is entirely unique in its scope, different from realms of plant, animal and mineral. “Only human” is a long-standing excuse for our collective forgetfulness as the supreme element of creation.

In the human realm, I believe we are each blessed with an inherent opportunity of which only a few currently take advantage:the opportunity to align our internal operating system/ego with, and in service to, a higher power. Like all opportunities, this one, also. is optional and voluntary.

I recently saw Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Harvard Commencement Address and was blown away by its relevance.

“We cannot avoid reassessing the fundamental definitions of human life and human society. Is  true that man is above everything? Is there no Superior Spirit above him? Is it right that man’s life and society’s activities should be ruled by material expansion above all? Is it permissible to promote such expansion to the detriment of our integral spiritual life?

“If the world has not approached its end, it has reached a major watershed in history, equal in importance to the turn from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. It will demand from us a spiritual blaze; we shall have to rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life, where our physical nature will not be cursed, as in the Middle Ages, but even more importantly, our spiritual being will not be trampled upon, as in the Modern Era.

“This ascension is similar to climbing onto the next anthropological stage. No one on earth has any other way left but—upward.”  A World Split Apart. Solzhenitsyn’s Commencement Address, Harvard University, June 8, 1978. (1)

After 45 years his vision of the challenges facing humanity now manifests in real time. Not only is material expansion all that seems to matter in the 21st century, but also we have the good news of how millions of humans are, in fact, “climbing onto the next anthropological stage”. I see the “spiritual blaze” he mentions igniting all around the earth.

As people realize that who they are is not their story, love, truth, courage and compassion grow effortlessly within whole beings connected to a “Superior Spirit”.

These qualities eventually overtake lower-level desires of greed, jealousy, arrogance and interpersonal cruelty.

Power as Control

Human beings are effortless vessels of the power of love. Yet most squander this exalted impersonal quality in exchange for a limited personal power based on generational beliefs derived from family and culture. We tend to follow along the same path…until something makes us question what we assumed as true.

The word “power” has several definitions but for first-world cultures it often means the “ability to control people or events”. (2) In fact, having control OVER people and events appears as the unspoken, assured path to societal success.

 However, in the final analysis, control is all about the critical importance of maintaining the optics of a winning self-image above all else: with greater concern about what others think than striving to be authentic or having integrity.

The question becomes: Is this sort of power leading us to a better, more beautiful world?

I don’t think so.

Like a fish in the water, how often do any of us swim up to the surface and pop our heads out to see the fishbowl in which our lives are confined? If we ever do get some contextual overview, I believe many would clearly see that the aggrandizement of personal power is our greatest downfall as the human race.  

Blame Politics?

Try as we might, personal power as the lever to gain control over life so often erupts with egoic rages and demands; satisfaction is short-term at best. Given the same misguided approach, most people look to politicians for solutions to the more global issues confronting their community, state/province, or nation. All eyes turn to political action for answers.  

The only problem is that politicians may just be of a ‘higher order’ when it comes to their thirst for personal power, validation and control.

They are the exact type of people that rise to the top of the heap: having a sense of superiority, willing to do most anything just to win, and generally not good listeners. This means our leaders reflect simply a more polished version of the common dysfunctions/dark side of the human ego, and that no one escapes whether admitted or not.

Today’s collective context, i.e. the public mindset of fear, hate, mistrust, violence and division, is the same ground out of which politicians are grown and harvested.

We are one and the same and unwittingly create each other. But the funny part is that due to our blindness to this irony of not having popped our heads out to see the destructive belief systems of the ‘fishbowl’ we’re all swimming in, we will blame the politicians. Instead of realizing that by our worldview and behavior not only do we add to or subtract from the quality of the overall collective cultural context, but we also forget that our politicians come from the same context.

The accepted path of least resistance for centuries has been to project our lack of cleaning up our own inner messes onto a myriad of official others. So where does that leave us?

The way I see it is that politics is a subset of the human being and not the other way around!

The Contextual Shift to a Peaceful, More Beautiful World

Humans (like fish), along with the gazillion things humans create and build, from rockets to dish soap, are the content making up the collective cultural context (fishbowl).

To my way of seeing, the current context of material expansion at all costs to nature and humanity no longer serves.

I suppose it seemed like a good idea at the time.

To live in a world based on nonviolence, goodwill and collaboration, we would need to shift from a mission of increasing quantity to one of recognizing and expanding quality. In other words, like apples and oranges, such re-prioritization requires a deliberate shift in context.

Rearranging the world’s content into new and different configurations via presidents, financial products, social expectations, etc., we simply rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Good luck with that.

The mindset of any collective is made up of what each of us brings to it, for better or worse, consciously or unconsciously.

A contextual shift needs to unfold within each human.

As our heads (and hearts) break the surface of our fishbowl an ‘aha’ moment is revealed; we see that there is an outside – an entirely new dimension – a journey connected to the mind of God.

As the saying goes, you can’t get there from here.  

The Paradox of Hidden Treasure

“The ego mind is a wonderful servant but a tyrant master.” ~ unknown

Personal experience informs me that to move into a God mindset means to first become both curious and aware of the current state of my internal conversations, as mean-spirited, sad or confused they may actually be.

This ‘grist for the mill’ is the stuff of personal transformation.

From there the great unraveling begins: finding ways to deconstruct the negative familial and cultural beliefs we unconsciously developed just by being part of a family and a culture.

We DO have the power to process negative thought forms previously thought to be other people’s problems, not our own.

The context of our life shifts from assumed narrative to found reality to reveal the hidden treasure. The problem is always one’s identity.

As we peel back the layers of who we thought we were by stopping to identify who we are as the body or a particular character in our mind, something extraordinary happens.

We can:

see how we’ve been living in the past or feeling anxious about the future.

learn to let go of control, comparing and competing.

release expectations.

regain a sense of being beyond thoughts and concepts.

start living spontaneously in the present tense.

realize that being present is the safest place to be.

find common ground with others.

utilize both left AND right hemispheres of our brain, and

move more gracefully through difficult situations by seeing our part in it.

It is the God Dimension that transforms us from the inside-out when we make the effort to move our life in this direction.

No one has to, that’s for sure. Yet it’s not hard to imagine that each of us human beings, without exception, possesses an untapped power within just waiting for us to connect with the guidance of a power higher than our personalities. The experience of an inner peace that surpasses understanding is one of the best kept secrets ever in an uncertain world.

Only human? I don’t think so.

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” ~ Gospel of Thomas 45:30-33

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(1) https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/a-world-split-apart

(2) Cambridge Dictionary  https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/power

Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/acualung-poor-poverty-people-men-4074462/

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Susan Boskey, Certified Cannabis Educator and graduate of Holistic Cannabis Academy, 2017, works with clients to help remedy chronic ills, anxiety, depression, recovery from cancer and autoimmune issues, etc. Her knowledge base includes recommendations of specific cannabis formulations to effectively address specific health concerns. For many years Susan owned and operated a private health practice devoted to the detoxification and restoration of gut health. Susan has over 50 years of personal and professional involvement with wellness modalities she brings as a bonus to her clients. https://lifestylewellness rx.com