If “human nature” is unnatural to you, are you really human?

When someone is used to doing a particular thing in a specific way or thinking in a certain way, we will hear them say, “It’s just human nature”. If you are anything like me, you may often hear that phrase and question your humanity. I am alive, and I know myself, so I am certain of my humanity in that sense. However, if human nature is something contrary to what is natural to me, some level of dissonance exists, requiring clarity for the sake of mental peace.

I have heard it said that it is human nature to want things to go the way you want them to go and be disappointed when they do not. It is my nature to have some plans and desires while staying present and accepting whatever happens with grace and gratitude. This way is much easier for me because I did not always feel like this but over time learned that fighting against reality is a losing battle and whatever happens organically is the most natural thing possible.

Sometimes our plans work out exactly the way we envisioned. Other times we plan and organise, and nothing goes the way we intended. Both times, there is an acceptable end result and more often than not, it turns out even better than we imagined. Think back on your life, on every situation, every circumstance and every choice, when did things not work out for the best? Think in the long run. Often the immediate result produces stress and confusion but if we just give it some time, we come to realise why things worked out the way they did, rather than the way we wanted. If we can accept this, then we must also be able to accept that things always work out. Agreeing that things always work out produces calm and peace of mind. To me, this is human nature. How many of us constantly have calm and peace of mind though?

True meditation creates the space for clearing one’s mind and bringing about peace, but in today’s world what percentage of any population meditates regularly? Who has time in the day to clear their minds and find themselves when there is so much stuff to do? The civilization that we have created, or rather the one that was created for us, takes us further and further away from human nature until we reach the point where the opposite of human nature is what is widely believed to be natural to us.

Greed and selfishness, they say, are natural and normal human qualities. I do not know that to be true. Learned traits based on dysfunctional socialization maybe, but certainly not natural or normal human qualities. One of the best feelings in the world is giving something that is needed or desired to someone and having them appreciate it. It lifts our own spirits, we do not lose anything by giving, we gain happiness for ourselves. If we lived in an equitable world without luxuries and everyone had consistent adequate access to all their basic needs so that we felt secure in always having access to more, surely, we would also give more freely as well. Because that is human nature.

Creating this rat race, the crabs in a barrel societal space creates the greed and the selfishness, there is nothing natural about such qualities. In actuality; they are rather foreign to humanity. It is a simple case of us having strayed so far from our self, that we have forgotten the way back to us. Or maybe we have concluded that this way is the best way despite it being clear that the way we are going is only hurting us.

So, the next time you hear the phrase, “Human nature”, pause and think for yourself if there is any truth there. Human nature does not come from the external world or circumstance, it comes from within. Goodness, piety, empathy, and love are natural human qualities that over time have been eroded and replaced with lesser qualities and lower frequencies based on the physical environment. Indeed, we must all exist in the physical, but we are as mental, spiritual, and emotional as we are physical. Thus, we must accept that human nature encompasses the complete human being, both the unseen and the manifestations.