In preparing for a recent writers forum, I thought it a good idea to read a book written by Matthew Fox, another member of the panel. I wanted to see if there was any synergy between us. The organizer suggested his book, Creativity. I’m glad I asked because I found the synergy I was looking for, a section on human nature in which he listed a series of attributes that we ideally should not exhibit:
- We are not consumers,
- We are not addicts,
- We are not passive couch potatoes,
- We are not boring,
- We are not cogs in a machine,
- We are not lazy,
- We are not destroyers,
Unfortunately, although we ought not to exhibit these attributes (consumer, addict, boring, cogs in the machine, lazy, destructive), we are not there yet. At the moment, in our present state of consciousness, we are mere aberrations of the ideal human nature Matthew Fox believes we are capable of.
Ouspensky said, in our present state of consciousness we are asleep; we are machines; we are incapable of true knowing. So, how do we change our human nature? How do we stop feeling like “cogs in the machine?” Remember 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece? Remember the much talked about black monolith that appears in the midst of a primitive tribe?
Walking out of the theater I had something no one else in my group of friends had. I knew what the Black Monolith meant. I was certain that it signified a dramatic shift in consciousness, a symbol for man’s first instance of self-awareness, a parable describing the discovery, the use, and the development of tools. Self recognizing other for the first time. Man, in effect, becoming modern man. The moment homo added sapiens to his pedigree. And if you think about it, the modern space shuttle is but a mere extension of the bone picked up by the primitive tribesman in Kubrick’s film. In fact, there has been a greater lapse of time between the origin of man and the discovery of that first tool than the lapse of time between the discovery of that primitive weapon and creation of the atomic bomb.
In the intervening thousands of years since that primordial moment — the hand reaching down to grab the bone at the same instant the grabber realizes its deadly purpose — there has not been another existential leap of consciousness of the same magnitude. No new black monolith. No moment of greater self-awareness spreading like wildfire through the entire race. Sure, technology has moved ahead at a rapid pace, but outside of the development of the prefrontal cortex (the region of the brain devoted to higher cognitive functions), the development of the other lobes of the brain has been minimal. It’s often said that man’s decisions are still governed by his animal brain — emotions and feelings overruling rational centers.
What does this have to do with changing our human nature? In order to change our human nature we have to change our state of consciousness.
The reason human nature varies so greatly among individuals is because nature is subordinate to the individual's current state of consciousness. The higher the state of consciousness of the individual, the nobler his nature. Unfortunately, the aggregate state of human nature at the present time has created a world of financial collapse, war, greed, illness, obesity, addiction, wide-scale sexual slavery, racial hatred.
Violent emotions, selfish habits, negative outlook, addictions, aggressive personalities, faulty mental processes have created a "lowest-common-denominator" behavioral standard. Often, we exhibit negative behavior out of frustration, because we feel like "cogs in a machine." In order to survive the changing conditions of overcrowding and diminishing resources, we can and must eliminate the negative aspects of a nature that makes us feel like cogs in a machine.
My books are about redemption and transcendence. But so were the Middle Ages — about scourging the body in order to transcend it. My work isn’t about scourging the body; it’s about perfecting it in order to transcend it, in order to develop and maintain perfect health and mental awareness right through the golden years. You see, we’ve moved beyond a purely religious definition of transcendence. Transcendence can be as simple as surpassing one’s early circumstances to become an artist, or as elaborate as dying on the cross. We now know — or at least we should know — that there is something beyond the physical, and we don’t need prayer to touch it. We can reach out and grab it. That is, we can take an active role in the process. And we can use it to heal and perfect our bodies.
We cannot change human nature by any traditional or orthodox means. Not by prayer, not by good works, not by psychology, education, philosophy, law, medicine, science, politics is human nature changed. Don’t believe me? Ask Mao Tse-Tung, the most dedicated social engineer of the last 100 years. The Cultural Revolution in China attempted to exorcise commercialism, venality, greed, and selfishness. It failed miserably. To change our nature we must change our consciousness.
How do we change our consciousness? That’s the purpose of Kundalini — a powerful, yet dormant mechanism in our beings that allows us to realize our full potential. Kundalini is the motivating catalyst behind the transcendent experience. It's the key to our changing our state of consciousness. How? Kundalini stimulates neuroplastic activity in the brain and, as a consequence, changes our very Being. All our behavioral aberrations vanish. We are no longer cogs in the machine.
So how do we change human nature? We don’t. We run an “end run” around it; we change our state of being, our consciousness. How do we do this? By raising Kundalini in a safe, permanent fashion. How does this work? My books detail the process, but the upshot is Kundalini produces an entirely new being. It’s an active process. You can’t pray for it to happen; you can’t do it by reading philosophy, by undergoing psychoanalysis, or becoming a scientist, lawyer or doctor. You have to involve the whole being. Master three powerful meditation techniques: diaphragmatic deep breathing, control of heart rate, the backward-flowing method and you’re there, standing at the threshold of a new being.
As Bruce Lee said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”