The Human Condition

“Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman--a rope over an abyss.  A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting.  What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an over-going and a down-going.  I love those that know not how to live except as down-goers, for they are the over-goers.  I love the great despisers, because they are the great adorers, and arrows of longing for the other shore.  I love those who do not first seek a reason beyond the stars for going down and being sacrifices, but sacrifice themselves to the earth, that the earth of the Superman may hereafter arrive.”  - Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

When we face the moment in which we question our intentions in following a certain truth, our ego is at its most vulnerable point.  One of the most interesting dynamics in the human psyche is the clash between the lower and higher consciousness images of the self.  Our shared desire to better the future can guide us towards two equally strenuous paths.

The path to lower consciousness is often synonymous with self-doubt, while the path to higher consciousness can elevate one’s sense of self worth in a positive or negative way.  As such, both paths are intertwined with the construction of the ego, the self identity that dictates our expectations for how we should conduct ourselves.

Our expectations define the truth that we believe to be of importance.  If we really take a look inside ourselves, we’ll find that we all have our own “highest truth”, whether we know it or not.  The uncovering of this truth from the subconscious leads to, what I believe, to be one of the toughest questions in the human condition, “If this truth is not the ego, then what is it?”.

One of the traps that the ego constructs when pursuing the truth is the desire to be virtuous or noble.  I’ve found this to be true of myself as well; it is this imperfection that makes us human.  This often comes from the need for external validation, a need that masks any insecurities you might have.  The only way to overcome this mental barrier is to see how you share this “higher truth” with each and every other individual.

When we pass by the beggar on the street, we denounce them as being incapable of embodying this truth in their impoverished lives.  When we see the school shooter in the news, we find the convicted to be unworthy of experiencing this truth, for they are less than human.  When we look to religion and worship the messiah, the savior, we see them as being more capable of expressing the truth than us mere laymen, the ignorant, the unenlightened.  Yet, in the midst of all these projections upon those we see as the “other”, our “higher self” uncovers the curtain of false dichotomies.

So what is this “higher truth,” exactly?  One of the paradoxes of this is that this seemingly “certain” truth is unveiled only in great uncertainty.  When have you been uncertain in your life?  You see the mother looking into the eyes of her child’s killer and showing almost superhuman restraint in the name of forgiveness.  You see those being engraved into the history books who seem to have achieved the epitome of human potential, yet it is they who admit to having stood on the shoulders of the greats before them.  You see the underdog in the movies who bears the injustices of his or her circumstances yet chooses not to define the human condition by sheer circumstance.  You see the successful having grown up with great misery who choose to be grateful of how this adversity gave them the gift of resilience.  You see the joyous family laughing and sharing moments over a candlelight dinner and admire their unconditional love.

In these moments, you see the ideal that is the human condition.  It is the non-dual truth that embraces both the best and worst aspects of existence.  It is the ideal that motivates us to commit physically, emotionally, and spiritually to a better world in the face of hardship.  When we realize our oneness with all of mankind, we can let go of the illusion of being separate from the truth.

For we are the truth.