Man’s Two Natures: Human and Divine
About This Book
Man's Two Natures: Human and Divine is Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov's sustained exploration of the dual constitution of the human being — the lower nature rooted in instinct, desire, self-preservation, and the ego's preoccupation with its own advantage, and the higher nature that is the expression of the divine within the human being: the capacity for love without condition, for wisdom that transcends personal interest, for beauty that delights in its own expression without seeking acknowledgment, and for will that is aligned with the good of the whole rather than the advantage of the part. The book addresses the most fundamental question of the spiritual life: what exactly is being worked with when one undertakes genuine inner development, and what is the relationship between these two dimensions of the human constitution?
Aivanhov's account of the dual nature is neither simple dualism (the lower nature as bad, the higher as good) nor romantic non-dualism (the denial that any meaningful distinction can be made). The lower nature, in his understanding, is not evil but immature — the necessary starting point of the human adventure, the vehicle through which the divine explores the dimensions of density, limitation, and contrast that the spirit alone cannot experience. The spiritual path is not the elimination of the lower nature but its progressive transformation and subordination to the higher — a process in which the instinctive drives, desires, and ego preoccupations do not disappear but are gradually enlightened, refined, and redirected by the increasingly luminous quality of the higher nature that is being developed through sustained practice.
What You'll Learn
• Understand the two-nature framework: Aivanhov's specific account of the constitution of the human being as the expression of two natures — what each consists of, how they relate to each other, and why the progressive development of the relationship between them (rather than the elimination of either) is the actual substance of the spiritual path
• Grasp the lower nature teaching: what Aivanhov says about the lower nature — its specific character (self-preservation, desire, ego preoccupation), why it is not evil but simply the necessary starting point of the human adventure, and how it needs to be worked with (transformed and redirected rather than suppressed or indulged) for genuine development to occur
• Recognise the higher nature teaching: the specific qualities of the higher nature as Aivanhov describes them — the capacity for unconditional love, for wisdom that transcends personal advantage, for aesthetic delight that needs no confirmation, for will aligned with the good of all — and how these qualities are developed through the specific practices of spiritual work
• Learn the transformation process: how Aivanhov understands the specific process through which the lower nature is transformed — not by force or willpower alone but through the progressive illumination of the lower nature's drives by the increasing light of the higher nature, which redirects and refines rather than suppressing or eliminating
• Appreciate the practical wisdom: how Man's Two Natures translates the theoretical framework of dual constitution into specific practical guidance — the specific situations and challenges (temptation, conflict, fatigue, doubt, the pull of the instinctive appetites) in which understanding the two-nature framework provides the most direct and effective guidance for the individual who is seriously engaged in the work of inner development
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