What’s Real and True About Our Authentic Nature
When we are openly engaged with life, we receive and accept life as it is and not as what we want or expect it to be. So, our authentic nature does not confuse who we believe ourselves to be with who we know we really are.
What this means is, that, as we engage the willing aspect of our nature, more and more, we begin to take action for real change in our lives - for real, authentic behavioral transformation. When we do this we attain two personal development goals: 1) we become actively involved in the actions needed for psychological change, and 2) we become committed to a spiritual quest that will reveal our true, real nature. Both of these personal achievements enable us to hold firm to direct transformative change in our lives.
Our open, transparent nature knows that life is not a problem to be solved, but is a lesson to be studied, an adventure to be explored, a work of art to be much admired. Our authentic nature engages life on life’s terms, and does not destructively react to it.
We all experience our general human nature as a baffling thing sometimes. And, our behavior, our attitudes seem easy to mold, yet difficult to change. What is this world, if not conceived and then perceived by our collective and disparate minds. Jung, Freud, Nietzche, Goethe – were all deep ponderers of the condition of being human, but offered no real consensus that we all can buy into. The nearest explanation that I resonate with personally, is the one given us by the Gnostics during the early Christian era. According to the well-known religious historian, Elaine Pagels, the Gnostics taught about the cosmic folly of a universal, cosmic principle – named Wisdom – that has molded and determined our human legacy and destiny. My own inner guidance tells me “We are Wisdom’s children”, forever exploring, analyzing, contemplating, meditating on the meaning of our existence to arrive at an ever elusive truth that changes, like the light beam that changes under observation, as we get closer to grasping it.
With life being something of a conundrum, the E.E. Cummings’ quote rings quite true: “It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.” Several years ago when, once again, I found myself contemplating the meaning of existence, I wrote this in my journal: I wonder about the Afar tribesman, the Thai chicken farmer, the Italian banker, the Calcutta prostitute, the New Orleans jazzman, Martha Stewart, and George Bush. I wonder about the quick and wide grin of joy on the face of the child ahead of me in line at the market that brings an irrepressible smile of delight to my own face. I wonder about the story of grief and horror told by the doctor who had to watch her critically-ill patients die when life support, medication, and food ran out in a New Orleans hospital marooned by the flood waters of Katrina. And then three weeks later, Hurricane Rita happened. A maelstrom 350 miles wide that headed for Texas and blasted the Delta area.
Then, a few weeks later, I journaled this: The mass media of the postmodern age is a raucous cacophony of marketing, entertainment, and information. It reveals the counter-play and cultural tensions between alienated youth, stress-debilitated adults and isolated elderly. And, how did the telephone change from a personal, private line of communication to an intrusive, abusive marketing tool? What is this world?, I query. What IS it?
In today’s world of instant change, merging cultures, and clashing ideologies, we hear amidst the cacophony, a call for more self-integrity, deeper meaning in life, and compassionate understanding. There are a breathtaking variety of forums and methods devoted to exploring these concerns in depth – international cooperatives and symposia, national sociopolitical movements, community activism, and individual entrepreneurship – and all inextricably linked to and embedded in electronic telecommunications, and social media. Can we truly find and rediscover, sustain and maintain the enduring value and perennial vision of simply relating face-to-face from a grounded source of genuineness, discernment, and self-knowledge?
Before we can progress in this area, we need to be clear about the character of the socioeconomic and political worldview that defines our global existence. According to the wisdom of the world’s sages, we live in a world of lies, delusion, error, and confusion. Consider that lies – also known as the devil, sin, error, evil, illusion – cannot flourish in truth – which is known as the angelic, good, heaven, clarity, realness. Our authentic nature is truth and it is this nature that saves us from falling prey to the lies of others and sheds light on our own self-deception that may be evident in our addictive and controlling behaviors. We must ultimately come to the understanding that:
Real truth is the way of being authentically human
True love is the state of being sublimely human
Our approach to true love is through real truth.
When we consider the compelling contrasts that define and design our existence, our authentic nature is driven to find the underlying truth of what it all means. I understand the primary wisdom objective for our authentic nature is to explore the wisdom elements that deepen self-understanding. And, ultimately, to come to terms with this basic truth of existence: In suffering, beauty emerges; and, implicit in beauty is suffering.
Our authentic nature’s understanding of the basic beauty and beast principle that creates and sustains our existence is not easy for us to embrace. But I’ve come to terms with this paradox of human existence through direct experience. To touch the deeper, authentic part of myself, I had to go through some pretty trying circumstances, including an emotionally ravaging break-up of a marriage, recovery from alcohol dependence, and living in poverty as a child. Now, however, I recognize these circumstances have brought direct experiences of pure Self-recognition. I have gained the important insight that as I emerged from the experiences that have felt dehumanizing to me, I have actually touched my genuine humanity. In this aspect of myself, I have encountered profound beauty and joy and have intimately experienced the tender, impossibly gentle embrace of sacred love. I have come to realize, more profoundly, that my life’s journey is to travel inward to the sacred, ancient center within me.
To see my exploration of our authentic nature in more detail, check out the free webinar that describes my online course about wisdom: https://lnkd.in/dFryJTb.
- Photo Credit: Pixabay