“Be that pike, be that falcon, be that oak,” Merlin encouraged young King Arthur. This is how Peter Tompkins starts his book, “The Secret Life of Nature”: remembering what he learned from his schoolmaster as a boy.
I want to take inspiration from the same quote in order to reflect upon the need and the duty that we have, at this stage of our evolution on planet Earth, of embracing a non-anthropocentric point of view. What does it mean? Why is this important?
“It’s one step from spilling animal blood to spilling human blood” said Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Jew writer who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. And: “The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.”
This is, in fact, the way we mostly relate to humans and non-humans, and the way we express ourselves – maybe not arbitrarily or intending to hurt anybody, but certainly because of ignorance and lack of awareness of the consequences that our daily choices bring. Oftentimes arrogance accompanies ignorance, and oftentimes the Homo sapiens claims himself to be superior to any other life forms, and believes that everything that exists in this world is subjected to fulfill his needs and pleasures.
We are so detached from what we intimately possess – our bond with Nature – that we don’t even feel the violence and the aggression that we face the world out there with; animals, plants, and everything that Mother Nature provides us – everything speaks about the distance that there is between us and what we demand to be.
Isn’t it the time to develop and express, with commitment and determination, our supposed “humanity”? We don’t lack the opportunity to do that, as every moment of our life is a choice to evolve towards that direction.
We could start with a simple walk in a natural environment, adopting a point of view that’s different from our own. Let’s try doing it in silence, paying attention to our breath, to where we set the foot down, to the rock we step on while walking, to the breeze that blows on our face, to the sounds that surround us. Let’s breathe and stare at a flower, at a bee pollinating it, at a bird flying high in the sky, at our dog that happily follows us around.
Now, following Marta Williams’ advise as a professional telepathic communicator with animals, let’s blend with the surroundings as if everything around us was staring at us. Those plants, the animals, and even that small bee are formulating thoughts about us, thinking about who we are and what we are doing. We are at the center of their attention. Let’s just listen; let’s be in the moment and let them observe. We want to experiment the beauty of being part of the Earth’s whole system of life, in every form and expression.
If we allow ourselves to do so, we’ll (re)-discover the magic and the happiness of connecting again with our deep self that lives and feels the unity with every existing thing – even if it’s just for a moment. From there, we’ll be able to (re)-create our connection with Nature, and ultimately rediscover ourselves.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed
every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
Happy Spring everyone!
Leave a Reply