The Present-Day Relevance of Siddhartha Gautama — "The Buddha"
Abstract
Siddartha Gautama never considered himself to be anything but a simple Human Being.
His prime relevance to the present-day lies in the fact that, as a Human Being,
he was able to achieve a form of enlightenment that proved to be of immense
importance to the people of his time and in the manner of its achievement.
It highlights an aspect of human consciousness that it is important that we
again access.
The rapid evolution of human consciousness appears to be a late but natural outcome
of evolutionary processes that have been shaping the Universe for thirteen
billion years. The contributions to the perception of reality made by the
Buddha, Lao-Tzu, Confucius and Heraclitus, each of whom were reacting to dramatic
changes, which impacted on the human condition some two and a half thousand
years ago, contributed to such evolution. Their very different perceptions
replaced mythically-based beliefs with views of Reality that were rational
in terms of the knowledge of their day and appealing to the yearnings that
were evolving in human consciousness.
At the present time, Mankind is experiencing an even more dramatic change
in the human condition than that to which Buddha and his contemporaries were
exposed in ancient times. Today, an explosion of human knowledge and power
is occurring, the dimensions of which have no historic precedent. The dimensions
of that explosion, again make a review of the implications of human existence,
imperative.
Scientists now believe that it took some ten billion years to evolve the order and structured
maturity prerequisite to the emergence of Life in the Universe. Earthly life
emerged shortly thereafter. Over the next three billion years, its evolution
changed the Earth's atmosphere, making macro-life-forms possible. At the same
time, consciousness was evolving to render such life forms feasible. Its addition
to the evolutionary process eventually resulted in emergence of the sensory
organs, nervous system and brain that enabled animals to experience the reality
in which they existed. They evolved behavioural responses to the environmental
and social stimuli to which they were thus subjected, as a result. These further
stimulated brain evolution, eventually producing the brain, which serves Human
Beings. The human brain is unique on Earth in its ability to host the rapid
evolution of creative aspects of consciousness, such as will, language, intellect,
abstract thinking and deep emotion.
Some forty thousand years ago, the evolution of these qualities produced the
pensive, reflective quality in Man that first motivated humans to worship
and create. Focus on such activities further accelerated the evolution of
the human brain and consciousness, leading to the emergence of civilization
as a means of equipping them, better to serve the expanding demands that Humanity
was placing upon them.
The interactive partnership between human consciousness and civilization stimulated
the rapid evolution of each, eventually equipping humans to discover many
of Nature's secrets. It is the human understanding of those secrets, which
has enabled society to become the creative phenomenon it is today. That phenomenon
is fashioning a new Earthly Reality, including artificial intelligence, at
speeds that are millions of times faster than those at which its mindless,
chance-dependent evolutionary predecessors were able to operate.
Largely because instinctive drives, which promote selfishness, still motivate
much human behaviour, Man commonly misuses the new creative powers being vouchsafed
to him. As civilization makes human beings more interdependent and powerful,
actions motivated by instinctive selfishness commonly threaten individual
and collective wellbeing and even survival. Because of this, new emotional
drives are evolving within human consciousness that motivate individuals to
view their wellbeing as best served by actions that are harmonious with collective
interests. Even though, in an age dominated by a form of Consumerism that
encourages selfishness, these human yearnings fail to dominate human instincts
in many critically important situations, it is believed that, as human consciousness
continues to evolve, the wisdom necessary to correct that situation will evolve
with it.
The religions that presently serve Mankind evolved to cater to the needs of past
eras. They quite naturally failed to anticipate that, one-day, Man would acquire
the power to create his own Reality. Today, that shortcoming weakens such
religions, a situation that is exacerbated by the power of Consumerism. Selfish
lifestyles proliferate, atrophying deep human emotions, consuming earthly
resources and polluting the environment at unsustainable rates. This situation
will not begin to change positively until a majority of educated individuals
realize that their capacity to attain human happiness is not enhanced but
actually attenuated by the pursuit of such lifestyles. This is so, because
such pursuit diverts humans from exercising the deep emotions upon which their
happiness depends - and all human qualities atrophy if not regularly exercised.
It is argued that the Universe contains evolving consciousness only because the
Laws and Principles by which it is governed allow for its emergence and evolution.
It is held as axiomatic that such laws and principles must differ fundamentally
from those that govern physical evolution. The most likely reason for their
existence, therefore, is that advanced consciousness is essential to directing
the type of evolution that will characterise the Universe of the future. The
human experience demonstrates that the evolution of creative consciousness
is a local phenomenon. If it is intended that Beings driven by such consciousness
are to dominate future evolution throughout the Universe, life must be evolving
towards the emergence of such consciousness on billions of planets. The size
and nature of the Universe is such that, at least initially, most such occurrences
would be isolated from each other as Life on Earth appears to be isolated
from Life on other planets.
Based upon the above assumptions and the nature of human consciousness, the Universe
is postulated to have a purpose that renders rational the accomplishments
of evolution to this point in time - including the emergence of Man-like beings.
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One Man's View - Robin A McQueen
