Natural Human Motivation:
Powered By Our Selfish Nature

     Looking at this blackened diagram, we see two immediate issues:  First, why is the whole diagram blackened?  Second, what does the blackened diagram mean in practical, everyday terms?

     To begin, we said back in Session Three that our mind is Spiritually neutral, and that it only does what it’s told to do by an outside motivator.  As a result of that principle, our mind can’t resist the motivating force of our inborn selfish nature.  Instead, it allows itself to be operated by the black motivation flowing up into it from our self-centered nature – and that’s true whether we’re babies in a stroller or a 70-year-old actor.

     Then, we said back in Session Two that our spirit is Spiritually dead in its original condition at human birth, and that it has no motivating power of its own.  As a result of that principle, our spirit also can’t resist the motivating force of our inborn selfish nature.  Instead, it allows itself to overwhelmed by the black motivation flowing down into it through our neutral mind and from our self-centered nature.  Now, what do these two principles mean in daily, common sense terms?

     What does it mean for a person to have a completely “black” motivational system:  one powered completely by his or her selfish nature?  We saw examples of what it means with the Mickey Rooney and baby stroller stories.  But for a more specific answer, let’s review the definition of “human nature” that we saw previously in Session Four:

              Human nature is the inner selfish motivation that makes people proud,
          angry, vulgar, critical, and cruel.  It’s born in people and can’t be removed
          or changed.  Both Christians and non-Christians have it.  In this seminar we’ll
          call it “Our Selfish Nature.”  It can also be called by its most common early
          Christian synonym, “Our Flesh.”

     Using this definition in our discussion, if a person has a totally black motivational system, his or her daily behavior will match the definition we just read:  His or her daily conduct will be proud, angry, vulgar, critical, and cruel – just like Mickey Rooney and the baby in the stroller.  Said another way, his or her daily conduct will be unspiritual:  It’ll be unloving, unforgiving, and hurtful to others.

     As we said in Session Four, this is a difficult principle for many people to swallow and many people deny that it’s true.  However, as we said earlier, we don’t need to be drooling serial killers or fiendish opium peddlers to accept the principle that our human nature is basically self-centered.  Obviously, some people are more selfish than others – and we all have bad days.  But what we’re talking about here is the basic, underlying, foundational principle of natural human motivation in its original form.

     To understand that, let’s pause to ask some honest questions:  For example, why is it so easy to use profanity when we slam a drawer on our finger?  Why is it so easy to curse a driver who cuts us off in traffic?  Why is it so easy to laugh at obscene jokes?  Why is it so easy to read pornographic magazines?  And to fantasize about sex?  And to attend violent, vulgar movies?  And to feel depressed, stressed, and helpless at times?

     The answer to these questions (and dozens like them) is simple.  The reason such things are so easy is that they’re the result of natural human motivation.  They’re the result of the normal self-centeredness that we inherited from our ancestors.  As proof of that principle, let’s see what the richest and smartest human who ever lived said about natural human motivation.

     His words are in Part 3.  Let’s turn to Part 3 now and see what he said.