Core Focus: A Higher Image of the Human Being

“We really 
know nothing about 
the nature of man, and 
unless we hurry to get to 
know ourselves we are 
in dangerous trouble.”

–Sir Laurens van der Post

“For our culture as a whole, nothing major is going to happen until we figure out who we are.”

–Huston Smith

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing oriented’ civilization to a ‘person oriented’ civilization.”

–Martin Luther King, Jr.


If there is one core problem with our modern civilization it is how we have come to think of ourselves — largely because of industrialization and the mass media that tell its story — as material entities, and consequently separate from one another and the rest of reality.  It is this vision that makes violence a reasonable way to get what we want — if you are separate from me why can’t I hurt you without hurting myself? — and an unavoidable necessity, as we are constantly dependent on diminishing external, material resources for our satisfaction.  Or so we think.

Today, both modern science and traditional wisdom have converged to tell a very different, much more inspiring and in the end much more hopeful story: We are spiritual beings, i.e. consciousness, inhabiting these miraculous bodies of ours; we are deeply interconnected with one another such that, as Martin Luther King said, “I cannot be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be; and you cannot be what you ought to be.”   And all that we need for our fulfillment is ultimately within us.  Violence is both unnecessary and unthinkable.

We at Metta applaud all attempts to confront the worst visible manifestations of our post-industrial system with nonviolent forms of resistance, but just as that system often has subtle manifestations that are quiet but very damaging (like the offhand decision in 1886 that a corporation is in effect a person), so we who would replace it with a far healthier vision and healthier life can introduce some subtle but far-reaching changes to complement powerfully our activism.  Of these, none would be more effective than this higher image of the human being.

Below are listed some examples of the ways that Metta engages with spiritual activism to raise the image of the human being (headlines i, ii, iii, and v below are links). 

I. How to Meditate  

 

II.5 Recommended Steps for Spiritual Activists 

III. The Meaning of Life and Nonviolence

 

IV: Courses in Spiritual Activism

 

 

V. Love Your Enemy 

 

 

VI. Publications

  • Our Spiritual Crisis 
  • Beyond Forgiveness: Reflections on Atonement 
  • Meditation for Peacemakers

 

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