Making the 21st Century the Century of the Mind, Mental Existence and Mental Development

What takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence defines and governs how we understand and manage existence and development. It defines and governs how we understand, manage and conduct ourselves individually, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. What takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence defines and governs how we deal with the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us, with problems and difficulties, change and changing conditions.

We consciously exist and act in the mind and mental existence. It is where we experience, become aware, and where we must consider and understand the conditions of existence, the world around us, and how to deal with them. The mind and mental existence is where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions.
Problems and difficulties, limits and shortcomings, failures, errors and mistakes in what we do and we engage in have their roots and beginning in the mind and mental existence, and it is where answers and solutions must start.

To address the problems and difficulties we face around the world today -- persisting and growing environmental, cultural, religious, political, social, economic and mental health problems, difficulties and crises, conflict and confrontation -- we need to go beyond instant relief, short and medium-term measures controlling symptoms and consequences, managing from crises to crises. We must deal with the underlying causes and developments. The problems and difficulties we face are the results and consequences of human action. They are the results and consequences of what we do and we engage in, how we understand and manage our existence and development. More specifically, they are the results and consequences of what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence, which lies behind how we understand, manage and conduct ourselves individually, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. The problems and difficulties are the results and consequences of how we understand and manage what takes place and what we do in the mind, problems and difficulties, limits, shortcomings, failures, errors and mistakes understanding and managing the mind and mental existence.

Traditionally the mind and mental existence have been understood as the human spirit or soul, our connection to a supernatural-spiritual world. The mind and mental existence are managed through appeals and offerings to supernatural spirits, forces and gods for favours and protection from evil forces and temptations. In psychology and psychiatry the mind and mental existence are understood from the outside, through observing, deducing and concluding from outward behaviour and actions about what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence. Mental problems and difficulties are address through psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychiatric medication and drugs. In science, the "sciences of the mind" -- cognitive science, neuroscience, behavioral genetics and evolutionary psychology -- the mind and mental existence are understood through the study of the physical-biological roots and foundation, the genetic-neurological systems and processes, behind the mind, mental existence and mental faculties, their development, structure and workings.

Today, we have yet to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside, as the place where we consciously exist and act. The place where we experience, become aware and must consider and understand the conditions of existence, the world around us, and how to deal with them. The place where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. We have yet to understand and manage the mind and mental existence as the place where problems, difficulties and crises, conflict and confrontation have their roots and beginnings, and where the answers and solutions must start.

Addressing the problems and difficulties we face today around the world requires making the 21st Century the Century of the mind, mental existence and mental development. Not the scientific study of the physical-biological roots and foundation, the genetic-neurological systems and processes behind the mind, mental existence and mental faculties, but understanding and managing the mind, mental existence and mental development from the inside. Understanding and managing them from the inside as the place where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware, and must consider and understand the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. It requires establishing the necessary internal mental conditions for a sustainable, secure and peaceful future.

The answers and solutions require changing, correcting and improving how traditionally and today we understand and manage human existence and development. We understand and manage existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties, change and changing conditions from the top down and from the outside in, in an externalized, fragmented, generalized and dissociated way in the abstract. We understand and manage them from the human-created socio-cultural, political, economic, scientific and technological level down to the level of the natural conditions of existence and the individual. We understand and manage existence and development, ourselves, the mind and mental existence through understanding and managing the world around us, from within different, competing and conflicting socio-cultural beliefs, views, values, conventions and practices.

We divide and separate an integrated, related and interacting reality into different issues, subject matters, disciplines, fields of study and areas of human activity, specialization and expertise, each defined and governed by different and competing assumptions, objectives, approaches and practices. Moreover, we try to create the ideal external, socio-cultural and physical-material conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance, through rearranging, controlling and directing the world around us, nature and the natural environment. In doing so, we contradict, conflict with and fall short of the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence, causing persisting and growing problems and difficulties, conflict and confrontation.

To address the problems we face we need to understand and manage human existence and development from the ground up and from the inside out, in their essence, in depth and detail, in a comprehensive, a differentiated, but integrated, connected and related way. First, we must understand and manage existence and development at the level of the natural conditions of existence, which are common to all human beings and which in the first instance define and govern our existence. Moreover, we must understand and manage them from the inside, beginning with understanding and managing the mind and mental existence. It is where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware, and where we must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them.

We must start with understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside, because it is where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and action. It is the place where problems and difficulties, limits and shortcomings, failures, errors and mistakes in what we do and what we engage in have their roots and beginnings, and where the answers and solutions must start. We need to establish the necessary internal mental conditions to understand and manage existence and development, understand, manage and conduct ourselves individually, connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment in sustainable, secure and peaceful ways.