The Human as the 'Total Package'

"The earlier concept of a universe made up of physical particles interacting according to fixed laws is no longer tenable. It is implicit in present findings that action rather than matter is basic. . . This is good news, for it is no longer appropriate to think of the universe as a gradually subsiding agitation of billiard balls. The universe, far from being a desert of inert particles, is a theatre of increasingly complex organization, a stage for development in which man has a definite place, without any upper limit to his evolution." --Arthur M. Young  The Reflexive Universe

"The universe...is a stage for development in which man has a definite place, without any upper limit to his evolution."
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Arthur Young, like Albert Einstein and a small, select group of other scholars and researchers have deep understanding of difficult subjects and can use words with economy and great skill to illuminate the obscure.  What follows are words chosen with much less-disciplined scholarship and much less eloquence - and even less economy...

      The previous post highlighted the shortcomings of words when it comes to considering esoteric ideas.  We'll see if a graph can help, or not - along with more words, that are also insufficient to explain the unexplainable.  The 'Total Package' human being is partly a biological being and partly other than that.  I offer an illustration of a three part being, a view informed by Anthroposophy.

The goal of this overall, however, is an attempt to bring together bits from many teaching sources I've come across in the last forty years or more.  I believe I was very fortunate to have recognized the parts of a bigger picture as they came along; sometimes like a swinging 2 x 4, aimed at my forehead.

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The graph shown below has a timeline across the bottom that could be drawn in a circular shape to represent that the beginning and the end are the same point.   But it’s not customary to think of time working that way, and it’s easier to understand the passing of time in the usual, linear form.  The timeline represents an example human lifespan of about 80 years for any given individual.

There are values represented beyond either end of the timeline and these are also not conventional ideas.  We are accustomed to thinking that little else exists, if anything at all, which is not found in the field of time.  The values beyond the frame of the timeline are the basis for understanding the overall significance of the graph.

Line A (solid line) represents the human ability to functionally inhabit one’s body: degrees of mastery of its facility and faculties, so the arc peaks around late adolescence or early adulthood.  This line pertains not only to human biology, but also to that of perhaps most living things.  The approach to the curve peak (i.e., the “prime of life”) is naturally more urgent than the decline.

(Lines B & C depict non-biological, less commonly-understood qualities - though they represent concepts of much contemplation.  Consideration of their very existence gives rise to all manner of reaction, quite often contentious - too often in the extreme.  The whole controversial subject is often politely set-aside with, “it’s a matter of faith”.)

Lines B1,2,3 (short dashes) represent human connectedness to others and attachments to things: the degree to which we follow the desires of our senses and other urges.

The controversy here rests on whether there is such a thing as a transmutable soul.  If yes, then a line representing soul development could enter or exit the timeframe at any point on the vertical scale, depending on how many attachments remain to be negotiated (“karma” to the Hindu).  Or, the line could not exist at all because there is no such thing as a soul.  Here, there is a line (with three alternative trajectories) and that makes the argued position obvious.

Line B1 shows a case where a soul enters life with some unfulfilled desires, acquires more and then satisfies many of them and loosens their claim on the soul “going forward”(for the next incarnation).  In such a case, the line roughly mirrors Line A.  This might be called 'living a temperate life'.

Line B2 shows a “high needs” profile, where “leftover” desires are inborn and more come along close on the heels of the others.  This demanding scenario typifies an early stage of life for most of us, but here that stage continues along.  Excess baggage was brought in, hauled around and left with through the revolving door.  (These souls deserve love, not judgment - because everyone is to some degree "high needs", compared to our ideal selves.)

Line B3 shows a case where the nature of desire* may be fortunately understood sometime in young adulthood to mid-life and the line arcs downward from there and tapers off. (*e.g., Buddhist teaching about the endless cycle of Desire, Fulfillment, Regret...) This line ends because the desires are satisfied and they die with the body.  

(note:  these ‘B’ lines each exit the graph at a point lower than their entry point which is to illustrate some degree of karmic “progress” for the depicted incarnation.)

Line C  illustrates an assumed realm where our spiritual essence exists “off-the-chart” except in this life.  The path of the line (long dashes) indicates a stage of withdrawal from, or rebelling against, unity with the spiritual whole and it dips to its lowest somewhere below the peak of Line A.  From that low point it could stay level or rise on any number of paths.  In this example, the line depicts one who has reconnected with spiritual ideas and seeks answers to ever-deeper questions.  Perhaps gradually, following discovery of some source(s) of inspiration, the line continues upward by force of attraction toward reunification.  The descent and ascent of this arc connotes the idea of spiritual rebirth. 

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