Initial "pondering" Draft (for revision/expansion)

Animal Rites

Are we inducted into the voice of God through the harmonics of nature?...

Ok, this has been bugging me a long time. And I’m dog-tired at letting the cat get my tongue on this...

I have a notion. Its possible this notion exists as a literary or research work somewhere, but I’ve not come across it expressed with any real sincerity, and what I have to say is certainly far a field from our dogma of common belief.

Every time I’ve tried to pose my sense of this to a “name” international thinker/philosopher or religious scholar (and I’ve had numerous occasions to do just that) the thought has been quite quietly and immediately dismissed as unworthy of comment. Has this dampened my thinking on the subject? Has it destroyed my confidence? No. And no. …Though it has dampened my enthusiasm for thinking and philosophy and scholarship of sorts.

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Let me start in this way: I’ve always found it odd (not in my mind, but in my belly where I’ve learned it counts most) to so rigidly assume that we humans are the exclusive emissaries of God; to believe, because we have been “given the word”, that we are therefore the supreme intelligence with dominion and care over the creatures of the earth. (I realize of course, that there are many movements in consciousness that have gone well past these older and naïve structures of thinking and Biblical (mis) interpretation. …But let me continue.

What has always intrigued and continues to startle me most is the simple arrogance of our common social assumption that we humans are the supreme representatives of God. Here we are, existing within the intelligence of this one spectrum of consciousness -- that of the human perceptive structure -- and yet presume to know how we fit into the realms of nature, creation, and countless universes teaming with ever evolving life. We’re only able to look from within our box for crying out loud! I think it audacious, and (well to be blunt) stupid really.

Yes, we have lots and lots of research that we bring to the table “as proof” to confirm our (need for) exalted supremacy: the proportion of our brain to our body is bigger than (most) other creatures, we create tools, use abstract thinking, we’re conscious of our selves, we show compassion, we have more neurological pathways. Etc etc etc. But even these (measures created to fit our instrumentation) have many exceptions. A tender and scientific book on the recent lineage of animal research: When Elephants Weep, puts some startling perspective on many of these commonly made presumptions as to our distinctiveness from the animal kingdom --as well as what animals are capable of on our terms of measurement vis-a-vis: how they feel, how they express care, manners of extreme loyalty, self-sacrifice, etc.

How is it we can so easily belive (and who's to know) that our measures are the absolute values of higher intelligence and evolution? They're self generated within the box.

Consider this:

1) It is not (ever) really certain that what we isolate, label and therefore believe we “know”, explains accurately the reality of things. In fact, we can be quite sure that it does not. We are forever only able to look through the lens of our spectrum of consciousness – we are forever looking at life from within the box of our own limited perceptive abilities. There is no getting around this. And yet we continue to make the mistake that what we discover and explain -- we know. And that what we know -- is true reality. The work in quantum physics alone should help us see more clearly the impact of the observer on what is actually observed – as should the work of Krishnamurti who dealt almost entirely in this domain. Still we hold on to what we know with our minds and through our technology. It is a weakening - a weakening to ourselves and a damage to our world. But I digress slightly…

2) Going beyond the mind to matters of heart, soul, sages, and mystical teachings, we find a strong yearning and feeling pulling us toward awareness of unity consciousness. This is expressed by many different means, using many different referents to reflect “God in us”. But the very stuff of the universe – stardust quite literally -- coalesces and forms the essential make up of all living things. I’ve forgotten the number exactly, but some scientist figured that we each still have within us some number of particles of air that were once part of the breathing of Jesus Christ. …And you can extrapolate to other great avatars, teachers, and saints from there. Some physicists' believe that all living that ever has been and ever will be -- the past and the future -- is in each of us, right now. This exquisite living breathing substance of life, the very Ground of Creation (God, Source) permeates everything (by definition). And so we share and have within us the molecules of Buddha, of Hitler, of the ants on the ground, the trees of the land. We are One Breathing. Somewhere (deep down and in the stillness that is not of time) we all recognize this.

3) Finally I arrive at the threshold of where I want to go. I’ve personally never believed ourselves the more "highly evolved” creatures (though I have sometimes considered us the other way around I must admit). While it seems obvious to the mind and necessary to the ego that we elevate ourselves in this way (mini-gods trying to imitate the “big guy”) it does not feel inherently correct to the heart or soul in me - nor to the music of life that lives within the stillness. I don’t see anything about how nature, God, works to point to such a simple hierarchy. In fact, I see continual and delightful twists and turns – almost always the paradox of what we think and believe (...part of what I call The Great and Godly Game of Hide and Seek.)

4) Here’s what I sense is more close to the truth (at least at this stage of the ever evolving frolic). I’ll pose it in the form of question.

What if we (the human species) are receivers (like the ears of a larger body) constantly inducted by the harmonics of nature all around? In other words, in a vast and connected swirling of life (God, Love, the Ground of All Being), have we individuated into serving as receivers for transmissions of Life's intelligence?

I believe each species – indeed each living form of Life, every tree, every leaf, every rock, grain of sand, atom, particle, quark and charm, is transmitting its own unique spectrum of the larger connected consciousness that is the Breath of All. I believe we, by our unique form of awareness, are servants to that transmission. I believe paradoxically that this is part of the playing out of God creating man "in the image and likeness of". ...a kind of full circle: of God, through God, and back to God again.

I believe that the life force of each and all living forms is inducting us (whispering to us) all the time about the nature of Life, Love, God’s Way. Unfortunately, we've become too busy identifying, labeling, controlling, managing ...We're too busy! We seem to have become so mesmerized, so infatuated with our ability to create and build things that we've lost virtually all sense of listening to the language of Life. ...We are losing our ability to receive the valuable frequencies of the Voice of God. What happens when we lose this connection?

Everything we destroy or ignore by our over-indulgent fascination with mankind's mental prowess, diminishes our being - directly. Though the mind has many wonderful attributes, our imbalanced addiction to it (the idol we've made of it) has become our biggest trap and the greatest shortsightedness we have yet to come and see beyond.

5) Finally I come to this question: If we continue to shut down our channel to Life by our preoccupied infatuation with our toys and the technological creations of the mind's playground, and/or by killing and ignoring so many of the voices of consciousness that we destroy this planet’s song, what do you think will happen?

Creation will continue. It is not dependent upon us -- much as we seem to need to believe to the contrary. We are not the pinnacle on which this Great Dreaming pivots. The dreaming will continue, the voices will sing out, the differentiation and individuation to hide and seek will continue in other life forms and on other layers of this infinite universe. It cannot be stopped. In this I believe we can rest, if nowhere else.

What magnificence, this conscious dreaming that cannot be destroyed – that has no beginning and no ending. What an unfathomable and Great Mystery!

We can plug our ears to the singing with our own arrogant and self-preoccupation and infatuation. We can turn away from life in favor of man-made. It is a free will that facilitates this Godly frolic of hide and seek. We can remain hidden from our Selves this way for a long long time. Or we can open our hearts to the music of the spheres and be inducted and cradled in Love. What will we chose for ourselves?

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title: next time
a contemporary version of: "Noah's Ark"
sculpture/photo collage: ronda larue c. rllr 2000
prints/note cards available. sculpture not for sale.