© 2013 Karuna Leys
© 2013 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
| The Seven Fundamental Realities VII | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 64 — Autumn 2013 | Awakened to the fullness of life |
The ability to abstract (reason) also allows us to imagine things in the future, in a time that does not yet exist! This is why we humans can be concerned about the fate of the generations that will live after us, and we can undertake things whose results will be realized in a distant time. Animals cannot do this. Only a being who is given reason can reflect on something that will happen long before it happens. He can imagine different scenarios and reflect on the different means to achieve his goal. He can also reflect on the value of this goal. Does the goal really have a value? Is it worth it? He can therefore reflect on the usefulness. Will it serve any purpose? When a man does not reflect on the purpose and usefulness of his efforts, he lives at the level of animals.
So it is reason that allows us to grasp the present, the past and the future. Reason makes these three a whole. It allows us to grasp ‘time’. By means of reason human beings can reflect on the past and the present, and project things or events into the future. A powerful means! But it also means that human beings are aware of the inevitability of death. Animals are not. Therefore humans can fear death, even if there is no physical reason and there is no threat. Man can imagine his own death. He can imagine a life after death. He can reflect on it and talk about it with others.
We have been able to see that to a living body, five adjutants, or spirits of consciousness, can be added. This is animal life. Then is added reason which makes it possible to be able to think with ideas, abstract concepts and words, and to reproduce all this in audible sounds, this is what is called language. When we create a being to which we will give reason, we will therefore have to plan and design a body with a very precise and very complex organ of speech which will be able to easily produce all the variation of sounds and all the combinations of sounds, an organ therefore with very fine muscles in the tongue, in the cheeks, in the lips, with particular vocal cords and a special larynx, and with a well-thought-out form of pharynx and oral cavity. All this is necessary so that all ideas can be expressed in audible words. Man indeed possesses such an organ of speech. Isn’t it surprising that around the age of 2 the larynx begins to descend, allowing a differentiation of sounds, and that this process will be finished around the age of 6 when the child will have developed a full-fledged language? We can clearly see the relationship between the body and reason. This body with its specialized speech organ makes reason perceptible. When there were no men on Earth yet, there was no way to perceive the existence of reason, of the logos.
There is yet another and final aspect which is linked to the ability of abstraction. This ability of abstraction also gives rise in man to morality, or the awareness of good and evil. How?
A living, conscious being feels what is good and what is bad for its body. Animals feel this too. But when reason is added to the consciousness of a being—that is, the ability to abstract—that being becomes capable of imagining, and therefore knowing, that in another being the same thing will do good or harm. When a child falls and hurts itself, then it is capable of being aware of the fact that when another child falls, or will fall, it will also hurt. The reason that is present in its being allows it to know this. An animal cannot imagine this. Around the age of 4 or 5 we can see in children that at a certain point, they have become capable of—consciously, intentionally, and willingly—doing something that does good to another person, or even harms him. The notion of good and evil settles into their consciousness and they can choose either one or the other. The exercise of this choice is what we call free will, will. Until now it was always a drama when another child took his toys; now he can share his toy with the other and give the other the pleasure of enjoying it too. Free will is therefore a force, a reality, which allows us to choose good or evil. The choice to do good for oneself or for another person is morality. A moral man is a being who chooses to be good, and to do good to others.
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Reason or logos (intellect or the ability to abstract) (1), self-consciousness (2), will or free will (3), and morality (4) are therefore a whole, function as a whole. This creative whole functions in each human being in a unique way. This unique whole is what we call “human personality”. Each human personality is unique. And this has been true since the very beginning of human existence on Earth - billions and billions of human beings, each with a unique personality. We are again - as with the adjutants - faced with something that seems to be inexhaustible: each time another unique person, and this seemingly without end.
So, it is not difficult to understand that our ‘personality’ is a reality that comes directly from the Source of our life. The notion “I am, I exist” comes directly from the Source, from God. It is a part of His Being that He did not share with animals, but that He gives to us human beings. For those who know the Bible a little, they probably remember the story of Moses who saw a burning bush that was not consumed by the fire but from which came the voice of God. I will read you a short passage: “Moses said to God: I will go to the children of Israel, and I will say to them: ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you’. But if they ask me what his name is, what shall I tell them? God said to Moses ”I am that I am_". And he added, “This is how you will answer: he who is called ‘I am’ has sent me to you.”
We are all little “I am” from the One I AM. He gives parts of Himself, constantly and without ceasing. Yet the One I AM does not become smaller, nor less. The I AM is inexhaustible.
When our child begins to exercise and experience his free will, his free will, in fact we should be filled with regard and respect instead of being frustrated and impatient. Because at that moment a part of the nature of the divine being is given to our child. This awareness of being before a divine reality allows us to play with our child, in an intelligent and serene way, the game of exercising his will. So this period in education becomes a sacred period in which we observe with great attention and curiosity how the self-consciousness, its feeling of “I”, reveals itself, and then leads it - at a certain moment - to want to do good to someone. This moment is the sign for the parents that the personality has now ‘settled’ completely. Our child now becomes a moral being, a unique being. He is unique, not only on the physical level, because little by little the inner driving force as well as the unique qualities of his personality will become visible. And later, when he engages in complex relationships, he will be able to imagine what is good or not good for the whole of several human beings, for a group. The greatest good for the greatest number, this is what we call ethics. He learns this first of all in the family. In the family the child becomes first a moral being and then also an ethical being. This ethical consciousness, when it fully develops, can even desire the good for all humanity.
Karuna Leys
| The Seven Fundamental Realities VII | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 64 — Autumn 2013 | Awakened to the fullness of life |