Humanity 2.4

Is the human a curse, or a field of infinite possibility?
What is life asking of the human being, and how can we set the human free?

In an era of escalating regional conflicts, where the psychology of war is translating into raw, borderless cruelty and horror, Georgi lifts the lid on the question of what it means to be human: what we are doing to each other and what we are doing to ourselves.

Transcript

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The humanity in us greets the humanity in you. And this is perhaps one of the most difficult subjects and timings, for us at least. And for this reason I'd like to start with a short prayer that whatever is said here, whatever is understood, whatever is serve as a comfort and a support to all of those everywhere, everywhere across the world who are in pain right now. Oh, as it has been for so many centuries, perhaps for millennia, we're faced with this fundamental question of what it means to be human. What is this humanness? What is this form which we are all, each one of us, responsible to and so often when we look into the quality of human we've moved directly into a kind of human complex a deep and radical abuse of the concept of what it means to be part of each other what it means to be alive in this form together and often then what we find that the word human is something which becomes dictated that this is not Or that all humans are bad, that all humans are wrong, the other humans are wrong so that these humans can be right. That the defense of human involves attacking humans. The manifestation of our own humanity involves negating the humanity of our neighbours. And in all of this we forgot to ask, we forgot to enquire deeply into ourselves and into each other. What is it? this humanness what are we? what are we responsible for to the core? what is our responsibility? not what is our guilt what is our purpose in being here? And all of us can find examples in our lives where we forget on a daily basis, we get furious at the bank manager, we could kill the neighbour We feel a deep toxic jealousy towards somebody else who is shining. We could kill others that have different opinions from us. We don't want to be here. We feel like killing ourselves out of depression and despair because it's so difficult because we can't get what we want in this moment. And now and again there's a deep shock in the field of experience where there is an awakening. And an awakening is never a conclusion of this is what human is or that is what an opening an opening to feel into what we are, what it's all about now one thing is very very clear if we were to visit from above which we will one day and we'll look down on what's happening down here, in this field of the mind, in the field of competition, in the field of possession and greed and jealousy and revenge and short-term release of anger and rage and violence. If we were to look down from above, when we are looking down from above, we'll just see the pity of it all. The pity of all those moments where compassion was lost. All those moments where we forgot the preciousness of the opportunity human form. All those moments spent in attacking ourselves, in torturing ourselves, in channelling hatred through ourselves and towards ourselves, hurting ourselves. ourselves with this dissociated arrogance as if it was in the name of doing something good. In this deep human complex that humans are somehow separate from nature, the environment, that the environment is the enemy, gets in our way, doesn't behave. Separate from the animal kingdom, as if we're not made of this earth. Separate and superior to each other. Might is right. We taught ourselves this lesson very well. Might is right. If you have the power, then you're the good one, then you'll be okay, and you'll survive. If you've got the money, if you've got the influence, if you make the best argument, you'll be right and the other will be wrong. Might is right, kill or be killed if you kill first you live another day if we kill enough then maybe we can get something of the preciousness and the beauty and the love and the freedom a little piece of the nirvana which is here if we just kill enough if we just grasp enough if we just possess enough and defend it and in no time we've died and we look down from above and we see we missed it we missed the whole chance so what does it mean to be human? What is, when you make a feeling connection into it, what feels most precious? given meaning to being alive as a human? What are we striving for? When we get a nice house and a nice car and a nice dress, or have a nice holiday, what So often it's for those moments of enjoyment, being in joy together, those moments of feeling we belong, those moments of feeling the preciousness of the miracle of being one human together with another human and feeling the oneness which is there, the unity, the oneness and the blissful intimacy of separation at the same time, feeling the beauty of being able to relieve a little The sublime miracle of being able to stand and open without shame, without guilt, without fight, without apologies, without argument, without persuasion, without opinions, just and sharing that being with all the other beings who are being alive. We do it all for love. We do it all for belonging. We do it all for this bliss of care, for this incredible friendliness, which comes from being a little bit different and yet finding ourselves through the difference as one. And it's so incredibly precious and amazingly beautiful and so exciting and so potent to feel those moments of belonging and those moments of being one with the earth, to open To open the senses and to feel the Garden of Eden which is here, while the bombs are dropping. The greenness of the leaves, the majesty of the sky, how the earth is ready to absorb our blood and our sadness and our grief and our despair because the earth itself is made of compassion. And it's so intense when we awaken, when any of these qualities awaken, that sometimes we lose our minds and we think that we can grasp it and we can keep it only for ourselves and that we can get more of it by denying it to the other one. Crazy, crazy beliefs are born, such as that if we imprison somebody else's child, that we're not then responsible to that child as a parent, responsible for their well-being. And that if we betray that responsibility to their life, to their well-being, to the beauty inside them, to the love inside them, when we betray the love inside another human being, we betray the love inside ourselves. We become forsaken. We forsake ourselves so very deeply. We prolong the agony which circulates in an autoimmune way as we slowly torture ourselves into oblivion. There isn't any separate human here. This is why humanity is a non-dual quality. We cannot hurt the humanness or the humanity in another without hurting the humanness and the humanity within ourselves. And if we are hurting the humanness and the humanity within ourselves, we are hurting it in our history, everything that we have been creating and we are hurting it for our future. This is what responsibility means. To take whatever chance we can to begin to connect in a different way from the cause, even just to connect, to make a feeling connection, to wake up to where we are, because although we might feel some short-term release in releasing rage and violence and the hatred we have inside of ourselves and letting it circulate around, A few days later, the shadows appear. The hollowness appears, and that hollowness is not like we're being punished, it's not about guilt, it's a hollowness because we so dramatically lost connection with the essence of what it is to be alive, the essence of what we care about, what matters, the essence of the care that moves through us, the love that moves through us, the honour that moves through us, the awareness of death which moves through us all, knowing that if we kill someone today we're actually killing a corpse because everything is anyway passing, when what we're actually circulating is a kind of infection. And like nothing it's possible to let go of this, to switch dimension. And maybe all we can do is bring moments of compassion, moments of recognition to see ourselves in the other. As Rabbi Akiva said, the whole of the Torah on one leg is to see the other as yourself, as every Christian has said, see the other as yourself, and we are still caught in this delusion that somehow it's all about taking sides and that somehow we can win some victory for humanity by being on the right side and without even asking ourselves what humanity is, what we are what is this substance that we are? Use these great minds which are now losing the battle to artificial intelligence, but at least we can use them to direct our attention towards these hearts and ask, what are we? What am I? What am I really? Am I my anger that comes and goes? Am I this dread that I feel? Am I this condemnation that I want to throw across the whole world? Am I this grief? Does that define me? Or is it just an expression expression of something deeper? Isn't this sadness, this grief an expression of the depth of my love for being human, for the human being? Isn't this anger an expression of the care I feel for my tribe, so can I let that care be even greater for the whole tribe of human? This cynicism I feel, an expression of the deep disappointment that I was too much of a coward to contain until now. And can I be heroic enough to be able to allow this feeling of disappointment and to realize it doesn't have to control me. I don't have to be the slave of disappointment or of the past or of history. It doesn't own me. I'm free. Free to be human. And what is that? free to be alive, free to touch, free to care, free to connect, free to engage, free to be of service to human which is every other human, which it is. We move into a shared exploration in small ways and big ways and little ways and wide ways into those million little opportunities which are here to move with compassion, to open up the doorway of wisdom, to risk being for real in the here and now, in connection with each other, whoever we are in any moment. you