Aiming Towards Manufacturing the Perfect Human
Man is the only being who changes during life and constantly develops. The process of development that humans go through is mandatory simply because the ego keeps growing during our lives and from generation to generation. Each generation is different from the preceding one. Everything changes—culture, political structures, education, characters, human relations in general, and family relations in particular. Unlike humans, animals maintain the same pace, the same style, and the same framework all the time.
A short while after birth, an animal is equipped with all it needs to survive. Within a short time, it knows how to watch out for itself. Conversely, the process by which a human learns takes many years and involves absorbing information from one’s environment.
During life, we learn, develop, change, and are constantly affected by different desires. We are drawn to one thing and then to another. During life, we change professions, family, place of residence, and areas of interest. Humans behave very unpredictably because new desires constantly arise in us.
Within us there is also the animate level. This is the basic level at which we tend to our bodies with food, sex, and family, and relate to our bodies as “animals” would, in a rational and balanced manner. Some of the things we do are good, but when we overdo them they become harmful. In ancient times, physicians maintained that over-consumption of good things is more harmful than consuming a small amount of harmful things.
Yet, unlike animals, within us is also the speaking degree, above the animate. We should clear the rest of the time we have, once we have taken care of our necessities, and build ourselves as humans. We need to develop the part in us that is above the animal level.
In a sense, we belong to both worlds—the animal kingdom and the human kingdom, which we call “the speaking” degree. The speaking within us grows by connecting to others. There is a lot of work to do in these connections with others. In fact, we need to create from our present selves a human being that has not yet been born. And yet, there is only one thing we need to do in order to achieve it: correct ourselves.
Education that Corrects Hate
Each of us is born in the animate level as a living organism that has just come out of its mother, weighing about seven pounds. When we raise a baby, we first attend to its physical level, making sure he or she eats and drinks sufficiently and stays healthy. Afterwards, it grows and we follow its reactions to noises and sounds, light and darkness. It begins to move its body, first with involuntary movements and then with voluntary ones. We buy our babies toys and thus help them develop. If we didn’t interfere in the process as humans, producing everything for them, they wouldn’t grow as humans but as animals. The human in us develops only through the education we receive.
The problem is that our education is entirely egoistic, urging us to exploit the world. We understand that to keep ourselves safe, it’s best not to hurt others, to avoid taking from them and to be lenient. We teach children that if they behave kindly to others, others will reciprocate. This is why, as part of our education, we direct children to stay on good terms with everyone so they don’t arouse hostility toward them. We understand this and therefore educate them to act this way.
And yet, our egos are affected by the media, Internet, TV, and the general environment. These shower us with bad examples. While we don’t want them, they affect us against our will, and we teach our children how to trick others in order to survive in this world. Each of us builds his or her happiness, wealth, joy, and success in life by—at least partially—hurting others.
Therefore, because of all that we’ve been through in this generation and in previous ones, we have reached a state of crisis in our development. We possess lethal weapons; we’ve depleted the planet of almost all its resources; we’re adversely affecting Nature, ecology, and climate; and we are ruining ourselves and the human society. But most of all, we are dissatisfied with life. There is general despair throughout the world, an acute crisis in education and learning systems, and numerous other problems we’ve already mentioned.
In the end, we are approaching a decision that we have no choice but to change ourselves. Put differently, all our work individually, generally, socially, and globally, should be to re-educate ourselves. From relationships of hatred, repulsion, pride, envy, honor, and domination that exist among us today, we need to shift into relationships of consideration, mutual guarantee, and love. We simply have no choice; it is how Nature is directing us. Our development is pushing us into the necessity to establish good relations.
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Therefore, the only correction we need to make is to build human beings out of ourselves. We need to give our bodies what they need to a rational and balanced degree, and we need to build the human, speaking level of ourselves above the physical life, above our animate level. If we wish to continue to develop, we must unite.
Is it possible to bridge those gaps separating us today? It will happen when the canopy of love is spread over our heads. Other than that, everything will remain as is. The method by which we rise above the ego leaves the differences in culture, education, and even politics as they are.
Every person will live with his or her own culture, education, and religion; yet, will treat others kindly. For example, in a family where each does something else—one is a doctor, another is an engineer, and another is into philosophy, all will agree that they belong to the same family and complement one another.
Can we do the same so as to have a good life—without wars and destruction, so we may stop the tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and the collapse of the economic system? It is said that a person will give anything for his life. We are already in a life-threatening situation, and we need to understand that we already have a method that is more meaningful to us than all of science. All of science and all our interests in life are measured by our ability to improve our lives. If we have a way to bond that can save us from destroying ourselves, then that method is certainly superior to any other science, and we need to look into it very seriously.
The method of Integral Education will save us from all the bad things that are happening. It will neutralize the dangers on humanity’s path, such as: wars, global economic collapse, and hunger. Besides keeping us from harm, Integral Education will also lift us toward a good life and make us feel life on a whole new level. Through our mended relations, we will uncover what is called “human,” the “speaking level.” This is the degree at which we are in touch with Nature’s deepest realm, the engine that operates the entire process of our evolution, the thought and the greatest force in Nature.
In this way, we develop an ability to feel Nature, to feel its eternity and wholeness. When we discover it, we become mingled, filled, and sustained by that method. This is what the integral correction gives us; that is, the method of Integral Education.
This is why this wisdom is above all other wisdoms, above all the sciences that humanity has created. The results it yields show that nothing comes close to it. When we understand the importance of Integral Education, it’ll be naturally important to us to actualize it on ourselves. However, it is important to pass it on to others because to the extent that we affect others and others affect us, we set an example to one another of mutual bestowal through positive stimulation and pressure; thus, we advance.
No one is superior or inferior in this system of education; rather, one person simply learns from another. This is why we constantly need to show responsibility by giving an example, not just to kids, but also to friends; to those older than us; and to those at a higher social status. Each of us should feel like a guide to others, and that feeling should make us behave very responsibly—to the degree that we will stick to that behavior—because the fate of humanity depends on our actions toward others.
Sustainable Relationships Are Required to Reach Sustainability
Considering that Nature demands that we now behave in a certain way toward people, we need to take Integral Education very seriously and understand that humanity is waiting for this education. People need this form of education and will welcome it if we give it to them softly and lovingly, just as we welcomed education from our parents when we were children. These recollections exist in everyone; everyone wants to be treated kindly; everyone needs it.
With Integral Education, we will constantly experience consideration and love, just as we received when we were children. We will continue feeling this throughout our lives until we come to feel that general love as Nature’s superior law. In this way, we will find the harmony that exists in the entire system.
Building similar systems among us means building the right envelope or environment for educating people. By educating people in this way, we are really building the human level, the “speaking” level, above the animate level that presently exists among us.
Therefore, with a good attitude, consideration, mutuality, and giving, we maintain two modes of behavior: good behavior toward people on the human level, and good behavior on the level of the whole of Nature, in relation to the general law of Nature, which operates in mutual giving and love.
In this way, we are encouraged and reinforced, and we gain twice: by being in a good human society and by being in balance with Nature. Without proper human relations, we won’t be able to preserve Nature. The two areas are interdependent. After all, when a person becomes good, he becomes good in every way. Such a person will also preserve the still, vegetative, and animate levels, using them only for necessities; then, Nature will return to balance.
We need to take Nature and human relations into account, educating humans first. From loving Man, we will come to love the whole of Nature. This is the direction in which we need to go. Even when relating to humans, we need to understand that in the end we have to achieve balance with the general law of Nature, with the general process, and with our entire evolution. It’s a process, and we need to come to love people and then obtain the general love that exists in Nature.
Written by Michael Laitman
Michael Laitman is a global thinker dedicated to generating a transformational shift in society through a new global education, which he views as the key to solving the most pressing issues of our time. He is the Founder of the ARI Institute, Professor of Ontology & Theory of Knowledge, PhD in Philosophy, MS in Medical Cybernetics. You can find him on Google+, YouTube and Twitter