An orientation to your inheritance

If you are reading this, you are not a rock, a bird or a gibbon. You are a human being. And because of this, you have an inheritance.

Your inheritance is written in your name: human being. Both words are essential. You are not merely human or merely a being, you are both and more; something both seen and seeing.

Your human-ness is everything visible and seen right now. It is also our personal and evolutionary past. We are biologically bound and thus subject to a long list of humiliating constraints on what we can do and achieve in the time we are gifted.

Your being-ness is the invisible side of you; the side that knows, the presence in which your experience unfolds, and the medium for everything most meaningful to you: love, hope, joy and meaning itself.

Taken together, our human being has somatic, emotional, conceptual, relational and mystical aspects. These are built-in to your experience: your inheritance as a human being.

This work is about orienting you to this dual inheritance, your human being. The place where we each begin and belong.

The aim is to furnish you with an inclusivity of vision about how to human being: a support to your own unique flourishing into this one life, which is down to you and you alone. I think that familiarising yourself with the terrain will give you a stronger perspective from which to chart your own course. It will also help you recognise the various hangups to flourishing we’ll discuss throughout this book.

Do not underestimate a well-tended foundation. Ask any acorn.