It may be that the present compressed and negative feelings that we humans are experiencing is a birthing chamber rather than a vice.
This outrageous idea ties in closely with what was written in last week’s blog. In it, I suggested that just as a body has trillions of cells, so the planet has a vast number of connected parts of its ‘mineral, animal and mammal’ consciousness; each made up from the physical atoms of the Earth, Sun and the ‘debris’ of ancient exploding suns; without which there would not have existed the chemical components of life.
Through our human body passes the dying bodies of life on earth, be they vegetable or animal. We cannot, yet, ‘eat the Sun’ though one wonders if this is where evolution will eventually take life on Earth.
We don’t really question this ‘eating’ of other things – and plants are alive, too, of course; yet our aliveness depends on the absorption of this sacrifice.
The biggest act of sacrifice we know of is the Sun, the ancient symbol of ‘life-giving’ in all cultures. The Sun – our Sun, because we owe it our very lives – literally gives up its energies to feed the lives of its children. Looked at from a mystical perspective, it is slowly dying so that we can live. Something has made a transition from the cosmic level of physics to the vastly organised awareness of the human (and other) organisms, whose eons-long development has resulted in consciousness not only of things, but of ‘self’. This is a pinnacle very different to being top of the food chain.
The star that made this possible – our Sun – is not outside the laws of physics, and the atomic fusion of hydrogen can only last so long before the whole solar system dies to organic life.
Is the Sun conscious? Mystics speculate it has a hyper-consciousness, a vibrational awareness of life in the whole solar system, but over a vast timescale which sees our own lives as a blink. Scientists, quite reasonably, from their training and experimental perspective, say this is emotional nonsense, and that the laws of gravity and nuclear physics take care of the rest. It is wise to be open to both perspectives, and to remember that even science, accurate and marvellous though it is, is conceived and evolved through the window of the human consciousness, though it seldom acknowledges this perspective. A growing number of scientists have observed, wryly, that the ‘mystics got there first’ when it comes to some of the consciousness-related revelations from the quantum world.
Whatever the truth, no-one steps out on that first spring morning of the year, when the power of the sun replaces the long and cold winter chill, and feels physics in their hearts…
As a species, we are rather taken with our ‘specialness’. Educated to be the top of the food chain, the ‘apex predator’, our civilisation has felt free to work its indulgent will on our world… and we wonder at the resulting lack of happiness, and that lack of inner belonging.
The idea of us being organically eaten – as we do, unthinkingly, with our own food, seldom occurs to us, yet it is plain that everything that lives is eaten in its turn – only the fleeting and creative state called consciousness seems to be from a different place than the purely organic… though it would be nothing without that organic basis as a vehicle.
This kind of thought can be both humbling and re-aligning, since it shakes the fluffiness from our life-expectations and also threatens us with some basic reality – a very important aspect of being alive in an age where we increasingly live in our heads and in front of screens that distance us from the vividness of life ‘out there’. When we are disconnected in this way, it is easy for intolerance and prejudice to fester. We meet, on social media, with those of like mind… and Like their actions and opinions. If we don’t like what someone ‘says’, repeatedly, we Unfriend them, leaving us in a potentially sterile pool of self-reinforcing opinion.
The human process of maturing requires that we brush up against often painful experiences that are definitely not what we like… but the digital world is taking us away from this school of maturity that has ensured that our lives are at least broadened rather than narrowed. It is to the credit of the emerging generation that many of them seem to be caring and involved, and, certainly in the UK, politics and social involvement are on the increase. Much of this is a reaction – a very positive one – to years of so called ‘austerity’. Sharing the pain of overspending is a necessary goal, but not if that sharing is a farce…
The most troubling parts of the world are where those in charge are exhibiting the strongest ‘egoic’ characteristics. It is as though we are being shown the inner nature of this negative and tyrannical aspect of the human soul; shown it in a way that bares its ugliness. There are, of course die-hards who thing such fundamentalism is a good thing, and will offer us control of our lives again, making our countries great in the process. But anyone with real maturity in their own lives knows the bitter taste of such egoic self-aggrandisment; and its ultimate cost.
To truly ‘come together’ we need to feel our shared humanity in a way we have not done, before. We need to see the unsurpassed beauty of being part of a life-wave that has been gifted this beautiful planet for our collective and personal evolution; and, within that, to see that we also have the power to destroy it. To ride that edge of the utmost danger can only be part of our collective maturity as we evolve from eating and eaten to something potentially magnificent that is ‘involving’ itself with the star-dust of the Earth.
Our survival as a species is by no means assured. But the large-scale awareness of the present horror shows that fill our screens might just bring us, kicking and certainly screaming, into a new age – one where the true ghoul is seen to be the dark side of human nature and not circumstance or those we can victimise.
Other parts in this series:
Stephen Tanham is a director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, a not-for-profit organisation that helps people find the reality and essence of their existence.
His personal blog, Sun in Gemini, is at stevetanham.wordpress.com
Image: Sweetheart Abbey, near Dumfries, Scotland. Taken by the author.
©️Stephen Tanham
Interesting and thought-provoking, Steve. I applauded the election of the outrageous Trump as a wake-up call to the US and the rest of us, but as we have seen there are still those who think his example is the way to go, or that a return to previous terrorism-inducing, presidential war-mongering is the only alternative. I voted Brexit because whether it proves eventually to be economic suicide or salvation, I wanted out of the unwieldy, bloated vessel manipulated by politicians more corrupt than our own.
Sadly I see no hope for humanity, the apex predator based as it is in this kill or be killed system of fear, pain and murder. It may be neat, but it’s not nice. The planet is indeed overwhelmingly beautiful, but it reminds me of the rabbit farm in Watership Down, where everything is lovely as long as you ignore the fact that people keep disappearing.
I find it a heavy burden to appreciate the beauty and persuade myself to be happy which can only be achieved by shutting my mind temporarily to the horrors of food chains. Is it any wonder humans think nothing of butchering each other when they are fully entitled to butcher other animals with an equally high capacity for physical and emotional suffering, never mind plants which have an as yet unplumbed degree of awareness and sentience?
It may all be an opportunity for us to become enlightened and think/feel our way out of the mess, to find a more compassionate way of being, but if so the experiment has been going on for too long with no sign of a satisfactory resolution.
My only hope is that it is all an illusion.
Those are deep and complex issues, Lizzy, and largely a matter for each individual. The mystical perspective, as you know, is that we are tightly-coupled to the world we experience. Equally, we did not create the complexity and cruelty of what is before us – nor the beauty. All are reflections of the total freedom we have to chose for ourselves what we will be attracted to… or we can be neither attracted nor repulsed but entirely aware without any kind of judgement… this unveils a different kind of consciousness; a topic too big for this little space.
A great post, Steve. In the beginning part you very accurately described the process of energy transfer. The second part that discusses the role of social media in fanning the flames of social discord is very true, albeit, painful to acknowledge.
Thank you, Robbie. A piece like this has to speak in different ways. Lovely comment.