In the Animal Kingdom, the genealogy of animals is a fascination that few would refute. It maps for us the slow crawl of evolution over time, over billions of years, from the murky waters of the elemental soup into clearer salty waters and out onto the sandy shores of terrestrial borders and up into ethereal air spaces, each pause and change of direction a landmark akin to a paradigmatic shift; from a blob of protean matter to a single cell, to multi-cellular complexes and to Man, at the height of the heap. Interestingly man himself has most graciously slotted himself into the category of animals. His genius, and hence superiority, according to our human perception, shows in the way he maps out his own evolution from that single clump of protoplasm into a living mass of tissues organized into an intelligent whole and he still would have it that he is part of the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, amongst them all, he stands tall, a king.
What qualifies us to be part of the animal kingdom? Some ancient history of genetic identities seem to keep us closely allied with the animal world. Genotypes leave their marks on our physical form, which are somewhat similar to our closest or distant cousins in the animal world. For instance, man is red-blooded and warm-blooded as the rest of the mammals; like the rest of the animals, we are made up of non-photosynthetic protoplasm; like the rest of the chordates, we are equipped with a vertebral column which houses the spinal chord. There are essential differences between man and animals too. The nervous and muscular systems have evolved to facilitate the development of a complex form of language that is expressed to enable a complex system of communication with the rest of the species of Homo sapiens, or “wise man”, in Latin.
There is provision in the “wise man” to have his mental, vital and physical aspects to play up into an utterly complex and complicated state of being and behaviour. Sometimes we find in some beings a harmonious play of these forces – mental, vital and physical, that express in their mixed interaction, something simple and beautiful, not leaving one gasping for breath or seeking escape from a needlessly constricting environment.
Let us flip this around a little. Is it that parts of our nature is organized, put together or pulled apart at random? Or is there something else within that has the capacity to organize or reorganize this nature as it were, to make possible a better way of existing – both economical and mutually progressive? If there is, and it is more and more becoming apparent that something more than this mind, or vital or body has the power of taking charge and reorganizing the being, then is there a way of leaving behind our animality and stepping into a domain of total humanity? And is there a possibility of leaving behind this humanity and stepping into another dimension, perhaps the dimension of divinity? Could this be one way forward in the lineage of life-forms now in existence?
These questions are simple and yet mind-blowing. They have the power to carry us deep into our origins; they also threaten or promise to carry us high into faraway vistas of future possibilities, perhaps potentially locked in our humanity itself.
The world of animals or plants for that matter, is not to be condemned, refused or looked upon with disdain, surely? These creatures of earth occupy their own niche and contribute in their own ways and by being themselves, to the total picture. In fact, they seem to prop up the life of man, king amongst animals, the wise one, to look towards further horizons of light and might. Since the one thread, as it is said, running through the entire, teeming gamut of life is That which is nameless and formless, That which is all Light and Love, then it would be plausible to infer that some of that ray of Light and Love must also perpetrate and express through these forms of life other than man, like the animals and plants.
To catch a glimpse of some of these rays of Light and Love and the constant yearning of Nature to reach her Consort, be one with Him in one mighty embrace, flip the pages of this months edition of our Newsletter on Animals….animality, humanity, divinity…its time for a review…
What qualifies us to be part of the animal kingdom? Some ancient history of genetic identities seem to keep us closely allied with the animal world. Genotypes leave their marks on our physical form, which are somewhat similar to our closest or distant cousins in the animal world. For instance, man is red-blooded and warm-blooded as the rest of the mammals; like the rest of the animals, we are made up of non-photosynthetic protoplasm; like the rest of the chordates, we are equipped with a vertebral column which houses the spinal chord. There are essential differences between man and animals too. The nervous and muscular systems have evolved to facilitate the development of a complex form of language that is expressed to enable a complex system of communication with the rest of the species of Homo sapiens, or “wise man”, in Latin.
There is provision in the “wise man” to have his mental, vital and physical aspects to play up into an utterly complex and complicated state of being and behaviour. Sometimes we find in some beings a harmonious play of these forces – mental, vital and physical, that express in their mixed interaction, something simple and beautiful, not leaving one gasping for breath or seeking escape from a needlessly constricting environment.
Let us flip this around a little. Is it that parts of our nature is organized, put together or pulled apart at random? Or is there something else within that has the capacity to organize or reorganize this nature as it were, to make possible a better way of existing – both economical and mutually progressive? If there is, and it is more and more becoming apparent that something more than this mind, or vital or body has the power of taking charge and reorganizing the being, then is there a way of leaving behind our animality and stepping into a domain of total humanity? And is there a possibility of leaving behind this humanity and stepping into another dimension, perhaps the dimension of divinity? Could this be one way forward in the lineage of life-forms now in existence?
These questions are simple and yet mind-blowing. They have the power to carry us deep into our origins; they also threaten or promise to carry us high into faraway vistas of future possibilities, perhaps potentially locked in our humanity itself.
The world of animals or plants for that matter, is not to be condemned, refused or looked upon with disdain, surely? These creatures of earth occupy their own niche and contribute in their own ways and by being themselves, to the total picture. In fact, they seem to prop up the life of man, king amongst animals, the wise one, to look towards further horizons of light and might. Since the one thread, as it is said, running through the entire, teeming gamut of life is That which is nameless and formless, That which is all Light and Love, then it would be plausible to infer that some of that ray of Light and Love must also perpetrate and express through these forms of life other than man, like the animals and plants.
To catch a glimpse of some of these rays of Light and Love and the constant yearning of Nature to reach her Consort, be one with Him in one mighty embrace, flip the pages of this months edition of our Newsletter on Animals….animality, humanity, divinity…its time for a review…
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