Rediscovering the Superhuman Within

Each human being is an utter mystery. Each of us possesses vast powers that go largely unrecognized. Most people, it seems, simply have no idea of their intrinsic magnificence nor of the full extent of their creative potentials. Many live their lives on the hard surfaces of ‘concrete-reality’ and often complain about boredom – or as Thoreau put it, they, “… lead lives of quiet desperation.”

What is the mostly unrecognized, untapped essence of the human being? For starters, and directly stated: Each human being is an inscrutable intersection of infinities. You, me – each of us! With our self-reflective consciousness, we are able to consider our presence within three vast arenas: Temporal - past times, and future times yet to be; Spatial - of inner and outer spaces; and Numerical - of the inconceivable numbers and relative sizes of things: atoms, microbes, cells, people, seas, mountains, planets, stars, and galaxies.

Recognized or not, these realities contextualize and intersect within each of us. Such disturbing vastness, when deeply contemplated, can for some bring on a sense of nausea, and thus the scientist Teilhard de Chardin metaphorically referred to each of these immensities as a kind of ‘malady.’

Numbed and entranced by all the dizzying demands of modern living, few people ever scratch the surface of their basic high school science. We mostly miss the staggering circumstances in which we are embedded. Philosopher Abraham Heschel counsels us, “Under the running sea of our theories and scientific explanations lies the aboriginal abyss of radical amazement.”

Yogis and mystics throughout the ages have told us that what we consider the inner-universe is just as immense as the outer world. Each human being is situated between these truly ineffable immensities, wherein words are incapable of adding meaning to the sheer fact of it all. We exist between a deep past and a deep future – measured in billions of years … tottering precariously, briefly, just on the edge of now. Our modest life-spans seem to blur into what some have called time out of mind.

And then there are also the scales of reality – the relative sizes of things. Humans seem to be medium-sized – in the middle – between galactic clusters and quantum particles. Thus, in these three ways (temporal, spatial, numerical), we are truly, each one of us, an intersection of infinities. Miraculous! We traverse our days and nights, having our unique (and often undervalued) experiences as glowing self-aware mysteries, moving – hopefully evolving (perhaps inevitably) – toward greater Self-Awareness. Life is amazing, isn't it!

So, being actually poised between all these immensities, what then are our creative capacities? How much do we really know about our potential as human beings? Have we ever truly plumbed the depths of our intrinsic powers?

One of the supreme attainments of all our human potentials occurs when we re-cognize our way into an awareness of awareness. This explosive, iterative, sweet-spot of Self being consciously aware of (It)Self – Self-realization – happens outside of our concept of time. Our little-self gently evaporates. Linear time evaporates. Verbs evaporate... and then: the always-already-present Unified-Reality beyond all the conceptions of the thinking-mind … bliss, compassion, wisdom, love, infinity … we are left with just … THIS !

Spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson, in her prescient nudging, shines a light onto this dilemma of the small self, its fear, and its associated potentials when she says, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” And sometimes the linguistic residue of this realized wisdom consists of moving poetic pointers: Again, from Heschel, “Each thing is a surprise, being is unbelievable. We are amazed at seeing anything at all.”

These are strange times we live in, surely. But times are always strange. A fresh perspective and allowing oneself to unfold into the greater mystery can really help us to live more happily in this strange world. Experiencing ourselves and all around us as simply pure relationship. Experiencing our unimaginable vastness. Experiencing physical reality as just our interpretation of vibration, an out-picturing from ourselves as vibrational beings. Experiencing our entire makeup, interactions and relationships as just the attraction, co-mingling and shifting of vibrational resonances. Experiencing thought as holographic rather than linear. Downloading totalities of information and codes. Experiencing our past, future and parallel selves as all existing now - totally intertwined and accessible. Experiencing outside and inside as the same; the entire Universe as being within us. Experiencing ourselves as simply an aspect of the entire Universe – Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient. Accepting total freedom and total accountability.

Always remember that what lies without is paled by what lies within.

Adapted from an article by Richard Henry Whitehurst and comments at uplift.com on August 24, 2020