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If we believe in the evolutionary process, is it a fact that human beings would rank among the top of all species when it comes to the food chain, social interactions, complex reasoning, communications, cognitive thinking, mindfulness, perceiving and a very high intelligence scale overall? Are humans not at the top of the pile or the "peak" of intelligence for all life on this planet, as we know it? Some would argue or disagree with that perception or narrative, however through the standards of science, anatomy, and several thousand studies on human behavior and the human brain, humans (along with whales and dolphins[1]) have some of the most evolved neurological and thinking capacities of all the species measured and studied on earth. Why then when mentioning the word "human" we tend to frame it in a negative context or reference "we are only human after all" in a way that sets limitations and boundaries for who we really are as a species?
While primates are often used in studies of animal intelligence because of their similarities to humans and the workings of the brain, we may wonder if a primate or a whale, or a dolphin for that matter would think to themselves of using such limitations for their species of "we are only a primate, dolphin or whale after all!" So why as humans do we fuss all along the way from birth to death when other species like primates, whales, dolphins (and most of the animal kingdom) seem to conduct their life process of birth, growth, reproduction and death in a very steady, consistent, peaceful, and well maintained process? What fundamental point is humans missing here and is human intelligence really the highest form of intelligence on earth?
It is said that the human species is really a "struggling species[2]" with a lot of violence, expression of self, complaining or
"fussing" throughout life with judgment, ego, and opinions while the animal kingdom and Mother nature tend to get things completed and accomplished in its own right, its own time without limitations of self, drama, worry, or fuss. Why such a stark difference then if humans are so intelligent? Wouldn't humans choose to have knowledge, wisdom, peace, happiness and enlightenment without the "fuss" and go with the "flow" of life as a true expression of intelligence and self-discovery? Humans have been given both a blessing and a curse of housing the most sophisticated appliance or "super computer" or what we would reference as the human brain. With the ability to access thought, love, pleasure, desire, intuition, emotion, empathy and consciousness, the fundamental point being missed is that most of us humans have never read the user's manual for such an amazing apparatus and how to really use it! Wait; there is a user's manual?
The user's manual is within all of us. Having an understanding of our own intelligence, our mind, and our human engineering in responding to life is the opening chapter.
Pain and pleasure, joy and misery originates from within us and all humans will suffer from one extent or another, but life isn't happening to us to make us suffer, life is happening for us to experience, learn, and choose for ourselves the type of life we desire. Life is a phenomenon that all humans are experiencing and interacting with, it is that simple. Once we go within and stop looking to the outside world for answers our understanding and knowledge of the user's manual becomes a beautiful and life changing process. Life will never agree to our standards, because life is happening for and around us, not to us, and the outside environment will never happen a hundred percent the way we want it.
What is happening within us and how we want and see life from the internal (not external) viewpoint is the main topic for our user's manual. D
ownloading mass intelligence, positive attitude, healthy mindsets, personal choices, and the power of free will to our "super computer" of a brain and applying what we have gleaned from our user's manual will be the life we see, want, and desire for self-discovery. If we understand the user's manual of self-discovery we will also realize that wellbeing for the human condition and human experience will never come from the outside world, as the human perspective is created from within. We could learn a lesson or two from our whale and dolphin friends out there in nature, we are human after all!
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress." -Frederick Douglass
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