In five radio talks, Jean Gebser explores experience, inner freedom, and the unfolding of consciousness. He considers how we live, what experience becomes through reflection, and how obstacles can open a path to transformation. Effortless accomplishment emerges through practice, trust, and release from the demands of the ego. Comparing Asian and European thought, he asks how their different relationships to time, selfhood, and the world might contribute to a more integral consciousness.
Jean Gebser — 1 recording in the archive.
The book: The Ever-Present Origin by Jean Gebser.
Ladies and gentlemen, the question “How does the human being live?” sounds so simple. But who among us, reflecting on it even briefly, would not be shaken? Please forgive me for using such a weighty word so readily. Whoever asks this question touches the deepest roots: those of life, of humanity, of our own humanity. Ultimately there is no answer that satisfies the intellect. At most there is an answer to the “how.” Anyone who is honest regards this “how” with unease. Because of the European self-centeredness of our thinking, “How does the human being live?” immediately becomes “How do I live?” Yet precisely that, ladies and gentlemen, is initially less important to this question than we think. It would be more appropriate to ask: “How do I live as a human being?” You may think this needlessly draws out the matter. It does nothing of the kind. Without our knowing it, “How do I live?” is already given a one-sided emphasis according to whether I am a woman or a man. But this is not a question about me, or about man or woman. It concerns the great mystery of humanity, and the equally great mystery of the life we lead, or which leads us. Ultimately it is a question about humankind; in its deepest sense, about God. The answers will be manifold. The “how” we are asking about may already differ in the next village. How much more when we consider neighboring peoples or continents. Hearing about many peoples, discovering the many ways people can live, encountering many ways of life and of being human: this is a great gift. If we know how to use it, it enriches us beyond compare. Through difference we can compare and learn about ourselves: our limits, weaknesses, and tasks. We can learn reverence for the wonder of life and humanity, whatever forms they take, even those that seem strange to us. For we should not forget: however another person lives, however strange it appears, everywhere life is lived and endured, suffered and enjoyed, fought for, accepted, shaped, squandered, and won. How this happens always differs. Yet if we dare to look deeper, and may we be granted that deeper sight, it proceeds from a fundamental melody whose origin we can only sense. But we know this melody. We know we sing it, and that it sings us. Whether at the North…