Day 2: Acknowledging the ‘Other than Human World’
"This earth was given. Not to us. It was not given to us, it was just given, life arising out of itself, for its own sake."
–– Maya Spector
Western Industrial Culture has taught us that humans are the apex of the world. All other life is merely a resource or a thing to be disposed of. The forests are not beings unto themselves. They are future homes, sheets of paper, and firewood. A chicken does not have its own soul or purpose. It is here to feed us and lay eggs for us to eat.
This predates Western Industrial Culture, with roots stretching back toward the beginnings of agrarian civilization and monotheism. But the rise of capitalism and industrialization in the past five centuries has created a clear demarcation between humans and the rest of the world. We hold ourselves as separate and live out most of our lives in “maintenance-free” cities and suburbs that are manicured and groomed to the point that there is little if anything remaining that has not been domesticated.
The bad news:
As we’ve wiped out much of the other than human world in service to our convenience and comfort, we’ve simultaneously forgotten and been stripped of our belonging to something other than ourselves and the structures, symbols and cultures of our own making. This superficial and precarious belonging is responsible for much of our disconnection, dissatisfaction, and disease.
The good news:
The other than human world is all around, and within us. Recognizing this and reconnecting with it is as simple as looking out our window at the full moon as it rises in the night sky, or putting our bare feet on the grass and taking a few moments to breathe into the contact, while acknowledging that we come from this. We too are a part of this other, wild world that is not centered around and dominated by our current human culture.
Your practice today is to acknowledge the existence of the Other than Human World. Go to your window or step outside and pause for a few moments. Look to the horizon, up to the sky, and down to the earth below you, and notice that there is so much happening that does not revolve around human beings. Events and activities that have been happening since before we existed, and that will continue on long after we are gone. The moon pulling the tides. The sun rising and setting. The ants scurrying along to bring food to their hill. The geese migrating.
These activities do not revolve around us, and yet we are not separate from them. We are also part of this tapestry of life that is weaving and reweaving in each moment. Our lives are not separate from the ants or the geese, the sun or the moon, but instead intricately interwoven. Perhaps the geese and the ants, the sun and the moon are aware of us, impacted and interested in us the same way that we are in them.
As you take in the other than human world, remember that what you are seeing is not happening for you. It’s a miracle that you are a witness to it, and you can, of course, appreciate the beauty and wonder with awe and gratitude. But remember, it's not happening for your entertainment, or even your 'good' experience. It's happening as part of something much larger and older than humans. A larger thing is happening, which we are here, participating in, but not centered in.
This is a paradigm shift of radical importance. If you really let it in, acknowledging life in this way demands that you reorient yourself in the web of existence and begin to regard the rest of life as ensouled, as animate, as significant as you are. But with its own story, purpose, and path outside of our humanness.
What happens in you as you begin to regard the rest of the world in this way?
What do you notice in your body as you breathe into this awareness of the other than human world?
Do you automatically shrink? Making yourself feel small and insignificant?
Or, can you hold on to the paradox that your existence is as significant as every other being’s?
