I want to become a better Human Being. But how to do that?
"Of all that has been written, all the wisdom of the world, all the scriptures, all the nice sayings, there’s only one purpose for it all—for you to be a better person." —Prem Rawat
What is "a better human being"? To me, it means not giving in to negative feelings motivating behaviour, but encouraging those feelings which promote positive behaviour. Let's see if I can make this a little clearer:
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Negative
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Positive
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sadness
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happiness
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anger
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joy
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ingratitude
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gratitude
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hate
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love
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hostility
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peace
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ignorance
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knowledge
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fear
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confidence
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lonely
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friendly
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complicated
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simple
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dissatisfied
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content
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greed
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generosity |
All I have to ask myself is: which of the above feelings do I automatically prefer? The answer for me, and for everyone I know, is the positive list. It's built-in, and most of us spend our life pursuing those apparently elusive feelings.
Every time I buy something, it's in the hope that this will give me some moments of happiness. If help someone, it's because I recognise myself in that other person, or rather, I recognise that they are also doing their best to find happiness in their life.
So, to me, being a better human being means understanding myself, knowing myself and in particular understanding that it's the positive feelings I like, and I am pursuing. The negative list, above, takes me away from that goal. So I need to find and act on those feelings which make me feel good and ignore or let go as quickly as possible of the negative crap I am often intent on experiencing.
The story is told of Hanuman, the Monkey God, who was asked why he followed Ram in the Ramayana story from India. His reply was simply: "because he makes me a better person".
Be a better human being, not a perfect human being, but a better one - it's worth every effort!
