Life is one. All beings are equal. From hummingbirds to humans, all beings have an intrinsic value and the right to live. All living beings are made of the same six elements: earth, air, fire, water, space and consciousness. When these six elements are united and come together into one entity, life is formed, be it human life or more-than-human life.
These elements can be described as matter and spirit. Earth, fire and water are measurable and quantifiable. Therefore I put them into the category of matter. Air, space and consciousness cannot be measured or quantified. Therefore I put them into the category of spirit.
Life consists of the unity of matter and spirit. Spirit cannot and does not exist without matter, and matter cannot and does not exist without spirit. Earth, fire, water and space breathe and are conscious.
Each element contains every other element. All the elements are entangled. Just for the sake of convenience and simplicity of communication, we have named them separately. But ultimately there is no separation. Matter becomes animated because it embodies the spirit. And spirit materialises in the body of humans, animals, plants, mountains, oceans and the entire planet Earth.
The whole Earth is a living organism. We call her Animate Earth, or Anima Mundi, or Gaia – the Goddess of the Earth. The Earth is a conscious being. Gaia is a self-sustaining, self-managing and self-organising being.
The word ‘human’ is derived from the Latin word humus, and humus means ‘soil’. Therefore, human beings are literally soil beings. The name Adam comes from the Hebrew word adamah, which can also mean ‘soil’. The soil transforms itself into human bodies as it does into animal bodies, plant bodies and all other bodies.
Our bodies contain on average 60% water, so we are all water bodies. We breathe air in every moment of our lives, so we are all air bodies. There is fire in our bellies, fire keeps our bodies warm, and the sun sustains life through photosynthesis, so we are all fire bodies. Wherever we are, we are in space, so we are all space bodies. We are conscious of our selves, so we are conscious bodies. This is the reality of all bodies, not just human bodies. Bodies can function only because there is spirit or life within them.
LIFE IS A COMMUNITY
Life is one. But it manifests in millions of forms. We celebrate the unity of life, and we also rejoice in the diversity of life. Unity is not uniformity, and diversity is not division. In fact, uniformity is denial of unity, as division is denial of diversity. When we try to turn unity into uniformity, and diversity into division, we cause conflicts and contradictions.
Life is diverse. In the beginning, at the time of the Big Bang, there was only gas and energy – I call them matter and spirit – not as two separate entities, but as one unit. Then, over a very long period of evolution, countless forms of life emerged. Evolution favoured diversity in unity. Therefore the universe is a dance of diversity and unity.
Unity is implicit in the word ‘universe’. But in this one universe we have many planets, many galaxies and many solar systems. Similarly, we have one planet Earth with many continents, many cultures and many life forms. Nature is one, yet each tree, each mountain and each animal is different. Humanity is one, yet no two human beings are the same. The one planet Earth is the home of biodiversity, cultural diversity, and truth diversity. One humanity embraces many colours, many languages, many religions and many ways of being. Diversity is the essence of evolution.
Unity is not singularity, and diversity is not duality. Unity is a relationship between matter and spirit, between all the six elements of life. Nothing can exist in isolation. Not a single atom or electron or particle can be found by itself. Existence happens only when there is a community of atoms and particles that join together and become embedded in spirit. All things emerge together. Matter and mind manifest together.
Life is a community of physical organisms and metaphysical consciousness. It is simply a matter of language that we name matter and spirit as two entities, inner and outer as two dimensions. In reality, one does not exist without the other. There is no separation. We cannot find matter without spirit, or spirit without matter.
For the materialist nothing exists that cannot be measured and quantified. For them spirituality is a matter of superstition. Their religion is pure materialism. They worship holy matter. Yet for spiritual people matter can be a source of bondage. Sensuality can be a source of sin. Their religion is pure spirit. They worship the holy spirit. But from a holistic perspective matter is as holy as spirit, and spirit is as holy as matter. Holy matter, holy spirit!
Life is an eternal and ever-changing process – what we call the cycle of life. Life emerges from life and returns to life. Formation and transformation, birth and death, appearance and disappearance, permanence and impermanence play out together in every moment of existence. Stillness and movement are always together in this way. This is the ever-present paradox of life.
Life is sacred, too. Life sacrifices to maintain life. One life feeds another life. Soil sacrifices itself to nourish food to feed all living beings. Water sacrifices itself to quench the thirst of all living beings. So do air, fire and space. Mothers go through a life-and-death experience to bring new life into the world. Humans, animals and trees die so that new humans, new animals and new trees may be born. All this is a form of sacrifice, and it is all done with love!
This sacrifice is what makes life sacred. It is a loving and nonviolent process of sacrifice. There is no force, no external imposition. One life lovingly gives itself to nourish and maintain other life. Therefore rivers are sacred, trees are sacred, mountains are sacred, land is sacred. All life is sacred.
I may sacrifice my life for a good cause, but there is no cause good enough for me to kill another being. To sacrifice is to give life, not take life. Even for food we do our best to minimise the harm we may cause to animals and plants. Food is a gift, and we receive it with gratitude. There is an abundance of food in Nature, but we need to take it with restraint and humility. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not for every man’s greed.” Love and nonviolence are the best principles to honour and celebrate the sacred spirit of life. To love life is to accept life as it is, without expect-ation, without judgement and without discrimination.
Life is divine. God is not a person. God is the principle of relatedness. With the implicit principle of love, all life is related and entangled. Therefore divinity is the implicit truth of life. With a sense of awe and wonder, with a sense of mystery and magnanimity, with a sense of beauty and divinity, we celebrate life. We love life.
Finally, we don’t know what life is. All our knowledge is simply a point of view. We feel that we are alive. We experience life, but we don’t know it totally. All our knowledge is partial and subject to interpretation and change. What we know today might change tomorrow. And it is better not to know everything! It is better to love life and acknowledge its mystery.
Satish will be giving a Resurgence Talk on Wednesday 29 January 2025. To book visit www.resurgenceevents.org
