User:Average/Snide Guide to How to be a Human

So you're ready to bite the bullet: being human. Or being more human, whatever. I can tell you that there isn't enough of it.

This document is about self-actualization. It is made with hetero sapiens humans in mind (those who came from the Garden of Eden and born of a mother), but may get adapted for genus homo or ambi (completely different origins and destinies). In other words, this document isn't appropriate for Native Americans, Aryans, or blond boys who might be homosexual (in genus homo temporarily or permanently, by choice or circumstance, doesn't matter). If you are of this latter, there are two recommendations: find someone you respect and serve them (until you don't anymore) or serve the Divine or Virtue with your whole being. For the Natives, hopefully they are free in the wild, developing their purity, remembering their ancesters, and keeping their original language intact. Their path to power and knowledge is independence from the Western Man's tools and resources.

Ready...

The issue of being human is fraught with peril: sudden deaths and chronic illnesses and a host of other problems. Have a working body, capable of locomotion and communicating? You are one lucky bastard -- you're holding a billion dollar asset that no amount of entrepretneurs and doctors can build. No one knows how to make the food and other forces that feed it, either. That puts considerable responsibility, forces to bear on the journey. Treat these things well: body, earth, spirit/GOD.

Premises:

1. The innate, unbounded value of beings made with heart (all mammals, humans).
2. But one must give back for what one owes to be free.
3. That your body is made perfectly. If it's malfunctioning, something's wrong in relation to the divine forces which created you, to the Earth, to your fellow human beings, or you were careless. If you are already malformed, your world is pushing on you wrong.
4. That you are set in an planetary environment that gives you everything you need.

Positions:

1. The world is better with meaningful (non-pathological) diversity.
2. Working together creates a sum greater than all separately.
3. Earth's value can evolve boundlessly with the support of human male and female.
4. Civilization can evolve boundlessly with the evolution of leadership and law.

On Your Marks...

Enemies

On the path of self-actualization there are two main enemies that stand in your way. They are silent and you won't always notice them, but many are trapped by them already. Whether you call it satan or part of human nature, they are obstacles on the Path to defeat or transcend.

Enemy #1: Believing you've arrived. Ego. You know the type. They're proud of their car, their house, their letter jacket, whatever. They parade about as they've been crowed king or queen. They never know they've been trapped by the first enemy, because they're too busy looking in the mirror or looking down on YOU. Sure, it feels good to be #1, but did you just stop on some #2?

Hidden blow: You've been crowned a success only to be abandoned by the world that gave it to you.

Enemy #2: Not believing in yourself. Lack of self-esteem. Those who are trapped by this enemy, slink around the hallways of life forlornly, not knowing there's a library book or a nature-path that would show them something greater than whatever is oppressing them. If you weren't important, why would you still be here? If you don't know, you should try to find out.

Hidden blow: Finding out that you were loved completely and all those moments where greater love could have been made are lost forever.

Why are there only these two? Why not family? They make lives miserable, right? Idiots? The State? Et cetera? Because you are in control. You have free-will. If you don't, you are in a pathology. You were given the earth and have a working body. Every other obstacle is a challenge and opportunity. So, if there's something that stands in your way, you have to get on your Path of Knowledge. You have no one to blame, if you are free. As a friend told me once: there is only ONE thing that you HAVE to do, and that is to die. All else is negotiable and you can walk away.

Crucibles

You have powerful allies on the path, whether it's the Creator (yang) or the Spirit (yin). These are transcendental forces that can aid you. They are affiliated with the Natural elements: Air, Earth, Fire/Sun, and Water. Also, many documents that have stood the test of time for scripture: Buddism, Tao te Ching, the Bible.

This section is about the crucibles that will form you as a distinct human being, different from another and different from a worm. They exist in contradiction -- part yin and part yang. Perhaps you will be able to turn them into personal power by solving them somehow, like a koan.

Ally #1: Matter: TimeIsRunningOut vs. Patience
Ally #2: Liquid: Risk vs. Stability
Ally #3: Air: Creativity vs. Regimentation
Ally #4: Fire: Dominate vs. Serving

They are forces to balance, and any one position in a crucible can last for decades. This is normal. Sometimes being there is for yourself or for the planet, whether purposeful or accidental. Does it need more yin? Or more yang? Ask the question for each and accept the larger bio-rhthym. Consider it your only friend on the journey and you will do well.

Each are affiliated with the power of one of the alchemical elements.

Crucible #1 is like Earth in that it is endlessly patient, but you must act to avoid turning into dust?

Crucible #2: Water. Bruce Lee said to "be like water", but water can also be ICE. Will you hold onto it for stability like the ice caps or will you risk it to be more fluid?

Crucible #3 is affiliated with Wind in that when you are creative, it is like the Air moving: not thinking or holding onto anything, but when you are learning from others, it is like being still, breathing, absorbing new knowledge. Like now...

Crucible #4, for example, is affiliated with your relation to power and connected to the Sun. People who are dominant are said to have a lot of fire. Will you get to the top?

Get Set...

So four main players that offer development: Self, Fellow Humans, the Larger World, and Death.

Death. Some say that death is the best teacher of all. Always at your back and never gives up. While it may be invisible, it never stops chasing you, because you have a limited time on Earth. Learn how to use it. Each moment blooms into a transitory existence, never to be repeated again. So act, even if it means failing.

The Larger World is a source of great novelty but can also be oppressive. Between the city skyline, the natural landscape, and the oceans of the earth, there's a lot of novelty to be found and challenges to be overcome. You have to choose how you wish to relate to it. You can be like an explorer and seek out great experiences or you can go-with-the-flow and see where it leads.

Death and the Larger World are affiliated with GOD and spirit, respectively. Don't assume that they are the most appropriate, however, as they don't owe you anything, so you can also waste time chasing rainbows. Hence, the other two.

Self. If you choose risk over stability, there are two main areas where new growth happens: at the edge and at the center. Don't assume that risk is better, with stability things can come that you have the time to catch. Perfect your mind, perfect your body, perfect your knowledge and being-in-the-world.

Fellow Humans. With regard to other human beings, you can either be spontaneous or you can be regimented. For the first case, there is spontaneous and wacky or creative and studious. Learning from others or conforming to them. Connecting with people, including those who are strangers, is a good way to bridge large gaps in humanity`s collective psyche (remember the first premises above?). Both email and taking rides on public transit offer enormous opportunities that you'll see most people slip away. And unless you're in a coma, you need to do some work for survive. This gives you a chance to learn. Even animals have to earn what they eat. You can employ yourself by learning knowledge or being productive. The issue to resolve here that others can show you the top of their "mountain" -- their experience and their knowledge. But it also raises the issue of "false peaks": local maxima that can create stagnation.

And don't forget the personal forces within the Tree of Life: flowers, furry animals, fish, birds, and trees. They are on their own journey with the four forces as well.

Except perhaps where you are saving another being more valuable or righteous than you (a child, your grandma, a depressed prophet, a giant sequoia), lethal force is always a sign of your own inadequacy. That is, you don't know how to find common ground and negotiate, or simply failed one of the premises above.

You can learn to be more aware, so that at pinch moments you can turn it into an opportunity. Major factors to awareness: diet, clearing your debts, abiding with the Divine.

Everyone else is generally vying for the same forces you are. But be like a tree searching for sunlight -- it doesn't rush in like a vine or a fool -- you probably aren't aware enough to know where unexpected forces may come to be a greater aid that what you had in mind. But don't stay still either. It competes co-operatively, giving plenty of time for everyone to find their own place.

If you need a place to start, here's one, here might be another, and here. There's also just right where you are.

Go!

You've balanced the Known and the Unknown and can handle anything that comes your way. You've mastered your Self, so that YOU don't get in the way of the epic possibilities that divine forces have offered you.

The way is long, but you may yet become a master. Don't get too ambitious, there's plenty to do nearly everywhere. You should at least leave the Earth better than when you started. When you can't figure out how to help yourself, there's always Creation and the children. There doesn't need to be cold winters and harsh summers or any children who feel unloved. All investments with those two get to resound forever.

Acknowledgements

With thanks to Nicole of Evergreen, from PLU '92(?), Lao Tsu, American Indians who had deep Spirit, little children and a few older ones, professors I've had, my grandparents and family generally, staff at the Computer Center, and all the woman who I've met along the way, especially those who shared love. Hopefully it will all come back around. DreamMaker (talk) 23:41, 26 May 2017 (UTC)