8/9/2019 Who Are We Really as Human Beings

1/3

Who are we really as human beings?

During a study circle, a good friend and seeker of truth recently asked: Who are we

really as human beings?

That was a very deep and serious question to be treated with utmost respect and

attention.

Then, quite spontaneously, came a response: You know, may be, in the very

question the answer is hidden, with just a slight modification.

We are humans and being at the same time. Human is the perishable aspect that

is born through the process of procreation and sustained through food, love, security,

education and history. We all have a particular history as a human person, born from

the union of a given biological father and a given biological mother, in a given family,

in a given set of circumstances, on a given date, under given climatic conditions, in a

given country, at a given historical juncture, in a given political and social milieu, in a

given religious community, and undergoing a number of experiences during a whole

lifetime starting from birth through infancy, through childhood, through adolescence,

through adulthood, through parenthood, through education, work, associations,

through retirement, to old age and death. The totality of events and experiences

associated with such a human individual, when collected and recollected, makes the

particular person we feel and think we are. Each human person, given his or her

specific set of circumstances, whether genetic, biological, environmental,

psychological, social, cultural, political, climatic, etc, is a unique individual. However,

being given that we share a number of events and experiences with other individuals

in society, which tends to control and regulate our behaviour, we develop a number

of commonalities as members of the community.

However, my identity, as a unique personality and a socialised member of the

community to which I belong or identify with, is only a partial definition of myself. I

do not just live in the mind-space as an ego with a limited history and in the human

world-space as a member of the human world but also in the boundless universe-

8/9/2019 Who Are We Really as Human Beings

2/3

space as a microcosmic representation of the universe. Over and above being one

among the multitude living representatives of the human race, of the human mind, I

am also a living unit and a unique representative of the whole universe amongst

other representatives throughout the biosphere: the world of living entities.

As a living and conscious unit and unique representation of the universe, I am like aninstrument of experience for the boundless universe. I am, so to say, the whole

universe experiencing itself in its multiple manifestations now through the limited

instruments of experience that the universe has evolved in the biosphere. The

instruments of experience, along with their capacities and limitations, are all

connected to the mind, which is the seat of consciousness and the processor of

experiences, both internally and externally. Consciousness is knowing, which when

collected, processed, recorded and recollected, becomes knowledge about things,

entities and events, that is, memory.

As the mind sees itself, through the processing of such experiences and the

generation of related knowledge, it becomes that and it defines itself in such terms.

Identifying itself with personal historical memories tied to a particular body-brain

complex, the mind becomes an ego and lives in the egoic space. Identifying itself

with the human race, through intellectual ratiocination, and seeing itself as a unit

and unique representative of the human race, the mind becomes a human person

and struggles against the egoic self to live in a wider humanic space. Seeing itself as

the boundless universe, through the process of direct attentive experiencing in the

herenow without the interference of any elements of the egoic or humanic spaces,the mind becomes as the living universe: boundless, free, wild, ever-flowing, ever-

renewing, ever-expanding. Seeing itself as the Life that sustains and maintains

everything in the living universe, through mindful attention and insight, the mind

gets soaked into and dissolves in that Boundless Life. This is the state of Being

associated with a human person or rather with any object in the universe.

This state of Being comes into being when the mind is anchored in the direct

attentive experiencing in the herenow, which is meditation. As meditation deepens,

the state of Being shines forth with full intensity and the human being is said to have

reached the state of spiritual enlightenment. In that state of Being, one sees oneself

more as the Life that animates and sustains everything in the boundless universe.

Seeing oneself other than THAT is considered as an illusion. Seeing oneself as THAT is

enlightenment. So we exist both as illusion and enlightenment, as humans and being,

the indivisible dual or individual.

8/9/2019 Who Are We Really as Human Beings

3/3

The body, along with its faculties and capacities, moving along with the living

universe is the actuality. Everything that the mind, operating from the egoic (selfish)

or humanic (intellectual) spaces, projects and weaves about reality is but a fantastic

illusion, which is part of our reality. The memory-made self or ego is constantly

telling tales to itself about reality on the basis of its accumulated experiences and

digested information. The ego is a continuity of accumulated past experiences

projected onto the actual experiencing and it veils the actuality, transforming it into

a myth or a tale. The ego is a mere limited instrument of past experiences. It is not

the boundless universe experiencing itself. It is not the Life, the Being, THAT. As long

as the ego is dominant, the ego space is all that the mind can know and identify with.

For THAT to come into being, for Being to come into being, for Presence to manifest,

the mind should be in a state of meditation.

One needs not pride oneself about one being a unique and unit representative of the

living universe. It is a universal honour gifted to every living entity. No one has that

identity as a special privilege. It is so stupid to think so. Yes, the recognition of that

universal identity is a special insight, which only those living in direct experiencing of

the now can attain. THAT, or the state of being, is not attained by an ego, which can

never move out of its egoic space. It is realised only by the meditative mind illumined

by the one Life that comes into being in the silence and stillness of mindfulness.

Our being is much more than our processing mind

could ever think of, imagine, experience or even dream about. It is

the very Life of the whole existence, that shines beyond the realms

of thought, experience, imagination and dream.

Koosraj Kora Venciah

koosradha@gmail.com