Why Do the Enlightened Have
Very Different Needs?

By Wallace Huey

An enlightened person has very different personal needs from everyone else. He has physiological and safety needs for air, water, food, health and for safety and shelter. These are on the two bottom levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. His higher needs, as outlined on the pyramid, are not to do with any sense of personal lack. They exist to empower his life of service.

An enlightened person can live perfectly well with the few needs at the bottom two levels in the above pyramid of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. How can this be when so many other people are looking to satisfy all the needs in the pyramid, especially the higher needs?

Lets look at each of the higher categories of need in the pyramid to understand how this is so.

Social Needs

An enlightened person has few social needs, and what social needs he has are usually an outcome of his life of service in the world and are met by his life of service.

The need for love

An enlightened person has an abundance of love, generated from within. This means he is not dependent on finding love through relationships with other people. If he has such relationships it is wonderful for him, but if they are not present in his life he feels no compulsion to go out and find them. In that sense, for him love is something he gives, rather than something he needs.

The need for belonging

The enlightened person long ago ceased to belong to any group, collective or tribe. He may be part of such a group but does not feel any need to be tied to it emotionally, practically or psychologically. It was part of his spiritual training to learn to live in his own world and to be sovereign.

This was brought about naturally, because as the enlightened person raises his consciousness, so the people around him find it more and more difficult to relate to him and be friends in the normally understood way. That’s because his mind is empty of the many interests and concerns that occupy most people, so there is little they can share with an enlightened person.

The need for inclusion

An enlightened person does not have any need for inclusion in any specific group. He may be included or he may not. That’s because his is a consciousness of Oneness. Therefore he experiences belonging to the whole universe, so whether he belongs to any particular human group or not is of no concern. If he has inclusion in groups he enjoys it, if not, no problem.

Ego

The enlightened person’s ego still exists but in a disconnected form. This means he is free of the influence of his conditioning. Although his ego runs in the background, it does not influence his life or his actions.

The need for self esteem

The enlightened person does not experience the self, at least not as an isolated or distinct entity. Therefore he finds it difficult to relate to the concept of self esteem and having self esteem is not one of his needs.

The need for power

The enlightened person has power in abundance, but it does not flow from his ego. The power of the enlightened person comes with his ability to take the loving action in every circumstance.

The need for control

The enlightened person does not control anything. He lives a life that is beyond any need for control - a life that is unpredictable and spontaneous. So he has no need to control anything, and that includes himself!

The need for recognition

The enlightened person is completely indifferent as to whether he is recognized. If his work is recognized, well and good. If it is not recognized, well and good. This indifference comes from his great detachment. The enlightened person enjoys having fun and sharing love. Whether this is recognized or not is of no interest to him.

Self Actualisation

The enlightened person does have a need for self actualisation. Like every living thing he needs to be able to grow and expand. He is interested in self actualision for other people and for the whole world, as well as for himself. Since he experiences himself as other people and as the world, he sees that through offering self actualization to the planet, he is offering it to himself.

The need for development

The enlightened person does have a need for development and offers development to society and to the world in which he lives. He knows that in offering development to the whole world, he is offering it to himself.

The need for creativity

Everything the enlightened person does is creative. When he speaks it is because there is something creative that needs to be said. When he is silent, it is because there is creative value in the silence. The enlightened person does not have an especial need to be creative. This is because his whole being is one of unending creative expression. This brings meaning, purpose and power to every situation in which he which he finds himself and to every relationship in which he is engaged. He does not need creativity because it is not something he lacks. His whole life is one continuous creative expression.

The need for growth

Like every human being the enlightened person needs to be growing. The way an enlightened person grows is in the power and range of his spiritual energetic field and in his self expression. That is why his very presence brings growth to every situation in which he is a participant. In being present and having others grow around him, he also grows.

Conclusion

This means that the enlightened person has few personal needs and these needs are mainly to do with his own survival - similar to a baby. His higher needs he has, not for himself alone, but for the execution of his life of service. He is remarkably unattached to even these needs. He is fully trusting that his survival needs will be met by those around him and that his higher needs are met everyday by those involved with him in his life of continuous service to the world.

And because his own personal needs are so few, it means he has an abundance of energy, wealth and power to share and give to others. So it’s not that the enlightened person has risen to the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, rather it’s that he lives in another consciousness - as Presence.