Personal & Transpersonal

So, what is it in the end that really touches us, what is this? I believe it’s this: that we can find out what it is that we value and love in ourselves. That we can face our own limitations and faults with sympathy. And that with both our best aspects and our limitations, we can contribute to the well-being of others, indeed to the common good. As Desmond Tutu says: “Contributing to the common good is in one’s own best self-interest.”

Our nature is both: personal and transpersonal, meaning that we’re also part of a larger whole, and we would like to live this out, give it expression, serve it, and enjoy it. We would like to have the happiness inducing experience of serving the common good – this is not a moral imperative, but is rather an intensive urge to achieve personal satisfaction. It is not the urge for self-confirmation or to go down in history as a “good person,” but rather the desire to give expression to our original social / communal nature. That which touches our personal uniqueness and our possibilities to serve the common good, these are good issues.

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