Enlightened Naturalism

"To transcend oneself: this is the great imperative of the human condition: and there is another that anticipates it and at the same time prolongs it: to dominate oneself. The noble man is one who dominates himself; the holy man is one who transcends himself. These are the two dimensions-one horizontal and one vertical-to which we alluded when speaking of injustices and trials: the first dimension is that of earthly and outward man, and the second that of celestial or inward man. The obligation to dominate oneself, and all the more so to transcend oneself, is engraved in the intelligence and the will of man, because this intelligence is total, and this will is free: being total and free, the human soul has no other positive choice than to dominate itself in order to transcend itself. Our intelligence and our will are proportioned to the Absolute, meaning that our vocation as man is determined existentially by this relationship; without this, man would not be man. Nobility and holiness are the imperatives of the human state."

Frithjof Schuon