ESSENCE AND IDENTITY







A Study in Thought

sa021



by





Marius Heuff

Chapter 1

Content

Definition and analysis.
Considerations about relevance.
Shifting references.
Viability requirements in the determination of categories.
Varying degrees of differentiation and generalisation.
Searching for a unique common denominator.
Is a universal meaning for human life possible or relevant?
Morality of the small group.
Common denominators between human beings.
The problems of common-sense; variability of meaning.
Pitfalls in negotiations; the pseudo-compromise.

It seems justified to equate the concept of "essence" with the common denominator of the category to which a particular item of awareness belongs, and, if we ask ourselves about the essence of the human being, or, of being human, we should be looking for a characteristic we all share. At the same time, the concept of identity expresses the idea, that the members of a certain category still have individual differences, and, therefore, we can describe each member of a category or class in such a way, that the uniqueness of each particular member is emphasised. This brings home the fact, that, in every category or classification, no two members are exactly alike. Uniqueness is, therefore, the characteristic of identity, while essence embodies the underlying common denominator, binding the members into a specific category; at least, this seems to be a useful definition of the terms of essence and identity.

Let us look at this statement a little more in detail, however, without accepting, glibly, the somewhat superficial feeling to have grasped the essential concepts of essence and identity. Quickly, we run into difficulties, if we try to apply the principles of essence and identity, as outlined above, to the functions of our own existence and sphere of awareness. For example, let us look at the numerous grains of sand or the multitude of pebbles we see along the shore of a beach. Most of the time, we have no desire to know, how many pebbles there are, and, we are rarely aware of the fact, that these pebbles all differ in size, shape, texture, colour or substance. Yet, at any time, if we want to do so, we can focus our attention upon these discriminatory aspects of the pebbles on the beach, and, we are able to describe or discern these differences in varying degrees of detail.

As a matter of fact, we could argue, quite convincingly, that we can describe ever more variables and differences between these pebbles, and, if we focus our attention upon the smallest details, we see, quite clearly, that no two pebbles are alike. Even, if we find a spot on the beach where the pebbles or grains of sand look extra-ordinarily similar, we will still be able to discern small variations in size, shape, colour, weight, texture, as well as differences in location and historical background. It is easy to see, that any two grains of sand, laying closely side by side and apparently identical in appearance, can still be distinguished by their difference in location, or, perhaps, by their different origins. The point is, that we can always point to differences that exist between essentially similar objects, but the relevance of noting these differences may quickly disappear.

We judge, primarily intuitively, but rightly, that, at a certain point, our efforts to discriminate between similarities become trivial. Any distinction becomes irrelevant, because these distinctions made in our observations have lost any significance for our existence, actions or plans. These distinctions have even lost all meaning for us as a conceptual framework of understanding, when trying to master our environment mentally. The process of conceptualisation is intimately linked to our well-being, because we want to understand and comprehend the realities we are confronted with in order to manipulate, or "bend", the events to our advantage.

From an era of technological mastery over the force-fields in our environment, we are entering an era of mastery over our emotions and attitudes, or, the force-fields that are exerting an influence on our personality. At least, such a change in the direction of our manipulative skills would be highly desirable, if we want to solve our most pressing contemporary problems.

If the process of identification, (emphasising the uniqueness of an entity and the differences between similar entities), loses itself in trivialities when looking at the pebbles on a beach, then, we may well ask ourselves, whether or not an emphasis on personal identity, the uniqueness of an individual human being in relation to another, may also lose itself in trivialities.

This question shows us the importance of the concept of "shifting reference systems", because it is quite clear, that the foundation for all our awarenesses and judgements reflects the existential significance of our experiences for our own existence. The difference between one human being and another becomes slight, or trivial, in the grey periphery of our awareness-sphere, but, for each of these individuals, their own existence is as central to their judgement of importance as our existence is the center of our sphere of awarenesses and judgements.

Let us agree, then, that the judgement of importance may, indeed, shift to a multi-individual core of people who are close to us, but, in the physiological sphere of our perceptions and judgements, we see, clearly, that, each one of us experiences the environment as centered around our own existence, and we see increasingly less clarity of detail, as we look further away from the center of our existence. The increasing distance away from our ego-center leads to a loss of significance, as well as a loss of the ability, and need, to discriminate between detailed differences, and, therefore, the classification of our observations becomes coarser.

We observe and know the people in the immediate environment with a certain clarity of detail, but, towards the periphery of our sphere of awareness, the multitude becomes grey, unknown, uninteresting, except as an excercise in curiosity, and, what is important to note, here, people start to look more and more alike. We may therefore safely say, that the highly individualised experience of our own significance and emphasis upon personal uniqueness, is a judgement or experience that is shared by everyone, in the sense that we all perceive, judge and live with ourselves in the center of the sphere of our awarenesses and concerns.

For those in the periphery of our sphere of awareness, we become a minute and undistinguished part of the grey multitude of their periphery, just like those in the periphery of our own awareness-sphere are minute and undistinguished. Individualisation, which emphasises individual uniqueness and value, becomes a basis for an attitude of self-esteem, as well as the primary orientation for our activities and attitudes in large and conglomerate societies, but, these attitudes must have a very limited range of appeal, unless everyone can share in the remarkable benefits and well-being flowing from the mechanisms of individualisation.

Individualisation provides only a limited opportunity for mutual cooperation and identification, because it emphasises, strongly, an egocentric view-point in our attitudes and judgements. We will discuss, later, why such a self-centered attitude becomes almost a necessity, whenever we analyse the awarenesses and motivations that are aroused with the discovery of our own existence as a specific entity. We will see, that we run into difficulties, whenever we try to use the concept of personal identity and uniqueness as a criterium for human dignity and essence, because it tends to emphasise, merely, our egocentric orientation, and, without a generally agreed-upon framework for the mechanisms of individualisation, we run the risk that our sense of importance and relevance becomes irrelevant or irritating to someone else.

"Yet", you will ask, "are we not locked into a position, where we have to see the world as a sphere of awarenesses extending all around us, with ourselves in the center? How can we deny the ever-present personal significance in all our awarenesses and actions? You have said yourself, that the fundamental basis of social cohesion has to be based on the recognition, that such attitudes of self-esteem and the willingness to cooperate will benefit the security of all the members of a socially integrated grouping. If there would not be some benefit in the act of belonging to, and cooperating with, a social environment, the viability and reason for existence of the social unit would be lost".

Indeed, this is the case. We should, therefore, acknowledge, that the power of discrimination and generalisation, (the ability to note differences as well as similarities), is determined by existential significance. If we clutter our awareness mechanisms with irrelevant details, our viability would suffer, just as we would become less viable, if we should fail to note highly significant details. If we do not sense important viariations in circumstances or objects, we fail to receive the information that is necessary to formulate the best possible or most finely tuned responses under the prevailing circumstances. It is safe to conclude, therefore, that the degree of differentiation, as well as the degree of similarity or the emphasis on a common denominator, is determined by the requirements of individual and collective viability.

We have anticipated this conclusion somewhat, before we got a chance to look at the definition of "essence", where we emphasise the common bonds or the common denominators of the human species. We should not be surprised that we find ourselves, again, quickly in difficulties, especially, when we pursue the train of thought that has been initiated. It is obvious, that we have a great deal of difficulties to determine, what, exactly, all human beings share, and, what, really, constitutes the essence of being human.

The search for the uniqueness of the human common denominator has always fizzled into vague notions and grave doubts, and, it is probably more advantageous to see the human species as an example, where certain evolutionary developments are explored to a remarkable extent, such as the opportunities that come to the fore with the quality of "behavioural flexibility". We are less likely to run into problems this way, because it seems doubtful, that the human being is the recipient of a new and specifically human characteristic. If we say, that the human being is characterised by an extra-ordinary unfolding of the possibility to represent awarenesses symbolically, together with the elaboration of cultural guidelines and structures of belief, we leave the possibility open, that these same potentials are also present in a rudimentary form in other species' as well.

No trait emerges suddenly in nature, and, we should be suspicious of any concept that proclaims the uniqueness of a particular human characteristic. Yet, if the human being represents merely an extra-ordinary development, such as, e.g., dominance on the basis of cultural capabilities, we do not receive much help in our search for the essence of human existence. In addition to this real, but somewhat theoretical difficulty in our search for human essence and its commonly shared attributes, we come-up against a far more serious and far more practical difficulty, which is an exact parallel to the difficulty we saw come to the fore, when we emphasised uniqueness "ad infinitum", and found only irrelevance.

Just as we saw, how quickly the development or judgement of triviality arose in such a process of meaningless differentiation, we see a similar judgement of meaninglessness and triviality arise, if we try to grasp common bonds on too large a scale. "What does it really mean to search for a common denominator of all mankind, especially, when even the people in our peripheral field of vision become already a grey mass of indifference? What does it mean to know the essence of humanity, when we all have to fight and struggle with each other for a place in our competitive societies? Who really cares, or, who really believes, that, pondering the essence of humanity will make one iota of difference to human nature, or the course of its destiny?".

"We will always have a few friends, but, most often, there are many more people we are indifferent, or, even, hostile towards. What would be the result, if we really had to consider all human beings as our brothers? Who would survive, where would progress be, who would eliminate the weak, the parasites, the lazy, the psychopaths, the addicts? It seems utter nonsense and a waste of time to look for the utopia of a common brotherhood. Nature has always selected the fittest individuals and the fittest groups, and, the members of mankind have fought each other long before they could read, write or think. Why should we really believe, that it is possible, or necessary, to continue these fruitless searches for the nirwana of a common human understanding, or, the illusion of a global attitude of mutual friendship and help?".

"These attitudes of assistance and concern are only possible as a cementing substance in the emotional synchrony of a small and closely-knit grouping, and, these attitudes usually reach a peak of mutual understanding, including self-sacrifice and brotherly love, while engaged in the chilling act of annihilating the enemy; a human enemy, just the same; a human enemy, who has similarly been organised into small groups with a high moral conscience and an efficient social organisation. Highly moral behaviour is no problem for the small community that has been organised into an efficient fighting machine, but, the paradox of excercising the attitudes of altruism for the sake of communal aggression and egocentricity, is not often appreciated".

Why, then, should we keep searching for this elusive and often meaningless common bond or essence of mankind? Simply, because we can not afford, any longer, to behave as small communities, or, even, as larger civilisations, locked into mortal combat for the sake of settling competitive aims. We still may feel, that the essence of our existence lies in the identification with the common goals and glory of our particular social environment, but, it is time to recognise the fact, that we are weakening our viability by giving-in to our biological urge to fight each other to the death. It is time, that we recognise each other as similar in existential needs. If we destroy each other, we also destroy our possibilities to live after the dust of the battle has settled.

It is true, that the common denominator of the smaller group is easier to grasp and define, and, it is certainly easier to identify with those, who share our culture, goals, prejudices and targets for hatred and aggression. However, the essence of being human can not be simply the shared aspirations of a particular social grouping, because the goals of one community clash, always, with those of another social environment, and, this divergence would eradicate the validity of a common denominator.

However, if we look at the requirements of human viability on a global scale, and, if we emphasise the common, non-human enemy, (easily found in the limitation of resources and serious pollution problems), we see a much clearer existential need to come to grips with the identification of a common denominator. We need a common point of interest, which will allow us to re-organise our relationships and re-orient our attitudes on a global scale of essential equality and justice. Clearly, the level of common interests is, again, determined by existential needs, and, the meaning of such a search can only be found against the recognition of the fact, that, global cooperation between human beings is the only route to secure survival of the human species.

"Do we really need such a lengthy and theoretical search for these common denominators? Is it not enough to emphasise the practical aspects of cooperation, based on the principle that compromise and negotiation leaves us more to share, and is less destructive than conquest and war?".

Yes, we would have a sufficient theoretical basis, if those apparently so simple and common-sense principles would be understood by everyone in the same manner, leading to identical results for the peoples around the world. However, what I would feel as a reasonable compromise on my part, may be totally unacceptable to others, and, what others would feel to be a reasonable and equitable solution, may gnaw at the heart of my existential security and self-esteem. Therefore, the logical and generalised formulation of a principle of cooperation may be readily acceptable to all parties, but, the meaning, or implementation, of these principles and concepts may be far from equal, or, even, far from similar.

A simple, practical, common-sense approach fails to appreciate, sufficiently, the divergence in the meaning of concepts and ideas, and, in the end, the compromise is, so often, a reflection of a balance of power, rather than the result of a process of free and voluntary negotiations. The end-result is, then, the resultant of a vector-diagram of forces, which has nothing in common with a voluntary contract of cooperation and good-will, but reflects a frozen status-quo, which may erupt, at anytime, in violent strife or warfare.

Mutual understanding and attempts to negotiate a compromise are partly hampered by differences in cultural background, (letting us interpret similar concepts or ideas in different ways), but, the main difficulty is a poor recognition of our own motivations. So often, we only appear willing to negotiate when we have no other choice, and, we stall and jockey for a more advantageous position with an interminable flow of rethoric, whenever we think that such an attitude is to our advantage. Mis-understandings and mutual distrust lie at the heart of a pseudo-compromise and pseuo-negotiations, but, frequently, the appearance of good-will and reason are shamelessly abused as a tool or weapon. Words and sentances are used, ruthlessly, as a tool to camouflage aggressive intentions, and, the meaning of true cooperation is rarely recognised as an essential ingredient for the recipe of a successful compromise.

Attitudes during negotiations reflect, almost invariably, the real power relationships that exist, and, the willingness to compromise meaningfully is, often, blatantly absent, when stalling or diversionary tactics are in the interest of the more powerful party. The attitude of true compromise is, then, absent, because the real need and significance of the act of compromise has not been recognised, and, the process of negotiation has then reverted, in essence, to a power-struggle.

We agree about the need to cooperate, but, we we have a tendency to pay only lip-service to a fashionable creed, while our attitudes reflect our silent convictions that we can still win. Again, we see, that the search for a human common denominator must have existential significance for all parties. If one party to a conflict still feels that it is preferable to opt for strife, peace is not possible, and, what is more important, injustice is re-born, again and again, perpetuating the cycle of violence, suffering and misery.

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Chapter 2

Content

Identity and essence in the search for meaning of human existence.
Motivations for the search.
Methods of identification.
The need for mutual familiarity.

The search for the essence and identity of the human being has been around for a long time, and, this indicates that we all need to find a satisfying meaning for our existence. Even long before man came to the conclusion, that, most human misery was a result of conflict, strife and warfare, man has searched, often rather desperately, to find a measure of meaning in his existence, and, in particular, he has tried to find a meaning for his experience of suffering. Yet, in times of affluence and comfort, man forgets all he has learned, and he has a tendency to throw-away, with reckless abandonment, the thoughts of previous generations.

The motivation to search for our essence and identity can be found in man's needs to understand himself, and, to give a purpose to his existence in the world. We want to know, what life is all about, and, why it exists, and, we want to know, why we exist the way we do, and, why we can think and ask questions. Occasionally, we feel a sense of wonderment and awe, whenever we realise how little we really understand, and, this feeling lies at the root of all our efforts to orient ourselves in the sphere of our awarenesses.

If I ask myself, what I am, it is clear, that I am searching for an answer, or an idea, that grasps the essential quality which makes me a human being, but, when I ask the question "who am I", I ask for a definition that sets me apart from the other people around me. Yet, any definition of "me" turns-out to be a relationship with others within the social environment I live in. It is rare, indeed, to define ourselves in relation to a globally existing human species, because most of our concerns and powers of imagination cease to appear of any importance, whenever we reach the limits of our cultural or social horizons.

The questions we posed in the previous paragraph, formulate, therefore, quite well, our search for the essence and identity of being human, and, we have discussed the reasons, why a definition may lose its relevance, if we try to relate our essence to an area beyond the realm of our concerns, or, if we differentiate ourselves to a level of triviality, indicating, that it is beyond that which has meaning. Therefore, we limit ourselves to the common aspects of those we know, when we try to define who we are. We define ourselves, either by cultural identification, or as an individual personality who is somewhat different from the others.

We define ourselves by simultaneously stressing the characteristics we share with the other members of our community, as well as by emphasising the differences of the people within this community. Yet, we differentiate ourselves only to the extent that is necessary to make it possible for the person or group we are communicating with, to determine or classify our existence in their conceptual classification scheme. As an unknown person to the stranger, we identify ourselves, primarily, as a variant of an entity that is known to the stranger.

Perhaps, you will object to the attempt to equate the identification of an individual in relation to his social environment, with a search for understanding and meaning, or, as an adequate response to the feeling of utter ignorance we are sometimes aware of. It is true, that, in a sophisticated awareness-sphere, we are able to relate to a much larger field or area of concern than we are exposed to in ordinary social circumstances. However, we have to realise, that it is our appreciation of a large field of scientific and religious concepts, which gives us the impetus to see ourselves in such a broad relationship. Early man could only relate himself to the society he knew, as well as to the sphere of religious images and concepts his culture had developed.

As a general principle, we may say, therefore, that our identity has to refer to a commonly understood basis of knowledge or awareness, but this basis of knowledge and insight is variable, and it depends entirely upon the common features that are present between those who are communicating. This common basis of knowledge does not reflect, in any way, the essence of our humanity.

The mechanisms of contact between strangers may, indeed, go much further than a mere identification of each other. After we have placed each other in our respective frames of reference, we may want to explore each other's behaviour, motivations and goal-patterns. This is a difficult and, sometimes, hazardous process, because a lack of common knowledge or familiarity with each other will make both sides suspicious and defensive.

Indeed, to an intelligent observer, the encounter between strangers reveals, most clearly, the complex motivations and contrasting impulses that guide human behaviour. At any time during the encounter, the attitudes between the individuals or groups trying to get to know each other, may polarise into hostility, or, these attitudes and relationships may turn into friendship. If both parties are genuinely willing to trust each other and to treat each other as equals with a legitimate claim to respect and independence, we are often surprised, how quickly total strangers find a way to communicate with each other and to discover the many interests they have in common.

Yet, if someone or some group tries to use the knowledge it has acquired about the others to dominate or exploit, we can be sure, that, soon, this opportunism will be discovered. The stage is then set for a souring of relationships. From an early stage in human interactions, a certain code of behaviour has been developed in order to regulate the contacts and explorations between strangers. Deceit and opportunism have always been recognised as loathesome behaviour, but, even, in our world of contemporary international diplomacy, where nations approach each other as cautious strangers, most national leaderships still fail to recognise the repercussions of an attitude of mistrust and a blatant opportunism, as we see in activities of spying, which are hidden under the cloak of diplomatic immunity and are carried-out under the deceptive concepts of national interests and internal security.

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Chapter 3

Content

Life, a chance-happening.
Human goal-patterns.
Goal-directedness in relation to the purpose of life.
Some aspects of biochemical evolution.
Mobility and the local environment.
Stimulus-recognition and the range of response-patterns.

The questions "who and what am I" are answered, initially, in social terms, but, now, we should turn our search for human essence and identity to the broader reality perceptions that are possible for contemporary human beings. The search for the meaning of life is, essentially, a search for the purpose of human existence. While the patterns of our own experiences indicate the presence of a never-ending network of goals and objectives, we seem to get an ever more convincing imagery from our scientific observations, which lets us see the existence of life purely as a "possibility of existence".

If is still difficult for us to grasp the essence of life as a process that explores, blindly, the possibilities of existence; an existence, made possible by the fortuitous concurrence of many physical factors on our planet. Life developed quite early in its search for continued viability a goal-oriented pattern of behaviour. The human being in particular, developed an extensive network of goal-patterns with many and varied levels of complexity, occasionally spanning an enormous period of time. It is clear that most of us are engaged in a type of behaviour that is oriented upon some sort of goal or purpose.

Even, if we relax, do nothing, take things as they come, we have to orient our behaviour purposefully towards a goal of "doing nothing". For a while, we have to relax, consciously, spending some effort to relax. Even those of us, who drift from situation to situation, from one experience to the next, do not reflect a complete absence of goal-directed behaviour. Often, there is a great profusion of goals, dreams and aspirations, and, the drifting of such an individual reflects, primarily, a lack of perseverance and tenacity to see a goal to fruition. The goal-patterns are too strongly coloured by wishful thinking and irrealistic expectations to become useful guidance-patterns for a behaviour in the sphere of reality.

Let us not consider, at this point, whether goal-patterns are primarily used to accomplish something, or become, merely, beacons for the bundling of our vital energies. If we concentrate on the fact, that we can not organise our emotions and thought-patterns without being aware of some sort of goal, either as an organiser for our "real" behaviour, or as a scaffold for our dreams, we see, that this orientation towards a goal is such a basic aspect of our experience-world, that we have great difficulties accepting as a viable concept the essential blindness or randomness of life's search for possiblities of existence.

We have mentioned this blind search for "possibilities of existence" now several times, but is such a view-point correct? It seems, that this conclusion may well be erroneous. If all life-forms live their lives in a behaviour that is oriented around goals, why would the existence of the life-form itself not be determined by an overall goal-pattern of nature? How do we come to the conclusion that the life processes are merely "possibilities of existence", given by fortuitous terrestial circumstances, and, how do we account for the fact, that the behaviour of these life-forms, (apparently products of chance), is so strongly focussed upon goals? Is this not an untenable contradiction that requires careful scrutiny and analysis, before it can receive any credibility?

The reasonableness of the view-point that life is, essentially, an expression of a possibility of existence, (which has been made possible by a fortuitous range of physical conditions on the early earth), has been discussed before, and forms the core for our understanding of the evolutionary theory. Let us by-pass at this point, a recapitulation of these arguments, and, let us concentrate on the reasons, why the behaviour-patterns of the animal kingdom, and, especially, the behaviour of human beings has become organised into ever more complex goal-patterns. We have discussed these developments also extensively before, but, it is important, in view of our attempts to find the reasons for our motivations behind a search for the meaning of life, to recall, briefly, the development of the animal organism.

We have discussed the idea, that biochemical reactions form the basis for the complex entity of the living cell, and, we have discussed the fact, that these biochemical reactions occur whenever possible, according to the energy-gradients acting upon them. The possibilities of existence for these biochemical substances and the energy-gradients to which they are subjected, are determined by the range of physical conditions in which these chemical reactions take place. When the biochemical complexes found a way to "move" protoplasm, and, later, to move specialised muscle-tissues, the living organism, (first the single cell and, later, the multi-cellular animal), had discovered an additional dimension to enhance its viability or possibility of existence. The organism could now move towards a beneficial circumstance or stimulus, and, it could move away from a situation that could or would be harmful.

This mechanism is a powerful adaptative response in the search for the quality of viability, because the life-form can now move with the changing circumstances in an effort to cling, as long as possible, to a favourable situation. We see this same principle in the migration of birds, herds of browsing or grazing animals, or schools of fish, whereby the mobility of the life-forms adds an extra dimension of existence possibilities. The mechanisms of viability are taken-out of the particular locale in which the life-form happens to be. Now, the life-form can search for a new, more favourable locale, while life-forms without the ability to move, (all vegetative organisms), have to seek their viability strictly within the particular locale of their existence. The fact, that, surviving life-forms are a mixture of plants and animals, indicates, that both these fundamentally different forms of living existence have their advantages and disadvantages.

In the earliest phase of the development towards mobility, the discrimination between a beneficial or harmful stimulus results in a simple positive or negative response, initiating an advancing or retreating movement, but, in the complex animals, this response becomes enormously elaborated. This elaboration takes two forms; motoric responses become increasingly complex and more sophisticated, ranging from swimming to creeping, crawling, running and walking to the flight of birds and insects.

On the other hand, the discriminatory range of an animal is amplified by the evolution of specialised receptors for a specific range of stimuli, e.g., vision, hearing, smell, together with a variety of tactile stimuli and their modifications. In this way, the simple positive-negative response evolved into a complex pattern of behavioural responses, where we see a indescribable variety of intricate inter-actions between the animal and its environment, as it seeks to maintain and perpetuate its existence. These mechanisms are so complex, that we have only just begun to understand some of the finer details of the behaviour of hunting, fighting, fleeing, mating, seeking shelter and protection, as well as giving care and protection to the young and the weaker members of a social entity.

Once a life-form has chosen the route of mobility in the search for viability, the road is virtually irreversible, because this type of life-form loses, very early in its evolutionary history, the ability to synthesise its own food requirements. Photo-synthesis is lost, and, the life-form is now committed to obtain its food by capturing or utilising other life-forms. This commitment lies at the foundation of the ever more sophisticated development of motoric and sensory capabilities, and, the entire realm of the central nervous system developed under the force-fields of natural selection as a result of the need to meet these continuing challenges of viability.

The human species is a direct heir to this pathway of evolutionary developments, but, we represent a very special branch of animal life, where nature started to experiment with the viability of increasing the flexibility of an animal organism in order to make a finely tuned and most appropriate response possible. Last, but not least, the human species explored the possibilities of conscious awareness and verbal communication, given by the evolution of the ability to symbolically represent sense impressions; a development, which led to a large variety of verbalisable and communicable awarenesses and experiences.

A motivation is a set of conditions or circumstances we recognise, consciously or subconsciously, as an important and significant goal we should strife for, and, this objective becomes, then, a guidance-pattern for the organisation of our behaviour. These behaviour-patterns may become extremely complicated, whenever numerous goals are interwoven into a network of short-term and intermediate objectives. Distant or long-term goals are frequently translated into smaller and more easily solved intermediate goals and tasks.

This, in a nutshell, is the essence of our biological background, and it should give us, at least, a feeling for the reasons, why the human being is so pre-occupied with a large variety of goals and goal-directed behaviour-patterns, which are modeled upon even more vaguely delineated objectives, aspirations and dreams. Yet, this type of existence is entirely a result of our animal or biological heritage.

With our animal heritage, we have to secure our viability by an ever more complex form of mobility, and, this translates into an awareness of the need to plan ahead, anticipate, and concentrate upon a particular objective, as we learn to understand the flow of events around us. We have discovered, that we are the species, par excellence, which has found its viability in the exploration of belief-oriented and goal-directed behaviour-patterns, but, we should not conclude, that the existence of the living organisation of matter, or, the existence of the human species itself, is the result of a specific, goal-oriented force.

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Chapter 4

Content

The awareness of death.
Continuation of the gene-pool as the biological purpose of life.
Actualisation of the gene-pool.
Experience and awareness, seen as a function of actualisation.
The sense of justice and its importance in shaping belief structures.
The experience of suffering, seen as a displacement from a comfortable equilibrium.
Belief structures are an aid to adapt to stress.

For the thoughtful and reflective individual, the awareness, that we all have to die, and, that we are likely to suffer disease, decay, oppression and injustice before we finally depart, has made it very difficult to be satisfied with a concept of biological survival as the ultimate meaning of human existence.

Actually, the biological goal is even harsher and more difficult to accept, because the meaning of individual life seems to be limited to the role of a link in the chain of generations. The gene-pool of a species is the ultimate goal of biological survival, but, the gene-pool itself is not the recipient of conscious awarenesses or painful experiences. Conscious awareness is the prerogative of "actualised" human beings, who are an actualised or fully unfolded form of a specific genetic blue-print, and, who function in the reality of the world of living existence. These actualised, actually living members of a species carry, not only, the gene-pool within them, but, they are the sole bearers of viability, because they function in the crucial role of being a bridge between the previous and the next generations.

The actually existing individual members of mankind are the thinking, reflecting "repositories" of human experiences, and, the concurrence of individualisation and reflective activities makes it difficult to recognise the importance of species survival. Individual survival is biologically only important, as long as the individual is still engaged in activities securing the survival of the next generations.

We find ourselves existing somewhere on earth, as one individual example of such an actualised existence possibility of the gene-pool. We exist, somewhere, as a miniscule fragment of a larger social environment with its unoverseeable web of cultural guidelines, and, we find ourselves, slowly, becoming aware of our existence, including our ability to think. We start to wonder about the ultimate meaning of this existence of ourselves, and, only much later, we realise, that the discovery of this "self", this wondering and pondering ego, which is torn between so many conflicting impulses, trends and beliefs, is a quality of experience we share with nearly everyone else.

Because our own search for viability, or possibilities of existence, has to make use of a complex, goal-oriented organisation of our reality perceptions, we extra-polate an ultimate reason for our own existence, and, we have to construct a logical system of explanations in order to soothe our ever-questioning sense of justice. Perhaps, an affront to our sense of justice is, indeed, one of the most difficult experiences to accept, because our sense of reason and justice is invariable violated, on several occasions, during our growth to maturity.

We are thoroughly wounded and hurt, confused and dumb-founded, if we see, that, justice and decency, order and predictability, are crashing-down during crisis-periods in our life, or, during a crisis taking place in our social surroundings. Our reflective and re-evaluating instincts are motivated, most powerfully, as we cry for help in our efforts to understand what is happening to us and our social environment. It is not surprising, that man finds, time and again, his ultimate sense of reality in the belief in, and acceptance of, an All-Loving God. Time and again, we come to the emotional conclusion, that there must be a reason for the suffering we undergo as a result of our wounded sense of justice. It can not be, that this terrible existence is, not only, meaningless and unimportant to others, but, may be essentially futile and would not have to take place at all, if we had the insight to understand and anticipate human nature better.

We have a difficult time realising, how much we contributed ourselves to the causes of sufferings, and, it is so difficult to see, clearly, to what extent our actions, hopes, aspirations and goal-patterns have led us into this situation, where the pressures upon our physical and mental integrity have been greatly increased.

Even more difficult is the realisation, that, in reality, all suffering is purely a personal, individual experience of stress, which may be completely irrelevant to our neighbours, in spite of the fact, that, occasionally, a whole community may suffer from a severe and stressful displacement force. These stresses are sometimes impersonal accidents of nature, which we failed to anticipate adequately, but, they are, most often, the result of our defeat in a conflict situation. Suffering is a measure of the resistance we are able to put-up against the forces of stress, and, the more intensely we cling to our positions and privileges, the more forceful and painful will we experience this force that is displacing us from a comfortable equilibrium.

It is logical, and, even, unavoidable, that man's reality perceptions have always been coloured, very strongly, by his attempts to cope with stressful experiences, but the time has come to understand, more clearly, to what extent our reality perceptions are cloured by these subconscious or emotional needs. We have, now, a great deal of evidence to show us, that such an emotionally or existentially coloured reality perception has a limited usefulness in our attempts to grasp human reality on a global scale of validity, because an existential reality perception tends to emphasise an attitude of self-righteous egocentrism, as well as a blanket condemnation of the evil "alien" who is considered to be the reason for our stress and suffering. We still have to realise, more fully, how we use emotionally coloured reality perceptions as a crutch in our struggle for survival, and, we still have to acknowledge, how we confuse the concepts of understanding with the ability to withstand stress.

As long as we remain strongly dependent upon the need to construct a belief structure that will help us cope with stress, our beliefs and structures of explanation and understanding will, necessarily, reflect, to a very large extent, these ego-centric and socio-centric qualities.

Because such a belief structure is geared, at least, subconsciously, to cope with our particular experiences of stress, its validity will remain personal, or, at least, its validity will be restricted to a particular community. If, however, we acknowledge the need for a belief structure that has a truly global significance and appeal, we can not expect it to be, at the same time, a very useful tool for personal stress-adaptations.

We have always had difficulties understanding, that, even in our tolerant attitudes and generous moods, we have a tendency to translate our altruistic feelings into acts that are essentially egocentric in nature. We do good, feel socially responsible, are helpful, and, we are good members of the community in ways that suit us best and make us acceptable, and, as a result, we are jockeying for a good "ego position", while we believe to be such good members of our social environment.

This is an aside, but it has a great deal of relevance for this fundamental concept; nl., that our belief structures, as well as our reflective searches for the truth and the meaning of life, are, essentially motivated by a desire to grasp reality in such a way, that we can cope, effectively, with the stresses and strains reality throws at us. In essence, we want to understand ourselves, our nature, mankind, the Universe, etc., because, by understanding, we are formulating and shaping a highly refined, sophisticated and powerful belief structure that will give us many advantages to cope with stress, doubts and conflict-situations. Such an ability to cope with stress enhances our viability, even, if we do not seek to exploit this viability in competition with others.

The search for answers to questions about the meaning of life leads us into a morass of stress-adaptations. These are forms of behaviour, rather than forms of truths, but, in understanding the motivation for our search into the meaning of our existence, we may start to enlarge our sphere of comprehension and the depth of our ability to recognise, which will show us, in turn, the many similiarities that exist between people.

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Chapter 5

Content

The requirements of intellectual honesty.
Questions of absolute reliability.
Ecstatic happiness.
The suppression of existential warning signals.
Various forms of harmonisation.
The natural use of impulse-suppression.
Drugs, and the need to suppress anxieties.
Non-ethical mysticism and personal ecstasy.

We have come back to the concepts of essence and identity in human existence, and, we have seen, that, at least, to some extent, the way we formulate our thoughts and conclusions is dictated by the need to cope with existential pressures. We search for strength of character, but, at the same time, we would not bother to search so long, if a simple mechanism of stress-adaptation would really be all we were looking for.

We have to be intellectually honest and examine, scrupulously, all doubts. We have to question, boldly, all questions of validity, and, this reflects our need to really and truly believe, wholeheartedly, in our eventual conclusions. The increasing availability of all kinds of information, including the scientific imagery of biological evolution, makes it, once more, imperative that we search for the essence and identity of human life and its many awarenesses. We search with the objective to synthesise all this imagery into a satisfying and challenging perception of reality.

What can we learn? What can we really know? What can we truly believe, or, will we always have the nagging doubt, that, whatever I happen to believe to be true, may be perceived as untrue or completely erroneous by someone else; that an opposite point of view may be perceived with a similar degree of validity and fervor, as I believe in the absolute validity of my particular truth? Can we really expect to ever have a belief structure that will give us the genuine quality, or conviction, of an absolutely reliable truth, or, will we inevitably deceive ourselves, and, will we have fallen prey, once again, to our illusions; a hopeful dream, that is, at the same time, so often a source of friction, strife and death?

Let us not pursue, at this time, the merits and problems associated with relativistic conclusions, but, let us turn from the search for the meaning of life to this remarkable mental state, where we feel to have solved all our problems and questions; this remarkable state, where we are at peace with ourselves and the world. Let us analyse this remarkable state of happiness, which, often, lasts only for a few fleeting moments.

This mental state is difficult to obtain, and, it is even more difficult to communicate, because it is, after all, not based upon the grasp of a coherent framework of thought. It is an emotion. It is a powerful and profound feeling. This feeling is so strong, that it overpowers the perception of doubts and discrepancies. What is this? An illusion, a dream, an exotic abnormality? Is it the greatest delusion man can find, for which he is prepared to sacrifice so much? Is it another futile search for a true and absolute happiness, and, does it turn-out to be a false image; a fata morgana; a mirage, a bewildering of the senses, a smothering of our critical faculties, including the powers of reason?

It may well be, that these fleeting moments of ecstatic happiness are indeed abnormalities, because they do not seem to contribute to our viability, and, few people are able, or willing, to make the effort and the sacrifices necessary to obtain such a moment of ecstasy. The price paid is enormous, even, with the short-cut of a drug-induced euphoria, which leads to a physiological suppression of our critical faculties. Where, indeed, is the boundary between a drug-addiction, or, a drug-induced euphoria, and, the sense of harmony and happiness that flows from the congruence between goal and achievement?

If the intellectual framework of our belief structures evolves from a frustrating chaos into a harmonious comprehension, we feel, naturally, a sense of elation and happiness, because the imagery of what we are, fuses, temporarily with the imagery of what we think we ought to be. If we accomplish such a fusion by the artificial and deceptive way of suppressing our faculties of self-criticism, rather than by the honest evaluation of an achievement, we are intellectually dishonest and a menace to our own existence.

Where is this boundary-line, or, are we talking about essentially the same status, which has been obtained by different means? In the drug-induced euphoria, we know, that this feeling of harmony is brought-about by a physical or physiological suppression of the anxiety-provoking, discriminatory faculties of the rational mind, and, a state of euphoria is obtained at the price of a significantly reduced viability, because we have lost important early warning systems that are designed to alert us in the face of danger. We obtain happiness by physically suppressing all these mental and neural functions of our early warning systems, which, normally, bring the focus of our attention to the existence of danger.

The ecstasy of the mystic, is, in essence, similar to the euphoria and oblivion induced by discrepancy-suppressive drugs, because the mystic will also suppress many function of the body and the mind by mental efforts, as well as a carefully cultivated set of attitudes and beliefs. This leads to a markedly reduced sensitivity to existential warning signals. This state is usually interpreted as a great triumph or virtuous achievement, rather than as an ignorant and defiant neglect of much needed physiological mechanisms.

The intellectual content of the belief structure of the mystic is narrow, and, it is kept deliberately narrow by excluding all disturbing thoughts and contacts with the environment. The combination of a purposeful suppression of biological reaction-patterns and a deliberate suppression of the intellectual faculties of critical reasoning, forges a unity of mind, body and natural surroundings, which forms the basis for this sensation of "mystic harmony".

Is it possible, you will ask, to obtain any sort of happiness and harmony without a measure of suppression of the faculties of critical evaluation? Is it possible to form a coherent belief or behavioural response, without some form of selection and suppression, especially, when we have to deal with a constant bombardment of our senses with chaotic and contradictory sense impressions?

Certainly, without any suppression at all, even, a routine functioning of our critically evaluating faculties would be impossible. However, we should be able to see, that it is now possible to harmonise, intellectually, a much larger pattern of knowledge, information, motivations, emotions and goal-patterns than is considered possible by our traditional opinions about human limitations. We should also be able to see, that, mystical harmony, or, the experience of mystical happiness, is a pseudo-solution in our search for happiness and peace of mind, leading us into great intellectual, emotional and existential difficulties.

There can be no doubt, that the use of a potent drug, capable of altering sense-impressions or mental functions, is, existentially, extremely dangerous, because it leads to severe alterations in our basic, behavioural responses, which have been shaped in the furnace of a search for viability over a prolonged period of time. An artificial reduction in tensions may be useful and justified to help an individual over a specific "rough spot" in life. However, it should be a deliberate and short-lasting therapy. It should be a concession to the idea, that it is only a temporary measure to reduce the experience of stress, and, that an individual who is treated medically in this way, is deliberately sheltered from the normal give and take of existential tensions. If a drug-induced euphoria becomes a goal in itself, (always present as the danger of addiction), viability is quickly lost.

The non-ethical mystic, with his self-centered search for his personal Beatific Vision, has a very limited role to play in contributing to society or the culture of mankind, because the egocentric exclusivity of his attitudes, together with the conceptually poorly delineated mental imagery can only serve as a tantalising beacon for the exceptional individualist, who is willing to identify him- or herself, blindly, with such a mysterious ideal. There are no answers for the community at large, and no existential questions are answered. There are no contributions to knowledge or thought. The fruits of mysticism are few, but, the phenomenon will, probably, always exert some fascination on people, who are searching and wondering about the essence and nature of human existence.

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Chapter 6

Content

Searching for the essential validity of human existence.
The harmony of knowing, feeling and being.
The need for harmonious concepts about life and death.
A review of the process of actualisation, or becoming.
The stage of maturity and intellectual prowess.
Death, and the concept of "bliss in nothingness".
The need for a relativistic approach.
Conceptual versus existential viability.

Let us turn our attention, then, to the individual who tries, naively and boldly, to live and work with a global framework of references. He participates in the human relations of his particular locale, but, he is also quite aware of the larger experiences and events of people all over the world. He has a rough grasp over the trends and happenings that are taking place all around him, and, he is able to see these trends as extra-polations of past events. He is seldom surprised or angered, but refrains also from a quick judgement and a facile condemnation.

In short, he is an individual, who tries to grasp the essential and recurring features of human behaviour. He tries to apply his insights from a generalised understanding of the nature of existence to the events as they unfold themselves, and, he is aware of the influences that colour his judgements with a local or parochial bias. If he is serious and works hard, he may achieve a level of understanding, as well as a sense of cohesion and harmony, surpassing, by far, the scope of any egocentrically oriented harmony, and, he may grasp the essence of human existence in a simultaneous view of growth, maturity and death.

If it not sufficient to see, only, the harmony of young people, reveling in the process of their actualisation, nor, should we look exclusively to the greater precision of awareness, which the mature individual is capable of with his ever sharper appreciation for the facts of existence. We have to consider, also, the harmony of those who are sick or dying, and those, who are acutely aware of the inevitable disintegration of body and mind. We have to understand the meaning of existence for those, who seem to sense the nearness of death; this final act of submitting ourselves, our awarenesses and our experiences, our hopes and expectations, into this ambiguous unknown of death and decay.

A harmony can only be a harmony, if we are able to synthesise these three vastly different stages of human existence into a framework of well-understood feelings and genuinely acceptable explanations or relationships. What good is it, to see, only, the pleasure of actualising our potential as the essence of human happiness, if we have not begun to take into account the inevitable limitations of our potential for growth? Then, we will have to change radically our concepts and adjust our ideas about happiness for the periods of maturity and decay.

What good is it to emphasise the gift of life, the exaltation of being, the pinnacle of human awareness, whenever we are at the summit of maturity and our powers to understand, if we still have to come to grips with the inevitability of our physical and mental decline, as well as the inexorable march of time towards our particular moment of final dissolution?

Only, if we are able to harmonise death with growth and maturity, will we be able to start building a truly persuasive and lasting framework for the comprehension of human essence. However, what good is it to deny all ambitions, growth and actualisation as shameful and irrelevant illusions, whenever we try to cope with the mystery of death? We frustrate our young, and, we stunt their growth and actualisation with such an attitude that makes only sense to the dying and the elderly. How can we worship the bliss of nothingness, if we experience, for most of our lives, the joy of becoming and the pleasures of existence and understanding?

We can not limit the framework of our understanding to a specific, stage-related scheme of existential needs or circumstances. We will have to work-out a relativistic point of view that is applicable to all stages of our life-cycle, but, let me repeat the warning made before; a greater universality or applicability of our understanding of human essence, will have to be paid-for by an apparent increase in the difficulties applying this understanding to our particular circumstances of existence, because we will have to work without this tacit indulgence and sacred egocentricity, which comes with a comforting local culture and a personalised belief structure.

Is it possible to develop a truly universal image of human essence and happiness? It seems, that, every attempt into this direction undermines the basic and biologically given foundation of egocentrically oriented reality perceptions, and, we may well ask ourselves, whether such attempts are doomed to remain utopian pipe-dreams. We have to examine and explore these questions, before we can answer them, and, we certainly can not guarantee success.

We may come to startling, and, probably, temporary conclusions, as we explore the possibilities of viability in an ever changing mixture of egocentric and altruistic attitudes. Let us remember, that we are exploring conceptual possibilities of existence, where we test the viability of ideas, and not the viability of human beings. Rest assured, therefore, that man will relinquish an idea, quickly, if it leads indeed to harm, in spite of the fact, that, on occasion, an idea may lead to severely detrimental results, (seen in retrospect, of course), when the consequences of certain tenaciously held ideas were not appreciated in time.

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Chapter 7

Content

Growth in universality versus a decline in egocentric usefulness.
Fluctuating levels of social integration.
The need to continue the search for meaning.
Fruits, seen as by-products only?
The need for a belief in the solubility of the problem of finding meaning.
The multi-facetted aspects of personal happiness.
A statement of universal well-being.
Globalism, and the difficulties associated with accepting a global outlook on human existence.
Intellectual synchrony.

We should go back to the statement, that a greater degree of universality in the concepts of human essence and fulfilment will, necessarily, result in a lessened attractiveness and relevance of such beliefs and attitudes for solving our particular problems. This trade-off is probably self-evident, but, let us elaborate these results for a moment. If we define happiness as the process of fulfilling goals, drives or ambitions, we can easily appreciate the warm glow of satisfaction that comes with success, but, we also know, that, sooner or later, our efforts run into difficulties. We know, that, sooner or later, we have to compromise, and, we may well ask ourselves, why this process of self-actualisation, which is so important for the growth to maturity of any individual, can not remain the basis for our experiences of happiness.

We have to accept, at some time in the future, that we have failed to achieve our objectives, and, the recognition of short-comings and mistakes, of insurmountable obstacles and missed chances, force us to modify our attitudes and ideas about being happy and content. We have to change from an attitude, where we simply enjoy the unfolding of our capabilities, to an attitude, where we realistically acknowledge our failures and frailties, as well as the inevitability of decline and death.

An important source of failure is the resistance we will encounter from our human environment, as soon as our ambitions start to collide with the wishes and aspirations of others. Then, we are forced to recognise, that, a principle of operation, based upon competition or, even, strife, can not function as a meaningful guide to measure the essence of human happiness. The glory of self-actualisation has, therefore, only value for me, and, perhaps, my closest relatives, but, it may be a source of frustrations, anger or injustice to countless others.

Most of us know this fact of life intuitively. We acknowledge it as a matter of fact, and, we are then inclined to transpose the principle of essence and happiness to becoming an integral part of a social environment. We have described the remarkable feelings of mutual trust and interdependence that are generated by a successful integration into a social grouping, and, there can be little doubt, that this type of existence is, for most people, the intuitively felt and acknowledged goal of fulfilment.

However, many problems remain. At any time, we may come to the conclusion, or, we may have the actual experience, that the communal goal-pattern is not entirely satisfactory, and, we start to lose faith in the absolute and unquestioned righteousness of the community, or country, we belong to. We may start to see elements of injustice in the social relationships of the group we belong to, or, we may feel, that the communally sanctioned attitudes and beliefs constitute an injustice towards other communities or individual people. We may, suddenly, recognise, that our attitudes towards those who are considered to be outsiders or strangers, are nothing more than primitive communal forms of aggression, where we look, collectively, for a target to vent our hostilities and feelings of resentment.

Questions arise anew, and the process of individualisation, the emergence of an individually thinking and reflecting human being, is, often, associated with a reluctant and painful process of re-evaluation. To feel completely happy by integrating with a community, implies, by definition, that one has to identify oneself, completely, with the goals and aspirations of this community, but, this state of complete conformity is often transient. In order to retain this total commitment to, and conformity with, a particular community, feelings and observations that are indicating discrepancies, will have to be suppressed, and, this act of suppression gives rise to slowly rising tensions and frustrations, which may suddenly erupt into intense doubts and questions, shattering the harmony of integration and happiness for which we have worked so hard.

We are back to the observation, that individual existence occurs against a background of ever varying relationships. These relationships drift back and forth between the opposing trends towards social integration and individual differentiation. Neither one, nor the other, can be followed exclusively, and the experience of these irrevocable tensions, is baffling and frustrating.

We may, eventually, reach a stable point of balance between these trends. We may reach a fortunate level of integration of these complex and contradictory force-fields acting upon our personality; such as the vague drives of our ego and the pressures of conformity, the vague emotions and motivations that seem to surface haphazardly in the turmoil of our existence, as well as the numerous intellectual questions about the purpose of existence. This balance is, however, an adaptative response that, rarely, lets us reach a harmonious feeling of unity, and, most of us accept the idea, that our search for a complete and enduring harmony is an illusion, not worth all the trouble and turmoil we are experiencing in the vain search for such a happy existence.

And yet, we also know, that man can not really abandon the hope of obtaining happiness either, and, we see, in all civilisations, throughout recorded history, man's continuing efforts to find meaning and happiness. Without this search, based upon a dark but persistent motivation, our culture and our thoughts would be so unimaginably impoverished, that we would hardly recognise and utilise our abilities to express and communicate our conscious awarenesses.

Is the value of true happiness, the ultimate source of harmony, then, only to be found in the constant search for this elusive goal? Is the existential value for the individual and his social environment, then, solely confined to the activities and efforts of man's search? Can we really accept the fact, that this goal is totally elusive, and, can we really accept the notion, that, only the efforts of this search are meaningful, as we can see in the artistic, scientific and philosophic accomplishments of the human mind?

Not really, because any tacit or explicit acceptance of the belief that the goal of true happiness is, essentially, an illusion, would result in a loss of effort, as well as a loss of the motivation to search, seriously, for this goal. We have to believe, at least, in a strongly emotional and existential sense, that our efforts are not in vain, and, that they are not hopeless. We must believe, that, somehow, somewhere, we may obtain a state of true happiness.

Besides, we know from the recorded testimony of other people, or, from personal experience, that many people have reached this goal and testified to have found true, lasting happiness. These people have become a powerful and persuasive beacon and landmark for others, who are still searching for the meaning of their existence. The fact, that, no two forms of happiness seem to be identical, is, usually, less disturbing to the ardent and emotionally driven seeker, than it is for the quietly reflective, philosophically inclined individual, who faces the task to reconcile the many varying faces of "true happiness" with an effort to find a truly universal validity for human existence.

As an outsider, we are often cynical when confronted with the testimony of a truly happy individual, because we can not ignore the obvious personal validity of a particular view-point or attitude. We are all too aware of the inconsistencies and intellectual difficulties that remain unanswered, when an individual radiates happiness, belief, or an unshakeable faith in an Absolute Truth. Happiness is, too often, narrowly simplistic and irritating in its callous disregard for huge areas of concern. Happiness can make us sick with disgust and frustration, and, it makes us sad to see a simplistic happiness close the door to a deeper understanding.

What, then, are we looking for? We are searching for a mode of existence, where each human being receives the birth-right of adequate food, shelter, education and stimulating opportunities to experience the satisfying feelings associated with the development of some of our potentials. At the same time, each individual learns, that, during his period of vigorous maturity, he will have the responsibility, as well as the obligation, to carry the burden of the search for continuing human viability on a global scale.

In other words; the mature adult makes it possible for the younger generations to receive their birth-right, just as he received his when he was young. During the period of slow decline and incipient old-age, the human being has a right to a modestly comfortable and relatively stress-free, unobtrusive existence, as he is given a second chance to develop a few latent potentials. This time, the emphasis is not so much on the potential of specific activities, but on the potential of generalised insights, broad perspectives and a compassionate understanding. This is the only way to avoid a recurrence of competitive strife and incidences of injustice, but it still does not explain, how we can integrate the inevitability of death in our equation of a balanced fulfilment.

We can accept death and dissolution into a state of non-existence, only, if we have learned to accept the fact, that the meaning of our existence becomes separate from our instinct to cling to life. If we can feel a genuine satisfaction with the life-span we have been given, it is not so difficult to say good-bye to life, when the time has come to do so, but, if we have deeply encrusted frustrations and resentments that keep nudging us to search for new possibilities of egocentric satisfaction and fulfilment, we will never acquire the attitude that we have had a good life. It is so difficult to accept death, if we feel that life has treated us unjustly.

We keep running into difficulties with our ideas about the possibility to find a truly universal human happiness, unless we agree, that we should allow all human beings an equal right to existence, as well as an equal opportunity to unfold potentials; within the confines of what is socially acceptable and individually possible. When we are becoming an individually thinking and feeling human being, we become aware of our uniqueness and our value, but, we also become aware of the fact, that we have been given only one chance to become and behave as an individual. We have to recognise, that we have been given this opportunity and security as a birth-right to celebrate our coming into the world of actualised human existence, but, we also have to recognise the temporary nature of the gift of life.

Utopian nonsense, you will say, and, I agree, that not one social environment will welcome such an idea, at this time, because this form of global identification runs counter to the interests of each and every social entity. Indeed, such such an attitude of globalism will easily be rejected, intellectually, as well as emotionally, because it negates the principle of patriotism or localised loyalty. Many societies will feel uncomfortable and threatened by an attitude of global allegiance, because a society can not count, anymore, on the unswerving devotion of its patriotic citizens.

Globalism as a practical attitude will remain, therefore, an intellectual excercise for a few like-minded people, until many more people in the major, contemporary societies have identified with this kind of idealism. Interestingly, ordinary people in their natural social surroundings are more inclined to accept globalism as a practical attitude than their egocentric and territorial leaders, who will remain uneasy about the prospect of losing their sovereign leadership positions. However, the practice of global cooperation has become already widespread and well-accepted, and, it should be possible, in the next few decades, for large groups of people, all over the world, to cultivate a globalistic and relativistic ideology. This may lead to a beneficial blurring of national and racial sentiments, and, it will allow a gradual merger of cultural characteristics, facilitating, in turn, a mutual recognition on a much wider scale.

Yet, you may well object, that, a deliberate, slow and conscious integration of people into an ever greater degree of interdependence, may not necessarily lead to an experience of happiness or fulfilment on a global scale. Certainly, any trend towards global integration has to secure scrupulous standards of justice, equality and openness, in order to foster the attitudes of mutual trust and mute the ever vigilant sentiments of suspicion. Once we have fused into a single, global culture, we may be able to educate our children in such a way, that they understand what it takes to avoid the mechanisms of social decline and decay.

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Chapter 8

Content

Cohesion of the small society.
Future generations and the struggle to stay alive.
Future happiness may reflect a condition of existence now taken for granted

However, we do not live in a standardised, global culture as yet, but, we know, that people have found, on occasion, a remarkable level of vitality and harmony within a localised culture. Inevitably, the period of vigorous expansionism of a viable cultural code was followed by decadence and decay, because the cultural images of understanding did not grasp the essence of the factors that led to viability and success. Similarly, we should not glibly assume, that a gobal society will be easy to bring-about or maintain, nor will it automatically guarantee a state of blissful co-existence. We may expect, however, a great deal of insight and awareness about the potentials and pitfalls of human existence, and, the relevance and usefulness of these insights will be tested, continuously, when applying these tools in the construction and maintenance of a state of global justice.

Will we not always have to struggle? Even, if we have out-grown the luxury of fighting with each other, we may have to struggle, ever more seriously, with the gradual deterioration of our environment. Will we be struggling in a state of blissful harmony in those last centuries of decaying human existence, or, will we revert back to savage and primitive instincts, as we try, desperately, to keep alive in the baffling chaos and pollution we inherited from previous generations? For those, struggling to stay alive, the search for an elusive global and universal happiness may seem a decadent waste of time and energy; a full belly and a safe place to rest our weary bones may, then, be the ultimate and biologically sound goals of absolute happiness. Do we indeed have to anticipate a mankind struggling to stay alive in the final deathrows of its polluted environment, shaking its head over the disastrous short-sightedness of past generations?

Perhaps, the image of true happiness will be the ability to see the sun clearly without an ever-present haze of smog, or, to see a plant or tree grow outside special areas that have become carefully protected reserves for the preservation of green plant-life. These are speculative images, of course, but, it may well be wise to keep these gloomy possibilities in mind. The potential exists for a truly global culture, with an unprecedented level of individualisation and harmonious integration for the members of a united mankind, but, it may arise with an acute awareness of the fact, that man has lost its privileged childhood. All human beings may, then, be faced with the never-ending task to watch, anxiously, the pollution monitors that are present everywhere, but, at the same time, the people of the future may understand us much better than we understand ourselves, at the present time.

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Chapter 9

Content

Relevance of old-age, sickness and death.
Justification by random chance; the wounded sense of justice.
A return of emotionally satisfying belief structures.
A review of intellectual capabilities during the stage of maturity.
The role of doubt.
The contradictions of giving thanks to the Lord after battle.
The finding of guilt; the cause of miscalculation.
Use and abuse of the sharpened intellect.
The belated fruits of doubt and reflection.

There is one more thought we have to explore. We have considered the happiness-feelings of the young who are actualising their potential, and, we have mentioned the acutely aware adult, who marvels at the wonder of existence, but, we have, as yet, to consider the relevance of the old and the sick, who are faced with death in the very near future. For those, the gift of life has soured into a continuous and painful struggle to stay alive, and, they realise, that the time has come to face the ultimate fate of all individualised human existence. We all have some idea what to expect, and, we may think about it, once in a while, during a reflective moment, but none of us can explain, convincingly, what death is going to be like.

We have discussed, in a previous essay, the physiological problems we encounter when trying to visualise a state of death, and, we have seen, how we give, inevitably, existence to the state of non-existence, just as we give existence to everything we think about. How can we avoid to give existence to a state of non-existence, when trying to conceptualise this state? We have developed a few ideas in relation to this fundamental biological dilemma, which may be helpful to keep in mind, when contemplating the ultimate fate of all life, as we know it.

However, there are many other, primarily emotional reasons, which make the acceptance of death difficult. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to conclude that it is always difficult for man to accept his death. The act of giving-up one's life, may, occasionally, be felt as a welcome relief from intolerable pressures and suffering, or, it may be considered a highly valued contribution to a Cause. In either case, we see an intellectual acceptance of the concept of death, and, there may be a lessening of the biological drive to cling to life as long as we can. Yet, this acceptance does not mean, that we have a clear concept of the nature of death.

Most of the time, we retain a vague notion, that we remain in existence in some essential or residual form, and, the religious imagery of most civilisations elaborate a rather explicit belief in such an existence after death. These beliefs are often helpful to justify the haphazard and irrational suffering that is being experienced on earth, and, it facilitates a restoration of the wounded sense of justice through a belief in a Divine Retribution on the Day of Judgement. This is, indeed, a powerful way to accept the haphazard fortunes and misfortunes of life. We have seen, before, how an ever greater emotional commitment to the truthfulness of such religious images, forms the basis for the moral fortitude and amazing courage which these religious beliefs are able to generate.

In the face of crumbling physical and intellectual powers, and, in the realisation that life is slowly slipping away, we see the final pay-off from an intellectually satisfying belief structure, because we see, then, the final return on an emotional investment we made in the reality of our beliefs. If we genuinely believe our Faith and our intellectual or conceptual structures, we will die in the reality of these beliefs, but, if we have been sloppy and careless about our belief structures, we will die with doubts and resentments, feeling, partly, a sense of anger for the injustices we have received, but, experiencing, also, a gnawing feeling of guilt, because we realise, vaguely, that we have, not only, been the recipient, but also, the cause of numerous incidences of injustice.

The prevalent religious belief structures function as a behavioural guide for all the members of society; the young and adolescents, as well as those, who have matured or are dying. During the period of growth and maturation, we lay the emotional foundation for our belief structures. The more we made a genuine effort to adhere to the precepts of our Faith, the more we feel justified in truly trusting the validity of these beliefs. However, we are always exposed to disturbing experiences that seem to contradict the imagery and precepts of our Faith, and, we have to evaluate and digest these experiences of discrepancy.

During the years of maturity, we begin to appreciate, more keenly, the fact that we exist, and, that our ability to think and reflect is at its peak. During this period, we should make the most serious efforts to construct an intellectually honest and comprehensive framework of reference for all our experiences and beliefs, and, it is during this time, that doubts and suspicions about the validity and truth of our cultural concepts, (including the religious imagery), present themselves most clearly to our mind. These doubts and questions have to be dealt with.

When we experience the confidence of a powerful mastery in skills and knowledge at the peak of maturity, we are tempted to disregard, at least, to some extent, the rigid moral and ethical precepts of our religious beliefs, and, the awareness of many social tensions, discrepancies and injustices, coupled with the many intellectual contradictions of our experiences, make this period a powerful stimulus for an intellectual re-evaluation of our beliefs for the sensitive and thoughtful individual.

It is doubt; doubt in the validity of our beliefs, and, doubt about the commitments to our Faith, which throws a stressful shadow over our feelings of comfortable security and certainty. Yet, in reacting to, or, trying to cope with, our feelings of doubt, we are participating, without fully realising it, in one of man's most essential and meaningful adaptative mechanisms. In trying to cope with doubt, we are doing nothing less than reconstructing a new or renewed and modified framework for our opinions, views, attitudes and sentiments, and, this enlarged reference-system may allow us to appreciate a much larger perspective, with a breath-taking and coherent view of our human realities.

While it may be quite comfortable to know, and solemnly believe, that my community has a special relationship with, or mandate from, our God, the inevitable confrontation with an opponent who proclaims to have a similar mandate, must be a sobering experience for anyone who cares to think for a moment. While we fight the heretic, the unbeliever, or the heathen infidel to the death, all for the glory of our God, we must be wondering, at times, who is right, and who is wrong. If we kill or destroy our enemy, our thanksgiving to the Lord must, at times, be mixed with a tinge of doubt, whether the chaos we created in the name of the Lord, does indeed please the Will of our All-Knowing and All-Loving God.

If we happen to be defeated, and, if we see our enemies raise the same prayers of thanks-giving to the God of their Faith, we must, indeed, wonder about the inscrutable ways of our God. Where is the truth? Where have we gone wrong? Where have we sinned, to deserve this fate and hardship? A scapegoat is easily found, but the act of collective atonement must be based on a clear and truly acceptable acknowledgement of a wrong-doing. Therefore, the more complex and explicit the rules and regulations of our religion are, the easier it is to find the reasons, where we went wrong, and, we see a remarkable endurance and viability of the religious guidelines that appear to be so irrelevant and trivial in their detailed ceremonial instructions.

Doubts will rise again, once we allow ourselves to question, even, the minutest details, and, the subconscious desire, and need, to hold-on to a valid instrument for stress-adaptation, makes it so difficult for us to decide, mostly intuitively, to what extent we will allow our doubts to scrutinise our religious or philosophical certainties.

Chronic stress is, indeed, a spur to thought and creative activity, but, this tension makes us laugh at the notion of finding an easy happiness. The chronic tensions and stresses of life make us look with suspicion at simple and naive structures of belief, because we know, how easy an apparent solution can create a whole new world of tensions, frictions and conflict.

We may wistfully envy those, who are simple and naive; who can find true happiness in their uncomplicated Faith, but, we know, also, that they pay a price for their naive optimism. Hardly do they realise, how their Faith may be battered by doubts and disbeliefs, if they are willing to learn. If not, they will have to isolate themselves from the rest of the world, becoming a center of prejudice and egocentric concerns; a source of problems and an embarrassment to many others.

Few of us can sustain the stress of doubt for a prolonged period of time, and, we all accept, eventually, some kind of certainty. If we take-over or absorb a belief from our social environment, without much thought or scrutiny, and with little regard for depth of understanding and compatibility with other beliefs, we merely adopt a set of poorly integrated opinions and prejudices.

Most of us can not hope to obtain a really original, personal and highly coherent belief structure, which we can manipulate with great virtuosity and confidence. Most of us will have to accept the beliefs, thoughts or questions which someone else has formulated, but, all of us can make an effort to think clearly, logically and coherently, and, we all have enough common-sense to investigate and unmask the most obvious falsehoods, insincerities and deliberate deceptions.

We can all be honest and logical within our means of understanding, but, this does not mean, that we have to have an impressive vocabulary or a great ability to quote other people. All we need, is a genuine willingness to make sense of the beliefs we are being asked to accept; to ask questions about the attitudes and privileges of other people, as well as ourselves; to think a little further ahead than the day of tomorrow. We can do this, and, we can all make a significant, if anonymous contribution to the world of human existence.

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Chapter 10

Content

A review.
The problem of intellectual honesty.
The need to believe in success.
The accomplishment of an intellectual belief structure.
The need for scepticism.
The outline of a road to success.

How does this all fit-in with our ideas and discussions about the search for harmony and happiness, and, how does the search for harmony and happiness relate to the question of human essence and identity? We have seen, that the motivation to search for happiness is based upon an attempt to reach emotional and intellectual harmony, resolving the tensions of discrepancies, as well as questions about the nature, meaning and destiny of human life. We have to find a place for these questions and their answers in a coherent framework of conceptual relationships, otherwise, they remain an unresolved source of tension, inner conflicts and doubts. We have also seen, that a perfect resolution of all tensions is, at the most, a temporary state of affairs, based, largely, upon the suppression of contradictory impulses, and, we know, that we have to work, at some stage in our lives, towards the construction of a coherent intellectual belief structure that is useful as a source of confidence and peace of mind.

Destiny, human nature, and the meaning of life are concepts that are usually answered by our religious beliefs, but, the credibility and viability of these beliefs depend upon the nature of our communal and individual experiences, as we live and work in our societies, and, these beliefs depend, also, upon the measure of success we have when interpreting our experiences in the light of our culturally inherited beliefs. When there are doubts, we see the results of a failure to interpret our experiences according to our culturally adopted beliefs, and, we experience, then, the need to re-evaluate our structures of beliefs. This is a painful and confusing process that leaves us vulnerable and under stress, but, this chronic stress of doubt may, occasionally, result in a psychological meta-morphosis that makes us a much more mature individual.

The concepts of happiness, essence, identity, destiny and nature remain, therefore, a mixture of pat answers and ready-made ideas from our social and cultural environments, but, they are coloured with individual variations and personalised notions, because of the discrepancies we experience between beliefs and experiences. The turmoil of doubt, as well as the effort of a search, may transform these vague notions into a full-bodied existence on their own, with an individualised set of characteristics.

The degree to which we commit ourselves to our beliefs, determines their rigidity, as well as the strength of our convictions. The need to rely heavily upon our beliefs varies somewhat throughout our life-cycle, but it is obviously accentuated in times of a crisis. Then, short-comings in our beliefs will show themselves, and, we have to separate the empty images and concepts from those we really believe in.

A philosophical search for more precise concepts about the identity, essence, meaning, destiny or purpose of life, will have some appeal for most people, provided, that they can be given a measure of self-confidence in their ability to think for themselves. We have to keep in mind, however, that the intellectual search can not become an end to itself, even, if the temptation to do so, is strong, whenever we experience this glow of confident self-respect and skillful mastery, whenever we are developing our conceptual and intellectual capabilities. We elevate the search to the status of a goal, and, we would revert back to an attitude where we revel in the process of actualising our potentials. There is nothing wrong with actualising our potentials, and, even, at an older age, this capability is present and useful to make us feel young again. However, we should recognise this process for what it is, and, we should not become blinded by the qualities of intellectual virtuosity and sophistry.

We should be more serious about finding a satisfying structure of beliefs, and, we have to search, honestly, for a belief structure we can place our trust in, and yet, a healthy dose of scepticism about the results of our efforts is a welcome antidote against taking ourselves too seriously, because we do not want to be victimised by superficial platitudes or useless syllogisms. We may still discover that our search for the meaning of life is a subconscious reflection of the way our personalities have been organised; where all our activities are guided by this strange combination of biological and cultural guidance-patterns, and, where our goal-patterns are arranged, and re-arranged, in an ever-changing web of complex possibilities of existence. By recognising these complex factors at work, we can make good use of this other strange mixture of influences; of goal-directedness on the one hand, and, the essentially blind search for possibilities of existence, on the other, because we need both concepts, if we want to trace a realistic image of human existence.

To see ourselves as an incidental possibility of human existence, fits-in with the observation that we find ourselves somewhere on this large and crowded planet. We find ourselves somewhere in relation to other people. The stimulus and impulse to develop a growing awareness of ourselves, is related to a subconscious search for greater understanding and a sense of harmony between cultural guidelines and personal experiences. If we have no difficulties accepting the reality perceptions of our social environment, and, if we have no difficulties reconciling our experiences with our beliefs, we would not need this ability to think for ourselves; belonging to society, yet, separate from other people.

Our essence lies, partly, in the shared relationships of our individual existence with other people, and, partly, in the identifiable uniqueness of our own existence. Our essence lies in the ever more important recognition, that our awarenesses, our consciousness, as well as our cultural guidelines are only tools to remain viable. We have to recognise the fact, that we need a global culture; a global sphere of concern and identification, in order to survive. Only in a globally acceptable framework of concepts, ideas and attitudes, will it be possible to communicate precisely and freely with each other, while we solve our existential problems and learn to penetrate, ever deeper, into the mystery of existence.

Parochial and local belief structures, based on the belief in a divine help or a divine mandate for a specific social entity, can only serve to accentuate the mechanisms of doubt, whenever more and more people realise, how naive and incongruous it is to believe in the existence of several divergent divine revelations. As long as we use our concepts about happiness, essence and destiny as a competitive tool in our struggle to take advantage of each other, we will have to re-learn, again and again, the nature and cause of human suffering. As long as we want happiness by clinging to a particularly favourable status-quo, we do not communicate with other people, nor do we understand them.

As long as we hold-on to the basic egocentricity of our motivations and drives, our view-points will reflect this egocentric orientation, and, we will not understand the recurring cycles of conflict, misery and death. As long as we search for a strongly emotional and exclusively individualistic experience of happiness, we will have little relevance for others, and, we remain targets for suspicion and hatred.

As long as we maintain our hope with attitudes of a religious understanding and an honest humility, we are trying to adapt to stress and maintain our existence along well-established, traditional lines, but, if we search for a philosophical meaning without a genuine expectation to find practical solutions to the problems of injustice and conflict, we enter upon a futile game of intellectual showmanship.

In the end, it comes all back upon the question, whether or not we want to accept compromises and believe in the necessity to eliminate strife, combat and ruthless competitiveness in order to find the ultimate viability of global cooperation and interdependence. As long as we behave, unthinkingly, according to our primary biological instincts, and, as long as we believe that progress is obtained by a continuation of the biological struggle for existence, we opt for the glory of conquest, at the price of inevitable decay and defeat, at some time in the future.

If we keep glorifying the right to actualise our own potentials, we may be suppressing the possibilities and potentials of others, and, we keep sowing the seeds of injustice, discontent and resentment. Only, if we are willing to acknowledge that the essence of human existence lies in the awareness of the haphazard insignificance of our own individual existence, as well as the similarities of everyone's biological drive to preserve this existence, only then, can we hope to understand and accept each other as equals. Only then, will we we have the insight to overcome the perpetually recurring temptation to exploit the environment beyond our needs, and, to exploit other people, whenever we see a chance to gain an advantage.

We have to come to grips with the ever-recurring temptation of opportunism and abuse of power. Only then, will we be able to construct, intellectually and emotionally, a framework of reality perceptions and Constitutional Guidelines that will transform humanity, finally, into a globally integrated unit of existence, where each one of us has been given the right, and the privilege, to experience an infinite variety of opportunities to unfold our talents and channel our energies. As we share privileges, so do we share responsibilities, and, we will experience undreamt of possibilities for individualisation within a framework of collective security on a global scale.

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Summary

1. Definition and analysis.
   Considerations about relevance.
   Shifting references.
   Viability requirements in the determination of categories.
   Varying degrees of differentiation and generalisation.
   Searching for a unique common denominator.
   Is a universal meaning for human life possible or relevant?
   Morality of the small group.
   Common denominators between human beings.
   The problems of common-sense; variability of meaning.
   Pitfalls in negotiations; the pseudo-compromise.
   
   
   
2. Identity and essence in the search for meaning of human existence.
   Motivations for the search.
   Methods of identification.
   The need for mutual familiarity.
   
   
   
3. Life, a chance-happening.
   Human goal-patterns.
   Goal-directedness in relation to the purpose of life.
   Some aspects of biochemical evolution.
   Mobility and the local environment.
   Stimulus-recognition and the range of response-patterns.
   
   
   
4. The awareness of death.
   Continuation of the gene-pool as the biological purpose of life.
   Actualisation of the gene-pool.
   Experience and awareness, seen as a function of actualisation.
   The sense of justice and its importance in shaping belief structures.
   The experience of suffering, seen as a displacement from a comfortable equilibrium.
   Belief structures are an aid to adapt to stress.
   
   
   
5. The requirements of intellectual honesty.
   Questions of absolute reliability.
   Ecstatic happiness.
   The suppression of existential warning signals.
   Various forms of harmonisation.
   The natural use of impulse-suppression.
   Drugs, and the need to suppress anxieties.
   Non-ethical mysticism and personal ecstasy.
   
   
   
6. Searching for the essential validity of human existence.
   The harmony of knowing, feeling and being.
   The need for harmonious concepts about life and death.
   A review of the process of actualisation, or becoming.
   The stage of maturity and intellectual prowess.
   Death, and the concept of "bliss in nothingness".
   The need for a relativistic approach.
   Conceptual versus existential viability.
   
   
   
7. Growth in universality versus a decline in egocentric usefulness.
   Fluctuating levels of social integration.
   The need to continue the search for meaning.
   Fruits, seen as by-products only?
   The need for a belief in the solubility of the problem of finding meaning.
   The multi-facetted aspects of personal happiness.
   A statement of universal well-being.
   Globalism, and the difficulties associated with accepting a global outlook on human existence.
   Intellectual synchrony.
   
   
   
8. Cohesion of the small society.
   Future generations and the struggle to stay alive.
   Future happiness may reflect a condition of existence now taken for granted.
   
   
   
9. Relevance of old-age, sickness and death.
   Justification by random chance; the wounded sense of justice.
   A return of emotionally satisfying belief structures.
   A review of intellectual capabilities during the stage of maturity.
   The role of doubt.
   The contradictions of giving thanks to the Lord after battle.
   The finding of guilt; the cause of miscalculation.
   Use and abuse of the sharpened intellect.
   The belated fruits of doubt and reflection.
   
   
   
10. A review.
    The problem of intellectual honesty.
    The need to believe in success.
    The accomplishment of an intellectual belief structure.
    The need for scepticism.
    The outline of a road to success.

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