Now-a-days we are taught that only the physical level exists. If someone mentions heaven or angels or (God forbid!) God – Himself or Herself, they are met with a condescending smile and a bit of a smirk (poor thing, they obviously have no education at all – imagine believing in all those silly things!)
There are still some Christians and some other believers of one sort and another (and some of those too are fairly toxic in their condescension and definitely to be avoided).
There are even a few people who talk about “the Universe” – as something vague and amorphous, rather like God – but one wouldn’t want to get caught actually talking to this Universe – after all that would be childish.
This transformation in society – which is particularly overwhelming in western society – has become really much more apparent within the last twenty years or so. It was there before – especially among those “well-educated” – even among those from other parts of the world – especially those who traveled to the west – to Europe or the U.S. — to become the beneficiaries of “Western Education.”
This atheism goes along with the rise of science and modern technology. Instead of worshipping the moon – as our very distant ancestors used to do, we build great spaceships that travel to the moon. This is considered a tremendous advance – astounding progress.
Instead of worshipping trees, mountains, hills, rivers – as our distant ancestors used to do – we “manage the wilderness” trying (some of us) ever so painfully to preserve something of the natural world, even as we, as a society, poison the earth with carbon dioxide and all manner of pollution. We carefully measure our carbon dioxide footprint and calculate our honorable intentions. Meanwhile governments, armies, and big tech industries pollute to their heart’s content – smiling and proclaiming to all who would listen, their very, very sincere efforts to protect the earth and all its “resources.”
This state of affairs goes hand in hand with this being the age of science and technology.
Scientists and other very, very wise people discuss at length the meaning of “consciousness.” Psychiatrists diagnose and prescribe drugs for all manner of human behavior. A pill will change your child’s behavior – and it does – never mind the long-term cost.
But look at how very far advanced we are. Now we are civilized. We torture people quietly, only beyond closed doors. We are so very humane. We destroy cities, quietly – beyond the headlines. Our warfare isn’t brutal at all – not like those long-ago atrocious times of our ancestors. Now we kill and maim people quietly – we pay for other people to do our torture for us. We complain that they are too cruel and inhumane – as we finance their armies.
But back to the point. We now, as a society, see only the physical level of existence – nothing more. We see no heaven, no hell, no spirits, no angels, no God, no Divine Presence, no Eternity, no karma, no dharma, no purpose – no spiritual level or awareness of other levels beyond the purely physical.
Now ask yourself a question: Have you ever seen a miracle? – maybe an illness, declared irreversible by a doctor—simply disappear with no apparent explanation? Have you ever heard the phone ring and known who was calling you? Have you ever had a premonition of something about to happen? Have you ever felt a presence in the room with you – maybe your grandmother who passed away? Have you ever been visited in a dream by a beloved pet who died and felt that you were really and truly visited and blessed by their presence? Have you ever been saved, inexplicably, from a very dangerous situation – or had a prayer answered?
Have you ever felt an invisible presence guiding you, protecting you, inspiring you?
Science, of course, would tell us, that all those things are simply our imagination – nothing more.
What about the beauty of nature? Have you ever looked at a sunset and found it so overpoweringly beautiful that it took your breath away? Was that just a meaningless coincidence – a trick of light and shadow – and colors appearing by chance – devoid of any meaning?
What about the meaning of meaning? Does your life have a meaning? Do events have a meaning? Does the beauty of a flower have a meaning? Or the distant hills in the sunrise? Or the life of a butterfly? Or the kind words of a friend?
What does meaning mean? Some of us struggle dutifully, in obedience to some apparently required unwritten law to try to efface all meaning altogether. After all, we must adhere conscientiously to the principle that only the physical reality exists. And if only the physical exists, then what can meaning mean? We are left trying to accept the principle of a meaningless universe – improbable though it seems.
And if there is actually a meaning, then what? Then there is more than purely physical reality. That is just simply logical, since a meaning is just not a physical thing. It just isn’t – you can’t stretch or twist or turn it into a physical thing – it just isn’t.
Meaning is meaning – and whatever the meaning may be – it transcends the physical. It is on another level, and that means – uncomfortable as it may be – that there is more than just the physical level. There is more than the material plane.
This opens the door to the universes of ancient knowledge taught and perceived by our distant ancestors – by ancient peoples – even shamans and wise people – healers and seers – those ancient ones who taught wisdom that we have long forgotten.
It opens the door to magic, to miracles, to wisdom, love, perception – to truth, to knowledge – to worlds upon worlds of beauty, of the divine, of the mysterious and the magnificent – the doors of perception – to the infinite perception of beauty – to art, to poetry, to mystical realities and awareness – to levels and universes we can scarcely imagine.
We are called from quite near and from quite far beyond. We can listen and respond if we wish.
Those in Utah who are in favor of removing all limits on the killing of cougars – which is in the current bill on the governor’s desk – might watch the film The Serengeti Rules – part of the Nature series, which just aired this evening on PBS. You can buy it on PBS too.
It is a crystal clear presentation of what happens when a keystone species – which are often, but not always, predators – disappears from an ecosystem.
What happens is always exactly the same – an imbalance arises – and one by one – all the other natural species die until nothing at all is left – only a barren desert with no life – or an empty pool by the seashore in which nothing lives.
Many examples were given in the film. Starfish are a keystone species. They hunt and keep other populations in check. When they were removed from a pool by the seashore, other species, with their population unchecked, multiplied, and began to eat everything in sight. In short order, everything was eaten and there was no food left. Then everything died and there was a completely dead pool.
In another situation – like several similar real situations in western U.S. states – all the wolves were killed. (All U.S. wolves had been killed and were extinct in the lower states by the end of the 1940’s. Gradually, with great effort some wolves have been brought back in recent years. It is an uphill battle – and many, many wolves, re-introduced, are still being killed.) In this particular situation, the film shows that after all the wolves had been killed, the deer, predictably, multiplied and ate everything – every young sapling, every blade of grass, every leaf within reach on the trees – until there was a vast overpopulation of deer who then died of starvation. This is what always happens.
There were many other examples presented – in the water, in the ocean and rivers, and on land – of keystone species being killed off and then the entire ecosystem collapsing as a consequence.
Of course, we might care about the cougars because they are individual, innocent, magnificent, majestic animals who enjoy living their lives free in the wild. But even if we don’t care about that – even if we don’t really mind killing off all of nature (the bill would make it legal to trap cougars pretty much anywhere at any time), we might take a moment to ask ourselves how we humans will survive when all the natural ecosystems are gone.
Radical imbalances in nature and weather disturbances are already causing harm and death to humans on a significant scale – and of course also to all the innocent creatures on the planet.
The Serengeti Rules, part of the Nature series, presents an absolutely clear, irrefutable scenario of the path we as a species are headed down – and also highlights the work of those heroes who fight hard and persevere to save the earth and the natural world.
Published9 hours ago Share https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64502365 Related Topics Climate change By Navin Singh Khadka Environment correspondent, BBC World Service We are losing wetlands three times faster than forests, according to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. When it comes to restoring them to their natural state there is one hero with remarkable powers – the beaver. Wetlands […]
Just about every day, one can see heart-wrenching ads on TV about children’s hospitals. No one would disagree that these children and their parents need and deserve help.
However, many people are unaware that the word “research” in the words “research hospital” means animal experimentation.
If you feel that this experimentation is kind and gentle, sorry, but that is not the case. Here is some information about testing on animals:
Go to Humane Society International, then click on “Our Work,” then go to “Animal Testing.”
This is very painful to read, and the photos are disturbing. However, if you are unaware of the cruelty that is never mentioned at all in the ads that present only innocent children – cruelty that is being perpetrated out-of-sight on animals, you may wish to be more informed. That way you can make a conscious decision about whether or not you feel that any good can ever come from inflicting pain and death on innocent animals who have had nothing at all to do with causing human suffering.
Only you can make this decision for yourself, and this is relevant information.
