Man always develops under the influence of nature. He develops during a specific phase of his path, over the course of millennia, unconsciously, and after that he must begin developing consciously. This already happens from our generation on.
The unconscious development does not depend on man. Man is simply pushed forward by suffering or attracted forward by some pleasures or attractive goals. This is how he develops, how all humanity develops, by the principle of “to happiness by beatings” roughly speaking, or by the dialectical law of “the double negative.” That is to say, every state we are in is tolerable as long as it is tolerable, and when we cannot tolerate it any longer, we look for a way out of it and go on to the following state. This is how every one of us acts in our life, and how humanity and all of nature act. This is the unconscious development.
And after that, in our time, we arrive at the conscious development, when we have to begin developing consciously. Either we will continue being pushed forward by immense suffering that is already exerting a toll in our whole life, or we will discover a wonderful Goal in front of us that will attract us forward, and then we will develop naturally, beautifully, comfortably and pleasantly. This will not be a burden for us, but a pleasure. All of this depends only on the degree that man reveals and gains a conception of the wonderful Goal he has, of how attractive and great it is for him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEwv3EXseHQ