New Age Spirituality – Morning Has Been All Night Coming ( Part 8 )
The last few posts, I have been exploring what it means to be spiritual and humanistic in the twenty-first century. In order to discuss this idea from a macro title such as "Spirituality", as well as a micro one such as "A New Age Approach to Spirituality", light has to be shed on the subject at hand. This time around, I will explore how spirituality and humanity are connected, focusing on New Age spirituality in particular.
Let us begin by looking at the word humanity itself. We all know that it refers to the human race. But, what I find interesting is that there are two meanings of the word itself (1) human nature and (2) kindness to others or benevolence. As we shall see, these two ideas are actually connected and mutually inclusive. Both words create the concept of being human. Let us look at them individually, though. The first moment denotes the innate qualities of being human. In order to understand human nature, we must look at the physical human body, in all of its parts. Physical body means that the human being is made of what one would call "matter", something that cannot be "moved" or "transferred". Although humans are able to manifest spirit or consciousness, in the sense of being able to have thoughts and ideas, they are still physically made of matter. As such, everything physical about a person is his or her incarnation: what he or she looks like and how he or she functions. This would include the sum total of all of a person's physical body, from his or her hair, to feet, to face. This is how one sees the physical form of another and it is what humans are most accustomed to. As humans possess this incarnation, they also possess an innate nature that we can call "human nature" or "human beingness". Human beings as natural beings have a number of inherent qualities and tendencies. One interesting quality that many people overlook is how passionate humans are about the things they love and hate. They are not ambivalent or indifferent but passionate. This is an important aspect of human nature because it allows humans to experience many aspects of life. Furthermore, it allows diversity, as humans possess different personality traits and can be different in their passions, desires and emotions. In addition, human nature also denotes the concept of free will. Although this is a popular way of understanding free will, this type of agency does not exist for all forms of life (i.e., bacteria), meaning that humans are the only known organisms that possess this quality. Free will is the ability of humans to make choices, within the limitations of the laws of nature, and not be caused by influences outside of themselves. This is an example of human nature, as it means that humans can make choices and then act on them to achieve their goals.
Another aspect in understanding human nature is that we have a tendency to categorize things according to our own perceptions. This difference from others is due to factors like personality type, upbringing and experience. One of the most common ways that people categorize themselves and others is through our worldview. A worldview is a view of the world, what it is made up of, as well as how it works. In other words, this is our perception of reality and how it functions. We use these perceptions to categorize the world around us and include ourselves in them. Thus, when we meet another human being, we have already started to categorize him or her into a group (i.e. based on gender, race, ethnicity, etc.) and we begin to consider certain characteristics of this group as "typical." This is where human nature comes into play again. We see these characteristics that we have classified as "typical" in another person and look at him or her in a particular way. This way of seeing another is how we perceive their qualities. These perceptions can be influenced by personal experience and the elements outside of ourselves. For example, if we were to discover that another person shares our characteristic of being passionate about certain things, we would use it as a basis for how they are like us in other ways. In this case, we would be tempted to use our passion and categorize them as similar or the same because they share it with us. However, if their passion is different than ours or if they lack it altogether – then they are not similar to us.
Another aspect of human nature comes into play when we consider the world around us. This idea is known as the "human force-field". Basically, this idea is that humans are made up of a force field that allows them to be aware of the world around them and thus, have free will. The human force-field allows humans to be able to perceive other human beings and thereby make choices and act on them. In other words, our perception of reality allows us to be conscious beings who can take action. This is where we get the concept of free will. This idea that we take action is opposed to the idea of determinism. Determinism is the concept that all events are composed of a chain of prior occurrences, and are therefore inevitable and unchangeable. The idea of being "determined" means that we lack choice because everything has already been mapped out for us. We have no choice as to what is going to happen and why it happens. This concept can be summed up as: "I can't do anything about it.
Conclusion: Human Nature is a term that refers to the innate and often unexamined characteristics of humans. Taking that into consideration, we can understand the concept in two ways: by looking at our original physical makeup (human nature), and how human beings categorize each other and how we perceive one another (the human force-field). When we look at what it means to be human, being created in the image of God and having a soul, it raises very important questions about what it means to be human.