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What really is human nature? It seems like an easy, even silly question: surely everyone knows what human nature is, as we all have one. But when I started to think about it, I realized we really don't understand our singular (as in being different from animals) human nature, because we really don't understand ourselves. We think we do, we act as though we 'know' what we're all about, but if that were true, then why is there such a widespread 'self-limiting'. By this I mean, none of us are as much as we could be: not as smart, not as accomplished, not as giving, not as loving as we are capable of. It seems to one degree or another we always come up short, in our marriages, in our friendships, in our careers, in our sense of... more. A student or athlete who risks cheating, a married person who risks an affair, a professional who risks a career, a leader who risks reputation, anyone who risks addiction of any kind-- why is there so much self-destructive behavior in our human nature? Animals do not have such a conflicted nature; they live instinct-based lives and in the wild at least, they live to survive. Tame or wild, no animal ever reflects on its life, wishing it had done more with it, regretting this or that. They simply live, in the moment, without giving thought to past or future--and the strange thing is that we humans know this about them. We understand the nature of the tiger or the family dog far better than we understand our own nature: the proof is that we can tame/control every animal on this earth but have not in 10,000 years been able to 'tame' our own nature as the myriad wars of history prove our dismal lack of self-control as a species. Now we have weapons that can very efficiently destroy all of life itself, but to what end? Why have we done so? We really don't know, do we-- but it can't be self-defense as there would be nothing left to defend. If your dog could reason as you do, it would probably think, 'you humans are insane!' And it would be right, wouldn't it?

After 70 some years I've come to suspect that human nature is intrinsically broken: some major part is missing. Something that would make us whole, all that we could be, all the time. I call it God, but Allah, Nirvana, Yahweh, Brahman, Higher Power all work as well. If you sense the immortal part of you, the self that transcends birth and death, then you know its great need for that missing 'Part' and the sense of wholeness, holiness, only the One can bring to your very soul.
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