Are You Aware that You’re Evolving Right Now?
During our lives, we go through a process of evolution. We don’t see the end of the process in the beginning so we don’t understand the need for each of the steps. What is clear, though, is that everything we go through in life seems to us either corrupt or redundant. We’re uncomfortable with our character and habits, and most of the time we’re unhappy with ourselves and those around us.
We can compare the evolutionary process we’re going through to the ripening of an apple. Initially, it is small, hard, and sour. But as it ripens, it absorbs water, minerals, essential gases—such as CO2, and sunlight. Gradually, it grows and ripens. We don’t see the need for every stage in the process, but in the end we have a beautiful and tasty fruit, the opposite of its sour beginning and ripening.
Like the apple, we are going through a purposeful process, except we can’t see it. We don’t understand the need for the stages we’re going through, or what the whole process is for. We end our lives without understanding that we are moving toward a good situation in which everyone is wise, kind, and good-hearted.
Do You Recognize These Early Warning Signs of the Human Evolution Crisis?
Unlike apples or other plants or animals, people advance from generation to generation. Our next generation is always more evolved than its predecessor. For this reason, we cannot look at life from the perspective of a single generation. The evolution of humanity over millennia is like the maturing of a person from the beginning, through the fulfillment of his or her destiny, to that person’s ideal state.
It is how we evolve. This is why there is a maxim that “you don’t show a fool a job half done.” The difference between a wise person and a fool is that the wise one sees the future. The wise one knows the end and can therefore justify the process we are going through. But we are fools; we cannot see the end of the work, so it is difficult for us to justify the situations we’re experiencing along the way.
True, the process is a long, hard and painful one. We advance by blows, mistakes, trouble, and all kinds of problems, yet we are somehow advancing. But in the current state, we’re at a crossroads, or worse yet, a deadlock. It’s as if we’ve lost our way; we’re lost in the desert, and we haven’t a clue as to where we should go. Again, we need to learn from Nature, of which we are part. Nature is drawn toward balance, and balance with Nature means having the same qualities as Nature.
Since we’re in the midst of the evolutionary process, we need to discover the general force of Nature, learn to what is it drawn to, what it “wants,” and what it sustains in us. If we do, we’ll be able to see that we’re evolving positively and that this is the way to achieve recognition of the bad, the ego within us. Then, we will understand how bitter a life we’re making for ourselves and for others.
This Is Why Humans Make Mistakes and Animals Don’t
We learn through the present crisis that when we wish to succeed through the environment, to exploit everyone and become powerful, wealthy, and dominating, it backfires on us and acts to our detriment. We can see it just by looking at the kind of society we’ve built, the kind of humanity we have become. Humanity possesses great wisdom and wealth, so why have we arrived at a state we didn’t plan to reach?
What is the reason for the emergence of all the evil? Why do we keep making mistakes and draw the wrong conclusions about why we’re unhappy? We keep chasing goals that we think will make us happy once we achieve them, then we run to another when the last one has failed us, again hoping that the new one will make us happy. But in the end, it always ends in disappointment, if not in tragedies such as wars or plagues.
If we look at ourselves compared to Nature’s other levels of still, vegetative, and animate, we will see that the whole of Nature evolves very slowly. This is because evolution on those levels occurs only by fulfilling natural drives, following instructions from within. For example, if we examine the behavior of a horse, a dog, or a cat, we will see that they act according to their nature. This is why they don’t make mistakes. They have their inner laws, by which they exist.
Conversely, humans constantly err. These mistakes should make us evolve intellectually. Yet, although our intellect evolves from generation to generation as we acquire knowledge, an awareness of the world, Nature, and ourselves, we are badly misusing our intellect.
Knowledge was intended to make life better for humanity. But when knowledge enters the public domain, it actually harms humanity because the ego makes people misuse it, to their own and others’ detriment. And then the bad backfires and ends up ruining the environment, sending humanity to make weapons and other needless things.
We see that today, through science, knowledge, and our immense capabilities, we’ve come to a state where we have abundance, which we are using to ruin and spoil. We are in a comprehensive crisis in every realm of life and at every level of the population. Even science itself is in crisis. Education, family, human relations, relations between spouses, between parents and children, healthcare, culture, and the media are all in crisis. There is a chasm between where we could have been and where we are.
We’ve been misusing our capabilities for generations. Over the millennia of evolution, we’ve come to a point where there are people who use science to support various forms of governance over people, to develop arms and needless medicines which they sell at great profit. Today, science is serving man in ways that man doesn’t need, and scientists are selling their inventions only for profit. A decent scientist is one who loves science and acquires knowledge out of love, not in order to sell it.
Are You Ready to Speed Up Your Development as a Human Being?
However, we’ve already recognized, to some degree, the bad in our development. It seems that we can still develop favorably. We do some harm, turn back, and quickly return to the good. Then we do more harm; then again, return to the good. All we need is to activate our sense of recognition of the bad so we may see our mistakes and correct them right away, without plunging into the bad. It’s like a little child being given something to dismantle so he can fix it and thus learn to do it right. We are the same.
All we need is to change our approach and understand that our lives are built in such a way that evil is a must. We must first recognize our egos as bad and use our capabilities above the animate level at the human level, capabilities for which we are called, “speaking,” “human.” If we use those traits correctly, constantly checking which is correct and which is not, out of such scrutiny we can move from the bad to the good. We will see progress that always occurs through the joint action of two opposite forces, like the systems in our bodies that work by contraction and expansion, such as the respiratory system or the cardiovascular system.
It is the same as systems in an engine that operate by sucking and ejecting, or the wheel of a bicycle where two opposite forces operate on it—one forward moving and one backward—causing it to advance.
In fact, in every evolution there are always two opposite forces working in harmony and complementing one another. Therefore, we needn’t give up anything we have in our world, because we had to evolve as we have. What is missing now is the activation of our sense of criticism so we can see what is happening and how we can wisely critique all that’s been done. Thus, we learn how to advance through corrections henceforth. When we do, all the bad will turn into a means that supports the good.
In this way, we’ll be using both the bad and the good for advancing, and then there will be no bad or good, but two auxiliary forces assisting us. All of a sudden, we’ll begin to understand that our egoistic nature is good, that through it we’ve actually developed our ability to scrutinize and correct ourselves.
Therefore, we need to understand that we’ve been given a good and favorable development, and the addition we receive from the wisdom opposite the ruinous ego (those two forces within us) can help us advance. If we work this way, we can understand that our free choice is right between those two forces. On the one hand, we have the apparent bad force, and on the other hand, the intellectual, good force to help us, since we as humans appreciate and respect wisdom.
In between the bad nature and the wise intellect, we can find the right, positive way. It is a way that’s good for Nature and for us, for all the still, vegetative, and animate. Thus, we will achieve harmony with all forms of life and with Nature as a whole.
Written by Michael Laitman
Michael Laitman is a global thinker dedicated to generating a transformational shift in society through a new global education, which he views as the key to solving the most pressing issues of our time. He is the Founder of the ARI Institute, Professor of Ontology & Theory of Knowledge, PhD in Philosophy, MS in Medical Cybernetics. You can find him on Google+, YouTube and Twitter