To Be Great Again - A Monologue
It has been over a month since I was asked to write about 'Integral Humanity' as a progression to our ongoing work around Integral Humanistic Management and Integral Ecology. I feel no shame in admitting that I have failed to reconcile my thoughts and emotions into words that can truly resonate with the depth and breadth of this vast yet very pertinent topic of our current time, also close to my heart.
Now let me be clear and even be fair to myself that I am not a pessimist and have full faith in HU-manity*. That life is a miracle that keeps manifesting in its infinite multitude of potentiality. That I remain in awe of this miracle which never fails to stun me so that I have to occasionally tap my body to feel my presence on this planet. But on an equal note, recently I have simply seized to 'think great' i.e. think about what makes us, humans, great that God still has faith or hope in us rising to the occasion of being the stewards managing His earthly kingdom as His viceregents.
The devastating effects of endless and unjustified wars are playing a havoc on our collective consciousness. Not to forget, the griping economic crisis all around the world has pushed many of us into a dejected depressive mood.
I kept asking myself, is there a point in strewing more fanciful terms and words when we are failing to be qualified as anything but humans time and again?
The Fall from Grace
I mean what is the point in going beyond my/our mundane human limitation/condition to think about our 'just and rightful' place on earth? When you see so many so-called 'great' (read mighty) leaders falling from grace, what hope is there for us lesser mortals to think or act 'great'? Does it make any difference in writing another research paper? Or even exploring the idea of human conscious awareness mapping our whole ecology to the point of integrality*.
Surely, one tends to or feels pushed to question one's own integrity. I felt tired of carrying this burden of thinking I could or should do great things because that is the Miraj (ascension/apex) of humanity. That it is my responsibility as an earth citizen to pay my dues, in whatever meager way I can. Perhaps it's best to simply 'just exist'. Like many do!
This exhaustion is draining but guess what, I am/wasn't alone in feeling or thinking this way. The humane intellectual community I am blessedly part of is all feeling this way. A numbness that is hard to shrug off, a gripping sadness, and a stifling sense of loss are what every sane or rather wise person is gripped by within the current environment and the constant unfolding of devasting events around our world. Our world is truly on fire!
Could we be great again?
But just as I was drowning in this whirlpool of uncertainty, just then the revelation came amid a very dark, windy, cold winter night as I read Alexander Beiner's latest post on Substack, BOOM! The penny dropped.
Here I quote him:
For Irish poet and theologian John O’Donohue, prayer is a return “There is a place in you that has never been wounded, where there is still a sureness in you, where there’s a seamlessness in you, and where there is a confidence and tranquility in you…the intention of prayer, and spirituality, and love, is now and again to visit that inner kind of sanctuary.”
When we touch that sanctuary, we touch all other living people.
This came as a great reminder that when all else seems gloomy; PRAY! For that is human Miraj (apex). It is here we meet the Divine with His consoling promise that all is and will not be lost.
The inner sanctuary O’Donohue is referring to is the place that we all inhabit as our collective sanctuary is what makes our world. That we all have a shared responsibility to keep it inhabitable for not just ourselves but also for future generations.
Integral Genealogy
Beiner then goes on to say that the temptation to turn away from the complexity of the world today is powerful. That the only possible way of dealing with all the wilderness that is collectively enveloping us is by learning to expand our window of ‘complexity tolerance.’ This could be done only by raising our awareness to an adaptive level of emotional resilience and human compassion (Ihsan) and above all being inclusive ie not leaving any race, religion, or ethnicity, out. That is what integrality predicates. Our common shared human genealogy!!
There's a principle of biology that suggests that the structure implies the function. The more complex the structure the more complex the function. The more complex our world is becoming the more adaptive and resilient we are or ought to become. No small task, eh!
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This also reminded me of Dr. Bruce Lipton, one of my favourite biologists and epigenecists, who has been closely monitoring the behaviour of our genes. Dr Lipton has scientific proof that our genes are affected by the environment we are in. That we are not born or created with faulty genes but rather become victims of our environment - an environment we collectively create. According to Dr Lipton, positive thinking can heal you of any disease negative thinking can create any disease. Literally!!
This also means we can either create an environment of hatred (towards each other) or create a loving environment so our world can become our collective sanctuary.
Sounds idealistic and so simple, right!! But what about the wars we ensue on innocent people, you may say??
Integral Humanity
Humanity is at a crucial juncture or perhaps that's how our ancestors would've felt previously. History is on repeat every so often yet our common dementia lulls us to a state wherein we feel only we are experiencing the extreme brutality hidden within our animal soul. We forget that holy books and scriptures are full of the rhetoric that killing one human equates to killing the whole of humanity. And that we all feel the same amount of anguish and pain for innocent children being slaughtered for unjustified reasons. Because we are all connected through an unseen cosmic umbilical cord. That which divides us is what actually unites us. And this is especially true for Bani Israel (Children of Israel).
Historically and according to Abrahamic holy scriptures, Israel is the name of Prophet Yaqub (Jacob) the great messenger of God. The name Israel means the man of God or the strength that follows God - a wise righteous servant of God.
This is agreed by the Muslims, the Jews, and the Christians all three of them agree on this as it's mentioned in their Holy scriptures. Yet we forget!
We forget that we have all come from the same source - the Only source.
I know there have been many attempts at 'uniting' humanity, you know the One World One Humanity slogan. But it has never worked. Ever!!
Integral Humanity on the other hand invites us to elevate our consciousness almost to a level of Miraj where we can truly accept each other as fellow inhabitants of the same planet unimaginably reliant on each other for survival.
This is our final reckoning.
And I live in hope. That we all have a common gene of greatness within us.
*HU is the sound behind all sounds, woven into the language of life.
* Integral ecology or Integrality implies that we are all co-creators and partners in maintaining the very emergence of life.