Lessons from the animal kingdom

February 20, 2014

In my walk around the Bay, a medium-sized bird jumped in the grassy area in front of me. The bird had a long beak and a small body. Don’t know the name of that bird (I didn’t ask the bird 🙂 ) After looking carefully at the bird, I saw that a small crab was in its beak.

The bird was trying to digest the crab and the crab was trying to run away.

The bird would drop the crab and peck the crab to break it apart so it could be eaten.

Despite the scene, it was an interesting time to observe myself. Thoughts were coming about “saving the crab” from the “evil” bird…but then, another thought came up about the bird needing to eat something to survive.

Animals do not kill for the “fun of it,” or because they need to make “more money,” that is human beings. Animals kill when they need to eat.
The word “kill” for some animals is the equivalent of “eating dinner” by a human being.

Then, my mind was divided. The more knowledge or information I have about things, then to “understand” the ways of Nature could be very challenging.

I dropped my thoughts altogether and merely observed without emitting judgment, without emitting human morality to understand things, just looking at the scene.

It was part of the experience of liberating myself from my own mind and from all what I had learned in the past.

Then, I wondered where those moral ideals came from? I remembered curious Billy in the Disney channel, saving his “cute” lab rat from being eaten by the “evil” snake dwelling in a crystal box inside the cold science classroom. I bet the snake doesn’t want to be there….

That snake eats lab rats to survive… but not curious Billy’s rodent! That Billy is a hero! 🙂

Forget about other rats…but Billy’s is out of the question. We don’t want to see Billy with a sad face. That wouldn’t be a “happy end” for a Disney program!

Interesting maneuver to manipulate moral standards…. But for the masses, we should save “cute” animals from evil predators, especially if they are “ours.”

I guess I did not feel that the little crab was “mine,” for otherwise the “morality” of “mine” could have attempted to save that crab…

It comes down to our sense of belonging, of possessing. That creates our morality. Take a look at any commandment; any rule. There is this sense of possession, which becomes important to “protect.”

It is my religion, my country, my family, my…that is what is important. Those things are “mine.” I have some interest over them, I posses them.

Morality is an attempt to protect what is “mine” from what is “yours.”

The interesting thing is that all of those teachings, which we have learned, only exist at the mental level. Those are human inventions, which do not fit the way “real life” works, that is Nature. Similarly, religious beliefs or any belief are only living at the mental level.

In Nature, there is balance. Predators are in balance with other species. It is only when a thinking human being enters into this balancing act; when things get out of balance. A paradox! 🙂
Then one species could disappear. Then another species could become human “pets” for they need “protection.” Then, chaos arises out of the need to “have,” to “possess,” to “accomplish.”

Then human moralists, thinkers, philosophers, scientists, etc. will create a definition, a concept for “everyone” to accept. That lost balance cannot be returned by more thinking.

Isn’t it funny how animals who don’t think live in balance with Nature whereas thinking human beings struggle to do that?

“I think, therefore I exist.”
“I think” that that phrase needs to be revised…

Written by avyakt7- New Generation Posted in Experiences Tagged with animals, balance, bird, crab, evil, good, human beings, life, morality, Nature, religion, snake, spirituality