Old Story:
Once, an old man was very ill and lay dying in his bed. He
had four sons who were always fighting with each other. He always worried
about them and wanted to teach them a lesson and asked his sons to come to him.
When they came, the old man gave them a bundle of sticks and said, “Can you
break these sticks?” The first three sons tried to break the bundle but nothing
happened. Meanwhile, the youngest son jeered at his brothers and thought they
were very incompetent. He thought he was very clever and took one stick at a
time and easily broke all of them.
The old father then smiled at his sons and said, “Children,
do you understand what happened? It is always easy to break the sticks one by
one. But when they are bundled together, none of you could break them. In the
same way, you, four brothers should always be together. No one will be able to
hurt you then.” The four brothers realized what their father was trying to
teach them and forgot all their enmity and learnt the moral: Unity is Strength.
Old Story in the present context:
Transcending the ego means "moving beyond" or
"rising above" the ego. Even when ego transcendence is accomplished,
you'll probably still retain some degree of self-identification or ego within
your personality. And that's perfectly fine. Our evolutionary end goal,
therefore, should not be ego transcendence in and of itself, but rather a much
more heightened and expansive level of Self awareness.
The reptilian-brained reactions or "counter strikes" to threats from "the other" against the tribe that we belong has perpetuated our obsession with solving disputes with violence since the dawn of man. When you study human history for the last five millennia, you quickly come to realize that we are, unmistakably, a war-like species. Not one century has gone by without some tribe, group, or nation picking up armaments, locking and loading, and firing some sort of ammunition against a perceived enemy. A blurry-lined, over-identification with our concepts and ideologies has greatly contributed to this ongoing comatose, paranoid, and narcissistic evolutionary stage of caveman consciousness.
Not one individual has a separate "consciousness"
from another person. We may have separate egos, separate brains, or separate
"states" of consciousness. But Self awareness is the one thing that
binds and unites us. This is because consciousness is who we are at our core.
From this perspective, we all are One.
On the level of unity consciousness, we cannot separate ourselves from each other no matter how much we try. Just because someone may disagree with our opinions, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are our enemy. Something as simple as respecting the other's opinion is, in truth, probably the most important thing we can do to accelerate our evolutionary impulse.
The Next Human will embody a level of Self awareness that
will enable him or her to see the sacred Self in the other. Therefore, when
someone expresses an opposing opinion, politically, religiously, or otherwise,
the opinion is honored and respected. People, no matter what they say or do,
will not be attacked, declared the enemy, or fired upon for any reason. Revenge
will no longer be an excuse for violence of any kind. The ability to resolve
our disagreements through diplomacy, mediation, and healthy debate rather than
resorting to violence will be understood as a necessary prerequisite for
establishing tribal, national, and global peace. And establishing world peace
is at the top of the "to do list" for the Next Human.
Moral: Understand the sacred Unifying thread of the human race and that's the real strength of Humanity.
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