2011 Do humans transcend nature?

Let's look at the following statement and see if there is any practical support within it or perhaps whether there are further considerations required that the statement does not address:

"Yes - we are part of nature and cannot forget this. Yet, as human beings, we also transcend nature. "

Firstly, what is meant by 'nature'? Likely it is meant to include the plants and animals, rocks, oceans, etc. This is probably what most people are referring to when they use the word. For example, 'I like being out in nature.'

According to wikipedia:

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general.

 The other sense of the word is given by wikipedia as:

Nature is innate behavior (behavior not learned or influenced by the environment), character or essence, especially of a human

Here we mean our inner essence - the 'who we are'. For example someone might say, 'I like to help because its in my nature.'

Within the statement we are looking at, it is clear that nature is meant in the sense of animals, plants, etc - the physical world.

Obviously, we as humans are part of the physical world in that our bodies are physical. We breathe, we eat, we walk - these are all actions that take place in the context of the physical system in which we live. So there is no denying that we are a part of nature from that perspective.
But do we, as humans, transcend nature? This is one of the fundamental questions around which entire religions, spiritual systems, and philosophies are built. However, how can we know for sure? We assume that because we have thoughts, feelings, and emotions, we transcend the physical. However, do we fully understand where our thoughts, feelings, and emotions come from?

Furthermore, what does it mean to 'transcend' the natural - or physical - world? It must meant that we are somehow independent of the physical and thus 'above' it in some way. But where is the evidence of this? Sure there is plenty of evidence showing that we believe that we transcend the physical - for example our pursuits of happiness, love, and intellect - all pursuits which have no physical context in that their achievement is not a physical one. And to pursue these things we still have to live within the physical.

Look at the common sense. If we neglect the physical requirements of our body - we die. If we do not breathe - we die. Even the person who meditates for hours and hours still exists here as a physical body. If we were truly transcendent of the physical, then wouldn't it be possible for us to leave the physical at will? Why do we not know with any certainty what happens at death? Why can we not all individually know these things for ourselves? Why do we instead rely on the hearsay of others?

Is this statement - that we transcend nature - perhaps hiding a justification to rather focus on pursuits that are non-physical? Obviously, many do this. For example, take a person who wants to be successful in life. Let's assume they have defined success as being spiritual. Now to do this, they identify certain activities which they believe will make them more spiritual or serve as evidence of their spirituality, and they perform those activities. And yet at the same time, they must still eat, breathe, drink water, and use money (or at least the products of money.) In other words, they must still participate in the physical system here on Earth. Now, to be able to pursue their idea of success, we can agree that they need money or at least the things that money buys (food, clothing, shelter, etc). And if they do not labor for these things directly then they depend on someone else to donate these things which someone at some point will have to have physically labored to produce. So is it possible, in that sense, for anyone to pursue anything, while here on the Earth, without taking into consideration the physical? And if they are only pursuing their own ideas and beliefs then they are obviously neglecting to consider who will produce the things they require, because someone will have to produce them. The person who pursues an idea will ignore the reality of how the things they require are produced. They will not consider that many in this world have little to none of the things they need. They ignore the fact they some in this world are reduced to only pursuing their own physical survival at all times. And this is directly due to many in this world focusing only on things in their mind - ideas, beliefs, feelings - and thus not caring or paying attention to the physical at all. Obviously they still require the physical things, but as they are focusing on 'spiritual' or 'transcendent' goals, they will not be able to focus on how the physical necessities they require are produced. This is why we have an economic system in which the few exploit the physical labor of the many. Because in order to participate in beliefs and ideas - it requires an enormous amount of energy. And that is simply not possible if one has to labor physically. Thus we have created a economic system where those unfortunate enough to be born in the 'low' position will spend their entire life on Earth laboring physically without even the basic physical requirements being met for themselves - while others, having the basic physical requirements met - have 'freedom' to pursue otherworldly goals - like success, fame, love, happiness, etc. So, whether we acknowledge the point or not, in order for one to purse an idea or goal that is non-physical, according to the rules of the current system, one will require a slave or many slaves to attend to the physical things that one requires.

Is it possible for us to place value on these immaterial things and live in a world where there is no abuse? Why do we place value on such things in the first place? Perhaps this leads us to the other sense of the word 'nature'. Is it our nature to value only things that have no physical reality to them? Is it our nature to only place value on illusions? Are we illusions ourselves? I mean, if you are here in this physical world and you only care about your own happiness while others starve and suffer, then how can you claim your happiness to be real? Because in essence your happiness only exists in your mind as a set of beliefs that only you decide when you have achieved. Real happiness would be more like everyone having their needs met and thus participating in reality in a real physical way where the products of our labor actually support each other and ourselves. Its difficult to even imagine what that would mean, because we, as humans, only understand value in the context of our minds - we only place value on things that are not real - such as love or excitement. And yet it is only possible when one has their physical needs met to then place value on things that are not real. I say that these things are not real, because one moment they are here and the next they are gone. That is different than, say, building a house. Once you build the house, if you do it right, it stays where it is. The house, the structure, is real - not an illusion. But love, for example, or excitement - there is no substance to these things. And if we place value on such things, does that imply that we by our very nature are insubstantial?

What we are in essence doing is enslaving the physical world to be able to exist here and to then pursue beliefs and ideas in our minds - things that are not possible without the energy generated by creating conflict within the physical universe. For example, for me to experience the feeling of falling in love, I must first create a world in which I and another person have a lack of love - this will lead us to seeking out the experience we feel that we lack - thus creating a form of conflict within ourselves- and then experiencing the energy associated with the resolution of the conflict which we call falling in love. We feel complete - that all is well - that everything is as it should be. But as anyone who has experienced love knows; this feeling never lasts. And why should it? We created a system to experience something that wasn't real and that deliberately creates lack. That is real self abuse, isn't it? It is real insanity when we create and participate in a system of abuse and conflict to chase a feeling or idea and then expect that when we get that idea, not only will it be real, but we will not experience the consequence of the abuse we have carried out in order to pursue our goal. Thus we must believe we transcend the physical if we believe we can abuse it and yet escape the abuse ourselves.

If we were truly transcendent of nature - would we abuse it? Or is it that we are, in our very nature, abusive? We have to realize that we are not in fact separate from the physical world - we cannot exist without it. If we could, then why would we be here in the physical? And yet if we continue act as if we are better than the physical then we are simply harming ourselves. Are we simply the manifestation of self-abuse? Is that our true nature?


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