Essential Human Nature

What about a human being is distinct from other life forms on Earth?

Intelligence? No, everything on Earth expresses intelligence of a wide variety.
Relatedness? No, everything on Earth demonstrates and exists because of relation and inter-dependence.
Shape, form, beauty? No, everything on Earth is the manifestation of idea and ideal that has taken shape and form in order to express beauty and harmony.
Love? No, love is as varied as intelligence; and the expression s of love are as limitless as the manifestations of life.
Then, what is distinct about being human? Heart-mind. In Sanskrit, the word is bodhichitta.

Heart-mind is the unified quality of compassion-wisdom, of empathic-livingness, of unified wholeness expressing through diverse means – yet always as unified wholeness. One might look out to the world, or into oneself and say that these definitions are not being lived by humanity. Then, that is stating that humanity is not living its nature, its essence, its being.

The Intermediate level of The Practice of Living Awareness ripens the corresponding Entry step. Heart-Mind is Step 6. But, in addition to Heart-Mind being a naturally occuring result from inital meditation training, Heart-Mind is what we are as human beings. Because of this essential nature, the experience of patience or peace or kindness or creative inspiration can happen for each of us. Because of our essential nature (bodhichitta), we can transform a moment into lightness of being from worry, impatience, or anger. Little by little, through right now and every moment, we can change the world – simply by being what we are -Heart-Mind, Human Beings.