Like the seed contained in an acorn possesses within it, by virtue of its nature, the abilities to become a full grown oak, you possess deep within you the potential to become who and to do what your creator intended you to be and to do in life.
Thus understanding the true nature of your being and the way your maker has intended it to function is of crucial importance if you want to have a clue at what your potential is made of beyond your talents and skills.
Is The Human Mind Really All-powerful?
If you’re acquainted with the self improvement or self help movement teachings, my guess is that you know how much emphasis is being put on the power of the mind as a tool to create the kind of life that you want. This view of the mind as being all-powerful and capable of overriding physical reality comes from the belief that human nature is dual in its constitution.
What Do We Know About Human Nature?
Influenced by Socrates’ thinking and view of reality (According to Socrates reality is unavailable to those who use their senses. He said that he who sees with his eyes is blind), Plato believed that ideas are the reality and are experienced by the soul. For him, the physical or corporeal part of man nature is of little value and trivial. Only the soul which does not exist in time and space like the body does can access universal truths.
Though discussions about human nature have been on for millennia, it is the French philosopher René Descartes who in an attempt to explain the relationship between the mind and the body conceptualized the mind – body dichotomy which led to the theory of dualism. According to this theory, humans have two basic natures:
- The physical, made of the body
- The spiritual, made of the soul (or mind)
Before Socrates the common conception of human nature was monistic. Monists consider that mind and matter are formed from the same ultimate substance. They believe that the world is essentially one substance or contains only one kind of substance. You will find them among materialist who think that physical matter is the only reality and that everything, including thought, feeling, mind and will, can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena. For them, physical well being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life. Pantheists, who believe that there is no god apart from the substance, forces and laws manifested in the universe, are monists.
These two conceptions (monism and dualism) of human nature and reality are based upon philosophical speculations.
What Other Source of Knowledge Do We Have Bedsides Speculation When Facts Are Not Self-evident?
There is another alternative that can help apprehend the truth about something when the facts pertaining to it are unclear. This alternative is revelation. Unfortunately, revelation poses the following problems:
- Authenticity and authority of the source (difficult if not impossible to establish and to prove),
- Inability of our reason to lay hold of the revealed “facts” (requires belief),
- Leaves an open door to all kind of interpretations which may be contradictory (may lead to confusion).
As a result of this triple challenge, the recognition of a revelation as being true is hardly consensual.
Without any pretention of knowing the truth concerning human nature, I would like to share with you what I believe and think about this subject. My conception of things pertaining to the constitution and the functioning of human being is helping me grow into my potential and work at fulfilling my purpose in life. It is based upon Christian teachings. I hope you will find it helpful as you are seeking to realize your potential.
“…Every individual in this world has been created in God’s image with unique gifts and a purpose to use those gifts to contribute value to the world.” Man is the product of creation. He is made of a physical body and of an immaterial component. If there seems to be a universal agreement about the material aspect of human nature (most likely because we live in a material world), there is no unanimity concerning its immaterial dimension among dualists. The story of creation, as written in the bible, tells us that man was formed of dust from the ground and of the breath of God insufflated into his nostrils. The dust from the ground became man’s physical body and the breath of God became man’s spirit, the image of God, the principle of life within him. This act of creation resulted in the production of a living being that the bible calls a “living soul”.
For a better understanding of the following, it is important to note that before the fall in the in the Garden of Eden man, the “living soul”, was in total communion with his creator and in complete harmony with the laws of the universe. His field of consciousness could be extended to everything, be it spiritual or physical. With the fall of Adam who deliberately chose to disobey, death came into the world (Romans 5.12). The immediate consequence of his disobedience was his separation from God, known as spiritual death. Therefore from a “living soul”, he became a spiritually dead man and his field of consciousness progressively got reduced to the physical aspect of his reality and to whatever was accessible through his mental faculties.
This description of the fallen man whose nature you and I have inhered allows me to present man as a tripartite being. Man is a spirit; he has a soul and lives in a body.
Spirit
The spirit is the part of man that allows him to relate to the spiritual world. It is the seat of conscience and intuition, and it possesses the following faculties:
- The faculty of discerning what is good or wrong without the influence of knowledge store in the mind,
- The faculty of communicating with the spiritual world,
- The faculty of knowing through intuition.
Because of man’s separation from his creator, these faculties are “dormant”.
- The spiritual world is out of our field of awareness and we are unable to communicate with spiritual beings, except those of us who have been enabled or “empowered” either by God himself through the process of regeneration (new birth) or by some other spirits through certain mystico – esoteric initiations.
- Despite having an innate compass that points out what is right (or good) man’s morality has been getting weaker and weaker over time.
- In addition to the above, man can only rely on his mind, his feelings, his emotions and his senses to acquire knowledge. We are naturally unable to apprehend things through the faculty of intuition.
Soul
The soul of man is the part of “self-consciousness” of his being. It is the seat of his personality and comprises the volition, the mind (conscious & subconscious mind) and the emotion.
Body
The body is the physical part of man’s structure by which he relates to this material world and to his fellow men at material level.
The Spirit is All-powerful
Now, what you have to know is that, contrary to what you’ve been told, your mind is not all-powerful.
It undeniably has incredible faculties but it is not all-powerful. Your spirit is, especially if it has been reconnected to its source and regenerated. It is only to the extent that you understand these “facts” and know how to differentiate the works of your spirit from those of your mind, that you can attain personal power.
About Olivier BETU K.