326. The Human Superpower

Our ability to reflect is powerful. We can see ourselves in the context of the past we remember and the possible futures we imagine, which allows us to judge our past actions and plan our future actions accordingly. We use this power to develop sophisticated knowledge of the world, which in turn allows us to create complex technologies that further expand our abilities. The benefits of doing so are undoubtedly good, but with them comes a serious cost.

Reflective consciousness is not just powerful, it is a superpower, and as such, it is challenging to wield. Its power can easily overwhelm us and our entire lives can be taken over by its unrelenting judgments. For these judgments are never limited to the present moment, they are always oriented towards the future as intentions: we intend to get what we want, to avoid what we hate and fear, and to live out our beliefs.

We become attached to our intentions because they feel so close to what we need. We allow them to dominate our attention and manipulate our actions towards their particular ends. This produces suffering both because the world is never exactly what we intend it to be and because our actual needs go unmet. The result is that we suffer regularly from regret, stress, anger, grief, anxiety, despair, and many other painful feelings.

Suffering deprives us of the energy we need for creative and compassionate action, and thus any possibility of regularly experiencing joy. We have a pressing need to be free of our attachments and the domination of reflective consciousness. But we cannot simply decide not to judge and plan at all, for then we wouldn’t be human. We must utilize our reflective abilities where they are useful and needed, particularly in solving the many practical problems we encounter throughout life.

We must also recognize that we have needs that go beyond the practical — we need love, we need meaning, and we need joy. To be able to meet these needs, we have to allow ourselves freedom from our intentions, not by ignoring them or fighting them, but by seeing clearly how they produce suffering through attachment. Only then can we grant ourselves a more healthy relationship with our superpower, one where we are free of attachment and employ our reflective judgments to enhance our creativity and compassion.