Saturday, January 2, 2010

The caring instinct

I believe that human beings have a caring instinct. This instinct can be strong or weak. If we don’t have any children of our own to take care of, we will have to find someone else’s children to care for. If we are not able to find any children to care for we will have to get ourselves a dog or a cat. If we don’t have any children and no dog or cat to take care of, we will have to feed the ducks or the pigeons in the park. If we don’t care fore anyone or anything but ourselves, we will get sick.

I believe that all people here on earth today are descendants from a small group of humans who lived about a hundred thousand years ago in South Africa. We are all related. All of us belong to the same clan. Differences in skin color are just adaptations to different climates.
Human beings are much more closely related to each other than chimpanzees are. This is what modern genetic research has arrived at.

I believe that human beings of today are a result of a biological and a cultural evolution. At some point in our evolution language and an ability to plan for future events gradually developed. Those who were good at anticipating future events and able to make workable plans survived, and those who couldn’t plan disappeared. Human beings are extremely dependant on the ability to cooperate and the ability to make plans because we are so weak compared to the other animals with their big teeth or horns.

If we focus all our attention on the future, if we are extremely goal orientated, we will of course forget about the now. We can become so obsessed with the future that we completely lose our ability to be present in the now. The ability to be present in the now withers away, like any other ability, if it is never used. I believe that the ability to be present here and now can be improved and I believe that some people are able to be very present in the now. I agree with Eckhart when he says that only the now is real. It goes without saying. However, if we never look in to the future we will soon find ourselves in trouble. (I’m sorry. I can’t come with you. I can’t afford it. I have so many bills to pay next week.) I do not believe that living in the now implies that we cannot plan for the next week.

I believe that because of our ability to see different scenarios in our imagination we are forced to choose, one way or another. Free will implies choice.

I believe that a human being can become obsessed with almost anything because of his or her ability to fantasize, combined with his or her headstrongness. We can become obsessed with alcohol, drugs, ourselves, sex, career, money, power, art, food, religion, daydreaming…

Some people seem to always be somewhere else, even if they are not focused on future goals or brooding on the past. They are lost in their dream worlds, pondering what was going on before the Big Bang or what is happening to us when we die.

I believe that awakening is about waking up from daydreaming and obsessions. I believe that this wakeful state of mind never last for long. We will again and again get lost in fantasies and conceptual thinking. I believe that this is how the mind works. However, if we were not able to wake up to this present moment, again and again, we would be completely lost in delusion and the imaginary dream worlds.

2 comments:

:Doreen said...

Well, the last part is not true.

It is possible not to slip back into "thinking"...
"Nevertheless, if we don’t make any plans, we will soon find ourselves in trouble."
This statement You made:.. spend a few months without imagining what is happening in the next few minutes, day or week... and see what I mean. It is entirely possible to live in the State of Now. And "thinking" about it won't make it happen. But when it "happens" (that You find YourSelf in the Now.. it Is the Now)

:Doreen said...

a lot of 'believe' in this