What is Human-ism?
 

Have you ever realized how connected you are with mother nature? 

We all are from the same source, same energy that runs through humans run through animals as well as plants. When we find medicine from trees it is not coincidentally but because we are connected genetically.  Human-ism for me is all about acknowledging our differences, being compassionate, being conscious of our environment and living for others. We are in a continuous cycle where if one entity blacks out the cycle will stop and we all disappear like bubbles. The Buddha said “Since this exists, that exists, and, since this does not exist, that does not exist. That is created because this is created, so if this disappears, that disappears.” We are interconnected beings.

Whether our individual fight against be racism, poverty or feminism, it would all perish if we all do not work to have an inner reflection; to notice our interconnectedness. There is one story that clearly shows why we are not aware of our interconnectedness but recognize our difference and give our differences a label to create inferiority complex mind set to others different than us. Once up on a time a beggar came to an emperor and the beggar said, 'If you are going to give me anything there is a condition.' The emperor said, 'What do you mean? What do you mean by your condition?' The beggar said, 'This is my condition: I accept only if you can fill my begging bowl absolutely. 'It was a small begging bowl. The King said, 'What do you think I am? Am I a beggar? I cannot fill this dirty small begging bowl?' The beggar said, 'It is better to tell you before, because later you can get into trouble. If you think you can fill, fill. 'The King called his vizier and told him to fill it with precious stones: with diamonds and rubies, emeralds. Let this beggar know with whom he is talking! But then there was difficulty. The bowl was filled but the king was surprised -- as the stone fell into it, it would disappear. It was filled many times and each time it was again empty. Now he was in a great rage, but he told the vizier, 'Even if my whole kingdom goes, if all my treasuries are emptied, let them be -- but I cannot allow this beggar to defeat me. This is too much.' And all the treasures, it is said, disappeared. By and by the king became a beggar. It took months. And the beggar was there and the king was there and the whole capital was there and everybody was wondering what was going to happen, what would happen in the end. Everything was simply disappearing. Finally, the king had to fall at the feet of the beggar and he said, 'Forgive me, but before you leave just tell me one thing. What is the secret of this begging bowl? All has disappeared in it.' The beggar started laughing. He said, 'It is made of human ego. I have made this begging bowl of a human ego: everything disappears in it, nothing ever fulfills it. 

 

Because of the vast ego space mind we developed through different experiences, we choose to defend our opinions even though we know we are not right. We choose and focus on our difference instead of recognizing our sameness. we forget that people living in the equator have dark skin color and people living in the Eskimo have white colors as snow because of weather and temperature difference but focus on our color supremacy. We have to recognize that we exist because there exist other entities in our surrounding before everything we put in disappears in the begging bowl.

It is neither our religion and skin color nor our race and sexual identity that is deep inside us that makes us human. In my perspective, we are humans because we can love, understand and live with others. We are humans because we can have a conversation and clear out our misunderstandings. We are humans because we have humanity!

So, What Is Human-ism For You?