There is a common force of nature, and from it come two opposing forces – giving and receiving.
Humans exist between these forces, and both affect us. The question then arises: how does humanity evolve under the influence of these forces? Where does it work? In what is it free? How do we accumulate and relate these two forces in ourselves? How can humanity reach a new stage of development by utilizing these forces?
Integral methodology answers the question: how do we get these two forces in optimal balance and use them to shape ourselves so as to resemble the laws of nature, to achieve the identity of form with the force of recoil in nature? So far, the laws of nature have given us control over the pace of our progress, including in taking them upon ourselves.
That is the essence of our free will. How could we act if we had no free will? Who would we be? Will we further be mere robots functioning always under control?
However, even up until now, people have always been in control. What does that mean?
It was as if nature had injected into man a dash of selfishness – the desire to enjoy oneself at someone else’s expense, and then a little more, and a little more. And then he would get the impetus to move toward all sorts of selfish ends. The more his egoism inflated, the more he was willing to expand to increasingly profit at the expense of others. Nature has continually squeezed this “syringe” into man.
Our era, on the other hand, is characterized by the fact that the syringe of selfishness has been completely injected into us, and there is no more of it left. So people have nowhere to run.
Where are they headed from this state? What will they do?
Moreover, selfishness has become global and inherent. In the beginning, humanity was fine because it achieved selfish global connections in the world and thought everything would be fine. But when such connections came to depend on everyone, civilization turned against nature.
At this point we find ourselves with a serious dilemma and we need to decide what to do about it. Inflated selfishness combined with our ever closer global ties is leading us to growing problems around the world. And today we need a new form of connection-enriching education that can show us how to change selfish connections into altruistic ones. This is the key to the transition to a harmonious and sustainable world.
