“Every human being comes into the world bearing within them the tendencies and appetites they have inherited from a distant past, when they had many characteristics in common with animals, and these characteristics have been imprinted since those times. We can never be absolutely free of the past. The difference between people is that some are enlightened by Initiatic Science and know how to subjugate their animal instincts, whilst others who are deprived of this light or for some reason do not accept it, can only manifest their lower tendencies. For them this is normal, they think that Initiatic Science is unnatural, abnormal. But for more enlightened beings, Initiatic Science is completely natural and normal. 

The majority of human beings belong to the group without light. They talk about rediscovering Nature and obeying the natural laws, but which nature are they talking about? There are two natures in man, one lower, one higher. People think they are obeying Nature when in fact they are doing something exactly opposite to their higher Nature, whereas others concentrate on their divine Nature and do everything in their power to subjugate and restrict the impulses of their human nature.

Confusion reigns in people’s minds and that is why it is so important for them to realize that a higher Nature exists in them, which expresses itself quite differently from the human nature they inherited from the animal kingdom. You hear people say (to justify their weaknesses), ‘It’s human nature!’ What they should say is ‘animal nature’, and nowhere is it written that man is justified in giving in to his primitive instincts.”

The thing that interests animals most is survival, they need food and shelter above all, and then they need to reproduce and defend themselves. Nature herself has given them their instincts of self-preservation, aggression, reproduction, for a reason: it is natural for animals to be self-centred, cruel, fearful, but humans are a different matter. Cosmic Intelligence gave them the power to think and to reason (along with other qualities and virtues) in order for them to go further than their instincts alone would permit. They have their animal nature, but they have another nature as well; it is their destiny to develop that nature and allow it to express itself. I am not saying it is easy, nor that it can be done in a day. Human nature is too close to animal nature for it to change easily or rapidly.

Observe yourself and you will see that some tendencies are so deeply rooted that nothing will remove them and at the same time other tendencies need constant encouragement and even, without prayer and meditation, disappear entirely. When you are faced with hunger or thirst, the need for sleep or certain pleasures, no one needs to remind you, you know what to do, those needs are so firmly rooted that even if you wanted to you could not shake them. But when it is a question of reasoning, of thinking something through, of being wise and showing foresight, or a little generosity or unselfishness, there you need to be encouraged.

We have something in us that is very firmly rooted, something solid and unalterable that can get along perfectly well without help… and we have something else in us which is delicate and tender and needs protection. Yes, for centuries man’s instinctive nature has had time to grow and become a strong habit, whereas his mind and the ability to reason are comparatively recent acquisitions.”

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov,
Izvor Book 213, Man’s Two Natures, Human and Divine
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